Asus A7J 17-inch Core Duo Notebook Review

3DMark and Games

Laptop graphics have come a long way from the business oriented models 5 years ago. Today, laptops like the Asus A7J are marketed as multimedia computers capable of high resolution output as well as the ability to play current games. In particular, the A7J comes loaded with a Mobility Radeon X1600 that has all the markings of a decent performer. While it doesn’t beat the desktop GeForce 6600GT, it does manage to hold its own even in The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion.

First let’s take a run through 3DMark to see some initial scores in hypothetical gaming situations.

3D Game Performance 3DMark 2001SE, ’05, ’06
	Asus A7J	Asus W5F	Compaq V2410	EPoX 9NPA+
3DMark ’06
Score	1979	99	137	1640
SM 2.0	692	45	63	669
HDR / SM 3.0	792	0	0	588
CPU	1361	1364	615	919
3DMark ’05
Score	3751	418	464	3807
CPU	4387	3207	2477	4783
3DMark 2001SE
Score	17678	4800	3216

If you are to go by 3DMark ’06 alone, it would appear that the Mobility Radeon X1600 on the A7J will offer a better gaming experience than the GeForce 6600GT on the EPoX 9NPA+ system. Let’s see how real-world games perform…

Real World Games

The following games were tested in two settings: low details, and high details. Low details typically means the lowest supported game resolution with the lowest graphics options available. High details means 1024×768 resolution or better with most details enabled or put on HIGH.

*VSync enabled – Caps maximum at 60 FPS.

*VSync enabled – Caps maximum at 60 FPS.

In low details, the Asus A7J nearly matches the EPoX 9NPA+ system on each game. The EPoX system has 2GB of RAM, so the results from the A7J are pretty impressive indeed! In high detail settings, the A7J doesn’t do too badly and if you are to take anything from those results is that you can run high resolution with a few tweaks to the detail/effects options.

Call of Duty 2 – D-Day / Pointe du Hoc Average Frame Rate
	Asus A7J	EPoX 9NPA+
800×480	37.4 FPS	.
1024×480	32.0 FPS	.
800×600	32.7 FPS	42.3 FPS
1024×768	23.6 FPS	37 FPS

In Call of Duty 2, the Asus A7J does remarkably well given the intensity of the benchmark. At 1024×480 the system posts a respectable 32 FPS average though there were noticeable slow-downs during intense fighting. You will want to adjust your settings a little.

One question I see over and over again in various forums is: “Does it run Oblivion?”. In the following test I configure Oblivion to use a decent effects/details level and vary the screen resolution.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Average Frame Rate
	Asus A7J	EPoX 9NPA+
Indoors
1024×480	37.0	.
1024×768	30.3	42.0
1280×960	25.9	.
Outdoors: City
1024×480	29.3	.
1024×768	25.2	23.6
1280×960	22.9	.
Outdoors: Forest
1024×480	21.3	.
1024×768	19.2	18.8
1280×960	15.7	.

The results above would imply that Oblivion is possible on the A7J at 1024×480 resolution with a good amont of details turned on. Forest performance is a bit weak, so you will probably want to turn down your draw distance or adjust your tree and grass settings.