Is a sony vaio s series 15" a good gaming laptop?

[mo5024]

Hello, i was wondering if this laptop that i already purchased, but have not received, through the mail yet, is good enough to play guild wars 2, wow, starcraft 2, and diablo 3. the specs are

3rd gen Intel® Core™ i5-3320M processor (2.60GHz / 3.30GHz with Turbo Boost)

windows 7 home premium

NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 640M LE (2GB) hybrid graphics with Intel® Wireless Display technology

500GB (7200rpm) hard drive

6GB (4GB fixed onboard + 2GB removable) DDR3-1333Mhz

I would also like to know if its easy to install a solid state drive, because on the sony website, they give you an option of upgrading to solid state, but it requires a double drive, for a 128 its two 64's.

 

[nhasian]

yes its a great laptop for gaming and it is easy to install an SSD into it. you can purchase a single SSD 128 or 256. you do not need two of them.

 

[Pyree]

4-5/10

Because sometimes the GPU in vaio laptops are undervolted thus you won't get the performance of the un-gimped card. Also, GT 640 LE GDDR3 is actually a rebadged and overclocked old GT 550m. So if you are getting the GT 640 LE GDDR3, it is really a rip-off unless you get the laptop for cheap.

IMO, for single card nvidia 600 series mobile GPU lineup:

5/10 GT 640m LE GDDR5, GT 640 DDR3,
6/10 GT 640m GDDR5, GT 650m DDR3
7/10 GT 650m GDDR5
8/10 GTX 660m, GTX 670m
9/10 GTX 675m
10/10 GTX 680m

 

[Croak]

4-5/10

Because sometimes the GPU in vaio laptops are undervolted thus you won't get the performance of the un-gimped card. Also, GT 640 LE GDDR3 is actually a rebadged and overclocked old GT 550m. So if you are getting the GT 640 LE GDDR3, it is really a rip-off unless you get the laptop for cheap.

IMO, for single card nvidia 600 series mobile GPU lineup:

5/10 GT 640m LE GDDR5, GT 640 DDR3,
6/10 GT 640m GDDR5, GT 650m DDR3
7/10 GT 650m GDDR5
8/10 GTX 660m, GTX 670m
9/10 GTX 675m
10/10 GTX 680m

The 640LE in the VAIO is definitely a Kepler part, NOT a re-badged Fermi. Hardly a ripoff on the Sony unit.

And thanks to some clever folks who modded the Sony/Nvidia BIOS, mine is now running at 950mhz, up from the default 540mhz.

Other than DDR3 instead of DDR5, I'm running what amounts to a mildly overclocked Kepler 650M. 3dMark 11 scores of 2100+ on my i7 3520/1GB 640M LE model (and a WEI of 6.7).

 

[Pyree]

Looks like I need to renew the line up on Kepler card and add a Kepler GT 640m LE DDR3 and get rid of the Kepler GT 640m LE GDDR5 (it's not being released).

 

[rubbateckie]

OP, you may want to consider overclocking. There is information on overclocking the Vaio S safely and easily here: http/forum.notebookreview.com/sony/677079-sony-vaio-s-bios-mod-gt640m-le.html

 

[jaguarskx]

The GT 640 LE is pretty decent; it is basically equal to a GT 550m.

You should be able to play most games with medium graphic settings at 1366x768 resolution. High graphic settings is possible, but the FPS will average around 30 FPS - 35 FPS. I tested Crysis with high settings on my Lenovo Y470 (GT 550m) in chapter 2 (Relic) and generally managed to get on average around 33 FPS. It dipped down to 23 FPS and peaked as high 39 FPS. However, the final boss battle is the most strenuous so I would expect around 20 FPS at best with high settings.

 

[JRay_08]

The 640LE in the VAIO is definitely a Kepler part, NOT a re-badged Fermi. Hardly a ripoff on the Sony unit.

And thanks to some clever folks who modded the Sony/Nvidia BIOS, mine is now running at 950mhz, up from the default 540mhz.

Other than DDR3 instead of DDR5, I'm running what amounts to a mildly overclocked Kepler 650M. 3dMark 11 scores of 2100+ on my i7 3520/1GB 640M LE model (and a WEI of 6.7).

How were you able to mod the BIOS? I have the same laptop and am pretty happy with my performance, but clocking it up would be great. Also, what temps are you seeing with that clock speed?