MSI X610: Supersizing the Netbook?
by Jarred Walton on October 6, 2009 10:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
X610 Gaming and Graphics Performance
Since the MSI X610 includes a discrete GPU, discussing gaming performance is relevant. We will include the netbooks in the 3DMark results, but it should come as no surprise that even the fastest netbook is clearly outclassed for the time being. 3DMark also tends to put more of an emphasis on the GPU -- especially in some of the older versions -- so it's interesting to see how the HD 4330 compares against the HD 3200 in such testing. Unfortunately, actual gaming often depends a lot more on balancing CPU and GPU performance; as we will see, there are several instances where the AMD Neo MV-40 is simply unable to run certain games adequately, even at minimum detail settings. A faster dual-core chip would have gone a long way towards solving that problem.
Starting with the 3DMark results, the MSI X610 initially looks like a very promising gaming solution. It's over twice as fast as the NV52 in 3DMark03… but then it's 72% faster in 3DMark05, 48% faster in 3DMark06, and only 29% faster in 3DMark Vantage. That means that the newer the benchmark, the less the advantage for the X610. We all know that the 3DMark suites are not necessarily games, but they do correlate to gaming performance in some instances. The real question is whether a game matches 3DMark03, 05, 06, or Vantage in the way it approaches graphics (or perhaps something in between). Let's move to the actual gaming performance results and see what the MSI X610 can do.
We already stated that there would be instances where the single-core MV-40 processor was inadequate for modern games, and the above chart shows at least six titles (out of 12) where the X610 is not able to provide adequate performance, even at minimum detail settings and an 800x600 resolution. Moreover, if we average the results from all 12 titles, we find that the Gateway NV52 and the MSI X610 are essentially equal.
We know from 3DMark that the theoretical performance of the HD 4330 is substantially higher than the HD 3200, but quite a few titles have the HD 3200 with QL-64 in the lead. There are two reasons for the higher performance from the QL-64. First, it has a clock speed that's 31% higher than the MV-40. That could account for the lead in some of the games, but it's also obvious that the second CPU core is coming into play on some titles. For instance, Assassin's Creed and GRID run 70% faster on the NV52. Call of Duty: World at War, Dark Athena, and Far Cry 2 have the NV52 leading by 35%, 43%, and 37% respectively, so they also appear to benefit slightly from the second CPU core.
Other titles don't require nearly as much CPU power, with the X610 coming out on top. The X610 leads by 43% in Crysis, 61% in FEAR2, 51% in Fallout 3, and 13% in STALKER: Clear Sky. Performance in most of the remaining titles is within 10%, although the NV52 leads in each case. The net result is that gaming is possible on the X610, but there are definitely limitations imposed by the MV-40 CPU.
We also ran some quick test of casual games like the Sims 2/3 and Spore. None of these titles has any difficulty running on the X610, with frame rates typically hitting the 30 FPS cap. There are also many titles where you can crank up the resolution and/or detail settings on the HD 4330 without lowering performance. Medium quality settings at 1366x768 only reached playable levels in Fallout 3 (27 FPS), but low-quality 1366x768 worked in Crysis (27 FPS), Empire: Total War (37 FPS), Fallout 3 (34 FPS), Oblivion (29 FPS), and STALKER: Clear Sky (28 FPS). World of WarCraft should also run reasonably well, although with me not being a subscriber (or interested in becoming one!) it wasn't something I tested. Considering people have run WoW on netbooks, the X610 should easily be up to the task.
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JarredWalton - Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - link
Yeah, but often the prices are about the same in Euros and USD because of taxes and such... at least, that's been my experience. Anyway, without the product in the US it's pretty much a moot point, but I'd like to see it at $500 or less.samspqr - Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - link
you can't use the exchange rate to convert hardware priceshere in europe we have higher direct taxes (around 18% por this kind of goods), and some other legislation that makes this stuff more expensive (like a mandatory 2 years warranty by the seller), plus quite often we just get ripped off
the X600 is selling for $800 in amazon.com and 720eur in amazon.de, so for the X610 those 500eur should mean something like $560
samspqr - Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - link
(sorry, I meant indirect taxes)max347 - Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - link
With such a low speed cpu, I wouldnt really see the point in a dedicated card. I would rather have either- stronger cpu/dedicated, or igp/better battery life.Mint - Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - link
At a given pricepoint, I would have the ability to play somes games with AA, AF, and full shaders than have a strong CPU with a weak GPU that can play all games at 640x480.A 1.3 GHz C2D isn't going to be that much faster for games, but it's the best you can get in a reasonably priced lightweight notebook. I would totally go for this notebook if they engineered the power saving properly and got 5+ hours of battery life, and a Neo X2 option would be icing on the cake. Instead I'm pleading for the substantially more expensive 3810TG to eventually arrive in NA.
LarsAlereon - Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - link
It needed a discrete GPU because the IGP (X1250) isn't good enough for basic usage. Ideally you'd use an IGP in value systems, and only use a discrete GPU if you want gaming capabilties. In this case they were forced to use a discrete GPU, but the unit wasn't positioned somewhere that needed gaming performance. Is there a reason they couldn't have used the RS780E (HD 3300) instead? I look forward to seeing an IGP based on the R5000-series architecture at some point.Mint - Tuesday, October 6, 2009 - link
15.6 inches in a 4.5 lb chassis for that price is fantastic, especially when you get better-than-atom performance and HD 4330 graphics. Too bad battery life is so mediocre. You'd think that ATI's hybrid power technology would be able to shut down the discrete graphics when idling.Still, have you considered reviewing Acer's Timeline 3810TG? That can be equipped with a Core 2 Duo (albeit low clock speed), 4330 graphics that can be shut off, and claims to have 7-9 hours of battery life. Unfortunately, this particular Timeline is also unavailable in the US...
bjacobson - Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - link
I think I'm going to start defining netbook by weight and battery life nothing else.IMO it needs to be at or below ~3lbs and have a 7-8 hour charge.
Size never mattered to me, it was all about weight and battery life.
At 7h I can safely consistently leave the charger at home if I have a full charge. Needs vary but I haven't had to worry about it once this semester, and that's with 8 hour days of classes and I still usually have 15-20% battery life left.
JarredWalton - Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - link
Yeah, unfortunately the part of the netbook this laptop used was the "low performance CPU". It's rather disappointing to me that a CPU that's only ~50% faster than Atom can use 3X as much power. They also took the MacBook Air part that consisted of "thin" without worrying about providing great battery life and reasonable performance.JarredWalton - Tuesday, October 6, 2009 - link
I've been trying to get any Timeline for review... hopefully some day soon Acer will send me one. I'm still a little confused as to why the X610 has an IGP and discrete graphics with no apparent way to use the IGP (unless I'm just totally missing it).