Gaming/3D Performance
As this model is running Windows, let's investigate what this system is capable of, and try to find something a little more entertaining than Tux Racer.
3Dmark 2001SE
We had to dig through the mothballs to get this out, but given the speed of the CPU, we had to go back this far to get something that would run smoothly.
The results look less than stellar, but the framerates themselves weren't bad. 640x480 is not a supported video mode, and crashed partway through.
Ah, that's why it's unsupported.
Low detail
High detail
3Dmark 2003
What does this tell us? Not much, other than this benchmark is already getting outside of the Eee's reach. Glancing at the laptop while running this would usually look something like the following image.
Ouch…
So we've seen a couple of synthetic benchmarks, but what about real games? There are many games the Eee will "run", a.k.a. it will start and progress at a snail's pace, but we wanted to focus on games that run well and will be fun to play on the Eee.
Unreal Tournament
No, we're not talking about UT2003, 2004, or UT:3, but the original from November 1999. This title is still fun to play, and ran flawlessly at the native resolution of 800 x 480.
This was roughly a 90-second battle with bots enabled, and should represent average gameplay. Framerates were smooth with no issues.
Diablo II
Released in June 2000, Diablo II was a fantastic sequel that nearly everyone played. Initial installation of this game didn't look good, as it produced the following screen after the video test.
Attempting to run the game anyway generated a crash. A little digging online revealed that adding the -w switch to the executable (windowed mode) solves the problem.
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800x600 works fine for this game; you'll just need to center the window. 800x480 results in not being able to press the necessary buttons to proceed in the game. Framerates hovered around 25-30 FPS in town, but may drop in large battles or with lots of magic onscreen.
American McGee's Alice
Alice is a fun game released in October 2000 and based on the Quake III Arena engine. (Interesting side note: a film adaptation is due for release this summer.)
Not quite fullscreen.
Tests were run at 640x480, which ran well but not fullscreen (it stays anchored to the left side). The average framerate is a little low here. The game is generally playable, but unless we can increase the framerate, it's probably not enjoyable long term.
The general conclusion when it comes to gaming: look for titles from about 2001 and earlier, and you should be able to find a plethora of games that will run well and are still exciting and fun to play. Who knows, you might get re-hooked on an old classic, or discover a new one. You could also look into some of the emulation options to open up a large library of titles that won't quickly fill up the limited storage capacity.
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gochichi - Saturday, April 26, 2008 - link
It trully doesn't matter what the CPU is rated at, it is still overclocking when you personally override the thermal envelope of the little machine and clock it as you see fit.These machines hit a price point and size that other brands should compete for. That or at least ASUS needs to refresh the hardware within this product.
1GB RAM = $20 or so... and there are more thermally efficient procesors out there. 2GB = $35.00 ... so why the heck are we still dealing in 512MB?
Alphafox78 - Thursday, April 24, 2008 - link
Its nice to see a review on the eee here, but there are some things that could have been done to shine a much better light on it:1. 3Dmark01 should be run in the LCDs native rez of 800x480 - if you run it at 800x600 the driver has to stretch it to make it fit which kills the benchmark numbers.
2. the asus supplied drivers stink for gaming. you have to get the latest intel drivers, there are some modified ones on the eeeuser.com website that support resolution stretching and stuff.
if these things are done you can easily get a score of 3200 in the benchmark.
the stock mhz on the celeron in the eee is 900mhz, they do clock higher than 900 and I have seen one guy hit 1.2ghz almost. I am able to set mine to 1.044Ghz and when I do this I get a score of 3600 in 3dmark01. temps are 67c running warcraft for a few hours and fan on max.
if you do all of the above you can even play wow on it, I use it now instead of my 17" lappy and prefer it. its neat to play on it for some reason... I get around 30+fps grinding and 10 or so in the cities. except for shatarath, its like 4fps there for some reason.
Matt Campbell - Thursday, April 24, 2008 - link
I don't think "misleading" is quite accurate - I'm generally quite pleased with the Eee, Asus did a great job with it and it's a nice little machine, and I think the article reflects that. Point taken that you can squeeze some more gaming performance out of it, but it's clearly not a gaming laptop. I wanted to show a few fun games that can average 30+ fps with a minimum of user effort, just to shine a light on the fact that some gaming here and there is possible and enjoyable with older titles.kmmatney - Friday, April 25, 2008 - link
The original half-life game is probably playable as well - and I think it was OpenGL which would be a good test.kilkennycat - Thursday, April 24, 2008 - link
To all Anandtech reviewers:-When you are reviewing any portable devices in the future, please explicitly state the mA-hr capacity of the battery supplied in the review unit(s) AND confirm with the manufacturer of the product that exactly the same-capacity battery will be shipped with the for-sale product - especially when you are publishing the available use-time between charges.
Asus has been apparently been playing fast and loose by supplying higher-capacity batteries to reviewers of the EeePC than those offered in for-sale units and thus implicitly shafting some first-round real customers.
See the following:-
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/asus-eeepc-batter...">http://www.tomshardware.com/news/asus-eeepc-batter...
cputeq - Thursday, April 24, 2008 - link
battery life tests.Maybe continuous MP3 playing, or better yet, looping movie playing without power management, esp. in the underclocked and normal configs.
johnsonx - Wednesday, April 23, 2008 - link
The 4G XP models on NewEgg:http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Sub...">http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi...;descrip...
Don't appear to include the Mouse and SD card. Anyone know what the full story is here?
johnsonx - Thursday, April 24, 2008 - link
I also inquired over at Best Buy today - same thing, their 4G-XP's (the only model they carry thus far) doesn't include the mouse or SD card.Matt Campbell - Sunday, April 27, 2008 - link
I've asked Asus for a response on this and am awaiting a reply. From what I've seen also digging around on the web, the $399 model doesn't have the mouse or SD card. As you can see on page 1 from our retail packaging picture, though, it clearly calls out the mouse and SD card on the label. This makes me suspect that Asus didn't scrap it entirely, but may reserve it for some slightly higher priced config. This would alter my thoughts on this package, since the mouse and SD card really represent a good bundle for usability. I'll update here when I hear back from the manufacturer.nubie - Wednesday, April 23, 2008 - link
I won't use Internet explorer unless forced, why no Firefox?