The Battle of The Netbooks: Intel vs AMD

If you thought things were quite tight up until now then the gap widens here. Intel graphics on their Atom processors are notoriously poor, most Atoms come equipped with the Intel GMA 3150 media accelerator for graphics support. The frequency of this graphics unit varies between the type of Atom for example more recent Cedar Trail Atoms clock at about 600MHz whilst older ones like the N570 clock at 400MHz.

Now a quick overview of what AMD netbook processors offer in terms of graphics. Well we know the AMD netbook units consume more power so we would expect dramatically better GPU performance to compensate for that. That’s exactly what AMD give and this is why although AMD is losing in the desktop market, it is still doing very well in the netbook market.

The Intel GMA 3150 in a generic GPU benchmark scores between 50 to 75 points. If we then compare that to AMDs worst netbook GPU which is the HD 6250 it scores 186 points. And if we take the best the HD 6320 we see AMD soaring further ahead with 240 points which is about 500% more performance.

Now to some a netbook doesn’t need to have a strong GPU and this is why Intel is still in the market. Netbooks tend to need a strong CPU with a fast hard drive for functionality in office type applications and web browsing. But it would be naive to think using a browser, power point or watching youtube videos that the GPU isn’t used on a regular basis. This is why AMD’s fusion is so competitive in the netbook market: you get roughly equivalent CPU performance with far superior GPU performance for a lower price. The only downside for AMD is that they haven’t got as much power efficiency as Intel and they struggle to meet demand.

So to put all these figures into context lets take a look at a netbook GPU comparison table based on the generic GPU benchmark called PassMark:

• HD 6320, 240 points, 18W
• HD 6310, 193 points, 18W
• HD 6290, 192 points, 9W
• HD 6250, 186 points, 9W
• Intel Media Accelerator 3150, 74 points, 3-10W depending on CPU
• Intel GMA 3150 express, 69 points, 3-10W depending on CPU

To pull everything together lets move onto how Intel and AMD shape up against each other when we bring price and power consumption into consideration.