SR Verses Z Gaming Performance

Hi,went to buy a SR with Ati 3470 today,and while i was in the shop i had a look at the Z,this was the first time i had seen them in the flesh and while the SR was nice i didnt buy it because the z looked and felt much nicer,also screen was noticably better.The SR in uk is only availiable in silver and compared with the z ,looked a little bit plasticey,so i left with nothing.I now want to buy the Z with the same specs apart from the Z only comes with the Nvidia 9300 card which i have read is lower spec,sorry for waffling on but what i would like to know is how much difference there is,if it is negligable then i will order a Z,but if the 9300 is lots slower then i will have to think again. Thanks in advance for any replies or info ,Rigs

 

Well, here's the thread for the SR's gaming performance. I'm almost certain there was a Z gaming thead as well, but maybe I'm just hallucinating.

In general, they're both low-end cards, and I honestly wouldn't expect too much difference between them. They should both handle older games pretty well. And they should both handle new games pretty badly.

 

I believe this is the Z gaming thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=296566&highlight=Z+gaming

It's not quite as organized as the SR one though.

I agree with Lattice. Spec-wise the SR is better for gaming but ultimately, they are both low-end cards and difference between the Z and SR should be little when it comes to gaming.

 

like snail racing!
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Now playing: Elmer Bernstein - Premature Plans
via FoxyTunes

 

i have tried both:

Z - 2.53GHz, 4GB, Nvidia GeForce 9300 256mb, 200GB 7200rpm
SR - 2.8GHz, 4GB, Ati HD3470 128mb, 200GB 7200rpm

playing TF2 @ 1280x800

Z & SR performed around 40 fps..but it seems that it runs a lot smoother on the SR.. i dont know why..
but if you are more interested in gaming, i would suggest the SR, as the screen is larger and more comfortable to play games

 

The 3470 on the SR trumps the 9300 in sheer clock speed as well as because of the fact that it has GDDR3 on-board RAM and because ATI makes a more solid "thin-and-light" solution. My prior two notebooks(Thinkpad R41 and R52 both had Radeon mobility cards). The POS x300 on my R52 ran games it never should have been able to run, Half-Life 2, Counter Strike, etc.

Regardless of personal experience, if your getting the Z with 256mb vRam, i believe it should be sufficient or close enough to the 3470 on the SR. If your on the edge and still not positive, things to consider:

- The Z is smaller and lighter
- The nvidia GPUs have been faulty from the previous generation and potentially on this one(although this is rumor, stuff like this wont be discovered or anounced for another year if true).
- The SR is cheaper is a better bang-for-your buck deal.
- The Z has a higher resolution screen, 16:9 aspect ratio, dual lamp screen, while the SR has a higher contrast single lamp 16:10 screen.


For someone who will game occasionally, travel occasionally, and uses the notebook for surfing, music, word proccesing, i believe the SR is a better choice.

For a more avid traveler, who also wants to game sometimes, the Z has the ability to shift from integrated GPU to discrete, adding over an hour of battery life.

So it comes down to, do you need 5 hours of battery life or do you need better graphics/frame rates on a game? The Z will give better battery life and is 3 lbs, while the SR is 4lbs and will perform better on games...

 

Thanks for all your answers,only want to play some point and click adventures and some games from 2003 era ,so hopefully the Z will be ok,any more advice more than welcome,thanks.

 

Hey man, I love point and click adventures! I was on a GMA950 (worst integrated card EVAR) for the past year, and I've been able to play all the games from adventure game studios without any problem. I was also able to play some of the older Agatha Christie adventure games without too much trouble, though the slightly newer ones like "Evil Under the Sun" would require me to restart the game every once in awhile as the graphics got choppy and too demanding on my poor integrated card.

You should be fine with your 9300M GS for the games you want to play.

 

The best point and clicks ever are Day of the Tentacle and Indiana Jones and the fate of Atlantis. Those are honestly some of my favorite games of all time! Renegade and Sam and Max: Hit The Road are also fantastic!