Logic Supply LGX AG150 Fanless System Review: Cedar Trail or Cedar Trial?
by Dustin Sklavos on May 28, 2012 11:30 PM EST- Posted in
- kiosk
- Systems
- Atom
- Cedar Trail
Application and Futuremark Performance
It's unreasonable to expect that the Logic Supply LGX AG150 is going to set the world on fire with its performance, but it's important to understand that it's not supposed to either. The LGX AG150 is designed to fulfill a specific purpose: offering x86 performance in a fanless enclosure for commercial and industrial applications where performance is a secondary priority to connectivity and x86 support. Nevertheless, let's put performance in perspective with a few different systems.
Amusingly, PCMark 7 just crashes outright on the LGX AG150's Atom N2800, and 3DMark 11 won't run due to the lack of DirectX 11 support (much less the lack of DirectX 10 support that prevents 3DMark Vantage from running). The GMA 3650 lives up to Intel's claim of twice the performance of the old Atom's GMA 3150 and then some. The problem is that Intel could've claimed ten times the performance and it still would've been dire.
The difference in performance between the N550 and the new N2800 basically lines up with the 366MHz difference in core clocks between the two models. You want to be more impressed by the improvement in performance within thermal envelope; after all, the N2800 is able to get a decent boost in clocks over the N550 while reducing TDP by two watts. The problem is that Intel hasn't changed anything in the architecture since it was introduced. It's not hanging that badly when you consider the top two chips on the list pull ten times as much power, but we know things can be better.
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zeo - Wednesday, May 30, 2012 - link
Imagination never supported open source drivers for their GPUs, and 3rd party driver support tend to be messy to begin with... The Intel based GMA's though have typically provided Linux support.While Intel also supports initiatives like the Tizen OS.
Fortunately, Intel will be going back to their own GMA with the next generation ATOMs.
While Nvidia may be offering something with their Kepler series, as it's suppose to have versions that can go as far down as being included in Smart Phones. So a updated version of the Nvidia ION may not be out of the question.
randinspace - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link
I was just looking at Logic Supply's website. I'm not surprised that they sent you guys a "new" platform for testing since they have no reason to do anything other than push their existing customers to upgrade, but I am surprised that they only offer a single AMD fanless solution when they're still offering Core 2 Duo ones. I can almost see a case for seemingly offering mobile C2D (I didn't double check but I was assuming these were the ones that had the onboard GPUs from nVidia) instead of Fusion in their Linux systems as well if only because Apple (indirectly) got away with it but... I simply couldn't find a product on their website that made sense to me from top to bottom, or which even more importantly actually made sense to buy from them instead of someone else. The msi products, for instance.Of course now that I've considered all that at least it finally makes sense why they approached you guys about doing a review that's not even aimed at enthusiasts let alone consumers in the first place.
[My last sentence looks strange to me so just to clarify: I'm not trying to accuse you guys of anything aside from UNbiased reporting, I'm just saying that in the absence of compelling products Logic Supply looks like they could stand any kind of buzz related to their band. Since this review at least inspired me to check their website maybe that wasn't a bad idea on their part?]
ericgl21 - Wednesday, May 30, 2012 - link
Latest graphics driver I found for Atom Nx00 is v8.14.8.1077, dated 2012/06/03.It is for the following devices:
VEN_8086&DEV_0BE0
VEN_8086&DEV_0BE1
VEN_8086&DEV_0BE2
VEN_8086&DEV_0BE3
Download from here:
http://drivers.softpedia.com/get/GRAPHICS-BOARD/IN...
speculatrix - Wednesday, May 30, 2012 - link
gma500 used the PowerVR SGX 535, which was a disaster; the driver was closed source and not great quality, developed by Tungsten Graphicshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMA500#GMA_500
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&am...
Tungsten Graphics was bought by VMWare. Chances are there's noone left who helped develop the driver, and probably noone who has authority to open source it. I did try contacting vmware to ask about what happened but noone (wanted) responded.
name99 - Saturday, June 2, 2012 - link
"Despite being the third generation of Atom processor from Intel, performance per core and per clock has essentially stood still since the very first Atom was introduced, and it continues to do so. Other than the single-core and dual-core models, Atom is about making a very small, inexpensive, low power x86 chip. The 32nm shrink that the N2800 represents is all about reducing power consumption further still, which is how we can get two x86-based cores with a combined TDP of just 6.5 watts....
Unfortunately, there's a rub. ... Intel was having problems getting the GMA 3650 working properly in Windows. "
All this, IMHO, simply reinforces my point all along regarding ARM vs Intel.
Yes, Intel has astonishing logic and process engineers. But they cannot change the fact that the full x86 package (and that is what Intel has decided Atom will ship with) is insanely complex. It took 7 years to move Nehalem from idea to shipping product, and that's only going to get worse.
Meanwhile ARM is much more agile, able to move from A8 to A9 to A15 micro-architecture during the time Intel has stood still, and ARM seems to be a lot more willing to let the past go. They've specifically stated that the ARM-64 instruction set is based on all the lessons they've learned over the past years about what works and what doesn't, and that basing it on the existing 32-bit instruction set was not a priority where that did not make sense. Of course the first few rounds of ARM-64 CPUs will carry 32-bit baggage, but I imagine that will be dropped as soon as those aggressive customers with substantial control over the code their devices run (*cough* Apple *cough*) are willing to do so.
powerarmour - Wednesday, June 6, 2012 - link
There is also a rumour it seems that Intel won't have any GMA 3600/3650 drivers ready for Windows 8 either...Imagine buying a Cedar Trail tablet in the bizarre hope that you'll be able to run the latest and so called greatest on it from Redmond, and be faced with basically a buggy mess due to the current Windows 7 drivers (even the latest 1077 version will downright crash the system if you attempt to run a Metro apps)
This is bad stuff, very very bad...
Xbit labs did a review of their own also :-
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/atom-...
2D performance is simply dreadful and unacceptable, this is epic fail pure and simple. And they have the nerve to sell these to the public?