Logic Supply LGX AG150 Fanless System Review: Cedar Trail or Cedar Trial?
by Dustin Sklavos on May 28, 2012 11:30 PM EST- Posted in
- kiosk
- Systems
- Atom
- Cedar Trail
Application and Futuremark Performance
It's unreasonable to expect that the Logic Supply LGX AG150 is going to set the world on fire with its performance, but it's important to understand that it's not supposed to either. The LGX AG150 is designed to fulfill a specific purpose: offering x86 performance in a fanless enclosure for commercial and industrial applications where performance is a secondary priority to connectivity and x86 support. Nevertheless, let's put performance in perspective with a few different systems.
Amusingly, PCMark 7 just crashes outright on the LGX AG150's Atom N2800, and 3DMark 11 won't run due to the lack of DirectX 11 support (much less the lack of DirectX 10 support that prevents 3DMark Vantage from running). The GMA 3650 lives up to Intel's claim of twice the performance of the old Atom's GMA 3150 and then some. The problem is that Intel could've claimed ten times the performance and it still would've been dire.
The difference in performance between the N550 and the new N2800 basically lines up with the 366MHz difference in core clocks between the two models. You want to be more impressed by the improvement in performance within thermal envelope; after all, the N2800 is able to get a decent boost in clocks over the N550 while reducing TDP by two watts. The problem is that Intel hasn't changed anything in the architecture since it was introduced. It's not hanging that badly when you consider the top two chips on the list pull ten times as much power, but we know things can be better.
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StevoLincolnite - Monday, May 28, 2012 - link
Sad to see history repeating itself with the Intel Decelerators and drivers.Never again will I get a system that uses Intel graphics, AMD and Nvidia you can entrust they will update drivers frequently and gain performance over time...
Still rocking an Atom 330 + nVidia Ion in my Mini-ITX rig; and other than Brazos... There is really no options available to upgrade it yet even after several years, but the machine does it job.
zeo - Wednesday, May 30, 2012 - link
Cedar Trail ATOM isn't even using a Intel GPU! The 3600/3650 GMAs are using a Imagination PowerVR GPU! The SGX545 to be precise...So it's the 3rd party support that's lousy, and same problem Intel had with the GMA 500, based on the Imagination PowerVR SGX535, a few years ago... but Intel is working on improving the drivers, they're just focused on getting the drivers ready for Windows 8 release and so Windows 7 support has been put on the back burner till then.
While Imagination has never supported Open Source drivers. So Linux users are on their own.
However, Intel is going back to their own GPU with the next 22nm Silvermont update.
While Intel isn't so bad in supporting their own GPU based GMAs, but they've never been known for great performance.
Though, the HD4000 seems to have reached the okay for entry level mark and the next Haswell update promises to raise graphical performance by another 50%. While the 22nm Silvermont update may be using a GMA based on the HD4000.
So while they still probably won't be breaking any performance records, they should be providing more respectful performance by the middle of next year.
ViperV990 - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link
How are you measuring the power consumption? Does the 17W load figure at the input or output of the PSU?ViperV990 - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link
s/Does/Is/ :pJarredWalton - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link
Power is measured at the wall, so PSU efficiency is a factor. If it's a good PSU with 80% or higher efficiency, then the system is using a few watts less actual power.MrSpadge - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link
"Load temperatures do break the 15-watt TDP that Logic Supply advertises, but only by two watts, certainly still reasonable."1st: it should read "power consumption" instead of "temperature".
2nd: if you're measuring at the wall, at least 1 W is consumed in the PSU, probably a bit more. Including rounding errors this leaves us straight at the 15 W Logic Supply claims for the unit. I guess they were not counting the loss in the PSU.
JarredWalton - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link
Thanks, edited for both items.DesertCat - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link
Not that I'm sure that it will fix the reviewer's problems but Acer has a newer video driver from Intel on their site for their N2600-based netbook (Aspire One AOD-270). I think the reviewer was probably using the 1065 driver that is up on Intel's site (hence the comment about them being 4 months old), but Acer has the 8.14.8.1075. The latter one has a release date of March 20th. Might be worth a shot.funtasticguy - Wednesday, May 30, 2012 - link
Hey, DesertCat, thanks for that tip. My new Gateway LT4004u had the same original 1065 driver. So I went to Acer's website and downloaded the 1075 driver and installed it on my Gateway. Now, finally XBMC Eden runs well (before I had this annoying flickering that rendered XBMC useless). In addition, my 720p and 1080p videos now work 100% perfectly within XBMC. So, Intel has made some progress and I'm a happy camper. It still won't run my PSX1 emulator well and some other games, but I suspect that as Intel updates it's driver again, all my emulators and games should work well.By the way, my Gateway has a 10+ battery life. It is also rather speedy and I'm happy with my purchase now -- especially since XBMC works well now and I can use it as a portable media player when I travel out of town.
Again, thanks for the tip!
mfed3 - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link
Ridiculously overpriced. I like the form factor for possibly using it as a hypervisor for a pfSense router and Windows Media Center tuner pool but the price tag is just stupid.