Posts tagged with Turion
Test Driving AMD’s 2nd Generation Ultrathin Notebook Platform
Posted by Patrick Moorhead in 10:47 PM
(22 votes, average: 4.14 out of 5)
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Back in April of this year, HP introduced the world’s first value ultrathin notebook, the HP Pavilion dv2. It was chock full of AMD technologies like the new AMD AthlonTM Neo processor and even had an ATI RadeonTM discrete graphics card, all in a slim and affordable package. The press noticed. Could it get better? Let me give you my first impressions on the AMD 2nd generation ultrathin platform, introduced today along with our new “Vision Technology from AMD” campaign designed to de-mystify the PC buying experience. This time, I got to test out an MSI X-Series notebook and it impressed.
Notebook based on AMD’s Second Generation Ultrathin Platform
It’s real easy to describe the 2nd generation ultrathin design: Take the 1st generation, give it a second CPU core and take nearly the performance of the first generation’s discrete card, shrink it and place it into the chipset decreasing energy consumption. Oh yeah, and add sprinkles of VISION Technology. Easy, right? Don’t tell the engineers I said that.
Specs for MSI notebook based on AMD’s 2nd Generation Ultrathin Platform
- CPU: AMD Athlon Neo X2 Dual Core Processor L335 at 1.6 GHz.
- GPU: ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics
- Display: 12″ at 1366×768 resolution with HDMI for 1080P bliss and VGA port out
- RAM/HDD/Optical: 2GB (dual channel)/160GB/None
- Memory Slot: SD/SDHC/MMC
- Networking: Bluetooth, Gig-E, and BGN wireless
- 3 USB ports
- 1.3 MP Webcam
Size Matters
The best way to do a size comparison is to compare it to something someone may be familiar with. Below are comparisons to a BlackBerry Bold and an MSI U100 Netbook.
MSI notebook based on AMD’s 2nd Generation Ultrathin platform next to a BlackBerry Bold
MSI U100 Netbook next to MSI notebook based on AMD’s 2nd Generation Ultrathin platform
MSI U100 Netbook on top of an MSI notebook based on AMD’s 2nd Generation Ultrathin platform
HD Video Playback-Bring It On
The MSI ripped through HD video off of the web from YouTube HD as well as Hulu HD (to my surprise). I also played HD files from my Sony Webbie (1080P/30FPS) and Kodak ZI6 (720P/60FPS) inexpensive HD palmcorders and it didn’t even break a sweat. I plugged an external Blu-Ray drive and two movies with Cyberlink 8, “I Am Legend” and “Speed Racer”, and I never saw CPU utilization go above 25%. Add this to the ability to project externally at 1080P video to my HDTV along with high-fidelity audio over the HDMI port and cable and I was real happy.
Games- Not Sweating the Small Stuff
Like the AMD 1st generation ultrathin platform, the 2nd generation ultrathin platform can (of course) play mainstream games well like the Sims and Spore, but even the more hard-core games (albeit at low settings) like Left 4 Dead. I must caveat by saying that if you consider yourself a gamer, go for a system that has a higher end GPU like the higher end ATI Radeon HD 3000 or HD 4000 series. But if you play games but don’t consider yourself a gamer, no need to worry, you get a real ATI-branded graphics capability, not a generic brand in many systems.
Web Browsing- Flash Eater
I already described how this MSI notebook tore through YouTube HD and Hulu HD so why bring up anything else? Well, it’s called Flash and it’s the basis for a ton of web sites and it chews up inordinate amounts of power. Try this test- open up task manager to see how much CPU is being used then go to americanidol.com and then disney.com. If you have one of those underpowered machines, you know what happens. If you have a notebook based on the 2nd generation ultrathin platform, you get a good experience where the CPU isn’t pegging at 100%.
Conclusion
The 2nd generation ultrathin platform turned out exactly as I would have hoped: lighter, cooler, and more powerful to enable consumers to have an even better experience than they did with the first generation. No-compromise computing in a thin package at a good value. As “Active” and “Resting” battery life benchies go, the lab is working on those and I will update my blog when I get them. Until then, let me know if you have any questions.
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.
Codename Tigris, Surprises Found Test Driving the New AMD Mainstream Notebook Platform
Posted by Patrick Moorhead in 10:45 PM
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 TurionTM II X2 Dual Core Mobile Processor M640 at 2.6 Ghz.
- GPU: ATI RadeonTM 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.
Why Spore May Look So Poor on Your New Notebook
Posted by Patrick Moorhead in 2:26 AM
(Originally published at Notebooks.com)
Spore, the popular “casual” game from EA, has received as much sales and fanfare as it has controversy from its DRM policies. Spore sold 1M copies and 25M creations were created in its first 2 weeks so no one questions its popularity. But, does anyone question the quality of the visual experience between different notebook technologies? They should, as there are big differences that could really impact their enjoyment. One would expect that today on modern notebooks these differences wouldn’t exist but they definitely do.
Brian Henry, a software engineer in our Performance and Experience Lab, provided me with some data that I thought was interesting. He showed me a visual comparative analysis of Spore on two HP Pavilion dv5 notebooks, both with integrated graphics. One system was an AMD-based (“Puma”) and the other an Intel-based (Montevina). Interestingly, the Intel-based system demonstrated significant difference in Spore quality.
Here are the comparative screen-shots on “high” settings. You don’t need to have 20/20 vision to see there is a huge disparity.
Here is the Intel Centrino 2 (Montevina) system with Core 2 Duo CPU and GMA 4500MHD graphics (1):
Here is the AMD (“Puma”) system with a Turion™ X2 Ultra CPU and ATI Radeon™ 3200 graphics (2) :
Compare the water quality, shadows off the creatures, the grassy field dimensionality and the background fog elements (or lack thereof) between the two images.
The Intel game graphics performance and visual experience shown here on Spore is very consistent with what AMD, Nvidia and others in the tech press have been confirming for a years. And, just to list a few:
- Business Week: “Is Your PC a Graphics Wimp?”
- InformationWeek: “Intel Cites Graphics Problems In Centrino 2 Delay”
- Notebooks.com: “AMD vs. Intel Integrated Graphics Video”
- The Inquirer: “Intel’s G965 embedded graphics stink – official”
- NVIDIA video: “GeForce 7 series Motherboard GPU”
- AMD video: “AMD Phenom X3 + AMD 780 Gaming Demo”
Ironically, this is a phenomenon that has everything to do with the balance of the total platform (CPU-GPU-Chipset) versus the performance of one specific component. Let me explain in a little more detail. The Puma platform combined the new code-name “Griffin” CPU with the new integrated AMD M780G chipset that included the integrated ATI Radeon 3200 graphics. The M780G chipset’s graphics is a 55nm shrink of a full desktop Radeon 2000 Series graphics, which to me explains the awesome performance and quality. It also provides DX10, native DVI, HDMI and HDCP. The chipset and CPU and graphics are married together and provide sophisticated power management capabilities with ATI PowerPlay, TM, AMD Cool ‘n ‘ Quiet TM Technology, and Display Cache. In my opinion, the combined performance, quality, display, and power management capabilities are a requirement for a good mobile casual gaming experience.
Net-net, even when it comes to casual games like Spore, The Sims, or even Sim City, buyer beware: there can be major differences in the experience with these games on a notebook–differences not changed by a cutesy TV jingle. The industry (of which I am a part) has thus far failed to develop, deliver, and educate end-users on these differences. To me, playing Spore at high-quality would be the low bar game experience for a notebook you just plowed $699 to $1,599 into.
If you play casual games on notebooks, I recommend looking for notebooks with ATI Radeon TM branded graphics numbered 3200 and above and with AMD Turion ™ processors.
If you “beg to differ” or have your own casual game nightmare I would like to hear from you.
Note: This blog was originally published on notebooks.com here.
1) AMD notebook specs: HP Pavilion dv5z, BIOS F.05 – 6/18/2008, AMD Turion Ultra ZM-82, DDR2-800 2GB (2 X 1GB) RAM, ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics , 7.1.1.747 VBIOS, Seagate ST9100824AS hard drive, high Spore settings.
2) Intel notebook spec: HP Pavilion dv5z (CORR:dv5t), BIOS F.05 – 6/8/2008, Intel Core 2 Duo CPU P8400, DDR2-800 2GB (2 X 1GB) RAM, Mobile Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD, 7.15.10.1502 VBIOS, Seagate- ST9100824AS hard drive, high Spore settings..
Note: No sponsorship with EA is implied in this blog.
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.
Notebooks.com: “Poor Spore Performance on Your New Notebook”
Posted by Patrick Moorhead in 6:23 AM
I have been doing more guest-blogging over at Notebooks.com, this time on the quality differences users can get playing the popular game Spore on different-brand notebook platforms.
Here is a preview:
“Spore, the popular “casual” game from EA, has received as much sales and fanfare as it has controversy from its DRM policies. Spore sold 1M copies and 25M creations were created in its first 2 weeks so no one questions its popularity. But, does anyone question the quality of the visual experience between different notebook technologies? They should, as there are big differences that could really impact their enjoyment. One would expect that today on modern notebooks these differences wouldn’t exist but they definitely do.”
You can find the entire blog over at Notebooks.com by clicking here.
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.
Five Disappointing Days on the Road with a Cheap Mini-Notebook
Posted by Patrick Moorhead in 7:30 AM
Over the last 6 months, I have heard a lot of industry insiders vehemently defending the cheap mini notebook (aka netbook) as a great device to travel with given its cost, size weight and applicability to task. I don’t have anything against these new cheap mini notebooks, but I think it is VERY important that consumers are educated to their weaknesses as well as their strengths, and all I see talked about are the strengths, a disservice to consumers in my opinion. I have used five of the cheap mini-notebooks over the last 6 months and yes, there are strengths and more weaknesses compared to an inexpensive full-sized notebook at the same price. I had written a lot in previous blogs on my personal interaction with these inside the home, so I decided to put it to the test outside the home, a contrast to what I had done and written about in a previous blog.
I needed to travel to Florida last week to look for a new show horse for my wife. She is a “hunter/jumper” and competes at the local, state, and national level along with my two young girls. Buying a horse is a very personal activity, and you have very little time to ride and test many horses. It is important to videotape, take still images and be able to share the videos and pictures with the other horse professionals back home in Texas over on-line services like YouTube and Flickr.
I technologically armed myself with the following:
- Aiptek HD video camera ($179) for capturing 720P and 1080P high definition video to view high quality off-line videos
- FlipVideo camera ($159) for capturing lower-resolution, easy to upload to YouTube and will also convert to the new “watch in high quality mode”
- Kodak V1253 ($175) digital camera to capture high quality 12MP 16:9 stills
- MSI Wind U100 ($579) mini-notebook with no mods
- AT&T 3G USBConnect 881 ($149) modem to connect to the internet remotely
The daily regimen consisted of driving a half hour to the horse barn and trying out a bunch of horses by riding them, videotaping and photographing them while taking notes on the pros and cons. At about mid-day, we would load all the content onto the MSI Wind to view and/or upload the content while still at the horse barn. We would do this in the car and on the way home. That’s when some of the challenges started hitting.
1) Extremely Short Battery Life
I only would get 1.5 hours battery life per charge so I was either not able to load the content in the car, view the content I had loaded in the car or had to wait until I reached the hotel to load, view and upload. I suppose I could have bought another $25-50 car adapter, but hey, these are supposed to be cheap mini notebooks, not the expensive, full featured ones, right? Additionally, because I preferred not to upload 15 separate files and preferred one, I used Windows Movie Maker to stitch together all the SD (standard-def) Flip videos, which of course wouldn’t last an entire charge and could only be done back at the hotel. Even basic usages like surfing the web at the pool was useless given the low battery life. By the time you would get to the pool, you might get an hour to read the news, get caught up on current events, etc. After that hour, its right back up to the hotel room to plug the unit back in. Forget it, easier to use the BlackBerry.
2) Choppy, Unplayable 720P Video Playback
I like slide shows, but not when myself, our trainer, and I are trying to evaluate a horses timing, skill, personality and potential problems with health and price. I estimate that the 720p video playback on the Wind was operating at 15 frames per second, a slide show. This was MOV files read from VLC player and of course QuickTime. Completely useless 720P video playback with the cheap mini-notebook. I didn’t even kid myself into thinking it was a good idea to stitch the HD files together. Encode would have been painful.
3) Choppy NBCOlympics.com Internet Video and Compromised UI
During the downtime, we wanted to watch some of the events on NBCOlympics.com, you know, with the Microsoft SilverLight experience… I then discovered a new challenge with the netbook’s 1024×600 screen resolution and maybe even with the Silverlight performance on these new notebooks. This may seem like a nit, but a couple big issues surfaced. When I clicked on the left icon “Olympic Sports” many sports icons were cut off at the top. Not real useful or intuitive and not a big deal to everyone, but new netbook and new website, it should work.
On the “Most Watched” icon on the left rail, once clicked, you cannot read the white text at the top of the screen. Annoying.
The worst part was the “As Seen on TV”, where if clicked, you get a bunch of cool videos selected by day. The big problem was that the days were covered by the browsers at the top. See that yellow half moon at the top right? That’s supposed to be a day. You can theoretically pick previous days if you could actually see them……… but you can’t.
I can’t blame the browser, I need to blame the display and controller for not being able to display those vital 168 (768-600) missing pixels. When I could actually get the videos to play, they were hit and miss, most being choppy and pixilated, some very good. The CPU varied between 75-100% depending on the content.
Hopefully others can learn from my latest science experiment….. when in doubt in my opinion, if you want to do ANYTHING other than surfing basic, light websites AT HOME without the bells and whistles, go for the full-size notebook, not one of these cheap mini-notebooks. With any form of decent video playback or any video recoding, even with Microsoft , I wouldn’t, couldn’t recommend these cheap mini-notebooks in their current state and configuration.
I would love to hear your feedback on this or of your experiences have been any different.
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.
Euro-Pumas Galore
Posted by Patrick Moorhead in 1:39 AM
Fujitsu Amilo Pa3553 - ZUR48 retailer in Leipzig
Fujitsu Amilo Pa3553 - Volantino Euronics retailer in Italy
Fujitsu Amilo Pa3553 - Volantino Euronics retailer in Italy
Fujitsu Amilo PA3515 - ZUR48 retailer in Leipzig
Acer Aspire 5530G-804G32Bi - Neckermann.de retailer
Acer Aspire 7530 704G32MI - OTTO Versand retailer
Acer Aspire 7530 704G32MI - OTTO Versand retailer
Acer Aspire 5530G-602G16MI - OTTO Versand retailer
Acer Aspire 5530G-602G16MI - OTTO Versand retailer
HP Pavilion - OTTO Versand retailer
HP Pavilion - OTTO Versand retailer
Fujitsu AMILO Pa3553 - OTTO Versand retailer
Fujitsu AMILO Pa3553 - OTTO Versand retailer
HP Laptop on the Move - United Kingdom
HP TX2520E - United Kingdom
HP Pavilion dv5 - United Kingdom Krefel flyer
FSC ZM-80 - Surcouf retailer in France
FSC ZM-80 - Surcouf retailer in France
FSC ZM-80 - Surcouf retailer in France
FSC ZM-80 - Surcouf retailer in France
FSC ZM-80 - Surcouf retailer in France
Fujitsu Amilo PA 3515-001 - Surcouf retailer in France
Fujitsu Amilo PA 3553-002 - Sourcouf retailer in France
HP DV 1005EF - Conforama retailer in France
HP DV 1005EF - Conforama retailer in France
Toshiba 300D - Volantino retailer in Italy
ASUS RM70 17" - Vobis retailer
Toshiba 300D - Euronics retailer
Toshiba 300D - Euronics retailer
Toshiba 300D - MyCOM retailer in UK
Toshiba 300D - MyCOM retailer in UK
Toshiba 300D12I - Auchan retailer in Italy
Toshiba 300D12I - Auchan retailer in Italy
Toshiba 300D12I - Auchan retailer in Italy
Compaq 1311T PC Portatile 15.4 - Auchan retailer in Italy
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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.
Top Capabilities to Look For in A 2nd Generation Notebook
Posted by Patrick Moorhead in 9:49 AM
So, simply asked, can or does your 2nd generation notebook do the following:
- Play high definition video like Blu-ray or rich web video downloads smoothly, efficiently, and with high quality? If not, check out notebooks that have ATI Avivo™ HD Technology. The notebooks provide up to 5X the HD image quality (as compared to a competing product) for a sharper picture.¹ Additionally, the ATI UVD technology actually offloads much of this high definition processing from the processor to the graphics chipset, allowing for superior power efficiency, long battery life, and a cool and quiet experience.
- Include wireless technology from the same brands that have their silicon in consumer routers and switches? If not, check out AMD-based system employing technologies from leading companies like Broadcom, Atheros, and Ralink for Wi-Fi certified solution that can transfer videos, photos, and music in under 2/3rd of the time of competing solutions.²
- Provide the 3D graphical horsepower for today’s graphically-oriented operating systems and applications? If not, check out the ATI Radeon™ HD 3200 Graphics technology in our new “Puma” notebooks, which delivers up to 3X the 3D capability of competing products.³
- Automatically switch between discrete and integrated graphics to alternately provide maximum graphics capability or extra battery life? If not, then look for systems with ATI PowerXpress™ Technology. ATI PowerXpress™ dynamically switches (no reboot required) in real time between an ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3400 series graphics processor and an integrated graphics processor. Experience superior discrete graphics performance while plugged in, or switch to energy efficient integrated graphics when on-the-go to help extend battery life.
- Provide a great casual or even mainstream gaming experience with the base, integrated graphics? If not, then check out the new AMD Turion Ultra 64 X2 notebooks with ATI Radeon™ HD 3200 graphics. These are ATI “branded” graphics, not generic IGP, and you can even dive into action-packed games like the Sims 2 ;>. OK, they also let you play games that are a lot more intense than that! Although I personally love (and recommend) a rig powered with a “kick ass” discrete card (like the new ATI Radeon™ HD 4870), I even played Call of Duty 4 last night with my HP tx2000 AMD-based system with ATI Radeon HD 3200 integrated graphics – and enjoyed it too! And with the U.S. Retail market consisting almost 90% integrated graphics4, this is very important, because you likely aren’t going to be able to upgrade your notebook if you buy an under-powered graphical system.
So, when you are out there considering those 2nd generation notebooks, ask yourself these questions to make a more informed decision. And, of course, tell me what you think below….
(1) Preliminary test results performed by AMD performance lab using HD HQV with AMD Turion™ X2 Ultra Dual-Core processor based reference design as compared to an HP Compaq 6510b notebook PC with Intel Core 2 Duo processor.
(2) Tests performed between Atheros AR9280 versus Intel 4965AGN utilizing 5 home videos, 200 pictures, and 80 songs.
(3) 3DMark 06 scores comparing AMD Turion X2 Ultra ZM-80 with ATI Radeon HD 3200 integrated graghics versus Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 with Intel GMA X3100 integrated graphics.
(4) NPD U.S. Retail Notebook market , May, 2008, 89.7% integrated graphics.
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.