X-bit labs

Wednesday, May 4, 2005

The Fastest 19” LCD Display Released. ViewSonic Hits 4ms Milestone

HardwareZone has reviewed ViewSonic VX924 TFT LCD monitor, which is the first 19”  product to boast with grey to grey pixel response time of 4ms (note that usually manufacturers indicate of response time as the total time it takes the pixel to change its state from black to white and to black again). ViewSonic states that its Advanced Overdrive Technology, which is basically a higher voltage stepping to boost pixel responsiveness, and Amplified Impulse Technology, which dynamically controls the amount of overdrive required, allowed the company to improve the response time of its monitors.

“We found that the VX924 to have an excellent panel which was free from image distortions and was able to display very sharp images. This could very well be due to ViewSonic’s Advanced Overdrive and the monitor’s good contrast ratio. Images looked more distinct, therefore giving the impression that they were sharper, better outlined and contrasted.  Colors in general were decently represented. The VX924 managed to render very vibrant backgrounds, though we would have much preferred a livelier tint on human tones. While ViewSonic has kept mum about the monitor’s color capabilities in all documents and specifications we looked at, we are quite confident that it uses a 6-bit panel. During our tests, the monitor exhibited a regular amount of dithering usually attributed to such panels. This doesn't really come as any surprise as the VX924 is designed for gaming and entertainment purposes. While the monitor does perform excellently in these environments, color fidelity was still not high enough for professional graphics authoring,” concludes HardwareZone.

• HardwareZone: ViewSonic VX924 19-inch 4ms TFT LCD.

AMD Turion 64 Clashes with Intel Centrino. AMD Turion 64 Mobile Microprocessor Reviewed

GamePC has taken a look at AMD Turion 64 MT-34 mobile microprocessor, which is AMD response to Intel Centrino mobile technology and is intended for thin and light notebooks. The chip is AMD’s fastest offering for small notebooks, it operates at 1.80GHz, integrates 1MB of L2 cache, features SSE, SSE2, SSE3 and 3DNow! technologies and has thermal design power of about 25W. Naturally, the chip sports AMD’s PowerNow! feature with C3 deeper sleep state as well as 64-bit capability, something which AMD is very proud about. But is 64-bit a thing we really need in a laptop, or an up-to-date core-logic is more important?

“Still, the prospect of an ultra-efficient 64-bit mobile platform is tempting, and I would have a hard choice on my hand if I had to choose between a similarly configured Turion64 or Pentium-M notebook platform. One thing is clear, the Turion64 is the most immediate threat Intel has ever seen to date to its dominance of the mobile market,” GamePC believes.

“Unfortunately, quite a lot of Intel’s success has been in their bundling of the Pentium M processor with their mobile 855/915-M low power chipsets and wireless LAN controllers in their Centrino bundles. AMD has no similar bundling scheme at this time, and does not appear to have one on the horizon, which will likely make the Turion64’s move into the mainstream a bit more difficult. Perhaps AMD can team up with NVIDIA for a mobile nForce4 with integrated wireless Ethernet for a Turion 64 bundle – I know this would certainly interest me. At the time, AMD’s mobile chipsets are fairly lacking, as the most “modern” Athlon64 chipset out there is the VIA K8T800 Pro. (Several astute readers have emailed saying that the ATI Radeon XPress 200-M Mobile Chipset is now shipping, which delivers a much more modern feature set compared to other Athlon 64/Turion 64 mobile chipsets.),” GamePC writes.

“The Turion 64, for the most part, gives nearly identical performance per clock compared to AMD’s Socket-754 Athlon 64 processors. When comparing the Turion 64 to its Athlon 64 brethren, the Turion 64 doesn’t look incredibly impressive until you consider the following – the Turion 64 uses roughly one third the power of these older Athlon 64 processors, but delivers slightly better performance per clock due to AMD’s “Lancaster” architecture. What this basically means is that today’s Athlon 64 mobile platforms will be able to be fitted with Turion 64 processors and see dramatic increases in battery life while running cooler and quieter, while delivering roughly the same performance levels,” concludes GamePC.

• GamePC: Efficient 64-Bit Mobile Computing: AMD’s Turion 64 Processor.