How do processors compare against each other?
Have you ever wondered about how different processors compare when stacked up next to one other. It should be a thought at the forefront of your mind while buying a netbook. Questions like how an Intel Atom N270 processor compares to the new Intel Atom N450, or how both of these compare to a laptop’s dual core processor. Well now, some of these queries may have been answered.
The guys at Yugatech have run a comparision of various CPUs taking into account the ones currently available on netbooks and ultrathin laptops. There are 10 from Intel and 4 from AMD that have been reviewed. Some of the factors they’ve been compared on are:
- Clock Speed – this measures the speed of a processor. For a more accurate idea, a 1.6Ghz Atom runs as fast as say a 0.8Ghz Celeron or AMD.
- Cores – A dual core isn’t exactly twice as fast, but does speed up computing significantly.
- Bits – a 64-bit processor is able to handle much larger code than a 32-bit and is thus faster.
- TDP – or Thermal Design Power which details how much energy is required to run the processor.
The final indicator which was then used to compare the processors is the Windows Experience Indicator. Many of you will have remembered seeing this if you’ve gone to the Systems settings in the Control Panel of your PC. The WEI ranks the computer on a variety of scales one of which is the processor. The processor sub-score measures the performance of the processor when tasked with several common Windows usage activities including compression and decompression of files, encryption and decryption, and video encoding, to mention a few. Let’s take a look at how our various processors stacked up:
From a combination of the two tables above, you can see just how the processors that you find in netbooks compare on a performance basis. Some of the key things we see is how the last generation Atom N270 and N280 processors have the same score as the new N450. A few netbooks (ASUS 1201N, Lenovo ThinkPad X100e) feature AMD’s MV-40 which is significantly quicker than its Intel Atom counterpart.
These results should be taken with a pinch of salt. The very point of netbook processors is for them to be lower-powered, less-speedy alternatives that stick to limiting certain computing. As a metaphor, say you need a lawn mowed in one hour. You can hire a dude with a regular mower for $6 to get it done in that time, or you hire a dude with a souped-up lawnmower at $15 who’ll get it done in thirty minutes. You don’t really need it done thirty minutes faster but there are some people who’d prefer it. Out of that chunk of people, there’s fewer who’ll chug out the cash to make sure it gets done.
Filed under: Netbook