Asus Eee PC1005PE, Atom N450 Pinetrail Launch
SiSoftware Sandra & Multimedia Benchmarks
We continued our testing with SiSoftware's SANDRA 2009, the System ANalyzer, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant. We ran four of the built-in subsystem tests on the Asus Eee PC 1005PE (CPU Arithmetic, Multimedia, Memory Bandwidth, Physical Disks) and have the full results posted below.
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;) CPU Arithmetic Test |
;) CPU Multimedia Test |
;) Memory Bandwidth Test |
;) Physical Disc Test |
The Asus Eee PC 1005PE performed exactly as expected in the various SiSoft SANDRA benchmarks we ran. In the Processor Arithmetic and Multimedia benchmarks, the N450 in the 1005PE performs just slightly better than the other single-core Atom offerings but obviously trails the dual-core Atom 330 by a significant margin. In the Memory Bandwidth and Physical Disk tests, however, the Asus Eee PC 1005PE actually pulls ahead of the components listed in SANDRA's database. From the a memory bandwidth standpoint, the Atom N450 integrated memory controller is offering a nice boost in performance.
To test multimedia capabilities, we attempted to play back 720p WMVHD clips, a 720p H.264 clips and a 1080p content in both formats as well. We ran tests in both Windows Media Player 12 for Window 7 and with the latest version of Apple Quicktime for H.264 encoded content.
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Click To Enlarge, 720P WMVHD on Asus Eee PC 1005 PE;)
Click To Enlarge, 720P H.264 on Asus Eee PC 1005 PE;)
Click To Enlarge, 1080P H.264 using WMP on Asus Eee PC 1005 PE;)
Click To Enlarge, 1080P H.264 using QuickTime on Asus Eee PC 1005 PE;)
Click To Enlarge, 1080P WMVHD on Asus Eee PC 1005 PE
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Click To Enlarge; 1080p on HP Mini 311 w/ Ion;)
Click To Enlarge; 1080p on Lenovo S10, Atom + 945GME
Although the system and component level benchmarks of Vantage and SANDRA show the Pinetrail-based Asus Eee PC 1005PE performing fairly well in comparison to the previous generation Atom platforms, Pinetrail's integrated GPU didn't help it very much at all in the multimedia department. In all of our HD video playback tests, whether using Windows Media Player or QuickTime (or even PowerDVD, not shown), the Asus Eee PC 1005PE's Atom N450 CPU was essentially pegged at or near 100% utilization. That meant dropped frames, sluggish system performance, and multitasking was essentially out of the question. Though 720p clips in general were more fluid than 1080p content, neither H.264 or Window Media HD content was met with smooth playback on the machine.
Competitively, the Ion-based HP Mini 311 (which also is built on a single core Atom CPU) was able to handle either 720p or 1080p HD video playback smoothly, though it had to work for it a bit. This is thanks to its NVIDIA GeForce mGPU, which does much of the video decoding work for the CPU in the Ion platform. At least when it comes to netbooks, Intel has some work to do on its graphics core. Conversely, Intel's forthcoming Arrandale processor for notebooks however, as we peeked into at IDF earlier this year, is a different ball of wax all together.
Competitively, the Ion-based HP Mini 311 (which also is built on a single core Atom CPU) was able to handle either 720p or 1080p HD video playback smoothly, though it had to work for it a bit. This is thanks to its NVIDIA GeForce mGPU, which does much of the video decoding work for the CPU in the Ion platform. At least when it comes to netbooks, Intel has some work to do on its graphics core. Conversely, Intel's forthcoming Arrandale processor for notebooks however, as we peeked into at IDF earlier this year, is a different ball of wax all together.
