ASUS UL80Jt: Overclocked i3 ULV
by Vivek Gowri on November 17, 2010 1:15 PM ESTASUS UL80Jt Gaming Performance
The UL80Jt has an NVIDIA G 310M, with NVIDIA’s Optimus graphics switching technology enabled. It’s a dedicated graphics card, but really that’s not saying much. As far as dGPUs go, it’s basically as slow as you can get and at the end of its lifecycle. NVIDIA has already announced its 400M series, and we sincerely hope that the GT 415M that replaces the G 310M at the bottom of the lineup can improve performance significantly (and it should, with three times as many cores and a 128-bit memory interface). More than that, we hope ASUS will quit with the 310M and use the faster 415M sooner rather than later.
We already have integrated graphics solutions nipping at the heels of the G 310M, and with Sandy Bridge and AMD’s Zacate on the horizon, they can only get closer or maybe even surpass it. And let’s face it—the current 11” MacBook Air (yeah, that 0.68” thick, 2.3lb paragon of industrial design) can run rings around anything with a G 310M inside. When you’re being beaten out by glorified netbooks, you know your GPU is ripe for replacement.
Performance-wise, it’s not too far off the U30Jc that we also tested, with maybe a 10% decrease in performance due to CPU bottleneck. The Turbo33 mode doesn’t do much outside of StarCraft 2 (which is much more CPU reliant than the rest), giving a 1 or 2 FPS boost at most. At low settings, we see the G 310M playable in most of the games, but when you bump it to medium settings it’s all gone. The only game even approaching 30 FPS is STALKER, with the rest being pretty poor.
But really, the G 310 is a low end card rapidly approaching the end of its life, so I guess I can’t judge it too harshly. It’s better than integrated graphics (but not by much), but it’s not really a huge factor—if you’re looking for a portable notebook with a dedicated graphics card for the purpose of gaming, you should either look into the M11x or wait for the next generation of graphics chips to hit market. And the sad thing is, G 310M performance is what the next-gen IGPs appear to be targeting, rather than setting their sites a little higher (i.e. GeForce 320M).
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mschira - Wednesday, November 17, 2010 - link
One of the more revealing side notes here is on the Nvida 310M - it's simply old and slow, with integrated GPUs on it's heel.I am ready to forgive an ultra thin/ light and notebook such as reviewed here not having a good GPU.
But the real problem is NO current 13" notebook (except the SONY z-series) has anything better than the 310M.
I am looking for a new laptop with an acceptable dedicated GPU, but there simply in none.
M.
scook9 - Wednesday, November 17, 2010 - link
Even more sad....look up the specs, the 310m IS the 210mThey changed NOTHING but the name...no new features, no die shrink, no additional sp's NOTHING
VivekGowri - Wednesday, November 17, 2010 - link
Basically this. The G 310 was a viable graphics chip at the very beginning of the i3 generation, but at this point it's a sad caricature of a dGPU. Between the 210 and the 310, they really haven't done much other than add some of the new 300M technologies; the core is still exactly the same.This is why we can't wait for them to update these things to the GT 415M....
mschira - Wednesday, November 17, 2010 - link
Come ON. Nvidia changed the NAME, what more do you want?M.
Dustin Sklavos - Wednesday, November 17, 2010 - link
One difference, actually: the 310M supports Optimus, the 210M does not.VivekGowri - Wednesday, November 17, 2010 - link
That's part of what I was referring to as "adding the new 300M tech", but interestingly enough, the first Optimus notebook ran off the G 210M. I was talking to Jarred about this the other day; here's the link.http://www.anandtech.com/show/2934/nvidia-optimus-...
Thermogenic - Thursday, November 18, 2010 - link
Take a look at the Alienware M11x - it uses a 335M, but only has an 11" screen.fokka - Thursday, November 18, 2010 - link
if you want a 13" machine with decent gfx-power, get the acer 3820. it has a ati 5650 inside which should be even better then the downclocked 330m in the vaio z series. only downside is the lack of an optical drive, if you need one.Evil_Sheep - Wednesday, November 17, 2010 - link
I think this review makes it clear that the current-gen ULV is a big disappointment...even the last gen ULV was preferable. The small jump in performance isn't worth it when the last-gen ULV gets at least 50% more battery life.I also can't understand why Asus has crippled the UL80Jt with slower GPU memory than the U30. What were they thinking? Was it worth saving a couple bucks?
Anyway it doesn't matter because the next generation of Asus U-series notebooks (with GT400M-series GPU's) is already on its way, if you can wait a little bit longer.... http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=zSxiiUUgbhKS...
hybrid2d4x4 - Thursday, November 18, 2010 - link
Sweet! Thanks for that link. Good to see they are moving on from that useless 310. I just hope they have a SKU with a matte screen, then they might finally have me as a customer!