Windows Experience Index and gaming

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freitasm

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#87084 19-Jul-2011 15:50

I have just sold a HP dv6 laptop with an Intel Core2 Duo, ATI Mobility Radeon HD4650 with 1GB RAM and a WEI 5.5. The "Gaming Graphics" index was 6.0, and the whole thing was down because of the processor at 5.5.

Even so, it is a great gaming machine. L4D, Borderlands, etc could all be played with the highest settings, and play was smooth.

I now have a Lenovo desktop with a quad-core processor showing 7.3, and a built-in ATI Radeon HD 3000 showing 5.0.

The processor is a lot faster than the previous one on the laptop, and the graphics card is not that far behind. But games just don't play smoothly at all, with lots of lag and frame drops.

I know that if I want to play games at some point I will have to get a better GFX, but really, since the difference is only 0.5 shouldn't it be a bit better?

Any opinions, ideas?

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#495339 19-Jul-2011 16:14

Is it dedicated memory for the video or shared ? If shared, probably find thats the biggest bottleneck. Go find a real gfx card :)

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freitasm

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#495340 19-Jul-2011 16:15

Yes, probably shared, seeing it's not a discreet card. Will add a new GFX at some time.

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billgates

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#495342 19-Jul-2011 16:17

If the memory is shared, check the BIOS. You can increase/decrease the video memory there.

Do whatever you want to do man.

freitasm

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#495343 19-Jul-2011 16:19

Just weird the Experience Index doesn't reflect this... Saying "Gaming Experience = 5.0" is a bit deceiving.

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freitasm

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#495352 19-Jul-2011 16:49

Changed setup to use 512MB RAM... But really only usable in lower resolutions. Perhaps because there are two LCDs on this desktop, and a builtin GFX. Yep, going for an additional card soon.

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Ragnor

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#495355 19-Jul-2011 17:06

There's about 2 years between 3000 and 4000 series, basically a massive difference in performance between them.

Current series is 6000 so modern-ish games on the 3000, 3 generations behind struggling is not surprising.

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#495381 19-Jul-2011 18:21

Yet all the ATI based boards recently released have the 3000 series on them. :(

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blakamin

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#495383 19-Jul-2011 18:34

+ ATI sux (from personal experience)
I have always had better gaming experience with nvidia GPUs (no idea why as I don't care either way as long as they work!)

Ragnor

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#496048 21-Jul-2011 01:03

blakamin: + ATI sux (from personal experience)
I have always had better gaming experience with nvidia GPUs (no idea why as I don't care either way as long as they work!)

Not my experience, I've owned plenty of both ATI and Nvidia cards.

Normally if you look at each price point eg: $250, 400 etc... performance is practically the same.

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#496049 21-Jul-2011 01:15

xpd: Yet all the ATI based boards recently released have the 3000 series on them. :(

You mean like these laptops?
http://shopap.lenovo.com/nz/en/notebooks/thinkpad/edge-series/e520/

Where 3/4 come with Radeon 6000 series and only the cheapest one that comes with integrated intel graphics...

Hmm... actually Mauricio did you get a model with Intel HD 3000, because I don't see any current Lenovo models with a Radeon 3000?

If so you've just blown your gamer geek cred

freitasm

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#496087 21-Jul-2011 08:56

No, it's actually a Lenovo m75e quad core desktop, with 12GB RAM, based on AMD Fusion. It came with dual LCD. Details at http://www1.partnerinfo.lenovo.com/us/en/m75eamd.shtml.

It's a business machine, so the built-in ATI HD3000 will suit that use ok. But seeing it's replacing a laptop with an ATI HD4650 1GB RAM that had no problem playing any games I put in, I will be tempted to add a second graphics card.

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#496100 21-Jul-2011 09:30

Ragnor:
blakamin: + ATI sux (from personal experience)
I have always had better gaming experience with nvidia GPUs (no idea why as I don't care either way as long as they work!)

Not my experience, I've owned plenty of both ATI and Nvidia cards.

My previous laptop (Dell 1535) had an ATI card. I used to run this laptop with an external monitor attached. With Vista's Aero feature enabled, my laptop would BSOD. Daily. Apparently this is a very common problem with ATI graphics chips in laptops. Thankfully I didn't actually need that feature, and was able to resolve the situation by disabling it, but it took over a year (and multiple MOBO replacements by Dell tech support) to discover this.

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#496115 21-Jul-2011 09:51

Interesting. On my previous HP dv6 I have the LCD, an external VGA monitor and a MIMO USB monitor. Never had problems.

On my Media Center (Dell Zino HD) I run HDMI and never had problems.

Currently running the Lenovo m75e with one DVI monitor (primary), one VGA monitor (secondary), and the MIMO USB monitor, with no problems.

All those running ATI cards...

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dclegg

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#496126 21-Jul-2011 10:16

freitasm: Interesting. On my previous HP dv6 I have the LCD, an external VGA monitor and a MIMO USB monitor. Never had problems.

On my Media Center (Dell Zino HD) I run HDMI and never had problems.

Currently running the Lenovo m75e with one DVI monitor (primary), one VGA monitor (secondary), and the MIMO USB monitor, with no problems.

All those running ATI cards...

Was this on Vista or Windows 7, and did you have Aero enabled?

I can't attest as to whether the problem was fixed under Windows 7, as I didn't have the patience to re-enable Aero once I upgraded. I can't recall the exact model of the chips at fault, but I did have the problem on two separate ATI chip models (Dell at one stage sent me a new laptop from the next gen Studio range to try and fix the problem).

After 12 months of Dell being unable to resolve the problem (including my support case going cold twice; the second time only having it re-opened after emailing Michael Dell), I found it was a common problem experienced with ATI chips across a broad range of laptop makes and models.

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#496128 21-Jul-2011 10:21

Always Windows 7, and Aero enabled.

And yes, I have a special plaque here from Microsoft celebrating Windows Vista launch (I went to the US at the time), but that should be forgotten...

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