LaptopBlog2Go

I’ve just noticed this on gta4.net. Easy to do yet cool to look at.
Give it a go.

How well it works

Connecting to router was a breeze, and once connected it will auto login next time it sees the router (ie from sleep or power up)
The Client Utility can be opened by double clicking the Ralink logo in the Notification area.
The picture above shows my signal strength at 94%, compared with the GIGABYTE Aircruiser N300 GN-WS30N I tested here gets 100% in the same spot.
But 94% is very good for a tiny unit with only 2 antennas (build onto the unit) as the MiniPCIe version has 3 external antenna’s.
The antenna’s are configured as 2T/2R, both receive and transmit at once
I am very impressed with this card as it works just like it’s bigger MiniPCI(e) counter parts.
As can be seen it hooks up to my Dlink DIR-655 router at full transmit speed, receive speed will vary with demand (ie go up when the bandwidth rises)

For the whole review head on over

here

I get emails and I know some people are wondering what the difference is in those settings? My drivers offer 3 pre-sets to choose from:

Quality: settings offer sharper more detailed images slightly
Performance: the detail is reduces slightly
Balance: is slap bang some where between the two.

Benchmarks

These test do no reflect actual gameplay but are good enough to compare the difference in the driver settings.

3D mark 2006

Qual- 9365
Bal- 9399
Perf- 9458

GTA IV

Qual- 31.34
Bal- 31.20
Perf- 29.00

Counter Strike Source

Qual- 199.85
Bal -203.62
Perf- 241.12

Image Quality Comparison

For this comparison Crysis will be used.

Quality:

Balance:

Performance:

The images here do not do the differences justice due to it being .jpg file and small size. For a much better and clearer comparison download the original 1920×1200 .bmp Here.

Note

The comparison was done with the default 3D settings I set in the nvidia control panel. For example in Quality setting I turned off trilinear optimisation etc. However, you can turn this on in the Nvidia control panel and set the Texture Filtering to High performance. What you will get is a hybrid mish mash of performance optimisation and my higher image quality tweaks. This will not affect the tweaks I do that sets Quality apart from the other two settings.

Conclusion

As the benchmarks show some games benifit from the performance settings, whilst others its slower such as in GTA IV where the Quality settings has the highest FPS. Do not be put off by this, its not always in the numbers but how it actually plays as well.

In all cases the performance setting will always play smoother with less fps spikes compared to the other settings, even if it does not always have the highest max fps, this I believe is true performance.

The image quality should be compared by downloading the .bmp file for a much clearer visual comparison, it is then up to you to decide which you prefer and compare it to the performance it has. I personally go Quality setting, for mid range card you should go for Balance, whilst low end cards should use Performance. But at the end of the day they are there as a choice and I feel its up to you to pick the ones you feel is right for yourself personally.

I’ve been here for almost a year now and alot has happened and this site has changed. Theres been some amazing people members here and the site has gotten busier I feel with much more active regular members than when I first joined. Heres my thoughts on the team that make this place happen:

Mobilenvidia: One of the nicest guy ever, strives to help me out in the forums more than you can imagine. Has a big interest in wireless cards as well, also seems like a family man

Snowl: I dont know much about snowl, seems he comes and go but has written very useful guides in the FAQ forum and does pop by to post some useful tools and sites.

RRR: He’s recently resurfaced from the world and things seems to be going “cushty” for him, makes some cool posts and he loves to make them look cool. Remember that massive news post/news letter? That almost made me cry.

Darmdorf: This guy makes THE most useful and educated post EVER out of anyone here, he doesnt post much but when he does I feel so small in comparison.

Michael Marley: I like mike I think he’s a good guy, although I think he works as PR manager for Intel secretly. He once threatened me because I had “ATI Fanboy” as a custom title. Be afraid, be very afraid….

Bill: I think he knows it, I know it, we all know it, Bill is the nerdiest out of us? (Not in a bad way). He probs got more technology in his pants/trousers than I do in my house. But he’s cool.

Wook: All I know about this guy is he’s preparing for world domination, other than that he appears to be another family guy but still young at heart.

Teraphy: Apart from working for interpol he also makes the server super fit, efficient and fast, one of the reason the site is so fast, all hail him you mortals

Zipper: I like Zipper, he helps an awful lot in the forums and he lives in frozen Finland other than that he’s an old fart

And the rest…. I’ll post more once my “insider” digs deeper >:]

Nice benchmarks comparing gaming performance of XP, Vista and 7.
Make up your own conclusions here.

When you get older you get more responsibilities. Right now I am in the process of finishing off my reports for work, it should of been done 3 days ago. It has to be done tommorow (today since its now 00.15).I’ve learned my lesson. No more messing with drivers until my real life is in order.

The world’s in an economic pinch, at least over here we are. Want a free FPS game? Try Combat Arms It looks like COD4 but the gameplay is like Quake/Unreal. No reason not to give it a go.

People maybe wondering why I spell Optimised and not Optimized.
Easy answer: its Uk way of spelling it not the USA way.
God save the queen.

Been playing it for about 3 days now, had it before xmas but not had chance to play it.
Enjoying it so far, really good game, not very scary but I would say it is tense.
Can’t say I recommend playing it with just a keyboard since it fiddly and doesnt feel right.
Using the Xbox controller and keyboard = best of both worlds.
I highly recommend this game if you are short on time and need something satifying to fill that gap.

Speaking about less time, less gaming, I see myself wanting a wii since its a “casual” thing to play for a “wee” bit, enjoy yourself, stop, then get back to normal daily life. Perfect.