atom-v-nano

The Intel Atom processor has become the defacto standard for netbooks in the developed world. Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, MSI, Toshiba, and other computer makers are all equipping mini-laptops with the low power CPU. But it’s not the only game in town. VIA’s Nano processor also uses less power than most traditional laptop processors, but provides better performance in many areas than the Intel Atom. 

Right now the VIA Nano CPU is only being used in a handful of Chinese devices and the Samsung NC20 12 inch laptop. 

But the folks at ZDNet UK decided to see how the Nano stacks up against the Atom. There’s just one problem: They compared the desktop version sof each processor, so it’s hard to say what kind of performance you’d get if you were using the chips in two similarly specced netbooks. For instance, the Nano chip used in the test has a 1.8GHz clock speed, while the Samsung NC20 tops out at 1.3GHz. 

That said, the article does make for an interesting read. In general, ZDNet found what you would expect: The Atom uses less power, and should therefore give you better battery life. But the Nano scored better on most tests measuring CPU and graphics performance. And neither chip is great for serious computing tasks like encrypting data or encoding media files.

Support Liliputing

Liliputing's primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the "Shop" button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we'll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you're using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or...

Contribute via PayPal

* If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it.

Subscribe to Liliputing via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 9,544 other subscribers

4 replies on “VIA Nano clocks Intel Atom in kinda unfair test”

  1. Your statement about encrypting data is absolutely wrong the Via chip is phenomenal at encrypting data beating out even the Core 2 Duo

  2. I have VIA Nano [email protected] max. TPD 17W. It is LV processor for dextop Mini-ITX VIA VB8001-16.
    Performance betwen Intel Atom 230 /dextop/ and Intel Atom N270 is max. 5% +/-.
    Smasung NC20 have VIA Nano U2250 1.3+GHz processor, but with adaptive overcloking up to 1.6GHz !!! It is ULV processor ultra low voltage for ultra small notebooks (“netbooks”) max. TPD 8W -10W.

    Also VIA Nano [email protected] (VIA VB8001-16) vs. Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz (Toshiba NB100) Win XP SP3:

    Performance Test 6.1
    CPU – Integer Math
    VIA Nano [email protected] – 53.00
    Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz – 21.9

    CPU – Floating Point Math
    VIA Nano [email protected] – 136.8
    Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz – 95.7

  3. Wow, what a odd test. They tested the Atom 230? That isn’t even the one CPU most people have in their netbooks. What is with these apples to aardvarks compassions? I’m sure VIA makes nice chip, but someone damn well better put it up against a Atom N270 if they want to tell me something.

    Wait and see…

    What I think needs to happen is for a VIA Nano machine to come out. And then a side by side ‘unit to unit’ test can be done. No some theoretical test rigs, just a real world test. In a real world test I’m sure a VIA Nano will do better. But can you see how maybe that not going to help them give the way tech is moving.

    I’d like to see how a netbook with a VIA Nano does in the real world stack up against a netbook with an Atom + Nvidia ION chip. See that is the crux of the issue. That is what VIA is really up against, so do they have a CPU GPU combination to match?
    .

  4. i’m not sure a netbook is the best way to “encode media files”. long battery life instead of media encoding speed is more important in a netbook.

Comments are closed.