Disapointed in zd8000, considering v4000t

I have now owned a zd8000 for 3 months, over all its a great system. But it seems the x600 is lacking as a gamers machine. I originally posted about frame rates on certian games and while the answers seemed to be positive for what i wanted it to do, there were some short falls. When I finally got the machine and tested it out, i was a bit disapointed.

There are a couple games i cant live without. My list is usually very different from what other people play (i e UT2004, Doom3, WoW, Half life 2, Far Cry)

I played with a lot of settings did the new driver thing and it didnt improve.

Flight Sim 2004. With Sim Flyers Frankfurt scenery. A graphic intensive airplane. All sliders maxed. Did not do well at all.
The benchmark test i read on the X600xt said i should get 40 fps. Well in the outside view with 100% AI aircraft I was lucky to break 10 FPS 10!!! that is unplayable!

With that said.. you could tweak it a little take some sliders down, AI aircraft, weather, some of the redering goodies off. and you got a good presentation and experience without sacrificing astheticly. 30 fps or greater at all times not too bad at all for a lap top.

World Racing 2: Not too bad, but hung up sometimes even though graphics werent maxed out. but fluid for the most part. If you maxed out the display settings it was playable but had some annoying hang ups.

GTA: SA i was supprised it actually did pretty good. The graphics were no where near the level of PS2 but it was still overall a good gaming experience.

finally sad to report. If you want to play Need for Speed: Most Wanted then this x600 just dosent cut it. I fired it up and once i got in game it was soooooo choppy that it just wasnt worth playing.

So how does the V4000t and the X700 do?

anyone tried THESE games with it? I dont care about HL2 Doom 3, Farcry ect. these games how do they do on the V4000T with the X700. is the X700 sufficent or should i just not even bother and look for a real gamers PC like Alienware or Widow?

I like HP,, especially on price and reliability. but it might be time to trade companies if the V4000T/x700 cant play NFS: Most Wanted. and FS 2004.

thanks guys. ANDY

 

My Dv4000 handles Need For Speed Undergound 2 and Need For Speed Hot Pursuit with no problems....also a number of the other high end games that you mentioned you don't care about; It handles Call of Duty fine too.

 

At this point you might want to wait a bit and see what Radeon X1600 notebooks come out. MSI is supposed to have theirs out in... March? No word from HP yet. Of course, vague release dates are made to be broken, so...

If you want something now, MSI's 17" Turion w/256MB X700 would be a pretty good replacement for your zd8000. Check the MSI forum here.

FWIW, I'm having fun with my new HP dv8125 but its X200 is even weaker than what you have now. Way cheaper than a MS-1036 though and the dual HDs are useful for me. I do wish HP had given me the option of a decent GPU though.

 

Something isnt right. my friends with asus W3v has a X600 and i had a z70v with a X600 and we played doom3 medium to high settings just fine.
And my x700 now can play wuake4 with high settings just fine i havent found a game i cant play fine with it.

 

my dv4000 (x700) has no problems with playing GTR fia gt racing game at max settings. i'm a big f1 fan and this game has to be 1 of the most realistic simulation games i've tried. the graphics and AI are really unbelievable. i've yet to try a flight sim so no comment on that.

 

I think the MSI laptops would do better in gaming than HP; they also have better biuld quality. You can check them out at www.rawpowerpc.com

 

I'm very pleased with my V4000T. But you'll need a good cooler if you wanna play games for a couple of hours or more at a time.

 

I think you should get a desktop or a really really expensive laptop.... Think about it..

For the price of a v4000t, you can get a desktop with a dual-core 3.0 Ghz Processor in it (like 6.0 Ghz total). Over 1 GB of RAM, a graphics card that is 3x-5x faster than the Mobility X700, DVD-burner, free printer, etc. etc. etc.

The X600 isn't enough for you now... So get an X700? How long will it be until the X700 isn't enough? 4-6 months maybe?
I heard there was somebody who was having problems playing HL2 with the v4000t. Not only that, but Half Life 2 isn't even a "new" game. I have a v4000t, and the only games I've played so far is UT2003 Demo (which worked really great btw) and Mahjong Solitare (requires a 200 Mhz CPU with a 16 MB graphics card)... Actually, I play more Mahjong Solitare than anything else.

I suggest you fork out a lot of cash and get a real powerful laptop with a the new Mobility X1600. That way you won't be wishing for a faster computer in 4-6 months.. If you don't have the cash, then get a desktop so you can upgrade.




Just a suggestion.

 

How is that possible? My ATI Radeon 9000 IGP 128MB!! handles Need for Speed : Most Wanted at highest settings perfectly...and that game demands power.

 

Friends don't let friends buy Pentium D's:
http://firingsquad.com/hardware/building_dual-core_super_pc/page2.asp
(Scroll down to "What about Pentium D 830?")

The other commentors have a point about the low framerates being unusual. andy190230, how much RAM do you have? Are you sure you don't have a software problem such as virus/worm/spyware infections? Are the fan intakes accidentally blocked?

 

Well, you could always get a Sager NP 5720 ~$2000. But it would deffinately keep you gaming for a while!

 

I'd agree with that.

If gaming is so important that you're considering buying a new laptop after owning one for only 3 months, then certainly get something with some serious graphics horsepower... Something that HP doesn't deliver at the moment... Hate to say it, but you have no other choice but to ditch HP. They don't have what you're looking for (at least in a laptop anyway).

When you get a computer, you should think about what you "will" use it for in the near future just as much as what you want it to do now... The v4000t and dv4000 will handle what you want to do now, but can't handle what you'll want to do in 6 months... And so in 6 months, you'll be looking for another laptop again, perhaps even to play just 1 or 2 games (probably sequals to one of the others that you like so much).

 

That weird. How much system ram do you have? if the answer is 512 thats a big part of it. I have an X600 in my gateway that has 64 on board and shares up to 128 and I can run flight sim 04 with everything maxed out on graphics and it runs beautifully. AOE 3 runs great, splinter cell without a flaw, etc. I dunno maybe its just my gig of ram and that Athlon 64 mobile 4000+....

 

Personally, I think you'll be fine with one of the 4000 series HP/Compaq. Right now I can run HL2 at max res with everything turned up!

...But get a good cooler!