Jet-Way ION-TOP HTPC

Gaming Benchmarks

Now that the synthetic benchmarks are finished, it is important to consider some of the real world applications. The two games that I chose as benchmarks for the system are Left4Dead and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Although the games are slightly old, they should still be more than enough to stress out a system that was not built primarily for gaming but rather watching TV which requires much less powerful hardware.

Left4Dead

Set during the aftermath of an apocalyptic pandemic, the game pits its four protagonists—dubbed the “Survivors”—against hordes of the infected. There are four game modes: a single-player mode in which allied characters are controlled by AI; a four-player, co-op campaign mode; an eight-player online versus mode; and a four-player survival mode. In all modes, an artificial intelligence (AI), dubbed the “Director”, controls level pacing and item spawns, in an attempt to create a dynamic experience and increase replay value. (Wikipedia)

In this game, the ION-TOP did not perform terrible, but the game neither with Jetway’s drivers nor with the nVidia’s newest drivers 195.~ downloaded off of their website was I able to make the game playable (24 frames per second minimum) at any resolution. The results ranged from 14 fps in 1920 x 1080 to 19 fps in 1020 x 768 resolutions.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare runs on a proprietary engine and with features that include true world-dynamic lighting, HDR lighting effects, dynamic shadows, and depth of field. “Bullet Penetration” is calculated by the engine, taking into account factors such as surface type and entity thickness. Certain objects, such as cars and some buildings, are destructible. This makes distinguishing cover from concealment important, as the protection provided by objects such as wooden fences and thin walls do not completely protect players from harm. Bullet speed and stopping power are decreased after penetrating an object, and the decrease is dependent on the thickness and surface type of the object. The game makes use of a dynamic physics engine, not implemented in previous Call of Duty titles. Death animations are a combination of pre-set animations and ragdoll physics. (Courtesy of Wikipedia)

Call of Duty exhibited similar result to Left4Dead. The game was not playable at any resolution, even at minimum settings. In general the ION chipset should be capable of handling these games at minimal spec without a problem, so what is the problem? The blame lies in the “LE”. Since this is a Light motherboard, it does not have all of the features of the originals. In this case, nVidia seemed to cut away at the graphics department, specifically DirectX 10 support which most newer games rely on.

HD-Playback

If you got somewhat discouraged by the performance of the ION-TOP in games, don’t fret. This PC was not originally designed to be a gaming system but rather a system to watch HD Content on your 1080p television set. To test that, I have played a plethora of different HD content. The testing containers were the following: MKV, AVI, MP4, MPG. MKV and MP4 files included 5.1 Surround Sound audio. The video in the MP4 container was compressed with H264 while the videos in MKV containers used OGG and H264 compressions. All tests were performed in 1080p resolution. As promised, ION-TOP did not encounter any problems playing back any formats that were thrown at it.  This is really an excellent achievement considering the price point and targeted functionality of the system. To really make a comparison you should try to run any type of HD content on a netbook and compare the results. We can tell you that without an nVidia ION powered system there are no Intel Atom powered systems that will allow playback of 1080p content.

If you don’t believe us simply stop in at your local BestBuy or electronics store and ask one of the sales assistants to play back some HD content from YouTube or Hulu and you can see the difference.

Related

  Previous Page         1. Introduction and Specs2. A Closer Look: Packaging and Barebone3. A Closer Look: Installation4. Testing Rig, Benchmarks, CPU-Z5. PCMark Vantage, Cinebench R10, SiSoft Sandra6. Passmark 7.07. Gaming Benchmarks8. Conclusion9. View All         Next Page