Razer Switchblade Powered by Atom Z690
On Wednesday Razer revealed that its upcoming portable PC gaming device, the Razer Switchblade, will come packed with Intel's Atom Z960 processor clocked at 1.70 GHz. The company also added that key Chinese independent software vendors such as Tencent and ChangYou have pledged to support game optimization for the Switchblade User Interface.
"Intel is very excited to be working closely with Razer on the next generation of mobile handheld PC gaming," said Brad Graff, consumer marketing director, Netbook and Tablet Group, Intel. "The Razer Switchblade concept takes advantage of the Intel Atom processor, providing the performance needed to run 3D PC games in a small and light form factor to enable mobile gaming at significantly less power than a traditional laptop."
For the uninitiated, the Razer Switchblade is the company's answer to mobile PC gaming in a netbook form factor. The device made its first appearance at CES 2011 back in January, but at the time, it was shopped as a concept. As of this writing, it still appears to feature a multi-touch capable 7-inch display and a adaptive tactile keyboard that can be changed to suit different modes of gameplay.
"PC gaming on a truly mobile platform has not been possible before the Razer Switchblade," said Min-Liang Tan, CEO and Creative Director, Razer. "Our work with Intel allowed us to not only optimize the performance of the hardware on this concept device, but also lay the foundation for future products that will fully utilize the innovative technologies first developed on the Razer Switchblade concept."
According to the video seen below, the Switchblade is capable of playing a wide range of games including StarCraft 2, Quake Live, Left 4 Dead 2, World of Warcraft, AION and others. As Intel indicated, the Z690 is sufficient for desktop-style PC gaming on a portable device, offering 13-percent more processing power than its predecessor, the Z670 which is currently installed in the Fujitsu Lifebook TH40/D and other tablets.
Right now the specs outside the official Intel Atom CPU is unknown. Hands-on impressions stemming from CES 2011 said that the device ran Windows 7 with a custom Razer UI and featured a built-in webcam. Other tentative specs included a 128 GB SSD, Wi-Fi, 3G, a mini HDMI-output jack and a USB 3.0 port. At the time, the battery offered 4-6 hours of intensive gameplay.
Yet on Wednesday Razer still insisted that the gadget is a "concept," and has not provided a tentative release date or price. That said, we expect to hear more about this device in the coming months.
At a blazing average FPS of 12! If this company really wanted a portable gaming machine they should have made a fusion based system, or waited for Kal-El / win8.
At a blazing average FPS of 12! If this company really wanted a portable gaming machine they should have made a fusion based system, or waited for Kal-El / win8.
Anyways. I still can't see the point in not using an AMD C-50 (or an E-350) in this machine since it's MUCH more powerful.
Just throw one of those in there (still don't need a heatsink at 9 W), a snap-on battery pack to the bottom, and you have a much more capable device.
No, thank you.
Even iOS/Android games are better entertainment than PC games on a 7" display with horrible controls.
Why would you buy this thing unless you are a hopeless WoW addict?
A Nintendo 3DS is cheaper, more portable and actually has controls and games designed for handheld gaming.
Don't get me wrong though. I love the idea of the "tactile Response" keyboard, providing that they use it right. It could really reduce the amount of surface area required to get a good gaming experience, provided they use it well.
The Atom might be sufficient for some very GPU intensive gaming, but there is no way that they will be able to run Starcraft II fluently on an Atom CPU.
Pop an E-350, or a low TDP llano and this would look great.
I checked at Passmark.Although the CPU (1.7 Ghz Atom Z690) isn't listed there (the Intel Atom Z670 @ 1.50GHz is there with a score of 294)the Z690 should perform at a level of about 333 in the Passmark score,The AMD E-240 has a score of 358 and the E-350 has a Passmark score of 731.
The AMD C-50 has a Passmark score of 453 and the C-30 a score of 231.
It's closest to the E-240 in terms of performance according to the Passmark scores.
Probably TDP,especially cooling and power constraints limit it from using the much beefier AMD E-350 CPU .However it does apparently use ATI graphics don't know as of yet which graphics chip though but probably a pretty decent low powered version.
The AMD C-50 has a Passmark score of 453 and the C-30 a score of 231.
It's closest to the E-240 in terms of performance according to the Passmark scores.
Probably TDP,especially cooling and power constraints limit it from using the much beefier AMD E-350 CPU .However it does apparently use ATI graphics don't know as of yet which graphics chip though but probably a pretty decent low powered version.
I suggest you read up on what an APU is. I'm not recommending it for the CPU potential but for the fact that the built in GPU is miles ahead of an IGA. If their using an Atom they are going to have to also use a discrete low-power GPU, if they used an AMD APU they wouldn't need to use a discrete GPU in their low power device.
Credit to a YT commenter I saw a couple months back when I saw this video, still makes me laugh so hard because the CEO is so serious and could sell me anything
But in all seriousness, I find it funny when people make fun of the Atom CPU because they obviously don't know what it can really do. Yes it's not in the same class as a desktop/laptop CPU, but if you pair an Atom CPU with decent onboard video, you can run a game at lower resolutions, low-medium texture settings and have a framerate that makes the game playable. Also, for a 7" screen, the max resolution is going to be about 1024x600, if it's 16/9 aspect ratio.
So, I am holding all my judgements till it's actually released
If I want to game on the go, I would buy a PSP or Nintendo DS with games that were specifically designed for that platform. Why I would be this large device with the ambitious attempt to emulate PC gaming is beyond me.
As a last thought, I personally am not sure that I would trust Razer to release a bug free product and their customer support has been it or miss.
At a blazing average FPS of 12! If this company really wanted a portable gaming machine they should have made a fusion based system, or waited for Kal-El / win8.
Don't worry. At a resolution of 480x320, anything is possible.
This is the most important part of this article. If the OS is optimized for gaming, the hardware requirements will be far lower, that's how consoles get away with with running current gen games at 1080p at stable framrates, with hardware 5-6 years old.