CyberpowerPC's Compal NBLB2: Affordable Gaming
by Dustin Sklavos on December 21, 2010 5:50 PM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- AMD
- Intel
- CyberPowerPC
- Compal
Gaming Performance
With the AMD Mobility Radeon HD 5650 essentially off the chain, let's see how it fares compared to NVIDIA's recent 400 series GeForces in our "Low" setting gaming suite. Also keep an eye on the same GPU when coupled to the Athlon II P520.
At these CPU-limited settings the NBLB2 essentially takes on all comers, even producing playable performance in nearly every game at the native 1080p resolution. While the GeForce GTS 350M should be more powerful and is generally considered a higher class part, at least on paper, the i7-740QM it's strapped to could be bogging it down. The Acer 5551G also sits back anywhere from 10% (STALKER) to as much as 45% slower (BFBC2) thanks to the CPU deficit. What happens when we ratchet up to our "Medium" preset?
Performance is again excellent, and the 5650 trades blows with NVIDIA's lineup, new and old. In most games the NBLB2 is overall able to provide playable performance even at 1080p. That said, performance isn't entirely smooth at that native resolution, and with most games you may want to back down to 1600x900; 1080p seems to push the bandwidth-limited GDDR3 too hard, and this is true with either vendor's graphics hardware. AMD's P520 remains a noticeable bottleneck even at medium detail, with the i7-640M delivering anywhere from 6% (STALKER again) to 36% (BFBC2—or 31% in SC2) better frame rates. That gap will finally disappear at our 900p High settings, though.
When we get to our "High" preset, the NBLB2 falters: the 5650 just can't take the increased stress. This is true of all the parts in this class, as evidenced by the performance of the high-end GPUs. At this point it doesn't matter what processor the 5650 is paired up with, because it's entirely GPU-limited.
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synaesthetic - Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - link
The BB version of the G73 has a 1600x900 screen... so, no, no full HD for you.frozentundra123456 - Thursday, December 23, 2010 - link
No, it doesnt have a 1080p panel, but can the 5650 in the tested notebook run games at 1080p anyway? I dont think so at any kind of high detail.So I still think the G73 is a better value. I would prefer to have a somewhat lower resolution panel and the power to run at native resolution than a good display without the graphics power to use it properly.
synaesthetic - Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - link
Can I put this screen on my Gateway NV5925u?Also, damn! That 5650 gets hot! It's hard for the 5650 in my laptop to reach 70 degrees, even overclocked to 5730 clocks!
... somehow I got really lucky with the GPU in my laptop. I can OC it to 850/900 without any stability issues so long as I use a laptop cooler.
Zoridon - Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - link
I'd be willing to recommend a mid range gaming notebook just like the NBLB2 if they made the native resolution 1680x1050. at 1080p the 5650 can't run most games at native resolution. 1680x1050 seems to be the breaking point or 1600x900. They could use the money saved on the screen and include USB 3 and a keyboard backlight with a decent touchpad. Throw in the Momentus XT hybrid drive as well. All of which could be done for about the same price. That way if you are forced to play at 720p you are much closer to the native resolution and will have a better picture than if you step down from 1080p.NJoy - Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - link
You forget that they all have switched to 16:9 panels, while 1680x1050 is 16:10. In any case, thanks to small pitch the picture looks ok when you scale it down to 1600x900NJoy - Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - link
Very nice review. thanks.The touch buttons are supposed to work with the software, mainly to switch between different color profiles. However, the implementation is so bad that most compal users just disable them right away
Next, the cooling. Traditionally, these compals cool the cpu a lot better than GPUs, probably due to a shorter heatpipe, but it should cope with quads without much problems. I recommended one to a friend recently and he got it with i7 840QM - havent heard any complaints from him yet.
The GPU temps just make me feel really sad about the anemic DDR2 9600GT in my JHL90, which idles at 57C since day one and gets to 95C with toaster speeds. All that while cpu (p8600) never gets over 55.
All in all, even despite the glossiness and dated design, I find this model to be one of the best laptops you can get for these money. There are not that many laptops packing so many nice features in a 15" chassis, especially here, in UK. DELL UK doesn't give you so many customisation options as the US one and their customer & repair service is to stay away from, so it's not a competitor, really
7Enigma - Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - link
Glad to see some dual-core laptops with mid-range graphics getting some review time. The quad-core fad for laptops is really only beneficial for a small minority, the rest of the time it's a battery-wasting expensive upgrade that your graphs show to be of little improvement over a good dual-core.I'm very interested in seeing how Sandy Bridge can close the gap for the notebook sector, because as of right now unless you REALLY need the quad, a dual with better screen/faster gpu is definitely the way to go.
Pjotr - Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - link
Acer Aspire TimelineX 3820TGI still find this increadible value, ATI 5650 1 GB graphics, Core i5, 1.8 kg light weght and up to 8 hours of battery time. It should be around the top of the gaming charts... with a lower price than the reviewed unit and a lot more portable, although the standard low res screen.
synaesthetic - Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - link
The 3820TG is still not available in the US, else I'd own one already. -.-;TrooperOttawa - Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - link
Right now the Dell XPS 15 is only available with the 1366x768 resolution. I agree that if you could still get the Dell with the 1080p screen then the Dell is the better system.So my question is, out of the following machines, which offers the best bang for the buck?
- Compal NBLB2
- Clevo B5130M
- ASUS N53JF-XE1