A few questions - A8J, W7J, DX10, Core2

Howdy,

I was here a few months ago bugging you all with questions about the W3J but that fell through. I'm now on the hunt again, and having looked through many different brands I seem to have ended up judging Asus as the best option as before.

I understand change is afoot in the laptop world at the moment (always is?), what with the release of Vista. I need this laptop to last me a while, so would rather wait an extra month or two to get some extra life and performance out of the thing.

So, here we go..

I have seen ont eh Asus website that they now offer an A8JR model which comes packing an ATi X2300 GPU. Am I right in thinking that this is the new generation ATi GPU and is DX10 capable? Is this X2300 card comparable to an X1300 in actual performance terms? If so, will Asus be releasing a notebook in the near future with a more capable DX10 GPU?

I'm looking for a notebook 14" or below, but it has to have a dedicated GPU. I noticed the W7 has one and fits all the other requirements - how does it compare to the A8 generally? Is the W7 model available in the UK?

What sort of performance difference will I realistically see between the Core2Duo 5500 and the 7200? This will be mainly when using programs like SolidWorks, Maple and MatLab.

What is this Santa Rosa lark all about? When is it released and when is it likely to be introduced to Asus notebooks?

Thanks in advance for the help, you're a very handy bunch!

Simon

 

Im not sure about the DX10 information. Someone else will hopefully answer that for you. But i THINK comparable (1300/2300)

The Core2Duo 5XXX series only has 2MB cache, but the 7XXX series has 4MB cache. The difference lies there. You MAY see better performance on the 7XXX series core2duos from twice the cache.

The W7 has an integrated 512MB ram that you should note, so for the moment, will only go up to...1.5GB or ram (512 + 1024 = 1536 mb)

the W7 is also of a smaller size, with a 13.3" screen as opposed to the A8 series 14.1" screens.

You will NOT SEE Santa Rosa lark in two months. If you need a laptop, Just get one and not worry about it.

 

Rumours have stated that the X2300 will have DX10...no one is sure yet, and there's basically no information about it on the internet. The performance is also questionable because many state it is an X1300 with DX10, but if it is different, then expect at least a 10% boost in performance.

W7J's gaming protential is roughly half as good as the A8js/A8jp, the Go 7700 and X1700 score roughly double than the W7J in synthetic benchmarks.

You will see a difference between T5500 and the T7200, because there's a clock speed difference, you can see this in SuperPi, also with rendering and encryption type tasks.

Santa Rosa is supose to come out Q2...this does not mean Asus will have them ready immediately. You may have to wait to the middle of the year. about 4+ months.

As gusto5 suggest if you need a notebook now, get it, and don't look back, current notebook technology is very good, and you shouldn't be dissapointed with the arrival of newer technology since you will be getting Dual Core, and 64bit processing with an Express Slot, and if you pick the A8js/A8jps you will get DVI.

 

To add to what others have said, according to ATI's (I'm not going to refer to it as AMD) product page, the X2300 is a DX9.0 card.

http://ati.amd.com/products/mobilityradeonx2300/specs.html

It appears to just be a power-efficient refreshed X1300, which is really stupid since the X1350 was already the power-efficient refresh. Perhaps there is hidden DX10 functionality, but since they aren't marketing the heck out of it and they don't even have a desktop DX10 card out yet, I seriously doubt it. Mainstream DX10 GPUs won't even be released for desktop until March so it's likely we won't be seeing any mobile DX10 GPUs until Q2.

Also, in terms of the difference between the T5500 and T7200, there is a performance difference since it is 2 clock speed bumps and double the L2 cache. It'll only really be noticeable in really intensive tasks like rendering and encoding though. If you do heavy number crunching in Maple or MatLab or SolidWorks then I'm pretty sure the T7200 would be useful. There will be a slight difference in games too, but it'll only be a frame or two depending on the resolution and settings. The "important" difference between the T5500 and the T7200, since speed is relative and not a brick wall, is that the T5500 lacks VT support completely. However, I doubt lack of VT support is significant for most users so it's hardly a make or break difference.

 

The W7J has a weakling Go 7400 GPU and can hold only 1.5GB of ram...The A8J will easily outperform the W7J. I would get the A8J over the W7J anyday.

 

Thanks for all the help, the A8J is looking like a good choice at the moment.

This is a more general follow up question.. DX10, huh, yeah, what is it good for? *bursts into song* Will any DX10 games be playable in DX9 mode if I wanted to play them in the future?

 

DX10 has many many improvements that will enhance your gaming experience. Google will provide you lots of info about DX10

 

Aye, I'm slightly embarrassed I even asked actually.. sorry!

 

For DX10 information check these sites out:

Here

Games

As for whether DX9 GPUs will work with DX10 games it really depends on the game.