ASUS N10Jc-A1 Netbook Review – Atom N270

Futuremark, 3DMark06 & PCMark05

3DMark 2006

3DMark 06 is still a popular standard in advanced 3D game performance benchmarking and the latest version in the popular 3DMark series available to run on Windows XP. 3DMark06 tests include HDR/SM3.0 graphics tests, advanced SM2.0 graphics tests, AI and physics driven single and multiple cores or processor CPU tests and a collection of comprehensive feature tests to reliably measure next generation gaming performance.

The first image is a screen shot of the results for the integrated graphics; the second shot is using the NVIDIA GeForce 9300m GS. As you can tell, there is a night and day difference between having the NVIDIA 9300m graphics card turned on or using the Intel integrated graphics when running 3DMark 2006. The difference here really demonstrates the benefit of putting a discrete graphics card in a netbook.

PCMark 2005

PCMark05 is an application-based benchmark and a premium tool for measuring overall PC performance. It uses portions of real applications instead of including very large applications or using specifically created code. This allows PCMark05 to be a smaller installation as well as to report very accurate results.

Once again, the first image is integrated graphics; the second shot is using the NVIDIA GeForce 9300m GS. Since PCMark measures overall system performance, there is not as much of a gap between having the NVIDIA 9300m on or off in this benchmark. While the overall difference is significant, only the 3D application score had a significant impact.