So how’s the Intel Atom performing in the real world?
Many folks have been anxious to see devices start appearing that incorporate the latest Intel mobile processor, the Atom, to provide better battery life and decent performance. I have expressed my doubts about the performance side of the Atom based on early benchmarks that others have published but as I’ve said before benchmarks don’t tell enough of the story. What matters to me is how a given device and processor performs in the real world, doing the tasks I do every day. How a device "feels" performance-wise is very important over the long term as that is what creates the "love/ hate" relationship with a device. So now that various mini-notebooks are appearing with the Intel Atom I am curious how it is performing in the real world?
I do not have my hands on one of the new Atom-equipped gadgets so I’m in the dark on this issue. If anyone has first-hand experience with one please chime in here and let us all know how the Atom is working on a day-to-day basis. I know that the processor can make a big difference in how well a device works as I always have multiple mobile PCs at my disposal and I get to switch among them whenever I want. While I don’t have an Atom-equipped gadget here I do have some with the Via C7, Intel Ultra-low Voltage (ULV) and the Intel Low Voltage (LV) processors and I can attest to how big a difference the processor makes in producing the daily user experience impression.
The Via C7 processor is certainly fast enough for most things but when I compare it to something running the Intel ULV the difference is night and day. I have several notebooks running a 1.2 GHz ULV processor and they all get good battery life and have very good performance doing daily tasks and I have no complaints. Of course, when I pick up a notebook running the 1.6 GHz LV Intel processor (all of the ULV and LV are Core 2 Duos) I am immediately blown away with how fast things happen. None of this is surprising but I just wanted to point out how big a difference having a good performing CPU can make to the user experience. This is where I am the most curious about the Intel Atom so pipe up if you have one and can fill us in.
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Ihave used Atom for 3 weeks and am completely underwhelmed. The biggest problem are Flash 9 sites, where it skips and comes to a crawl. Even worse, movie trailers and video. Hulu is downright painful. Forget about Hulu HD. Don’t even try it. So if it can’t do the web well, what’s the point?
I figured that buying one of these cheap notebooks would be great for my kids. How wrong I was. My kids had a hard time running their favorite web sites. Try one of these Intel Atoms on sites like disney.com, nickjr.com, lego.com and all hell breaks loose. “Daddy, whats wrong with the PC,?”, I get asked as they are surfing. This is on a new purchase.! I went into task manager to figure out what was happening and sure enough, the CPU was spiking between 60-100%!! These new Intel Atoms are losers.
I think a big problem with the Atom is that it’s being combined with an old chipset. Unless video decoding can be offloaded to the GPU the Atom performance likely to suffer.
Paul and Jake, could you identify exactly which devices you are using that have the Atoms. I am interested in the MSI Wind, but may have to reconsider that now.
Thanks
Have any Silverthorne devices been released yet? I thought they’d only release Diamondville?
And what about MSI Wind power engine button… 1.6 GHz to 1.9 GHz ???
*cough* *cough* liars
all professional reviewers/bloggers i’ve seen have said they were surprised by how well Atom performs with XP. personally i would put my trust in people who can be held accountable for their statements, not random anonymous commenter’s in 1 of James posts.
I take all comments with a grain of salt but I would never call someone with a differing opinion to mine a liar. Often performance is a direct factor of the task being performed and it’s possible that any processor would bog down with some of them. Doesn’t mean the commenter is lying which is a harsh statement with no fact.
I don’t appreciate being called a liar. I will tell you exactly what I am using. I used: Intel D945GCLF motherboard, Intel Atom 230 1.60GHz CPU, 2 gigs RAM, latest BIOS and all Intel drivers. Happy now? So which loser Intel Atom system are you testing and which apps did you test that contradict my facts?
Bought Asus Eee PC 901. Lorie, I think that the “pros” may be all wet on this one or maybe reviewing in context of emerging markets. All I can do is share my own experiences and cannot speak for anyone else. One thing I forgot to mention was the awful performance on my son’s favorite web game, ToonTown. I returned the Asus and got a Compaq 15″ dual core processor notebook with DVD RW, 250gig hard drive, nvidia graphics, for $100 less. No complaints from the kids on that purchase!