Ultrabook - Sony VAIO T Series [SVT13112FXS]

[Tatsujin]

First time buying a laptop. Amazon - Newegg.

I didn't get this laptop from either of the mentioned sites. I got it from Wal-mart for 598 USD, and I got that reduced below 540 dollars (60.xx+ discount). Once again, this is my first time purchasing a laptop - I did a layaway for it and I can get it in 2 months.

I'm looking at the memory and it's a DDR3 @ 1333MHz and I can expand that to 8 GB rather than staying with 4 GB. Which type of memory do you guys recommend? As for the graphic capabilities, it has the Intel HD Graphics 4000 from the processor. How good is it?

Thanks. I may have more questions later on. I just came from work.

[Saras]

Integrated graphics are integrated graphics, you won't have issues while surfing the web or watching movies. But those are the specs for a work computer, it will work perfectly for that, but gaming, encoding or rendering shouldn't be considered.

I can see very few applications, wherein that laptop would use up 4gigs of ram, it isn't speced up for those jobs. It's not impossible to saturate the suggested 8 gigs, but it's unlikelly. I'd save my money and keep it at 4gigs.

[rostheferret]

^Internal graphics cards are getting surprisingly good these days. Granted, the i5 won't hit these specs but it looks like Skyrim will be playable. Don't go expecting it to play the latest and greatest or on the best settings, and it should run most games a year older or more without issue. Agreed on the RAM though I've never hit 4GB gaming or not...

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/ivy-bridge-benchmark-core-i7-3770k,review-32428-5.html

[Saras]

^Internal graphics cards are getting surprisingly good these days. Granted, the i5 won't hit these specs but it looks like Skyrim will be playable. Don't go expecting it to play the latest and greatest or on the best settings, and it should run most games a year older or more without issue. Agreed on the RAM though I've never hit 4GB gaming or not...

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/ivy-bridge-benchmark-core-i7-3770k,review-32428-5.html

Getting there =/= there. Skyrim is a game that's mostly cpu relient. While the HD4000 could run it on low, that CPU won't.

[kitamesume]

based on the link you just quoted, an even slower CPU llano A8 is scoring higher than an i7-3770K on skyrim, think again that skyrim is CPU heavy.
do note that we're talking CPU+IGP. also with that mindset of yours, with a mobile i5 being about the same as a desktop i3, you're saying that a mobile i5 will not play skyrim then as far as logic goes a desktop i3 is junk.
say hi to skyrim on a celeron

Integrated graphics are integrated graphics, you won't have issues while surfing the web or watching movies. But those are the specs for a work computer, it will work perfectly for that, but gaming, encoding or rendering shouldn't be considered.

I can see very few applications, wherein that laptop would use up 4gigs of ram, it isn't speced up for those jobs. It's not impossible to saturate the suggested 8 gigs, but it's unlikelly. I'd save my money and keep it at 4gigs.

which year are you living on at the moment? intel HD4000 is on par with a GT520m, which is completely capable to game at 1366x768res low although 30+FPS, this is on mainstream games like metro2033 or BF3.

as far as encoding goes last time i checked intel did it the fastest, with intel quick sync.

(click to show/hide)

[Saras]

based on the link you just quoted, an even slower CPU llano A8 is scoring higher than an i7-3770K on skyrim, think again that skyrim is CPU heavy.
do note that we're talking CPU+IGP. also with that mindset of yours, with a mobile i5 being about the same as a desktop i3, you're saying that a mobile i5 will not play skyrim then as far as logic goes a desktop i3 is junk.
say hi to skyrim on a celeron

Integrated graphics are integrated graphics, you won't have issues while surfing the web or watching movies. But those are the specs for a work computer, it will work perfectly for that, but gaming, encoding or rendering shouldn't be considered.

I can see very few applications, wherein that laptop would use up 4gigs of ram, it isn't speced up for those jobs. It's not impossible to saturate the suggested 8 gigs, but it's unlikelly. I'd save my money and keep it at 4gigs.

which year are you living on at the moment? intel HD4000 is on par with a GT520m, which is completely capable to game at 1366x768res low although 30+FPS, this is on mainstream games like metro2033 or BF3.

as far as encoding goes last time i checked intel did it the fastest, with intel quick sync.

(click to show/hide)

I have an IVBm intel at the moment and frankly, it's not hard to tell when you're sitting on the HD4000 or the dedicated card.

Yes, it isn't quite as shit as intels older offers, but bearable and recommended isn't the same and you can't be seriously suggesting it for gamimg. Also, a 520m is an entry level mobile card, it's not exactly a standard of performance one should aim for. As it is now, I wouldn't suggest anyone to go any lower than 630m, if they intend to game. Is it doable if need exists? Yes, of course, but that doesn't make it a smart option.

A general mobile i5 - yes. However, a low power ultrabook i5u =/= i5m. i5u is slower than a celeron.

If he wants a somewhat gaming ready, low power ultrabook. He should be looking for something that has a trinity CPU.

[kitamesume]

how high is that standard of yours, last time i checked people still game on LGA775 core2duo with IGPs and AMD E350 notebooks and they can.

what? the i5u is slower than a celeron? http://ark.intel.com/compare/65707,53418

please tell me how, turbo at the same frequency, has more cache, has HT, has a faster IGP, has a faster memory controller which means higher memory bandwidth. how the heck is this slower.

we're talking about gaming on an ultrabook for christ sake, if you can link a trinity ultrabook that can game then sure you can recommend that.

[metro.]

It's good as a mobile work station thing. I wouldn't suggest trying to like, render anything on it.
Gaming is pretty much out of the question, save indie games. Even some of those might not like it, 1.7GHz? Lol.

That's just me though, I have issues with graphical lag, which you will get. Doesn't help that trying to game on any laptop runs into heating issues.

[Tatsujin]

It's good as a mobile work station thing. I wouldn't suggest trying to like, render anything on it.
Gaming is pretty much out of the question, save indie games. Even some of those might not like it, 1.7GHz? Lol.

That's just me though, I have issues with graphical lag, which you will get. Doesn't help that trying to game on any laptop runs into heating issues.

That's the only issue with the laptop ... would it produce a lot of heat? It will probably do so if you game on it. Thou', the laptop itself will not lag providing that you're playing in a comfortable video settings. Also, the processor does have a turbo boost and it's a dual core + 3rd generation.

--

I was only gone for less than a day and there's different debates on the graphic capabilities to play games on the laptop. The processor will definitely not be able to play most games at high-end settings or high settings. It can play a lot of games on medium settings with no stutters or performance issues and will play all games on low settings.

^Internal graphics cards are getting surprisingly good these days. Granted, the i5 won't hit these specs but it looks like Skyrim will be playable. Don't go expecting it to play the latest and greatest or on the best settings, and it should run most games a year older or more without issue. Agreed on the RAM though I've never hit 4GB gaming or not...

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/ivy-bridge-benchmark-core-i7-3770k,review-32428-5.html

I'll also be waiting on upgrading the RAM. I doubt I'd be doing heavy multi-tasking on the laptop. I'm thinking of upgrading the hard drives instead. I know the 500 GB one is about 5400 or 5200 RPM. I don't know how fast the SSD is and if the connection inside the laptop a SATA II or SATA III connection.

[kitamesume]

SSDs even on a SATAII will still be faster than that of a conventional HDD, what you want from an SSD isnt raw read/write speed but lower access latency times and lower power consumption.

[Saras]

how high is that standard of yours, last time i checked people still game on LGA775 core2duo with IGPs and AMD E350 notebooks and they can.

what? the i5u is slower than a celeron? http://ark.intel.com/compare/65707,53418

please tell me how, turbo at the same frequency, has more cache, has HT, has a faster IGP, has a faster memory controller which means higher memory bandwidth. how the heck is this slower.

we're talking about gaming on an ultrabook for christ sake, if you can link a trinity ultrabook that can game then sure you can recommend that.

Turbo boost isn't universal between the amount of cores used, 2.6ghz is the rating for when only a single core is boosted. It's 2.3ghz for when two cores are boosted simultaneously. My i7m is rated for "3.3ghz", however in the real world it caps out at 3.1 as well. And HT is nice for someone who is coding or the like, but while we're discussing gaming, it makes absolutely no difference.

HP Sleekbook 6z come with either a A6-4455m or a A10-4655m.

That Vaio comes with a hybrid HDD, while not as good as true SSD, it shouldn't be too bad to use.


Oh, and since you're so adamant at HD4000's being good enough nowadays. There you go, GW2, a popular new game. Here's a very quick test I just did, near a dull area, no one around me, while standing still i get 23fps.

(click to show/hide)

Sorry mate, I consider that unplayable.
p.s. I'm using a far faster CPU than the one in op's listings(i7-3610qm)

Also, do remember, that all of the consoles will basically switch out to a new generation come a year or two. It will make games a lot more graphically intensive than they are now.

[Freedom Kira]

That's the only issue with the laptop ... would it produce a lot of heat?

Ultrabooks tend to have Intel's U processors, which indicate ultra-low voltage. This correlates with low TDP, meaning low heat. I believe all of the Ivy Bridge U processors have a max of 17W TDP. Yours is no exception.

I'll also be waiting on upgrading the RAM. I doubt I'd be doing heavy multi-tasking on the laptop. I'm thinking of upgrading the hard drives instead. I know the 500 GB one is about 5400 or 5200 RPM. I don't know how fast the SSD is and if the connection inside the laptop a SATA II or SATA III connection.

Given the price tag, I'd bet it's a SATA II connection. A good SATA II SSD would still give you a world of a difference over your typical HDD though. If your system with the hybrid drive is already noticeably faster than a similar desktop with a 7200RPM HDD, I wouldn't bother going up to full SSD. I'd expect the performance boost from hybrid to SSD to be similar to the performance boost from 7200RPM HDD to hybrid (don't quote me on that). To me, the extra premium isn't worth it.

Looking at what you've got, though, I think that's more of an "ultrabook-like" than an actual ultrabook. Kinda like halfway between ultrabook and laptop. It looks a little too thick to be an ultrabook and at the same time thinner than a laptop.

[kitamesume]

how high is that standard of yours, last time i checked people still game on LGA775 core2duo with IGPs and AMD E350 notebooks and they can.

what? the i5u is slower than a celeron? http://ark.intel.com/compare/65707,53418

please tell me how, turbo at the same frequency, has more cache, has HT, has a faster IGP, has a faster memory controller which means higher memory bandwidth. how the heck is this slower.

we're talking about gaming on an ultrabook for christ sake, if you can link a trinity ultrabook that can game then sure you can recommend that.

Turbo boost isn't universal between the amount of cores used, 2.6ghz is the rating for when only a single core is boosted. It's 2.3ghz for when two cores are boosted simultaneously. My i7m is rated for "3.3ghz", however in the real world it caps out at 3.1 as well. And HT is nice for someone who is coding or the like, but while we're discussing gaming, it makes absolutely no difference.

turbo core scales depending on load, when load is single threaded turbo will fire up 2.6ghz on one core while the others remain idle, on the other hand while in multi threaded, even if the max turbo is 2.3ghz it can process four threads at once in contrast to two on celeron, with other things to conciser like a higher memory bandwidth and larger cache it makes it superior to a celeron in terms of performance. on a side note turbo on IVYB is controlled by the motherboard, although its a desktop motherboard it also applies to laptop's, a modded bios will be able to utilize a flat turbo.

the performance of HD4000 being awful contributes to the underclocked IGP, clock it back to 650mhz and you'd see difference in numbers. to cancel the elevated TDP undervolt the CPU, if you've done these tweaks then i have no idea how your setup could perform so badly. scratch that, unless its being underclocked unknowingly it should be naturally clocked at 650mhz.
PS: since you're running on higher than requirements it means to say it should be playable.

GW2 - System requirements

    Windows XP Service Pack 2 or better
    Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz, Core i3, AMD Athlon 64 X2 or better
    NVIDIA GeForce 7800, ATI Radeon X1800, Intel HD 3000 or better (256MB of video RAM and shader model 3.0 or better)
    25 GB available HDD space
    Broadband Internet connection
    Keyboard and mouse[2]

on a serious note, if one wants to really game on an ultrabook, get a haswell with a GT3.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6277/haswell-up-to-128mb-onpackage-cache-ulv-gpu-performance-estimates
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6266/idf-2012-haswell-gt3-running-skyrim

[metro.]

Who really wants to game on a laptop?
I mean, really?

[kitamesume]

Lan party ftw? its like asking "why do people still buy PSP when theres consoles with huge TVs as monitors".

edit: if you're commuting its not viable to bring in a 20KG (PC+Monitor) ._.

[metro.]

Lan party ftw? its like asking "why do people still buy PSP when theres consoles with huge TVs as monitors".

edit: if you're commuting its not viable to bring in a 20KG (PC+Monitor) ._.

Yes, I realize that, I'm not full retard all the time
But still, are you going to be doing any serious gaming while your commuting?

[kitamesume]

depends on which game it is, but yes theres a probability that i'd squeeze game while on a bus since each travel takes 15-30mins depending on traffic.

although thats not the point, i mean if you don't have your own car then transporting a 20KG setup between houses isnt as cool as you'd think, plus if that lan party were to be done in shops like starbucks then bringing in a whole desktop is plain retarded and i doubt starbucks would allow you to plug such a thing.

[Bob2004]

Or, for example, I'm going to Japan for a year. I can't go without anime and games for that long, so I need a computer, but there's no way I can take my desktop over there on the plane (and having it delivered is too expensive to consider). Likewise, I can't just buy a desktop while I'm there, because I'll only have it for a year before I have to fly back again. So using a laptop for my gaming is my only option.

[Saras]

...

Redid the test with with vsync and every other single piece of bling off, no movement, standing still in in a non populated area. Got 49-54fps at 768 and 46-51 at 1080. HD4000 would seem to hate swamps. Having said that, the game looks as if it was being played on a ps1. On the same settings in the same place, my 650m gives me fps of 87-90 at either resolution and 28-34 fps at maxed out settings under the same conditions.

I will have to revise my statement, HD4000 is enough to play in the general world/pve at medium settings with occasional fps lag, minus some slower zones (like the swamp before). However, it is not strong enough for either PvP or WvWvW.

What concerns gaming on laptops, I'm mostly satisfied, I wouldn't be on an ultrabook, but this thing is I'd say strong enough for it to be comfortable. And while I rarely game "on the go", it isn't quite uncommon for me to play a game or two once I get where I'm going. For gaming while in commute or the like, I'd say a tablet is superior.

[Tatsujin]

on a serious note, if one wants to really game on an ultrabook, get a haswell with a GT3.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6277/haswell-up-to-128mb-onpackage-cache-ulv-gpu-performance-estimates
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6266/idf-2012-haswell-gt3-running-skyrim

What's the specifications on the GT3? I mean, just saying "it's 2x more powerful than the HD 4000" or whatever doesn't give me an idea. I guess they didn't release that information yet?