Can you really play any games on the x205 SLI???

Hi Forum,


I noticed people discussing games and drivers, and as someone who has been building his own desktops religously for the past ten years, I must say that this Laptop that I got for my daughter, more to help her to be able to surf the educational/homework sites via wireless and print out reports, I find it hard to believe that anybody can play anything on this rig.
I agree its a nice rig for the 1400.00 that I paid for it, it gives me a way to ease into Vista as my desktop is still xp sp2 And my daughter enjoys being able to jump and do some work or browse without having to coax me off my rig.

But still, with all tweaks the only way I can see people playing action games mentioned here like Crysis and Bioshock, is to cripple the games details to the point where you may be able to play but the enviorment looks so crappy that it makes you want to just ditch it as far as the rig goes. Basically on my Desktop Asus P800 -Deluxe, 7800 AGP GS. 2gig Ram, 320 sata I still had my jittery moments in COD4.

If Im foolishly wrong I would love to eat crow if someone can refute my assumptions but as much as we want to take this rig and Kick A with it. maybe in 10 years it would be likely.

Thanks for any input, scolding or advice you may have,

 

i am running this laptop stock with stock drivers/settings and play WoW with all settings set as high as possible on at 47" 1920x1080 display via hdmi.

i am not sure what that means to you but i think that means that gaming is quite possible.

 

I have been playing Crysis, Gears of War, Call of Duty 4 on my sli1 for a few weeks already.

 

Which X205 do you have? $1400 for SLi? The cheapest I've seen an SLi1 is $1899. Sure you don't have a Bestbuy X205-S7483

 

1400.00? Are you sure you are talking about an SLI? As for COD4, I run 1440x900, everything maxed, and get great framerates, usually in the 50's or higher checking with FRAPS.... occasionally will dip into the 30's, but only with tons of smoke and explosions or that freakin helicopter that won't leave me alone! But, never gets anything close to not being smooth, and without FRAPS you'de never know.

Bioshock, everything on high runs smooth and looks great, even using DX10 mode. Framerates from the very little I've checked have been in the upper 20's on up towards 40 during the first mission

Flight Sim X, which cripples my slightly older desktop, runs at 1440x900, textures maxed, most settings high, autogen normal, max weather, and I usually get 50+ frames a second, with tons of snow and clouds shooting a hard core IFR approach with traffic it may dip into the upper 20's, but that's still plenty fast, and in anything but that it usually as mentioned over 50.

Crysis, that one's a beast, but at 1440x900, still tweaking these settings as it'll bring ANY current machine (Laptop or Desktop) to it's knees with enough eye candy turned on, but playing with a mix of med/high I'm getting around 30, varies from level to level a bit, but drops towards 20 at times, but is also pushing 40 at times as well while just walking around. Also playing with config files turning on HDR with fairly good results.

World in Conflict runs good, DX9 recommended, but with med/some high, I get very good frames, not positive what they are, but never any issues, never had a need to FRAPS it, looks beautiful and is a blast to play.

Not to mention TF2 and the orange box stuff, can crank all the good stuff there and looks great and runs perfectly smooth.... granted an older engine, but looks and works great.

Not sure what the problem you're having is? A Vista install with updated video drivers should solve any issues, but does notiecably improve performance across the board, but you still shouldn't be cripplin' anything.

So, no flame or scolding, but hardly seems like a machine that can't play anything.... be glad to help though figure out what problem you may have.

 

Ill give ya the $1400 you spent on it in exchange for your laptop, and you can buy a gmaing desktop! Then we will all be happy

 

Helo Forum, as you can see i'm a newbie ^^ that has been looking the forum alot in the past 2 weeks... After checking alot here i decided to buy the x205-sli1 which im waiting for the next week (international shipping takes SOOOOO LONG )

Ok now, I dont wanna be rude, but IMHO this guy is just someone who wanna piss us (the x205 fans) off saying that the laptop is a crappy machine when we all know it isn't... Evenmore, saying that he bought it for 1400$ is like (i got it cheaper than all you guys but i dont want it, i might trow it to the trash)... Well i think its just bu****it... I have never seen the sli1 under 1799.99$ (at amazon )... Just today JR.com put it's price at 1699.99$ ... So well, im waiting for my rig to enjoy my "useless for gaming machine" which i'll enjoy alot ... And sorry but i can't stand people that acts like rich kids showing their expensive toys to poor kids and still saying "i dont like, it s**ks"...

Sorry for my english, not my mother language...

 

I noticed a few people pushing hard for people to buy an Asus, In fact some of them can get quite rude if you suggest anything else, well later on I heard Asus gives out some type of award each month to the top pusher. I think this shouldn't be allowed for the above reason, it's annoying!

 

Welcome Jose, I think you may be right, but I had to atleast respond...

Good luck with your new machine though, i bet you'll enjoy it

 

No I misspoke, called the wife and she told me it was 1900+ before tax.

 

Hah. Ok. Why do I even check this thread still?

 

Nor is intelligence your mother language either apparently. I bought this rig with an eye towards my daughter having internet access to do her homework and wireless in to my printer setup. She dosent have a TV in her room so this is a nice way for here to watch Dvds at her leisure at good quality. Basically its her multimedia/Schoolwork center for her. room. Comprende. I always research what I buy and I got what I wanted for her that I felt would mostly suit her needs best while being as current in technology as can be, which it is. The game thing is the least of my concerns as long as she benefits from it for the purpose I bought it for her, but I am curious how people get it jamming. Now back to La Escuela, e' estudiar mas infirmo.

 

Thank You for your offer. Aside from the obvious of turning off services you dont need, no wallpaper fancy desktops, current drivers, defrag if need be, overclocking, removing uneeded software, tray items etc, are there any hidden tweaks or hack that can be done?

And just curious, It seems the DVD drive catches a lot of heat, am looking for a cooling stand at newegg but is it a concern for any dvd getting cooked.

Cooling suggestions would be great as well.

Thank you again for extending a friendly hand and I greatfully appreciate any replies to my inquiries above.

Silverwolf.

 

Using an x205-9349 8700GT (no SLI, lesser CPU as well)

I am able to game with just about any game at 1440x900 with most, if not all details on.

I do have to turn some details off for performance dogs like Crysis, but pretty much everything else runs just fine
(maybe turn off the highest detail textures in Bioshock, but everything else is on...) I assure you the games look VERY nice unless you are expecting desktop 8800 performance.

A far cry from the "cripple the games details to the point where you may be able to play but the enviorment looks so crappy" thing...

I am not seeing that problem, and you have a better rig...


After all, the 8700m is comparable to a Desktop 8600 GTS and thus a 7800 Desktop solution at resolutions below 1280x1024. (1440x900 is less pixels by a slight margin)

(Try tom's VGA charts if you don't believe me)

The 8600SLI scores better than the 8700m in any game where the SLI works to any degree.

 

Update DirectX
169.xx drivers

Compatibility fixes - KB938194
Memory - KB940105
Performance - KB938979
Stability - KB941649
(may be out of date by next week when SP1 RC is available)

Make sure to tweak Vista... things like indexing take a heavy toll and can be toned down if not turned off.

There is a decent guide stickied in the OS forum on this board.

 

WOW can be played on almost anything actually, even integrated graphics.

 

The biggest improvement I've had was a clean reinstall of Vista, and then only installing the software you wanted and keeping the startup apps at a minimum. Pretty much everything you said will help, but I wouldn't bother overclocking, and not really too many other issues if it's just an internet/DVD machine as you stated was it's main purpose...

Honestly though, you might have been better off with a different version of the X205, or a different machine period....don't get me wrong, I LOVE the X205 SLi's, but if you aren't into gaming, as you state, this isn't the best choice for basic computing.... Battery life is quite a bit shorter, it runs noticeably hotter, and is more expensive than the single GPU systems, and if you aren't playing games that support SLI (which most fairly recent and newer do), then you won't even ever use the second card. When using this machine for what it was intended, and for a portable machine that can play the latest games and not cost $4000, it's VERY hard to beat.

It will be fine for movies and whatnot too though, i haven't had any issues with heat affecting the DVD's, and at stock clock speeds with normal computing, the gpu's wont go beyond about 65*C, so I wouldn't worry too much about it. Also, I'm not sure that the cooler pads really help this system much either, and definitely aren't needed. As long as it's not sitting on a bed or carpet, and can get airflow into the intake, you'll be fine. I'm testing out a custom cooler, and even pumping 180cfm of air into the thing barely changes the temps. Seems to have pretty good airflow as is. So good luck and hope she enjoys it, and we'll be here to help.