i'm confused by my 9500m gs...

before i bought my acer 8920, i've googled for its spec (especially the GPU) n it turned out that its 9500m gs has pretty good prfmnce...(core :475 /memory:700/shader:950) mhz

after i bought it n played some fps games, the frame rates were awful! it says that 9500m gs prfmnc is identical with 8600m gt. Well, i say they're identical when 8600 one is idle...(sigh)

then i d/l ntune and i found out that my default mem. clock is just 400 mhz (not 700 like in Nvidia.com or all other websites i've googled). i went to the customer office and they said someone would call me soon from Taiwan.

i haven't received any call yet. Is it possible that the manufacturer downclock the gpu..? I rarely hear the word downclock, 'coz who would do that? maybe anyone could give me some info for this problem. I'm still new

thanks

 

Did you get a DDR2 instead of DDR3?

 

ddr2, but, i mean it has greater series number(9500) than 8600m gt ddr3. and it's technologically newer and newer means more advanced.....why? why..?! tell me !! if only i can replace the GPU, I WILL!!! i'll buy $1000 one!! i've already spent US$2300 on big heavy ACER!!!

 

Read this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=275056 . Performance-wise, the DDR2 9500M GS is identical to a DDR2 8600M GT. The latter is not a bad card -- that's what I have and it runs games like Mass Effect and Neverwinter Nights 2 at reasonably high settings -- but it is not something meant to max out Crysis.

Greater number means nothing -- you have to look at the second digit and even then it tells you very little.

And no, chances are you cannot replace your GPU.

 

i know i can't replace it from the 1st time. u don't have to tell me again .. i'm in dark miserable moment here.. ..but thanks anyway for the follow up... at least i know i'm not being played by that shopkeeper.

 

Well, maybe there's something preventing your 9500M GS from performing at its full potential.
What games/settings are you trying to play?
Have you checked to see if it's downclocking itself due to overheating?

And let's not forget, if all else fails, there's always overclocking via RivaTuner.

 

there's nothing preventing anything in my notebook. i just bought it 3 weeks ago. i play like cod4 and i get maybe under 30 fps.

overheat? no. i monitor it all the time

and please not the riva, someone in some forum used it properly and the next thing was hundreds of red dots appeared on his monitor(in the dark area). Can't be fix. i've tried too, and i already got one red dot on the top left corner. The last thing i want is overclocked performance.

thx buddy

 

You bought a 9500 card yes it may be on par/the same as a performance card from last year. But remeber it was a performance card last year and a midrange card at that. So basically you bought something that was good graphically last year and now low end this year. When you buy a card thats below x600 level dont expect killer FPS.

 

@ the OP. Please do not use offensive language or attempt to by past the language fillter as it is against the forum rules. I understand your fustration but there is no need for the language. Thank you.

Back on topic. Have you tried any BIOs updates from ACER?

Johnny T - NBR Moderation Team

 

that's obviously not a gaming notebook, a 9500GS can't run anything recent at 1920*1080 anyways. and you mentioned that you are willing to spend 1000$ dollors for a better GPU didn't yah. well in that case, get your self a gateway 6860 fx and take out the CPU chip in your Acer and put it in the gateway, now you've got a killer rig lol

 

actually, i bought it coz i like the design. i just wish if we can customize notebook graphic card like we do with pc, then i'll spend another $1000...

 

Good news: you can change the GPU on your system.
Since the 8920G has an MXM-III slot, it can be upgraded unlike most systems.
The 8920G can come with the 9650M GS as well, it's the logical choice if you want to.
AcerParts.com has the 9650M GS available for sale for 250 Euros before taxes, and it looks like they do ship to a good number of places.
Heck, you could even get the 8920G Service Guide here and see how you can do it.

 

very interesting, but 300euros with 9650m gs as my only option, i believe it's not worth it. Anyway, thx for researching, pal. Really appreaciate this info.....I just hate the fact that i just wasted my years of savings into smthing that i would regret...my 1st laptop

 

If you can, return the laptop. You can get a better gaming notebook for $1300 or less. Your best bet is to return the laptop even if there's a restocking fee.

 

im sure you can get some decent frames in games. what settings are you trying to run in cod 4?

 

man...it's impossible to return it. it's almost a month old. Now that i know with 2300$ i could've got far better system, it's just killing me...it's not that my vcard is so ugly, but dude...it's 2300$!, you could buy something like Rock Extreme or other. i believe u guys can mention Top 10 system under $2300 with far greater prfmnce than acer 8920...too bad i know after i buy...but thx for trying to help guys...

 

did you try to return it yet? I dont see why they wouldnt take it back, even if you get a store credit you can use it to buy a better laptop. For $2300 you could get an amazing laptop.

and like others have said the 9500 is not meant for hardcore gamers, its meant for moderate gamers or people who play old games.

 

i dont have a problem playing COD 4 with my 9500m-gs, it gets quite hot but it keeps FPS between 30 - 50 in my Asus

 

Almost a month old? Dude, most return policies are good for about a month or so. What's the worst that can happen? They tell you that you can't return it.

 

of course my laptop only runs its resolution at 1280x800 so i dont know how it would fare with a much larger resolution

 

if u are using gpu z / ntune/ rivatuner, do u also get 400 mhz as ur default memory clock? i mean, i can stop thinking, if the default memory clock for ddr2 is lower than the actual spec, why the manufacturer put (475/700/950) for 9500m gs on the spec page instead of (475/400/950 because it's ddr2 it's cut by half, for example)?? It would cheat new people like me...and it already has

and the other thing is that the ddr2 or ddr3 type, for me, is rarely shown on the spec page. they usually just show the vcard name, series and its ram. man i really hate this...

 

mine is at 475 / 400 / 950 looking at it on RivaTuner. i think the main problem is the resolution you are trying to play at. which is what?

and my vcard is DDR2. same as yours

 

Although the 9500M GS performs around the same and at times better than a 8600M GT DDR2, for this year the 9500M GS takes the spot of last year’s 8600M GS in contrast to this year’s hardware capibility. 1920x1080 resolution is overkill for this card, so expect to run present games well under 1280x800 medium with some high (depending on the game).

 

Hey, 1366x768 with High/Very High across the board and 2x AA/AF in Team Fortress 2 is just fine for me, Mr. Cheese.

 

u know what my resolution is? it's 800 x 600 ( 35fps or greater). Because the monitor is so huge (18.4 inch), i think that resolution is embarassing. if i played with 1280 x 800 like you do, it will run, but not 30 - 50 fps like u mention with ur system. i usually use 'dual vcard' option in cod4 to make it smoother. well, it does a bit

 

yes but team fortress 2 isn't the most graphically demanding game out there. a game like COD 4 would not run as well on that resolution

 

@Playa

Return your laptop NOW! What a terrible deal you got there for $2300. You could have gotten the Sager 8660 which has a 9800m GT in it!

 

i tried messing OC with Riva but decided I didnt really know what I was doing and put it all back to original. i tried messing with new drivers for the card but eventually went back to the original as well because it ran hotter (heat is a big issue in my laptop) in the other drivers. if you want to maybe try that you can go to laptop2go.com and follow instructions there.....

my settings for COD 4 are medium / high..... normal for graphics, 1280x800, shadows on, AA (had some problems with and i dont know what it does). dont know what dual vcard is so it is probably off.

 

Of course, Source games aren't that demanding for todays hardware, hell I can max out CoD4 myself at 1280x800, but expect to run upcoming games in a similar manner to how the 8600M GS was expected to perform in last years games.

Example:

All high, with texture settings on Extra and achieves 30-40FPS at 1280x800 resolution. If you bump it up to 1440x900 performance will drop down significantly.

 

i think it's not that this notebook is extremely lame. maybe becoz it's suited for home entertaiment fans. it has huge screen wit hd ready (18.4 inch) almost like my tv, dude... 5.1 speaker with Tuba bass (which i don need), blu-ray reader and any other unnecessary feature for me. the processor and the memory isn't that bad also( t9300 & 4 Gb), and the hdd is so huge (320 Gb x 2 ).

it just don't match my need. Well, i've been blinded with the reviews which is pretty tempting...

 

Well, you live and learn, Playa. See if you can get a return.
I worked in a computer sales support centre myself, and if a customer started blowing a head gasket on us or threatened a BBB complaint or legal suit, we forwarded them along to people who basically placated the customer in any way they could. Hopefully Acer has people like that for you to use and abuse.

@Dancran: True - if anything, it's CPU-demanding. My poor T5550 keeps overheating on me...anyone got a can of air I can borrow for a minute? I guess it's a good thing I don't have CoD4, then.

 

All my games run on high and max but again they are not newer but it runs URT 3 on high. I'm not a hardcore pc gamer I will be when I build my desktop later this year but it runs the games I want to play like a dream. I'm very happy with the 9500!

 

Well I guess this proves that the HD2600 GDDR3 is much faster than the 8600GT DDR2/9500GS... Unlike what most people tend to think... I am running TF2 @ WUXGA with no problems. I better get COD4 and see how that goes...

 

Well in TF2 the CPU is more likely to be the bottleneck since it isn't optimized for dual core processors.

I'm running TF2 great on my lappy too though.

 

weird...everyone's happy with their 9500 gs... why should i go berserk over something decent enough for many people..? u know what, i think i love my laptop...

 

First off, did you update your drivers? That could be why ou have bad performance in COD4. Ask other people for the correct driver version. Also, nTune naturally tells you the mem speed is half of the ACTUAL speed because there are 2 vram chips in every graphics card so you take the mem score from nTune and double it and you have 800 (100 more than 700)! Dude ur fine stop freakin out and if you think you overpayd (however sounds like you didn't because of the HD, blueray, and huge screen) then just call in and ask if you can return it.

 

Which is why I need to clean out my system, undervolt, get a cooler, SOMETHING to keep TF2 from overheating my CPU (seriously).

 

does anybody know any notebook in which the vcard can be unplugged and replaced or doubled? i'm really desperate know..