CyberpowerPC's Compal PBL21: The Shark's New Teeth
by Dustin Sklavos on July 11, 2011 12:30 AM ESTGaming Performance
For testing the Compal PBL21's NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M, we'll run through our "medium" and "high" testing suites. It's fast enough that it'll handle any of our "low" presets with aplomb; at the same time, the 128-bit memory bus and DDR3 attached to the GPU will, as you'll see, basically ensure that the PBL21 can't really game at its native resolution. While we don't show minimum framerate results, suffice it to say even if the game is able to exceed an average of the magical 30fps at 1080p, it's a muddy experience.
Generally speaking, the NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M is a practical improvement over the last generation's AMD Mobility Radeon HD 5650. The blows traded between the Dell XPS 15 and Compal PBL21 can be mostly attributed to differences in drivers the units shipped with, but either way the two are essentially comparable. At these framerates, the medium presets are really where the GT 540M is going to be most comfortable; 1080p performance is rocky, and that old GPU killer Metro 2033 takes its toll at any resolution.
1600x900 is really about the limit a GPU with a 128-bit memory bus and DDR3 is going to hit before things get too shaky, and the Compal PBL21 bears that out. 1080p is a lost cause at our "high" preset. If you're willing to fiddle with the settings in most of your games 1600x900 is probably going to be the sweet spot for compromising between performance and image quality, but the GeForce GT 540M is just not powerful enough to drive games at 1080p.
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Hrel - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
I wish compal would release a 15.6" with a GTX560 in it... sigh. Oh well, just ordered the Clevo.I'd be curious to know if DDR3-1333 with CAS latency 9 is faster or if 1066 with latency 7 is faster. Like I said, I just ordered this laptop and intend to add or swap out the RAM. Came with 1333, so I know it's CAS 9. It's always made sense to me to reduce latency whenever possible. But I'd like to know for sure. What do you think, 1333 at CAS 9 or 1066 at CAS 7? Gaming, video editing, web surfing. Media playback is the usage model. Tests would be great, but that's asking a lot.
It annoys me that they put so much RAM on GPU's in notebooks. Like you said it can't use anywhere near that much. They just wanna sell more RAM and don't want you to have a choice. So they just let the price creep up. Similar feeling to the old RAM price fixing issues from a decade ago. Same idea, just forcing quantity on you instead of straight price.
Finally, I'd like to see the Seagate Momentus XT compared to a laptop 7200rpm drive. Anand's review of it compared it to a 5400rpm drive, hardly a reasonable comparison considering the XT runs at 7200rpm AND has 32MB of cache. I ordered it already anyway, but I like numbers:)
On to the rest of the review!
Hrel - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
I like the keyboard mostly. The NBLB2 never bothered me except where the ctrl key is. They 10-key on this looks good, all the numbers and enter key at least. The other keys I just couldn't fit to the right. I'm ok with that. I can still do the number part as fast as ever, just have to alter brain patterns to hit the + - / * keys.I hate one mouse button, give me two actual buttons please.
I know it's silly but I want a fingerprint scanner. Seriously, how much can they cost? 15 bucks? I got that.
Overall I agree. Much improved but still in need of work.
Hrel - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
Final thing I should mention. If you google "cyberpowerpc coupon" you will find multiple coupon codes that STILL work. Can save you about 20-80 bucks depending on some variables. Basically paid for shipping and then a little thank you for me.GuinnessKMF - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
The latency is a measure of how many clocks, so comparing latency directly is misleading. 1333mhz, 9 clocks is 6.75 microseconds (my units might be off, but I'll be consistent), and the 1066 with CAS 7 is 6.56 microseconds, less than a 3% degradation in actual latency, but you're looking at about a 25% throughput improvement. Different applications demand different performance characteristics, but I think for the most part a DDR3-1333 at CAS 9 is going to be an improvement over DDR3-1066 CAS 7.PlasmaBomb - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
It would be nanoseconds (ns), and I don't think 3% is enough to be worried about (you probably won't notice it due to benchmarking variations). Other than that thumbsup.tzhu07 - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
Tacky build quality and design + glossy screen on a laptop = auto-failBleh.
DanNeely - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
"Unfortunately, the PBL21's keyboard is more of a lateral move than anything and I'm beginning to think that despite the ability to cram a 10-key into a 15.6" chassis, manufacturers should probably just avoid it."Yeah, if there's only room to fit 3 columns naturally I'd much rather see the ins-pgdn keys and the arrow T in a proper desktop layout than anything else.
wurizen - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
why does a modern gpu like the gt 540m have trouble playing in 1080p when console games like the PS3, which is like 5 yrs old have no problem w/ it?Dustin Sklavos - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
Consoles typically render at 720p (sometimes lower) and then upscale the image. The lion's share of the time they're not ACTUALLY rendering at 1080p.wurizen - Monday, July 11, 2011 - link
huh? aren't ps3 games already 1080p? no need to upscale. are you saying ps3 developers render their games at less than 1080p and tell you it's 1080p? i think you can sue them for that.