The Battle of The Netbooks: Intel vs AMD

Not wanting to be accused of bias it is very important to recognise that Intel does lead with the CPU aspect of the netbook market, you do indeed get better CPU performance in most Intel Atoms compared to AMD fusion processors in addition to better power consumption figures. AMD defintely has a long way to go to meet Intel’s level in the ‘high end’ netbook market for performance per watt. It is vital for AMD to shrink that TDP from 18W to around 10W because intel has an almost 50% power consumption advantage.

Pricing is also important and AMD is very competitive when you look to buy a C-XX based netbook. You can pick up these types of netbooks for between £200 and £300 while Intel’s alternative is similarly priced. So it makes sense to go for an Intel system should power consumption be your main priority but if strong overall system performance is your priority then AMD takes this one.

Higher end models based off the E450 and E350 will cost anything upwards of £300, whereas the cheapest we could find from Intel’s D2700 was £400 so again here we would say the same principle applies. While AMD offer cheaper netbooks with better graphics, Intel offer lower power consumption and sometimes a slighty better CPU (but with an appalling GPU and higher price tag).

The balance is plain and simple:

Intel: Power consumption win

AMD: GPU and Pricing wins