Sony Z and M11x 3DMark06 scores

Sony Vaio Z 3dmark06 results.
http://service.futuremark.com/resultAnalyzer.action?resultId=13609131&resultType=14
Alienware M11X 3dmark06 results
http://service.futuremark.com/resultAnalyzer.action?resultId=13332724&resultType=14


Both of these result where from runs with the GPU overclocked to the most stable clocks I could get using the EVGA Precision tool.
I had an Alienware M11x prior to owning the Vaio Z, but a couple of days into owning it the keyboard went out.

After more than 45 days of waiting for a replacement I decided I had enough and picked up the Z.
The Z is an awesome ultra portable computer, which is why I was so attracted to the m11x to begin with, I wanted portability and then a capable gamer, but I had to dig deeper in the pocket for the Z .

I know a lot of peeps are interested in the the Z graphics performance and I happen to have a few runs of 3dmark06 comparing the 2 so I figured I would share.
The graphics test are pretty close but its 3dmark 06 so take it with a grain of salt (Synthetic bench) .
While I didn’t have a lot of time with the M11x it gamed well at its 1368x760 res, shooters like MW2 it always hovered right around 30 FPS , the Vaio Z with the 1600x900 resolution benefits most in games that are more CPU dependent, than GPU but the Z is a really good and capable gamer.

 

Thats awesome thank you very much Dio. I can't wait to receive my Z .

 

Its a sweet notebook.

 

you should do a comparitive Crysis benchmark. 3Dmark06 is not a great comparison for gaming capabilities IMO. Or run Vantage. I'm sure a lot of that score comes from the CPU - which is fine since there are still games that use a lot of CPU power..

I'm assuming now you probably don't have your M11x anymore. But if you have the Z feel free to do either runs and I can match the settings and see how the M11x compares =) thanks for doing the original comparison though!

 

aznguyen316 hey buddy I appreciate the suggestion keep an eye on this thread I may just do that.
Like I said in the post it wasn’t meant to show one against the other. it was more about info which is why I stated (The graphics test are pretty close but its 3dmark 06 so take it with a grain of salt (Synthetic bench).
I havent had a lot of free time to bench the Z yet but I will stay tuned.

 

no problem, honestly, I'd love to have a Z right now.. I find myself encoding a lot more than I used to.. although CUDA helps a TON! =)

 

What games would run really well with the Z?

 

what? I only got 6188 in 3dmark 06 :/ I do notice your cpu is 100mhz faster 6100 seems to be the average norm for the 330M chip. But how did you get 7000+ ?

 

I'm pretty sure it's because this "Both of these result where from runs with the GPU overclocked to the most stable clocks I could get using the EVGA Precision tool."

 

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dmv=2105517

Vantage run I did earlier today for those who are interested.
GT330m O/C Core was set to 600/ shaders linked/ 800 Mem. Used external monitor because Z does not suport Vantage default Res.

 

@Dio

I know the battery life is incredibly shortened with a GPU OC, but how about the heat and fan noise? Was there a noticeable difference after you OCed the GPU?

Thanks!

 

It would be nice if sony could get off their lazy a**es and updated the display drivers to incorporate the more recent nvidia drivers... How often if ever did sony update the display drivers for the previous gen vaio z?

 

Twice. Welcome to Hybrid Graphics.

 

From my experience with the S and the SZ, practically never.. I forgot this is the pitfall of buying Sony.

 

http://www.nvidia.com/object/notebook_winvista_win7_x64_197.16_whql.html


Here's hoping we see something soon, but im not so optimistic. Notebook Release 197.16

3.Sony VAIO notebooks – support will be added in a later release. Sony VAIO Windows 7 users can click here for driver update support.

 

Yeah it's not just a Sony problem. Hybrid graphics in general get really crappy support

 

Dio, thanks for the info. Would you mind posting your overclock settings on the Z when you ran the 3DMark06 test? I noticed you set it to 600/shaders linked/800 mem for the vantage test. An overclock in that ballpark seemed to crash someone else's Z (posted in the owner's lounge).

Also, does anyone know if the overclock on the GT 330M drains the battery faster if you have the Z in stamina mode?

 

The same clocks as the Vantage runs. Well Stamina mode wont allow the Nvidia GPU just the Intel built in to the CPU if im not mistaken.

 

Your temps good @ 600/800?
EDIT: I just played BC2 for a few mins and the temps never broke 87, averaged around 86, but this is the same as when it is underclocked so overclocking it doesn't affect the temps very much if not at all.

 

The GPU underclocks while not being used in 3D applications. While i'm typing this the GPU is underclocked to around 125mhz.

 

Well that's good news. I would think overclocking shouldn't affect battery life then unless one is doing a GPU-taxing activity.

 

i tried the 600/800 overclock and temps were around 86-87 and 3dmark06 was around 7300 i think. i busted out my old laptop cooler and overclocked to 625-825 and played SCII and BC2 and temps were around 84-82. 3dmark06 score was 7555. tried 650/850 but it crashed in 3dmark and never even got to a game. resolution for 3dmark was 1280x800 by default

 

MBP's seem to be getting scores near 9k with a GT330M. Is there a reason the 330M in the Sony can't? Imageshack - screenshot013ii.jpg This is odd. Can OSX vs Windows make that much difference?

Bronsky

 

If you look at the desktop icons on that screenshot you will see stuff like nvidia inspector tool which is used for overclocking. Who knows what else has been tweaked.

 

Astute observation! If if can be done on the Sony, using those tools, that would be something.

Bronsky

 

I'm using nVidia Inspector for 'overclocking'. 'Overclocking' because I'm bumping it up to the rates normally found in other laptops using gt330m.

There's a post in the owner's thread where the author talked about GPU throttling. I agree with him: when the GPU temperature reaches around mid 70-s, it stutters. The highest temperature I've ever seen it is about 78-ish.

This is very clear when I play Oblivion: it stutters less frequently when I point a big fan at it

Here's a pic, it shows the default factory clock rates, and the current rates (same as other laptops with gt330m):

 

How does Sony under clock the GPU? Has anybody up'ed the voltage?

 

Cause of this topic I decided to slightly OC my GPU for fun. Clocked it up to 630/830 and got a 7599 in 3dMark06.

While playing games such as Killing floor, temps never rose higher than 84C and during the 3dMark06, temps rose to the highest of 89C

 

I find @ 630 my computer crashes from time to time so I pulled it back to 625 and all is good. This happened in Mass effect 2

 

decent scores.

Bronsky

 

I don't know what you are talking about, I play BC2 and Mass Effect 2 overclocked to 625, the heat pushes to around 86 and I never get throttling like you do.

 

@mfpreach

What software are you using for your overclock? I can't get RivaTuner to work properly on my Z...

Anyone else feel free to chime in too.

 

I am surpised how widely used 3DMark06 is considering its inability to reflect recent game performance. Vantage is far better.

 

EVGA precision

 

I looked around for application optimizations (i.e. Oblivion). I read and confirmed that by reducing the details of grass in the outdoors (where most of the stuttering occurs), it occurs less frequently.

I tried to relate the relatively low settings, low temperatures, and stuttering (with more grass) as follows. This is a hypothesis, I don't know anything about GPU architecture:

o The GPU has multiple functional components, each of which does a particular amount of certain kind of task within each unit time. Say there are 4 components A, B, C and D, each of which handles 5 units of work per unit time.

o The component that deals with particular properties of grass, say component D, is given a great amount of work (many blades of grass). Suppose this is 10 units. And let's say the otherwise low settings results in 1 unit of work given to components A, B and C.

o Because of the low rate of work A, B and C handle, the overall power consumption is low (hence the relatively low temperature).

o Because the entire GPU needs to work as one, even though A, B and C are underloaded, D is overloaded and as a result, the entire GPU is effectively overloaded. Hence the stuttering.

And now someone will say, "That's just poopy talk!" in three, two, one...

 

Thanks! I installed it tonight and it works like a charm.

I overclocked to 620/1360/820. I got a 3DMark06 score of 7518. The GPU temp maxed at 84 degrees, both CPU cores at 81. I'm comfortable with those (they're far from throttling temps). My highest temp was registered on the ACPI at 86 degrees. I don't have a feel for that component's threshold. Anyone think I should be concerned about that?

Finally got a better feel for the fan noise too with this overclock (my AC unit was also dormant, so far less ambient noise). Yes, the fan does have a "whine" behind the whoosh of air. But I still find it very quiet and not annoying at all. I turned to my wife and asked her if she could hear "that." She didn't know what I was talking about. Must not bother her either.

 

If you were going to test different notebooks that you had access to, Vantage would be the way to go. The current discussion arose after GT330M in a MBP posted a 3DMarko6 score of 8960. It wouldn't makes any sense to compare Vantage scores to 3DMark06 scores if you could easily generate a 3DMark06 score to compare it to. It's an apples to apples thing (is there a pun there?).

Bronsky

Hey JP$ - The German retailer was out of the I5-430M and substituted the I5-450M for 6E less. Shame, cause it's comming out anyway.

On this topic, I think the MBP scores and the recent Acer 3820TG scores repesent maximum marks that the program can make before it becomes completely unstable. I would guess that these scores are well above the settings that are stable enough to play a game without problems. Has anyone here run the test until it became unstable?

I have read somewhere that Sony detuned the GT330M. Did they undervolt it? If so, can the GPU voltage be increased from some third party software? Or will it need a modified bios like they did with the Vostro Dells. With max temps of only 86C, there's no thermal barrier yet.

I really like the Z12 refresh. The new options really make the Z a much better package. They should have been available upon the initial release. I7-620M and 1080p options are very attractive in CTO. I like the black color 100% better than the stock silver. If I haden't decided to get the 3820TG from Germany, I was ordering a Z as soon as it refreshed.

 

Congrats, FINALLY! No more patiently waiting. I'll be checking in the other threads for the results of your mods.

I haven't read anything about Sony undervolting the GT 330M. I thought it was just an underclock.

 

Sony undervolts and underclocks all their discrete GPUs so they can get better battery life figures.

The Mobility Radeon 4650 in my friend's Vaio FW was undervolted and I couldn't overclock it hardly at all before things got very unstable.

To change the voltage you'll probably need a hacked bios. I didn't try with my friend's FW; she didn't care if the GPU was any more powerful than stock.

 

Well on the Z11 at any rate you can overclock and improve on a 3DMark06 score by literally over 1000 points. That's not too bad imo.

 

I can't overclock no matter what program i use The all puke if I try to raise the clock but I am able to lower it. Once I lower it though, I can't even raise it back to stock speeds without a reboot. Basically, cannot increase the clock at all.

I've used EVGA Precision, Nvidia System Tools, and nvidia inspector. Am I missing something?

 

Weird. EVGA Precision has worked very well for me since I downloaded it. What are your overclock settings?

 

Tried em all. An attempted increase immediately goes back to 475. Do you have Z11? Would you mind posting or pming your bios? I am on a beta bios and fear they may have disabled overclocking. I cannot find where I backed up my old bios

 

You were clicking the little "apply" button in EVGA Precision right? Just trying to think of the obvious stuff first.

 

Yeah it just bounces right back. Nvidia bounces back too. nvidia system tools says something like "the information you provided is invalid and cannot be applied"

 

hmm, did you try this with the AC adapter plugged in? The Vaio Z can't overclock on only battery power.

 

Great thread. Tyvm for the tests. I briefly contemplated the m11x to save cash but delighted I went for quality.
So it sounds like when I get my z12 that I should get evga precision and overclock

Has anyone else oc'ed their z12 yet?

 

my vaio fw overclocks to 550\800 from 450\600 without a problem and i get more than 100 points increase any btw its stable too

 

Man I'm a dumb dumb +rep for you.

 

haha thanks, but I also asked the same question a while back and i too forgot to plug in A/C power... but then again how were we supposed to know that was a requirement right?