Posts tagged with Fusion
BlackBerry Bold: My Mobile Cloud Workhorse
Posted by Patrick Moorhead in 7:03 AM
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Cloud computing is rising in interest even during these uncertain world economic times and AMD is taking an important leadership role in the creation of the cloud. And in opinion, smartphones are increasingly becoming one of the most important cloud clients. What makes smartphones cloud-unique is their portability and versatility. One minute a phone, the next a web browser, the next a video broadcast client. After blogging on the Android G1 and the BlackBerry Storm, and as co-owner of an iPhone (wife’s), people asked me why I didn’t blog on my personal workhorse, the BlackBerry Bold. Well, I aim to please and here it is.
(L to R: iPod touch, BlackBerry Storm, BlackBerry Bold, Android G1)
Net-net, the Blackberry Bold is my preferred device for work and also serves many good consumer functions as well. At work, I live off of email messaging, then the web, then phone functionality, and the Bold hits high marks on all fronts.
What I Like
- Physical keyboard with trackball: This is where RIM leaves everyone in the dust. I consider this the perfect smartphone keyboard, mastered over years by RIM. Whether you want to write a complete thesis of mankind or a 140 character Tweet, it’s the best, and I challenge anyone with an iPhone to a typing contest.
I never took typing so those who did need not apply. Touch is cool and I like it on my iPod touch, but I find it so easy to screw up on long notes. With the trackball you can dart all over the screen in light speed and 360 degrees with just your thumb.
- Email Messaging: If you have Blackberry Enterprise Server, the Bold becomes the Godzilla of messaging. Many times I will get email on my Blackberry before it even hits my desktop. Spooky. You can also easily configure accounts from Yahoo Mail, GMail and Outlook. Fast and reliable, for work.
- Upgradeable storage and replaceable battery: Android G1, Storm, and Bold all have upgradable memory and replaceable battery. It’s kind of a pet peeve I have with the iPhone. Call me conservative, but I don’t like the thought of being on a long business trip and not have a spare battery. I carry a 16GB microSD in an externally accessible memory slot. No need to remove batteries, just a side door. It fits my documents, videos, and music quite well and theoretically limitless with every added card.
MicroSD door closed
MicroSD door open
- MS Office File Support: Built-in and free, you can download, save, view, and even edit the latest PowerPoint, Word, and Excel files. Excel wasn’t that useful given column width issues, but Word and especially PowerPoint was impressive. For an added fee, you can even create these documents.
- Rock solid: The Storm was solid physically, but the Bold is rock-solid. I have dropped it on every axis, 25x with no issues. Whenever I dropped my Pearl, I would get a SIM card error or the battery would pop out. Drop the Bold… pick it up where you left off. I suspect my Bold could easily survive a 5′ drop onto its screen. Would you say that for your iPhone?
From an application stability standpoint, I only get lockups or issues on some of the more sophisticated video streaming apps like Qik, but for the other 99.9% of the time, rock solid.
- Multitasking & Copy Paste: Unlike some phones, the Bold can multitask. If you are anything like me, you are bouncing between the phone, Google maps, the browser, email, address book, and want to go back at the stage where you left off, not start the app over again.
I can copy and paste literally between EVERY application on the Bold and its add-on apps. Very impressive and a huge time-saver.
- Screen: This display is 480×320 pixels and strikingly crisp. It’s only about half the size of an iPhone, but then again it’s 100% screen, and doesn’t share it with a keyboard. The only situation I want more screen is for videos, some web sites, and maybe some PowerPoint.
On web surfing, Bold makes up for the screen size with a very ingenious toggle. If you are on a web page that is wider than the page or the text too small, just press the “z” key and the browser reorients into column mode and you can see the web site much, much better. Press “z” again and it pops into page view mode. The trackball also lets you navigate web pages in 360 degree movement and magnify the area by clicking on it.
- Standard mini-USB port: Bold uses a standard mini-USB port and cable to charge and transfer data. I have a lot of gadgets and don’t have time for proprietary USB implementations. I can handle USB, mini-USB, and micro-USB, but have no time for Palm Centro’s or iPhone proprietary connectors.
- Digital camera: The Bold takes decent pictures at 2MP with 1600×1200 max resolution. The built-in flash is very bright, and I always get comments from envious iPhone owners wishing they had a flash. The Bold supports geo-tagging which uses the GPS capability to log the long/lat data to use with supported photo packages.
- Music player: Same as the Storm. I easily synched my iTunes playlists and all my non-DRM’d songs played. The album art also transferred which was a nice “extra” I didn’t expect. The speaker volume was unexpectedly loud, but not louder than the Storm.
- Video player and recorder: I am very impressed with the breadth of video formats supported; unlike other popular phones…. uh iPhone. The Bold supports DivX 4, DivX 5/6 is partially supported, XviD is partially supported, H.263, H.264, and WMV3 are supported. For me, it did play non-DRM’d video from my iPod and Nano with no alterations, very convenient. You can reconvert loads of video which can take advantage of four processor cores. I used an AMD Phenom TM X4 9950 quad core processor overclocked to 3.2Ghz (using AMD Fusion for Gaming utility) and was appreciating all four of those wonderful cores.¹
The video recorder function is awesome, but only in medium or high lighting. It records in .3gp format in low density quality, fine for streaming real-time to the internet or even emailing. I use Qik to real-time stream video to the internet.
Improvements I would like to See
- Faster web Java-script: Like the Storm, web surfing was fast on most sites until I hit java-script-laden sites, then the browser appeared to slow down. The default browser setting is “off” and if a site really needs Java-script to accomplish a major task, it asks you. My point of reference here is the iPhone and the Touch which has fast browsing with or without Java-script turned on.
- Improved popular applications: I can live without iPhone “Fart” or G1’s “Level” app, but not without a better functioning FaceBook and Twitter application. What a faux pas when compared to the iPhone. It has been months and would expect more from RIM. If iPhone ever got a physical keyboard and multitasking, I could be swayed. With that said, BlackBerry has some very good and differentiated applications like Qik for real-time video streaming, Flickr for photo uploads, SlingPlayer TV, YouVersion Bible and E*Trade Mobile Pro.
Summary
Today I prefer the Bold as my cloud workhorse to the alternatives (iPhone, Storm, Android G1) and has enough good consumer features to keep me happy and interested for the time being. RIM will need to improve web Java-script execution time and up the ante on the popular applications if they want folks to continue to cheer them on. With talk of iPhone’s improved multitasking, copy-paste, and video recorder functionality, I hope this will provide impetus for some improvements. If not, maybe the Palm Pre’.
I would love to hear from your experiences with the BlackBerry Bold.
¹ AMD’s PRODUCT WARRANTY DOES NOT COVER DAMAGES CAUSED BY OVERCLOCKING, EVEN WHEN OVERCLOCKING IS ENABLED VUA AMD SOFTWARE. THE AMD FUSION FOR GAMING UTILITY MAY DISABLE SECURITY / ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE, OR ADVERSELY AFFECT YOUR SYSTEM. REVIEW ACCOMPANYING DOCUMENTATION CAREFULLY BEFORE INSTALLING.
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.
One Week with the New BlackBerry Storm
Posted by Patrick Moorhead in 2:03 AM
New and exciting smartphones are coming out every few months from the major players and November was no different. Smartphones include products like the 3G iPhone, the BlackBerry Bold, and the G1 Android, which I blogged about last month. These little guys do a lot more than make phone calls as they are slowly becoming mainstream portable devices to access cloud services as well as light computing and entertainment. The latest smartphone to launch is the BlackBerry Storm through Verizon, and I wanted to share with you my first impressions during a weeklong trip to see my parents in Florida.
I have been using BlackBerries for years and currently carry the Bold, so I knew that the combination of touch-screen with haptic feedback would be an interesting adventure…. and it certainly was. My point of comparison for this analysis is the BlackBerry Bold, the G1 Android, and my wife’s iPhone. (R to L: Bold, G1, Storm, and iPhone with cover)
The Plusses
Digital camera: I took very high quality pictures at 3.2MP with 2048×1536 max resolution. The built-in flash is bright, unlike those “toy” flashes you get with other phones. One other cool feature is that the photos get “geo-tagged” meaning the GPS coordinates are captured, allowing users to sort and file pictures by location in a program like Picasa. I would like to see photo capture time sped up as some pictures took 3 seconds from “click to save”.
Screen: This display is gorgeous at 480×360 pixels and is haptic-touch capable. This means you touch the screen and it “clicks.” The Storm also features auto-orientation, meaning that whichever way you hold it, you get the screen in a viewable orientation. I found my accuracy rate improved versus the iPhone on clicking icons and sending short messages. Videos, pictures, MS-Office files, and web sites looked great also.
Music player: I easily synched my iTunes playlists with the Storm and all my non-DRM’d songs played. The album art also transferred which was a nice “extra” I didn’t expect. The speaker volume was unexpectedly loud and could save consumers from paying extra for external speakers and is certainly convenient.
Web surfing column/page orientation: All smartphones should have the capability like the Storm to press one button to convert multi-column web sites into one column. NYTimes.com has 5 columns and to navigate on an iPhone, you have to multitouch all over the place. It’s cool, but I am not accurate with it on the web. With the Storm, you press one button (or automatic if bookmarked) you instantly get to the content in readable size and format. (Left is Page Mode, Right is Column Mode)
Upgradeable storage and replaceable battery: While something you would expect in modern electronic devices, iPhone doesn’t have it, Storm does. Theoretically, you could have unlimited storage by interchanging multiple 16GB microSD cards to store movies, videos, music and of course, documents. You don’t need to remove the battery like previous BlackBerry designs to get access to the memory, but unlike the Bold, you must remove the back cover. Don’t worry about running out of juice after getting off a 21 hour overseas flight. Charge up two or three of them and throw them in your bag.
Messaging and advanced notifications: It’s a BlackBerry so it’s arguably the best, ‘nuff said. Long message, short message, medium message, push, pull, whatever. You want a bird sound to chirp only after 6AM only when it’s in the holster and buzz once, you got it.
MS Office Doc Support: Built-in and free, you can download, save, view, and even edit the latest PowerPoint, Word, and Excel files. Excel wasn’t that useful given column width issues, but Word and especially Powerpoint was impressive.
Audio navigation: The Bold comes standard with the VZ Navigator, an application that will provide audio and video turn-by-turn instructions just like an auto navigation system. It also provides a 3D video interface that of course you aren’t supposed to look at while you are driving.
Video playback: RIM says that the Storm plays back the following formats: MPEG4 H.263, MPEG4 Part 2 Simple Profile, H.264, and WMV. That’s very broad, given the iPhone plays ONE format. I successfully played back video files for my Ipod (Gen 5), Nano, Flip video camera, and even low res XVID formats. Storm ships with video conversion software called Media Manager from Roxio. You can convert batch loads of video and takes advantage of four processor cores. I used an AMD Phenom TM X4 9950 quad core processor overclocked to 3.2Ghz (using AMD Fusion for Gaming utility) and was appreciating all four of those wonderful cores.¹
Solid: Unlike the G1 or Bold, the Storm is built like a tank. It just feels solid. Maybe it’s the weight, maybe it’s the brushed-aluminum backplate, I don’t know, but it could come in handy in times of self-defense. :>
The Minuses
No Wi-Fi: That’s not a typo. G1 has it, Bold has it, iPhone has it, heck my Archos has it, Storm does not. This was excruciating for me this week while I stayed in a house with no Verizon data support. I wanted to surf the web and I couldn’t.
Random lockups: A few times while using the video camera and also while task switching, the unit locked up. I lost two Thanksgiving videos, which was real, real bad. Knowing how rock-solid BlackBerries are, I would bet money this will get fixed and soon.
Random sluggishness: Every so often, the touch user interface would come to a crawl. Sometimes the auto-orientation was snappy, other times it was slow. Same thing occurred while navigating around web pages.
Slow web Java-script: Web surfing was fast on most sites until I hit java-lscript-aden sites, then the browser appeared to slow down. The default browser setting is “off” and if a site really needs Java-script to accomplish a major task, it asks you. My point of reference here is the iPhone and the Touch which has fast browsing with or without Java-script turned on.
Lack of applications: With the mountain of applications for Andoid and iPhone already available, even if you only like 5% of them, Storm is still way behind. If the application strategy is to hit the top applications, Storm needs a full-featured FaceBook and Twitter app. If RIM wants to attack the consumer market, seems like a few showcase apps would be in order as well. Remember the first time you saw Shazam, Pandora, Imeem, ShopSavvy, or G1’s full-screen Street View?
Too Early To Tell
Long e-mails: I can type full page emails with ease on the Bold and previously the Pearl, but I just don’t know yet on the Storm. I am slower on the Storm, but then again I needed training on the Pearl before could write long-winded corporate dissertations.
Battery life: I will leave this to the expert reviewers, but my “feeling” is that it’s around the same as the iPhone and longer than the Android while performing similar tasks. Anything that touches GPS was a MAJOR battery draw, so watch how you use it. One strange thing I encountered was the slow charge time while the phone was in operation. I needed to turn off the phone occasionally to charge.
Verizon Network: They were first in the U.S. with 3G EVDO service and I can actually get 2 bars at my house unlike AT&T or T-Mobile, but then again, their devices more than make up for that with Wi-Fi support. I read that AT&T’s service is faster, but I will leave that analysis up to the pro’s.
Summary
Net-net, I liked the Storm and am fairly confident (HOPING) that RIM will quickly address the initial issues with the platform. With one OTA update I experienced the G1 improve speed and stability a few weeks after launch, so I am optimistic. The iPhone also rolled out many improvements since launch. For those looking for large touch-screen, superior business-class messaging, consumer multimedia features, and stylish access the cloud, the Storm is worth a look. Also, if you are serious about watching your family videos on the Storm, I recommend getting a system powered by an AMD Phenom™ X4 processor to do the video conversion.
¹ AMD’s PRODUCT WARRANTY DOES NOT COVER DAMAGES CAUSED BY OVERCLOCKING, EVEN WHEN OVERCLOCKING IS ENABLED VUA AMD SOFTWARE. THE AMD FUSION FOR GAMING UTILITY MAY DISABLE SECURITY / ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE, OR ADVERSELY AFFECT YOUR SYSTEM. REVIEW ACCOMPANYING DOCUMENTATION CAREFULLY BEFORE INSTALLING.
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.
More Than Doubling the AMD Phenom X4 Processor Overclock Capabilities in About Nine Months
Posted by Patrick Moorhead in 4:09 AM
(2 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)As I discussed in earlier posts, when building, specifying, or buying a computer, it is important to have a balanced platform. It is vital to have that balance of processor, graphics, and chipset to help get the very best experience. In this blog, though, I will drill down on the CPU and specifically on CPU overclocking (1), and share with you the details of more than doubling the headroom in about nine months.
While historically the exclusive realm of technology enthusiasts, CPU overclocking has opened up to a much wider audience. This has been driven by huge improvements in the overclocking tools from motherboard makers and component manufacturers like AMD. As an example, a few weeks ago we launched a new utility called AMD Fusion for Gaming and last year AMD OverDrive™ which when combined together provides simple, one-click CPU (and even GPU) overclocking.
In addition to simple and effective overclocking software, you obviously need a good CPU and chipset. I have been very happy with the progress we have made in the nine months with the AMD Phenom X4 processor and I wanted to share this with you. So last weekend I started building and testing a few rigs to document how far we have come, having more than doubled the overclock. So onto the data I generated…
|
Processor |
Stock Frequency (Mhz.) |
Over-clocked Frequency (Mhz.) |
Improvement(Mhz.) |
HT Reference Clock (Mhz.) |
Over-clocked |
CPU |
|
Phenom X4 9500 |
2,200 |
2,508 |
308 |
228 |
1.29 |
November 2007 |
|
Phenom X4 9600 BE |
2,300 |
2,800 |
500 |
200 |
1.45 |
December 2007 |
|
Phenom X4 9750 |
2,400 |
2,940 |
540 |
245 |
1.3 |
March 2008 |
|
Phenom X4 9850 BE |
2,500 |
3,200 |
700 |
200 |
1.45 |
March 2008 |
I wanted to point out that I used all stock components I bought from the internet or from my local Fry’s store. As important, I used the same AMD heat-sink and paste that comes with our processors, not a special one that could have delivered even better raw results. I used an AMD 790FX-SB600 motherboard for the AMD Phenom X4 9500/9600BE processors to coincide with what was sold at launch and a 790GX-SB750 (2) motherboard for the AMD Phenom X4 9750/9850 processors which are primarily sold today. I am certain I am getting a bump from the SB750’s Advanced Clock Calibration (thank you chipset, BIOS teams, and mobo partners). I only had to go into BIOS once ( for the AMD Phenom X4 9500) and changed all other settings through AMD OverDrive. Like reviewers, I used a bench-set to save time versus screwing all the components into a case. Finally, to test stability, I successfully ran the AMD OverDrive benchmark and the stability test. I want put an exclamation out there that your results will vary, sometimes higher, sometimes lower.
So as you can see, according to my experiences, we have more than doubled the raw overclock of the AMD Phenom X4 processor, going from 300 Mhz. in November, 2007 to 700 Mhz. in August, 2008 when the SB750 became available. Given some of the comments and questions I still receive from some folks on the AMD Phenom X4 processor, I hope they find this interesting. I would love to hear their recent experiences.
Configurations: Stock AMD heatsink and thermal paste, Foxconn A7DA-S motherboard (BIOS 81BF1P03) for AMD Phenom 9750/9850 BE, MSI K9A2 Platinum (BIOS V 1.5) for AMD Phenom X4 9500/9600 BE, 4GB Corsair dominator CM2X2048-8500C5D RAM Ver 1.1, Seagate Barracuda 7200 1TB hard drive, 900 watt PSU, AMD Overdrive 2.1.4.
1) ***WARNING*** AMD and ATI processors are intended to be operated only within their associated specifications and factory settings. Operating your AMD or ATI processor outside of specification or in excess of factory settings, including but not limited to overclocking, may damage your processor and/or lead to other problems, including but not limited to, damage to your system components (including your motherboard and components thereon (e.g. memory)), system instabilities (e.g. data loss and corrupted images), shortened processor, system component and/or system life and in extreme cases, total system failure. AMD does not provide support or service for issues or damages related to use of an AMD or ATI processor outside of processor specifications or in excess of factory settings. You may also not receive support or service from your system manufacturer.
DAMAGES CAUSED BY USE OF YOUR AMD OR ATI PROCESSOR OUTSIDE OF SPECIFICATION OR IN EXCESS OF FACTORY SETTINGS ARE NOT COVERED UNDER YOUR AMD PRODUCT WARRANTY AND MAY NOT BE COVERED BY YOUR SYSTEM MANUFACTURER’S WARRANTY.
2) AMD 790GX chipset with SB750 announced August 6, 2008.
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.
How I Accelerated My Outlook Performance with a Gaming Utility
Posted by Patrick Moorhead in 2:32 AM
In Nigel’s latest blog, he wrote about using the Fusion for Gaming utility 1 to improve his notebook battery life while in-flight. Since launching and blogging on the Fusion for Gaming utility last week, I have also done some simple, ad-hoc testing outside of the gaming space. While it may seem counter-intuitive to do so given the name, I wanted to see if the underlying technology could help me with a challenge I have “at work.” I am excited to say, after a few hours of testing, my Outlook experience feels significantly faster with the utility running.
At work, like many AMD employees and enterprise users, I run Microsoft Outlook 2007 along with the full Office 2007 suite. I run a Microsoft Vista Enterprise-based, multi-monitor desktop in order to do many different things at the same time. I “megatask,” which is simply hard-core multi-tasking.
If you have used Outlook lately, you know that it’s a lot more than just an email client. Outlook links to literally everything… it connects your email to your calendar to your task management system to your journal to your contact list to your … you get the idea. Good product. But for about a year now, I have experienced inexplicable “pauses” when I task-switch between Outlook apps, or when Outlook is synchronizing (you know, when you get the two envelopes in your systray). I had all the obvious things checked out: hardware, corporate software image, Exchange Server settings, archiving, vaulting, network, etc., which always yielded some temporary relief. Then Outlook would start ”pausing” a few weeks later, which I chalked up to doing a lot of work and getting a lot done while increasing my Exchange folder size: I fully plead guilty to AMD IT in using the folders as a file system.
So I loaded the Fusion for Gaming utility and saw an immediate improvement in my Outlook performance. Things loaded quicker, those inexplicable “pauses” went away and it is simply delivering a more productive and enjoyable compute experience. Sounds bizarre, I know, you should see the looks on the faces of my co-workers when I tell them this! So I did some simple digging into the Performance Tab in Windows Task Manager to see if I could attempt to explain any of this.. and it became clearer. On the left, you can see the relative performance data without the Fusion for Gaming utility enabled, and on the right, with the utility enabled.
It appears that on my system, Outlook likes a more limited number of “threads,” “handles” and “processes” or simply put, background tasks. I am sure there is a more comprehensive, long-winded technical explanation from folks who are much smarter than I will ever be, but this is my experience and of course, your mileage will vary :>.
It has worked for me on Outlook, and I urge you to give the Fusion for Gaming utility a spin and let me know what you think.. also, if you are one of those scary-smart guys who can explain why technically my Outlook is faster I would love to hear from you.
My desktop work rig: AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ processor @3.2GHz., ATI Radeon HD 3870 graphics, Gigabyte GAMA69GM-S2H motherboard (BIOS F3A 8/3/2007) with AMD 690G chipset, 150GB Western Digital Raptor hard drive (10,000 RPM), 4GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2 RAM (recognized by Vista 32 as 3GB), ATI Catalyst Control Center 8.8, AMD OverDrive 2.1.4.
¹ THIS UTILITY MAY DISABLE SECURITY / ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE, OR ADVERSELY AFFECT YOUR SYSTEM. REVIEW ACCOMPANYING DOCUMENTATION CAREFULLY BEFORE INSTALLING.
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.
First Weekend with the Fusion for Gaming Utility
Posted by Patrick Moorhead in 3:36 PM
In Nigel’s latest blog, he gives the big picture of what the new AMD Fusion campaign means to our customers and business partners. Being the new tech lover that I am, I decided to explore the new AMD Fusion for Gaming utility. I‘ll start broad, then get to the juicy details, but first a teaser from my personal numbers: I saw a best-case gaming experience frames-per-second improvement of over 100% using the new utility.
First, as I have covered in previous blogs here and here, for PCs, AMD innovates around usage models. Whether it’s productivity, home media, or playing games, we work with customers, channels, and end users to better understand their pain and pleasure points, apply the right integrated technologies to meet those needs, and then help deliver the complete experience through our customers and channels.
Console and PC Gaming are very important usage models to AMD, and we apply many hardware and software innovations for both “hard-core gamers” and “consumers who like to play games.” Hardware innovations include our ATI Radeon™ HD graphics, AMD Phenom™ and AMD Turion™ processors, and the chipset platforms. On the software side, we deliver drivers and the award-winning ATI Catalyst™ Control Center that lets you tweak almost every aspect of your graphics card with respect to 3D, video, color, power management, multi-GPUs, and display connectivity. Also, AMD Overdrive™ allows you to tune the performance of your CPU, memory, and chipset.
When the AMD Fusion for Gaming development team asked me to try out their newest software creation last weekend, I jumped ALL over it and wanted to share my experiences.
Hard core gamers know that to have the best experience possible, they need a bad-ass graphics card like the ATI Radeon™ HD 4870, a beefy CPU like the Phenom™ 9850 processor, a great performance chipset like the AMD 790GX, software tools like AMD Overdrive and ATI Overdrive™, and as few applications and tasks as possible running in the foreground and background. Historically, even for knowledgeable enthusiasts, this would be a time-consuming process. For the mainstream user who likes to play games, this type of performance optimization was completely out of reach. To solve these pain points, we created the AMD Fusion for Gaming utility.
The AMD Fusion for Gaming utility was designed to optimize your AMD-based PC for smoother, more responsive game play in the latest PC games with the touch of a button; the utility helps achieve the performance previously only available to highly technical enthusiasts. It works by temporarily shutting down background processes and intensifying processor performance with AMD Boost. That means you can keep all the features, tasks, and applications running on your Microsoft® Windows Vista® PC ready when you need them, but turn them off when you are ready to get down to serious gaming.¹
”Simplicity” was the design principle for the utility, but we still let you peek behind the curtains into the advanced interface to change how the utility works. You can customize with user selectable profiles to individually optimize your PC for gaming. Also, you can easily build your own profile and choose exactly what you want disabled for a leaner footprint. If you want to squeeze every bit of performance from your system, engage our most advanced acceleration technologies such as AMD Overdrive, Auto-Tuning and Hard Drive Acceleration.²
So with that long-winded intro, let me tell you what I personally experienced…
Desktop Gaming
I saw a big improvement in my desktop gaming experience using Fusion for Gaming. This was not surprising given I used Expert Profile that initiates AMD Boost, Hard Drive Acceleration, AMD OverDrive and ATI Overdrive in addition to shutting down unneeded services and third-party applications. Playing games just felt “better”. I know that doesn’t sound like science, but real gamers know what I mean. On Call of Duty 4 and Crysis, my system felt more responsive and snappier. I did a few rudimentary benchmarks on these two games using FRAPS, and saw about a 23-29% improvement in frame rates. Using some canned benchmarks, I saw the following:
- 3D Mark: 15% overall score improvement in 3DMark
- World In Conflict: Based on the setting, improvements in frame rates were 55% for the “average” setting, 157% for the “minimum” setting and 116% for the “maximum” setting
- Lost Planet: 5.8% “Snow” and 24% “Cave” scene frame rate improvement
Very impressive, but again, not surprising, given I was overclocking the CPU, GPU, hard drive, and shutting many Windows services, foreground and background apps. I am not a professional benchmarker like Kyle Bennett or Marco Chiappetta, but these numbers make sense given the “feel” of the game. And remember – these are my results achieved on the platforms indicated below – your experience may differ.
Notebook Gaming
One of the things I love to do with my 6 year old son is play PC games. We place a notebook on the coffee table in the living room, plug in two controllers, and go to town. We play games like Lego Star Wars II, Lego Indiana Jones, and IronMan… age appropriate stuff.I would consider this usage model to be about “people who like to play games”, NOT the “hard core gamer”. Surprisingly, I saw some of the largest boosts here. I didn’t expect it because I didn’t initiate AMD OverDrive or ATI Overdrive, just AMD Boost, Hard Drive Acceleration, and turned off unneeded tasks and applications. My hunch is that because it was a 2GB integrated graphics system where graphics shares memory and I run a lot of background tasks, shutting those down really helped. Again, the experience of Lego Star Wars II just “felt better.”
Like the desktop system, I ran some rudimentary benchmarks on the notebook:
- 3D Mark:8.9% improvement in 3DMark
- World In Conflict: Based on the setting, improvements in frame rates were 140% for the “average” setting, 600% for the “minimum” setting and 53% for the “maximum” setting
- Lost Planet: No improvement in frame rates
I didn’t expect to see any improvement, honestly, so I was surprised to see the World in Conflict numbers. Again, my hunch is that it is the memory impact and all the tasks and the applications that were shut down plus the fact that I used a 2GB integrated graphics system. And again – these are my results, yours may differ.
All in all, I was impressed at the simplicity AMD Fusion for Gaming utility brought to my desktop and the improvement to the gameplay. And on the notebook side, I was very surprised at how much it improved my gaming experience and framerates. While not perfect without some glitches as the utility is in beta, I think the AMD for Fusion for Gaming utility pulls together the strength of AMD’s CPU, GPU and chipset franchises better than ever, and pays off on the promises AMD has made to its customers, channels, and end users on the “fused” value of the three components.
You can download the Fusion utility here and AMD Overdrive 2.14 here, and I would love to hear about your experiences.
¹ THIS UTILITY MAY DISABLE SECURITY / ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE, OR ADVERSELY AFFECT YOUR SYSTEM. REVIEW ACCOMPANYING DOCUMENTATION CAREFULLY BEFORE INSTALLING.
² AMD’S PRODUCT WARRANTY DOES NOT COVER DAMAGES CAUSED BY OVERCLOCKING, EVEN WHEN ENABLED VIA AMD SOFTWARE.
Desktop configuration: AMD Phenom X4 9850 processor, ATI Radeon HD 4870 graphics, Foxconn A7DA-S motherboard (BIOS 81BF1P03) with 790GX chipset and SB 750, 1GB Seagate hard drive (7200 RPM), 2GB Corsair XMS2 RAM, ATI Catalyst Control Center 8.8, AMD OverDrive 2.1.4.
Notebook configuration: Toshiba L305D-S5873, AMD Turion X2 RM-70 processor, ATI Radeon 3100 graphics, 2GB RAM, 160GB (5400RPM) hard drive, ATI Catalyst Control Center 8.8.
Applications: GooglePack, Digsby, Tweetdeck, Picasa 2 media detector, Windows Defender, Orb, Internet Explorer 8.0, Windows Home Server Connect, AT&T Communications Manager, CD/DVD Acoustic Silencer and Config Free (On Toshiba)
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.
