http://www.maximumpc.com | JUL 08 |MAMAMAXIMXIMXIMXIMUUUUMMPPPCC| 07
A THING OR TWO ABOUT A THING OR TWO
ED WORDÄ
T
his month, I tested HP’s Mini-Note—the small, cheap notebook is HP’s an-
swer to the subcompact, sub-$500 Asus Eee PC. HP’s tiny notebook got me
thinking about the point of diminishing PC returns—the point at which add-
ing more hardware oomph doesn’t deliver a perceptible performance boost to the
user. During the usability portion of my testing—wherein I use the laptop in a va-
riety of real-world scenarios (at my desk, on the kitchen table, on the couch, on the
plane, etc.), I was shocked that the Mini-Note seemed fast enough for much of what
I do. While the notebook certainly underperformed in our Photoshop benchmark, I
didn’t have any major complaints with its performance in my most common activi-
ties: web browsing, checking email, writing documents, and listening to music. Is
this Mini-Note’s 1.2GHz VIA C7-M CPU fast enough for me?
Answer: no. Aft er I dug a little deeper, I uncovered some serious
performance problems. The rig is simply too slow to play H.264 video
at DVD resolution, and without dedicated graphics, I wouldn’t recom-
mend running even the most rudimentary 3D games.
The Mini-Note doesn’t trip the diminishing-returns perimeter
wire, but it comes close. It’s too bad HP didn’t include decent onboard
graphics (something with basic 3D support and a little bit of video de-
coding help) because that would make this sub-$1,000 rig everything
I need in a portable.
Ironically, it’s at the other end of the PC hardware spectrum that I
discovered technology that has indeed reached the point of diminishing
returns. And I’m sad to report that that technology is 3D gaming graph-
ics. Take a look at two of the biggest games of last year, Call of Duty 4
and Crysis. Crysis is a technological showcase, utilizing the latest, greatest DirectX 10
graphics technology to render a vibrant, living world. Call of Duty 4, meanwhile, is a
showcase of last-generation DirectX 9 technology. This game is technically inferior but
deft ly executed.
Now, were you to show both titles to a gamer who doesn’t know what subtle, deli-
cious eff ects to look for in DirectX 10 rendering, there’s absolutely no guarantee that
he’ll pick Crysis as the more advanced game. In fact, because there are more characters
onscreen at any given time in Call of Duty and because the scripted action is much
more intense than it is in Crysis, I’d wager that he’s more likely to select Call of Duty as
the more visually sophisticated game.
The upshot is that I think we’re rapidly approaching the limits of what today’s
technology can deliver in terms of visual quality increases. In order to make the
next jump—the jump to real-time 3D rendering that looks as good as prerendered
movie CGI—the hardware vendors and game developers are going to have to try
something new. Am I right, wrong, or absolutely crazy? Let me know at will@
maximumpc.com.Where Lies
the Point of
Diminishing
Returns?
LETTERS POLICY Please send comments, questions, and tacos to
[email protected]. Include your full name, city of residence,
and phone number with your correspondence. Unfortunately, Will is
unable to respond personally to all queries.Killer Hardware
Hacks
page 22How Ethernet Works
page 62The Companion Cube
page 96HOLY COW!
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