Starcraft II on Sony Vaio Z

Hello!
I'm thinking of buying Sony Vaio Z1290, top of the line, 1920x1080 HD, i7, 256 ssd, 8gb ram cto.
I'm big fan of strategy games. Do you think I can run Starcraft 2 on ultra, after driver update?
I really hope so, cause this laptop costs a lot of money.
Thank you!

 

I get a frame rate in the low 20s on ultra. High looks just fine around 30 frames per second.

 

If you plan on playing on ultra (or plan on doing heavy gaming in general), I would get the 1600x900 screen. The lower native resolution will give you better performance. And the 900 res on a screen this small still looks fantastic.

 

Agree if you plan on gaming I would go with the 1600x900.

 

And if you plan on Blu-Ray I would get 1960x1080. It makes movies look absolutely amazing and you can always downshift to 1600x900 for gaming purposes. If you're not planning on Blu-Ray then yeah I would defintely go with 1600x900.

Has anyone had any problems getting Starcraft II to recognize your Z12's graphics card (for auto-adjustment of settings purposes)? It said mine was not recognized. I could still enter a mission ok, but the "lighting" graphics setting had only "low" available, some settings had all options available (low, medium, high, ultra).

I was wondering whether the failure to be auto-recognized was causing "low" to be the only lighting setting available...

It should be noted that my Z12 claims that no more driver updates are available when I run the Vaio update program. Do I need to update from off NVIDIA'S website or something?

 

I don't think downloading drivers from NVIDIA will work too well, since the drivers on the Z are customized for the hybrid graphics system. Also, maybe you could comment since you have the FHD, but I've read that the Z displays non native resolutions kind of funny if you're playing a game. So moving from the 1080 to 900 resolution on a FHD screen is not going to look the same as 900 when that's native res. That certainly happens for me when I change resolutions on my 900 screen.

 

uhmm.....if you change resolution down to 16x9 on a 1080p native Vaio Z then the game will look like crap. Again the reason we mention 16x9 versus 1080 is because this wont be as taxing on the GT330M.

 

Ok, thanks JP$, I didn't think it was a good idea to download from NVIDIA, I just thought I would ask. As for your resolution question, I will play around with Starcraft II tonight a bit and let you guys know how it looks at both native and non-native resolutions. I just got the game during my lunch break today, I barely had time to finish installing it before I had to start heading back to the office. I am looking forward to playing it.

As for the rationale for my decision to get 1080p, I guess I'm just one of those people who enjoys movies more than games

 

Wow, you have great discipline. If I were you I would have taken the rest of the day off

 

For those who are interested....

Just so you know, I've installed SC II on my VPC Z (i5 540), and the temps are pretty high under high performance mode: about 90°C and more for both gpu and cpu which is high to me.
So I've changed max cpu settings in power management from 100% to 90% (it allows to disable hyperthreading which in case of SCII is always on so the cpu is very hot), the temps doesn't go above 85°C.


PS: fan control is always at high performance to evacuate heat efficiently

 

Mine VGN-Z520 is getting those kind of temperatures too. ;(

I will try changing the power management like you did and use the performance mode too.

Thanks for the tips!

 

I have my GPU OC'd to 525mhz, my max temp in a game of SC2 was 79C according to RealTemp. Max CPU was 82. I also have my thermal control set to performance as well.

SCII settings are 1600x900 w/everything at high or medium.

 

1920x1080 = 16:9
1600x900 = 16:9

Setting the game to 1600x900 on a FHD panel will NOT create any distortions or anything, but the extra resolution will bring out the fact that it's not the panel's native res. I'd get the FHD, just because it's a much better investment, it will show Blu-Ray as it's meant to be seen, and because it will have a considerably better re-sell value if you ever want to get rid of it for something else. Also, the Z is NOT a gaming machine by any stretch, but Starcraft II should run fine on anything but Ultra. Ultra is a strain on ANY GT330m notebook, and Ultra @ 1080p just ain't gonna happen on anything but an ATI 5870m or GTX260m.

 

Do you think it is possible to overclock 330m to improve gaming performance?
Please advise.
Thank you

 

Most definitely. The 330m overclocks nicely on the Z. I overclock the core from 475 to between 620 and 630 (30% increase) and the memory from 700 to 820 to 830 (almost 20% increase). Temps don't change and applications stay stable. 3DMark06 results improved with this overclock (from about 6000 to 7500). I've seen higher 3DMark06 scores with larger overclocks. There is a thread out there comparing Z and M11x overclocks. Try doing a search for that, it's an interesting thread.

 

How much is your temperature actually? Mine goes in the low 80s (celsius) even w/ stock clocks. Have high performance cooling mode activated.
Which software did you use to OC?

 

I'd call low 80s cool for a machine this small under load. You have lots of wiggle room at that temp. My GPU temperature reaches mid to high 80s under load, as do my CPU temps. When running HWMonitor, it reports my temps a few degrees higher on average than EVGA Precision, which is the tool I use to overclock. But still, the only temp I've ever seen surpass 90 was the ACPI (according to HWMonitor). I would only begin to worry about temps if I was seeing consistent temps in the mid-high 90s, and I've never seen anything close to that.

 

Thanks for your clarification. Btw, my friend experiences temperatures around 95 degrees with his stock clocked unibody MBP 17". He games a lot with that machine for about a year now. I dunno how much that shortens his GPU's lifetime, but I want to use my Z for around 5 years as i did with my old HP laptop so I worry those high temperatures.

I read somewhere here in the forums that one patched the 330m's video bios to undervolt even more than sony did and got stable results with >1500MHz shader clocks. IMO that sounds really promising to get even more out of the chip.

 

I bought sc2 today and now I'm just waiting patiently for my Z to arrive. Its a tough wait!

I got the base i5-520 a 1600x900 Res. At high/Med settings are you guys experiencing slow down in large scale fights? Anyone play a 4v4 yet? Or any of the use map settings with a ton of things going on?

 

i've done 4 human vs 4 cpu, it remains pretty smooth throughout

 

i o/c'd my gpu though, haven't tried it on stock gpu speeds

 

Hi what does pretty smooth mean?? What is your lowest fps? Is there any video anywhere of sc2 retail running on a z? I really wanna know for sure how "smooth" it runs on medium thanks

 

It's pretty smooth, man. Like butter. Not choppy at all. Only downside is it's not as detailed as Ultra, but hey, it's a laptop.

 

Ah sounds amazing! last thing how does the scaling look from 1920 down to something that gives you more fps? 1280 or 1440? or what ever.

thanks heaps!

 

I don't have this game in particular, but ichanging the resolution while gaming leaves a lot to be desired. It just doesn't look as good if it's not the native res. Games are playable, but some menu screens and stuff just look funny.

 

So I am right in that the 1600x900 screen would actually be a better all around since there is no way this laptop will do (or any laptop) good in 1920x1080 >.< so annoying... I want the good res for work but a low for games.

 

If ANYONE could upload a screenshot of a Z native 1600 or 1920 running Starcraft II at a lower res, that would be awesome!!

 

I run SC2 on 1920x1080. It's fine on medium. Smooth.

 

awesome... and you do 1v1 competitive ladder gaming no problem? big battles? hehe sorry to ask but people have a different meaning of the word "smooth" and I just hope you are right

 

On medium stock speeds it will run the game at native resolution perfectly. I've done huge 2v2 battles with no noticeable slowdown (everyone near max food). You could probably even run the game on high well. Haven't tried lower Res.

But don't worry, this machine handles this game like a champ.

 

thanks for the info!! IM so ordering this beast

 

I just want to point out you guys can push Ctrl-Alt-F to display the FPS. Better than just saying it runs smooth and etc.

 

yeah it would be great to get some numbers too.

 

Bump, video anyone?

 

Running on medium settings with effects, terrain, reflections and physics set to high. In FFA with 4 cpu players I get average 46fps, lows of 27 when 2 200/200 armies where fighting in the middle of the map.

I don't think videos would give you much indication of performance as recording the video would be detrimental to the framerate.

 

Unless you record with an external cam.

 

i play it on my sony s

 

that sounds sweet! what resolution?

 

So you all would say the gaming performance on the new vpc-z ist much better than the old vgn-z?

 

i just play on medium settings, 1600x900, runs great, no lag, 4v4 all the time, stays cool, quiet.

i love it.

 

Yes. MUCH.

 

I get 50-60 FPS (60FPS is the max unless you tweak variables.txt) at 1600x900, all Ultra settings except Shaders and Terrain at medium. This is in a 2v2 replay on Kulas Ravine.

 

Thats not bad at all !!

Maybe I will be able to run it natively 1920x1080 at medium preset then

 

Thats at 1920x1080.

 

I have not seen a Z with the 1080p screen in person but personally I think that's just going to bee too much pixel density on a 13.1" screen for gaming and practical purposes. At 900p it's still extremely crisp and detailed, almost to a fault but to me it's perfect. The only type of use I would see the 1080p screen being worth it for is watching 1080p video, or real-estate-critical productivity applications like PhotoShop and programming IDEs, not that you couldn't get by with the 900p screen for those purposes either. Otherwise the 1080p screen is mainly for bragging rights.

 

Pretty much true.

Especially considering the DPI scaling, while much improved with Windows 7, is still not quite there in 100% of situations to argue that "1080p screen with 120% DPI = same font size with better DPI/clarity than 900p screen."

 

I don't mind playing in a lower res in sc2, but in australia there is no choice, since i want the i7 and the larger SSD (256GB) I have to get the 1080p screen too and actually looking forward to it. Since im doing graphic design (3D and Web/flash and programming) the superb space in 100% with a super portable beast is just golden!

But it sounds really good that sc2 runs perfect mine will arrive roughly Wednesday wooo

 

I´ve have to say that i´m very interested in your posts. I´m currently have the european Z21WN with the 9300M GS and im looking forward to this new generation...

Is it right to say that the 330M GT can handle the native resolution of 1900x800 much better than my "old" z?

Currently i´ve a lot of temperature problems on my machine, playing WoW brings my gpu to 106 C....

 

The cooling system in general seems to be improved.

 

Nice to read. So´ll hope for some game benchmarks in the web in native resolution.