Acer Aspire Revo SFF NVIDIA Ion PC
Test Systems and Video Performance
To assess the performance of the Acer Aspire Revo, we pitted it against a number of various systems based on either Intel Atom processor designs--including the NVIDIA Ion Reference Platform--or in one case, VIA's Nano reference platform and the VIA Nano L2100 processor. The performance numbers we've provided along with the Acer Aspire Revo's are presented for a frame of reference more than anything else, since it was nearly impossible to provide identically configured test systems. As such these test metrics should not be considered "apples to apples" comparisons, but rather a general correlation of how the Ion-based Revo will perform versus similar, low power platforms in its peer group.
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Acer Asipre Revo |
NVIDIA Ion Ref. PC |
Asus Eee PC 1000H |
ASUS N10Jc |
Lenovo IdeaPad S10 |
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Intel BOXD945GCLF Motherboard and Intel Atom 230 @ 1.6GHz.- 2GB DDR2-800, 74GB WD Raptor HD
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VIA Epia-SN Nano reference motherboard and Nano L2100 @ 1.8GH - 2GB DDR2-800, 74GB WD Raptor HD
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Before we ran any benchmarks on the Acer Aspire Revo, we played some video clips and Blu-Ray discs on the system to get a feel for its video performance and quality. Because the Ion platform's main claim to fame is its integrated graphics processor, we felt video performance was an important consideration, perhaps the most important.
;)
Acer Aspire Revo Video Playback - 1080p Clip From "Bolt"
Thankfully, we found the Acer Aspire Revo's video playback performance to be top notch. In the image above, a 1080p clip of the Disney movie "Bolt" is playing on the machine. As you can see, CPU utilization is very low, especially considering a single-core (with HT) Atom processor is used in the Revo. Playing back other file types and even Blu-Ray discs using an external Lite-On player was also pleasurable, but CPU utilization does spike higher during Blu-Ray playback to the point where you shouldn't do anything else with the machine.
;)
Acer Aspire Revo Video Enhancement Using vReveal
The Acer Aspire Revo's NVIDIA Ion platform isn't just about video playback, however. We also experimented with MotionDSP's recently released CUDA-enabled vReveal application to enhance a few video clips, using the system's Ion graphics processor. Enhancing videos with vReveal on the Revo with GPU acceleration enabled increased performance dramatically. With short video clips no more than two or three minutes long, using the Ion GPU for acceleration, vReveal was able to shave upwards of an hour off conversion times versus the Atom processor alone. Of course, Atom wasn't designed with video enhancement / transcoding in mind, but this test is about more than just performance. It's about what GPU acceleration enables with the platform, that isn't realistically possible without it.
To give you all a visual representation of how the Acer Aspire Revo performs in some real-world scenarios, we also shot a bit of video with the machine hooked up to a Toshiba HDTV via HDMI (for audio and video). In the clip above, we browse the web with the Revo, play some video from Hulu.com, and playback a 1080p clip of the new Start Trek movie trailer. As you'll see, although the platform doesn't offer the more fluid performance of a more powerful, full-sized desktop system, it is still very usable and its video image quality is very good.
