ASUS N53JF: Midrange 15.6” 1080p, Take Four
by Jarred Walton on December 28, 2010 1:40 AM ESTGaming Performance
We’ve covered this ground several times of late: 1080p with “midrange” mobile graphics really isn’t great for playing games, but at least you can turn down the resolution to get reasonable performance. We’ve run our Low, Medium, and High benchmarks at both the standardized resolutions as well as 1080p, but you’ll generally want to stick to medium quality or lower if you want to run at native resolution.
Starting at Low detail, about the only thing worth noting (other than the games all being playable) is that several titles benefit from the faster CPU in the Clevo notebook, but BFBC2, L4D2, and STALKER all give the ASUS a slight lead, with a larger 13% lead in L4D2. The Clevo notebook clocked the GPU the same, but used 1400MHz memory instead of 1600MHz RAM for graphics, so that 14% deficit shows up in some games more than others. Again, we ran Mafia 2 and Metro 2033 but are skipping the graphs for the time being. Mafia 2 manages 35FPS at 768p and 21.5FPS at 1080p, so it manages low detail and low resolution at least. Metro 2033 doesn’t even clear the 30FPS hurdle at 768p, scoring 26FPS and dropping into the teens (17FPS) at 1080p. The scores are basically right where we’d expect given the GPU and CPU.
The story is similar at medium detail, and again the ASUS notebook leads the Clevo, this time in four out of six games. The lower memory bandwidth is definitely a factor here, though the difference isn’t so large as to be alarming and the faster CPU still pushes Clevo ahead in Mass Effect 2 and StarCraft II. 1080p with medium is only playable in STALKER and SC2, while the other titles will need to drop to a lower resolution. Mafia II and Metro 2033 continue their slide into unplayable territory, with scores of 30.4/18.1 and 24.4/16.1 respectively (at 768p/1080p). As mentioned in the Compal review, AMD’s HD 5650 also manages to lead the 420M/425M at our Medium settings in virtually every case, despite being six months older hardware.
Finally, our High settings push many of the titles below 30FPS, though DiRT 2, L4D2, and ME2 all manage 900p High at >30FPS. As for Mafia II and Metro, they’re now down to 23.6/17.6 and 14.6/11.3 for 900p/1080p, which definitely isn’t playable. Also worth noting is that we continue to test games in DX9 or DX10 modes rather than DX11, as performance drops in nearly every DX11-enabled title and mobile GPUs aren’t usually fast enough to have the luxury of increasing detail levels. DiRT 2 is the odd man out, boasting higher performance at Ultra Low through Medium detail when DX11 is enabled, but the tables turn at the Ultra High setting. What we really need to make DX11 and high quality settings viable for notebooks is about twice the current level of performance—roughly equal to the HD 5850 or GTX 460M. “Midrange” laptops still require you to drop to lower resolutions, lower details settings, or both.
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visibilityunlimited3 - Wednesday, December 29, 2010 - link
I had problems with my eyes looking at an 14" XGA. I almost went blind before I got my 15.4" Inspiron 1920x1200 screen many years later. My eyes have fewer problems after looking at that high resolution display for many years now.Consider the difference between old dot matrix printers and laser printers. Is reading 1200dpi text uncomfortable? The real problem is Windows being optimized for low res screens. There are a few configuration changes that can help. I actually dual boot with Windows XP and Debian and prefer the Debian for being better equipped to manage the high resolution display. I spent a little extra time fine tuning the X Window System to do exactly what I wanted and I am very comfortable now. I am in no hurry to downgrade to the 1080p display until my old Pentium M gets really tired. The display is that much more important than anything else in my opinion. Thanks Jarred for recognizing the value of the premium displays.
I would like an ebook reader with 1200dpi resolution to match my laser printer and expect that would be very comfortable to use also.
Davelo - Tuesday, December 28, 2010 - link
How many laptops have went bad because of bad BGA solder of Nvidia chips? I've seen so many I would not touch one.DanNeely - Tuesday, December 28, 2010 - link
Weren't those all the first generation lead-free BGA chips? I didn't think any of the newer ones were having problems.JarredWalton - Tuesday, December 28, 2010 - link
Yeah, this is old news. A few anti-NVIDIA sites made a huge deal about the failures, but I never personally had any of those chips fail on me. Of course, I wasn't playing a lot of games on laptops, so maybe that's why. Anyway, anything in the post-8000M era should definitely be fine. Actually, I think it was mostly the old GeForce Go series that had problems.sucram03 - Tuesday, December 28, 2010 - link
Somewhat on & off-topic question: So in all honesty, with such a horrendous screen, where does that leave value-minded users that want a laptop with a nice 1080p screen and a GeForce video card? The application I'm thinking of is CUDA-accelerating H.264/AVC 1080p videos.The XPS 15 isn't listing the B+RG LED as an option, as mentioned in the article. Has anyone else heard from Dell about reasons why/if it will come back? The Clevo seems like an OK option but... well.. it now seems like the only option.
Any thoughts?
JarredWalton - Tuesday, December 28, 2010 - link
At this point, I'd say just wait for the CES announcements and see if anything new turns up. :-)Kaboose - Tuesday, December 28, 2010 - link
Could Dell be holding back the 1080p panels for a sandy laptop in the next few weeks?sucram03 - Tuesday, December 28, 2010 - link
All signs point to yes, especially that suspect smiley face from Jared :) Damn you insider knowledge!Kaboose - Tuesday, December 28, 2010 - link
thank goodness i have been saving up for the past two months in anticipation of sandy bridge and my need for a new portable computer. luckily they coincide.JarredWalton - Tuesday, December 28, 2010 - link
I've got Sandy Bridge, but I have no idea if Dell is holding back panels. I sure hope so...