The Vista graphics showdown- HP 2710p vs. Fuji P1620
As I sit here eating my Pad Thai in front of the display my mind keeps returning to the speed difference I notice between the HP 2710p and the Fujitsu P1620. Both machines are snappy running Vista Business but I have noticed that the HP is snappier than the Fujitsu most of the time. Not tremendously snappier but when you can notice it the speed is definitely a factor. Both devices are configured almost exactly the same with Core 2 Duo 1.2 GHz processors, 2 GB of memory and slow hard drives. The only real difference is the installed graphics accelerator, the Fujitsu runs the older Intel 945 chipset family and the HP the newer 965 family.
Watching the discussion about the Vista Windows Index ratings of many different devices in Kevin’s thread it occurred to me I would be interested to see how my two devices compare in that regard. I don’t put much stock in the Windows Index ratings as a rule but in this case with two identically configured systems except for the graphics the WI would be a good indicator of how Vista thinks the older chipset stacks up against the newer one. So while munching my noodles I had both systems run a system scan on their respective hardware and here’s what came out of that, the HP on top:
The only appreciable difference as expected is the graphics subsystem but I have to admit I was surprised how much lower the rating is for the older 945 chipset. As you can see both graphics ratings are down significantly compared to the 965 which certainly explains why the Fuji is a bit slower than the comparable HP. The Windows Aero rating is much lower so that’s probably what I am seeing as far as the performance goes. Don’t get me wrong, the Fujitsu is plenty fast and I’m happy with that but I sure wish Fujitsu had upgraded the graphics chipset along with everything else. I’m also surprised that apparently the memory in the HP is faster than that in the Fujitsu if the second rating is to be believed. Now that we know the Fujitsu graphics rating is lower than Kevin’s new Q1 I’ll never hear the end of it.
Ah, what’s a tenth of point between mobile devices and friends? Now if we were Olympic gymnasts, it would be a different story. Plus we’d be in better shape.
You might be in luck, James! I’ve been going around in circles about whether I should get an a 2710p, Fujitsu P1620…or an LG P100.
===An aside to those who don’t know what a P100 is===
A slightly faster chip (C2D 1.33Ghz), slightly larger screen (10.6″), has a touchpad in addition to a thumbstick, and a whole bunch of other little things for about $100-$200 less similarly configured. Apparently it also has palm rejection tech just like the 1620. But the main reason why I wanted it is because it packs discrete graphics. The catches:
(1) It’s about a half-pound heavier
(2) Battery life is a little worse from the extra horsepower
(3) You can’t find it in the States, only Canada (and Korea and Japan, of course). Thank goodness for the internet!
Now, back to your regularly scheduled user tip.
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Because of the graphics thing, I’ve been trawling the web to see if there’s anyway to get a performance boost. There is, as long as you’re willing to do a little driver updating (specifically two driver installs). Apparently, the drivers in question must be updated manually. This is for the P1610, but since the P1620 uses the same chipset, results should be similar. The thread here gives more detail:
http://www.leog.net/fujp_forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=12304
Read the posts from quasaries. His seventh one gives some driver versions for you to check. If they’re newer ones, you might want to give the newer drivers a shot. nomo’s second post provides links to the drivers, or you could probably just run a search for them on Intel’s driver pages.
Intel updated the Vista video driver to version 15.8 (aka 7.14.10.1437).
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/filter_results.aspx?strTypes=all&ProductID=2115&OSFullName=Windows+Vista*+Business%2C+32-bit+version&lang=eng&strOSs=154&submit=Go%21
After downloading the new driver my Windows Experience score for Vista Aero is 4.1. It was 4.2 with the previous driver version 15.7.3.
James: Could the difference in RAM scores be related to Micro-DIMM versus SO-DIMM? MHz speed?
My 2710p produces almost the same score except lower memory score (4.2). Mine has a stock 2GB RAM from HP, so unless James upgraded the RAM for himself, HP might be using various types of RAM.
Seeing the higher graphic score is good, but what really matters to me is 2710p cannot play World of Warcraft. This actually surprise me since my older TC4200 runs WoW rather well. 4200 has Pentium M 1.73, Inten 915 chipset, and 768MB memory so I was expecting much better WoW performance from 2710p. Probably the driver is not fully optimized yet?
nomo, different RAM speeds can certainly make that score vary so I wouldn’t worry about it. I read about the guy on Leog who is getting a 4.1 graphics score after upgrading to the latest Intel drivers so I’ve downloaded it and will upgrade when I get home. I’m in the SBUX right now with the HP.
Interestingly, the upgrade to the latest Intel graphics driver fails on the Fujitsu. I get an error saying that this driver is not validated for this computer. Trying to do a manual driver update via the Device Manager gets the same results. There apparently is no Intel graphics driver update that can be applied to the P1620. Bummer.
Don’t feel too bad. I just found a very minor Intel driver upgrade that I applied on the Q1UP and all scores remained the same… except for the graphics which just dropped from 2.3 to 2.2. We’re even!
Hi, I’m happy you put this up as I’ve been keenly watching for P1620 benchmarks since I decided not to buy one. I instead went for the P100 since I’m lucky enough to live in Oz and we can get them here. I put the WEI info on my blog (http://mactablet.blogspot.com/2008/03/vista-experience-index-on-lg-p100.html) if you are interested.
The P100 gets 4.3 for gaming graphics and 3.8 for AERO which is great. While bigger than the P1610/20 it’s very fast and I’m enjoying the speed.
James, there seems to be something wrong with your p1620. The GM945 Chipset integrated grafics should range above 3.0 in Vista scroe. Reason might be:
* no dual channel mode of Ram
* old or wrong driver
did you check that?
Peter, I am running the latest driver from Fujitsu. The Intel drivers will not install on this device. Dual channel mode of RAM? How do I check that?
I feel like an idiot re: RAM performance
It’s probably because of the difference in the chipsets: the 945 (in the Fujitsu) and 965 (in the HP). Most of the time people only care about the chipset onboard because of the embedded graphics (950 GMA vs X3100), but other components have been improved. I’m thinking specifically of the memory controller, which I know for a fact was changed on the first version of the 965. The second version (which was the first to carry the X3100) should retain the improved memory performance.
I’m beginning to think that I’ll go with the HP now, though the extra weight is haunting me. Fujitsu’s online store keeps floundering on processing my order; it’s probably a sign of some sort. Kinda want the Q1UP but can it handle a 720p h.264 video file?
Yes, the Q1UP can handle a 720p h.264. In Vista, I replicated my test of playing such a file in Quicktime and got the same results: http://www.jkontherun.com/2008/03/video-playback.html
As others have pointed out: watching H.264 QT vids in Windows isn’t the most efficient method, so using another player should result in the same or better results.
My 2710p is one tick higher, I am getting 3.2 in Desktop Performance for Aero. I am using the latest graphics driver from the Intel site which is newer than one from HP.
James: There are a few replies to your question posted on leog.net. One other Vista user received the same error message when trying to download the new Intel driver onto a P1620; another did not and the new driver works fine. It’s recommended to try uninstalling the factory-installed driver before downloading the new driver. Hope this helps.