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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erple2 - Friday, November 19, 2010 - link
Nonsense. Those 12" screens are still 720p screens, just like these exceptionally crummy 14-15" screens in the mass market. For that, the 310m is just fine. Crummy dGPU for crummy screens.One of these days, people will figure out that resolution counts, not screen size. Which is why my 32" TV (720p) isn't nearly as nice as my 1080p 15" laptop screen.
mmsmsy - Thursday, November 18, 2010 - link
If the case is lack of additional performance you should definitely try UL80Jt with Core i5 520UM. Unlike the i3xx UM this one's got the turbo boost up to 1.83GHz, which should boost performance significantly, while, at the same time, powering the notebook almost just as long as the Core i3xx UM. Even if i5 costs a little extra, going for i3 is definitely not a good idea performance wise. Try it and I think you'll probably change your opinion. ;)fokka - Thursday, November 18, 2010 - link
@ vivek & jarred: a commenter posted a link to asus' upcoming u-series models:http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=qcgJ2RirwkZL...
have you any idea when they will hit the market? probably q1 2011, i think?
JarredWalton - Monday, November 22, 2010 - link
I don' t know the ETA for all of the new 400M models, but I can tell you that all of the newer models need to ship sooner rather than later (i.e. Sandy Bridge is coming). One of the new ASUS models is the 15.6" (I know....) N53JF, which has i5-460M, GT 425M, a 1080p LCD, and Blu-ray for under $1000. I just got my N53JF review sample, and first impressions are that the aesthetics will probably please quite a few relative to the Dell XPS 15. Unfortunately, the 1080p panel isn't a high contrast option and it comes with a 48Wh battery. So, ultimately it's looking good but not stellar.As for the new U-series, like I said, they need to come out soon because of the pending launch of SB. I guess SB is quad-core though, so that means Core 2010 dual-core options can still continue for a bit, but if pricing and battery life is good on SB I don't know why anyone would opt for Arrandale after January 2011. We'll have to wait and see. Since ASUS has the U-series updated on their site, I would expect them before Christmas at least.
freespace303 - Thursday, November 18, 2010 - link
PLEASE REVIEW THE ENVY 17 3D!!!Hrel - Wednesday, December 1, 2010 - link
Sub 2GHz CPU, less than 900p screen, non DX 11 GPU? Hmm, guess I don't need to read any further.Seriously, there's no reason at all they can't use a slightly faster Core i3, the GT430M GPU and a half way decent screen. 1600x900 or greater.
I'm really really baffled by the GPU choice, it's damn near 2011 people, DX11 or GTFO.
Hrel - Wednesday, December 1, 2010 - link
Also, anything with a sub 900p screen and a Core i3 shouldn't cost any more than 750 at the absolute max; really under 600. The U33Jc at 970 is asinine. 700 sure, ok, as long as they get a 400 series GPU in there. with at least 32 SP or Cuda cores or whatever the fuck they wanna call em.