Any new netbooks coming up?

With the newer Intel chipsets to boot?

 

i think they're working on getting the dual core atom for mobile first. The current 330 is not really a netbook kind of CPU, not compared to the current Atom N270. The Poulsbo is better than the 945GSE but only supports 1GB (according to specsheet) so they should ramp that to 2GB first, then it would be more ready for primetime. I have also heard that MS put their foot in and stopped netbooks from being sold from factory with more than 1gb installed but don't quote me on that.

 

I am more curious about better integrated graphics being used. The GMA 900 and 950 suck.

 

better for what purpose?

 

Better for watching videos. Even an X3100 would be a big step up.

 

If they could get the power requirements down...

 

Would the x3100 or x4500 not be more energy efficient than the older 900 and 950?

 

The X3100 and the X4500 are much more powerful than the 900 and 950 integrated chipsets from Intel. They are chipset graphics cards, so they use less than 5 watts of power anyways, so the energy efficiency is not something you will have to worry about. A dedicated card, even a bad one still uses like 15 watts or more, and a good high end graphics card can consume 90 watts or more.

3800th Post

K-TRON

 

6 months later and still no netbook with x3100? Is there anything on the horizon?
JJ

 

What's the purpose of x3100? It's not like majority of the users will be playing games on them or anything. You can already play 1080P blue ray rips on current netbooks.

 

You can look for Netbooks with the GN40 chipset. However to get HD video acceleration on the IGP you need to run Vista. Another option is to get a Poulsbo-based Netbook. Graphics wise, the GMA 500 on the Poulsbo is much slower than even the 133MHz 945GSE.

Power wise only the US15W(Poulsbo) variants are better than the 945GSE. The X3100 based chipsets are not yet low power enough and X4500 is even worse.

 

Forget the GN40, the next big thing in netbooks is Pinetrail. It arrives this fall with a 45nm Atom cpu connected to an integrated gpu (like Arrandale). It will allow more netbooks to be fanless due to lower power usage than current Atom, and also it will have higher clocked Atom processors. Pinetrail is rumored to still use the GMA 945, but that rumor is months old and may change this fall when the platform launches.

Then in 2010, Pinetrail is replaced by Medfield which will be 32nm.

 

Moorestown, which Pinetrail is based on, will use SGX540 graphics chip. It's similar architecture to the GMA500 in Poulsbo, but performs 50% better. Since GMA500 is already that much slower than GMA950, rumors of Pinetrail using a GMA950-like IGP isn't far fetched.

There's a reason lowest power consumption GMA 4500 based chipsets use 7W TDP and the GMA 950 based ones are at 4W even on two generation older process technology. Performance costs power. The entire platform power of Pinetrail is equal to just GS45 chipset alone.

 

The main thing that's holding me back from getting a netbook is the inability to play titan quest on it. I know it won't be fast, because of the atom, but at the moment it won't even load. The x3100 will play it.
Define a blu-ray rip. I don't think my core2duo 2gh and x1600 laptop can play a 1080p xvid mkv.
JJ

 

Agreed, but with CoreAVC even the current netbooks can play 720p.

Some people say they even play 1080p smoothly although I have not checked that.