Intel introduced the new
Atom N470 netbook CPU back in September and then
Lenovo showed off its S10-3t with the new processor at CES, but chipzilla's taking the time today to give its newest Pine Trail CPU a proper unveil. The 1.83GHz N470 joins the 1.66GHz N450 as an option for netbooks, and like the rest of the Pineview integrates the GMA 3150 graphics controller on the same chip and supports hyperthreading.
According to Intel, the major OEMs are expected to introduce new netbooks based on this processor soon, but if our experience with the Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3t is any glimpse into the "performance boost" of this processor we're not sure there's anything to wait for. Our full review of the S10-3t netvertible is almost done cooking, but we can tell you right now the system didn't feel faster in use even
with its 2GB of RAM, and on PCMark05 it scored in the same range as other N450 netbooks. While the slightly faster clock speed may be a nice bragging right, at the end of the day Atom N470-based netbooks are still, well, netbooks.
posted March 1st 2010 12:02AM
not surprised
@(Unverified)
joanna stern just gave me so much great news for this day. you are awesome.
Have Atom processors really ever impressed?
@RockNStuff
Netbooks.
That is all.
@crazacool
Heck, I am a sentient netbook, and I know I am impressed.
I think that, unless netbook performance makes a huge leap, that we'll be seeing the netbook fad slip away soon. Retailers can't wait to get rid of the ones they can't sell. My brother just picked up a brand new Toshiba netbook with 1.6Ghz Atom, Win 7, and extended warranty for $160.
@Jake Smith
where?????? plz tell
@Jake Smith Me want for that $. Yum yum
@Jake Smith Must have been a refurb. I have seen new ones selling as low as $174 though.
Remember though, one of the perks of the netbook, and of the atom processor itself, is that they are very cheap to manufacture.
We've heard over and over that the netbook market is already oversaturated, and yet each quarter the sales figures are up and up, especially overseas! =)
@Jake Smith Wow where tell us, i have yet to see that low of a price even for used one!
@Jake Smith Not a fan of netbooks but Atom boards are great for home servers and when it's an ION one it's good for streaming video right up to 1080P.
@Jake Smith
Netbook fad? You clearly do not use computers very much. Netbooks are excellent for many uses. For instance they are brilliant for taking on the road as they will fit in practically any bag, have a nice battery life and will run practically anything you want bar games. My acer one runs aero perfectly fine and I have it running Photoshop CS4, Lightroom 2 and Visual studio 2008 with no real problem. (Obviously the screen is not big or good enough for real photo editing but it is great for going through images to get rid of duds and doing some basic processing). I mainly use my netbook now and only break out the laptop when I need fully edit photos etc. My wife also has a netbook which is perfect for her as she only really needs to use the internet, word, powerpoint etc and the size means that she can take it with her in any reasonable size handbag.
All those that mock at the power of netbooks are missing the point and in many cases just plain wrong. They are not meant for gaming they are meant for work on the go. They are also far more powerful than most haters like to make out.
I'll take an ultra-portable instead...
Have netbook specs ever increased? I feel like they are frozen in time.
To save everyone some math...1.83 / 1.66 = 1.102, so your looking at a ~10% increase in performance, assuming performance scales equally with clocks (which it never does perfectly, expect slightly less).
The GPU still needs to be able to handle video acceleration like the nVIDIA ION and support HDMI, otherwise it's just a very slightly faster N270.
Maybe on the 32nm generation right...?
*keeps the hopes up*
Our only hope is for VIA to release a Nano dual-core, because Intel forbid OEM from loading the dual-core Atom on netbook (nettop only).
@Steve Jobs Clone what is the reasoning behind that?
@Steve Jobs Clone Then what is the Asus 1201N?
@Steve Jobs Clone Ehmmm, FALSE.
Go Directly to Fail, Do Not Collect $200.
@Steve Jobs Clone I thought it was Microsoft's restrictions on what can be used with Windows 7 Starter that prevents the usage of the dual core on netbooks. It's the same reason you only see 1gb of memory on them.
Dual core Cortex-A9 and Ubuntu please?
"While the slightly faster clock speed may be a nice bragging right"
Oh the shame of now having an N450 netbook......and to think of the months of bragging rights I had over that pathetic bunch who only had N280 processors in their netbooks. Curse my antiquated netbook!!
U can overclock a n450 up to that speed, i hit maxed out at 1.86 fully operational, and the main benefit of n260-> n450 is the on die gpu and northbridge. my cpu ratings under win7 performance tests went from 2.4 to 2.9 with the oc ;)
These netbooks should at least be able to play HD youtube videos.
Stop the atom crap! Computer is suppose to get smarter and smart and then atom came! wtf?
@Geekelo Yes.
It's the CHIPS that are dumb...
This is exactly what desktop computing would have looked like for the past 10+ years if AMD hadn't been around.
We'd be lucky to have moved to the SX line of 486 machines by now...
Most Atom processors in retail outlets (Atom N450) currently support hyper threading already. Wait, what was this news about again...?