New notebook

[Lucky_Luke]

Well... I really need an answer which is 100% sure. I asked one 1201N owner to make a test. We will see the result, I hope.

[nkombose]

Reviving the old thread: has someone tried RO on
- ATI HD4225,
- ATI HD3200,
- NVIDIA ION/ION2 (9400M),
- or on the new Intel HD (Intel Graphics Media Accelerator HD Graphics)?
There's lots of info on the net on these cards (notebookcheck.net, youtube reviews and/or gameplay videos, etc.), but I'm interested in your XP

Some really cool small laptops, like the Lenovo U160, Lenovo ThinkPad x100e, HP dm1z, HP dm3z and the Dell M101z use these graphic units. /me is still looking for da perfect 11.6"-13.3" laptop...

[Cuchulainn]

I tried RO on a Radeon HD 3200 with a Athlon X2 2.3 GHz CPU (settings: fixed pipeline, without force safe mode activated, OpenGL) RO runs at about 25-35 fps, with the CPU load at 90+% if there are a few other players around. The framerate drops a lot if there are more players around.

I guess the GeForce 9400M is slightly faster, and the Intel GPUs are a bit slower.

If I needed a better notebook, I would wait till next year to buy a new one. In the next year AMD will introduce the two APU's (APU=CPU+GPU on one chip) Bobcat for netbooks and Llano for mainstream notebooks and low cost PC's. I read somewhere that Llano will have a graphic chip of a evergreen card, which would be Radeon 5570 or 5670 which are multiple times faster than the graphic cards above.

[Myxir]

I tested RO on my Dell Studio 1558
It has:
Intel Core i3 330m @ 2,13 Ghz
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4550
3 GB Ram
ArchLinux 64 Bit

On medium settings I have aproximately 40 - 50 FPS standing at central save with a few players around.
When I stand between CS and PP1 I have 35 FPS with this settings. Playing on lowest settings should be possible without problems.

[Hamster_of_sorrow]

i just bought a new one for $1549 (USD) and it RULES for regnum. i can run on the highest settings at 100 fps (when im alone) and it never goes below 40 fps (in a zerg).

it is an ASUS G73JH-A1

here is the one i bought http://www.xoticpc.com/asus-g73jha1-stock-p-2731.html

[nkombose]

Thx for the feedback guys.

Originally Posted by Cuchulainn

I tried RO on a Radeon HD 3200 with a Athlon X2 2.3 GHz CPU (settings: fixed pipeline, without force safe mode activated, OpenGL) RO runs at about 25-35 fps, with the CPU load at 90+% if there are a few other players around. The framerate drops a lot if there are more players around.

AFAIK HD 4225 is slightly better in terms of performance than the HD 3200, but not by much.

Originally Posted by Cuchulainn

If I needed a better notebook, I would wait till next year to buy a new one. In the next year AMD will introduce the two APU's (APU=CPU+GPU on one chip) Bobcat for netbooks and Llano for mainstream notebooks and low cost PC's.

Well I guess I'm back to my old problem. You see I never seem to find a decent notebook that fits the bill (11.6"-13.3", with decent performance, the hardware should be almost fully supported in the latest Linux kernels, and is able to run RO ofc) so I always end up waiting for the next gen stuff.

/me waited for new Intel Atom CPUs, but they ended up really bad in performance, waited for new ION based netbooks, but never really showed up (just a few I already mentioned), then waited for the ION 2... and guess what? There's no really substantial improvement over the older one. AMD stuff tend to be a bit less energy efficient but have more competitive GPUs than the Intel stuff (4500M, 4500MHD, HD). Well I guess I'll either wait for the new Llano, Ontario microprocessor designs and buy one, or wait for the price drop for the "older" technology.

Originally Posted by Myxir

I tested RO on my Dell Studio 1558...
When I stand between CS and PP1 I have 35 FPS with this settings...

Wow... I'm a bit shocked here. I thought that kind of setup would run RO at much higher FPS. HD 4550 is a decent GPU for a laptop. Do you use windows or linux?

Originally Posted by Hamster_of_sorrow

i just bought a new one for $1549 (USD) and it RULES for regnum...

Wow no.2 That's just an overkill. I'd never buy a notebook with 15.6"+ screen size, nor can't afford to spend that much on a nb (my starting salary as a risk manager isn't that great to say the least ), but nevertheless a good purchase if it fits you

[Freduardo]

Just happened to look into these AMD Congo or Nile based laptops a bit myself.
Not to use as a desktop replacement, but just as something on the side. Preferably with a nice and small screen, decent battery life, running cool and quiet,... and yeah for occasionally playing a game like regnum on it

I looked through shitloads of reviews, Dell's M101z and M301z, Acer 7xx, Thinkpad x100e (omg do want!), MSI u230 and u250, etc etc...
Every time getting to the same conclusion; Heat and noise. AMD still hasn't managed to make a reasonably cool chip.

As for the difference between HD 3200 and HD4225; The only reason worth even considering going for the outdated 3200 would be the Thinkpad x100e for me, which had everything I was looking (great keyboard, matte screen!, looks, ...) for but apparently gets way too hot :/
Otherwise I see no reason for going for the old Congo platform.


Afaik the newer atom notebooks with ION2 don't have a dual core processor yet, so I didn't look into those.


Anyway, I ended up going for a slightly larger notebook, at 14 inch. With an Intel CULV processor and an Ati 4330 gfx card (Lenovo u450p). I just wasn't comfortable with all the heat and noise issues. Maybe I was reading too much into it and the reviews exaggerated a bit, but I didn't feel like taking the risk.

Now I'm waiting for delivery, should be any day now (it's in the country according to my "track and trace" thingy...


Oh, and I'm totally with you on the screen size thing, 15.6 is really on the big size for me, and most of them only have the same resolution you find in 11.6 and 13.3 inch models anyway...

[Lucky_Luke]

Originally Posted by Freduardo

Afaik the newer atom notebooks with ION2 don't have a dual core processor yet, so I didn't look into those.

Asus Eee PC 1215N - Atom D525 (1.80 GHz, 1 MB Cache):

http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=49490

Regards.

[Myxir]

Originally Posted by nkombose

Wow... I'm a bit shocked here. I thought that kind of setup would run RO at much higher FPS. HD 4550 is a decent GPU for a laptop. Do you use windows or linux?

Linux as I wrote under the system specs.
Regnum performance on Linux is not good, ATI Drivers on Linux are not good plus Catalyst 10.5 is the newest that works for me.
And it seems ATI does not run good with Regnum in general.

[Yttrium]

Originally Posted by Myxir

Linux as I wrote under the system specs.
Regnum performance on Linux is not good, ATI Drivers on Linux are not good plus Catalyst 10.5 is the newest that works for me.
And it seems ATI does not run good with Regnum in general.

Which shader model do you use? I'm on the 10.6 drivers on linux with an HD 4800 and I crash often in shader model 3 and 4. Shader model 2 runs fine, but I'm missing out on some of the new tactical graphics (archer trails.) Would a downgrade to 10.5 possibly help me?