You are hereAMD Athlon Neo MV40. How New is it and Does it Beat the Intel Atom N280?
AMD Athlon Neo MV40. How New is it and Does it Beat the Intel Atom N280?
Recently while rummaging the laptop market I was surprised to find a netbook equipped with the AMD Athlon Neo processor placed (and priced) with the likes of portable dual-core laptops. I wondered if this was a trick to palm off a netbook as a laptop to the naive buyer, or was the Athlon Neo indeed a beast in disguise. I decided to find out.
AMD has been lagging behind in the netbook market, where Intels Atom processor has found a strong foothold. The Atom is primarily a single-core 32-bit processor (though some variants of the Atom are dual core or 64-bit). It is a redo of the Intel Celeron, but with a serious thought to power consumption. While not as powerful as dual-core processors, it found place in the netbook market due to its 2 to 4W power consumption and cheap price making netbooks like the ASUS Eee PC 1000HE and Samsung NC10 last upto 8 hours on a battery.
AMD decided to follow Intels lead, simply repackaged the Athlon K8 and now calls it Neo. The Neo MV40 is a 64-bit single-core processor running at 1.6GHz. It is rated at 15W, which is higher than the Atom. So don’t expect very long battery life for something that has the Neo in it. What about 64bits? Well 32 or 64 bit does not add much value in the netbook market1. The Neo does provide better graphics capability using ATI X1250 or ATI HD3410 graphics chipset and netbooks with Neo will be able to support Windows Vista.
So how does something with Neo2 inside compare up with the Atom3 inside? Here is a showdown table:
| Attribute | Athlon Neo MV40 | Intel Atom N280 |
|---|---|---|
| Speed: | 1.60GHz | 1.66GHz |
| Core: | Single | Single |
| L2 Cache: | 512Kb | 512Kb |
| Power: | 15W | 2.5W |
| 64-bit: | Yes | No |
| Technology: | 65nm | 45nm |
So should you buy the Neo? Well it depends on what you are looking for. On the plus side, the Neos better graphics support means netbooks equipped with it will support HD playback and Windows Vista. Let one thing be clear though, Neo equipped computers are netbooks designed for light use and not laptops. Marketing hype, prices and short battery life may place them on the same shelf as laptops, but it does not make them a laptop and they will crumble when multi-tasking and running demanding applications and games.
If you are looking for a portable laptop for serious work, stay away from the Neo. If you want to browse the net in a coffee house on a netbook and you need windows Vista and don't mind carrying the charger around, then maybe the Neo is for you. But given their prices, buying the Neo equipped HP DV2 could still leave you with a thinner wallet!
Also, before you buy a Netbook of any kind I recommend you read Fast Food Apple Pies and Why Netbooks Suck. It is too good to miss.
- 1. The bit count limits the maximum amount of RAM the system can have. It has no affect on speed. Netbooks hardly ever have more than 2GB of RAM.
- 2. Neo MV40 Specification.
- 3. Intel Atom N280 Specification.
