So is the next-generation NVIDIA ION platform faster, slower, or about the same as the ION chipset found in notebooks such as the Samsung N510, Lenovo IdeaPad S12 and HP Mini 311? An early benchmark suggested it wasn’t quite up to snuff. But it turns out that test was performed on a pre-release netbook with the less powerful of NVIDIA’s 2 next-gen ION chips.

Now that NVIDIA has officially launched the platform and a number of new ION-powered devices are on display at CeBIT in Germany, the folks at Notebook Italia have had a chance to run a benchmark on the Asus Eee PC 1201PN. This machine features the new 16-core version of the next-generation ION chip.

And lo and behold, it did score better in the 3DMark06 benchmark than the Eee PC 1201N, a similar notebook with first-generation ION graphics. When I ran the benchmark on an Eee PC 1201N, I got a score of 1559. Notebook Italia reports that the Eee PC 1201PN scored 2013 on the same test.

The Eee PC 1201PN probably isn’t going to take on the Alienware M11x gaming ultraportable anytime soon. But it’s definitely a step above earlier ION-powered machines in the graphics department.

You can check out a video showing the Eee PC 1201PN in action after the break.

Update: Netbook News.de has the benchmark results using 3DMark03. The score? 4482. That’s noticably higher than the 3049 notched by the Acer Aspire One 532g with the less poweful version of next-gen ION.

via Netbooked

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17 replies on “Asus Eee PC 1201PN with next-gen ION graphics benchmarked”

  2. I appreciate the video benchmark, but can we get total results from these performance tests? ASUStek made significant changes between the 1201N and 1201PN, such as process, memory, hard drive and the list goes on. Nobody has produced a full performance review yet, though it appears everyone has seen this device.

  3. Hope you never have any problems with ASUS, as their newly launched 1005 Netbook line will leave you disappointed. As part of my normal business process I purchased a machine from BestBuy. ASUS refuses to support a manufacturing defect, basically insisting that the only option is mailing it back to them, leaving the business traveler strandard without a machine.

    For a machine marketed towards “business people” on “business travels” and a VIP support plan that claims to cover “anything” for 60 days, plus 1 year on the machine itself from fault, they will do nothing for you.

    Customer service for business customers means prompt, reliable support to get you back to work asap. Customer service from ASUS means they assume you’re liar and will expect you to pay for priority, insured mail to and from them via FEDEX/UPS.

    The ASUS EEE netbook is a new product, so no third party support or accessories will work. Save your self the headache and buy a machine from a reputable company with a good support history.

    The ASUS EEE product line looks sharp, has a nice battery, and claims to offer free VIP support. Pure marketing garbage as they fail to support any of their claims with action.

    From this reviewers perspective: Avoid ASUS, go elsewhere for your computing needs.

    1. Sorry but I’m not sure I buy that part about 3rd party support, friend. Eee PC’s aren’t all that new; been around for a while now, and lots of developers and manufacturers know its popular. Most of the 3rd party stuff that you’d throw on a machine is software-oriented, which means its up to Windows to support it (more likely up to the developers to program it so its compatible with windows). Any hardware related issues would really only crop up if you’re doing something truly unusual with it or you’re trying to run Linux (they haven’t yet universally resolved how to handle hot-swappable graphics, but are actively working on it). Any accessories you plug in are USB, and as long as the manufacturer made them to spec, USB is in fact Universal Serial Bus for a reason… no accessory should fail because its plugged into the Eee PC, unless its requirements are out of spec or your machine is a lemon.

      1. I should have been more clear. The power adapter stopped working, and this is an EEE laptop. It takes a special, small PIN that no other adapters use. This means I can’t use third party power adapters that are readily available on the market.

        Basically, the machine is dead until ASUS sends it back.

        1. When a company does the right thing its worth noting.

          Asus customer service just called, they had escalated my case and fedex’ed me a new power supply.

          ASUS VIP EEE Customer service comes through in the end, I retract my original complaint.

          1. It’s inevitable that there is going to be a problem with customer service on any level. Does it means Asus is bad? Not a chance. They make the best and most innovative netbooks on the market. Not including all their other impressive lineup. If anyone stops buying Asus because of one bad experience, so be it. The only one losing is the person who is forcing themselves to buy non Asus products. I’m glad it got resolved for you. I’m always wary of the 1 out of 5 stars because of some faulty parts or something. It’s just going to happen when so many products are made.

            Regarding this original post, more wicked Asus netbooks on the way. I will gladly settle with this 1201PN when it hits store shelves. Gotta go with ION.

  4. I’m confused as to why they wouldn’t also be releasing for CULV and trying to get as much market penetration as possible by allowing for retrofitted cards for existing netbooks… Unless they’re supply constrained, and their Fermi issues are spilling over to this hardware as well… But I’m still confused. This is a discrete card. It can obviously be paired with any processor… why focus on netbooks exclusively?

    Also keep your eyes and ears peeled for how they’re moving so much information over a x1 PCIe channel. Even with 512 MB of dedicated memory this thing shouldn’t be able to work as quickly as it appears to just because of bandwidth issues. Something is going on there. Especially since this doesn’t output directly to any ports, it writes back to system memory, which the internal IGP then writes to the screen, just writing back to memory should more than saturate the link at 1366×768 screen resolutions (251.6 Mb for the screen information, over a 250 MB Bi-directional link? )

    Well maybe we’ll figure some of this stuff out soon.

    1. CULV “ION2” notebooks already exist. They’re the Asus ULxxVt series–ION2 is the GT218 core (nvidia G 210M).

      I would bet lots of money that Intel is extremely uninterested in pairing ION2 with CULV, since they seem to be much more gung-ho about getting people to spend as much money on a computer as possible.

  6. Is it conceivable that the next-gen ION could be put on an PCI-e card so it could be installed on netbooks that have an open slot like is done with the Broadcom HD Crystal chip? In others words, can netbooks be retrofitted with this, if they have an open PCI-e slot?

    1. Yes, it’s conceivable. But no, NVIDIA has no plans to do it right now.

      The company does plan to sell a desktop PC card version of next-gen ION. But
      there’s no mini PCIe version planned.

  7. In only they could make the Alienware M11x in an un-ugly form. This is probably the ugliest netbook on the market.

    1. It may be ugly, but it has an awesome build quality, an awesome technical design, awesome performance and an awesome price.

      And it’s a lot less ugly than Asus gaming laptops with their 13-year-old-DBZ-fan-inspired cover designs…

  8. I wonder if you can activate hybrid graphics by adding the card to an ION 1 platform …

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