Compaq Presario 900 1500+: The Radeon IGP Goes Mobile

Conclusion

Truthfully, we are excited about the Radeon IGP 320M. How can we be excited about an integrated video solution, you may ask. Well it is for one reason: it should make the wide scale adoption of the mobile AMD platform possible.

Big name notebook producers have historically strayed away from using a mobile AMD CPU. This trend was caused by a number of issues they had with the chip but two of the most important issues are the chip's size and the lack of proven chipsets for it.

Many already know about AMD's new packaging process, the SFF package, that brings the size of socket-A AMD CPUs down to a fraction of the size that they are now. Producing a smaller package for the mobile CPUs would make it easier for notebook manufacturers to design systems around the chip, thus addressing issue number one. From what we hear, the SFF chips have already found their way to the Japanese market. If this is the case, it should only be a matter of time before AMD transitions the chip to the global mobile CPU market, as this was the original motivation behind the SFF package. How far away we are from seeing SSF mobile Athlon and Duron CPUs in notebooks we do not know, but we suspect that the wait will not be long.

This brings us to the second stumbling block that the mobile AMD solutions have faced. As we mentioned earlier, notebook manufacturers have really only had one option in the mobile AMD chipset market. They turned to VIA's KN133 chipset to power their Athlon based notebooks, a chipset that inherently tied down the new mobile Athlon XP chips due to its PC133 memory bus and aging 3D graphics core. Although competing solutions existed, OEMs were more than a bit concerned with producing a notebook using an unproven chipset from a chipset manufacturer with a poor reputation, regardless of whether this fear has any basis or not. Because of this, many potentially fast Athlon notebooks out there have been held back by a chipset from three years ago.

Thankfully the Radeon IGP 320M changes all of that. By producing a modern mobile AMD chipset, ATI was finally to bring the full potential of the CPU to the market. In addition, OEM designers were able to go with a company that has proven itself time and time again in the OEM world: ATI. As much as we may not want to admit it, an integrated chipset makes the most sense for a mobile AMD solution. Not only are AMD notebooks typically targeted at a lower price point than Pentium 4 ones, it is in the integrated arena that the majority of notebooks are sold.

This brings us to another point we mentioned earlier. In a short time we should be seeing Radeon IGP 340M notebooks hitting the market. This would make the chipset one of only two integrated video solutions available for the Pentium 4 platform. Again, the Radeon IGP 340M's only competitor will be the SiS 650 which will face the same problems that the SiS 740 faced in the mobile world.

Overall we were pleased with the Compaq Presario 900 and the Radeon IGP 320M. Although the chipset may not be a gamers best friend, it does make for a large improvement over what is being used in mobile AMD systems now. It brings to the market reasonable 3D support, fast 2D performance, and great DVD playback.

ATI better keep their eye out for SiS, however. The SiS 740 does offer similar performance to the Radeon IGP 320M (although the performance of the mobile SiS 740 should be somewhat slower) and SiS is working hard to establish themselves as a reputable chipset producer. As VIA already learned, SiS can not be dismissed as a competitor. The best thing ATI could do is follow up the Radeon IGP with a new version offering more a powerful integrated video chip.

Thanks to the Radeon IGP 320M, things are getting interesting in the mobile AMD arena. The Compaq Presario 900 1500+ is a good example of that. It should only be a matter of time before we see mobile AMD solutions based off the Radeon IGP 320M from a number of big name OEMs.