Lenovo X220 Tablet - Graphics Performance (Batman, Half Life 2, Rome Total War, Shogun 2)

[stilldasayme]

Arkham Asylum works perfectly for about 10 minutes (on lowest, except with native resolution), and then starts lagging...Any idea why? (X220 Tablet with i5-2520) I have 8Gb of RAM, doesn't seem to help much.

And I have followed all your power plan tweaks btw.

[JesseBAndersen]

@stilldasayme I know there was "down throttling issues" with the X220 laptop. I bet the X220 tablet has the same issue. If this is the case the CPU might work fine for a bit and then it down throttles.

What you can do is to be plugged in to power outlet, disable antivirus software while playing games, and check for the latest bios firmware.

[stilldasayme]

@JesseBAndersen I was a bit behind on BIOS firmware, thank you.

[JesseBAndersen]

@stilldasayme Yep.

[HackCausality]

I would love to see what kind of performance you get with gamebryo engine titles like Oblivion and Fallout 3.

[JesseBAndersen]

@HackCausality Sadly I don't have the system anymore, so I can't test those games.

[SirQuill]

@HackCausality Bethesda has a habit of optimizing their games horribly, but there is a plethora of mods available. You could run it on high/ultra if you get a low poly grass mod, optimized engine fixes and textures, etc. It would handle it fine on vanilla settings though.

[jliverty]

hey j . i just want to ask , do you have any idea where to buy that x220 laptop in store with the price is the same like online price at lenovo official site ? cause i haven't got my CC to buy through online , and i heard this laptop can do good perform for office stuff , youtube HD , and brows lot's tabs in firefox , is that true ?

[JesseBAndersen]

@jliverty It's extremely rare to find a ThinkPad laptop at any local store. I have only seen a ThinkPad branded laptop once at a store (it was OfficeMax or OfficeDepot).  The X220 laptop will work just fine for all of those tasks.

[lemonadeez]

Fleit of the Konkawds Yahoo!

[jcsf3]

what do you thing about thinkpad e420s. do you think it would done better job.

[JesseBAndersen]

@jcsf3 I don't know much about the ThinkPad Edge series. If it has discrete graphics then it will definitely do better at gaming than the X220T.

[WinmacTuts]

At around 50 seconds you mention putting a graphics card in through the expansion slot. Mind telling me how you did that and what hardware was required for it?

[JesseBAndersen]

@WinmacTuts You can use something called a ViDock and connect it through the ExpressCard slot.

[WinmacTuts]

@JesseBAndersen Thanks, i just saw your other videos about it! This solves so many problems I have!

[LightningStrike1212]

you said the processor was ok, but is it fast? do you have to wait for websites to load?

[JesseBAndersen]

@LightningStrike1212 Websites loading has more to do with your internet connection than the processor.

[LightningStrike1212]

@JesseBAndersen so what about non internet tasks?

[JesseBAndersen]

@LightningStrike1212 It's a Windows computer and therefore it can do just about anything.

[ImploadingImpact]

Very helpful video! Just so you know the Left for Dead games run perfectly

[JesseBAndersen]

@ImploadingImpact That's a Valve game right? Same people that did Half Life.

[ImploadingImpact]

@JesseBAndersen Yes, although Half life was much better. Do you know how Portal 2 runs on it ( also made by valve)? If you haven't checked it out its supposed to be a really great game.

[JesseBAndersen]

@ImploadingImpact I'm not a big fan of that style of puzzle games. My brother plays it. Through the wall that separates us I have heard this robot lady talking a lot, but that's it. I refuse to check it out. :)

[TeamGreenHQ]

I'm assuming that if you opt for the i7 model, it will be able to handle the games quite smoother?

[JesseBAndersen]

@TeamGreenHQ It should handle it a bit better. It's a GPU thing more than the CPU.

[jounihat]

Is there a specific reason why you sold your ViDock 4? I'm now between X220 + ViDock 4 and upcoming Vaio SA (which has discreet AMD Radeon graphics). Haven't decided yet which one to pick. X220 + ViDock would be better for gaming if the ViDock really works.

[JesseBAndersen]

@jounihat The ViDock 4 that I had was an experiment to see if I could get it working with the X201T. I have a little budget which I use to "try things" so I buy and sell those things that interest me. I would recommend dealing with less hassle and the get the Vaio SA.

[jounihat]

@JesseBAndersen

Ok, thanks for your input. The only question mark in Vaio SA is the screen, because the Vaio Display Plus in SB is very bad. If SA has Vaio Display Premium, I think I will take it. Otherwise X220 with IPS screen will probably be my choice (I still have desktop for gaming anyways). Anyway, cheers and thanks for your helpful videos!

[FixItAziz]

Hello,

Can we please see the ViDock with this new x220t? Please help me justify $350 for the viDock and another 500+ for a video card. I know you dont have the best ATI or NVidea card out there, but what you have will do just fine. I would like to know if it runs better than the x201t on gaming graphics with the same video card but with the better second gen. i7 x220t.

[JesseBAndersen]

@FixItAziz I replied to you on your other comment. I don't have the ViDock anymore, and funding isn't great for my hobby projects.

[seanklein88]

Jesse,

Have you tried out the ViDock 4 on the 220x? Is it compatible?

[JesseBAndersen]

@seanklein88 It's compatible and would be closer to the full capabilities of a desktop gaming pc because it's an ExpressCard 2.0 slot. ExpressCard 1.0 on most laptops do not offer the full capability of the ViDock.

[seanklein88]

@JesseBAndersen Yeah saw your video for the vidock4 with x210, a must see video.

[JesseBAndersen]

@seanklein88 Especially Vid 6 because it's not a smooth setup if you don't do it "right".  But once you get it working it's pretty good for those that need it.

[JesseBAndersen]

@seanklein88 Oh and no I have not tried the ViDock 4 with the X220 Tablet because I sold it many months ago.

[mario7trif]

Great video.

I have one question. How much worse is x220T with i3-2310M vs. i5-2520M.

Thanks for answer, Mario.

[JesseBAndersen]

@mario7trif The Core i3 version does not have Intel Turbo Boost and so it will remain at 2.1GHz. The i5 clocks at 2.5GHz, but with Turbo Boost on it will go up to 3.2GHz. That is a big difference with demanding programs. For programs like MS Office, Internet with Flash, Youtube, Hulu, Photoshop the i3 will still be fine, but if you do multiple programs at the same time you might have a harder time.

[jounihat]

Did you use native resolution in all the games?

[JesseBAndersen]

@jounihat I used whatever the default values were. Half Life 2 and Batman were on native if I recall correctly.

[xover76]

hi Jesse.  i appreciate your laid back, non-technical reporting style and frank assessment. one thing i thought you should mention is how old the games are, which really goes a long ways in explaining how they run. for example, HL2 came out in 2004 (!) so it's not surprising that it runs very well even on integrated graphics. Shogun II came out like two weeks ago, which is probably why it runs poorly.

[JesseBAndersen]

@xover76 I'll keep the game's year in mind for future reference.  Sometimes the year doesn't matter though, it really depends on the game and the game engine. A game like GRAW 2 although is oldish is still a fairly "heavy" game.

[xover76]

@JesseBAndersen yes, i agree. Crysis is another good example.

[JesseBAndersen]

@xover76 Crysis might be the ultimate example... :)

[Cventures]

Great video Jesse, thank you for that. If you turn the power management bar all the way down to "Long Battery Life", does that mean you are only using 2.5 ghz. Then all the way up it uses 3.2? (I'm new to this stuff, go easy hah). I'm curious what the lowest amount of watt usage this gets down to... about 5? Thanks again Jesse, keep it up.

[JesseBAndersen]

@Cventures Moving the slider does make Intel Turbo Boost go on which does up the GHz. I'm using an external display right now and spending about 10 Watts. You could get it down even more with "Battery Stretch", but it also drops down performance.

[Cventures]

@JesseBAndersen Thank you for the reply, I appreciate it. I'm excited to get the x220.

[rksinvest]

the new intel HD 3000 could be said to be equivalent to the Radeon X1950 Pro. Which is pretty cool! Just a fyi for anyone wondering how strong the performance actually is.

[JesseBAndersen]

@rksinvest Thanks!

[rksinvest]

@JesseBAndersen no problem! Anything to help out the fabulous job that you are doing.

[BB0YMatty]

Im not much of a gamer, but do you think it will run blizzards diablo III when it comes out?

[JesseBAndersen]

@BB0YMatty If it runs that Batman game it should be able to run Diablo III. Check the minimum system requirements of each game.

[BB0YMatty]

@JesseBAndersen theres no requirements posted by blizzard yet, Ill just wait... Anyway the game only comes out in 2012.

[MusashiX21]

I wonder if it can run Minecraft fine. It's pretty choppy on the lowest settings on my x201t ;[

I didn't buy the laptop mainly for gaming, but I still wanted to do some light gaming on it. I'm not sure if I should upgrade to the x220 yet..

Btw, if you liked HL2, you should get Portal by Valve, it's hella fun.

Thanks for the demo! Moar, pl0x.

[JesseBAndersen]

@MusashiX21 The X220 will run Minecraft. ;-) I didn't like Portal... but that's just me. One game I wanted to try out was Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 (I can play that game for a long time), but I couldn't download the game. That Direct 2 Drive website failed me.

[MusashiX21]

@JesseBAndersen Lol, awesome! Seems like you're new on Steam, friend me: Wuzashi

I'll play almost any FPS/TPS game that has co-op ;]

[JesseBAndersen]

@MusashiX21 I have used Steam for playing games, but never used it for co-op. My taste in gameplay probably wouldn't be the same as yours. For example... I dislike Call of Duty and Counter Strike even though that's the popular thing. I prefer GRAW games because I like the tactical team work that needs to happen. It's a bit more realistic, but not too realistic. Rambo is a myth. Actual military experience changes taste; It does the same with movies and their hideous dramatic weapons handling.