In the first Skyrim on a netbook post, I mentioned how the game is barely playable on a netbook even after all the tweaking. Well, apparently, that’s not the end of the [...]]]>

Are you willing to give it all up to play Skyrim on a netbook?

Note: this applies to netbooks with a Nvidia ION/ATI Radeon discrete graphics. No luck here, Intel Integrated Graphics…

In the first Skyrim on a netbook post, I mentioned how the game is barely playable on a netbook even after all the tweaking. Well, apparently, that’s not the end of the modding that would allow us to play Skyrim on a netbook.

This ain't no kids' game despite how cute that guard you're killing looks.

A commenter on the original post, LARZ, mentioned that it is possible to actually further mod Skyrim such that you can further reduce graphics quality beyond what is possible through the menus. In fact, in order to totally remove the textures from the game, you’ll have to go down and dirty. However, the corollary is that Skyrim is much more playable, at a high cost of losing a lot of graphics eye candy. By doing this, my FPS almost doubled – and doubling means going from a poor single-digit FPS to at least 15fps.

However, in my experience, even though it might seem that you have eased the load on the graphics processor by a lot, it turns out that I am still forced to play the game at the lowest res – 800×450 windowed, lowest draw distance, no special effects and low graphics quality.

HOW?

For people with ION cards, the hack is moderately easy, follow these steps:

1. Go to your Nvidia Control Panel
2. Click Manage 3D Settings on the left
3. Click the “Program Settings” tab, then add the path to your TESV.exe file, if it’s not already there. Make sure you don’t confuse the launcher “skyrimlauncher.exe” with the game TESV.exe as both use the same icons.
4. Click Apply.
5. Download the GeForce SLI Profile Editor here
6. Run it, click Export SLI profiles, save the text file on your desktop. You should get a file called “Nvidia Profiles.txt”
7. Make a backup of this file by copying and pasting it somewhere, in case you want to revert to texturized skyrim.
8. Open the text file in Notepad, do a search for “skyrim”. If there are two entries, search for the one where there is a line “ProfileType Application“. Now, you need to add the line Setting ID_0x00738e8f = 0×00000050 UserSpecified=true. Write it somewhere after the last Setting, but before EndProfile.

Note: if you see this line: Setting ID_0x00738e8f = 0×00000000 UserSpecified=true, delete it and replace it with the line above.

10. Import the text file you saved with the GeForce SLI Profile Editor

After this, your FPS should go up significantly, as long as you keep your graphics on lowest, the game should be playable, or at least, a bit better than it used to be. Unfortunately, we’re still on the edge when it comes to playing games such as Skyrim on a $300 device that was never meant to play it.

Lego Skyrim. Trololol.

If you happen to be one of the lucky/smart/prudent guys who got a AMD C/E-series netbook, and if the Radeons in it don’t have enough beef to play Skyrim, a YouTube video from AtomicGamer has these instructions for you in order to get rid of the textures.

1. Download and install ATI Tray Tools from http://www.guru3d.com/article/ati-tray-tools-/
2. Right click on ATI Tray Tools
3. Go to 3D, then to 3D Settings
4. Find the tab called Additional
5. Change “Texture LOD adjustment” to 10 and apply
6. Skyrim in 1995 mode!
7. To change it back, just change the same setting in ATI Tray Tools back to 0.

Where are the Save Games?

I would assume you play Skyrim on a more beefy computer, like I do, and only bother with Skyrim on your netbook when you are on-the-go, or when you accidentally destroy your laptop in rage (as I did… shhhh). In that case, you can transfer your save games to and fro each computer. The location of the save games are:

C:\Users\[Username]\Documents\My Games\Skyrim\Saves

Perhaps you could set up a sync so that your saves are placed in the cloud and you won’t need to do it manually. I generally use Sugarsync to do this. AWWWW YEAAA.

EDIT: Optimus Issues

I noticed a little problem with this game on my 1015PN, and I’d like to poll users if you experience the same problems. Here’s the deal: when I run the game in Optimus mode, while my game runs, it will not have the same frames per second as it would if I ran it in Nvidia ION-only mode. The game is pretty unplayable in Optimus, but runs a lot better in ION-only mode. Something to note if you have the same system as I do.

AMD’s next-gen Fusion line will feature the C-60, E-300 and E-450 processors while the [...]]]> The latest benchmark shows what’s to come in the future. Both the Atom and Fusion line are being upgraded and just like all upgrades, both will feature improvements in processing power

AMD’s next-gen Fusion line will feature the C-60, E-300 and E-450 processors while the next line of Atoms will be codenamed Cedar Trail, with the fastest of them being the N2800, clocking in speeds of 1.86GHz, dual-core, 1MB cache, hyperthreading and with a better graphics chip that is now DirectX 10.1 compatible and HD-output ready – a critical difference if you compared today’s Pine Trail Atoms to the upcoming Cedar Trail Atoms.

According to Blogeee.com, they made three benchmarks as follows,

Test results

For a person seeking performance, the answer is clear. AMD still triumphs as the king of the netbook processors, although its most likely that the E-450 chip will end up in larger netbooks (11″ and above), as per historical trends. It is unfortunate that the C-60 chip was not benchmarked, as this chip will likely be the one which ends up in smaller netbooks.

One critical flaw with the Atoms is that they cannot match up with AMD’s chips in terms of performance. While the N2800 might put up a good fight with the C-50/C-60, it still lacks the graphics processing power that all AMD chips have, and the only way to beef up the graphics processing power of an Intel chip is to buy one with ION in it. That said, ION 3 is in the works and might prove to be something even more powerful.

The key attraction to having an Atom processor has to lie in the fact that you can get extremely long battery life. With a TDP of 6.5W, it promises to be one of the most energy efficient processors out there, as compared to the 9.0W C-50/C-60s or the 18W E-350/E-450.

The AMD C-60 Ontario [...]]]>

The most capable netbook on the market: the Dell Inspirion m102z

The Dell Inspiron M102z will be the first netbook to be equipped with the new AMD C-60 processor along with a more powerful Radeon HD6290 graphics processor at base price. There will be an option for you to upgrade it to the more powerful E-450 processor with the Radeon HD6320 chip.

The AMD C-60 Ontario processor is an upgraded version of its predecessor, the C-50. With a C-50, you get a 1ghz dual-core processor running at 1GHz with Turbo Core technology that allows speeds to be boosted up to 1.33GHz, and an upgrade from the current Radeon HD6250s which run at 274MHz to the HD6290 which runs at 400MHz, all while keeping TDP at 9W. The AMD E-450 Zacate on the other hand, is a more powerful processor clocked at 1.66ghz, and will come with a HD6320 chip, which will see clock speeds go up from 500MHz to 600MHz.

However, few countries have seen shipment of the M102z, and an indicative price can only be seen from Dell Singapore, where it starts at SGD629 (USD521), although Singapore does have a record of having higher prices on all laptops, and therefore it might not be a good indicator of what prices will be like elsewhere.

The Dell is poised for people looking for a netbook that can do much more than a normal netbook would. With a high-power processor and a powerful graphics card, it will extend your ability to play games as well as provide you the ability to watch 1080p videos. It has a high-resolution screen that goes up to 1366×768 and has a HDMI-out which gives it great dynamism.

You’d wonder if these types of ‘notbooks’ beat the cheap notebooks equipped with a larger monitor, and a Core i3, priced around the same ballpark. The Dell Inspiron M102z has a more powerful graphics card, although its processor is weaker. However, when playing games, more often than not, a computer’s Achilles Heel lies in the graphics chip more so than the processor.

Operating System

• Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64bit (English)

Memory⁷

• 2GB (1 X 2GB) 1 DIMM DDR3 1333Mhz (operating at 1067Mhz)
• 4GB (1 X 4GB) 1 DIMM DDR3 1333Mhz (operating at 1067Mhz)

Chipset

• AMD A50M FCH

Video Card

• AMD Radeon™ HD 6290 Graphics(AMD C-60)
• AMD Radeon™ HD 6320 Graphics(AMD E-450)

Display

• 11.6″ (29.5cm) HD WLED Display with TrueLife™ (1366 x 768)

Audio and Speakers

• SRS premium Surround sound standard
  2 X 1.5W speakers for total of 3W standard

Hard Drive

• Up to 500GB⁶ hard drive (7200RPM)

Optical Drive

• External DVD+/RW (optional)

Power

• 6-cell 56WHr Li-Ion Battery with up to 9 hours of battery life⁴
  Optional 9-cell 90WHr Li-Ion Battery with up to 13 hours 57minutes of battery life⁵

Camera

• Built-in 1.3M Pixel Webcam

Wireless

• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth :
  Standard 802.11b/g/n + Bluetooth 3.0 Combo Card