Bioshock and Vostro 1500 - FRAPS Results

I installed and ran Bioshock Demo on my new Vostro 1500 because I think it is a good sign of future gaming and its performance on this laptop.

For "Minimum" settings I set ALL settings to minimum including "Global Lighting". For some reason when setting "minimum" it sets "global lighting" ON, and everything else off. For "Maximum" settings I set the detail slider to "Maximum" which set all options to "on" except "Global Lighting".

I ran my own benchmark using FRAPS to record min/max/avg settings, and di my best to be consistent. I essentially ran from when you start under water, rise to surface, spin 360 degrees, head towards plan engine until it explodes, head towards brown suitcase in water, then towards steps. Halfway up steps turn around and watch the plane sink until the tail hits the water, rotate left (rotating bast burning water), run up stairs, run into door, turn around watch door shut, turn around and run to bottom to elevator.

System:

Vostro 1500
OS: Windows XP Pro SP2
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 2.2GHz
Video: 8600m GT 256MB stanard clock
Screen: WSXGA+ (1680x1050)
RAM: 2GB DDR2 667MHz
HDD: 160GB 5400RPM
Driver: Laptopvideo2go 163.44


Bioshock FRAPS Results:
Setting / Resolution / Min / Max / Avg
Minimum / 1280x800 / 16 / 74 / 41
Minimum / 1680x1050 / 9 / 44 / 24
Maximum / 1280x800 / 13 / 47 / 24
Maximum / 1680x1050 / 8 / 28 / 14

YouTube Videos:
Minimum 1280x800
Maximum 1680x1050
Note sure if you can tell the FPS difference between the two or not. It was noticeable while playing, however borderline on noticeable. Bioshock, while a first person shooter, is fairly slow paced, so the lower FPS don't distract as much as it would in a fast action game.

Comments:

- 1280x800 looks GREAT.
- 1280x800 seems like a good resolution to play in general, with no noticeable slowdowns in the game.
- 1680x1050 is playable with options set to minimum, with minimal affect to FPS.
- I will try to find options that are worse FPS killers, and see its effect on visual appeal. This may make 1440x900 or 1680x1050 very playable and enjoyable.
- FRAPS when recording video, dropped the FPS by as much as 50%!

 

Also would like to add that I ran Half-Life 2 Lost coast and ended up with an FPS min/max/avg of 37/112/67 at 1680x1050 with options at max, AA off, trilinear filtering. Source engine does well with this machine. Too bad there aren't more Source engine games in developement (that I know of) besides Episode 2 (which is really an enhanced Source).

 

thanks for the benchmark of bioshock
Just wondering if oc'ed 8600gt will be able to push playbility of bioshock in high setting at 1680x1050 resolution.

I guess my laptop will run bioshock happily at 1280x800 resolution high setting.

 

Global Lightning is a "simplified" version of the normal lightninig. It is less good when on ON.

That's a nice score, imagine if the memory was OCed to like 550 or 600 mhz you would get a nice boost (especially in 1680x1050)

 

OC will be my next go around, but will try to do so with a solid CPU undervolt to minimize temperatures.

 

gr8 thread,don't forget team fortress 2 and portal

 

Check out http://www.tweakguides.com/Bioshock_1.html

 

Left4dead uses source too Nice thread btw.

 

My bad. I guess I should have looked that up. I will re-run "minimum" and see what results I get.

Also, I downloaded both RivaTuner and ATITool, but higher clocks don't seem to take. I move the slider up even a little bit, click "set clock" and it bumps back down to default (475/400). Is there a trick?

 

What drivers are you using? The newer drivers don't allow overclocking.

 

Ah gotcha. That's no good. What's earliest drivers that do allow overclocking? That will suck since I'm sure we'll see performance improvements with newer drivers over the months, which would be great when o/c'd.

There must be workarounds? I read something about a BIOS level edit. I'm nervous to touch that, but if it's not so bad, I may give it a try. Any good links?

Thanks.

 

Good info. here....not as successful as I'd had hoped though for the 8600m. It's really hard to get as much out of it if you have to play it in a low resolution and without the great details that the software developers put into the game.

I really like the new Dells, both Vostro and Inspiron, but I'd like to see a bit stronger card in there before I consider a "gaming" laptop.

 

Problem is, you won't find anything much more powerful than the 8600m in a 15.4" laptop. There are those couple GDDR3 models, but they cost nearly as much as a 17" with the 8700m.

 

Well I mean eventually the 7 series laptops had 7800 or higher even for the regular Dell laptops (non-XPS), right? They 8700m and 8800m should become more mainstream like that, I would hope. In general the design of the Inspiron is really good, from my view anyway. Just wish an internal part or two would get some slight improvement.

 

I agree. I would prefer a GDDR3 version of the 8600m or an 8700m would be better, with DVI, and I'd be a happy camper.

 

were u running this in directx 9 or 10?

 

DirectX 9. I don't have Vista on this laptop.

 

has anybody else noticed how much CPU usage this game uses even with the lowest graphics options? mine runs between 70% and 95% most of the time. can't wait to try it out on my desktop when I get it running again.

 

hell, do u expect doing anything else while gaming, maybe only running kav antivirus in the background, just to make sure u have no viruses? that'll probably bump it up to 100
but to be on topic, i haven't checked, don't really care how much it uses. correct me if i'm wrong, but don't most settings in that game have to do with gpu and not cpu?!

 

So wierd..everyone says how Bioshock will not run on high..but here's my info:

Vostro 1500...video in my sig...not overclocked..using the bioshock drivers from laptopvideo2go.com...

I started bioshock, set it to 1680x1050...set all settings to medium....
i've played about 20 minutes..fought a few guys...and it's running perfectly...i'm sure it would look better on high..i havent tested it yet...

i have also not ran any programs like fraps, etc...but i just wanted to say that i'm playing on a really high resolution, and it seems smooth to me...

 

that's what my point is, if it looks smooth, then who cares about fps?

 

When you are playing a game, how do you get the FPS to show? I'll be receiving my laptop soon and I'd like to see how well the FPS will be on laptop for the games I'll be playing.

Thanks in advance!

 

fraps - google it

 

Thanks!