I needed to test my CUDA application on a low-end configuration so I plunked down $210 and bought a Jetway Mini-TOP D525+ION2 computer.  Below are some basic CUDA benchmark results.

First, some relevant specifications on this machine:

• Dual-core Atom D525 @ 1.8GHz
• Intel NM10 chipset
• NVIDIA ION2 GPU (GT218) with 512MB of DDR3
• DDR2 667/800 SO-DIMMs on a 64-bit bus
• A RealTek Gigabit PCIe Ethernet port

There are a number of netbooks and nettops that have nearly identical specifications.

The NM10 has 4 PCIe 1.0a root ports but is connected to the ION2 using a single lane (x1) PCIe link.  The link has a theoretical 250 MB/s data rate.

The result is that, according to the "bandwidthTest.exe" benchmark, the ION2 is able to copy from host-to-device at 165 MB/sec and from device-to-host at 204 MB/sec.  Onboard the GPU, device-to-device copies reach a much higher ~8GB/sec with the default GPU clock setting.

The GT218 is a standard Compute Capability 1.2 device and has 2 multiprocessors each with 8 cores.

See below for the following results using the 260.63 driver and 3.2 RC CUDA Toolkit:

• GPU-Z
• CUDA "deviceQuery.exe"
• CUDA "bandwidthTest.exe --memory=pinned --wc"
• CUDA "bandwidthTest.exe --memory=pinned --wc --mode=shmoo"
• CUDA "nbody.exe"

The GPU is running at its default speed with 4GB of DDR2-667 overclocked to 800.

Here is a GPU-Z screen capture:

GPU-Z incorrectly reports the ION2 is running on a PCIe 2.0 x1 lane.

The CUDA 3.2 Toolkit's "deviceQuery" output is here.

And the results of the "bandwidthTest" with write-combined and pinned memory are here and "shmoo" results here.

And, finally, a CUDA "N-Body" screen capture:

It's also worth noting that this machine is running Windows 7 Ultimate x64 and, in its off hours, operating as a Media Center serving two XBOX 360's.  The CPU speed is acceptable but on the video side the ION2 has played everything I've tried with excellent results.

Feel free to leave a comment below if you want to see additional CUDA benchmarks.