Toshiba Satellite L645D: Mobile AMD at 3GHz
by Dustin Sklavos on March 9, 2011 3:20 AM ESTStill Not Enough to Game
At this point you should be expecting these results: the HD 4200/4250 just isn't powerful enough to run modern games at 768p. That said, reviewing the L645D gives us an opportunity to at least gauge how much CPU power can affect gaming performance with the HD 4200/4250 as well as pad out our results for two recent bench inductees: Mafia II and Metro 2033.
At 768p the GPU is too heavily taxed for any improvement in CPU performance to pick up slack; the only game that shows any improvement is the notoriously CPU-limited StarCraft II; everything else performs basically on par. Notice how NVIDIA's dismal GeForce 310M, the subject of endless ire among AnandTech staff, still offers a substantial improvement. I've said it before and I'll say it again (many times no doubt): Llano can't get here soon enough.
These are all recent titles, of course, and if you go back several years you can certainly find older games that will run fine on HD 4250. Jarred is working on a roundup of sorts to pit AMD's Brazos, HD 4225, and HD 4250 against Intel's GMA 4500MHD, HD Graphics, and HD Graphics 3000 with a suite of older/less demanding games. Generally speaking, you'll need low to medium detail with titles from around 2006, or if you want high details you'll need to go back to circa 2003. Stay tuned for that article....
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ET - Saturday, March 12, 2011 - link
It's not as if even E-350 graphics are all that great. It's hardly enough to run modern games at low settings. Maybe the Brazos gets a D, the 4250 a D-. "Terrible graphics" may be a little strong, but not terribly off the mark. Older generation Intel graphics would get an F, though the newest generation beat the 4250 in most game tests in this review.And don't get me wrong, I think that the E-350 is a good compromise of performance, price and power, and I think that its graphics are a decent match for the underpowered CPU. I even bought a Thinkpad X120e and I intend to play games on it. But honestly, a powerful CPU really should be accompanied by a decent GPU. Hopefully Llano will see to that. The 4250, even if it's better than older Intel IGP's, isn't a decent GPU.
ET - Sunday, March 13, 2011 - link
My mistake regarding Intel IGP. I looked at the HD Graphics instead of 3000. Now that I took a second look, it's clear that even older gen Intel IGP (HD Graphics) are faster than the 4250 in most games, and current gen destroy both 4250 and E-350's 6310. So yet, 4250 is terrible. :)notanakin - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
I'm just wondering what the point of the Blu-ray drive is - surely this is not a machine for viewing Blu-ray disks, given the poor screen and size. And does anyone store/backup onto Blu-ray?Meaker10 - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
HDMI output, its a mobile bluray player for hooking up to a decent TV. Or watching on the go since the screen is still better than DVD quality.Shadowmaster625 - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
There was no mention of how quiet this thing is when playing blu rays.Ushio01 - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
You can now get a blu-ray player for less than $50 Toshiba can easily buy them for far less than that. This year blu-ray will become a commodity for notebook's rather than an option.piroroadkill - Thursday, March 10, 2011 - link
Try and find slim laptop drives that are that price.ET - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
was the mention of Jarred working on low end gaming benchmarks. I'm looking forward to that very much.Anyway, looks like decent value for money as long as you don't want any gaming. I agree that I'd love to see higher res as standard at 14" and up. 1600x900 would be more reasonable at 14". Still, I'm not really in the market for such a laptop, and at 11.6" this resolution is decent.
mino - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
Second this!JarredWalton - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
So, here's the full game list I'm using. Some are newer but not too demanding, others are quite old. Can anyone recommend one more title, so I end up with a nice, round 20? LOL... Comments are welcome:Batman: Arkham Asylum
Battlefield 2
Civilization IV
Civilization V
Company of Heroes
Crysis: Warhead
Fallout 3
Far Cry
FEAR (original)
Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2: Episode Two
Minecraft
Oblivion
Quake 4
STALKER (original)
Supreme Commander
Torchlight
Unreal Tournament 3
World of Warcraft