Why all the hate for the Intel Atom ?

darkjedimasterdarkjedimaster Posts: 18,620
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Hi all,

Now with being a gadget **** I can appreciate the need for ultra fast processors, but imho they are not as sluggish as what some people make out.

I went into my local PC World the other week & gave the Acer W510 (runs on the Z2760 Clovertrail) a damn good testing, boots up from power off to Win 8 pro fully loaded was under 20 seconds, web browsing was smooth & faster than my dual core Android tablet, applications like Word took about 12 seconds to load up fully & HD movie playback was smooth without any drop in frames, this included testing a H264 file I had with me, playback was choppy on Media Player, but was superb on the already installed Potplayer. Also both the Windows 8 Pro runs nice & smooth, really fast in Metro mode, and also pretty well in Desktop mode.

While the device isn't meant for games due to the processor & graphics processor, it does play flash games as good as my Android tablet & it isn't that good for multitasking, but in all seriousness would you want to multitask on a device that only has a 10.1" screen ? :confused:

Now imho having a ultra fast tablet / netbook device would be a dream, but I would rather have a device with an outstanding battery life that can run most applications & playback media, than have a speed barrier breaking device with a battery that only lasts a few hours.

I must admit that I have been out of the limelight with latest processors, my current laptop runs on a Centrino Core 2 duo & my desktop runs on a Core 2 duo, neither of them are for games as I only use my PS3 for gaming. I know that the Haswell supposed to run really fast with an improved battery life, but the question of the pricing of these in tablets remains to be seen.

So fellow Tablet owners, am I alone in thinking that if you are on a budget & just want a device for the odd app, media playback, no gaming but decent battery life, is an Intel Atom based machine really that bad, if you are eager for a device that does what you want, or is the top possible speed & gaming the most important thing for you ?

Thanks :)

Comments

  • niceguy1966niceguy1966 Posts: 29,560
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    For a non gadget ****, you are doing a damm good impression of one.
  • darkjedimasterdarkjedimaster Posts: 18,620
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    For a non gadget ****, you are doing a damm good impression of one.

    I am a gadget ****, have bought various items in the past, even indulged in a couple iphones, both of which were jailbroken to improve them. But due to financial reasons, I don't buy as many gadgets as I would like to, which is why I have used the same desktop & laptop for a few years.
  • misarmisar Posts: 3,015
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    Was not aware that anyone hated the Intel Atom until you came along. Perhaps it is all in your mind.
  • psionicpsionic Posts: 20,188
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    The Atom isn't bad at all (especially the newer versions). The main advantage of course is the low power requirements. Perhaps some people don't like them because they used to come on cheapo netbooks with woefully inadequate RAM? Nearly always said netbooks could be drastically improved by adding more RAM.
  • darkjedimasterdarkjedimaster Posts: 18,620
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    misar wrote: »
    Was not aware that anyone hated the Intel Atom until you came along. Perhaps it is all in your mind.

    No not in my mind at all, I was supposed to say in the original post that there was a lot of hatred on a lot of review sites, not specifically on DS. :o
    psionic wrote: »
    The Atom isn't bad at all (especially the newer versions). The main advantage of course is the low power requirements. Perhaps some people don't like them because they used to come on cheapo netbooks with woefully inadequate RAM? Nearly always said netbooks could be drastically improved by adding more RAM.


    That would make a lot of sense, I used to have a Netbook years ago & even tho I managed to install Windows 7 via USB onto it, it was pretty slow.
  • alanwarwicalanwarwic Posts: 28,396
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    You really need to look at the history of it and how it was used with the worst GPU available, specified small resolution screens to stifle netbook sales and push higher priced Intel Core.

    Now that it has to compete with ARM they just stifle it differently.
    BTW the fast 'seen' bootup is due to many factors, not really being the CPU.
  • alanwarwicalanwarwic Posts: 28,396
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    hhhhmmm

    Some sleuth found that the recent Atom benchmark that showed it beating ARM was at least 20% out. (50% for RAM)
    http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2282482/revised-benchmark-downgrades-intel-atom-against-arm

    Quite reminds me of IOS doing very similar. One would think they should know about their own benchmark.
  • Ultraman1966Ultraman1966 Posts: 271
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    The Atom series is getting a massive refresh a la Haswell by the end of the year, which will give it far better energy efficient and/or power computing power.

    The Z2760 isn't bad (latest chipset) but the architecture for its predecessors have remained relatively unchanged for about 5 years. If you look at the Atoms that powered the netbooks you'll under the stigma that the name draws.
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