AMD VISION Program Analysis for Desktop and Mobile

Business desktops preview, gaming demonstration

Business desktops

After taking a look at the mainstream notebook offerings AMD had on display for us, they also included a quick preview of a few business desktop systems vendors are unveiling toward the end of the year.

 

The first system that caught our eye was the HP Compaq dc5850 Micro-Tower PC. This system was focused on two things: power efficiency and providing multiple display capabilities for professional workstation users. This system includes an AMD Athlon X2 dual-core processor and their 780V chipset, which features HD Radeon 3100 graphics, HyperTransport 3.0 technology, and ATI SurroundView that allows support for up to four independent monitors for systems equipped with an additional ATI discrete graphics card.

 

The next system that was tucked into a cubby hole next to the dc5850 was Lenovo’s A62 business desktop system. The A62 also includes an AMD Athlon X2 dual-core processor and 780V chipset, but provides this solution in a much smaller form factor.

Next, we moved on to the Wyse R Class system designed to provide business users with a low-power solution that can handle dual-DVI monitors and supports SATA and six USB 2.0 devices. This system also houses a 1.5GHz Sempron processor, which isn’t the highest performance around, but definitely one of the most power efficient available in AMD’s stable.

The last desktop system we reviewed was a sexy Inspiron zino HD from Dell. Dell has been creating functional systems that also can match the style of its owner by switching the top cover on the system. The zino HD features an Atom processor, integrated graphics, HDMI, and gives users the option of upgrading to an HD 3300 discrete graphics card.

Gaming demonstration

To demonstrate some of the gaming capabilities of the VISION Premium platform, AMD set us up with a PC game called Tom Clancy’s “Hawx”, which was running at 1280×1024 using the notebook’s HD 4200 graphics. I think some of the graphics options were disabled like anti-aliasing, but the game play was pretty smooth and we didn’t notice any lag at these resolutions. They also cloned the screen on a 42″ 720p LCD to show how it would look if you wanted to hook this notebook up to a larger, high-definition screen for gaming.

Music editing demonstration

We were also treated to a short musical rendition by one of AMD’s employees. He was able to sing the song, edit it in Windows 7 using a VISION Ultimate-based notebook, and e-mail it to all the reviewers in a matter of minutes. AMD did a few more demonstrations that included featuring their ATI Stream technology as well as their ATI Fusion Media Explorer. All of these demonstrations were trying to show how their platform functioned in real-world tasks.