New Format for 'What you'll need' Section

You may have noticed tables like this one popping up around the blog.

They are intended to make it easier to determine if your netbook can handle a game at a glance. In case you're unsure of what some information means, I've explained it all below.



Platforms

Don't know which platform your netbook is built on? All you need to know is which GPU you have.



GMA 950 = Diamondville

GMA 3150 = Pineview

GMA 36x0 = Cedar Trail

Radeon HD 62x0/72x0 = Ontario

Radeon HD 63x0/73x0 = Zacate

ION & ION 2: self-explanatory

Colors

It's easy enough to tell the difference between red and green, but what about the different shades, and what do they mean?

Red - You can't play the game on this platform.

Orange - There's a chance you can play the game with some overclocking (mainly on Diamondville netbooks); in the case of Cedar Trail, it means the hardware is theoretically capable of playing the game, but is being held back by Intel's atrocious driver.

Yellow - Cedar Trail only. It means the game will theoretically work, but hasn't been tested.

Light Green - With exceptions, the platform can handle the game well. These exceptions are specified in the Notes.

Green - Think of this as a 'Gaming with Netbooks Seal of Approval'. The game will run on all processor/graphics configurations in that platform (with enough RAM, that is). For Cedar Trail, it means the game has been tested and runs with a satisfactory framerate.

I've only prepared tables for games that only work on more powerful netbooks. In other words, if a featured game is headed by 'Recommended: Depends', then there'll be a table. Games with 'Recommended: YES' or 'NO' don't need one, for obvious reasons. Games like StarCraft 2 that fall under the questionable category will be explained with text, rather than a table.

An Introduction to the 2nd Generation Intel Atom Processors

Netbooks with a Pineview processor bear this sticker

The end of December 2009 brought the first of Intel's next wave of netbook processors. This time, they included a memory controller and the GPU built into the processor itself. The single-core CPU's (N4xx) were slightly faster than a Diamondville at the same clock speed, save for the N435. Intel also released dual-core Atoms (N5x0) that boosted CPU performance significantly. Unfortunately, the graphics processor, GMA 3150, in Pineviews were even weaker than the GMA 950's, with performance a bit better than a GeForce2 MX 400 (depending on the application). On the upside, the GMA 3150 can access 384 MB of system RAM, provides full MPEG-2 acceleration, and better OpenGL support. Users of Pineview netbooks are even more limited in gaming scope than those with a Diamondville, although both platforms can likely play the same games. Just keep graphical settings low on newer games and you'll be fine.