Toshiba A665-3DV: 3D or Not 3D?
by Jarred Walton on October 6, 2010 12:05 AM ESTHigh Detail Gaming
Wrapping up the gaming side of things, here's a look at what happens when we run at high detail settings. We've tested at the native 1366x768 resolution, but we also connected an external LCD to show how the GTS 350M compares to some of the higher-spec mobile GPUs.
Four of the six games continue to post playable frame rates at 1366x768 with high detail settings. BFBC2 and SC2 are the odd men out, dropping just below 30FPS in both cases. There are no performance anomalies this time either, as the 350M takes its rightful place among midrange mobile GPUs. Unfortunately, that place is quite a big step down from high-end offerings like the HD 5850 or even the venerable GTX 280M.
Compare the standardized 1600x900 results (not including StarCraft II where we lack results for most of the high-end notebooks) and the GTS 350M is roughly half the performance of the GTX 280M, 55% of the HD 5850, and less than half of the HD 5870 and GTX 480M. GTS 350M is also pretty much EOL now, due to be replaced by the GT 445M. As long as you get the 192-bit bus, the GT 445M should boost performance quite a bit; now all we need is some laptops with the new 400M chips.
3DMark Performance
There's a love/hate relationship with most gamers and 3DMark. We don't consider it a replacement for gaming tests, obviously, but enough readers have requested the scores that we continue to post the results. Personally, I'd ignore the pre-3DMark06 results, but they provide a look at how fast older games will run. (Hint: More than fast enough!) As with the Low and Medium gaming results, 3DMark puts the GTS 350M above the other midrange GPUs, with the exception of the odd 3DMark05 result where the Gateway ID49C and ASUS N82Jv come out on top.
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Stuka87 - Wednesday, October 6, 2010 - link
What a horrible resolution. 1366x768 on a 15.6" display!? This res is almost usable on a 12-13" display (And thats pushing it), but on a 15.6"?? Is this machine tailored towards old people with vision issues or something?Ok, back to reading. Had to vent :)
Spivonious - Wednesday, October 6, 2010 - link
I agree that 768 vertical pixels is not very much to work with, but the screen here is still 100dpi, which is slightly better than the standard 96.nubie - Wednesday, October 6, 2010 - link
I for one think it is the correct choice.How is the video card to push more pixels than that anyway?
Buy a different laptop, or upgrade the panel yourself if it bugs you.
blackshard - Wednesday, October 6, 2010 - link
Thanks a lot for the hwmonitor readings! :)It's really interesting to see expected temperatures and real battery capacity in such notebooks!
Michaelsm - Wednesday, October 6, 2010 - link
Yes, Thanks a lot for the hwMonitor readings. As I commented the other day, my Toshiba (M645 with a 6 cell) had an initial wear of 36%!!! 3 cycles later it is down to 7%.cknobman - Wednesday, October 6, 2010 - link
until the industry gives up on the freaking 3D gimmick.nubie - Wednesday, October 6, 2010 - link
Have you tried it?I have made several 3D setups myself and favor passive glasses and dual monitors or projectors (1 per eye).
In many situations the 3D is stunningly immersive. Racing games for example have a fantastic feeling of speed as the depth of objects hurtle toward you.
Watching the apex of a corner approach and searching the distance for your braking point feel good. As does overtaking a slower car.
Even if you personally feel it is a gimmick, how is the industry or how are you personally caused any harm?
JarredWalton - Wednesday, October 6, 2010 - link
If you missed it in the text, we're looking to replace Peacekeeper with something that feels more relevant. Does anyone have a good "Internet benchmark" they want us to start using? Something that captures the speed of page loads, transitions, etc.?Stuka87 - Wednesday, October 6, 2010 - link
I have looked around a bit for my own reasons, and outside of the ones made by the browser makers (which are all pretty biased one way or another), there isn't much to choose from.I think I pretty much came up with just needing to write one from scratch using the browsers API with FireFox or the like.
alphadog - Wednesday, October 6, 2010 - link
I'm getting pretty tired of the lack of properly-sized LCDs on laptops. I know the LCD is one of the more costly components in margin-thin laptops, but really? 768 vert?!?