Netbook faceoff: VIA Nano vs. Intel Atom

3D performance: 3D Mark, OpenGL
The 3D Mark 2003 and 2005 benchmarks, and the OpenGL test from the Cinebench suite, underline the fact that netbooks are not intended for 3D operations. The dual-core Pentium E5200 desktop with the 965 chipset and integrated graphics is several times faster than the netbooks. Of the two netbook chips, the Nano comes out on top.

Windows Vista 32-bit: longer bars are better.

Windows Vista 32-bit: longer bars are better.

Application performance: compression, encryption
In the 7-Zip compression/decompression test, the Atom is slightly faster than the VIA Nano, which does better in the TrueCrypt 6.1 encryption test — even though this does not capitalise on the Nano's Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) hardware support. The value of this support is shown in the dual-core Pentium E5200's performance, which performs five times faster than the netbook processors.

Windows Vista 32-bit: longer bars are better.

Windows Vista 32-bit: MB/s (longer bars are better)

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Test models João Manuel Rodrigues -- 11/02/09

To me it seems quite incorrect to classify the Atom 230 as one of the main netbook processors. Certainly the main netbook processor is currently the Atom N270, which is a rather different processor. For one, it does not support x86-64 instructions. It would be wise not to exptrapolate from the 230's results.

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Netbooks Demise Anonymous -- 12/02/09

AMD chief Dirk Meyer predicts the netbook's demise.

I love this guy - being caught short without a product is one thing - but without a vision. Yet he is still prepared to stare the market in the eye and say its wrong.

American business colleges :-)

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Windows Vista 32-bit: longer bars are better. Anonymous -- 15/02/09

I keep seeing the line "Windows Vista 32-bit: longer bars are better." all across the review and it does not seem to relate to the benchmark results at all.

Am I wrong or are this reviewers getting sloppy?

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Test results sshould compare with a comparable notebook Snappy -- 15/02/09

Shouldn't the results for the Nano-Atom tests be benchmarked against that of a notebook?

What is the point of comparing it with a desktop cpu??

By doing that, we are distracting users from the Nano-Atom comparison, with a NetbookCPU-DesktopCPU comparison.

Comparing Nano-Atom with Notebook CPUs would be more appropriate as their usage would be somewhat closer.

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Unfair comparison! John Wayne -- 08/05/09

What about N280? Not to mention N330...
You are comparing apples to salami.

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Small CPU's Anonymous -- 12/05/09

How does the Atom or VIA handle tasks that are extremely demanding of a CPU? For example, could you listen to a YouTube video on Internet Explorer, while configuring a new notebook on the Lenovo web site with Firefox? I ask because I have a 3000+ AMD socket A (2.15 GHz; 333 FSB; 512 L2 cache), with1 Gb RAM, and when I try that, every time I scroll or do anything, my CPU usage pegs out at 100%, and everything, including the YouTube video, freezes until the CPU catches up.
It happens on a LOT of web sites, not just the Lenovo site. I only listed the Lenovo site in case someone would be kind enough to test the Atom or VIA and post the results.
By the way, the memory never gets close to 100% usage.

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