GT 330M poor performance?

Being playing FPS games for quite some time with my Z. I have never noticed any very bad stuttering. Perhaps I was just a gamer with low demands backt hen.

I went to my friend's home and played mw2 on his PS3. Then I looked back at my Z and I was simply amazed how inferior the experience was on the Z compared to the PS3!

Notebookcheck clearly lists that the 330M is capable of dealing with MW2 in HIGH settings. I was playing on 1366x768 and I wouldn't call that "high" at all. Also, I've OC'ed my 330M to 6XX/1320/775, and have a better CPU than the one tested. I had to turn off all additional features (soften smoke edges, bullet impacts, ragdoll, etc.) and manually set the texture quality to LOW to make it smoother.

Seriously? Is the 330M really that weak sauce is it a problem with my game settings?

Oh btw, my thermal strategy is performance.

 

The GT330M in the Z is underclocked compared to a normal one. However, you can overclock it quite nicely!
I'm using EVGA Precision when gaming. I can run 600 MHz core speed instead of 450 without any problems so far.

 

Ever wonder why while there were many VAIO laptops (and desktops in the years past) that can game decently, but never any VAIO that claimed to be a gaming laptop?

 

Not relevant. Sony shouldn't be doing this. It's basically lying to the customers. They do it to lower their temps and increase their battery life, while claiming they have higher performance.

A user could OC his GPU risking breaking his laptop due to overheating and getting decreased battery life. Either way he looses.

How is that not unfair? Particularly when you shelled out 2500-4000 for the product!


It should say on the box when you buy the product that it's underclocked.

 

@Brianho1337: What drivers are you using. Have you tried the BIOS hack and the latest nVidia drivers?

Notebookcheck probably suggests that you can play said game if you are NOT using some crap drivers from Sony.

 

It's not underclocked. This particular 330m is a low power variant. Your frustration should be directed at Nvidia. They should've named it a 330lv or something along those lines.

 

^Probably due to Sony wanting to push the Playstation branding further. Vaio computers marketed as computers, PS3/PSP (now PS Vita) marketed as gaming systems.

 

I already mentioned that I overclocked my GPU. Maybe you didn't understand that OC'ed is an abbreviation of "overclocked". My core speed is 660, shaders at 1320 and memory at 775 (which is almost at the very border where you can overclock).

I'm using the 190.24 drivers. I've yet to try out the BIOS hack since I've read quite a few posts mentioning about losing the ability to adjust brightness, and I just think it's too risky. Having to hack a BIOS and make drivers ourselves is just ridiculous. Sony just doesn't seem to give a crap about their customers after all.

EDIT: BTW, I believe 1920x1080 is considered "ultra", 1600x900 "high", 1366x768 "medium", and 1024x768 as "low". This can probably also refer to the in-game settings though, but I had to set them to low and turn off ALL advanced settings to make it playable smoothly, at 1366x768 resolution!

 

Well that is your problem right there.
The 190 drivers are total crap.

I don't agree about DIY drivers and hacking. The more hacking, mods and DIY you can do the better. I don't expect anything from Sony software wise. It is up to us to make it better. Sony gets a bad rap but all manufacturers are like this. All computers are like this. If you want super high end, then you have to work with it, tune it, figure it out, hack the hell out of it. I never stop, I am never satisfied.

 

Well I guess my problem might never be solved then. I'm willing to hack (root) my 700 dollar phone, but not a 2600 dollar computer, especially considering that I really need it to do my school work. I do have a old computer which has not so bad performance, but the 2.5 hour battery is just a real bugger, so I'm not risking my Z just to tune the graphics card.

 

Try these drivers, don't know if it will improve things for you, but could be better than 190.24...

 

To get the custom drivers working you do not really have to hack up the Z.

First I used the drivers coming with the Z, but when Anno 1404 was running very very bad I installed custom drivers and with the actual installed 263.00 drivers I can run "Hunted - Demon´s Forge" or "Darksiders" or "Dragon Age 2" on medium - high details. Nothing overclocked or hacked

My advice for you: Go and make the Z much happier with actual drivers!