Computex 2008 - Part 8
Computex isn't only a massive tradeshow, but it is also a place to strategically launch and announce new products with a big bang. And that's exactly what AMD, Intel and NVIDIA did in a big scale. So find out more about Puma, ATI XGP, Eaglelake (P45 and G45) and GeForce 9 Mobile in this update.
AMD's Puma Notebook Platform Launched
AMD pulled together a pretty big launch for its Puma Notebooks - a platform refresh with a new CPU, chipset, vastly better IGP and a new wireless support standard.
But just before the big curtain was unveiled, they spiced the launch up with a traditional Taiwanese dance.
The launch was so pivotal that Dirk Meyer, AMD's President and Chief Operating Officer himself was present to give us an update of how AMD is progressing.
This is the new Turion X2 Ultra (Griffen) mobile processor for the Puma platform. All the enhancements are taken directly out of the Phenom, but this CPU uses just two cores and foregoes the L3 cache since there are only dual cores. More info over here.
Chris Cloran, AMD's Corporate VP and GM of Computing Solutions Group (Notebook Division), was heading the Puma launch and in this slide, compares video quality performance of the new IGP versus that of Intel's current GM965 class. Of course this comparison will change shortly as Intel's Centrino 2 platform takes off in a couple of months.
The new AMD M780G chipset is the heart of the Puma platform and its IGP has been upgraded to the Radeon HD 3200 graphics engine, which is able to tackle all high definition video tasks like Blu-ray movies and has rather decent 3DMark06 results that translates to playable casual gaming. This slide from AMD compares itself against Intel's GM965 class again.
The IGP in the AMD M780G is powerful enough that AMD decided to showoff its capabilities in this little demo where a dynamic video wallpaper is enabled, while running a HD video, and running a game of HD resolution - and it's able to cope.
The Puma platform also supports PowerXpress technology to allow switching between IGP graphics and discrete graphics for power savings or full 3D performance. This of course only works with an all AMD platform - AMD chipset and AMD/ATI graphics; you can't pull this off by pairing a discrete NVIDIA graphics on the Puma platform.
And when combining the Puma platform with an AMD/ATI discrete graphics, the chipset also supports Hybrid CrossFire to boost performance even further with the IGP and discrete graphics working hand-in-hand.
A Showcase of Puma Notebooks
Here we see a pair of almost identical looking 12-inch MSI notebooks. The one on the left is the existing PR-210 running on current generation hardware, but the one on the right is the newer PR-211 using the new Puma platform. In particular, this comparison is highlighting how much lower CPU utilization is on Blu-ray playback.
Next up, we have two similar ASUS notebooks to showcase the difference that Hybrid graphics can make. In this photo, we've here an ASUS F5Z notebook that's using the basic Puma platform, thus running off the Radeon HD 3200 graphics and running the UT3 benchmark. It averages around the 30FPS mark, but often gets to the twenties range in more taxing segments as seen on screen.
And this is the ASUS M51Ta, which is also a Puma platform notebook with the same Turion X2 Ultra processor, AMD M780G chipset, but the difference is that this model comes with a discrete mobile Radeon HD 3450 graphics and is running in tandem with the M780G's IGP in Hybrid CrossFire mode. As seen in the inset, the notebook averages past 60FPS and in very taxing segments, it dips to the 40s range, which is still twice as fast as just relying on the IGP alone.
The Acer Aspire 5530 is similar to the ASUS M51Ta, a Puma platform notebook with a discrete mobile Radeon HD 3450 graphics in Hybrid CrossFire mode.
Clevo too has an identical platform as the above ASUS notebooks, but additionally, it has HDMI and e-SATA output as well as built-in 3.5G HSDPA. All in all, it is quite a feature-filled notebook with a minimalist design.
HP has chosen to upgrade its well-known tx notebook series with the basic Puma platform, and so comes the Pavilion tx2500 entertainment notebook. Still the same form factor, the 12.1-inch touch-screen notebook will offer even more performance than its predecessors and live up to its 'entertainment' moniker.
Mobility Radeon HD 3800 and ATI External Graphics Technology
The ATI Mobility Radeon 3000 series also received a bump recently with the HD 3800 series and here's a slide to depict the performance differences.
Here is MSI's new Puma-based 17-incher gaming notebook. The MSI GT-735 has the high performance Radeon HD 3850 discrete graphics with 512MB dedicated memory, quad speakers, subwoofer and Dolby Digital audio. Highly entertainment oriented.
Believe it or not, AMD's Lasso external graphics platform is for real and is launched as the ATI XGP technology (eXternal Graphics Platform). The connectivity standard is an open standard which others can choose to design for.
The test platform is this well built 13.3-inch Fujitsu Siemens Turion X2 Ultra notebook.
It has a special connector, which is a PCIe x16 (gen 2.0) interface to the XGP box. This is the key difference from the likes of the ASUS XG Station that uses a measly PCIe x1 interface. As such, the XGP interface is well suited to really bring about external graphics add-on solutions.
This is the Fujitsu Siemens AMILO GraphicBooster. It houses an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 graphics and supports 4 simultaneous displays.
Here's how the connections go - just a single interface between the notebook and the XGP box. However the AMILO GraphicBooster has display outputs for multi-monitor usage.
This is the entire setup to showcase the full capabilities.
Intel Launches Series-4 Chipsets and G45 Imminent
Intel's Series-4 Chipset Launch at Computex 2008 marks yet again another year where the start of the tradeshow marks an important onset to a new series.
Here's a slide to give you a quick rundown of what the Intel P45 brings to the table. For Intel, the strategy is to try an propagate some of the technologies on the high-end, to be made available to the mainstream segment as well, leaving the X48 for real enthusiast users only for the very best certification like 1600MHz FSB, 1600MHz DDR3, and dual PCIe x16 interfaces. Another highlight for the P45 and the new Series-4 is that they are using the 65nm process technology versus 90nm for the older chipsets.
The new Series-4 chipsets will also support Intel's initiative for performance tweaking known as Intel Extreme Tuning Utility. It's some sort of simple, user-friendly reporting and overclocking tool - which we can't help but compare against NVIDIA's more comprehensive nTune utility.
The Intel Turbo Memory Dashboard is yet another Series-4 chipsets only tool for performance optimization.
The Intel G45 chipsets uses a new graphics engine with significant enhancements to handling HD videos and a an updated unified execution core that's slated to provide two to three times the current G965/G35 chipsets. Although we've seen driver and compatibility issues to fully unleash the potential of the former chipsets, the Intel product managers we spoke to assured us that this won't be the case of the G45 and we should see boards with this chipset by next month.
This slide from Intel is the G45's graphics architecture. Note that the three most common HD video CODECs each have their own dedicated decode pipelines and all stages of decode are performed on the IGP. As such, this should be an interesting challenge with AMD's and NVIDIA's own IGP offerings.
Intel had setup a demo to showcase the visual performance/quality difference between their G45 platform versus a traditional system with a dedicated NVIDIA graphics card. On playback of a Blu-ray movie, we couldn't tell the difference, which is a good thing. Physically, the G45 platform can be made far smaller as seen here.
In fact, the system was using an ITX G45 motherboard.
The power consumption difference of both systems was impressive. Obviously, the power meter on the left belong to the Intel G45 platform. These power readings are taken while the system is running a Blu-ray disc. The traditional system with a dedicated GPU draws almost double the power.
NVIDIA Launched GeForce 9 Mobile
NVIDIA chose to launch their upcoming GeForce 9 Mobile graphics during Computex. Some highlights have been summarized in the slide above by NVIDIA. Primarily, the GeForce 9M takes on the latest PureVideo HD Engine for the best HD video decode capabilities, Hybrid SLI, an updated core for better memory management, power management as well as processing units much better tuned for taking advantage to GP-GPU computing via CUDA (they mentioned it's about 30% better on GeForce 9M versus the GeForce 8M).
Focusing on the Hybrid SLI support for notebooks, which is new for the GeForce 9M series, this taskbar icon with dual stripes indicates the activation of Hybrid SLI. If it were not activated, you'll see only a single stripe.
One of the easiest ways to control the status of Hybrid SLI is via the notebook's power profiles. High performance indicates activation of Hybrid SLI, while Power Saver turns off the discrete graphics for power optimization. Of course the actual method of control is left to the notebook vendors, but this is one suggested method from NVIDIA.
In a Hybrid SLI demo shown to us, NVIDIA used a notebook with this configuration that uses a new GeForce 9100 mGPU with a GeForce 9300M GS discrete graphics (which in combination gives performance similar or better than a GeForce 9400M.
The results on the left are with Hybrid SLI activated, while the results on the right are just results from the IGP chipset alone.
Even video transcoding too saw a boost with the new GeForce 9M series.
If you're wondering of what range of GeForce 9M graphics are being launched, this slide should keep you happy. Note that the value segment are those of the mGPU series and not from the mobile discrete graphics.
And coming up in two weeks, NVIDIA has the high-end GeForce 9M series too.
GeForce 9300 mGPU Motherboards Spotted
NVIDIA's suite at the Grand Hyatt had a variety of the latest components on display, including the GeForce 9300 mGPU chipset for Intel processors - finally. Although we couldn't wring any information about them at the moment, we should be getting updates on them in due time.
This is the Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-D2SH (GeForce 9300 mGPU + nForce 730i chipset). Though the GeForce 9300 mGPU is a single-chip solution, the I/O portion is still identified separately.
Here's the ASUS P5N7A-D, a full ATX board. The power connector is in a very old-school location, which is not a plus point.
The ECS MCP7AT-T is yet another full ATX GeForce 9300 mGPU board.
Last but not least is abit with the IN7AG board sporting a very clean layout.
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