Acer's Aspire 5551G: AMD's Budget Gaming Laptop
by Jarred Walton on November 27, 2010 12:00 AM ESTHigh Detail Gaming and 3DMarks
With a 768p LCD and HD 5650, native gaming at high detail settings is potentially viable in some titles. We've got comparative results at 900p, with the 5551G 768p High settings also listed.
First off, let's get this out of the way: 900p isn't playable in most of the games. 900p is 37% more pixels than 768p, and that's often enough to push the 5650 from playable to stuttering—and realistically, medium detail settings make the most sense for this sort of mobile GPU. Out of the tested games, only DiRT 2, Left 4 Dead 2, and Mass Effect 2 break 30FPS at 900p "high". If we drop to the native 768p, STALKER joins the 30+ group and the other titles run a bit faster. Note that getting 30+ FPS in STALKER and DiRT 2 requires you to run without the DX11 effects—which is sort of interesting, as DiRT 2 actually runs faster in DX11 mode at Low and Medium settings. Anyway, about half of the games can run at our "high" settings and native res while the others require "medium" (or 720p and "minimum" for Metro 2033).
3DMark
As usual, we've got our 3DMark results tossed in here for those that want them. We're only showing 06 and Vantage charts, though the Entry Level Vantage run isn't really that useful. If you'd like the other scores, we measured 19942 in 3DMark03 and 12270 in 3DMark05. Connecting the 5551G to an external LCD and running at the standard resolutions, 3DMark06 (1280x1024) scores 6242 and Vantage Performance gets 3086.
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freespace303 - Sunday, November 28, 2010 - link
Please review the HP Envy 14, and 17 3D!!!!blackrook - Sunday, November 28, 2010 - link
I don't think that's going to happen.freespace303 - Monday, November 29, 2010 - link
Why not? I"m about to just buy it myself and send it to Anand to review. Seriously! How can I get a hold of him or any of the Anandtech staff to do something like that?JarredWalton - Monday, November 29, 2010 - link
I believe Vivek has an Envy 14 from someone on loan (i.e. not from HP), and Dustin has an Envy 17... but not the 3D. Se la vi!iamkyle - Monday, November 29, 2010 - link
C'est la vieJarredWalton - Monday, November 29, 2010 - link
[Jarred hides his head in shame... teach me to try and write French....]freespace303 - Monday, November 29, 2010 - link
Is it true? Reviewing the 17? Interested in reviewing the 3D version?JarredWalton - Monday, November 29, 2010 - link
Dustin has the Envy 17 in his grubby little hands. Unfortunately, to quote him, "It looks like this one has been through quite a few reviewers already. It came in an Amazon box!" So, I don't know if it will be an up-to-date model or something made six months ago. As for Vivek, he has someone's Envy 14 with the Radiance display, which obviously isn't available from HP anymore. I suppose a few people are selling such laptops (used) on eBay, but I really hope HP finds a way to get more of the 900p Radiance panel in stock.blackrook - Tuesday, November 30, 2010 - link
HP reps are saying that they'll be back in stock sometime in December. Now to decide whether it's worth trusting them.StrangerGuy - Monday, November 29, 2010 - link
Why not bash Asus even more? Same mediocre LCDs, a lot more junk models (thousands of crappy 310m laptops, ULV CPU on the 14" in 2010), and they are way behind Acer in overall value for dollar if you ask me.