Acer V5-122p with AMD A6-1450 and Radeon 8250 Gaming Performance

For whatever reason I decided to trial some games on my Acer V5-122p which is spec'ed as follows:

A6-1450 quad core (1000-1400MHz, runs 1300MHz all the time though)
Radeon HD 8250 integrated GPU, 128 pipes, 400MHz, overclocked to 500MHz
2GB onboard DDR3 + 4GB DDR3 module 1066MHz max speed due to CPU, and single channel only
Samsung 830 256GB SSD

The CPU has an 8W TDP with active cooling, and total system peak power draw from the wall during gaming was less than 20W, and this is with full screen brightness (touch screen too), and a backlit keyboard. Temperatures maintain less than 72C even with extended sessions.

It is quite impressive how far we've advanced that we can play x86 games on 8W hardware that required significantly more horsepower years ago. Granted this is lowest settings and a small resolution, but still, the performance is there.

Considering the limited bandwidth of the GPU, most games were run at 1024x576 to preserve 16:9 aspect of the 1366x768 resolution touch screen. I know 1024x576 isn't that high fidelity, but it remarkably looked decent and played well.

The results were a bit as expected but was a bit impressed as well. Instead of taking FPS measurements I recorded 5-15 minutes of gameplay near the beginning of the games so as not to spoil it too much for those that haven't played the games yet, plus I don't have time to play through all the games any length. FPS were shown with either FRAPS or MSI Afterburner. in the upper right or left corner depending on the game so it wouldn't hide some game information. I also try to show the game settings before I start the gameplay so you can see them.

I will update this thread with links to youtube videos showing performance of each of the games tested. If you are interested in a particular game let me know.

I rated them on an A,B,C,D,F grading scale like in school with A being highest, and F lowest as far as playability. By this an A playability rating means that the performance of the machine doesn't hinder gameplay. B means occasional performance dips or slight stability issues affecting gameplay. C means frequent performance dips and/or stability issues, D means frequent performance dips and stability issues making it barely tolerable to finish the game, and F rating means performance is too poor, stability problems, or won't run at all.

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Borderlands
1024x576, lowest details
Playable rating: B
Some occasional slowdowns could make heavy firefights a bit difficult
Borderlands Acer V5-122p AMD A6-1450 Radeon 8250 - YouTube

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Borderlands 2
1024x576, lowest details
Playable rating: B
Like Borderlands 1, some occasional slowdowns could make heavy firefights a bit difficult
Borderlands 2 Acer V5-122p AMD A6-1450 Radeon 8250 - YouTube

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Call of Duty: Black Ops
1024x600, lowest details
Playable rating: C
FPS was low with any amount of considerable action, into single digits sometimes so aiming was difficult
Call of Duty Black Ops Acer V5-122p AMD A6-1450 Radeon 8250 - YouTube

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Dead Space
1024x576, lowest settings
Playable rating: A-
A rare occasional FPS dip that might make reacting appropriately a bit difficult.
Dead Space on Acer V5-122p AMD A6-1450 Radeon 8250 - YouTube

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Dishonored
1024x576, lowest settings
Playable rating: B
For the most part no issues. FPS could dip a bit, and make controls a little cumbersome, but overall no issues, and fun game, I got addicted to it by playing it on this little laptop.
Dishonored on Acer V5-122p AMD A6-1450 Radeon 8250 - YouTube

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Tomb Raider
1024x576, lowest settings
Playble rating: B
http://youtu.be/Fti9HLvL6gw

 

Reserved for possible future additions.

 

Quite incredible. I almost bought one of these. Good work.

If I remember right, you have a quad core model, so it can boost up to 15W. Does it sustain higher wattages/clocks, or does it throttle down after a while? How are temps on that thing?

Will it OC any higher?

 

Yes the A6-1450 is a quad core model. The 15W is questionable, it runs at 1300MHz any time a load is applied, but no way to clock the CPU any more. Base clock is 1000MHz. GPU as noted was overclocked from 400MHz to 500MHz just with using MSI Afterburner, as long as ULPS is disabled, it clocks just fine. It basically toggles between 400MHz and 500MHz, and won't go any higher than that, but it gives an extra 10-15% FPS. I have a handful of other games to show still. Just taking the time to do it. Tomb Raider gets about 25-26FPS average with the benchmark, I have yet to play the game though to validate the performance.

It's clearly not meant for gaming, but it will suffice in a pinch with some of the newer games at low detail and resolution, and with older games. I'm sure to check out Starcraft 2 and Civilization V still.

I just like to push the limits and find it remarkable what games are actually playable. I think this laptop is a good buy at the $450-$500 that they sell for, just don't go for the dual core A4. The A6 manages fine, but borderline bearable with anything slightly taxing. A4 is the dual core version, I think it only runs at 1000MHz, and I can't imagine how slow that thing is, lol. I do wish there was a way to clock it a little higher, even 100-200MHz would help. There's plenty of thermal headroom, just limited by TDP I think.

AMD would have an awesome chip on their hands if they made it dual channel DDR3 and run at 1600MHz, it would improve FPS by 30-40%. Pretty significant, and could probably play at 720p no issue.

 

Thanks for the info. Now I want to get one again. Perfect small laptop for meetings at work where I want to take notes, and in the right price range.

If you have portal or portal 2 would you mind trying those?

 

Ah yes, good ones to try. Will add it to the list.

 

Nice work as always HT, 2 more games you might wan't to try are the new DMC game and Castlevania:LOS.
I've tried both using Intel HD 4200 graphics and get frame rates in the 20-30's. Just like you I'm always looking to push the limits of what my machine can do.
It's HP SPLIT x2 ultrabook convertible that I got on sale cheap from BB, it has i5-4202Y mobile processor so I'm sure the GPU is better on your laptop.

 

I'll give it a go. The HD 4200 may perform just as well, mainly because it supports dual channel RAM and DDR3-1600, as long as your ultrabook uses dual channel RAM and/or even supports it. Single channel RAM just kills any hopes of decent performance with any IGP because they're so bandwidth limited. But if it's running 1600MHz it will help quite a bit too.

 

Yes it is dual channel RAM, it's just amazing how far these small form factor laptops have come when it comes to gaming, sure it's not the most ideal way to game but at least you can if you get the urge.

 

Exactly. I don't travel like I used to, but there were several times when I traveled for business when I had my trusty Eee netbook at the time and people thought I was crazy for expecting it to play games. I was able to play several older games perfectly fine with the substandard Atom N270. Yeah that lethargic, anemic 1.6GHz single core CPU managed to play games from 2005 and earlier. I guess I have to commend the developers as well for making the games so scalable that it will run with a low end spec PC but also tax the highest end CPU and GPU.

 

nice work, do you have any way to measure power?
without display
witout wifi
witout bot wifi and display

 

I can measure power draw from the wall is all. Not sure how I can measure power without display unless I hook it up to an external monitor. System when loaded draws ~ 19W.

 

which do you think is better? the t100 or the v5-122p? in terms of performance[gaming and productivity]?

 

Funny you ask because I was doing a brief write up on that comparing the two, considering they are comparably priced.

But here's my quick take on it:

Battery Life: T100
T100 has a long battery life ~ 8-10 hrs casual use vs 3-4 of the V5-122p

Flexibility: T100
T100 can run as a tablet and is smaller, and can charge from a standard USB port, albeit it can take a while to charge too, although the V5-122p does have a displayport and two USB ports vs 1 on the T100.

Screen: TIE
Personal preference really, both 1366x768, just the V5-122p is bigger, both are touch.

Storage: V5-122p
Stock hard drive is 500GB vs 64GB of the T100. V5-122p can be upgraded to an SSD or other 7inch SATA device, although it technically voids the warranty. T100 only has microSD card expansion.

RAM: V5-122p
V5-122p has 2GB soldered on board, with a single SoDIMM slot, T100 has 2GB soldered and no expansion

Portability: TIE
Both weigh about the same, the V5-122p has a slightly bigger footprint.

Performance: V5-122p
Both are quad cores, the Atom Z3740 in the T100 is a 2W SDP, but really about 4-5W TDP with Intel HD graphics. The A6-1450 in the V5-122p is quad core with Radeon 8250 in an 8W TDP package. V5-122p can run newer games fluently at 1024x576, T100 needs to run at 800x450 and still falls short of the performance numbers of the V5-122p. The GPU of V5-122p is roughly 70-80% faster than the T100. But both run typical Windows tasks, Office, browsing, etc comparably.

Software: T100
OS is Windows 8.1 for both, V5-122p is 64-bit, T100 is 32-bit only, but includes Office 2013 Student (Word and Excel basically)

Cost: TIE
Both cost about $400 with all said and done.

So basically if you want a smaller tablet convertible with long battery life and Office 2013, go for T100. If you want a typical laptop with more storage and performance go for V5-122p.

 

How did you manage to play Dishonored in 1024x576? I've checked, there is no 1024x576 resolution to select in game, even I've defined this resolution as a custom resolution before (graphics card properties, Intel HD 3000 in my particular case).

 

Check out this post here. You have to create the custom resolution:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/724071-acer-aspire-v5-122p-owners-thread-40.html#post9536818

 

I have a very similar ultraportable, the HP Touchsmart e002sa which is currently stock - A6 1450, Radeon 8250, 4gb ram, 11.6" screen. Games which run well which you may like to try are:

Dead Island & Riptide (runs amazingly at 1024x600)
Fallout 3 and New Vegas (I think at 1024x600 with draw distances up
Burnout Pardise (1024x600)
Resident Evil 5 (very smooth at 1024x600)
GRID (1024x600 I think)
Oblivion and Skyrim (1024x600, Skyrim sometimes a little juddery)
Left 4 Dead 1 & 2 (720p, smooth)
Metro 2033 (1024x600, mostly fine)
Dragon Age Origins (720p I think, very smooth)
Far Cry 2 (I think 1024x600 but can't remember, smooth)

You can bump texture sizes right up with the 8250 so games such as Dead Island and Resident Evil 5 look stunning, games still look good at 600p even on the small screen. The laptop I have only gets slightly warm even after an hour of gaming which makes me wish it could be clocked even higher. Gears of War should also run ok, it was ok on my old C50 netbook.

Games I have tries which didn't run that well are State of Decay and Need for Speed Hot Pursuit (the new one), SoD is quite playable but there is no 1024x600 option so it's at 4:3 which looks horrible, NFS is a bit too laggy for too long to be playable.

Will be trying Outlast tonight, it's on sale via Steam or Gog now (GoG is cheaper and no DRM - £4.14 IIRC) if anyone is interested.

 

Oh by the way I just realised you are the guy that did the Youtube videos, they were quite helpful so thanks!

 

Hi lads,

Could you do me a favor and check how eve online runs on it with stock hdd and 4gb?

Thats basically only game I play on pc, if it can run it in a satisfactory way, I found my new tiny laptop

Thanks!

P.S. and for comparison, my current i3-2367m with 4gb ram and stock hdd runs it slightly below satisfactory level, on lowest settings with native res I'm getting between 20-30fps, excluding large battles