U30JC discussion thread

I think the reviewer simply calls it the UL series rather than the U series.

UL35jc = U35jc
UL30 = U30 (probably U30jc as there aren't any other U30 models releasing soon, plus the unit actually looks like the U30jc in thickness, ODD etc.)

 

Who knows? Perhaps you're right. Though the photos look just like the U30Jc & UL30Vt, hence why I think they're supposed to be the U35Jc & UL30Jt ... but the article is indeed so poorly written, it's impossible to know for sure.

Oh well. The UL30Jt is essentially out and the U35Jc will be out soon enough and then this line of discussion will be moot.

It will help once ASUS posts the U35Jc's specs on their product page.

 

Sorry about my late response, I've been checking out the envy 14 stuff, Im just jumping around from one laptop to another..
But on the same bit-tech review, the reviewer states

"The UL35Jc is thinner as it loses the optical drive; it's significantly lighter than the UL30, despite having an aluminium cover, but the trade off is that inside it's all plastic. The system had no OS, so we couldn't test the LED backlit display and Core i3-530M."

Hands-on with the Asus U35Jc and UL30 | bit-tech.net

So I assumed he meant the palm rest area, but I may be wrong.

 

Assuming the 2H10 line of notebooks are available for sale in Taiwan, I'll get to see them in person in a week or so

 

That's just the point. He's comparing the U35Jc to the UL30(Jt), and states that the U35Jc is thinner and lighter as it loses the optical drive. Thinner & lighter than what? Loses the optical drive compared to what? The UL30Jt? The UL30Jt has no optical drive & is less than an inch thick and is lighter than aluminum models as it has a plastic palm rest & trackpad.

Therefore, his statement makes no sense.

And he says that the U35Jc is an all-plastic base compared to the UL30Jt which he states has an aluminum body. And then he shows photos of and aluminum clone of the U30Jc and an all-plastic black-bodied notebook that looks just like the UL30Jt listed on ASUS' product page.

Again, his statement makes no sense as the UL30Jt has no aluminum in its body. It's chassis is all plastic.

We KNOW what one of these two notebooks look like (the UL30Jt) and its only processor listed as i5-520UM (unlike the U30Jc which listed as a choice of 6 processors depending on region sales.)

Knowing the details of the UL30Jt clearly shows he has confused the two notebooks ... or the UL30 he keeps describing ISN'T the UL30Jt but some other proposed model they haven't come out with (though it looks IDENTICAL case-wise to the UL30Jt listed on ASUS' product page.)

 

yeah, he is really confused, but I just took it for granted he was confusing the U30JC ad the Ul30JT.. but then again you know what happens when you assume

But like you said we would only truly know when the info appears on the product page... which is soon I hope.. although due to disappointing reviews of the UL30JT I jumped over to the HP bandwagon.

 

So you jumped onto the HP bandwagon.

Did you buy the HP Envy 14? It's a very nice-looking notebook.

Have you received it yet? Your impressions?

 

Isn't released yet, again I am waiting , but my backup is the hp dm4 if the envy fails, but this time I am pretty set on the envy, but I am sure it will have its share of issues. Its hp after all.

The thing is I am not from the states, so its not easy for me to ship a laptop back to the states for it to be fixed if there are any problems, but hp has technicians in my country, so that was one of the reason I switched.

I would really like the ASUS, but when its all said and done, this is a really big investment for me so I think its wisest to go with a brand that would offer warranty coverage in my country.

 

I lived 25 yrs overseas, so I know what you mean. So does ASUS not have authorized repair dealers in your country? In the Middle East, many chose HP or Toshiba (or IBM) because they had authorized repair locations in their country.

The Envy 14 isn't released yet? I had read so much about it, I just assumed (there's that word again) that it was out & for sale now.

Okay, I just looked on Amazon. The Envy 13, 15 & 17 are for sale, but not the 14 yet. The prices!! Ouch! 13" for $1,504-$1,592 & the 15" for $1,374-$1,731. The 17" are even more, of course.

It must be the Magnesium alloy body pushing the price up. Nice looking, for sure.

 

NVIDIA just released some beta drivers that supports Optimus if anyone wants to try them out.

NVIDIA DRIVERS 257.15 BETA

 

How do you know these drivers support Optimus. I've tried installing the standard 310M NVIDIA drivers 197.16 (not specified for "Optimus") and I royally messed up my OS. I had to restore to regain use of everything.

Have you used this beta driver on an Optimus system? Everything works okay?

UPDATE:
Then again, looking at your link page, NVIDIA does say it "adds support for NVIDIA Optimus notebooks." Fair enough.

So have you tried them on your system? What ASUS notebook do you have?

 

Will these work on the UL30VT-A1?

 

Nope ASUS does not even have an authorized reseller in my country, much less a repair dealer. The envy 14 isn't quite as powerful as the envy 15 but supposed to have longer battery life, and it a bit thicker I believe to help with some heating issues that the 15 might have had. Additionally the graphics card is less powerful than the envy 15, but the starting price is $999.

Based on speculation of what the base model will actually have, this is the one I would be looking at (the base model)

From the youtube videos they will come with an i5, backlit keyboard and discrete GPU. As for the screen resolution and amount of RAM in the base price no one knows for sure, but I believe the standard screen is a 1600 x 900 radiance screen. I dont mind buying with a small hard drive as well as I can always upgrade that later as well as RAM when I save up some more money, but the CPU and GPU seems pretty good for the price.

However I am not very fond of the floral pattern, if it had a brushed metal look like the U30JC then that would be perfect, but its not a deal breaker.

 

I have not tried them on my U30JC yet but I will sometime today.

According to AnandTech, No.

 

Ah yes, I'm not too fond of the odd floral pattern either. It is, at least, distinctive. 1600 x 900. Nice. I've no idea what a radiance screen is, but the screen is one of the most important interfaces on a notebook. And the U30Jc's screen is, for me, one of the cheapest features. A TN panel, like most in this price range, but not a very good one.

So if by "radiance," HP means a better quality screen ... go for it! CPU/GPU rate up there highly as well, since they can't easily, if at all, be upgraded.

I hope the HP Envy 14 works out for you!

 

I just finished installing the new 257.15 reference drivers on my U30Jc, and I can confirm that they installed with no difficulties and have native support for Optimus. Also, CUDA, OpenCL, and DirectCompute are all now listed as properly supported by GPU-Z:


Update: Performance seems to have improved slightly, maybe 5% or so over the 189.79 drivers (slight, but nothing to scoff at). Interesting, IQ seems to be markedly improved as well - colors seemed much richer during the CS:S stress test, for example, and at long last that damn shiny fingernail thing is fixed - though that sort of thing is obviously pretty difficult to quantize.

 

Excellent. Thank you, LowlyMarine, for testing that driver out. You've encouraged me to follow your example.

BTW, I wonder if a future driver might also fix the very odd "Pixel Fillrate" listing. The UL30Vt reads very differently in that box.

UPDATE: At last! Under the new beta drivers, Optimus uses the NVIDIA GPU to run WinDVD 10 & PowerDVD 9! ... No, false alarm. PowerDVD or WinDVD.exe still seem to run under the IGP according to GPU-Z's Sensors tab.

GPU-Z 0.4.3 also gives more info on the Intel HD IGP as well. CUDA looks fixed. But the odd report of 0.6 on the Pixel Fillrate is still ... odd.

 

hey do you guys know any similar laptop to the u30jc but in a 14-15.4 inch form?? Because im currently on a 15.4 inch and i dont think i can go down screen size as i liek to multitask alot

 

HP Envy 14 (not out yet) or Envy 15?

ASUS UL80Vf? UL50Jt (not out yet)?

ASUS U45Jc (14" version of U30Jc ... it's not out either)

I'm uneducated in this matter. I buy & then (mostly) don't look.

 

Some of that extra thickness comes from the edge to edge glass screen.

 

That's a typo. Below it says DVD etc "N/A" = not available. All spec of U35JC matches UL30JT exactly, it really is the UL30JT but with a 35W CPU instead. Arrives in Sweden on May 31!

 

And that is where it doesn't make any sense at all. I've never seen Asus pick another name for exactly the same casing, except for the X- and Z-series, which are made for the larger stores.

Another point I've read is that the scandinavian stores don't state the ODD as well. Keep in mind that they only have a very brief description of the notebook, only showing the highlight. I am still missing the complete specification list.

We can go on with speculating about this, but lets wait for a manula, product page or (user) review of the U35Jc.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/484551-asus-world-magazine-may-june-2010-a.html
it seems that the U45Jc is pretty much the same as the U30Jc, with the optical disk and the same options, just an inch bigger (14")

 

Amen to that!

I hadn't noticed the U45Jc. Thanks for pointing that out.

Curious that it is lighter. Smaller battery perhaps (yuck)? They list the U30Jc as 2.0 kl w/ a 6-cell battery. The US version comes w/ an 8-cell & weighs 2.18 kl. They list the U45Jc as 1.9 kl. ... Weight is still speculation anyway. Battery sizes internationally are always negotiable.

Also it has the increased VRAM to 1GB for those who might need it.

 

So what I looked at up there...

The PC World magazine said the U30JC has a 6-cell I thought it had 8?

Ohter question...

How much does the U30jc weigh in lbs with battery in...?

How much do you think the U45 will weigh in lbs, assuming that it has EVERYTHING the same...with the bigger screen...

Personally I prefer 14.1 vs 13.3

I was goign to get the U30JC but it is out of stock most places, and if a 14.1 version is coming out, why not wait for that. I'm in no hurry to get a laptop anytime soon.

 

1) TheU30Jc, sold in the US, comes with an 8-cell battery. Not sure about the rest of the world. Where do you live?
2) My U30Jc, with the 8-cell battery in, weighs 4.8 lbs/2.18 kl
3) The ASUS May/June 2010 magazine here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/484551-asus-world-magazine-may-june-2010-a.html
states that the U45Jc will weigh 4.2 lbs/1.9 kl. It doesn't say what size the battery is with that weight, so that could change.
4) Their measurements show the U45Jc to be the exact same dimensions and setup as as the U30Jc except for a 14.1" screen, so I'd assume they'd weigh about the same. The U45Jc might weigh a bit more.
5) As for finding the U30Jc in stock, GenTechPC and XoticPC both seem to show it in stock for $869, and is less if you pay by bank transfer instead of VISA. There may be further discount if you buy through Bing Cash Back (you'd need to open a free acct). GenTechPC even lists two models: one regular and the other has a 7200rpm HDD, BT and Win 7 Pro 64-bit for $100 extra.
6) It could be a while before the U45Jc is released for sale in the US or elsewhere. (3-5 mo?) E.g. the UL30Jt previewed at CES in January 2010. People have waited to buy it ever since. They even refused other models as they waited for its "soon" release. It's almost June ... and they're still waiting.

 

Hello,

I've been reading this thread for awhile now....thanks for all the great info everyone's posted!

I've had my U30JC for about 2 weeks now, and I've come across an issue I've only seen mentioned once (post # 373 by Th@n@tos). His problem seemed to fix itself...mine has not!

Sometimes when I turn the laptop on, the fan will immediately kick in on full and will not slow down. This is under no load...the fan kicks in before Windows has even fully loaded. I've searched fairly extensively for some sort of program to allow me to control fan speeds, but I can't find anything that will work for the U30JC. Even the ASUS program AI Suite fails to install (midway through the install it gives me an error saying the program only works with ASUS motherboards), and ASUS' SmartDoctor can't detect the video card and won't start as a result.

Anyway, I just wanted to see if anyone else has had this issue or knows something I can try. Again, the fan kicks on at high, even though it's blowing out cold air. If I restart the laptop, it usually fixes it, but sometimes the fan will turn off and turn back on a second later as Windows reboots.

I'd appreciate any ideas!
Thanks

 

I remember when Th@n@tos had this problem. Have you PM'ed him to ask his thoughts? This thread has slowed way down in the last few days & I'm not sure how many are looking at it now.

Have you booted into the BIOS screen (F2) and left it sitting there a while just to see if the fan races? Or a boot up into any other OS?

That would help to rule out hardware and show that something in the Windows registry or a conflicting driver or Win app could be causing the problem.

When I had a sleep issue (repeated instant wake up) I tried lots of things. Finally, I removed as many progs I knew I'd installed that last week and then had Win 7 restore to a few days before the problem manifested ... and my problem was fixed.

If the problem continues out of Windows (in other OS's or BIOS), then it's likely hardware-related and time to call ASUS for a repair or replacement, IMO.

 

Received my U30Jc yesterday, i7 620M version.
I'm amazed with the performance.
Here is the windows score:
http://trunc.it/8g4kn/org

 

Hi Cupra.

Since your i7 uses only 18W and most of ours (in the US) uses 35W at max power, do you get greater battery life?

Can you give us an idea of your battery life on 50-60% brightness, wifi ON, and using basic Office apps on the IGP (no streaming video, ripped movies or DVD movies)?

 

His is 35W as well, the i7 620 UM is 18W

 

... Oh. You're right! I had been looking at Intel's i7-620UM info page.

My, these many permutations are tricky. Looking at the right spec sheet this time ... 2.66GHz with a max Turbo of 3.33GHz. Nice! I wonder what impact that has on the battery if the CPU is running at those speeds.

BTW, if anyone doesn't see Cupra's WEI scores (I didn't), go to this link:
Cupra's WEI Scores and the scores will show up.

They are:
6.9 CPU
5.9 RAM
4.5 Aero
5.3 3D Gaming
5.8 HDD

 

I think under heavy load it will drain faster than the i3,
but right now at usual work I think it will do 7h. I'll post the result later.

And the wear level of the battery is very good, 2,13%. Almost the announced capacity after first charge.

http://trunc.it/8fdhi/org

 

My experience with Asus laptops and their batteries is very good. I was curious, so I started my 2,5 year old F3Sc and I have been very bad for the battery. Still I only have 7,8% wear after 2,5 years.

I have a question which someone hopefully can answer. As some know, the U30Jc still isn't available in the Netherlands and I don't see it coming soon anyway. Since the Euro did drop much compared to the dollar I am looking to import an U30Jc from Germany. The only problem is that they use a QWERTZ-keyboard.... I havent seen U30 keyboards, but it seems to me that the keyboard is identical to the UL30 and UL80-series keyboard. Could someone confirm this?

 

Not sure I can help much as I only own the U30Jc. If I remember correctly what I've read, the UL30Vt-A1 and the UL80Vt-A2 keyboards are identical.

Looking closely at the UL30Vt-A1's keyboard zoomed in on Amazon, I can confirm that the keyboard layout & look is identical to my U30Jc, including the tab slots. I would hazard a guess that the UL30Vt & U30Jc's keyboards are also interchangable, they look so identical. I just can't be 100% positive about the size.

But they look identical.

 

Thanks.

(oh, click on >NEW< below...)
NEW ASUS UL30 U30 Keyboard US Black With Silver Frame - eBay, Keyboards, Keyboards, Mice Input, Computers Networking. (Eindtijd 27-jun-10 09:20:19 CEST)
That one seems indeed to be a UL30/U30-type. As you already got the keyboard in your hands several times, is the backside the same on the picture to you as well?

To me everything looks fine as well. The odd thing is that I found the UL30A cheap looking oposed to the UL30Jc keyboard. But the glossy paint could also cause this... I havent seen the U30Jc in real life, so I can't compare them. Probably I've seen some bad pictures in the past

 

I just popped off my keyboard. It looks 100% identical, including the keyboard cable and backside, to the keyboard you linked to.

I'm not sure what you mean by "glossy paint". My keyboard has a matte silver paint on the upper-side and a solid thin metal sheet on the bottom side (no paint). I hope the replacement UL30 keyboard has the same silver paint tone as the U30Jc's. But even if it doesn't, it should still look fine.

BTW, this is the odd part of why I'm surprised about some people's complaint about keyboard flex in the U30Jc. The back of the keyboard is a thin sheet of metal. That sheet rests on top of the chassis' almost solid metal plate that feels utterly inflexible. When the keyboard is in its slot, I cannot feel any give. Two metal plates make it to feel very solid.

BUT, the keyboard's thin sheet of metal on its backside IS very thin and easily bendable. It can be slightly warped which means it seats imperfectly on (lifts up from) the other metal sheet of the chassis. The keyboard's warp can lift it up as much as 0.2-0.5mm and it still locks into the housing (I've not measured it, but I mean to say that the keyboard can sit lifted a very small amount above the seating plate.) Perhaps that is what is giving some people a feel that it is flexing. In actuality, it is amazingly solid, but can feel like it gives slightly where the keyboard is slightly warped ( good news: any warp can be easily unwarped by bending it the correct way by hand.)

I hope that helps. A clever way to get a German-sold U30Jc with the keyboard you need! Excellent!

... and cost just a little over 7 Euros? I had no idea they were that inexpensive. (Of course, the shipping is more than the item. Typical.)

 

Well the black glossy UL30A keyboard looks pretty cheap. The silver one should be matte.

The keyboard quality was odd to me as well. Some reviews praised the UL30A for the great keyboard, while other reviews had problems with flex.

Now the big question, do I want to buy it before my vacation or after... I know it will be an Asus U30Jc, the other options are way more expensive and still offer less.

Edit:
Oh, I just discovered that the U35Jc isn't my laptop: It lacks the ODD. It basically is an UL30-series...
http://www.qq.com.tw/redirect.php?tid=887&goto=lastpost

 

Oh, ughh. I just looked at the photos of the U35J that you linked to.

That pattern they've printed on the surface around the keyboard & palm rest/trackpad. Double-ughh. I much prefer the plain brushed aluminum look.

What happened to the palm rest? No brushed aluminum? Plastic?

And did you notice the buttons above the upper right & left of the keyboard? Completely different power button and different location. Those two buttons look like the UL30Vt/Jt. That upper left button used to be for the graphics change.

The U35Jc's 310M chip & VRAM is also clocked somewhat lower than my U30Jc's 310M chip:
U35Jc / U30Jc
606 / 625 MHz
667 / 790 MHz
1468 / 1530 MHz

The hinges are completely different as well. Not at all like the U30Jc. More like the UL30Vt.

Those photos are looking like the bottom two U35Jc photos in that review earlier:
Hands-on with the Asus U35Jc and UL30 | bit-tech.net

So that WAS the U35Jc after all. The reviewer was correct (and I was wrong in my guess).

Plastic? Why the utter change in the chassis? Due to losing the ODD? I would have thought there was more of a market niche for a clone of the U30Jc but with no ODD; a brushed aluminum one.

Man, give me the ODD & the brushed aluminum surface any day. MUCH classier looking, IMO.

... plus with an ODD, I can put in a SSD later if I want.

As for when to get it. I waited until AFTER my vacation ... and then later wished I had gotten it BEFORE my vacation so that I could have taken it along and had more time to set it up & play with it, which I find fun.

 

It is really cheap... The print is just ugly. A cheap plastic UL-casing with an ugly print and fast hardware = FAIL.

That's true. On the other side, I don't have much time to play with it before the vacation or in the vacation, so after that, prices could drop... Or the U30Jc coulf be disappeared. Maybe it's best to buy it before indeed. Gives me some time to sell my F3Sc as well.

 

BTW, since the Taiwanese U35Jc has a i5-430M (2.26GHz-2.56GHz max Turbo) and the Taiwanese UL30Jt has the i5-520UM (1.07GHz-1.87GHz max Turbo) and the UL30Jt can have ASUS' Turbo33 extra boost up to 2.13GHz.

Are they essentially the same notebook (chassis-wise) except that the U35Jc has a faster processor and an uglier plastic body (beauty is in the eye of the beholder)? Of course, the UL30Jt has a lower volt processor, so hopefully, longer battery life.

Why release it if it is essentially the same as the UL30Jt except for the processor? Neither has USB3 nor eSATA.

 

Probably because Acer is launching an TimelineX with normal voltage processors. Those processors should be cheaper as well.

About the battery, a dutch site hardly reached 8:30 on maximum saving with the UL30Jt and a 84Wh battery. That was with the lowest brightness and no WiFi. With the readers test (so still not surfing) and 50% brightness they reached only 6 hours.... Seems like the ULV-processors allow only for smaller notebooks in thinner chasis, but no longer battery runtime. Probably due the good saving functions of any Core i3/i5/i7.

 

I've recently gotten the u30jc and I love it. However, honestly, I did not know how weak the 310m was. sadface. Playing Sims 3 on it is fine, but I was wondering if it would be able to handle something like Dragon Age Origins? Should I just forget about being a part of Starcraft 2? Left 4 Dead 2?

 

Yes. The 310M is a very low end graphics chip. You can play some old games and most of all you can play HD movies without problems and make use of Cuda (if it is really enabled now). Oh and acceleration in Photoshop.

It is not really a gaming videochip, it just adds more value in some applications.

 

I wouldn't say forget about sc2 or l4d2 just yet. granted I haven't used a 310m (yet) but i've used hybrid graphics on dell studio xps 13's, and they ran sc2 beta and left 4 dead 2 just fine.... on lower graphics settings, but still very playable. I believe dragon age to be a processor intensive game, but with the i3 it should handle fine on the lowest settings.

The only other laptop with a more powerful graphics cards i've seen in a 13" form factor is the sony Z series, but those are wayy out of my budget (plus i'm against pretty much anything with a sony logo). The MB's and MBP's have 320m's (at 256mb), but they're still running on core 2 duos

 

The 310M is essentially the same as the 210M. Several users reported running L4D2 just fine on their U30Jc:
ASUS U30JC-A1 Performance, Benchmarks and Conclusion
"Gaming performance was very good with the NVIDIA GeForce 310M dedicated graphics. We used Left 4 Dead 2 to get a feel for real-world performance, playing through one level with the resolution set to 1366 x 768 with high-detail settings. If the system only offered Intel GMA HD graphics, users wouldn't see anywhere close to this level of performance."

TechReport says: Asus' U30Jc 13.3-inch notebook - The Tech Report - Page 8
"Left 4 Dead 2 is a different story, since even the latest and greatest version of Valve's Source Engine has very light hardware requirements. This cooperative zombie epic didn't disappoint, giving us very playable frame rates (25 to 50 FPS) at 1366x768 with everything cranked up except for antialiasing, anisotropic filtering, and v-sync, which we left off."

Here's AnandTech's gaming results:
ASUS U30Jc: Refining Thin and Light Performance
Batman:AA - 33 (High), 42 (Med)
B:BC2 - 28
Crysis - 44 (Low)
FC2 - 25 (Med), 41 (Low)
L4D2 - 22 (High), 35 (Med), 40 (Low)
"All of the games we tested were at least playable at 1366x768, with one exception. Mass Effect 2 really stresses the GPU subsystem on low-end GPUs, so it chugs along at sub-20 FPS in many areas. Likewise, we tried Dragon Age: Origins and found that it runs in the upper teens—a different engine than ME2, but apparently Bioware makes games that run similarly. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is borderline playable, hovering just below 30FPS; what's interesting to note is that even with a much more powerful GPU, the M11x turns in lower frame rates in BFBC2. Battlefield games have always been rather demanding on the CPU side of the equation, and BC2 appears to continue that trend."

And here is Expert Laptop Review weighing in on gaming on the 210M on the UL80Vt:
Asus UL80VT-A1 Gaming Benchmarks Expert Laptop Review
CS:S - 150
Crysis - 32 (Low)
L4D2 - 40-60 (textrs high, shadrs med), 26-35 (textrs very high, shadrs high, 2xAA)
Batman:AA - 40 (Med)
TF2 - 50-60 (High)
CoD:MW2 - 30-60 (High)

As for Starcraft 2, David here at NBR links to this video of a user playing SC2 on the U30Jc:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/6210247-post2.html

LowlyMarine on his blog said:
"The GeForce 310M is far from a powerhouse, but it does run circles around my T61’s Quadro NVS 140M (an 8400M derivative). Source engine games (such as Half-Life 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2) are fluidly playable at the screen’s native resolution with maximum settings even at their most stressing, provided you leave the anti-aliasing at home. Command and Conquer 3 (and therefore, likely Red Alert 3 and Command and Conquer 4 as well) runs at medium settings and native resolution without skipping a beat, even in multi-player combat. If you’re looking for a rig that can play Crysis with all of the eye candy turned on, this isn’t it. However, if you’re just looking to kick back with a game of TF2 or maybe even StarCraft 2 while on the go, then you’re golden"

So, though it is a low-end GPU, it seems it can do a lot with present games, though ones like ME2 & DA:O are too much for it. ... then again, one blogger says that he runs ME 2 just fine on his UL80Vt (210M). Go figure.

 

Thanks for the quick replies. I just tried the Just Cause 2 Demo with all the settings turned to low. The benchmark read at around 30 fps, but for some reason, the opening scene lagged very badly. The audio was already finished talking n the characters' mouths were still moving slowly. lol.

 

No idea why. Perhaps the demo is imperfect & the full game has a patch, perhaps, that makes it work better?

Online Notebook says:
"We checked the Asus U30Jc-A1 in our labs, we played Just Cause 2 ... Playing through the game was a good experience, we had to tone down some of the settings to medium. This is definitely not a gamers wet dream but the performance should be fine for casual gaming."

Be sure it's in performance mode, plugged-in and then reboot? :confused2: You've probably already done all of that.

These factors do affect my speed (I keep mine in sleep mode much of the time and the speed can get odd for no reason.)

BTW, I'm presently using the new NVIDIA Beta drivers 257.15, which are rated to work with Optimus, the 310M & the U30Jc. They are working well for me (fingers crossed.) The new beta drivers also seem to have enabled CUDA at last on my computer.

 

Is there any way to purposely turn on the 310m GPU? I am trying to use System Requirements Lab to see if I can run certain games, but the Intel HD GPU keeps showing up. Btw, is that nvidia gadget thingy that tells you if the discrete graphics is on, out yet?

 

Nope. But I set my default NVIDIA Control Panel settings to "High-Performance NVIDIA Processor". That still only uses the discrete chip when needed. Then I use GPU-Z 0.4.3. Be sure the first page is set to "NVIDIA GeForce 310M" and then look at the "Sensors" tab to check if the GPU is under load (being used.)

You can use NCP to set certain games to run only under the discrete GPU, if necessary. It should default to it usually.