AMD Compares Brazos Fusion APU Thermals, Throws Water On Atom
One of the common concerns among users of AMD’s previous-generation mobile platforms is that they tend to run relatively hot in comparison to many of Intel’s offerings. And we’re not necessarily talking just about chip temperatures either, but rather the heat that radiated out to the notebook’s or netbook’s keyboard and chassis that could be felt by end users on their laps, hands, etc.
Throughout the design phase of their next-gen Fusion-based mobile platforms, though, AMD was very mindful of power consumption—and hence thermal output—and at CES they are running an interesting demo that shows just how cool a trio of Brazos-based notebooks and netbooks run relative to a dual-core Atom N550 based netbook.
In the demo, Godfrey Cheng of AMD scans a table with a thermal imaging camera, covered with a quartet of notebooks / netbooks—one Intel based and three AMD based--that are all looping the same 1080P video. As the thermal imaging sensor scans across the machines, it shows the AMD Fusion based products running in the 90’F-98’F degree range at their hottest points, while the Atom-based machine hit over 99'F.
This demo obviously isn’t representative of all Intel and AMD-based mobile platforms, but what it does show is that AMD has made significant strides in terms of power consumption and hence heat output with their upcoming mobile platforms. And as such, heat soaked notebook / netbook chassis and keyboards should be much less common as a result.
