AMD Fusion Hits Retail: Zotac and Gigabyte E-350s

Name: AMD Fusion Hits Retail: Zotac and Gigabyte E-350s - Page 4
Brand: AMD

by Marco Chiappetta — Wednesday, February 16, 2011, 09:00 AM EDT

Test System Configuration Notes: We compared the Zotac ZBox HD AD03 and Gigabyte E350N-USB3 to an array of systems. Because we used a standard 2.5" HD (that was included in the Zotac machine) for this round of E-350 testing, we compared the Zotac and Gigabyte E-350 configurations to a number of mobile platforms that used a similar storage configuration. For the remainder of our testing, however, we compared the Zotac and Gigabyte products' performance to the reference platforms used in our AMD Zacate E-350 Processor Performance Preview. The comparisons will show relative performance versus similar, low-power power platforms and the performance progression AMD has made with the Zacate platform since we first tested the E-350-based engineering platform at AMD's HQ.

HotHardware's Test Systems

Intel and AMD - Head To Head

System 1:
Zotac Zbox HD AD03
Gigabyte E350N-USB3
AMD E-350 Zacate Processor
(1.6GHz - Dual-Core)
2x2GB DDR3-1066
On-Board Ethernet
On-board Audio
2.5" Samsung HD
Windows 7 x64

System 2:
AMD E-350 Zacate Processor
(1.6GHz - Dual-Core)
AMD Engineer Sample
(AMD Hudson IO Hub)
2x2GB DDR3-1066
On-Board Ethernet
On-board Audio
Windows 7 x64

System 3:
AMD Turion II Neo K625
(1.5GHz - Dual-Core)
Acer Aspire 1551 Notebook
2x2GB DDR3-1066
Mobility Radeon HD 4225
On-Board Ethernet
On-board Audio
2.5" Seagate HD
Windows 7 x64

System 4:
Intel Atom D525
(1.8GHz - Dual-Core)
Asus Eee PC1215N
2x2GB DDR3-1066
NVIDIA Ion 2
On-Board Ethernet
On-board Audio
2.5" Seagate HD
Windows 7 x64

Preliminary Testing with PCMark Vantage

Synthetic Benchmarks

First up, we ran our test systems through Futuremark’s latest system performance evaluation tool, PCMark Vantage. PCMark Vantage runs through a host of different usage scenarios to simulate different types of workloads including High Definition TV and movie playback and manipulation, gaming, image editing and manipulation, music compression, communications, and productivity. Most of the tests are multi-threaded as well, so the tests can exploit the additional resources offered by a multi-core CPU.

When compared to a couple of machines based on Intel's Atom processor with NVIDIA's Ion or next-gen Ion GPU and an Athlon Neo, both the Zotac and Gigabyte AMD E-350 based setups performed well, according to PCMark Vantage. The Ion and next-gen Ion GPUs gave the Atom-based machines an edge in the gaming portion of this benchmark, but the E-350 APU-bases configurations came out way ahead in every other test.

Tags: AMD, Gigabyte, Zotac, Fusion, APU, ZBox HD

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com