ASUS N10JC: the Netbook Goes Corporate
by Jarred Walton on December 24, 2008 4:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
Graphics Performance
We also ran some graphics performance tests for quick reference. We don't have any comparable gaming results at 1024x600 for other laptops, so we're comparing the N10JC to itself, with and without the 9300M. For 3DMark, we used an external display in order to test at the standard resolutions.
| ASUS N10JC Gaming Performance @ 1024x600 Low Quality | ||
| GPU | 9300M | GMA 950 |
| Company of Heroes | 40.4 | 8.4 |
| Unreal Tournament 3 | 30.41 | Fail! |
Obviously this is not going to be a gaming powerhouse, but at the native 1024x600 resolution the GeForce 9300M is capable of running many games at low to medium detail. Note that the slow CPU is also going to be a bottleneck in certain titles; unreal tournament for example scored the same at 800x600 as at 1024x600, indicating a CPU bottleneck. The 9300M certainly won't set any performance records, but it does offer nearly 5 times the performance of the GMA 950. It also allows you to offload video decoding, which is definitely required for high definition content -- the Atom N270 completely choked on any H.264 content without GPU assistance.
Something else the 9300M brings to the table is compatibility. You will notice that we put "fail" under Unreal Tournament 3 with the GMA 950. There will certainly be plenty of other games that won't run on the integrated graphics, so it's nice to be able to flip a switch, reboot the system, and meet the necessary GPU requirements. It would be even better if we didn't have to reboot the system, but it's not something we envision ourselves doing so frequently that it's a critical flaw on this type of laptop. Also remember that while the GPU does support DirectX 10, you will need to install and run Windows Vista to enable those features. Considering the GPU performance on tap, however, Windows XP and DX9 are a safer bet.
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ATWindsor - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
Please continue to test the displays of laptops. This is very good information, and often not tested by other sites.Clauzii - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
I'd like to see the ASUS with the Mac battery. That should bring a whole day of interrupted usage to the table. Besdides that, I think I'd prefer a dual core Atom and no discrete GPU, since the dualcore Atoms CAN decode movies well.Oh, and a Merry Christmas from Denmark :)
JarredWalton - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
Glaedelige jul til dig ogsaa! I don't think dual-core Atom would do all that well with H.264 1080P, but it might manage. I suppose the real question is whether it would be more power efficient than the 9300M or not. No one seems to be doing Atom dual-core laptops yet (though I'm sure they're out there -- just no one has offered to send one for review). As for the Mac batteries, they're actually *smaller* than the ASUS battery in terms of capacity; OS X just seems to do better at optimizing for power as far as I can tell.therealnickdanger - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
But would you be kind enough to maybe test a couple old games like Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike Source, Halo, WoW, UT2004? Merry Christmas, AT!JarredWalton - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
Given the performance in UT3 and CoH, I'd expect pretty reasonable frame rates in the games you mention - maybe not at high detail, but medium shouldn't be a problem. Let me see if I can dig out HL2 and give it a run for old time's sake....therealnickdanger - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
Fair enough. Thanks for considering it! ;-)Penti - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
A XP Home laptop is not a business version, why not test the Vista Business version? Would be more interesting to see how the VB N10J-A2 fair.A VB laptop with XP Pro downgrade rights is the only thing fitting into the corporate world. What your reviewing is still a consumer laptop. With just 1GB of ram to add on top of that. Certainly the 800 dollars N10J-A2 would be more difficult to justify. And only then you can talk corporate.
ltcommanderdata - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
I thought the XP Home thing was mandated by Microsoft for netbooks. As in Microsoft will only continue selling XP in it's Home form for netbooks which only have 1GB of RAM. ASUS can't put XP Pro in since it's no longer directly available and I would guess using Vista Business by default would increase the price and of course reduce performance.strikeback03 - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
As of September, our campus computer store was still selling licenses for XP Pro to use with our Volume License media.I haven't needed one since then, but businesses with volume licenses can probably upgrade if needed.ltcommanderdata - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
That's kind of different. XP is still available for smaller OEMs, but I'm pretty sure that XP isn't available for big name companies like ASUS anymore unless they stick with the netbook restrictions.