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Ion Platform For Atom Tested With Games, HD Video
J. Dzhugashvili writes "Nvidia has already pulled the curtain off its Ion platform, which couples GeForce 9400 integrated graphics with Intel's Atom processor. But how does it perform? The Tech Report has taken the tiny Ion reference system for a spin in games and video decoding to see if the GeForce GPU really helps. The verdict? 1080p playback is actually smooth, and the whole system only draws 25W during playback. Fast-paced action games are another story—Half-Life 2, Quake Wars, and Call of Duty 4 are all choppy with a single Atom core and single-channel RAM, although they do run. TR concludes that Ion is nevertheless a clear improvement over Intel's 945G chipset, especially since Nvidia doesn't expect Ion-based Atom systems to cost significantly more than all-Intel ones." Update: 02/04 09:14 GMT by T : HotHardware is one of the several other sites offering some performance benchmark numbers on the new chipset.
Does the Atom processor make the Internet faster? Because if not, I'm going back to a P4!
(-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
Looks like I didn't wait long enough to get the netbook.
There is a war going on for your mind.
first generation chips will be slow, but give them time, Nvidia will make this chip worth the budge chip video in laptops and more, anything over intels video is a major step up. Let the war begin....
I hate to say it because they do good work, but I think nVidia is ultimately doomed as it is today. Everyone rips Intel's integrated 3d graphics but they just keep getting better every year. Although AMD should have bought nVidia instead of ATI, they do own ATI, and so have a pretty good graphics system on their own. Eventually, both AMD and Intel are going to wind up with 3d calculations on the die in some fashion, and that's going to leave nVidia for what?
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How does the ION chipset compare in power consumption with the mobile 945 used in netbooks (the 6W TDP one, not the 20W+ TDP desktop variant that's a total joke).
25W for CPU, Chipset, HD, Memory, motherboard doesn't seem as low as it could be.
Still, if they can get 8 hours out of a 6 cell battery in a netbook with it, great. It's a far far far more advanced chipset than the Intel crud.
Well of course Half Life 2 is choppy on the platform -- the Source engine is very CPU-intensive. Almost every system is going to be CPU-bound with Valve games, unless you happen to be running a Core i7 with an entry-level video card, at 1920x1200. As for the other games, you're still running on integrated graphics, and there's only so much you can do before you need a separate card.
Disclaimer: I work for Intel, but I've been a fan of Valve's games for much longer than that.
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This is a shift away for the CPU to the GPU and Intel will hate it.
This or even the plane atom is good enough for a very large percentage of users.
This would work for just about every Office PC, average home user, and media center.
About the only tasks this will now work for is media editing, gaming, or heavy technical use.
The one problem I see with it is the cost. That extra money is a big percentage of the cost of the one of these mini systems.
I so want one.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Games performance isn't really the issue for these. These things aren't designed for games.
What these are best used for are Media Centre setups. However it doesn't play all 1080p content smoothly which is a major issue. There are plenty of options for this kind of thing, the Popcorn hour, the WD HDTV box. Those are good to a point but fall down on format support, especially mkv which doesn't have full subtitle and codec support on either.
The current best option is an energy efficient Athlon based setup. These cost about $75-$100 more than an atom system and use a bit more power but they'll play back any video you throw at them without dropping any frames.
Maybe with a dual core atom and using dual core optimised codecs this will reach the goal of never having to notice a dropped frame, regardless of format and bit rate but this atom solution still isn't the Media center beast it could be.
Stalin's submitting stories to Slashdot!!!
...with using IBM's Sequoia for a graphics processor? Ok, they need to work on the price a little, and maybe it's a little bulky for most portables, oh and the power supply might need upgrading, but aside from that, what have the Romans ever done for us?
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
With recent developments in VDPAU, the HD capable GPU acceleration for Linux, I could use this board. The only thing I would change is to make it wider and move all the ports to the back. Include an LCD or VFD if you want to get fancy, and and IR receiver on the front. Perfect MythTV frontend machine. I would like the dual-channel RAM though, to help with 1080i playback.
Put it in a nice small case like those used for modern DVD players, and they have a winner.
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
While off-the-shelf PC games might not work that great on this combo, I suspect that there could be really good, beautiful looking games created and fine-tuned just for such a platform. Someone could possibly use this as the basis for a portable entertainment system to compete with the Nintendo DS, PSP, etc. XBox Portable anyone? If you consider that Atom-based systems would typically have smaller screens, so that you might be looking at a resolution of maybe 640x480 or 800x600 (or perhaps wide-screen aspect ratios, but with similar vertical resolution), I could see this being a sufficient solution for such a portable entertainment system.
And, maybe AppleTV? I wouldn't imagine a lot of mini owners are gaming on them, and if they can get the price down to reasonable, why not?
Will stick to my 45WAthlonX2/AMD740G mythtv box until AppleTV gets a tuner
But I would like to replace that aging G4 that I occasionally use
A review of the ION platform with a dual core Atom 330 is here:
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=663
this sig was brought to you by the letter
I see this being the hot new frontend for mythtv. With VDPAU supported for HD decoding, fanless/quiet fan, atom processor, a bit of ram, and a SD card for storage I could make one hell of a nice tiny front end.
I want one now!
Sometimes the best solution is to stop wasting time looking for an easy solution.
How could you miss the loonix joke there?
A Atom base mini is a cpu power down grade and there is no way that it will be a good buy at $600 maybe $400 - $500 but it should use ddr2 not high cost ddr3 laptop ram. AND DON"T thing about not giving a free mini dp to dvi cable with it $30-$100 more to use your own display??.
Apple may try to sell a system with this a 1gb of ram at $600 but that will make the old mini still look good even more so if it drops to $500 or less and ddr 3 will just make it cost more as the cpu is so slow that it is better to get more ddr2 at lower cost.
That will also tell Psystar we can even try to match or do better then your hardware but we can make the mini look even worse next to your system.
You can get a nice mid tower for about $600 with a high end amd dual core + lower-mid range (much better then 9400m) video with 790gx on board video with it's own ram or just use the 790gx (64-128 mb just for video is cool and faster then 9400m) if you want to pay less.
Except for people who are obsessed with only buying Apple-branded products, Apple has largely conceded the entry level business to their faster and more dynamic competitors.
http://hothardware.com/Articles/NVIDIA-Ion-Reference-PC-Platform-Performance-Deep-Dive-/
Assuming that it plays 1080p correctly, the Ion platform would make for an excellent AppleTV. The only question is that will it be cheap enough. But the extra horsepower of the Atom could allow the AppleTV to be used for other things.
There were rumors about Apple using the Ion platform in the mini but I believe those to be false. The AppleTV appears to be a much more likely target.
I bought a WD TV Friday, and it is going back to Fry's tonight. The fact that it couldn't "aggregate" my mp3s or play back two thrids of my mst3k avi files was a deal breaker.
It also failed indicate what the problem was when I (unknowingly) tried to use a non-HDCP compliant HDMI cable. (It allows selecting upto 720p output on HDMI, but the configuration menu keeps reverting to showing "composite" as the display type.) I figured it out by swapping cables with my Philips (HDMI equipped) DVD player.
Remote sensitivity is marginal, response to button pushes is sluggish. Even though it is Linux based, WD went with a closed source video decoder chip, etc.
Creative's 'win by any means necessary' plan.
We're talking about how Creative went and bought Emu, then, turned around and shut off the flow of chips to Turtle Beach. There was a nice little competition there and Creative just pissed all over it with a pretty sleazy play. I don't feel bad about Intel and Microsoft screwing Creative out of the equation at all.
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It would make a great Macbook Nano or low cost edu box for Apple to fill the niche the old Mac LC series and eMacs filled.
I could see a Mac Nano being built. Maybe, just maybe, Apple could build a usable decent little box to compete with $350 Walmart crap PC's that would not be a total POS with crap HW quality. I would pay $400 to get a genuine Apple branded Atom-based machine that I could run OS X on without disgusting patches and hacks.
The Atom is fast enough to not be a complete toy and with the Ion platform it really would be awesome for a low cost mac. Because it makes sense and would get broad everyday consumer's attention, Apple would never do it.
I rather doubt apple will downgrade the mini cpuwise, they will add the nivida gpu, no doubt, but it probably will be an upgrade like the macbooks and the air!
No atom, apple tv however which still has the g4 would be an option, but is the atom even faster than the g4, I am not sure about it!
I known this. I read about in www.pensearch.t35.com
Is Tegra dead then? It sure was promising... I have been waiting for nVidia to come out with retail items equipped with Tegra since Q3 2008. Atom + Ion seems a direct threat to Tegra. I waited as long as I could for Tegra, but due to need and desire I ended up with an iPhone. All I can find are the original plugs for Tegra technology: http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_tegra_600_us.html "The first NVIDIA Tegra 600 Series-based devices are expected to begin shipping in mid-2009".