Ultrathin laptops have been the talk of the press for about 6 months now, but the reality is that many laptops that will ship in 2009 will likely have 14″ or larger displays and not be ultrathin. Why? Many consumers prefer the full-featured nature of those notebooks with their larger displays, integrated optical drives, larger keyboards, expandability and for the most part, the ability to crank more quickly through software.  That’s where AMD’s newest full-featured platform comes in with all its entertainment goodies with VISION.  I got the chance to take a drive in a new MSI C-Series notebook based on the 2009 AMD Mainstream Notebook Platform (codename “Tigris”), and it had a few tricks in store I MUST share.

Tigris-based MSI Notebook Specs

• CPU: AMD Turion^TM II X2 Dual Core Mobile Processor M640 at 2.6 Ghz.
• GPU: ATI Radeon^TM HD 4200 Graphics
• Display: 16″ 16:9 at 1366×768 resolution
• Video out: HDMI and VGA port
• Keyboard: Full-size with full number pad
• RAM/HDD/Optical: 4GB/300GB/DVD-RW
• Memory Slot: SD/MMC/MS/MS Pro
• Networking: Bluetooth, Gig-E, and B/G/N wireless
• 1 E-SATA port/USB combo port
• 2 USB ports (3 if you count combo)
• ExpressCard 34 slot
• Webcam (1.3 MP) and microphone

Video Encoding- A Giant Leap

The most amazing and new feature of this Tigris-based notebook for me was the GPU-assisted video transcoding.  Quite simply, video transcoding is changing the format of a video to be played on another device.  One example is taking a family video on an HD camera and encoding it to play on an iPod or iPhone.

Of the 15 videos I tested, when I was using the GPU, I got nearly twice the performance or the time was nearly cut in HALF! Your mileage will vary with video type of course and I have seen published numbers of even higher scores converting to a PSP.  You can see a video of this in action here.

This is accomplished through the graphics card’s ATI Stream Technology and using the ATI Stream-enabled Cyberlink Espresso software application.

Video Playback- Reality is King

The “Tigris” platform has taken the video playback capabilities of its predecessor and placed it on steroids.  Not only do you get the HD video offload capabilities, which means lower CPU utilization and heat, but now the visual quality is greatly enhanced.  The features are described in super-geek terms like “dynamic contrast”, “flesh tone enhancement”, “HD color vibrance”, but it basically means that whites are brighter, blacks are richer, skin tones look more realistic, and the colors look better.  I noticed the differences when I connected the Tigris-based MSI notebook to my 1080P flat screen TV.

A couple of other cool video features that I thought were useful were video upscaling and Blu-ray PIP acceleration.  Video upscaling takes lower resolution videos like 400×240 and converts them to look better when shown on a larger screen (e.g.  1920×1080).  Here is a nice example here.  Blu-ray PIP acceleration allows you to watch a Blu-ray enabled movie (with PIP) with much lower CPU utilization, which results in less heat and noise.

AMD’s Ian McNaughton has done a fine job in his blog drilling down on key video features.

Games- Plow through Mainstream

Like video, the “Tigris” platform has taken the gaming capabilities of its predecessor to the next level.  While we would recommend to those who would consider themselves “gamers” a full discrete card, the ATI Radeon HD 4200 graphics didn’t disappoint.  In fact it impressed me more than I thought it would.

I started off with a simple 3DMark 06 test and was surprised at the 1,800 base score I achieved, particularly with last year’s 2008 AMD Mainstream Notebook Platform (codename “Puma”)  coming in at around 1,500.  Why?  The ATI Radeon HD 4200graphics are based on the RV620 core, a step ahead of the ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics based on the RV610 core.

Forget benchies a second, I wanted to try out a few games that a user would probably play on this system.  So I was forced to try some mainstream games: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, Sim City Societies, Ghostbusters, Sims 3, and X-Men Origins Wolverine.  I had a good experience on all of them with decent frame rates and resolutions.  For fun I loaded Left 4 Dead, Call of Duty World at War, and Tom Clancy’s Hawx.  Sure, take down the res and some of the eye candy; just the fact that they were playable on integrated graphics is a feat in itself.

One final feature I must point out is the “Tigris” platform’s support of Direct X 10.1 from Microsoft, currently the latest graphics technology available until DirectX 11 arrives sometime next month.  It allows either better looking games or better performance.  While I didn’t personally run these FPS scores the lab did, and on higher end games with some eye candy on the ATI Radeon HD 4200 drove HAWX at 1024×768 at 25FPS, Battleforge at 1280×1024 at 24FPS, and Stalker: Clear Sky at 30 FPS, while the competition either crashed or had worse than a third the performance and experience.

Why would any consumer buy a system with generic or dated graphics?  Beats me.

Thin Is In: Tigris-based MSI Notebook  next to the MSI notebook based on AMD’s Second Generation Ultrathin Platform

Conclusion

For that full-sized, full-featured mobile experience, I was impressed with the MSI system based on the “Tigris” platform.  Like I said above, the video encoding quantum leap was amazing and just shows how powerful the combination of the GPU and CPU working together can be.  Increasing the stakes on the video playback side was a treat and fun to try out and see all those features.  Finally, with support for Direct X 10.1 technology from Microsoft and the ability to play real games and of course mainstream games, the system should keep all the mainstreamers happy and surprise even some gamers.  Now that’s VISION.  Let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Pat Moorhead is Vice President of Advanced Marketing at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.