Posts tagged performance
Do HD displays harm netbook performance? Survey says: yes.
Dec 31st
It’s no secret that Ion-powered netbooks pretty much destroy their straight-up Intel cousins when it comes to gaming and GPU acceleration-enabled multimedia apps. But what about more traditional apps which don’t know what to do with the Ion’s added horsepower?
Like your web browser. Or favorite word processing app…or most any other app on your netbook. If your system sports a 1366×768 display, there’s a good chance those added pixels are working the Atom CPU a bit harder when it’s processing 2D tasks.
Over at Liliputing, my pal Brad was starting to notice something strange when reviewing various systems with high-def displays. They seemed slightly less zippy than their 1024×768 counterparts – and I’m sure he’s right. As Brad points out, an HD netbook display has almost 70% more pixels. That’s a pretty fair sized chunk of additional work for the already-taxed Atom CPUs to tackle.
So for now at least, netbooking continues to be a game of compromises.
Want Ion for 3D gaming? Ok, but you might have to deal with slightly poorer 2D performance.
4 free programs to boost your Windows netbook’s performance
Dec 12th
If you aren’t into running a hacked BIOS or overclocking your netbook, you’re a bit limited when it comes to squeezing out a few extra drops of performance. There are, however, some useful little Windows applications which can be pretty helpful. There four have worked well for me on my trusty old MSI Wind and Acer Aspire One.
Got a favorite you’d like to share? Post it in the comments!
MZ CPU Accelerator
This app is a bit like Process Lasso, but it’s much more limited in functionality. MZ CPU Accelerator keeps an eye on your currently active application and boost its process priority, and it can also manage core affinities. Obviously the affinities will only help you if you’re running a dual-core Atom nettop or netbook.
This one definitely “feels” like it helps – at least a little bit. And I’m all for any app that helps the Atom run at peak performance. Read the rest of this entry »