What do you think of the NEW Vaio FW?

Does anybody know if there is going to be customisation available in the UK, as only a ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3470 will be available on the lower end models. The top model is the only notebook to come with ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3650, but this costs £ 1,299.00.

Does anybody think that the HD 3470 is a good gpu for a brand new high end notebook to the market? As I have seen some ratings and they are not too good!

 

I'm also thinking about getting a fw with an hd3470 but then again i'm not really much into gaming any more. If gaming is important to you the hd3470 might not do the trick but it should be fine for occasional gaming.

 

your lucky that the option to get 3650 is available, in the US its only the intel X4500 and the 3470. if you're gonna game on the computer then get the 3650, the 3470 is a low-midrange card while the 3650 is a comparable/a bit better than the nvidia 8600 GT

 

If it came with a nvidia card, I would get it right away, but unfortunately it is not. so it might be the Z series for me.

 

If I were you, I would buy the one with Radeon 3650. It is too bad that US customers can only get Radeon 3470. FW predecessor, the FZ, has GeForce 8400M GT that is faster than Radeon 3470 due to 8400M GT 128 bit memory bandwith. It is a shame that Sony replace FZ with a new model that has slower GPU.

 

I dont do much gaming but i want something that is future proof! Just buying a new notebook with the lowest gpu is not really good enough for me! But I don’t know

£ 1,299.00. is too expensive, being the top of the range model to enable you to get a ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3650, but i dont want 4gb of ram, bluray burner, or a 2.53GHZ cpu! i wish the UK had customization options !!

 

If you want future proof, buy the one with 3650. With 3650, your FW would be perfect. You get great entertainment notebook at 16.4", true 16:9 HDTV ratio, has Blu-ray drive, weigh less than 6.7 pounds and still come with mid range video card.

If I live in the UK, I would buy the 3650 model in a heart beat.

 

the nvidia 9300 GS on the Z is less powerful and more power consuming than the ATI HD 3470. Ascariss if your picking the Z over the FW because of GPU option, i would reconsider.

 

The lower model has the blueray drive, but just can’t burn blueray disks, dont really need that, and generally lower specs on CPU, RAM, and hardrive is actuary faster! For some reason sony decide to put a 4200rpm 300 GB version in their top end model

 

Sony Germany has cheaper FW model that still come with 3650.
http://vaio.sony.de/view/ShowProduc...11J&site=voe_de_DE_cons&category=VN+FW+Series

and it has 5400 RPM harddrive.

 

Doesn’t seem to sell in the UK at the moment, but i will keep that model number as i am going to be buying a laptop in about a month’s time !

Thanks for the research! Model Number : Sony Vaio FW VGN-FW11J

And Yes Above!!

Typical Prices:

1,239.00 EUR = 983.196 GBP

1,239.00 EUR = 1,963.77 USD

 

I have been told that. The FW was my first choice from the new sony's but the ati is a bit slow, perhaps if the faster 3650 was available here in canada I would get the FW for sure, but it isn't, so until things change, or I can order it somwhere with that card, I may have to hold out.

 

How much bigger is it compared to the FZ by the way? I know some would like to go from the FZ to FW but do not want a larger footprint.

I do wish they utilized all the space and put in a number keypad and an option for 1920x1080 screen. And also give us North Americans the better videocard option that Europeans have.

The FW to me seems a bit incomplete. But maybe I'm asking for too much, I want as much as possible in my notebook.

 

Never thought I'd even a consider a laptop as large as the FW... but I am... so I gotta get in on this thread!

 

I can't find the FZs dimensions... but here's how it measures up to the Dell m1530 15.4":

Dell m1530 - 15.4"
14.06 x 10.34 x .93" - 1.38
5.78 lbs

Sony FW - 16.4"
15.1 x 10.3 x 1.46 - 1.3
6.47 lbs.

 

It's not that much larger.
FZ : 14.0" x 0.98-1.40" x 10.02"
FW: 15.1" x 1.14-1.46" x 10.30"
So, the foot print is about 11% larger. Still fit in my backpack.

Pixel count is 41% more.
With true 16:9 HDTV aspect ratio, you will be able to utilize the whole screen for watching 16:9 Blu-ray movies.

I consider FW as the the entertainment notebook that has the best balance between space and weight. I love Sony AR but it is way too bulky and heavy.
Had it came with Radeon 3650 for US Customers, it would have been perfect 10.

 

I have always found notebooks I easily can rate an 8 or 9 and yet they lack something simple that keeps them from getting a 10. There is always some little thing missing that keeps me from having the "perfect" laptop, even my TZ.

Yes, the FW really could have a more powerful GPU and would make it much more attractive, its not bad but could easily be better with a few simple extras.

 

Like what extras? (other than the more powerful GPU)

 

do you think we could easily change the GPU to a 3650 and then just install the drivers?

 

with all the space near the keyboard it could have come with side speakers or something rather efficient and useful. ah well we're just wishing for too much.

 

hmm not sure on changing the card, what about adding a whole new card to begin with? assuming it would fit? is that even possible?

 

You can't change notebook's video cards. 99% of them are soldered to the motherboard and can not be removed.

 

thought so. oh well

any idea if the FW, with say a 2.53 cpu, 4 gigs of ram and the 3470 video card would be good enough for music production?

 

for music production that should be fine. you have plenty of power between the gpu and cpu. though battery life is going to be on the lower end (which is apparently 2.5 hrs or so about) because the T9000 series processors take more juice.

 

GPU has little effect to music production software. CPU, RAM and hard drive play much bigger roles.

 

I would say if your really worried get the X9000 processor, but seriously i don't think you'll need it and it will take about double the power.

 

I see, I don't really game much now a days, only some older games and only waiting for a new version of civilization 4: Colonization. If the FW can run civ 4 on fairly good graphics, then I will probably get it over the Z series.

 

Civilization to my understanding, correct me if im wrong, isn't outrageously demanding like crysis. So i think it will run pretty well on the FW.

If it won't run well on the FW, its going to run worst on the Z.
HD3470 > 9300 GS.

 

At this point, it would make no sense to get X9000. The more expensive X9000 consumes 45W of power with 800 MHz FSB http://processorfinder.intel.com/details.aspx?sSpec=SLAZ3

while the cheaper T9600 consumes 35W of power with 1066 MHz FSB http://processorfinder.intel.com/details.aspx?sSpec=SLB47

Both run at 2.8 GHz. T9600 wins all the way.

 

i meant the X9100 srry about that. But that takes a whooping 65W, so i would highly not recommend it.

Anyway i think T9600 is the highest offered for the FW.

 

I'll call the sony store, see if they have a demo in stock, maybe i'll go and check it out in person.

 

I played with one at Sony store today.

 

I'm in canada though, so not sure if demo models are in the stores yet. btw how did you find it?

 

and what's your impression?

 

Why not? If you don't much gaming the HD3470 is absolutely fine.

 

Then when people buy a car and say it does 155mph what is the point if it is hardly ever going to go that fast!

Anyway I have previously suffered with a low end graphics card making the mistake of buying the lowest one available! This was a Intel GMA 950 piece of crap and I don’t want to buy another notebook making the same mistake again. But if i do want to play games I want the components to allow me to.

+ I might need the notebook for running Autodesk Revit, my system struggles at the moment with Google sketchup!!

 

The comparison is crooked but instead of discussing cars I'd rather talk about GPUs.

An ATI HD3470 with 256MB VRAM is a fine GPU that will last for years as long as gaming is not important. It will play 1080p and Vista Aero will be smooth. Sony is not really targetting gamers.

If gaming is (somewhat) important, like it seems to you, than you're right to look at other options.

If you want to run applications that are GPU accelerated, even more reason to consider other options.

 

how does the intergrated intel x4500 compared to ATI 3470?

 

1174 vs. 1933 in 3D Mark06 if these benchmarks are accurate:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

 

Hi there, since I love that 16,4" screen I want a FW Vaio.

In Spain the most expensive is the VGN-FW11ZU but it has 4200 rpm. Then we have VGN-FW11S with the same 4200 rpm.

With 5200 rpm there are VGN-FW11J and VGN-FW11M; and the price is exactly the same 1199€.

But I am a little confused because while VGN-FW11J takes X-black LCD with double lamp technology and ATI HD 3650; VGN-FW11M has not double lamp technology and graphic card is HD 3470. So if FW11J is superior I don´t understand that.

Is there any specification wrong? Because if they are right I would buy the FW11J.

Thanks in advance

 

That is weird. Your specs seem right. http://vaio.sony.de/view/ShowProduc...11J&site=voe_de_DE_cons&category=VN+FW+Series

 

what are the chances ddr3 ram could be swaped into the FW?

also with nvidia releasing new gpus for laptops soon
http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/18/nvidias-geforce-9700m-9800m-laptop-gpus-get-quasi-official/

would sony offer these in the FW later on?

 

Thanks for answering PhilFlow, and yes it is a little strange. Let´s wait to see if anyone else confirm it.

Thanks again.

 

two things wrong in the UK:

https://shop.sonystyle-europe.com/S...2BC29B8647C57F043DA40047E10080002BC29B74)/.do

T9400 and not T9500
300 GB Serial ATA 4200 rpm hard disk drive- does it even deserve a comment

if they fix that I would get it, now- not

 

probably not. they'll probably have a special offer for a 3650 model at some point like they did with the 8600 G model FZ. but i don't think that the FW will have nvidia GPUs.

If they replace/refresh the AR with montevina, there is a chance a 9500/9600 will be offered.

 

quick question, with total available graphics memory, essentially it can use more memory if the dedicated VRAM is not enough?

 

ok thanks, the AR is not even available here in canada, so that idea goes out of the window. I do hope that when the FW goes on sale with CTO on sonystyle in canada, it will have the chance to add the 3650 rather than the 3470.

 

this is boring... for the past 4 pages all you talk about how you wish it had better graphics card.... if you are not happy get a different laptop. What about real impressions of the laptop who got to see it at Sony store?

 

chillax man, if the graphics card was upgradeable like in a normal pc I wouldn't say anything but it is not so whatever you buy, you are stuck with it until the next laptop. This will be my first laptop purchase and I don't rush into things, would be foolish to purchase anything without seeing it.

Seeing as I called the sony store here, and no display model was available yet at the store, it's not like I could go and check it out then could I?

Unlike the states, most sony stores here get display models at the same time as they go on sale, so once it is on sale, the display model goes up.

 

ah best of luck ascariss. Hopes to the ca models having the 3650.