Archive for April 7th, 2009
Acer launches first NVIDIA Ion-based nettop: AspireRevo
Posted by The Right Guy in Net-top on April 7th, 2009
Yet again, the rumors were (almost) true. A day earlier than anticipated, Acer is launching what amounts to NVIDIA’s first Ion-based nettop beyond those on display at CES and the like. The AspireRevo is debuting today alongside a plethora of other Acer wares, boasting a 1.6GHz Intel Atom 230 processor, up to 4GB of RAM, up to 250GB of HDD space, a 4-in-1 card reader, HDMI / VGA outputs, gigabit Ethernet, six USB 2.0 sockets, audio in / out, Windows Vista Home Premium / Basic and a svelte black and white enclosure that measures just 7.1- x 7.1- x 1.2-inches. The built-in Ion GPU means that this bugger is completely capable of handling 1080p (and thus, Blu-ray) content, DirectX 10 and even mildly demanding games such as Call of Duty 4 and Spore. Acer’s staying mum on a price and release date, but we’re still hearing that the late Q2 time frame is a safe bet.
Check the full release at Engadget
Nvidia response to Intel’s MCP79 claims
Posted by The Right Guy in Hardware, Intel, Nvidia on April 7th, 2009
Intel was not completely honest
Following Intel’s anti-MCP79 (Geforce 9400M) presentation, we decided to ask Nvidia for an opinion and we got one. Nvidia mostly agrees with our comments in the story but at the same time, it underlines that the comparison that Intel did was quite misleading.
They are comparing GM45 with dual channel memory vs. MCP79MVL with single channel memory, and GM45, as Intel’s top SKU, is compared to Nvidia’s entry level MCP79 SKU. Furthermore Nvidia believes that Intel chose entry notebooks that were not optimised for power management in its presentation. How convenient and truthful.
According to Nvidia’s test in 3Dmark 2006 1280×1024, GM45 scores around 1000 points, while the mainstream MCP79MVL scores approximately 1200 and MCP79MX scores over 2000.
In 3Dmark Vantage GM45 is at around 800 level, MCP79MVL scores 1700 while MCP79MX scores around 3200+.
In both PC marks Vantage and 2005 Nvidia clearly wins benchmarks and when it comes to battery life, Intel offers a bit better battery life but you can expect less than 10 percent better battery life where Intel can work approximately 3.20 minutes and Nvidia 3.10 minutes on the same CPU, monitor and configuration.
Now for the fun part, in the HQV HD video benchmark GM45 scores 20 points out of a possible 130, while MCP79MX scores 100 points and has CPU utilization of 30 percent. Intel takes more than 80 percent of CPU time to play this test on GM45.
If this is not enough for you the following games have issues or failing on GM45 even on low settings: World Of Warcraft, Age of Conan, WarhammerOnline, HL2 Titles (test EP2), Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Fallout 3, Call Of Duty, Crysis Warhead, Left 4 Dead, Bioshock, Assassin’s Creed, Mass Effect, Knight’s of the Old Republic 2 and probably many more.
You can check out the full presentation here.
Microsoft allows Win7 users to downgrade to XP
Posted by The Right Guy in Uncategorized on April 7th, 2009
Why they would is another matter
Microsoft has agreed to allow prospective owners of Windows 7 to downgrade the software to Vista and Windows XP.
While Microsoft has allowed people to downgrade their software to a predecessor it is the first time it has allowed a downgrade licence to the operating system before. In fact it is technically possible that you could take the licence, in the way that it is worded, all the way back to Windows 95.
Quite why this would be a good idea is not clear. It strikes us as good a deal as buying a a 2009 model Ford Fiesta and getting the option to use a 1995 model instead. (Getting any ford Fiesta is a bad idea. sub.ed.)
However there are some advantages as some companies have elderly gear that they do not want to chuck out during these troubled economic times. It is better just to install some more elderly OS on them instead.
Microsoft and HP have agreed to provide downgrade rights from October which coincidently is one rumoured launch target for Windows 7.
Software giant does uturn on notebooks
Posted by The Right Guy in Netbook, Software, Windows on April 7th, 2009
The present Microsoft didn’t expect. Software giant Microsoft seems to be having a bit of a marketing problem with the rise of netbooks.
This week a press release from the Mighty Soft appeared on our desks claiming that it was wonderful that its Windows product had been installed on 96 per cent of all netbooks. While this is great for Microsoft, one can’t help remembering how the software giant had to be dragged kicking and screaming to allow it.
The problem was that the operating system that Microsoft wanted to forget was its highly successful Windows XP was the only one that would run on the low spec gear. The resource hungry Vista would not run on a netbook even if you asked nicely.
If ever there was something that showed up the weaknesses of Vista it was the fact that Microsoft could not exploit a growing market in low spec computers. It is a mistake it has not made on Windows 7 which appears to run very well on netbooks.
Redmond then had a problem, it either remained petulant and left the netbook market for the Linux operating system, or it swallowed its pride and allowed XP to have a second life. Fortunately common sense was heard over marketing. However, one wonders why Microsoft did not tinker with the interface and invent something new.
Windows Netbook, which could have been XP, with a slightly different GUI would have helped to kill off the world’s dependence on XP and opened the door to what ever Windows 7 goodness Redmond planned. As it is it looks like Netbooks caught Microsoft on the hop and it was unable to capitalise on this huge gift the IT industry gave it.