Wondering sony vaio fw 400 series game performance?

Well if anyone is wondering how well can the new fw hold up against games like fallout 3, bioshock, devil may cry4, crysis(all directx10/1600x900/max settings, AA), i get anywhere from 39 to 75 FPS. I played Aion( an mmorpg, max settings, 1600x900, AA, directx10) and got between 60(in the fields fighting) to 45(running to new places) to 35(in towns crowded with people).

My specs:
windos 7 evalution copy/build 7100
Dual core 2.53ghz
4 GB RAM
ATI radeon 4650 1GB

In conclusion it's very smooth.

 

That's great!

Have you played TF2 on it?

How do you like this notebook? How's the build quality? Battery life?

Thanks in advance

 

I have not yet played TF2 on this but i would like to. It shouldn't be as intensive as the other games that i played such as Bioshock so it should probably run even better.

As for the notebook it is very sleek, great build quality, although i have heard that the pre-configured models have somewhat better built quality since they are made oversea compared to 2nd locations such as USA. Battery life is just about the same as other laptops, you get 2hours of play.

 

Crysis works at 1600x900 on max settings?

 

yes.

I just tested out dead space and it looks and runs amazingly.
I also ran street fighter IV, i was a little dissapointed only getting 30 FPS on high-max settings.

 

Any chance you play World of Warcraft to get stats off of it?

 

the 4650 can handle all current games today. Some obviously won't be that great at the fullest max settings, but they will all run fine even if you have to go with medium settings..

pstineme, I don't even know why you are asking if it can run Wow...old GPUs can handle that game

 

Doubt it, from what I hear, the video card is a mid-ranged card and probably won't be smooth~ (on max settings)

 

I'm actually interested in this laptop as Newegg has a pretty nice deal on it right now... my main concern is ..i was originally aiming for a 15.4" laptop for the portability so I'm unsure if the the FW series would be too bulky / heavy to travel around with (including power, etc.)

Also, do you think it is realistic for college use? Is it too big for the small college desk-chair?

 

I wouldn't use it for small college desk chair that they frequently use for lecture. I won't even use 15.4" for that purpose but the FW weight is about the same with 15.4" notebook. In fact, Alienware 15.4" is heavier and thicker than FW 16.4". Sony is the king when it comes to make thin and light notebook.

Just to give you an idea, the weight without power supply and without battery is about 5.8 pounds. Add 0.5 pound for the battery or the power supply.

 

Any of u try this machine with the sim 3 and warhammer 40000 dawn of war 2? Btw I just order one will get it in 1 week can't wait.

 

where did u order it from?
i saw the one on Newegg which looks like a steal.

 

I got one in sony style not too expensive and made in usa

 

anyone try overclocking the GPU on this laptop? if so how far did you get with the clock speed and memory speed.

 

I just tried this mod called NeoTokyo, a futuristic FPS, 20-30 years from now in japan. Oh man what great graphics, anyone who owns a steam account with like HL2 or team fortress 2, L4D, or a few more games can play it for free.
http://neotokyohq.com/

 

This commentator at notebookjournal.de gives a link to a Techpowerup Tool and a summary of positive experiences overclocking the same graphics card :
http://www.notebookjournal.de/forum/showthread.php?t=13126

He took his HD4650 on an HP up to 680/800 with Vista 32-bit -- and he provides screen shots as well.

 

nice i'll check it out and post results, i tried overclocking earlier but i think i started at like 700/800 and got a bright orange screen and the laptop froze up whoops! the video card didnt go over 62C so i think im ok. how dangerous is OCing a GPU I hear its pretty safe.

 

Today I'm going to clean install Vista 32Bit & Try to OC GPU. I'll let you know the results.

 

Maybe use a notebook cooling pad, just in case..... ;-)

 

awesome, make sure you do it on 9.6 drivers!

 

yah...do you have that stupid Sony Firmware Extension Parser driver for vista 32Bit (VGN-FW41M/H)?

 

Sorry Im using 64bit windows 7, whats that do anyways

 

A bit off-topic, but how's your experience with Windows 7 on Vaio FW? Any problems with drivers? Fn buttons?

 

nope just install all the drivers on the sony page and everything works perfectly. going to have to find a new player for blu rays tho

 

One question. Does Vaio Laptop have hdmi ports? So I can jack my blu ray player in and use the laptop screen to watch movie? Thank for advance.

 

Yeah, the FW has one HDMI and one VGA port

 

did you extract the drivers or just install them as the exe that it comes? I know the drivers have some stupid system that checks your version or something like that. I still haven't installed the drivers myself, a lot of them are already installed when you get windows 7(video card, hard drive, sound, etc).

But ever since i installed windows 7 i have crashed like 5 times so far in the past week and a half? Probably because i didn't install a specific drive, idk.


Anyways more games that i tested out: Burnout paradise, Sims3, team fortress 2, assassin creed. They all run great on max settings.

 

the FW does have one HDMI and one VGA, but I don't think you can use a blu-ray player to watch movies on the laptop screen....Unless HDMI is a 2-way input/output connection that I didn't know about? I thought you could only output from your laptop to a TV/Monitor through the HDMI.... (I hope I'm not wrong, otherwise I'd feel very stupid haha )

or maybe its just a big typo?

 

what driver of hd 4650 u guys using? Can give me the link pleaseT-T my lappy performance is not good at all and it's rather hot.

 

Yes mine get's rather hot after playing for like 3-4 hours+ but that's normal. As for the driver just used the latest from the ati' driver website.

 

I've been playing WoW on the new fw and i had everything maxed out, 1600x900, aa, etc, receiving a solid 34 FPS. It's not what i was expecting but it's alright.

 

Overclock it!

 

nvm it was the shadow option, maxing it really brings down the FPS for some reason, just by adjusting it to medium and setting everything else on max i went from 34 to 54-61 FPS.

 

What CPU does your machine have?

 

Up .

 

9.7 drivers are up I can get 3-4 more fps on SF4 when I turn on AA

 

Can anybody tell me where to get Vista x64 and Win7 x64 drivers for my FW with 4650? Already tried to patch them by myself but the driver installation still fails.

Thanks!

 

I would like to know this too.

How are people using the 9.7 drivers for the ATI Mobility 4650?

 

If I recall correctly, ATI has support for their mobile GPUs for Windows 7 so maybe people are using that.

Alternatively, they're using modified versions of the desktop drivers(not official ones)

 

Thats why I'm confused because the Mobility Modder doesn't support the 4000 series yet.

 

There are other [more tricky] ways of modifying GPU drivers other than Mobility Modder I believe since my friend did it once by coding. But it's a tricky process.

 

is every1's FW4's running pretty cool while running these games? (with the factory gpu clock settings.)
pretty solid cooling system?

 

Having seen 3 modern day laptops with ATI4000 series in it I must say the vaio has far the best cooling system I have seen. Even when overclocked 220mhz above stock it stays below 65C after hours of playing Street Fighter 4. The heat sink is extremely efficient. I'd imagine with stock clock settings the temps not reaching over 62C which is amazing! High end laptops these days (macbook pro for example have GPU temps 80-90C+)

 

Maybe that's one of the disadvantages to having a MBP made from a heat-conducting material like aluminum....

 

How well would FW400 go with Microsoft Flight Simulator X with all the details crank up with FSAA at 1600x900? Would it be able to maintain 30 FPS, especially in highly dense area like downtown New York?

 

Anyone else try installing the 9.7 Catalyst Windows 7 64-bit for ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4000 Series on a 64-bit Vista Sony FW4 series? The CCC is acting up a little. It does not appear to recognize the monitor and its settings. Is this normal? Should I do anything? The drivers are giving game performance a boost. I am able to run Bioshock at 1920x1080 at High Detail just fine, whereas it was choppy without the latest update.

 

Yeah, you should download the Vista drivers.

 

There is no 9.7 update for ATI Mobility Radeon 4000 Series for Vista 64 bit. I did test out the HDMI and it still works fine. I can do most of the things with the built-in Windows tools, so I guess I'll just use the Windows 7 driver/suite until Windows 7 comes out.

 

Ok guys, I have some memory questions regarding the gaming performance of the fw4.

1. What type of vRAM does the 4650 use? e.g. DDR2, DDR3, GDDR3?

2. Does 512mb of vRAM in the 4650 provide performance equal to that of the 1gb version? Is it worth the extra 47.50 to upgrade?

 

1. Depends on which version we're specifically talking about. Different models use different GPUs. From users here it's either DDR3 or GDDR3. In either case it's not bad performance(since it's not DDR2).

2. The 1Gb version would only really give an advantage when playing at high resolutions or on games with very very big amounts of textures. Both of these things are probably something you wouldn't want to do too often with "only" the HD4650 therefore my personal opinion would be to save your 50$ and spend it elsewhere.