System Performance

When you buy a Razer Blade Stealth, you get just a single CPU option in the Intel Core i7-6500U processor. This is a dual-core chip with hyperthreading, and it has a base frequency of 2.5 GHz with a turbo frequency of 3.1 GHz. On the CPU side, it’s the second fastest offering in the standard "2+2" 15W Skylake-U series, with only the i7-6600U above it . This 15-Watt processor has Intel’s HD 520 graphics, with 24 execution units and a maximum frequency of 1.05 GHz. With Razer’s gaming heritage, it would have been nice to see the new "2+3e" Iris parts with eDRAM, but likely due to the target price this wasn’t an option. Meanwhile the 8 GB of RAM is DDR3-1866 in a dual-channel configuration.

The model tested is the Core i7-6500U with 8 GB of memory, 512 GB of storage, and the UHD display.

To test the system performance, the Stealth has been put through our standard notebook workload. The Stealth has been put up against several other Ultrabooks to see where it fits in performance wise, but if you want to compare it to any other device we’ve tested, please check out our Notebook Bench.

PCMark

PCMark 8 - Home

PCMark 8 - Creative

PCMark 8 - Work

PCMark 7 (2013)

PCMark attempts to simulate real-life workloads with several sets of tests. The workload tests all aspects of the device, and factors like the display resolution can come into play here on the gaming tests. Storage has its own set of tests which recently changed, so the new results are not comparable to the old ones. The workload is varied, and the Stealth falls in-line with other similar devices, although the high resolution display certainly pulls the scores down a bit compared to the competition.

Cinebench

Cinebench R15 - Single-Threaded Benchmark

Cinebench R15 - Multi-Threaded Benchmark

Cinebench R11.5 - Single-Threaded Benchmark

Cinebench R11.5 - Multi-Threaded Benchmark

Cinebench is a rendering program, with single-thread, multi-thread, and OpenGL tests. For notebooks, we focus on the single and multi-threaded tests, and this is a good indication of CPU performance. The i7-6500U does especially well in the multi-threaded portion.

x264

x264 HD 5.x

x264 HD 5.x

This test converts a 1080p video into the x264 format, and like Cinebench, it prefers high CPU frequencies and more cores. The Core i7 does very well in this test relative to other Ultrabooks.

Web Tests

Web browsing is still one of the most common tasks anyone does on a PC, so strong performance here is always a benefit. The scores below will be either done with Google Chrome as the browser if the machine was running Windows 8.1, or Microsoft Edge if the device was running Windows 10.

Mozilla Kraken 1.1

Google Octane 2.0

WebXPRT 2013

WebXPRT 2015

While not quite as fast as the Microsoft Surface Book, the Razer Blade Stealth still does very will in these tests.

Design GPU and Storage Performance
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  • Spunjji - Wednesday, March 30, 2016 - link

    +1 to this.
  • ingwe - Tuesday, March 29, 2016 - link

    It does look fantastic.

    Performance seems good for the price actually.

    I am really curious what the external GPU experience will be like.

    The keyboard doesn't really interest me.

    Battery life is disappointing indeed.

    Overall I would really consider buying this if the battery life was better.
  • Shadowmaster625 - Tuesday, March 29, 2016 - link

    What good is it to change the color of the WASD keys when there is hardly any game you can avctually play on this thing?
  • smorebuds - Tuesday, March 29, 2016 - link

    Not sure if trolling or missing the point here...
  • jsntech - Tuesday, March 29, 2016 - link

    It is made to connect to the Razer Core, providing an eGPU with all the gaming powah you could wish for.
  • nerd1 - Tuesday, March 29, 2016 - link

    If you connect huge external GPU and external monitor, you'll probably plug in external mechanical keyboard as well.
  • bug77 - Tuesday, March 29, 2016 - link

    I got an Acer for $799. With an additional $200 or so I added 512GB of Samsung EVO storage (yeah, no PCIe, but who needs it in an ultrabook?). Same CPU, RAM, 15.6" 1080p screen.
    Razer is asking an extra $600 for a higher res monitor (I'll take 15.6" instead any day, AdobeRGB is mostly wasted, because you won't do photo editing on a 13" screen and games are not made for wide color gamut) and a Killer NIC.
    It's still cheaper than a Macbook, so there's that.
  • zeroqw - Tuesday, March 29, 2016 - link

    well I wouldnt compare a 15'6 laptop to a 12.5/13' ultrabook. its just a different market
  • smorebuds - Tuesday, March 29, 2016 - link

    Does your $799 Acer have TB3? Is it thin/light for 15"? If not, you can't fairly compare the two as they're designed for very different uses.
  • bug77 - Tuesday, March 29, 2016 - link

    I'm not sure about TB as I don't have a single device that uses that interface, but yeah, it's thin and light. Probably doesn't qualify as an ultrabook, because you can actually open it and service it yourself (which is how I swapped the default 1TB HDD).

    Also, are you people really ok with paying an extra $600 on something inferior just because it's "thinner"?

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