Requesting comments about the W3v's graphics....

OK, I just want to get a general idea of everyone's feelings in this forum. Somebody emailed me and told me it's too bad the W3 ONLY had an ATI x600 w/ 64mb vram.... thats right, ONLY.

I said... 4.5 pounds... 14" widescreen.... have I lost it? I can't confirm he's from this forum or this even from this year... but how many other systems this small even have dedicated video period... let along a 64mb x600 card?

I don't know if he wanted 128mb or 256mb... or an x700 or x800.. but I think the comment was strictly in terms of not enough vram. Let me know what you think.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

He/she must be a desktop user, and for a desktop user 128mb vram is the bare minimum these days, dont take it to heart . I'm sure that they're just a bit uneducated. Also consider the price you're paying for x600 compared to desktop x600, alot of difference. But of course its a whole different ball game once you're talking about mobility...!

 

No no..... 256mb x800 user here, so I know what $500 will buy.

This person, when I said..... 4.5 pounds.... 14" widescreen.... $2,100 ... he still gwaked at the 64mb... He's probably in this forum because he emailed my personal account and was talking about the W3....... but the point of my question isn't against him or anything...... but he was thinking how small the laptop wise.... That's why I said I didn't know if he was even from this year..... who knows what next year will bring.. but I was just wondering what notebooks will the W3 be going up against? I don't see any that have the same spec....... some that might be a little bigger or a little smaller... or have less of a dedicated video, if they have it all.... I don't mind competition, and I know how much I like all aspects of this system.. but if nothing else is really out there, then this system may be what a lot of people have really been waiting for......

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

I think I'd even be happy if it used integrated graphics... I realize how little I play games now and I barely use the MR9700 on this M6Ne.
64 mb x600 should be great... besides, who REALLY wants to hardcore game on a small 14" widescreen anyway? [ ]

ASUS M6800Ne, P-M 1.5 Dothan, 512MB Ram, Toshiba Combo drive, Samsung Spinpoint M 40G HDD with 8M cache, Mobility Radeon 9700

 

I travel 2-3 days a week, so for me carrying around the 6.5lb+ laptop required to get the best performance wasn't worth it. I think I was hoping for an improvement in gpu in the small form factor but it isn't happening. I think the W3V could appeal to the traveller who wants reasonable framerates on some of today's games. I'm not playing Doom3 on the road, but I am totally addicted to World of Warcraft, so i'm hoping the W3V is just what I need. If you guys disagree let me know 'cause I'm #3 on the W3V preorder.[ ]

 

Hey, I was also interested in the W3V cause of the potential for playing World of Warcraft as well! I tried it on my Toshiba R100, which has a discrete Trident GPU with 32mb and I got about 10 fps. I current play at home on an ATI X2-256 Fire GL card running at 1920x1200. I'm sure that the 1280x720 resolution of the W3 will mean playable framerates, even if it's just an X600 with 64mb of memory. Just make sure you get a lot of ram to help with texture loading =) And then post some framerates cause I'd sure like to know how well it does!

 

well i can see the w3 having a 64mb, but the new w1 or even the v6 should have been able to get a 128mb. the toshiba m40/a40 has the nvidia 6600 128mb and they are under 6 pounds and i think 1.5" thick.

 

I would imagine a small number of the lighter weight notebooks will begin to start incorporating better dedicated graphics memory in the next year or so. There is a high demand for small, portable notebooks that can handle casual gaming, especially as more and more people start playing games.

I was told at the beginning of my search for such a machine that it was not possible and I was stupid to even try to find such a thing and that I should pick one or the other: gaming notebook or portable notebook. I have looked at somewhere around 50 models of notebooks at this point and have found a large number weighing under 6lbs with dedicated graphics memory. The more I've read, the more I find others who are looking for the same thing I am looking for, so it's not crazy to assume that as technology makes it more possible for the larger gaming notebooks to get smaller, they will.

I do believe that dedicated graphics will become the standard over the next couple years as well. I honestly believe integrated graphics are becoming a thing of the past, as the price differences between notebooks with integrated graphics vs. those with dedicated graphics is becoming negligible. I've heard people claim that business users don't want or need dedicated graphics, so the market for these notebooks is slim, and if that's the case I find it odd that almost all of the reasonably portable notebooks out there with dedicated graphics are the so-called "business models". Dell, HP, Toshiba, etc, etc, etc. There are only a couple companies that seem to still be actively resisting the inclusion of dedicated graphics memory into their portable business notebooks, but I won't name any names. [^]

 

The Toshiba Portege S100 looks like it might be in about the same class, but it's a Toshiba (horror stories galore) and it's not out yet. It's not WXGA though and it's a bit more expensive than the W3v. And it doesn't look anywhere near as slick!

Otherwise, from the huge amount of shopping and comparing I've done...no. Nothing seems to be the same.

If you get into the V6V's class, it's a different story. Lots of competition there, especially recently. But I'd still probably buy the V6V over any of the others I've seen in its class.

 

Here's a relevant chart of WoW performance on various GPUs and resolution settings.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2381&p=4

Although they didn't test the X600 desktop chip, I'm sure that it's in the upper median of the range between the X300 and X700 chips. That and the Pentium M is a very competitive chip, so at a resolution of 1280 x 768 I think we'll be just fine.

Too bad they used Darnassus as the test - every WoW player knows IF is where to stress test your system =P I did find it interesting that the game ran much more poorly on Apple systems than PC, so if anything you should see a boost from the performance on your Powerbook...

 

I think someone posted in the forums that they are getting around 90 mins of battery on the Toshiba M40? I personally haven't found anything to compete with the W3V in terms of size/battery life/ and performance. What else is out there like Justin is asking in his initial post?

I do think that 128meg on an x600 is likely to appear in the future in the W3V's class. It's the same GPU just more memory....

 

In my opinion, I think having the X600 w/64MB on the W3v is reasonable. You have to give up on things to get something else.

W3v is light, thin, and sleek design. The form factor won't allow it to have anything better because it will create too much heat or take a beating on the battery life, etc. Plus it will raise the price like crazy.

But, I still a bit sad on the V6 though. I still think with that price they should've have only 1 stick of 512MB memory and X600 with 128MB video or X700 w/64MB video.

Laptop: TBD
My Website: http://www.smilepak.com

 

10fps with max settings on an x300 did give me pause for a minute. In that chart what is closest to an x600? the 4400Ti?

I didn't even bother trying to install WoW on the ibook. 8meg video card? I think not.[xx(]

 

The 10 fps is when it's run at 1600x1200 though. You get a whole 16 fps when you drop the resolution to 1280x768. But that's the X300, and I'm not sure where the mobile X600 falls, especially with a slower hard drive and bus and a different CPU. However, the Pentium-M is supposed to be a great contender, performance wise. I guess I can't plan on PVPing on my laptop, but I think it would just be nice to log on and check on auctions while I'm at an airport or something...

It'd be nice if someone could run some benchmarks of the V6V at 1280x768 resolution, since specwise I think those two machines are nearly identical. That'd help people thinking about preordering the W3V for sure.

 

Interesting. I might be running old EverQuest on it. How do you think it would handle that?

 

Well I did some research since the Stormrage server is down and I think the x600 is enough to do the job. For fun I switched to the 1600x1200 max detail in WoW and my 3ghz P4 with a NVIDIA 6800 Turbo went from 60fps to about 26-28. Pretty much anything that ran OK on a 9700 mobility is going to run on this system just not with max detail.

Also, if you search the forums there are guys with x600 128meg cards that are happy with WoW's performance.I know it's not 64meg but supposedly there isn't that much difference between the two mobilities I'm told.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by smilepak

 

They wanted to push the dual channel support.... but you're right, wrong move for anyone looking for 1gb out of the box.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

the only laptop in the w3v's class i can think of with dedicated graphics is sony's s380 with a 128mb geforce 6200. if i'm not mistaken though, only 32mb of that 128mb is really dedicated. Also, the 6200 is nvidia's budget/low performance card whereas the x600 is i'd say midrange for ati. overall, it's no comparison.

 

Plus, it's Sony...[xx(]

Sorry, I hate them and all their little proprietary cute crap. Nice notebooks, but I hate Sony. Rawr. (Can you tell I've had some traumatic Sony experiences?)

I still think the Toshiba Portege S100 will be in the W3V's class, but the W3V is a better computer because it's not Toshiba, which seem to have some major quality issues. Like the Sony, the Portege has the 6200 video card, so like you said before, that kind of ranks it below the W3 for sure. Also it's not WXGA, but in general the specs are similar. I think you would probably have to be crazy or ill-informed to buy the Portege over the W3 though. The W3 is definitely a standout.

_{I am one escroww}

 

Thanks inamorata.

My problem with Sony is their fixation on using their own proprietary technology in everything. I'm sick of the memory stick, I'm sick of the MiniDisc, I'm sick of the battle between Sony Electronics and Sony Music. They get to have the most recognized name in electronics, yet they are far from the best. I'm just sick of them and have made a vow never to buy another Sony product if I can help it. I just really hate the way they do business and their tech support is horrendous.

It tells you something that their Canadian website is called www.SonyStyle.ca - you're right, that's all they are about.

/end rant

_{I am one escroww}

 

Yeah I've heard Sony's support can be pretty bad. I've had a sony laptop for almost 6 years now with no major problems so i shouldn't complain. But i won't be getting another one. My major gripe with them is that they put style ahead of everything...performance, functionality, price, usability, etc. The w3v looks great but it's also got top notch specs at a more reasonable price...it seems to have struck a much better balance.

By the way, i like your signature