ASUS UL80Vt and G51J: Going for the Gold
by Jarred Walton on December 15, 2009 1:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
ASUS UL80Vt Gaming Performance
We mentioned in the MSI X610 review that combining a discrete GPU with an underpowered single-core CPU results in lackluster gaming performance. As the 3DMark results show, the HD 4330 has potential, though the G210M is clearly faster. However, where the MV-40 CPU in the X610 isn't fast enough, an overclocked CULV CPU has no problems running games. Take a look at the following game results.
Despite having the best current IGP implementation, the GeForce 9400M, and running a CPU that's around 35% faster, the Studio 14z trails the UL80Vt in every single gaming test. This is all thanks to the discrete G210M graphics, naturally. The 14z is unable to provide smooth gameplay in at least two titles, Dark Athena and Mass Effect, but the ASUS laptop is able to run every current game we tested. In fact, it can handle everything except those same two titles at 1366x768, and average performance across the tested games is higher at 1366x768 Medium detail than the 14z manages at 1366x768 Low detail. There are even a few games where the UL80Vt can handle High detail settings; we played Batman and Fallout 3 at High detail (and even enabled 2xAA in Fallout 3) for several hours each with no complaints.
There's not much point in belaboring the issue: in terms of gaming, the UL80Vt offers extremely compelling performance relative to other $800 laptops. What's more, it does this while still delivering stellar battery life. Speaking of which….
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JarredWalton - Tuesday, December 15, 2009 - link
Sorry... I didn't think to test the mic. Built-in mics range from passable to lousy, so any time I use a mic I use a headset.Devo2007 - Tuesday, December 15, 2009 - link
I commented on the first article that seemed to have an odd layout (conclusion on the first page, etc.) so it's only fair that I chime in with an update. This one was much better! I liked getting the introduction, then an overall opinion on the next page. Kudos for also providing a quick link to view the technical details of the laptop as well.Visual - Tuesday, December 15, 2009 - link
Not having both laptops at least on the same page if not the same graph for the performance benchmarks was a weird choice though. I realize they are in completely different leagues, but still an easier comparison between the two would have been nice.JarredWalton - Tuesday, December 15, 2009 - link
The games are all run at completely different settings (for obvious reasons). 3DMark06/Vantage also run at 1280x768 on the lower spec laptops, unless you connect an external LCD. Since they all run at that setting I've kept the results. I thought about combining everything, but I've got two sets of spreadsheets with results: one has the high-end stuff and the other has low-end options. Putting together all the charts already takes forever and a day, and combining them all would potentially increase the time and just make the charts more confusing. (I'm still not sure I did the right thing on the last few charts where I combined results.)davepermen - Tuesday, December 15, 2009 - link
my powerplans never mess up. never did on vista, never do on win7. but i never install specific powerplan-tools, just a clean os install, and then let it be (and reconfig the power plan, like the password-after-standby and such).so far, i haven't encountered your issue on all the machines i've tested.
weird.
iamezza - Wednesday, December 16, 2009 - link
It has happened to me fairly often since I did a clean install of 7 on my Desktop PC. Password on resume, hard drive timeout and monitor timeout are the ones that get reset for me.cerebro - Tuesday, December 15, 2009 - link
Just put SetPower on it (google it). It lets you configure the power settings based on time of day and takes into account whether the machine is plugged in or not. It uses scheduled tasks so it doesn't consume resources other than when it is switching plans for you.aos007 - Tuesday, December 15, 2009 - link
I have on the other hand ran into them quite often, especially on my laptop. I have the opposite problem - the damn thing just won't stay asleep and often I wake up finding it's on even though the lid is closed. And if it's not plugged in, you can imagine what kind of charge is left in it. I was getting it in Vista and I'd say it's probably even worse in Windows 7. I am guessing it has something to do with Microsoft's implementation of DLNA, I mean access to multimedia libraries and streaming. Microsoft specifically talks about devices needing to be able to wake up remotely when queried. That's all fine and dandy and even desired in a desktop but a laptop should really be a special case. Especially once the lid is closed.The0ne - Tuesday, December 15, 2009 - link
I have issues too, with and without clean installs. Sleep sometimes doesn't even trigger. Screen goes blank, screensaver, even though I turned it off. Very strange behaviors in Windows 7. This is for laptops though and I have not encounter anything with deskstops. There are other various strange little quirks in Windows 7 as well.Most annoying thing is the windows explorer restarting itself. I think I figured out what's been causing this problem and have since accidentally fixed it. Its was one of the codecs with the k-lite codec full package that was screwing things up. Bastard. None of the tricks via Google worked for me except for this.
JarredWalton - Tuesday, December 15, 2009 - link
I'm guessing that it's possibly linked to the OEM software. Still, I'm 99% positive I had it happen with the Clevo W870CU and a clean install of Vista. I know on an Acer system I uninstalled every piece of software that was loading at startup, along with removing/disabling some services, and it STILL happened. Gah! I also don't like how many OEMs limit your setting on the critical battery percentage to 5%... I had to manually hack that on the G51J to make it 1%.At any rate, it was something I've encountered enough during the past couple of years that I finally wanted to mention it. ASUS on the UL80Vt is particularly annoying if you use the button on the keyboard (the ExpressGate "power" button) to switch between plans, as it will jack with all sorts of settings. To my knowledge, there's no way to edit the defaults that it sets on most of the plans (i.e. the Power4Gear Battery Life option will turn on "auto-hide taskbar" every time you activate it).