Acer Ferrari One: An AMD Ultraportable
by Vivek Gowri on June 8, 2010 4:12 AM ESTAcer Ferrari One: Gaming and Graphics
The short story is that this really isn't a suitable gaming laptop unless your demands are very light. We tested the Ferrari One in our usual gaming suite, as well as running 3DMark. You can get gaming results for the other laptops elsewhere; here we're going to just show the scores for the Ferrari One. We should note that the combination of a 1GB and 2GB SO-DIMM in our test laptop forces the Ferrari One to run in single-channel memory mode, which reduces graphics performance relative to dual-channel HD 3200 notebooks. We did some quick testing with 2x2GB in dual-channel and found it improved performance by around 5-10%. The memory in the Ferrari One also runs at DDR2-480, further hindering performance—this despite the memory being rated for up to DDR2-800 speeds.
| Acer Ferrari One Gaming Performance | ||
| Game Title | 800x600 | 1366x768 |
| Batman: Arkham Asylum | 23.0 | 12.0 |
| Crysis: Warhead | 21.0 | 11.5 |
| DiRT 2 | 20.2 | 13.1 |
| Empire: Total War | 34.5 | 19.6 |
| Far Cry 2 | 16.9 | 11.3 |
| Left 4 Dead 2 | 20.8 | 12.9 |
| Mass Effect 2 | 16.9 | 7.1 |
| STALKER: Call of Pripyat | 49.7 | 26.8 |
On the gaming side, things are more encouraging for the Ferrari One. The Radeon HD 3200 is a far better integrated graphics solution than Intel’s GMA 4500MHD. Unfortunately, that doesn't really make most recent games playable, even at 800x600 and minimum details. Of the titles we looked at, only STALKER: Call of Pripyat and Empire: Total War are playable at 800x600, and both frankly look quite poor at minimum detail settings—like games from 2005, which should also run well on the Ferrari One. You’d probably be better off with one of the ION based netbooks, which offer better graphics performance and an HDMI port. With Intel's latest drivers (we'll show this in an upcoming article), the HD Graphics on an i3-330M are actually able to match a higher spec AMD system with HD 4200, and that's the real killer for the graphics equation. Intel still isn't fast by any stretch of the imagination, but on laptops their HD Graphics is now roughly equal to HD 4200 while the CPU performance and battery life are substantially better.
For those that like 3DMark results, you can see where the Ferrari One falls in relation to other laptops. It beats CULV with GMA 4500 and Atom, but that's about it. Atom with ION beats the L310 with HD 3200, and CULV with HD 4330 eclipses the ION laptops.
We also tried the latest Flash 10.1 Release Candidate (RC7 now) and ATI's 10.5 drivers. Unlike earlier releases, initial testing looks like Flash 10.1 is working well with ATI's GPUs now. That's definitely one area where the Ferrari One beats standard Atom netbooks, but then the competition isn't Atom at this price point; CULV and ION are readily available for a similar price. YouTube 720p worked fine with the current Flash 10.1 release and 10.5 drivers, but 1080p was a slideshow with sound dropping out as well. It looks like the L310 just doesn't have quite enough performance to handle 1080p (or the drivers need further optimizations, considering Atom + ION handles 1080p fine). Overall, we'd take any of the new crop of Core i3/i5 laptops with Intel HD Graphics as being a better multimedia solution than the Ferrari One, particularly in light of the missing HDMI port.
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whatthehey - Wednesday, June 9, 2010 - link
WTF!? Anandtech site: "This comment is apparently spam and we do not allow spam comments." Let's try again... damn site keeps timing out. Did my account get banned??? Or is this yet another bug with the new site?Anyway, I'm sick of the AMD apologists. 22% faster with Nile? 38% faster in 3DMark? Who cares? 38% faster than "slow as molasses" isn't fast. Intel's new i3/i5 IGP is over twice as fast as the previous IGP, which makes it about equal to Nile AFAICT. And 4 to 8 hours battery life, depending on if the manufacturer uses a 48Wh or a 95Wh battery, right? Unless that's eight hours surfing the Internet with a 63Wh battery, it's not enough.
Here's the real problem: everyone asks for a review of AMD's laptops. Finally they post a review, the numbers don't lie, and it's "OMG but the NEXT AMD laptops will be so much better!" The author mentions Bobcat, which is going to be FAR more interesting than Nile (if it can come out in early 2011 and not slip to late 2011). And while AMD may have given out details of the current platform a year ago, most of the laptops didn't show up until late 2009. It's maybe six months late by that metric, but if AMD shipped it to them in late March you should blame them and not Anandtech.
I had an AMD-based laptop at one point (dual-core Athlon QL-64), and it ran hot and got poor battery life. I read the review of it here and discovered their experience matched mine. It doesn't look like much has changed. They run a bit cooler now and get a bit better battery life, but five hours sitting idle with an 11.6" laptop is pathetic. And the stuff I've seen on the K335 is no better: 5 hours sitting idle.
As a review of the Ferrari One, this is spot on: overpriced and not worth getting. What's new with Ferrari? They say $450 is where this type of product should sit, and that seems about right to me.
BlendMe - Wednesday, June 9, 2010 - link
Wow...Cheap, slow and outdated hardware.
Not very Ferrari like.
rennya - Wednesday, June 9, 2010 - link
As of 9 June 2010:-F1 standing:-
1 McLaren-Mercedes 172pts
2 RBR-Renault 171pts
3 Ferrari 146pts
====
I'll say very Ferrari-like.
quanta - Wednesday, June 9, 2010 - link
It's that how Acer treats a supercar brand? When ASUS made Lamborghini notebook, at least the company makes sure it is one of the fastest computers in the class. Speaking of which, the latest ASUS-Lambo VX6 and VX7 had already been announced.[1] Even the old VX-5[2] ran circles around the CURRENT Acer Ferrari One.Speaking of mocking Ferrari, it isn't first time Acer to do it either. The Acer TravelMate 8571 and Aspire 8940G already outspecd the Ferrari One. In the case of Travelmate, it is also marketed as Ultraportable like Ferrari. With Acer's marketing, how can Ferrari be taken seriously? Unfortunate for Ferrari, Acer continues the trend with cell phone[3] and LCD monitor[4] (at least Acer no longer sells Ferrari screens now).
[1] http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/01/asus-lamborghin...
[2] http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=SGVGxYEAKu15...
[3] http://mobile.acer.com/en/phones/liquidFerrari/?ut...
[4] http://support.acer.com/us/en/acerpanam/monitor/00...
craigl - Monday, June 14, 2010 - link
A good honest review, fair play to Anandtech.I bought the ferrari one based on earlier reviews claiming good battery life and superior performance relative to otjher notebooks, it was a close call with the HP min311 but based on reviews the ferrari edged it.
What to say?
cons
Battery life is very poor even when browsing on lowest brightness / power settings.
Touchpad is too small and muti touch is difficult to pull off reliably.
Lack of XGP graphic booster.
It runs VERY hot.
Takes about a week to charge when on, literally.
onboard speakers are copmparablre to other netbooks - ie pretty dire.
pros
Red lid is quite nice, personal choice I know.
Screen is better than any other notebook i've used (mini311 etc) and resolution means you can have two windows opened useably.
Basic tasks (browsing / Office) feel quite snappy.
Will just run BFH at min settings playably........just.
Keyboard is relativley good.
Win 7.
Will OC (gfx and cpu) for minimal performance gains on mains power.
Would I buy it again? Should you buy it? The answer is yes and no. I paid £300 for mine a few months ago at then at that price I would buy again even in hindsight. If I were to buy one today I wouldn't pay more than £250 for it, considering it's limitations.
paihuaizhe - Sunday, June 20, 2010 - link
(nike-alliance).(com)=>is a leading worldwide wholesaler company (or u can sayorganization)
xXxVladxXx - Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - link
And give off the vibe that they are a pompous prick. Seriously people bash the Mac line, but this takes the cake and all of the fancy lady drinks with it. I'm sure Enzo Ferrari is rolling in his grave because of all of these manufactures putting his beloved legacy on said products. I remember hearing that there was a Ferrari branded shoe, which I'm sure cost more than this computer.CrankUpThePowerIgor - Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - link
Sounds like the graphics clock is low to help battery life, so anyone gaming on this machine overclocks the IGP. Can we have some overclocked game results please, I think it could totally change the feel of the article.After all, who want a de-tuned Ferrari eh? ;)
Hrel - Thursday, June 24, 2010 - link
If someone could do a review on the laptop that I currently suspect is the best "bang for your buck" out there. It's made by compal, and available on Cyberpower.com who's machines you've reviewed before. If you'd like it configured like I did, which I think is the best bang for buck, do this: Go to the website. mouse over 15.6" Laptops and click on the $999 Xplorer X6-8500. It has a 1080p screen. (I'm not sure why the people who run this site do this, but even though the other configurations use the same chassis when personalized they come out to cost more than this one; annoying since it makes me configure all 3 or 4 machines built on the same base chassis to figure out which one is cheapest/best for me.) Then I configured it with the Core i7-620M CPU. (to get it over 1K so I can take advantage of the 5% off.) 4GB 0DDR3-1333, hopefully 7-7-7-21, probably not, but hopefully. ATI MR HD5650 1GB GDDR3 320GB 7200rpm HDD (I did this cause I'm gonna take that HDD out and use the Seagate Momentus XT 500GB, thanks for that review!!) Everything else on that page I left untouched. The only thing I did on page 2 was switch to Intel wifi with bluetooth; Though I'm curious if the MSI option is equal/better; 17 bucks isn't nothing. It has HDMI out and a fingerprint reader. This page says 3 USB ports, the specs sheet says 4USB ports; not sure which is true. (I do wish they were USB 3.0 ports, but I was hoping you guys would test some stuff and tell me if that even matters for use with an external hard drive, mechanical disk 7200rpm. Transferring large files like movies and games mostly.) On page 3 I select "none, format only" for the OS. And select "LCD perfect assurance" cause even 1 dead pixel is unacceptable to me. This brings the total to $1008.90 after 5% off, or $992.75 if you get the MSI network card. So yeah, I really hope you guys can get a hold of one of these for review; as a loner or given as a review unit or maybe someone will just buy one and review it cause it's really tempting me right now... like a lot! If you're review is good I'm gonna start saving up and hopefully be able to buy it around Christmas. Thanks guys! A loyal reader. - Brian