Gaming on Vaio SA/SB?

Can anyone comment on the gaming performance of the Vaio S? Frame rates, battery life, and temps are my primary points of interest.

Reason I ask is because I'm considering buying the SA -- I'm primarily looking for mobility, but I do hope to play the occasional game (Borderlands, BF:BC2, TF2). The Radeon 6630M isn't a gaming-level GPU by any stretch of the imagination, but gaming benchmarks seem to show that all modern games are playable on at least low-mid settings, which should be good enough for me. I don't mind the dual-core CPU either. Only the SA's price tag is bothersome.

I've looked at other options already, but while the M14x is sweet, its battery life is disappointing (3-4.5 hours) and mobile gaming performance is unimpressive considering its size and weight. The M11x is just too damn small, and I've heard horror stories about the screen quality. The HP Envy 14 is delayed (and will probably have a 6630M anyways). Am I poking in the right direction with the SA, or is it simply not for gaming?

Any help would be wonderful. Thanks in advance!

Edit: As a side question, about how many hours of battery life does the S typically get? Sony claims 7.5/15, but I can't see that being accurate.

 

I just got the Sony SC which is the bestbuy version of Sony SB. I have install league of legend and Forsaken world on it.

League of legend: 60fps all on high setting while using ati 6470.
20-30fps while using intel hd 3000 @ stamina mode

Forsaken world: no lag, haven't check fps yet.

seems like you can't use the dedicated graphic card while unplugged, so I don't know how long battery life will last while gaming using 6470.

 

Really? What happens if you try?

 

Thanks for the reply! (+rep). I've indeed had trouble finding a laptop as powerful as the SA in as small a package. Have you ever tried gaming while unplugged? Is the performance similar?


By the way, my idea of a "gaming" GPU is something like Nvidia's GTX 460M, which pushes around twice the pixels of the 6630M (but consumes several times the power). Sorry, I guess we just have different standards.

 

I have the i7, 6630, and 8GB as well. I play starcraft on high settings and see ~30fps. I have played unplugged and by default the GPU throttles while on the battery, however I believe that can be changed in the settings?

Either way the 6630 performs like a champ. And even if it didnt the HD3000 will run starcraft on low @60fps or better.

 

You mind running starcraft 2 on medium and let me know the fps on the 6630, would be really appreciated thanks.

 

I am really curious how the 6630M will handle the latest game coming soon Battlefield 3. If it will run that game at least on medium, I will be more than pleased.

 

Alright I ran SC2 @ 1366x768 on medium. Averaged mid 70s with the lowest being 58 under big battle type stress and maxed at about 95.

 

Thanks a lot!

 

gpu change from ati to hd 3000 when unplugged in speed mode. I have confirmed this. I play league of legend with 60 fps using ati graphic. Once I unplugged, the fps drop to 30 even though the laptop is on speed mode.

 

Wait, so is it confirmed that the ati card is unusable if the laptop is unplugged?

 

Wrong. ATI (6630M) is usable when the laptop (SB) is unplugged.

Just switched to speed mode while plugged in, verified that i'm with the ATI (dxdiag and its own control panel).
Then I unplugged the laptop and everything remained the same.

People get lower performances while being unplugged because ati's PowerPlay settings define that while running on battery, Maximize Batter Life (and not Maximize Performances like when plugged in).
You can turn PowerPlay off if you like, or change its settings.

 

This.

10char.

 

Hey guys,

I'm a happy new Vaio SA owner, and I had a quick question about gaming stability. Have any of you played games for an extended period of time? Say, 1-2 hours straight? How has your Vaio held up in regards to heat and stability? I've read that some people think the hinge covers the vent and obstructs cooling, and I don't want to melt my laptop

 

I mean, the thing will heat up. A lot. And I haven't measured the temps, however I have played multiple times for 4+ hours and it has never emergency shutdown on me.

 

Played TF2 and Sanctum with a friend over the weekend, we would play for 5-6 hours straight and take breaks for food. Laptop held up fine

 

Has anyone played around with overclocking the GPU? Seems like it has a lot of potential, it would just be limited by heat.

 

I read in another thread that the Sapphire Trixx program is the one that works with these laptops. I downloaded it and installed it, but I felt like a bull in a china shop - it is just a few sliders and it's easy to get carried away. Plus, you lose the overclock every time you switch graphics. And to be perfectly honest, I'm not a patient person and the thought of sitting there, sliding up in tiny increments and testing for in-game artifacts makes my brain vomit.

I want to play around and try pushing it a bit, but I figure I'll see how it handles games at stock clock speeds. I'm not a huge gamer, and if it ever comes to the point were I need to play PC games at full tilt (hello Skyrim!), I may invest in a desktop.

P.S. I can see the value in bringing a laptop along to game, and I don't want to turn this into a Desktop vs Laptop discussion...the fact that I don't like people in general and rarely need to game on the go inspires my desktop suggestion. :-D

 

On a related note, I don't suppose there is any ViDock possibility with the SA/SB? I know there is no expresscard slot, but I've heard of other mini pci-e slots (wifi, wwan, etc) being used. Just thought I'd ask.

 

I wasn't able to overclock the SB's GPU (6470) with MSI Afterburner, it seems maxed out already. Not sure if this also applies to the 6630 too though.

 

The laptop can handle a lot of games. It really depends on the engines: id Tech and Source engines run the best since those engines are some of the most optimized to date for older or lower-end computers. I can run TF2 on high settings and play multiplayer with 16+ people without feeling stutter or lag (considering I play Quake 3 and Live and want that 125+ FPS for butter smooth play, the laptop performs fantastic with any engine that runs on 60 FPS as the smooth zone).

 

If you have an accessible mPCIe slot then could do a eGPU setup. Though I'd suggest selling off the SA/SB to find a 12.5" Lenovo X220 instead with an an expresscard slot or a 13" Macbook Air/Pro with a Thunderbolt port. See http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...ards/418851-egpu-experiences.html#post5324240 for more details.

 

Just got my SA, and it performs perfect for my needs. Tried out TF2 for a bit, at native resolution with all settings high (no AA or AF) it got ~60fps. This was on a smaller server however, I can see it dropping a bit with more player load. But holy crap the cooling fan is loud when on full tilt! This makes my old Asus W3J sound whisper quiet in comparison.

Really source games are all I play on the go so it's a perfect fit. Well there's also minecraft. That got around 60+FPS with all settings high

I may try OC'ing in the future, but there aren't many games that would need need it with my gaming habits. Good for lugging to a friends house for a quick TF2 match, leave the heavier games to the desktop.

 

I personally don't recommend OC'ing just because some engines are sensitive -- they crash and artifact more frequently. You won't see a vast improvement unless you tweak a few more things, plus the heat generated is not really worth it.

I also play TF2 on 1280x720 with everything set to high and shadows turned off and can play on any server without any problems (2Fort with 20 people played smoothly).

 

Hey guys, heres some of the games I played with the VAIO SA (i7, 6630, 1600*900, 640 GB 5400, 6 GB ram).

Burnout Paradise (High settings with Anti aliasing @ 4x) using 6630 - I didnt benchmark this but the game ran fluidly with no lag whatsoever at any point of the game. So I can safely assume that the frame rate was always above 30. The laptop didnt stress much either, the fan noise was at a minimum (barely audible without headphones) & the temperature was not alarming (to touch).

Counter Strike Source (all settins set to max and anti aliasing @ 8x) - Benchmarked at 60 fps (approx). No temperature or fan trouble.

But ofcourse, these games are easy, so I also put it through something more challenging.

GTA 4 - Ok so first let me point out that the laptop does throttle down the gpu in battery mode because when I played the game the first time, it was in battery mode and I was getting frame rates as low as 12. Disheartened, I thought the vaio sa could not handle GTA 4, although the 6630 should ideally be able to just manage this game at high settings. Then, I came accross this thread and read some user's post that the gpu was being throttled in battery, so I tried again only this time with the power cord connected. At settings set to High, Antialiasing @ 4x, v-sync on and full resolution, I was getting average frame rates of 27. The game was noticably lagging too. So I dialed it down to 1280 * 720 resolution @ 50 hz, medium settings, vsyinc on and antialiasing @ 2x. The frame rates came out to somewhere in the 40's. The game stopped lagging completely, but the laptop screamed and temperatures at the bottom right side were VERY hot to touch. I think that I am just going to play casual games on this thing (mostly Burnout, CSS typish) cause GTA4 could seriously cause some damage at the temperatures its resulting in. But then again, considering my previous laptops (DV4 & Mbp 13 2.26) had trouble with even CSS, I think this is a fairly better laptop. Guess we got to wait another couple of years (perhaps we have to wait for nano tech to come into play) for ultraportables that have it all.

 

Again, GTA4 not a good benchmark. There's a reason it's not used to compare framerates of computers; it's a horrible game engine.

What other games do you want to play that are hardware intensive (besides GTA4)?

 

I've also played TF2 on my SA (before upgrading RAM & installing SSD) and it ran at native res on a 32-man server on high graphics with no AA or AF and it was chugging along roughly around a buttery smooth 60 fps. It was very nice to play with no problems or slowdown, even in tight alleys with multiple rockets, grenades, sticky bombs and turrets (did I mention the bullets too!?) with no stutter or framerate drop!

As for the Battlefield 3 beta, which I have just experienced, it is quite choppy at 1280x720 in windowed mode with Aero glass enabled (and multiple Chrome tabs open (as with TF2) - you have to launch BF3 through Battlelog). I couldn't seem to disable it on game start either and running in fullscreen didn't help. Also, the graphics settings were initially on auto, which set everything to high with no AA or AF, and when I changed them to low, there was no graphical difference at all and the game did not flicker or restart to apply changes. Also, the fullscreen res was initially set to 1600x900 at 59 Hz and changing that also made no difference. However, I'm not on the beta drivers recommended for the game, since I'm still unsure as to whether it's safe to upgrade without affecting the graphics switching or standard driver updates through VAIO Update (at least that's how it used to happen with older VAIOs).

If anyone has played the Battlefield 3 beta on their SA or SB, let me know how it's going for you (especially if you've installed the beta drivers).

 

i'm experiencing artifacts, when clicking on the Counter Strike Source in game windows, in particular once "Find Server/Game"-any suggestions how to fix that?!

Thanks in advance!!

 

Here are my experiences with my VPCSA3BGX

Modern Warefare 3 usually runs at 60fps at native resolution in multi player. It does dip down here and there depending on the map and amount of players.

League of Legends is silky smooth as stated here prior.

Left For Dead 2 runs great also at 60fps. Native res.

Startcraft 2 I play on medium. I get around 50-60 with the ususal dips here and there. This game is more demanding on your cpu.

World of Warcraft runs great also. Most settings on high at native resolution.

I did try Crysis 2 with lowest settings and got a respectable 30-40 fps.

I prefer smooth game play over fancy graphics so I wont hesitate dropping things down to get there. I also owned a M11x and i find this laptop better for gaming.

 

Starcraft 2 works fine on my SA

GPU settings to Medium, CPU settings to lowest possible. In 3v3 matches, I haven't ever been the one to slow down the game

1v1, I can get away with Ultra (it defaulted there o.0).

 

Hi, I am interested in this question too. Is the Vaio SA mPCIe slot accessible at all, even if with a bit of DIY? And, if yes, would we be able to use an eGPU for when not gaming on the move or on a big screen?