In order to give you an idea of where the Netbookist test pad ranks, we’ve decided to take some cues from benchmarks courtesy of PassMark. This test was conducted in order to find out in what era did a similar full-size desktop offer the same specs as our netbook, because it is our belief that a netbook is powerful – you just have to go back a decade or so.
The methodology is simple: imagine if the netbook was a full-size desktop, and it comes with mystery components, unheard of back then. Where does it stand?
Processor
The processor in question is the Intel Atom N550, a dual-core, hyperthreaded 1.50Ghz processor launched in 2010. According to PassMark, the N550 has a score of 563 points.
Based on this chart, it seems that the N550 ranks higher than an Intel Pentium 4 3.40Ghz. This is useful information for finding games suitable for the netbook. Based on our research, the Pentium 4 (Northwood/Prescott) was released in around 2004, and has hyperthreading features.
With this information, it seems that we’d be perfectly safe if we played games that was released around 2004.
Graphics Card
The Intel GMA 3150 Express has a beautiful score from Passmark video card benchmarks – 69 points. And where graphics card rankings are concerned, this gets pretty hard to put a finger on which era a similar graphics card existed. You see…
Now this is hard. The graph says 69 points, but surrounding it are graphics card from a very wide range of years. To continue with the methodology, let’s filter out the mobile graphics chipsets and stick with the desktop chipsets.
No, something's not wrong here. There used to be heatsink-cooled graphics card like this MX420.
Geforce 256? Wait a minute… that’s 1999. Geforce MX420? That makes more sense – 2002. But wait a minute, there’s the Radeon X300 which entered the market in 2005. What the…
Well, not that confusing, actually. What this data means is that if you play games of 1999, you can play them at their highest settings. Play 2005 games, and you’ll be struggling on low.
So…
The conclusion is that there is an asymmetry between processing power and graphics card power. Therefore, if you are looking to play games, seek games that are early-millenium and before. At least, on a computer similar configured. Of course, if you got Nvidia Ion or the good ol’ 800Mhz first-gen Atom, then the story will be completely different.
Hop over to PassMark to find out your score.
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