Although you probably wouldn't consider these gaming-centric platforms, we did want to assess their ability to handle mainstream titles (especially since AMD makes such a big deal about its GCN-powered graphics component).
Keep in mind that the Athlon 5350 represents the very best you'll see out of AM1, while there is one faster offering from Intel. Of course, the AM1-based platform will take a discrete upgrade if you need more performance, while Bay Trail-D does not.


Dota 2 is probably one of the most played titles, but it's not exactly demanding. Neither is Grid 2 at its lowest detail settings. Yet, AMD's Athlon barely manages to post performance numbers close to 30 FPS. Sure, you can call those numbers playable. But they're not particularly good-looking. Intel's Celeron J1900, on the other hand, is simply too slow for gaming.
Based on our results, I'd guess that AMD's AM1 platform should be able to handle less-demanding MMOs like World of Warcraft, lightweight shooters like Left 4 Dead, and a wide range of even more casual games (such as Angry Birds).
I did fire up Battlefield 4 and Neverwinter to see if the Athlon could cope. But even at 1280x720 using the lowest possible settings, it couldn't.
- The AM1 Platform: Kabini Surfaces On The Desktop
- One Bay Trail-D And Two AM1 Motherboards
- Test Systems And Benchmarks
- Synthetic Benchmarks
- Media Encoding Benchmarks
- Productivity Benchmarks
- File Compression Benchmarks
- Game Benchmarks
- Power And Temperature
- AMD's AM1 Platform Is A Winner, But Who Is Playing The Game?
It's just convenience and cost efficiency, really, on the one hand, you've got 1 motherboard, CPU, tower, PSU, OS and IP adress for remote control and 8 HDDs and on the other, you've still got 8 HDDS, but 2 of everything else. Power consumption wouldn't make THAT much of a difference, since storage servers mostly idle, but the noise and size do take their toll.
It's just convenience and cost efficiency, really, on the one hand, you've got 1 motherboard, CPU, tower, PSU, OS and IP adress for remote control and 8 HDDs and on the other, you've still got 8 HDDS, but 2 of everything else. Power consumption wouldn't make THAT much of a difference, since storage servers mostly idle, but the noise and size do take their toll.
I think the 1920x1080 and 1600x900 graph for Dota 2 are the wrong way round? And it would be good to also have had a graph for its performance with dedicated GPU.
I think the problem is the PSU. Using 850W XFX is total overkill and even being certified as gold class, it has high efficiency at 20% load, which is 170 W. Therefore the PSU is used in non-efficient area and can simply add 15 - 20 W extra to the final power consumption.
Next time maybe borrow PicoPSU and some efficient brick.