News Bits: ATI Radeon HD 3000, XP coming to HP Mini-Note, Alienware release BIOS fix ... again

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3000 arrives in notebooks

The first notebooks with the newly-announced ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3000 series graphics cards have arrived in the U.S. Toshiba and Asus are offering the HD 3650 in their P305 and M50Sa notebooks respectively. The HD 3650 has 512MB to 1GB of memory, 120 stream processors, and a 128-bit memory interface. Toshiba is also offering the budget-oriented HD 3470 with 40 stream processors and a 64-bit memory interface in the P305.

AMD is also planning to launch Mobility Radeon HD 3850 and HD 3870 graphics cards and dual-core versions (HD 3850 X2 and HD 3870 X2); the single-core versions will have 320 stream processors and 256-bit memory interfaces (doubled on the dual-core versions).

Full Story (TCMagazine.com)
Via (Laptoping.com)

XP coming to HP 2133 Mini-Note

HP is planning to offer its new 2133 Mini-Note computer with XP Professional in the middle of May according to LAPTOP magazine. It is currently offered with Windows Vista and SuSE Linux.

Full Story (Blog.Laptopmag.com)
Via (Laptoping.com)

Alienware releases X32 BIOS for m15x, fixes downclocking

Alienware has released a new BIOS for its 15.4-inch m15x gaming notebook that fixes the graphics card-related performance problems many users in our forums have been reporting. The issue solved by the X32 BIOS was related to the graphics card getting too hot and downclocking to reduce temperature, resulting in drastically reduced 3D performance. The new X32 BIOS fixes these problems by making the fans kick in earlier and on a higher speed. An official update from Alienware can be found in our forums here. User impressions of the new BIOS can be read here, and the support page from Alienware can be found here.

NotebookReview.com review of the Alienware m15x
Special thanks to forum member Wraithers for submitting this information

VIA Isaiah processor outpaces Atom in benchmarks

Eee PC News, a German site, has done some prelimiary benchmarks on VIA's new Isaiah processor, a competitor to the Intel Atom. While it is too early to judge, the benchmarks show that the Isaiah processor is outperforming the Intel Atom.

Full Story (www.EeePCNews.de) (Translated)
Via (Engadget.com)

Vista update causes USB problems

Microsoft last week released an update designed to provide performance and reliability improvements to systems running Windows Vista. Unfortunately it created a slew of problems with USB devices; mice and flash drives especially became unresponsive after the update. A bug in the update was confirmed by Microsoft, who did not provide details.

Full Story (PCMag.com)
Special thanks to forum super moderator Greg for submitting this bit

 

Ah, graphics cards are moving too fast, it's hurting my brain...

Oooh, yay on the mininote!!

 

The introduction of XP into the 2133 looks promising. Should be interesting to see how the XP versions match up against the EEE.

 

Here's hoping HP get the Isaiah into that Mini-Note quickly.

 

Wait, so the dual core versions are 512 bit GPU's?

 

I think it's 256-bit x 2 (cuz its dual core) interface.

 

Well, now I'll have to see whether Isiah performs better than Celeron M in practice... How bout a 1.6GHz Pentium M? It murders all 4 processors in the table?

To Mini-note: Come back when you have a competent processor and GPU.

 

Nice plate of juicy news, Chaz. Good looking out.

 

The "dual core versions" have a 256bit memory interface, which is transfers twice as much information as the 128bit memory interface on the "single core versions". The memory interface is what goes between the core(s) and the memory banks. Basically, the "dual core versions" have twice the bandwidth between the memory and the cores in order to prevent bottle-necking.

 

Great news Chaz,thx!

 

HP definitely needs to get Isaiah into the mini-note ASAP, the C7 just isn't cutting it.

 

your wrong, not sure why there is so much confusion. 256 bit memory interface on the single cards and its TWO gpu's with TWO 256 bit memory on the dual cards.

 

ati has never had a mass market 256 bit card in the us market.

 

I have no idea what you are even talking about...the specs released so far match the desktop counterparts...why would they only use a 128 bit version in laptops?

 

read with better comprehension please

mass market

they have made 256 bit cards, but they have never been available to the mass market us customer.

The most owned 256 bit ati notebook was the alienware 5750 or its a uniwill.

You can look here at nbr, how many users own a laptop with a 256 bit ati gpu? 1/100 of 1% of the users here.

they make a few 256 bit cards as halo machines they do not mass produce enough to really be used.

 

Im pretty sure that the Mobile 3850 will have a 256bit ring, Its already crippled from the previous 512bit ring the 2900pro/xt had.

 

the 3870 will not out perform the 8800m GTX will it?... beside maybe on power drain?

3870x2 mobile will be 2 cards in crossfire just like a Sli laptop setup but hey?... then again the desktop one is on a single PCB ain it?

 

Probably wont outperform the 8800GTX, I would bet it could compete with the 8800GTS though.

The 3870x2 could most likely beat an 8800GTX though.

 

I'm sorry. I meant to say 256bit memory interface for the high-end cards(3870 and 3850), 128bit interface on the mid range cards, and a 512bit interface for the high end X2 cards. I slipped up on the numbers, but I'm also not too familiar with the design of the X2 cards. I cannot find specifications for the X2's, but I can believe that there are two memory interfaces on those cards. I read the OP as having one interace, and shared memory between both cores. I do not know if this is how the X2 cards are designed, or if they are just two normal cards on one board, each with their own memory interface and decicated memory, as you have suggested. Anyway, I'll take your word for it.

My main point was that these numbers regard the memory interface, not the gpu itself. I tried to point out that the X2 cards have extra bandwidth between the cores and the memory to prevent bottlenecking, as having two cores trying to share the same memory interfaced intended for a single core will obviously cause problems. Just wanted to clarify that the X2 cards are no more than two normal cards, as some people thought that each core of the X2 cards was twice as powerful as the core of the single cards.

 

Looking forward to see the new benchmarks

 

Definitely - then it might actually be a practical machine. VIA C-7M is old, slow, and hot. Put a better CPU in there and potentially solve the heat, battery life, and performance problem.

It's hard to say but in the desktop arena, the 8800GT is about equal to the HD 3870. The 8800GT is as close to an 8800M-GTX as you can get - they both use the G92 chip.
We'll have to wait and see the benchmarks.

Me too. What I would really like to see is more gaming notebooks pick up ATI cards.

ATI should be taking a significant share of the mobile dedicated graphics card market this year according to a story I wrote about a few weeks ago.

 

Looks like the HD 3470 and HD 3650 are just die shrinks of the HD 2400 and HD 2600, admittedly with DX10.1 support, but judging from the desktop versions of those cores, no major performance improvements. It was expected but still kind of disappointing.

 

Any guesses on how long it will take HP to drop in Isaiah? Six months?

 

Oeh i think i hold out a little longer and buy a laptop with a 3870 when it comes out now lets hope they price this laptop cards the same as their dekstop cards