MSI Wind12 U230 Netbook w/ AMD Athlon Neo X2 L335 CPU Review

Cinebench, wPrime and x264 HD Encoding

Cinebench

CINEBENCH is the free benchmarking tool for Windows and Mac OS based on the powerful 3D software CINEMA 4D. Consequently, the results of tests conducted using CINEBENCH 10 carry significant weight when analyzing a computer’s performance in everyday use. Especially a system’s CPU and the OpenGL capabilities of its graphics card are put through their paces (even multiprocessor systems with up to 16 dedicated CPUs or processor cores). The test procedure consists of two main components; the first test sequence is dedicated to the computer’s main processor. A 3D scene file is used to render a photo realistic image. The scene makes use of various CPU-intensive features such as reflection, ambient occlusion, area lights and procedural shaders. In the first run, the benchmark only uses one CPU (or CPU core), to ascertain a reference value. On machines that have multiple CPUs or CPU cores, and also on those who simulate multiple CPUs (via HyperThreading or similar technologies), MAXON CINEBENCH will run a second test using all available CPU power. Again, higher Frames/Second and lower rendering time in seconds equal better performance.

Results: With further CPU testing, we see the MSI Wind U230 again outperforms all other Intel Atom based netbooks. It seems the performance of the AMD Athlon Neo X2 L335 is between a dual core Intel Atom and a CULV Intel Core 2 Duo!

wPrime

wPrime uses a recursive call of Newton’s method for estimating functions, with f(x)=x²-k, where k is the number we’re sqrting, until Sgn(f(x)/f'(x)) does not equal that of the previous iteration, starting with an estimation of k/2. It then uses an iterative calling of the estimation method a set amount of times to increase the accuracy of the results. It then confirms that n(k)²=k to ensure the calculation was correct. It repeats this for all numbers from 1 to the requested maximum.

Results: Again, the MSI Wind U230 impressively outprime’s the netbook competition in wPrime.

x264 HD Encoding

According to TechArp.com, the x264 HD Benchmark is a reproducible measure of how fast your machine can encode a short HD-quality video clip into a high quality x264 video file. It’s nice because everyone running it will use the same video clip and software. The video encoder (x264.exe) reports a fairly accurate internal benchmark (in frames per second) for each pass of the video encode and it also uses multi-core processors very efficiently. All of these factors make this an ideal benchmark to compare different processors and systems to each other using what many are calling the next generation of the Xvid/Divx codec.

Results: While we don’t see too many of you using a netbook to do HD encoding, it is still a great benchmark and when compared to other netbooks and low power notebooks, we again see the MSI Wind U230 shine with its AMD Athlon Neo X2 L335 processor.