P6831FX Question (processor/gpu)

Saw this deal in the paper and i think i'm going to jump on it.

Questions:

If i do not upgrade the cpu how much am i holding this system back?
Is this cpu a serious weak link for this comp?
I do intend to run some newer games on it.

Thanks!

 

Check my benchmarks for Crysis and FEAR. The stock 5450 will be just fine. I do video encoding a lot so love the T9300.

 

IMHO The cpu is the weakest link in this system, but at the same time the laptop handles games nicely (other than Crysis). It's more up to you and if you feel the extra $ you spend for a new cpu is with the extra fps you gain in games. I upgraded the cpu, but my wife will also be using the laptop for work at times, so the faster, the better.

 

Hydra, I'm having that strange feeling you're following me...or is it the other way around...HMMMMMMM.

 

LOL, kinda hard not to bump elbows with everyone looking for info, no?

 

The CPU definitely seems to be a bit of a bottleneck and I am planning to upgrade to the T9300 myself (just because it's not very expensive and the gains are impressive). With that said I have run a few games on it in the last few weeks with excellent results using the stock T5450 @ 1.66ghz.

WoW runs basically flawless on all but the highest detail settings on my 1920x1200 24" Gateway panel. You might get some stutter in high traffic areas or if you details maxed out (but some of this is network latency not the cpu or gpu). I personally run in 1680x1050 just because I like that resolution and it will "never" experience frame dips with the stock configuration no matter what settings I use.

If I recall correctly Hellgate ran 80+ fps with a mix of medium/high settings in 1680x1050. I did 1920x1200 as well and seemed to stay above 50fps but in high settings it can dip a little and possibly get some slight stutter.

ET:Quake Wars demo ran well @ 1920x1200 with medium settings never experiencing significant drops during a brief game session. Again I preferred 1680x1050 in high settings and you will never drop below the 50-60fps area.

All in all I prefer using the stock configuration to play in 1680x1050. It simply will not ever experience frame rate drops and you can usually set the detail settings to high - medium/high even ultra depending on the game.

And again these are very current games with the exception of WoW. And like I said that one runs perfectly in 1920x1200 in all but the most taxing situations with the highest detail settings. Also to note is that I'm very picky about my frame rates and game/mouse responsiveness. When I say it will run flawless I mean you can run it at that resolution with those settings as smooth as silk. Many people would be just fine with some of the current games off the shelf running in 1920x1200 with high detail. Only Crysis would give you a problem and even with that game I imagine you could drop to 1680x1050 or 1440x900 and go into medium settings and get a game experience that never drops below 30fps. I honestly don't think any game (except Crysis) can put this system below 20fps in 1920x1200 in high detail (that's just too low for me though personally hence the reason to pump it up to a T9300)

This really is a killer gaming laptop for the money. People bickering about the CPU (for the most part) shouldn't be. The CPU is "enough" to play almost anything at decent settings in high resolutions. Traditionally for 3d games the GPU has been the bottleneck and is what usually is the cause of seeing a gruesome 5fps frame rate crawl in a game demo. It's not typically the CPU that is responsible for such horrendous performance. I don't think the typical computer user is aware of this fact. You could drop a 1ghz processor in a machine like this (keeping all the rest the same) and it would still hum along fine in 1440x900 resolutions (even 1680x1050 in low/med settings).

However.... if you really want to crank it up (like me hehe) then yea put a T7500 or T9300 in there and you should be able play anything in the universe at 1920x1200 in high/ultra like a sharp blade through warm butter (save Crysis). It essentially turns this $1200 gaming laptop into a top of the line exotic that competes with $4000 Dells/Alienwares/Falcons all for a total of about $1500. Simply unbeatable

 

Just to chime in I was showing some friends at school today and could play Call of Duty 4 completely maxed with no visible slowdown running on the battery which astounded me.

 

I play COD4 at 1440x900 with everything maxed out and 4aa. I have absolutley no slow downs. Single player runs perfect and on-line play is butter smooth. Haven't updated drivers so I haven't tried DX10 settings yet. I am extemely happy with this laptop. Sure down the road a nice CPU upgrade will be in play but I think this 1.6 will do just fine for a little while or until I get the itch to upgrade, whic is often. I bought this laptop for my wife so upgrades will come slowly. She doesntt want me to scew it up.

 

Yep, for GPU limited games the T5450 is fine. I did pick up a couple of FPS in some. Video encoding is a different story.

 

check out the benchmark thread in my sig, first page.

While it IS the weak point in this laptop, it is not a weak processor and handles most things just fine...it just holds back the GPU when gaming SOMETIMES.