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Real-world demo of rMB processor on Zenbook (800 MHz clock), also fanless - I'm SOLD!

Jobsian

Jobsian

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 30, 2009
853
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Courtesy of the lovely Lisa Gade at Mobile Tech Review (she's becoming my go-to for hardware vid reviews) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yve9TB-fXV8

This Zenbook UX305 has the same line of Core M processors that's in the new rMB, except at 800MHz!, turbo to 2.0GHz (remember we get 1.1GHz, 1.2GHz and 1.3GHz, Turbo-ing to 2.4, 2.6 and 2.9GHz respectively).

Unlike the Yoga Pro 3, this one's also fanless. Some people here are correctly pointing out that the rMB wont be ideal for sustained performance so many common benchmarks aren't that useful, the processor excels more in bursts, similar to actual usage among most folk.

Ok real world performance on this 800MHz machine? Absolutely perfect for my use, no lag in the 1080p youtube video or surfing websites.

She demos internet explorer tabs around 11:30, and even tries Skyrim (low settings) at around 15:20, even that runs better than I expected. Battery for the Zenbook is stated as 10 hours, she gets 9.5!

Only caution so far is that the Zenbook is driving 1,920 x 1,080 pixels, the rMB will be pushing more at 2304 x 1440. That said, Asus are shipping this Zenbook with an optional 3,200 x 1,800 from April, so if they're happy with the Core M pushing that, I can't imagine the rMB will be overstretched.

Color me excited!
 
And to think some are questioning the performance of the Core M. I always knew it would do just fine.
 
PDFierro said:
And to think some are questioning the performance of the Core M. I always knew it would do just fine.
Click to expand...

I believe it will, thing is too many are focusing on the CPU frequency, not the functionality. The processor literally sprints to the highest frequency required, then equally as fast returns to a low power state. All this is done before many of the Core M`s predecessors even wake up.

Q-6
 
Did anyone actually expect this chip to fail at playing 1080p videos? Geez, handheld devices from 2-3 years ago can do that much, it isn't that demanding anymore.

The Core M will suck at multithreaded tasks and gaming; watching videos, Facetime'ing and browsing the web will work fine.
 
crsh1976 said:
Did anyone actually expect this chip to fail at playing 1080p videos? Geez, handheld devices from 2-3 years ago can do that much, it isn't that demanding anymore.

The Core M will suck at multithreaded tasks and gaming; watching videos, Facetime'ing and browsing the web will work fine.
Click to expand...

Yes, in the thread about using the MacBook as your sole machine many people exclaimed how disappointing it was that the MacBook would skip and jitter when playing 1080p video, but I never saw any post their reasoning for thinking so.
 
crsh1976 said:
Did anyone actually expect this chip to fail at playing 1080p videos? Geez, handheld devices from 2-3 years ago can do that much, it isn't that demanding anymore.

The Core M will suck at multithreaded tasks and gaming; watching videos, Facetime'ing and browsing the web will work fine.
Click to expand...

Just read some threads and posts of the last week and you will see. It seems that some ppl think that we will barely be able to even watch a youtube video on the MB without the cpu thermal throttling or stuttering all the time:rolleyes:
 
Can someone explain what exactly will use the multithreading? I mean, if I have 10 tabs in Chrome open, will that be handled by the multithreading in the CPU or in the RAM? Or both?
 
That's not even taking into consideration the Zenbook is running Windows. With Apple controlling the hardware and software experience you would expect an even higher level of performance optimization with OS X.

Core M's gotten a terrible rap for some reason.
 
crsh1976 said:
Did anyone actually expect this chip to fail at playing 1080p videos? Geez, handheld devices from 2-3 years ago can do that much, it isn't that demanding anymore.

The Core M will suck at multithreaded tasks and gaming; watching videos, Facetime'ing and browsing the web will work fine.
Click to expand...

Yes, because people like to think watching Youtube and Netflix requires Deep Blue, and they like to think that what they're doing with their machine is very high-level, pro-user computing. They also love thinking they're smarter than PC manufacturers, especially Apple.

That a low cost tablet or entry level laptop can run a 1080p video doesn't matter. APPLE BETRAYED THEM !
 
TH3D4RKKN1GH7 said:
1080p is fine but what about 4K?...:D
Click to expand...
Might be a different story :p

RE 1080p Youtube video, few tabs open, my MBA (2GHz Core i7 Ivy Bridge) certainly used to skip frames (even at 30fps) and the CPU temp starts its ascent to 100 degrees, fans rev higher and my battery plummets. Situation is better with Youtube going to HTML5. 4k on the other hand is barely watchable. Have a good feel for this machine (988 battery cycles in).

Just an example of why there was some apprehension at this fanless Core M I guess.
 
Jobsian said:
Might be a different story :p

RE 1080p Youtube video, few tabs open, my MBA (2GHz Core i7 Ivy Bridge) certainly used to skip frames (even at 30fps) and the CPU temp starts its ascent to 100 degrees, fans rev higher and my battery plummets. Situation is better with Youtube going to HTML5. 4k on the other hand is barely watchable. Have a good feel for this machine (988 battery cycles in).

Just an example of why there was some apprehension at this fanless Core M I guess.
Click to expand...

The Core M is at least 2x more efficient at media decoding than Ivy Bridge. Broadway GPU improves its media engine dramatically over Haswell, which already is a huge improvement over Ivy Bridge. I think that Core M will be able to decode 4K jus fine.
 
TH3D4RKKN1GH7 said:
1080p is fine but what about 4K?...:D
Click to expand...

MacBook Retina Generation 2. ;)

----------
leman said:
The Core M is at least 2x more efficient at media decoding than Ivy Bridge. Broadway GPU improves its media engine dramatically over Haswell, which already is a huge improvement over Ivy Bridge. I think that Core M will be able to decode 4K jus fine.
Click to expand...

Agreed.

But where are people getting 4K video content? Their cameras? Is netflix streaming 4K now? I'm behind the times...
 
Traverse said:
MacBook Retina Generation 2. ;)

----------



Agreed.

But where are people getting 4K video content? Their cameras? Is netflix streaming 4K now? I'm behind the times...
Click to expand...

I work in film/photo so 4K+ footage is pretty common for me. Netflix and Amazon do 4K just not over the web, only on select UHDTVs.

I really just want one of these bad boys for writing. This iPad Air 2 Belkin Keyboard combo isn't working for me.
 
danielwerner said:
Can someone explain what exactly will use the multithreading? I mean, if I have 10 tabs in Chrome open, will that be handled by the multithreading in the CPU or in the RAM? Or both?
Click to expand...

Pretty much everything will use multithreading while it's active. Most processes don't stay active 100% of the time though, so you'll never really be using 100% CPU 100% of the time.

If the computer is doing something constantly (video encode/decode, rendering, etc) then it's multithreading performance is going to suffer because those CPU cycles are being eaten up all the time, meaning less CPU for everything else, and more heat which causes the CPU to throttle down it's speed.

If you just have some idle tabs open in Chrome or you're watching a youtube video and browsing a web page at the same time, you won't see a performance impact. It's when you start doing many more things all at the same time, or something that's very processor intensive.
 
leman said:
The Core M is at least 2x more efficient at media decoding than Ivy Bridge. Broadway GPU improves its media engine dramatically over Haswell, which already is a huge improvement over Ivy Bridge. I think that Core M will be able to decode 4K jus fine.
Click to expand...
Wasn't aware of that, thanks I hope so!
 
TH3D4RKKN1GH7 said:
I work in film/photo so 4K+ footage is pretty common for me. Netflix and Amazon do 4K just not over the web, only on select UHDTVs.

I really just want one of these bad boys for writing. This iPad Air 2 Belkin Keyboard combo isn't working for me.
Click to expand...

That's mainly what I'll use it for too. My on the go productivity and personal writing device. I'm using an iPad 3 with a Logitech ultra thin keyboard cover right now at my university, but's it gotten kind of old.
 
TH3D4RKKN1GH7 said:
I work in film/photo so 4K+ footage is pretty common for me. Netflix and Amazon do 4K just not over the web, only on select UHDTVs.
Click to expand...
Yup even youtube does 4k

TH3D4RKKN1GH7 said:
I really just want one of these bad boys for writing. This iPad Air 2 Belkin Keyboard combo isn't working for me.
Click to expand...
That's another caution for me, some of the early impressions of the shallow keyboard weren't positive, and I need to be able to type on this thing quickly. Bring on the reviews.
 
Jobsian said:
Yup even youtube does 4k


That's another caution for me, some of the early impressions of the shallow keyboard weren't positive, and I need to be able to type on this thing quickly. Bring on the reviews.
Click to expand...

On they keyboard, you probably have to try it - I think that's very personal. I read one review that said "it's like typing on the iPad keyboard." Well, that actually works pretty well for me, believe it or not - so I'm not expecting problems from this keyboard, but YMMV.
 
It makes sense in smaller screens too. A computer monitor at 21.5 inches 4k would be amazing. Too bad the only 4k monitors are larger.
 
There are issues with 4K on Youtube and Vimeo on a very fast internet connection and a robust Mac. The streaming 4K issues are often the result of the internet's backbone not being ready for it yet.
 
A lot of the people on this forum who are bashing the rMB never give a valid reason for their comments about it lacking power to do almost everything. I personally believe it's their way of making themselves feel better about dropping well over $2,000 on a rMBP knowing they won't even use 1/4 of it's power. A lot of rMBP owners buy it to say they have it, not because they actually need even a fraction of it's capabilities. I believe the rMB is slightly overpriced, but it's to be expected with a brand new Apple product. I would rather overpay by around $300 while getting a whole new design than overpay by around $800 for something I have no use for. I currently own a late 2011 MBP and it's plenty powerful enough for my needs. I will even go far as saying getting opinions on this forum is almost useless, there are way too many spec geeks. Everything is a waste if it's not 15" or a quad core. I even see spec geeks telling others to buy an iPad instead of buying the rMB. It's not like they don't run totally different software or anything. I will choose practical over specs every time. I would love to have a rMBP with the new rMB design, but I know it would be pointless for me. That doesn't mean I should go buy a tablet, it just means I don't need something that is made for professional graphic artists.
 
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