SMACH Z: AMD GPU

SamiiRoss

Gawd
Joined
Jan 8, 2012
Messages
708
Do you think that gpu will be able to perform well? i didnt found any info about Steppe Eagle. :confused:


smachz_sola_(2).png

AMD embedded G-Series SoC "Steppe Eagle" with Jaguar-based CPU and GCN based Radeon graphics.
4 GB RAM memory. (8GB PRO model only).
64GB internal memory and SD Card Slot. (128GB PRO model only).
USB OTG.
5-inch Touch screen with 1080p resolution.
Configurable tactile gamepads.
HDMI video output connection.
Wi-Fi connectivity.
Bluetooth connectivity.
4G mobile network connectivity (PRO model only).

http://thndr.me/eIuYGB
 
Here you go
iur

It's basically embedded kabini so expect 128 gpu cores.
 
I've been waiting for this thing for a long time as I have a ton of games from the Indie bundles that scream for something like this. My only concern is that reviewers try and play Metal Gear Solid 5 on it and call it a fail.
 
I've been waiting for this thing for a long time as I have a ton of games from the Indie bundles that scream for something like this. My only concern is that reviewers try and play Metal Gear Solid 5 on it and call it a fail.

You forgot if its not made by nvidia its an epic fail. And you don't bite the green hand that feeds ya.
 
I've been waiting for this thing for a long time as I have a ton of games from the Indie bundles that scream for something like this. My only concern is that reviewers try and play Metal Gear Solid 5 on it and call it a fail.

It doesn't help the article says this:

•Powerful enough to play any game on the market: Portal 2, DOTA, Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, SOMA, Civilization V, Metro: Last Light Redux, Borderlands 2, The Witcher 2, ...
 
Certainly is an interesting product.

Here is a YouTube video of the device.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHsemul-cOw

I like the fact that it is basically a laptop that is in a tablet form factor. It is a fully working PC with a 5" screen. That's pretty darn sweet! It can play The Witcher 2, Metro Last Light, and Borderlands 2 in addition to staples like DOTA 2. Also if you are home it can stream games from your gaming PC using the Steam In Home Streaming within Steam. So if you have a Windows 10 game it can play that. You can install Windows 10 on it if you like.

I thought the price was high until I thought about it more. A Chromebook is $200 - $250 and isn't going to fit in your pocket or play Metro. You're going to have to step up to an entry level laptop's pricing to do that and once again it won't fit in your pocket. I want the Pro version, but it's still a Kickstarter. Very scared to sink money into something like that even if they have AMD's blessing and help.
 
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Very, very cool!

But $600 for the Pro Retro Gamer Pack (which is def the one I'd get) is pretty F'ing steep....
 
You can watch the public using it in these videos. Basically a Steam controller integrated into a huge Gameboy. You can hook a keyboard and mouse to it if you like. 2GB of VRAM isn't bad. ;)





 
That's it? Please tell me that's not considered good battery life these days.
Considering what its doing....and the power it uses. How long would a high end cell phone playing games last? lol they probably make extra large battery's or something to help. I know if my cell phone screen stayed on playing video it would die way before 5 hours lol
 
You can watch the public using it in these videos. Basically a Steam controller integrated into a huge Gameboy. You can hook a keyboard and mouse to it if you like. 2GB of VRAM isn't bad. ;)







Three promo videos showing footage of mutiple games, and not a single game that takes a powerful 3D core to play.

Promises of "You can attach a mouse and keyboard." But no actual games shown that could take advantage of this.

That German chick definitely says "Bioshock Infinite" at the end of her speil, but produces no such in-game footage. Even though it's one of the easiest games in the last decade to run, it still can't run above 720p very low on HD 530:



And of course no confirmation on WHICH AMD chip they're using, even though they have a working prototype. There's several embedded kabini models to choose from, and each has vastly different performance and power consumption from the next. Even it's best-specced model is under half the speed of HD 530.

And every single one of them could handle the casual games shown off so far at > 30fps.

See here where the desktop version with GPU clocked at a beefy 600mhz could barely beat Ivy Bridge HD 2500:

The Desktop Kabini Review Part 1: AMD Athlon 5350 (AM1) Tested

And HD 2500 can barely play the same at 640x480. We're starting to get back to the year 2000 here :(



If this uses the rare gx-424cc, it'll be close to the 2500. But for every other model, they'll be lucky to play at 512x384, as the GPU is clocked at only 300 MHz.
 
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So, the Smach Z was their embedded design win?

So then yeah, NX = Tegra X1 or X2, and this will be AMD's foray into handhelds... we will need more info, the market will be slightly different between one and the other, just hope that they hit the thermals and battery life (the 3ds had a battery life of 3.5 to 5.5 hours, so 6h would already be better than old nintendo's offering).

We shall see, i have lots of friends who have to travel through different countries here in south america and have a big enough steam library to make this an actually viable option for them for gaming on the go, but let's be honest, NX will sell like hotcakes if the price is right, like every other nintendo handheld.
 
This device is definitely better than spending $799 on a cell phone that does not support these games, AT ALL! :D However, I just do not game like I did 20 years ago when the Gameboy had been released. I was over in Okinawa when I had a Gameboy so, I seemingly had access to a ton of games because of that. This thing is rather cool and much better than Nvidia's attempts at a portable gaming device, so far.
 
Alright, credit where credits due, that's solid performance. Only thing holding it back is you'd better be in love with the steam controller.
 
Facebook post I saw this morning.
SMACH Z - 时间线 | Facebook

Hi Smachers,

Finally, the new Kickstarter is ready and open. You can run to pick your Early Birds! Here is the link to the campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/…/smach-z-the-handheld-gaming-pc

As you can see in the image above, we have also updated the SMACH Z aspect, this will be the final form factor, we hope you like it. In the Kickstarter page you also will find all the technical details about the final hardware: AMD Merlin Falcon RX-421BD (12-15w) SoC at 2.1 GHz with a Radeon R7 at 800 MHz, and a 6” screen. We have done benchmarks with the final hardware in the development board getting a great performance in AAA games:

- Metro: Last Light Redux (720p. High settings) ~ 35 FPS
- Company of Heroes 2 (720p. Medium settings) ~ 25 FPS
- Jotun (1080p) ~ 45 FPS
- Skyrim (720p. High setting) ~ 25 FPS
- Just Cause 2 (720p. Medium settings) ~ 35 FPS
- Spiral Knights (1080p) ~ 50 FPS
- Overwatch (720p. Medium) ~ 30 FPS
- Torchlight II (1080p. Very high settings) ~ 35 FPS
- Xcom: Enemy Unknown(720p. High settings) ~30 FPS
- Civilization 5 (1080p. High settings) ~ 28 FPS
- Tomb Raider: Survivor (720p. Medium settings) ~ 40 FPS
- Alien: Isolation (720p. Ultra settings) ~ 35 FPS

We’ll run extended benchmarks with more games during the campaign in several updates.

In this campaign we have tried to address all your concerns and suggestions from the first Kickstarter: Windows 10, case prototype, bigger screen, final SoC specifications, benchmarks and a lower funding goal. So we believe that this time is gonna be the good one!

However, these new improvements comes with a drawback, this time the rewards don’t include as many extras, they are focus on the console. We had to reduce the extra costs, as now the production cost of each unit it’s more tight. If you want more extras they will be sold separately in the future. We hope that you understand our decision, now the rewards are more straight forward, but with an improved product.

If you have any question or comment don’t hesitate to reach us, see you in the Kickstarter campaign page! Help us to make it happen!

Thanks for your support!

 
  • CPU: AMD Merlin Falcon RX-421BD (12-15w) SoC at 2.1 GHz
  • Cores: 4/4
  • iGPU: Radeon R7 at 800 MHz
  • RAM: 4GB (SMACH Z) || 8GB (SMACH Z PRO) DDR4 2133 MHz
  • HD: 64GB (SMACH Z) || 128GB (SMACH Z PRO)
  • Screen: 6” FULL HD (1920x1080). Capacitive touch-screen.
  • Battery: 5 hours of gaming.
  • MicroSD Card Slot.
  • USB 3.0 type C.
  • HDMI video output connection.
  • Wi-Fi connectivity 5.0 Ghz. 4G LTE mobile network connectivity (PRO model only)
  • Bluetooth connectivity.
  • Front-camera 1.3-megapixels (PRO model only)
*Some specifications depend on Stretch goals, you can check Stretch goals at the end of the page.

These are the technical specifications of the AMD SoC model that will be used in SMACH Z:

175244802e5666fb0c777f1d2c1a7416_original.png


19f1fbffddc8b2e8138bad352bc4b8b9_original.png


b9178faeae164a9a9946af1da9276d0b_original.png


bb67570d293dcd222d343920c23d9977_original.png


SMACH Z is a handheld PC with plenty of other possibilities. Some examples:

  • Streaming. SMACH Z has been designed to be an autonomous handheld, but If you are using SZ in your house, you can also stream games from your PC or Playstation 4 via WIFI. This allows you to play games that aren't supported by Steam OS or use the power of your PC to play more demanding games. Just lay down on your couch or bed, with your PC with Steam open, and load any game you want directly from your SMACH Z.

  • Play on the TV via HDMI. You can connect SMACH Z to a TV and use it as a home console, that you can bring everywhere. You can even connect another gamepad and play multiplayer!

  • Emulators. SMACH Z will be the best handheld device for emulation, and Retro Z-Pads will bring your fingers back to the past. NES, SuperNintendo, Megadrive, Playstation 1 and 2, Nintendo64, GameCube or even Wii games will be in your hands.

  • Multimedia Center. We plan to integrate KODI, an open source software for playing videos, music, podcasts, and other digital media files.

  • Browse internet and use programs. SMACH Z is a portable PC, so you can install anything on it.

  • Portable PC. Connect a keyboard and mouse and plug it to a monitor and you will have a PC that you can bring with you easily.

  • Gamepad: Use SMACH Z as a gamepad controller for your PC too.

  • Twitch and Skype: With the STEAM Z PRO you can make videos of yourself playing games from the beach or do Skype calls.

  • Open Platform: We want to keep SMACH Z an open console. If you prefer to install another OS you are free to do whatever you want with it. We will give the community all the info and code needed to support another OS or develop additional features.

  • Attachable extra battery: Add a second battery in the back of SMACH Z for +5 hours of additional gameplay outdoors.

  • Accelerometer & Gyroscope: A cool way to control racing or airship games.

  • 4K Video: SMACH Z SoC has hardware-accelerated High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) decode of 4K video playback.
 
Facebook post I saw this morning.
SMACH Z - 时间线 | Facebook

Hi Smachers,

Finally, the new Kickstarter is ready and open. You can run to pick your Early Birds! Here is the link to the campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/…/smach-z-the-handheld-gaming-pc

As you can see in the image above, we have also updated the SMACH Z aspect, this will be the final form factor, we hope you like it. In the Kickstarter page you also will find all the technical details about the final hardware: AMD Merlin Falcon RX-421BD (12-15w) SoC at 2.1 GHz with a Radeon R7 at 800 MHz, and a 6” screen. We have done benchmarks with the final hardware in the development board getting a great performance in AAA games:

- Metro: Last Light Redux (720p. High settings) ~ 35 FPS
- Company of Heroes 2 (720p. Medium settings) ~ 25 FPS
- Jotun (1080p) ~ 45 FPS
- Skyrim (720p. High setting) ~ 25 FPS
- Just Cause 2 (720p. Medium settings) ~ 35 FPS
- Spiral Knights (1080p) ~ 50 FPS
- Overwatch (720p. Medium) ~ 30 FPS
- Torchlight II (1080p. Very high settings) ~ 35 FPS
- Xcom: Enemy Unknown(720p. High settings) ~30 FPS
- Civilization 5 (1080p. High settings) ~ 28 FPS
- Tomb Raider: Survivor (720p. Medium settings) ~ 40 FPS
- Alien: Isolation (720p. Ultra settings) ~ 35 FPS

We’ll run extended benchmarks with more games during the campaign in several updates.

In this campaign we have tried to address all your concerns and suggestions from the first Kickstarter: Windows 10, case prototype, bigger screen, final SoC specifications, benchmarks and a lower funding goal. So we believe that this time is gonna be the good one!

However, these new improvements comes with a drawback, this time the rewards don’t include as many extras, they are focus on the console. We had to reduce the extra costs, as now the production cost of each unit it’s more tight. If you want more extras they will be sold separately in the future. We hope that you understand our decision, now the rewards are more straight forward, but with an improved product.

If you have any question or comment don’t hesitate to reach us, see you in the Kickstarter campaign page! Help us to make it happen!

Thanks for your support!


Neat! I just hope it will release on time and won't get delay though I am worried about the stretch goals that will delay it.
 
Didn't expect Carrizo to be making an entrance here, but it explains the massive size, and impressive performance, and dedicated VRAM (64-bit dedicated to CPU, 64-bit dedicated to GPU).

Battery life when playing heavy 3D games is going to suck though. I'd say 2-3 hours at most. That "5 hours" is playing lighter fare for sure.

I might buy one of these in the future, once the price drops to $200 and then get rid of those terrible "z pad" control surfaces for emulators. I'm currently pretty bored with emulation in general, so it's not the novelty it once was when I got my R4 card for my DS Lite, but the least they could do in that regard is provide a real cross d-pad.
 
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Look at big this thing is at the 45 second mark. I think I won't look silly in public with one! Maybe... :)

 
This is very cool. Although I don't know if I'd want to use the steam controller like pads.
 
Going to wait and see how the reviews come in after it launches. I still have lots of skepticism. :)
 
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