Gaming Performance in Perspective

We tested nine moderately recent releases, and here the performance comparison between AMD and Intel change somewhat.  Where AMD leads at 800x600, Intel takes the lead in every title at 1366x768, with the exception of Bad Company 2 where Intel's drivers still need updating. Our best guess is that the AMD platform is becoming bandwidth limited. The Tigris notebooks use DDR2-800 memory, which in dual-channel configurations is good for 12.8GB/s of bandwidth shared between the CPU and GPU. Intel is using DDR3-1066, which bumps the total bandwidth up to 17.1GB/s, and in certain titles (FEAR2 for example) the extra bandwidth appears to help quite a bit.

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

Crysis: Warhead

DiRT 2

Empire: Total War

Far Cry 2

Left 4 Dead 2

Mass Effect 2

Stalker: Call of Pripyat

Of course, looking at the frame rates only two of the nine titles are playable at these settings: Empire: Total War and STALKER: Call of Pripyat. They also look more like 2006/2007 titles at minimum detail, which is in line with our recommendation of gaming potential for these systems. Older titles and casual games are okay on current IGPs (Sims 2/3 and Spore all run fine at low/medium detail and 1366x768), but anything more demanding pushes the hardware too far. Sandy Bridge and Fusion can't come fast enough.

Graphics Performance Compared LCD Comparison
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  • mojtabaalemi - Saturday, June 19, 2010 - link

    I meaned 1005p with 11hrs (6cells, 48W/h) battery nor 3cell .
    could you please say what player you use with coreavc ? WMP ?
    I read that wmp12 in win 7 can play 720p x264 on atom 1.66GHz beacuse of its multithread codeks . is it right?
    mojtaba alemi from iran
  • JarredWalton - Saturday, June 19, 2010 - link

    I used Media Player Classic Home Cinema in my more recent testing. I think I tried WMP11 in the past and it worked as well (maybe?), but I don't think I've ever tested with WMP12 and x264. I don't have any Atom laptops right now either, so I can't retest. :-|
  • IntelUser2000 - Friday, June 18, 2010 - link

    Vantage delivers a theoretical 86% lead. We find that last a questionable result, and it indicates that Intel may have spent more time working on 3DMark optimizations than on actual gaming compatibility and performance.


    No, that's because 3DMark Vantage uses the retarded scheme where it includes the CPU scores as part of the final score. 3DMark06 was barely acceptable as a gaming benchmark because it started that, Vantage makes it worse.
  • JarredWalton - Friday, June 18, 2010 - link

    Yes, it includes CPU performance as well, but you'll notice that nowhere in our CPU specific tests do we get 86%. In heavily threaded testing, we can achieve a 76% performance increase, but that's purely CPU based. Vantage includes CPU performance, but it's not as big of a factor as the GPU. 3DMark06 also includes CPU but shows only a 5% lead, which is more realistic.
  • IntelUser2000 - Friday, June 18, 2010 - link

    You should test this out if you have the chance/time.

    The 3 reasons that it has such a vast lead from greatest to smallest

    1. 3DMark Vantage scores=GPU score(which is affected by the CPU like in real games) + CPU score
    2. Some some CPU offloading(Never seen the game do that on the HD Graphics though)*
    3. DX10 behavior on Intel is kinda like Nvidia. There's less loss from DX9 to DX10 code than on AMD.

    *You can test this out by using the graphics control panel and going from Application(hardware mode) and Software Processing(software mode)
  • OldPueblo - Friday, June 18, 2010 - link

    I just picked up a similar tigris laptop, except it had better specs and was only $380. At that price, I don't care if the Intel one wins because I doubt it'll ever compete at that price point. :) I didn't even bother with a warranty, it's disposable basic gaming on the go.

    M320 (2x2.1Ghz)
    3GB RAM
    250GB 7200RPM
    Radeon 4200
    802.11 B/G/N
    8x DVD burner w/ lightscribe
    5-in-1 card reader
    etc.
  • OldPueblo - Monday, June 21, 2010 - link

    Damnit! >:(

    http://www.frys-electronics-ads.com/ads/2010/06/18...
  • JarredWalton - Monday, June 21, 2010 - link

    What size battery is in that? Probably a 48Wh, but I'm curious. Looking directly at Frys, I can't find the laptop listed above. What's the exact Lenovo model? I'm guessing it's the G555, but with some downgrades relative to the Lenovo store model. But yeah, $330 it can break in a year and you still won't care much.
  • Roland00 - Monday, June 21, 2010 - link

    It is a G555, I can't tell you which exact submodel it is, but the chasis/generation model is G555
  • Roland00 - Friday, June 18, 2010 - link

    I know you are at the mercy of what OEM sent you (since you don't want to spend $1000 to $2000 buying hardware for a simple article), but please try to get some of these AMD processors for these are going to be the more competitive AMDs (and more relevant).

    Note all these processors have hardware virtualization unlike the atoms and some of the intel culvs/core 2 offerings. Also note that none of the current AMD mobile processors offer l3 cache

    Nile platform (2010) 9W, 12W, 15W with DDR3 support. All these processors are Champlain processors
    9W, AMD V105, Single Core*1.2 Ghz, 512 kb L2 cache total
    12W, AMD K125, Single Core*1.7 Ghz, 1 mb L2 cache total
    12W, AMD K325, Dual Core*1.3 Ghz, 1 mb L2 cache per core, 2mb total
    15W, AMD K625, Dual Core*1.5 Ghz, 1 mb L2 cache per core, 2mb total
    15W, AMD K665, Dual Core*1.7 Ghz, 1 mb L2 cache per core, 2mb total

    Danube platform (2010) 25W, 35W, 45W with DDR3 support. All these processors are Champlain processors
    25W, AMD P820, Tri Core*1.8 Ghz, 512kb L2 cache per core, 1.5 mb total
    25W, AMD P920, Quad Core*1.6 Ghz, 512kb L2 cache per core, 2 mb total
    35W, AMD N620, Dual Core*2.8 Ghz, 1mb L2 cache per core, 2 mb total
    35W, AMD N830, Tri Core*2.1 Ghz, 512 kb L2 cache per core, 1.5mb total
    35W, AMD N930, Quad Core*2.0 Ghz, 512 kb L2 cache per core, 2mb total
    45W, AMD X620BE, Dual Core*3.1 Ghz, 1mb L2 cache per core, 2mb total
    45W, AMD X920BE, Quad Core*2.3 Ghz, 512 kb L2 cache per core, 2mb total

    While the instructions per clock per core is not going to change much with the
    Champlain processors (Mid 2010 with DDR3 uses K,P, or N monikers) vs
    Caspain processors (Late 2009 with DDR2 uses M moniker, the dual cores come only in 35w tdps).
    The Champlain processors achieve lower tdps, have ddr3 support or have more cores for the same tdp with ddr3 support when compared to the Caspain processors. I did not list the other new Champlain processors (the "value" models) for performance wise they should be similar to the one you demoed today (P520, N530, P320, N330). We won't get processors with more instructions per clock per core until the upcoming Llano (fusion, phenom II based with 1mb l2 cache per core, 10watts and above) and Ontario (fusion, bobcat based, 1-10watts aimed for netbooks, tablets, and other low power devices) . AMD finally has a competitive line of notebook processors on paper, for low tdps they may have something as good or almost as good as intel culv, at higher tdps they may not have as many instructions per clock as intel but then they are fighting that with more cores, or against the i7 720qm an extremly lower tdp.

    (finally I just want to say that I am not an AMD fanboy, the last 4 processors I have bought have been intel. I7 920, Q6600, SU2300 Notebook, T7700 Notebook)

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