Pregame Show
I thought this would be a good gaming alternative - unlike SBCs this is a mini computer so has all the I/O ports
you need, SD card reader, and expandable SSD and DRAM slots inside. This machine has built in wireless, JasperLake GPU, and 4 core Celeron M5105 @ 2GHz. It does run hot though; and takes 19V 3.42A 65W power (like some Chromebooks). I zapped it with my temp gun, and its 110F (43C), and its "rated" for 50C - with NO load.
WSL2 Failure
I tried to use WSL2 server, and after a couple hours gave up, as it seems set for Wayland not X11. It would be more useful if you could install Xubuntu; maybe you can but I gave up.
(Linux support is something Chromebook does right.)
Windows 11 Must Die
I installed MAME and other tools and they stuttered.
This can't be right, I thought. So given my WSL failure, and that I had to hunt down some older directX kits to get anything working, I said to heck with it - I must install Ubuntu 22 and benchmark with somewhat more apples to apples.
Installing Ubuntu Pains
Yes, you hit del to enter BIOS and set the startup device. Using EFI, I had to set to boot from "USB KEY". I had to blow away /dev/sda2 and other Windowsy partitions. I had to reformat the partition in ext4... and it seems the drivers on Xubuntu 22.04 image are not fully compatible with the Air Mini. (The RealTek 8821c driver continue to blow kernel errors, frame errors, and hung several times during install.) After several attempts, and update/upgrades, I managed to get Xubuntu installed and up-to-date/stable. I really don't know why Geekom doesn't have a working image, or sell the devices without Windows...
Quelle Surprise
Even though it only has 4 cores, the rendering capability of the device is solid.
- geekom-miniair-11: 1378 ($150)
- opi5: 975 ($110)
- odroid n2l: 509 ($70)
So graphics from JSL makes this device 2.7x faster than my N2L, and 1.4x faster than the OPi5 (note not all benches were faster). But, sound emulation is multi-threaded and runs on multiple cores, so the next benches will be more interesting...
yay symetric multi-processing.
# uname -a
Linux geekom-MiniAir-11 5.19.0-46-generic #47~22.04.1-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC
# glmark2
=======================================================
glmark2 2021.02
=======================================================
OpenGL Information
GL_VENDOR: Intel
GL_RENDERER: Mesa Intel(R) UHD Graphics (JSL)
GL_VERSION: 4.6 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 22.2.5-0ubuntu0.1~22.04.3
=======================================================
[build] use-vbo=false: FPS: 1702 FrameTime: 0.588 ms
[build] use-vbo=true: FPS: 2127 FrameTime: 0.470 ms
[texture] texture-filter=nearest: FPS: 1929 FrameTime: 0.518 ms
[texture] texture-filter=linear: FPS: 1898 FrameTime: 0.527 ms
[texture] texture-filter=mipmap: FPS: 1891 FrameTime: 0.529 ms
[shading] shading=gouraud: FPS: 1753 FrameTime: 0.570 ms
[shading] shading=blinn-phong-inf: FPS: 1759 FrameTime: 0.569 ms
[shading] shading=phong: FPS: 1707 FrameTime: 0.586 ms
[shading] shading=cel: FPS: 1689 FrameTime: 0.592 ms
[bump] bump-render=high-poly: FPS: 1272 FrameTime: 0.786 ms
[bump] bump-render=normals: FPS: 2039 FrameTime: 0.490 ms
[bump] bump-render=height: FPS: 2022 FrameTime: 0.495 ms
[effect2d] kernel=0,1,0;1,-4,1;0,1,0;: FPS: 1445 FrameTime: 0.692 ms
[effect2d] kernel=1,1,1,1,1;1,1,1,1,1;1,1,1,1,1;: FPS: 912 FrameTime: 1.096 ms
[pulsar] light=false:quads=5:texture=false: FPS: 1696 FrameTime: 0.590 ms
[desktop] blur-radius=5:effect=blur:passes=1:separable=true:windows=4: FPS: 759 FrameTime: 1.318 ms
[desktop] effect=shadow:windows=4: FPS: 1125 FrameTime: 0.889 ms
[buffer] columns=200:interleave=false:update-dispersion=0.9:update-fraction=0.5:update-method=map: FPS: 364 FrameTime: 2.747 ms
[buffer] columns=200:interleave=false:update-dispersion=0.9:update-fraction=0.5:update-method=subdata: FPS: 647 FrameTime: 1.546 ms
[buffer] columns=200:interleave=true:update-dispersion=0.9:update-fraction=0.5:update-method=map: FPS: 354 FrameTime: 2.825 ms
[ideas] speed=duration: FPS: 1624 FrameTime: 0.616 ms
[jellyfish] : FPS: 1232 FrameTime: 0.812 ms
[terrain] : FPS: 193 FrameTime: 5.181 ms
[shadow] : FPS: 562 FrameTime: 1.779 ms
[refract] : FPS: 326 FrameTime: 3.067 ms
[conditionals] fragment-steps=0:vertex-steps=0: FPS: 1541 FrameTime: 0.649 ms
[conditionals] fragment-steps=5:vertex-steps=0: FPS: 1547 FrameTime: 0.646 ms
[conditionals] fragment-steps=0:vertex-steps=5: FPS: 1545 FrameTime: 0.647 ms
[function] fragment-complexity=low:fragment-steps=5: FPS: 1534 FrameTime: 0.652 ms
[function] fragment-complexity=medium:fragment-steps=5: FPS: 1534 FrameTime: 0.652 ms
[loop] fragment-loop=false:fragment-steps=5:vertex-steps=5: FPS: 1578 FrameTime: 0.634 ms
[loop] fragment-steps=5:fragment-uniform=false:vertex-steps=5: FPS: 1597 FrameTime: 0.626 ms
[loop] fragment-steps=5:fragment-uniform=true:vertex-steps=5: FPS: 1595 FrameTime: 0.627 ms
=======================================================
glmark2 Score: 1378
=======================================================
