Vaio SR ATI HD 3470 Gaming Thread

Hey Everyone,

I'm sure that i am not the only person who sprung the extra 100 bucks for the potential to play some games with the ATI HD 3470 with 128mb. In my quest, and most likely others to figure out what the card can/cannot handle, I would like to compile a list, I will update the first post with games as people post them. Let's keep it simple, List the game and if its playable, at what setting, and speed(frame rate or how smooth it seems to be running.)

Also check out this tool/program by ATI, it will help you determine if games should run on your system..
Can It Run?

Battlefield 2, medium settings with integrated graphics, 25avg fps
BioShock, Low Settings, keeping Shadows and High detail shaders ON., 15-30 FPS
Call of Duty 4, Auto-Detect(low-medium) settings, Acceptable
Command and Conquer 3: Red Alert 3, 1280 x 720, Medium Settings, VSync & AA off
Company of heroes, all settings high and 1280x800 res, average 17 fps
Crysis, Low settings, 1280x800, 20fps average
Counter Strike Source, 1280x800, Max Settings, 80fps average
Devil May Cry 4 - 1024x768 w/ Most settings high, shadows low, ~40 FPS(dx9 only 45 FPS
Far Cry 2, Low Settings, 1024x768, 45 fps (this is with the 256mb variant on the SR2xx and FW vaios)
Half-Life 2, ?????, Runs Well (Even on Integrated!)
Half-Life 2(Episode 1 & 2), 1280x800, 20-40fps, Acceptable/well
Lego Batman - High settings,(w high detail shaders and bloom OFF), ~20-45 FPS (Jumpy)
Left 4 Dead, 1280 x 800, Medium Settings, 30-45 fps
Maplestory, Maximum Settings, 200-300 FPS(whoa!)
*Need for Speed: ProStreet 1024x768,high car detail, low world detail, 30s to 40 fps
No One Lives Forever 2, MAX Settings, Very Quick (no widescreen support)
Portal, 1280x800, 30-50fps, Runs Well (Even on Integrated x4500!)
Quake 4, High Settings, Smooth (widescreen support...but must tweak for SR resolution...very easy)
Spore, 1280x800, Medium-High Settings, Runs Very Well
Team Fortress 2, 1280x800, (recommended settings) High everything, Low Textures, No AA average 40fps
Trackmania Nations Forever, Medium Settings, 1360x768, 25 FPS
*Unreal Tournament 2004, Maximum settings, 1360x768, 30-50 FPS
*Unreal Tournament 3 Demo: 1024x768, general settings set at 2/5, 30s fps
Witcher, Low Settings, Zero Lag
World of Warcraft, Default Options, 60 fps ( MAX OPTIONS, 25 FPS)

Done with 2.26ghz, 2gb Ram, 160Gb HD:
3dMark06 Score with Original Drivers(OEM): 2041
3dMark06 Score with Mobility Modder Catalyst 8.8 Drivers: 2089

Done with 2.5Ghz CPU, 4 GB Ram, 320 GB HD:
3dMark06 Score with Mobility Modder Catalyst 8.8 Drivers: 2277

*(Note: This was with a 256mb 3470 on a Vaio FW, but the 128mb on the SR will run neerly identical, google it if your interested in why vRam doesn't always make a difference or ask PhilFlow)


**Remember: CPU, RAM, and harddrive speed/size may vary your specific performance on a game, this is a general thread on what the GPU on the SR is able to support/handle.


Also, you can easily set your catalyst controls to Scale non-widescreen programs/games/videos so that they look correct even on old games such as Quake 4 or No One Lives Forever 2 which don't have native 1200 x 800 support.

UPDATE: Catalyst Drivers 8.9 and mobility modder for 8.9 are out! Go upgrade your cards! May improve graphics/games performance!

 

Crysis, Low settings, 1280x800, 20fps average

Counter Strike Source, 1280x800, Max Settings, 80fps average

 

Team Fortress 2, 1280x800, (recommended settings) High everything, Low Textures, No AA average 40fps

 

World of Warcraft runs at 60 fps on default options, which are pretty highly set.

 

All of your updates have been added to the list, thanks! Let's keep this thread going! Also, if anyone has actually played games on theirs and THEN upgraded to a 7200 rpm HD and/or 4 GB of RAM, and can comment on if there is a noticeable difference, that would be cool!

 

Nice initiative! Will keep a hold of this thread to get a good view of the HD 3470's performance

 

Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Low-Medium Settings(auto-detect), Acceptable

 

Are there any new drivers that should be downloaded to increase the performance, or is everything up-to-date?

 

the driver for the ati card is pretty old, because
"ATI have for many years had their hands tied with laptop manufacturers (OEMS) who request that ATI do not offer support for their device in the Catalyst Driver. This may seem strange, however makers such as Dell may have implemented their own support system and they do not want their customers downloading "reference" drivers from ATI's home page."

but you can use this Mobility Modder to install the latest driver (using a modded desktop radeon driver)... check out that link, it should explain everything

 

Yeah, the mobility modder is the only option at the moment... unfortunately. Even the XtremeG modded drivers are only for the desktop version at the moment. But, i haven't heard any complaints about mobility modder from anyone yet...

 

I have an FW but this applies here too since it's the same video card but how do the stock drivers compare to the updated ones? Any significant performance boost?

 

i didnt play any games when i had the original driver... so i'm not sure on that one.. but i'm pretty sure there's some performance gain... since the driver that comes with the SR is pretty old..

 

Why is there so little modding support for ATI cards... are they that much more uncommon than geforce? I think that with all the surge of ATI cards this will soon change, as demand and use of Radeon cards is increasing! I'm glad, because my old school thinkpads always had radeons (7500... and then x300) and never skipped a beat...no gpu meltdowns or crazy stuff!

 

I know Half-Life 2 and Portal run on my integrated graphics, so they'd run a lot better with the ATI card.

 

Half-Life 2 and Portal have been added, If anyone can give settings for any Valve/Orange Box/Source games...it would be awesome!

 

Just to be more detailed:
Half Life 2


1280x800, recommended specs, it dips down to the low 20s when there are a lot of explosions in one area, and sometimes goes as high to the 100s when you're in a hallway or something. For the most part, it stays in the 50s-60s; overall a very smooth experience.

I'll try and get more screenies with the rest of the Orange Box games.

Edit1: Half Life 2 Ep. 1 & 2
Episode 1 Recommended Specs, 1280x800, 20-40fps
http://i331.photobucket.com/albums/l468/Smithereener/HalfLife2Ep1Specs.png
http://i331.photobucket.com/albums/l468/Smithereener/Ep1Screen1.png
http://i331.photobucket.com/albums/l468/Smithereener/Ep1Screen2.png
http://i331.photobucket.com/albums/l468/Smithereener/Ep1Screen3.png
http://i331.photobucket.com/albums/l468/Smithereener/Ep1Screen4.png
http://i331.photobucket.com/albums/l468/Smithereener/Ep1Screen5.png

Episode 2 Recommended Specs, 1280x800, 20-30fps outdoors 40-50fps indoors
http://i331.photobucket.com/albums/l468/Smithereener/HalfLife2Ep2Specs.png
http://i331.photobucket.com/albums/l468/Smithereener/Ep2Screen1.png
http://i331.photobucket.com/albums/l468/Smithereener/Ep2Screen2.jpg
http://i331.photobucket.com/albums/l468/Smithereener/Ep2Screen3.jpg
http://i331.photobucket.com/albums/l468/Smithereener/Ep2Screen4.jpg
http://i331.photobucket.com/albums/l468/Smithereener/Ep2Screen5.jpg

Both got a bit choppy in some areas, moreso in Episode 2.

Edit2: Changed screenies to links.

 

I played the witcher at low to medium settings without any lag

 

As sort of an addendum to TF2 (So you can get an idea of how fps fluctuates)

http://i331.photobucket.com/albums/l468/Smithereener/TeamFortress2Specs.png
http://i331.photobucket.com/albums/l468/Smithereener/TF2Screen1.png
http://i331.photobucket.com/albums/l468/Smithereener/TF2Screen2.jpg
http://i331.photobucket.com/albums/l468/Smithereener/TF2Screen3.jpg
http://i331.photobucket.com/albums/l468/Smithereener/TF2Screen4.jpg
http://i331.photobucket.com/albums/l468/Smithereener/TF2Screen5.jpg
http://i331.photobucket.com/albums/l468/Smithereener/TF2Screen6.jpg

I'm guessing it's better just to link the pictures, rather than post the actual pictures (seeing that there are quite a few screenies to load)

I'll do Portal tomorrow.

Edit1:
Portal, Recommended Specs, 1280x800, 30-50fps. Dips down to 20s and below occasionally.

http://i331.photobucket.com/albums/l468/Smithereener/PortalSpecs.jpg
http://i331.photobucket.com/albums/l468/Smithereener/PortalScreen1.jpg
http://i331.photobucket.com/albums/l468/Smithereener/PortalScreen2.jpg
http://i331.photobucket.com/albums/l468/Smithereener/PortalScreen3.jpg
http://i331.photobucket.com/albums/l468/Smithereener/PortalScreen4.jpg
http://i331.photobucket.com/albums/l468/Smithereener/PortalScreen5.jpg
http://i331.photobucket.com/albums/l468/Smithereener/PortalScreen6.jpg

Oh yeah, I raised the texture to "High" instead of the recommended "Low" for portal. I found I couldn't see the scribbling on the walls and stuff very well with it on lowest settings. If you turn it back down, I'm sure the frame rates will increase slightly overall.

 

I've added all of your recent addition, thanks for helping keep the board alive! More games, pleez! Anyone play spore yet?

 

Question. I'm going to update the Ati driver with the modder program. The 3470 is supposed to be a "Mobility Radeon" card. When I go to the Ati site, if I try looking for the updated driver on "Mobility Radeon" it doesn't list that model, but a bunch of other models usually starting with the letter "x", however, if I search under "Radeon" it does list the "HD 3400 series" updated driver. Is this it?, wouldn't want to download the wrong driver (like the driver for the desktop version, if there is indeed such a thing). Thanks.

 

Yeah, just download the Radeon driver for desktop
http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=vista32/common-vista32


after you download the driver.. just follow the instructions on the mobility modder website

 

Thanks. Are there any downsides to doing this?, all I'm seeing are positives.

 

as far as i know, there arent any downsides
in fact my Windows Experience Index went up 0.1 after I installed the latest driver.. so yeah, it does more good than bad(if any) to your laptop

 

And no worries about "by accident" installing the desktop drivers without using mobility modder, they simply dont do anything. I tried it to see if it would work, and as far as i can tell, nothing happened.

 

I updated my ATI driver using mobility modder !! and when I went to dxdiag it give that i have ATI HD 3450 not 3470 !!!

is this normal or what ??

 

yeah i think it's normal
since there isn't a 3470 for desktop
the 3470 is for laptops only

 

Should there be any concern driverwise? I mean the 3470 uses gddr3 while the 3450 uses gddr2, plus the 3470 has a higher clock speed. Is it possible that the driver will not utilize the card correctly?

Anyone play games on mobility modder vs. the original drivers and noticed a difference in the negative or positive?

 

Has any of you guys done a 3dMark benchmark with your updated GPU?. Might be worth it to see if this indeed is beneficial.

 

I don't know
I think it's faster than with the old driver
the 3470 is on the supported hardware list..
and when i go into the Hardware Info page in CCC, it shows the right clock speed and memory amount..

I think its fine, since the mobility modder "modded" the driver

 

Well i also just installed the modded catalyst 8.8 driver onto my SR. No change in my index score... and no problems either so far. The only thing that bums me out a bit is the fact that now it says i have a 3450... but we shall see if it makes any difference performance wise. Anyone run 3dMark06 on the SR? I shall run it with the modded driver in a moment.

Edit: Holy crap, i didn't realize that 3dmark06 was 580mb!

 

haha yeah.. thats why i didnt bother to download it
and i think it costs money to download it too right?

 

No sir, it is indeed free, but only the basic version. Can you help me track down the pre-modded driver 3dmark score on the 3470?

 

Umm.. according to this http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-3470.9594.0.html
the HD 3470 got 1932 on the test... but different computers have different scores...

Can any SR users with the original ATI driver run the 3Dmark06 test and see what you get on it?

 

I got 2089 marks on 3dmark06 with the modded Ati Catalyst 8.8 drivers. Oddly though, 3dmark registered my gpu as "Generic VGA"... so that i suppose is the only downside to modding your driver to the new catalyst is the whole "generic vga" designation on 3dmark... but it seems that the new drivers gave an imporvement over the OEM ones... Not in the actual 3dmark software(it recognizes your gpu there), but on the internet when it shows you you score vs. other computer scores.

 

Yeah 2089 is pretty high for a HD 3470.
I'm downloading it right now, and i'm gonna see what would I get on the test.
I just hope that somebody with the original driver can run the test and see if there is actually an improvement

 

I would.... but 589mb is a lot of data....

Meh. We'll see, but it could be good reference if I do it anyway.


(I haven't gotten around to modding it yet.)

 

what settings did you use??? i only got 2009 on 3dmark06 with the modded ati driver

I would really appreciate it if you do

 

I don't think the modded drivers are bringing any benefit to the table. According to the two SR reviews I have seen posted on this forum, by silverwolf0 and ShinyFalcon, the SR gets 2,019 and 2,042 3DMark points respectively. The most I have seen posted for the modded desktop drivers is 2,089... I think I'll stick with stock drivers, no reason to risk something weird happening to get ~50 3DMark points.

By the way, does anyone know if the SR uses DDR2 or DDR3 memory?

 

800MHz DDR2

 

There is nothing to risk, it won't damage your card or anything.
And newer driver is not all about speed and performance
they often fix bugs and errors that are presented in the previous drivers

 

Yeah, I asked the question wrong... I meant to ask does the SR use GDDR2 or GDDR3 in the ATI 3470.

Okay. I guess I miss-understood to point of the modified driver set. I thought it was about increasing performance.

 

I'm pretty sure the HD 3470 in the SR has GDDR3 ram

 

the 3470 does have GDDR3 memory, as does the 3670, etc. All of the radeons with xx70 have GDDR3.

Anyways, i didnt tweak any settings to get 2089. I have 2gb of ram, and 69 procceses running. I have done some extensive reduction of processes in vista. Mostly because i CANT STAND that indexing/loading/background process noise. Also, my HD is 50% empty. Those all might have somethign to do with my score. Eitherway, 3dmark ran like crap. I mean every test was between 0-16 FPS. I was totally ashamed. It was odd because i run games like NOLF2 and Quake4 that have much better looking graphics than the 3dmark06 test and they run well...

People should note that 3dmark06 is only one of the benchmarks usually used for gpu's and it is a laptop. Laptop machines will never reach those scores of super gaming desktops. Ever.

 

There's a HD 3670? i thought theres only a HD 3650

i only had 67 processes running, and i have 4gb of ram plus readyboost... weird...
But yeah it was pretty embarrassing... haha... i got like constant 5 fps during the first part of the test... but yeah i got like 20avg fps in crysis... so i guess the graphics in 3dmark in just too extreme

 

haha...that is really odd. You have a faster processor, faster ram, etc. Do you have your settings at "performance" or "silent" and was your power setting at High Performance or Vaio Optimized?

Was sidebar running?

 

I always leave it on "performance" since it doesnt really make a difference
and i had everything closed... like the side bar, anti virus program, etc.. i had nothing running but itunes 8... cause i wanted to be able to listen to music during the test
i even switched to vista classic theme before i ran the test

 

itunes 8 may have STILL oddly enough sucked out some power, it's known to be a resource hog...so it's still very possible...

 

yeah probably
i will run the test again later today when i get out of class

 

how loud is the fan with 7200rpm hard drive and ati graphics on the SR when just surfing the net

 

not loud at all