AMD Countering Ultrabooks With Ultrathin Notebooks

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I think AMD had a much better demonstration at CES 2012 for its Ultrathin notebooks than Intel did with its Ultrabooks (here). During the demonstration of its next generation Trinity APU (showing DX11 gaming / video decoding), AMD whipped the side panel of the "PC" to reveal that it was an Ultrathin notebook actually running the show.


With Trinity, the successor to Llano, AMD is claiming up to 25% faster CPU performance and a 50% increase in graphics processor performance, and all while sipping half the power of current Llano chips.
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Wow, the Trinity would make for an awesome low profile ultra-small HTPC. Hell I'd get a second Trinity board to build a FreeNAS server as well.
 
can I game on it with good results? All these Ultra notebooks all have pretty low resolutions... not one has 1080p.
 
I would love an ultra-"whatever" with a 1080p or 1200p resolution. I don't even care about the gaming, just watching movies and reading from such a screen would be greatly appreciated.

Also that picture of the notebook in the PC case is hilarious. :D
 
Been using my Llano laptop for a while now (see sig) and it works great. After undervolting & overclocking, it works even better ;) !

Looking forward to these new trinity APUs.
 
Yakk said:
Been using my Llano laptop for a while now (see sig) and it works great. After undervolting & overclocking, it works even better ;) !

Looking forward to these new trinity APUs.
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I'm with you. Loving my new Llano laptop the wife got me for Christmas!
 
The ultrabook form factor is basically a netbook that doesn't suck. I have an MSI Wind U100, and have had it for several years now, and it has always been frustratingly slow. I love how these new chips are improving mobile computing. I look forward to seeing how these do when they release later this year.
 
Sweet, that was a lot more creative than a video playing in VLC *cough* Intel *cough*
 
blitzkommando said:
The ultrabook form factor is basically a netbook that doesn't suck. I have an MSI Wind U100, and have had it for several years now, and it has always been frustratingly slow. I love how these new chips are improving mobile computing. I look forward to seeing how these do when they release later this year.
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No, a netbook is smaller but not neccessarily thinner than an ultrabook. It's like comparing a netbook with a Macbook Air. Not even in the same league. Ultrabooks are similar to Macbook Air. They're essentially regular laptops at around 13-14 inches but half the diameter of a dime.
 
The CES display tactic was pretty ingenious. I wonder how long they waited before they made the big reveal of the laptop inside the computer case?
 
Just a thought but what makes these Ultra thin notebooks worth buying? Yea, they're thin, I get it, but why? Are some laptops so thick that it's getting annoying?

I can predict a few problems with these new type of notebooks.

#1 Bringing that external DVD drive will get annoying. What good are small ultra thing products when you need to carry around thick annoying accessories?

#2 I'm sure heat will be a problem. The thinner it gets, the less air will likely flow to cool.

#3 Forget about opening it up. One thing I've learned is that you will need to open your laptop open at some point. If not to fix something then to clean out all the dust that's now causing it to over heat. God forbid if I ever wanna upgrade parts.
 
Love it. I'm excited for the potential.

I can't even remember the last time I used a CD on any of my computers.
 
Ashbringer said:
Just a thought but what makes these Ultra thin notebooks worth buying? Yea, they're thin, I get it, but why? Are some laptops so thick that it's getting annoying?

I can predict a few problems with these new type of notebooks.

#1 Bringing that external DVD drive will get annoying. What good are small ultra thing products when you need to carry around thick annoying accessories?

#2 I'm sure heat will be a problem. The thinner it gets, the less air will likely flow to cool.

#3 Forget about opening it up. One thing I've learned is that you will need to open your laptop open at some point. If not to fix something then to clean out all the dust that's now causing it to over heat. God forbid if I ever wanna upgrade parts.
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Well ultra laptops are designed to not overheat in conditions they are operating, the parts inside are very small and thin overall. Although I do agree with you that sometimes I also don't understand what is purpose of making laptop that is barely thicker than 40 page sheet. The absence of optical drives is not really a hassle, I think my next computer wont even contain any I/O drives, in my current one I still have floppy, DVDRW and card reader, but I use them so rarerly that I think I drop them when making my next build, today external drives, USB sticks and memory cards(not even saying that virtually any digital camera, cell phone or music player is also good storage) are very versatile and using the fixed capacity media is already just obsolete. And for those rare situations you need to use CD or floppy you wont be this lazy and popup external drive.

And the CES: Intel fail, AMD win;)
 
BettiePage said:
can I game on it with good results? All these Ultra notebooks all have pretty low resolutions... not one has 1080p.
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Ultrathin and gaming do NOT go well together... Unless you manage to fit in MSI's Twin Frozr or a similar cooling solution in it.
 
Acer_Sheep said:
Well ultra laptops are designed to not overheat in conditions they are operating, the parts inside are very small and thin overall. Although I do agree with you that sometimes I also don't understand what is purpose of making laptop that is barely thicker than 40 page sheet. The absence of optical drives is not really a hassle, I think my next computer wont even contain any I/O drives, in my current one I still have floppy, DVDRW and card reader, but I use them so rarerly that I think I drop them when making my next build, today external drives, USB sticks and memory cards(not even saying that virtually any digital camera, cell phone or music player is also good storage) are very versatile and using the fixed capacity media is already just obsolete. And for those rare situations you need to use CD or floppy you wont be this lazy and popup external drive.

And the CES: Intel fail, AMD win;)
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Students or anyone who don't want to deal with heavy and thick textbooks. And yes, Intel failed at CES, hard.
 
Acer_Sheep said:
And the CES: Intel fail, AMD win;)
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I'm sorry, but I'd rather take a CES fail then a real life fail that is AMD right now. I used to be an AMD fan boy, but Intel has dominated them the past 5 years. Sandybridge was the biggest performance increase I've ever experienced. Just can't believe it took me so long :D It's weird because I also ditched nvidia for AMD my past upgrade lol
 
I used to like AMD also due to it's lower price but I'm all Intel now. Sandybridge is awesome and worth the price. It must suck to be AMD right now.
 
I am more of a wait and see type person. Sure intel has dominated in the past, but AMD *HAS* pulled a rabbit out of their hat at least twice in years gone by. For us consumers, another rabbit would sure be nice right about now.

One thing for sure, Llano is not a flop! It may not be the OMFG Zoom Zoom dominator some people were hoping for, but it got enough things right that I recommended it to my sister for her notebook purchase here recently. Good news is, she went and played with a bunch of net / note / lap types and choose the Llano over the Intel because her real world test drive was just better over all with the AMD solution.
 
Reduced prices come from reduced costs.

It's not likely to have a SSD or higher capacity battery standard (not a size, but chemistry limitation based on lower price), and who knows what the "$500" model will include, in contrast to Ultrabook branding enforced specs. The price difference between a $500 Ultrathin notebooks and $800 Ultrabook may narrow significantly when the former is equipped with a full graphics speed processor and SSD. And benchmarking on consumer-type sites isn't going to be kind to a model with shorter battery life, mechanical HDD vs SSD and mainly just a decent GPU. Mediocre is mediocre, even at a reduced price.

On the plus side, a 17W Trinity should be far more competitive than current 35W/45W mobile Llano versions. And the IGP on those platforms, at least the full SP count models, should maintain a good lead over HD 4000 graphics.

TBH, on either reduced cost thin notebook type i'd probably want dual graphics. Either one in lower than flagship models should serve many functions as a DTR in a thin and light form. Having a better than low-ish end GPU will make the thin laptop even more usable. For me at least. I realize that the low starting price will make it more attractive than the better spec (besides GPU) ultrabooks to many others.
 
Diriel said:
One thing for sure, Llano is not a flop! It may not be the OMFG Zoom Zoom dominator some people were hoping for, but it got enough things right that I recommended it to my sister for her notebook purchase here recently.
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Llano isn't that bad and indeed on the GPU side AMD is pretty solid, but their CPU performance is just atrocious across the board. I've purchased many AMD CPUs over the years but the last was an Athlon X2 4800+ six years ago for around $800. AMD hasn't had a CPU that could command that price for, 6 years. AMD simply sucks as CPUs these days and it's only their GPU capabilities that they fortunately bought from ATI that's keeping them afloat these days. Without the ATI purchase AMD would have surely collapsed by now.
 
EBoundEE said:
I'm sorry, but I'd rather take a CES fail then a real life fail that is AMD right now. I used to be an AMD fan boy, but Intel has dominated them the past 5 years. Sandybridge was the biggest performance increase I've ever experienced. Just can't believe it took me so long :D It's weird because I also ditched nvidia for AMD my past upgrade lol
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But the thread is about ultra mobile chips and not SB. In this market AMD smokes Intel in performance. You take Intels fail like you said. I'll take AMDs win.
 
25% more cpu performance is not a whole lot, considering llano has low clock speed to begin with.

I can OC my llano A6 from 1.4ghz to 2.2ghz without breaking a sweat, so i know it has a lot of headroom.

the big test is how much OC headroom trinity will have without burning up the laptop....
 
Thanks for the linkage steve :) Yeah, I thought it was a pretty cool demonstration. Also, Trinity sounds like it's shaping up to be a darn good mobile chip that still has a bit of gaming horsepower :)
 
1/2 bent said:
But the thread is about ultra mobile chips and not SB. In this market AMD smokes Intel in performance. You take Intels fail like you said. I'll take AMDs win.
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Huh? SB is the basis of the best of ultramobile x86 devices. My Samsung Series 7 Slate is one of the lightest x86 devices there is currently in the market and it uses SB.
 
I will probably buy a Trinity based notebook this year. Probably not one of the ultrathins. I just bought a 17in Llano A4 notebook in Dec. With an 8G memory upgrade it was $399. It's a good general purpose computer for a great price. These Trinity chips look even better.

I buy AMD whenever practical because AMD keeps Intel prices down and the Intel developers on the fast track. As soon as Bulldozer was announced, Intel announced that some projects would be delayed. Why? Because they could slow down without competition from AMD.

Many of you buy gaming rigs so I understand that Intel is the only choice. My next workstation will probably have an Ivybridge CPU. But it will also have an AMD GPU because they are competitive.

Bottom line: If an AMD based computer meets your needs and is competitively priced, then why not choose AMD over Intel. It's in our best interest.
 
TheArTcher said:
Bottom line: If an AMD based computer meets your needs and is competitively priced, then why not choose AMD over Intel. It's in our best interest.
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I agree, competition is great, but the competition must at least meet a certain threshold. AMD on the CPU side just isn't meeting that threshold overall at the moment.
 
TheArTcher said:
I

Bottom line: If an AMD based computer meets your needs and is competitively priced, then why not choose AMD over Intel. It's in our best interest.
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I want the best I can get for my money. That's basically my school of thought in deciding what to purchase.

If AMD could at least beat Intel in terms of price per performance, then that's good for them. Otherwise there's no reason to get something that's although cheaper, but the price per performance ration is still not good.
 
heatlesssun said:
I agree, competition is great, but the competition must at least meet a certain threshold. AMD on the CPU side just isn't meeting that threshold overall at the moment.
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You get trade offs honestly. For the Samsung 7 you are paying out the yang for it versus one these AMD laptops.

Price AND Performance? Intel takes the top in both, AMD takes the bottom in both. You chose what fits you best, me? I picked SB because I wanted a fast laptop for encoding/decoding, some web work, some gaming.

Kind of funny I'm supporting both companies with my laptop, intel CPU and an AMD GPU.
 
Trimlock said:
You get trade offs honestly. For the Samsung 7 you are paying out the yang for it versus one these AMD laptops.
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Sure the Samsung 7 is expensive, its about the most powerful tablet and one of the lightest x86 on the market. Devices like that will always command a price premium. Whether or not that's worth the price is a personal choice. I would LOVE to see AMD get into the x86 Windows 8 tablet game with a device like the Samsung 7 at a much lower price point.
 
EBoundEE said:
I'm sorry, but I'd rather take a CES fail then a real life fail that is AMD right now. I used to be an AMD fan boy, but Intel has dominated them the past 5 years. Sandybridge was the biggest performance increase I've ever experienced. Just can't believe it took me so long :D It's weird because I also ditched nvidia for AMD my past upgrade lol
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plunger said:
I used to like AMD also due to it's lower price but I'm all Intel now. Sandybridge is awesome and worth the price. It must suck to be AMD right now.
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Guys stop being AMD Intel fanboys, we all know that intel is awesome and AMD suck right now but seriously the intel guy failed badly with that video for sure. Making fast CPUs doesnt make them any better if they are trying to fool people.
 
I dont get it. I just bought a 15" I3 laptop for $320 from new egg...so exactly where does this ultracheapbook shit compete again?
 
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