Gateway ID49: Mixing the Bag
by Dustin Sklavos on September 23, 2010 2:46 AM ESTHigh Gaming and 3DMarks
As I mentioned on the previous page, driver bugs in Optimus prevented us from running Left 4 Dead 2 with 4xAA, so those results are omitted here. The GT 330M isn't really cut out for anti-aliasing or gaming above 1366x768 anyhow, making those results mainly academic, but it still would've been nice to see it really reach for the stars in a game that's traditionally pretty forgiving of video hardware.
Once we move to our "High" preset, the 330M in the ID49C takes a swan dive and can only produce playable settings in Mass Effect 2 and, arguably, StarCraft II and DiRT 2 (only at native resolution.) As we said before, the results are academic, but they do serve to illustrate the immense gulf in performance between the mainstream-class graphics processors and their high-end kin. In fairness, though, these are settings the 330M wasn't really made to run.
Once we get to 3DMark, the GeForces start to accel, though 3DMark03 and to a lesser extent 05 seem to have some issues with being CPU limited. That's fair; 3DMark03 is seven years old at this point and wasn't designed to run graphics hardware this fast. It's still sad watching the G 310M and HD 5470 trail the mainstream parts, though. The solid i5-450M in the ID49C gives the GT 330M the support it needs to rank consistently high on these charts, and in 3DMark06 and Vantage the ID49C comes into its own and slots in right where it ought to be.
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Akv - Thursday, September 23, 2010 - link
Thank you for adding the page about noise and heat.aguilpa1 - Thursday, September 23, 2010 - link
$800 dollars is not a bad price for the hardware but not if is going to pain you to use it. Keep letting those manufactures know we care about the screen and keyboard layouts. Thanks again.HHCosmin - Thursday, September 23, 2010 - link
i use a acer 3820tg, featuring i5 430m, 4gb ram, 640gb of hdd, bluetooth etc. this is the little brother having a 13,3" screen. it lacks the optical drive... and this a good thing. the keyboard is aceptable for me as i'm not too picky, the runtime is ok. i care very little about the ati graphics... they lappie would be at least 200grams lighter without it. the screen is ok and it does not really mater how precise it is since i mostly code and surf on it. it has performance, it's light enough (1,8kilos), has enough runtime (up to 6,5hours).i'd like to have the install disk, more control to undervolt the cpu (but this is not possible with nehalem), maybe an integrated sim slot, windows 7 pro instead of home premium, less crapware installed.
i really boils down to want you from a laptop. some could be really ok with some configs, others would not. i apreciate your review... but you could be less radical as some don't care too much about some things even if they know what makes their pc tick.
rwei - Thursday, September 23, 2010 - link
Something about the seething, over-the-top anger towards helpless gadgets that permeates this review tells me that you must be a Penny-Arcade reader.Also second the point on HP Envys. Given your penchant for quality/backlit keyboards, nice high resolution screens with good colors and black levels, solid build quality, non-glossy aluminum materials and USB 3.0/eSATA, a 14/17 review would be a rare and blessed opportunity for you to write a happy review full of rainbows and unicorns.
Is the 14 STILL on its way?
JarredWalton - Friday, September 24, 2010 - link
Honestly, who knows? It was supposed to be coming about six weeks back, so I'm not counting on anything now. Maybe they're doing a Fall revision and we'll get that. Here's hoping!blackrook - Saturday, September 25, 2010 - link
LOL...silly HP.fabarati - Thursday, September 23, 2010 - link
I would like to point out that the first generation of 500 GB 7200 RPM (ST9500420AS) drives from Seagate weren't all that good. The WD 500 GB 5400 RPM (WD5000BEVT) that came out at the same time was often as fast or faster. Which Is why I bought one of those. Granted, this was about a year ago, so the market has changed. Knowing Seagate, they probably have had 2 or 3 new generations of HDDs released. Just because.tspin46 - Friday, September 24, 2010 - link
We get it you hate the keyboard. You could have said that in four words, why use four fairly long paragraphs? You then make fun of anyone who may actually like the keyboard. What possible reason to insult an interested participant in anandtech who bothered to read your review.I must be that idiot since I actually like the keyboard considerably more than I like several other laptop keyboards. I also learned to touch type and find no need to pound the keyboard so no flex problems, if in fact there is a problem.
The entire tone of your review reminds me of a movie criticism found in a school newspaper. You have a bully pulpit and by god you are going to pound your personal opinion into every reader.
Chill, say what you like and don't like but don't pound the pulpit with four paragraphs of keyboard hate with very little data other than YOU HATE IT.
JarredWalton - Friday, September 24, 2010 - link
It's not that we're making fun of the people that like the keyboard, it's that we're curious if anyone actually does like it. Maybe you like the glowing touchpad as well, which we feel is a complete waste. But even if you're okay with the keyboard, you can't tell me there aren't better designs out there. The reason I let Dustin go off on this one is because this has been a problem with Acer/Gateway laptops for so long, and they just don't seem to care. Well, fine, if you're selling a $500-$600 budget system I get that. But when you upgrade the chassis to aluminum, add in a decent mobile GPU, and have enough budget left over for a glowing touchpad... yeah, the keyboard absolutely needs to be fixed.AnnonymousCoward - Saturday, September 25, 2010 - link
I for one enjoyed reading the bit about combusting keyboards due to hating it that badly. The keyboard is one of the most important aspects of a laptop, and 4 paragraphs of informal writing is absolutely deserved. If you want 4 words on the keyboard, go read a Cnet review.You would think, here in 2010, good keyboards would have been mastered long ago. Just looking at the picture of it I can tell it probably sucks; the keys lack depth and it looks like there's not enough spacing.