Eee PC 1215n Performance

new drivers are out. Im going to test them out right now...

Edit - performance is laughable. Crashes my Left for Dead 2 game immediately... im getting really tired of this freakin comp... imma upgrade to the 1215b when it comes out. :-(

 

I am little confused, on nvidias site there are drivers for linux 64 and 32 bit. Do these drivers not work? Or is it an optimus issue?

 

I confirm, in starcraft 2 "performances" (sic) are desastrous !

 

1215n's atom cpu is design to play modern games smoothly...AHEM...

 

sad/glad im not the only one having problems...

 

Hey guys! For those of you that own 1215n for a while, could you please comment on the built quality of the adapter and power port at the bakc of your laptop?

I've read that the pin inside the power port can fall off easily as it's tiny and some people also have a prob with the adapter being faulty and not charging up. Do you experience similar problems?

Quite a few people have commented on this on amazon:
Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1215N-PU17-BK 12.1-Inch Netbook with 6 Hours of Battery Life - Black

 

It is a small pin and does therefore look fragile but so far i have had no issues with it at all. My only gripe is that it is on the left side of the device so if you were to catch it on the corner of a table or step on it there is a chance it would break but if you're careful it's not really an issue.

 

I second that.

Something else: Does anyone know which exact Broadcom BT 3.0 chip is build into the VX6 or has pics of the mainboard? I would like to find out the A2DP (-> SBC or MPEG) support...

 

Yeap, an optimus issue, most of optimus devices can only give OS access to the discrete GPU thru software driver...
another problem: no ION = no HDMI port...
there is some open-source development in progress, but they can`t help us yet...
still, linux runs fine on 1215n for most daily use... and as long as there isn`t something like compiz on win7, i`ll stick with my penguin friend
but dual boot win7 for games, of course.

 

I might just do that, but I did that last time and found myself using windows most of the time. I'll just have to make a better effort to use linux lol.

 

I just rolled over something in my computer chair and heard a cracking sound... to my horror i realised it was the power pin adapter head for this machine... but it didn't break and all is fine. Its quite sturdy despite the fragile look of it.

Just thought i'd share to disuade people from using the arguement that all of them are fragile and break easy as this is not the case.

 

Most people don't pay attention to power ports when they shop around. I wouldn't have known it if not for the reviews posted on amazon. So I've gone back to the shop to double check this little pin inside the port and tried to plug the charge in and out a few time. As it is really tiny (even my ipod earphone has a much thicker pin! let along a laptop power port), I wouldn't be surprised that it fell out after an intense (or not) usage of a couple of weeks like in some reported cases, esepcially in the care of not so delicate hands. I've seen Acer, Lenovo, HP, Sony and MSI, and all of them have thicker pins even on small netbooks. The dealer told me that there's been no major issue with the power port pin but one customer did come back with a broken pin asking for repair. why on earth would asus use such a small pin is beyond me.

 

Someone over at Nvidia forum reported that the 270.51 drivers fix the SC2 glitch problems at least at low shader stettings, can you confirm that oogamar?

 

I have tried the new beta drivers and i'm pleased to report they have totally solved the crashing issues on both crysis and starcraft 2.

Starcraft is now artifact free even on medium+ shader settings and crysis no longer stutters and whitescreens every 5 seconds.

These are THE drivers to get for this machine and i recommend everyone who has issues to download them.

Performance notes:
Since i can now run crysis warhead without it whiteing out and crashing i am able to give this machine a proper workout graphically. With my max overclocks on the gpu and cpu i was able to get around 18-20fps with shaders on high and everything else medium which is very good... with the excellent motion blur employed in this game 25fps results in smooth gameplay and that is easily reachable with everything set to medium. On low you get in excess of 35fps. This is all on native resolution aswell and by lowering the resolution you can easily get around 45-50fps on low if optimum gameplay is preferred over graphics.

This is not a gaming machine but it does a decent job with one of the most graphically demanding games ever made - very pleased with this latest driver.

Starcraft 2 is also smoothish on medium (around 22fps) with these overclocks. Performance does suffer when theres a highly populated map dipping to the low teens. On low the game is very playable (30+fps) with dips into the low 20's with loads of units onscreen.

 

Hi Guys

Am planning to buy the ASUS 1215 net book, I have few queries which I wanted to get to know from any of you who had used the netbook


1) The net book comes with 2GB ram, can we upgrade to 4GB ram ? if we upgrade will there be any change in bit rate (i.e 32 bit to 64 bit) - I read in one of the review from amazon which i pasted below,

Source :Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1215N-PU17-BK 12.1-Inch Netbook with 6 Hours of Battery Life - Black

The laptop comes with Windows 7 (32bit) version. Windows 7 is fine, but being 32-bit is a problem. Say you had a desire to upgrade your RAM to the max 4 gig allowed... this means you need to get Windows 7 (64bit) version. And that is a problem since then you also must update each component's driver to its 64-bit version too. This takes significant time and effort tracking down what needs what. Trial and error will likely ensue for such a thing. You can use up to 3 gigs RAM with 32-bit Windows, which is probably fine for most of the people in today's market.

2) Can we upgrade the OS ( i.e from Win 7 starter to Win Xp or Win 7 premium or something)

3) Can we install any applications, softwares, utility softwares, programming applications etc

 

1) yes you can upgrade to 4gb of ram... infact u can put up to 8gb in the 1215n however with a 32bit os it will only use 3.2gb regardless of how much you have installed. if you upgrade to 64bit you can use all the ram you have. Finding drivers for 64bit isnt hard and most of the ones that are on the asus site work on 64bit, the only one you really have to get from elsewhere is the nvidia driver.

2)it comes with windows 7 premium but you can update to whatever you need

3) Not quite sure what you're asking here but as long as it works on windows 7 it will work on the 1215n


In other news:

I dont know why i never tryed this before but by plugging the 1215n into an external monitor via hdmi you actually get a noticable performance boost. I tried starcraft 2 and batman arkham asylum both on a 1080p tv and performance was around 40% better... batman in particular was hitting around 28fps at 1360x768 - the usual when using the netbook's screen being a max of around 21 at best. Starcraft i tried @ 1080p on medium and it was hanging around the high teens - something which it can only usually just manage at 1360x768 on the netbook's screen.

It seems that because the hdmi socket goes straight to the ION gpu rather than having to deal with the IGP and optimus that more of the raw performance of the ION is showing than when it is being bogged down having to pass data through IGP first.

Also i noted that using hdmi eliminates the crackling audio that sometimes occurs in games when overclocking the cpu and also FRAPS shows the correct FPS when overclocked - unlike when using the netbook's screen.

General system responsiveness was also improved... web browsing and opening files and games etc was noticably quicker.

 

The last beta drivers gave a very significant increase to FPS on WoW.
(266.58: lowest settings native res 20-30 fps
267.24: Medium-high settings, 4xAA, native res 35+ fps)

I'm hoping this increase is at least preserved in the new beta drivers. Unfortunately, i can't test it right now, if anyone could confirm this that'd be great!

Also, a little advice: Run Warcraft 3 on the Integrated Graphics for ~30 fps instead of 10 on the 266.58 GPU.

Thanks!
-Uzalu

P.S. Any improvement in Black Ops performance?

P.P.S. Something else weird i have noticed but not mentioned: Steam videos (trailers etc.) run very slowly, integrated or gpu. Anyone know why/have a fix?

 

@oogamar

is this the case with the vga cable to? or only hdmi?

 

The vga port uses the intel chip just like the internal screen. Only HDMI connects straight to the ION gpu.

 

@ oogamar, in my third question i meant to ask, Will I be able to install complex applications ,e.g visual studio, MS SQL 2005/ 08 etc, application of this kind typically used for programming.

 

I can say that Visual Studio 2008 Professional is on my 1215n with no issues, I have not tried MS SQL but I would imagine there would be no issues.

 

I also have VS2008 on mine and it works fine. Theres no reason SQL shouldn't work well aswell.

 

Hi All,
I got my 1215N since last October and have a issue with the Hard-drive.
I needed a bigger hard drive, so I got me a 750GB from Seagate to replace the 250GB Seagate.
Installation went flawless (did not brake any tabs ), and also after cloning the HD everything seemed to work perfect. All installed software's worked fine, could do everything that I did with the 250GB until I decided to go and get me new updates from MS. I can't update win7 anymore.
The update page is just coming back and back and back it also claims I never updated the win7 OS.
After checking for errors it came back that there are critical errors and the error message is 0x8000ffff. tried to fix it so far to no avail.
I decided to just reinstall the OS and that's where the problem starts. The installation started from the hidden drive fine up to a certain point and then a message pops up:
"Can't finish the installation due to hardware incompatibility"
and that's the end of it.
The 750GB is from the same Seagate family as the original 250GB and that's the only hardware change I did.
Of course the computer would not start anymore but I had a Image file so I restored the C-Drive and all works again, except I can't update the OS.
Before I started the swap of the HD, I had several images from the 250GB drive. 1 was just a compressed backup and the second one was a sector by sector backup, 3rd was a backup with a different software as .img.
I did that since I know backups can fail.
The old drive is installed in a USB3 box since I have 2 ports with USB3 on my 1215N.
All backups restored to the new drive would have the win7 OS update problem.
I also cloned the HD (C-Drive) from the USB3 box over to the installed drive, after reboot all is there including the 0x8000ffff.
BIOS is updated to 0701 firmware.
Anybody has any Idea what is going on?
Would appreciate if anybody has a solution. Thanks

 

has anyone tried running any call of duty games 4 and up with the new beta drivers? I really want to play some multiplayer!

 

Since I've installed the new 270.51 Beta drivers, I'm having great performance problems in OpenGl based games (especially Quake series, but also other games). Has anyone else experienced these problems?

 

hey guys, sorry i've been really busy IRL and couldn't post vids or much at all but it seems my computer is acting VERY strange,

i just installed the new 267 drivers and i can't seem to use my ION properly anymore, in GTA4 it says i have 56mb of graphics ram and doesn't load the game, and 3Dmark06 only detects my intel chip, PLUS i can't seem to find anywhere in the Nvidia Cp the force graphics tab or anything anymore, there is only three "tasks" (dev setting, sys info, and prof policies) and one system update, i don't get it, i'm going to try running 3dmk first and comparing it's results to my original stats, after that i'll post back my results... so yeah seskal your not the only one here.

i hope my systems ok, it got toyed with by a worm at one point and i still need to reinstall windows but asus in all it's glory never gave me a recovery partition.

p.s. does anyone know if SHE is back online or if anyone is planning on fixing it? i liked having twice the battery life of any of my friends.

hmm odd enough better?

stock/van 1215n x32

driver-266.58

OC 2869 3dmk
sm2.0 1201
sm3.0 1175
cpu 960

not oc
2579
sm2 1058
hdr/sm3 1081
cpu 859

270 - not oc
2706
sm2 1125
hdr/sm3 1090
cpu 959

i might OC after i figure out my chip is A-OK.

i still can't find the 'ol force processor even taskbar link doesn't go there anymore.

i want to force mektek mechwarrior4 + "high(er) def mod" to use the ion (want to see if it will make things look better by force anti-aliasing more) but i can't force ANYTHING right now that needs admin rights.

ok, C&C3, with a 8 cpu match i was hovering around the 10fps mark at the peak it was pretty smooth with lows of 6 and highs of 30 on MED without OC... it would never come close without the ion.

and for those who are interested the temprature of the CPU was 53/55*c and the gpu was 63/64*c which is a little warm for the norm.

 

I am a bit confused. Which temps are the ones to be looking out for? I would always look at the cpu temp in the motherboard section. the one in bottom of the TZ00. Can someone explain the differences in that temp and the ones that say core #1 and core #2, should they all read pretty much the same? Under load I get 66-69c on the motherboard section and on core 1-2 its about 45c tops...

 

to me, it looks like your ION fluxuates 3*C give or take, and your processor is temp is alot like mine when i'm not being hard on it. (plus my room was pretty warm)

the highest i've ever see my processor go is that hot never hotter, even overclocked!

i imagine it's fine till 60 really start easing off after that.

i posted that so people know what to expect under load, i got one of asus's reps to send me a file telling me the max temps, it says they the CPU is good till 90*C, throttle kicks in a 92*c and OverTempratureProtection (OTP) shutdown at 95-98*c.

on another note my powersupply block does the same thing if it gets too hot, shuts off for a few hours till it's absolutely cold,
i don't know how the pc would handle it though, i've never had it happen.

if the file limit was a bit higher i'd just share the PDF i got. - 488mb vs 520mb
i suppose if you really want it you could PM me an e-mail and i'd send it.

// got the 3d settings back... still can't force the ion.

 

When you say you can't force the ion do u mean u cant see the option or it just doesn't take when you select it?

I have been using the 270 drivers for a couple of weeks now and have had no issues.

 

it just doesn't take my orders. i have no idea why, it may have to do with the fact that mechwarrior needs to be run as an admin?

i even went and selected the program again (in the control panel from my program files) just to be sure the settings was for the game i was playing (MW4) originally it auto selected my integrated and it runs fine with it, but i'm trying to force anti-aliasing and the like cause the game only lets you go 2x.

 

Hello,

I've got some questions regarding memory support, the CPU is advertised as as follow:

Intel® Atom? processor D525 (1M Cache, 1.80 GHz)with SPEC Code(s)SLBXC

Max memory size is listed on that page as "4 GB" and most importantly it says that only 32-bits are addressable.

So based on those specifications it seems that 1215N cannot work with more than 4 GB total? But then I've seen here a screenshot of someone using 5 GB? (4+1)

I'm planning to upgrade the memory, could someone please explain whenever it's possible to use 2x 4 GB and if so then how does it work?


With kind regards,

pigglywiggly

 

@zudukai
Well you can set it to auto run admin by right clicking on the shortcut going to compatibility tab and ticking run as admin.

Also have you checked GPU utilisation by running GPUz in the background and seeing if the ION gpu shows any activity while running the game? If the clocks stay @ 2d clocks and gpu utilisation stays @ 0% then it isn't using the ION, otherwise it is and it's just the ION isn't performing very well.

It might purely be because MW4 is an older game. Optimus has trouble with a number other of older games; warcraft 3 for example.

Do you have the same issue with newer titles?

Yes it is possible to have up to 8gb in the 1215n although i fail to see why you would want that much as it's not the best device to do heavy video editing/multimedia work on. 4gb is overkill really for a device of this class but is better to have than the standard 2gb it comes with to prevent unneccesary paging etc.
It works due to a BIOS update issued by asus to allow memory mapping beyond the 32bit level - allowing 64bit systems to utilise all the installed RAM, up to 8gb.

 

For those asking about drivers, http://fit.planet.ee/?page_id=23

Seems to be getting kept up-to-date as it includes the 267 drivers for the ION, both nice lists for 32&64bit

Stumbled on it when I upgraded to 4GB of RAM and went to 64bit Win7

 

my issue is not with running as admin, it's definitely NOT that simple it IS running as admin and because of that i can't right click: "run with graphics processor" because the effect is Nil.

i'm not even sure optimus is even running right, because in one of the recent driver notes it said it was not compatible. anywho, the only other game i have trouble forcing the graphics is C&C generals, another aged game. (even zero hour)

i will check GPU-Z now.

*edit* i'm seeing no activity.

 

Yes the admin thing was a shot in the dark. Although you could turn off the need for admin rights all together if you dont need it by turning off UAC (user account control) - might prevent a few problems in the future.

The new drivers say they dont work with "hybrid graphics" which is not optimus - its an older technology that isn't used anymore so no worries there.

The only thing i can suggest at this stage is to do a CLEAN nvidia driver install to ensure you arent getting conflicts between driver versions.

Uninstall the drivers manually and then use a registry cleaning tool like drivesweeper or CCleaner to delete trace files then reinstall the 270.51 driver(the best driver for the 1215n available so far).

Then try youtube or an hd video whilst watching gpuz to see if optimus is working at all and then move back onto the games.

If it still doesn't work there might be something wrong with the nvidia chip. The way to ascertain this would be to hook it up to a monitor/tv via hdmi so its only using the ion to see if the gpu functions normally.

 

I am having a similar problem that Flash isn't getting offloaded onto the ION and when attempting to play a Facebook game for example I sit with 80%+ cpu usage and its unplayable.

Checked using GPUz and it just sits with 2D clocks. However with FurMark it kicks it into high gear, only to the score of about 2FPS but it still uses the ION chip rather than the Integrated Intel.

And the HDMI output works fine, but only the HDMI output shows on the GPU usage and a 720p youtube video maxes out the CPU and then the video starts stuttering

*EDIT* BBC Iplayer in HD is unwatching too.

 

Man, this notebook is buggy. Wish I had found this thread before I bought it, because then I would have bought something else for sure.
I'm also trying to play some old games on this and noticed something that others might benefit from. I've tried playing Arcanum and Fallout Tactics and noticed that the games run horribly if I use the ION graphics, but if I change it so it uses the integrated graphics they run just fine. Hope it helps someone.

 

Theres a fix now for the inaccurate fps counter when overclocking the cpu in games.

Heres the link: http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...must-read-setfsb-o-c-game-problems-fixed.html

I have tried it and it works... the fps shown by fraps and other ingame counters now reads true.

EDIT: This fix also sorts out the audio crackling when using setfsb.

 

Ive got a question that I hope someone can answer. I have been Steam crazy lately with downloading and have used up all my disk space for c: drive. I have my d: drive that is pretty filled up to. If I merge the both partitions how will it turn out? will it be a headache to sort everything out?

 

I have only merged partitions on win7 when one is totally blank since all you're reallocating is free space. I dont think it works if the space isn't free. My advice would be to backup D drive, clear it, merge it and restore rather than have all the hassle of trying to find a workaround.

 

What I did before a total reformat before my 64bit installation, was to install Steam onto the D partition.

Steam has a backup feature for installed games, tell it to backup all your games onto that 2nd partition, uninstall Steam, and then reinstall Steam onto the D partition and restore that game data.

 

Thanks guys for the replies. With me being impatient I decided to format the d: but then could not relocate free memory to the c: drive since the partition for the windows install was in the middle so I deleted that as well and merged it all together.

 

p0rtal 2 runs pretty good with the 1215n. all settings are low except for textures set to high and it runs in the mid 20s with dips going to 15 when theres a lot happening on screen

Edit - Runs even better than Portal 1. Really satisfying story...

 

Has anyone tried running Counter-Strike Source with this? How is it at native res and does it get over 60 fps?

 

I havent tried css on this netbook myself but i have tried left for dead, half life 2, HL2 deathmatch and HL2 lost coast which all work on the same engine... I would expect to get 30-40fps with max settings and native resolution. Lower settings and it's well within the realms of possibility to get 60fps. Overclock and you would get closer to 38-45fps on max settings.

 

hey guys, out of a stupid move (thinking it was virus related) i deleted my backup partition, can anyone think of a way to get it back? this normally wouldn't be an issue for me but it turns out i need it more then i thought because i lost half of my function keys the other night and can't seem to get the ATK drivers ANYWHERE?! i was on the phone with tech support and they were just as useless as my dog trying to help me fix it, they said that the only drivers that they have access too are the same ones i do, on the site (that does not have the ATK keyboard driver) i don't want to uninstall for fear of always needing a keyboard attached, and cannot roll back...

HELP? :GEEK:

maybe i could have a copy of yours? :confused2:
maybe your backup partition too??? :yes:

 

@ zudukai: to force C&C Zero Hour to use the 1215N ion gpu follow these steps

> thru explorer, browse to the main install C&C ZH dir (e.g. C:\Program Files\EA Games\Command & Conquer Generals Zero Hour\)
> rename game.dat to game.dat.exe (easier to do this if uncheck the explorer option that hides known file type extensions), ok to windows warning msg
> launch NVIDIA control panel
> add game.dat.exe to the program settings and set to high performance NVIDIA processor
> thru explorer, rename game.dat.exe back to game.dat
> now launch C&C ZH and it'll use the ion gpu
[I've assumed you've already added the generals.exe thru the NVIDIA control panel too]


You can check the ion gpu is in use thru using the NVIDIA ION tools
> NVGPUStateViewer.exe
> NvOptimusTestViewer.exe

Hope this helps.

 

Is 1215b going to run better than the 1215n with the fusion apu? I know that ion 2 is a lil better than the radeon 6310 but I heard the ion 2 can't perform at full capacity because of some pci bottleneck bullcrap.

 

Its difficult to give a definite answer on that... the ION2 is connected via a pciex1 link which in theory cuts the gpu down to about 75% performance. However nvidia optimus technology employs a kind of compression which lessens the performance hit, upping the performance back to 80-100% depending on the game and how it utilises pcie bandwidth.

The ION2 as a gpu is stronger than the 6310 by a fair bit but the processor with the fusion solution is stronger than the d525 atom. At stock levels the performance of the machines would be extremely close however the 1215n with the ION2 would most probably pull ahead still in most games (depending on pcie usage and driver support) fps-wise, but may incur more stuttering and choppyness if the pcie bus gets too loaded (which i have seen happen from time to time).
The 1215b with fusion would have less FPS but would most likely provide a smoother experience and less varience in fps -bearing in mind that if the fps is low to begin with then it will still be choppy anyway.

The D525 atom in the 1215n can be overclocked easily to levels which would beat the dual core fusion cpu thus giving the best of both worlds (faster cpu+gpu) which is going to be quite a bit better for gaming in that case.

Basically if you're willing to do a bit of tweaking and overclocking then the 1215n is the better machine performance wise. But if you're looking for the easiest option with more stability then the 1215b is better.

Hope that helps.

 

Hi,

Started playing games on my 1215n and found this thread almost instantly, well the performance is not mind blowing.

New BIOS, new ion drivers, OC FSB using SetFSB to suggested values, the same goes for the GPU.

Running World of Tanks multiplayer game and I get max. 14fps using the lowest settings, I read (also on this thread) that people achieve 20+ fps.

Any ideas what I am doing wrong or what can be the cause?

Thanks