How good is the Aspire 5920 for games? (Jing answers back)
- posted by Michael Walsh on August 8th, 2007
- (106)
A while ago I asked how good the Aspire 5920 was for games. The following article is Jing’s response:
Before you dive into this article I’d like to make one thing absolutely clear. Jing carried out this review on my personal request and at his own risk. We both would like to point out that changing the standard drivers could cause your notebook to malfunction so this should only be done by experts and neither Jing nor The Acer Guy blog shall be held responsible for any damage caused by readers attempting to repeat the contents of this article.
This article was written for fun and is in no way recommended by Acer or associated with Acer. You have been warned: change your drivers at your own risk!
OK. Boring bit over. Here’s what Jing’s been up to lately….
UPDATE: Quite a lot of you have asked for Oblivion to be included in this review. Jing’s sent it, but I’m having trouble downloading it from where I am. I’ll get it up as soon as I can OK?
UPDATE 2: Finally got Jing’s Oblivion review up. Enjoy!
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Michael thought it would be a good idea for prospective buyers of the 5920G to know how good the 8600M GT is at gaming. Don’t expect me to tell you the best tweaking tips (though I’ve heard RivaTuner works well) for over-clocking, or to provide industry standard benchmarks. You won’t get that in this particular review, but if like me you play the occasional game, then you’ll want to read this just to put your mind at rest, if you’ve been wondering whether the 8600M GT is a worthy purchase in your next notebook, as you probably know, dedicated Graphic cards can add a significant costs – if not one of the greatest costs – to your new notebook.
I currently own an Acer Aspire 5920G Notebook. It is my first notebook, and contains one of the newest Nvidia offerings, the 8600M GT. I am using it with a 15.4 inch screen at the native resolution of 1280×800 in windows, and where possible in games.
I am using modded laptop display drivers instead of the Acer Stock Display drivers, as I have had numerous problems with the Acer drivers in games. I’ve had no problem with the current drivers I’m using, but it has taken a lot of trial and error to get here. Some drivers I’ve known to disable the laptops ability to hibernate, or recover from standby, or cause the screensaver to play, when it should be disabled in Windows Media Player, so you have been warned!
For instance, in “Sims 2” the “smooth edges” option or Anti-Aliasing option as it’s more commonly known is disabled. In Halo 2, there is numerous texture flickering in the title screen, cut-scenes and actual game environments. And to round it off, poor game performance. Halo 2 runs at unplayable frame rates, and Guild Wars suffers frequent frame rate drops.
Halo 2 is one of the first Vista-only games. So it seems fitting to start off with this.
Using a program called Fraps, I captured the screen above at the highest resolution available to me (1280×720), not true 16:10 widescreen, so the image remains stretched vertically, giving the game environment a heightened appearance which in no way detracts from the experience, but 16:10 at (1280×800) resolution would have been nice. All other graphic options were left on default.
I expected Halo 2 to be a performance hog based on playing Halo 1, which demanded the most of your hardware, without actually looking like it needed this power. After playing Halo 2, I found it difficult to label the performance. If anything it’s totally average, which in games is a blessing or a curse.
Halo has no way within the game to turn on vsync like in Halo 1, the frame rates vary WIDELY from the low 20s, to the lower end of 40. I have no complaints about the frame rates being within this range, as it reduces tearing. In terms of playability, it’s perfectly fine. Image quality is pretty much on par with Halo 1, apart from a few updated textures, such as the armour on elites, which I describe as “shiny” graphics which seem all the rage on Xbox/Ps3 games. Texture models are not pretty and feel unpolished. For example grunt uniforms have depth but have no sharpness when viewed up close. Textures are very bland and blocky and you may be hard pressed to see any difference at times between Halo 1 and Halo 2, apart from little details such as the new weapon models, and improvements in lighting (those shiny textures!) and water effects.
An Elite Covenant in a load of trouble with the Bosses… “Mummy…”
The 5920 handles Halo 2 well. In complex fire-fights the frame rate can fall to 20, but there is little slowdown and the controls remain manageable. Strangely the AI suffers at times, which may be down to the programming, or because the graphics and environment require so much power from the CPU. For example, in Halo 1, elites always dive out the way if you lob a grenade their way. In Halo 2, they sometimes just crouch where they are standing. Other times, they fail to notice you, even when you tempt them into close combat with a few knocks of your gun butt.
Issues with Acer Stock Display Drivers
-Texture flickering on title screen
-Texture flickering on certain surfaces in the game
-Texture flickering during cut scenes
-Low Frame Rate leading to major slowdowns
-Extreme Tearing
Not much to say about this game, except it’s the best online MMORPG, for the fact there is no online subscription. Okay, you might want more info…
Guild Wars, runs perfectly with the default settings on native resolution (1280×800), with 4AA turned on, and all other settings on high except shadows which default to medium. The frame rate is silky smooth at 60 FPS with Vsync turned on. I tried turning it off, and the frame rate remained at around 60 FPS with the only effect being slight tearing when looking around the games environment. Even in crowded pre-searing Ascalon, there were no texture buffering issues when turning around, or brief frame rate drops.
Graphics are crisp, hardly any jaggies – that’s graphics whereby you can see the sharp unattractive outlines to objects rendered in 3d. And the only problem is that sometimes when interacting with objects, they go within the player. For example, when your player carries a chest as part of a quest you can see the chest go through their back from your 3rd person perspective. I’m pretty sure this is simply an issue with the game engine.
Issues with Acer Stock Display Drivers
-Frequent frame rate drops when exploring environment.
*This screenshot was not taken by me, but it is a virtually perfect representation of graphic quality on the Acer 5920 and at identical played resolution (1280×720). Credit to tech2.com
I uninstalled this game pretty quick last month when I realised it wasn’t playable on my pc. I couldn’t be bothered to download it again, but here are my comments. This has been deemed by many to be a poor port of an Xbox game.
Here are my comments from another Acerguy Article:
Lost Planet DX10 Demo performance test on the default settings which ranged from high and medium led to
Snow Level: 16 FPS Average
Cave Level: 22 FPS Average
Real world gaming was a worse affair. The game kept telling me to reduce settings, so I set most video options to low. The resolution was kept at 1280×720.
I got an average frame rate of 14-17FPS outside which strangely did not drop when encountering many enemies. With Average of 22FPS indoors, in the garage with all the spider creatures.
That said, the game looks beautiful. Regardless of the very visible jaggies on creatures and objects, the blur motion effect was amazing, the first I had seen from a game, and despite being nigh on un-usable, looked amazing. Firefights and explosions indoors, where the frame rate was playable (just about) were the best I have ever seen, being both realistic and cinematic in effect. I can envisage the Nvidia 8700M to be just about capable of running this demanding game. For the 5920, it’s a game to avoid at least untill better drivers are released, or until you upgrade the 8600M GT card in the future, as it is possible to upgrade.
Issues with Acer Stock Display Drivers
-Not tested with Acer Stock Drivers
-Can assume VERY low frame rates
Tomb Raider Legend. Seems to run the best of all the games I have on the 5920. Graphically amazing, even more so with Next Gen Content Turned on.
I ran this with all graphic options turned on except Next Gen Content. This includes Full Screen AA and Vsync. The frame rate seems fixed around 30 FPS. Very smooth animation and extremely playable.
The next screenshot is taken with all graphic options turned including Next Gen Content. Note lighting is very accurate. Surprisingly, the game is still quite playable with this frame rate at least with a controller. The mouse can respond quite slowly at this frame rate. Both TR:Legend and Halo 2 work perfectly with the Xbox 360 controller for Windows with all the buttons automatically configured.
It’s not just the graphics that are pretty here…
If you leave Next Gen content off, you will miss such a lot of artwork that I have played the game twice to see. It really makes you think “Wow, imagine what Dx10 titles could look like”, but also disappointingly, you may also realise, as I have resigned myself to, that apart from Crysis, the 8600M GT will not be capable of playing many modern DX10 titles in the near future, at least with medium-high settings. They should be playable with the resolution lowered and low-medium settings, but that is normally the case with mid-range, mainstream notebook graphics. It should comfortably play modern DX9 titles well for some time.
Spot the differences…
Issues with Acer Stock Display Drivers
-None apart from lower frame rates
-Full Screen AA greatly reduces performance to unplayable
-Not even worth trying to turn Next-Gen Content On.
Only the most popular online tactical shooter in the world. Even less to say about this than Guild Wars. It runs on virtually any pc made in the last 5 years and beyond. No exception with the Acer 5920 and its 8600M GT. Frame rates are on average around 80-90+ with 16xCSAA Anti-Aliasing (gets rid of jaggies) all options to High, Vsync off, and Filtering options on Tri-linear. I chose one of the most intensive sections of the game to test frame rates. As CS:S players know, smoke can really reduce the frame rate, due to the amount of calculations that take place to simulate the effect. Frame rate dropped to about 45FPS. Never went below 40.
Issues with Acer Stock Display Drivers
-None
-Slightly lower frame rate, unnoticible.
Similar performance to Counter-Strike Source regarding the Half Life 2 game. Frame rate locked to 60FPS with Vsync on. Varying anywhere from 40-90 FPS with Vsync off. Tearing is very noticible.
Silky smooth performance with all options high, 4xMSAA, Tri-linear filtering, simple reflections.
Cheeeeese… “Do we have to take it again… as I’ve… a speech to recite in…Oh.. are we live?…uh what do I say again…oh oh no don’t tell me, yeah I remember…uhum…Rise and Shine Mr Freeman…….”
Episode 1 is slightly more hardware-intensive. It has notable improvements to graphics, most significantly introducing HDR DirectX 9 lighting effects that adapt in order to mimic the process of the iris when experiencing light to dark. With everything turned to high, reflect All turned on, and Tri-Linear filtering, the frame rate falls to around 30FPS with Vsync turned on. It can drop to 23+ in demanding situations, such as when many objects are on the screen. Very smooth gameplay though.
It plays much like Half Life 2. There are a few minor slow-downs when running on these settings using the Acer Stock drivers, otherwise it looks near identical.
Based on playing the game a few weeks ago, haven’t got it installed at the moment, and essentially can’t be bothered just to take one or two screenshots. I got the frame rate info last month from using the “net_graph 3” command from the in-game console.
Issues with Acer Stock Display Drivers
-Rare slowdowns when a lot of action takes place (HL2:EP1)
-Heavy texture flickering (HL2)
This game was released before Half Life 2, and despite this, can be much more taxing on the system at the higher settings. I thought I would test this game on settings that users of new graphics cards would usually try, from the very highest settings falling, until an acceptable tradeoff between quality and performance has been reached. In this case, I had no reason to use the low or medium settings, which is a positive outcome for the 8600M GT as Doom being a 2-year-old game should not be beyond the capabilities of a DirectX 10 card.
The screenshot above was taken at Ultra-High quality, with a screen resolution of 1024×768. No widescreen options were available. Image quality was adequate, with significant jaggies. Vsync and AA turned off. The performance was relatively fine, except for frequent pauses attributed to textures being loaded into memory. Whilst no warning was given, Ultra High quality requires a graphics card with 500MB of graphics memory. Note the 8600M GT has 256mb built in. I thought this would be an ideal situation to see how effectively the 1024mb turbocache worked. Very poorly it seems. Once textures are loaded in game performance is fine. However, every time a new area is entered, there is heavy stuttering, and frame rate drops. Turbocache was making up for the lack of dedicated Graphics memory, but Doom 3 on Ultra High quality really needs a card that can unpack 500mb textures. That said, where textures had been loaded, frame rates were a respectable 55-66 FPS.
Staying on Ultra-high quality (above), I tried turning on AA to its max, 16x AA. The frame rate drop was enormous. The frame rate was still playable, if a bit jerky, but coupled with the frame rate drops, became very annoying. Image quality is hardly improved, with the smoothed-out jaggies giving a blurry look to the game, instead of sharpness as AA in games such as CS:S do. The costs far outweigh any benefits of turning AA on. I recommended 2/4xAA the max.
Playing the game on high quality (above) at an adjusted resolution of 1024×768 seems perfect. Image quality differences between Ultra-high and high are negligible. Frame rate seems locked to 63, even though Vsync was turned off. Or it may simply be the upper limit for the graphics card at this setting. Either way, there was very little tearing, and performance was great. The only noticeable difference from playing on High settings was the lack of frame rate drops due to textures being loaded into the graphics card memory.
The ROE expansion of Doom gives a warning when trying to run the game in Ultra High Quality. This is a message that was absent from Doom 3, but would have helped those people thinking they were getting a good frame rate, only to realise that Ultra-High quality required a graphics card with 500MB of memory bandwidth or above, something very few cards truly have, the 8600M GT included.
Deciding to forego trying Ultra-High quality again, I stuck to high quality with AA and Vsync turned off. First off, the graphics are perhaps slightly improved, with less jaggies by default. Performance was on par with Doom 3. No slowdowns or frame rate drops when encountering enemies the first off which were flying head creatures. In all very impressed with this expansion pack which maintains performance whilst delivering a better experience.
Issues with Acer Stock Display Drivers
-Not tested
Oblivion (The Elder Scrolls IV)
I really wanted to know what the fuss was about to this game, so I thought now was as good a time as any to get it. Essentially a RPG, with a necessary storyline that fathoms disbelief (as well as being reminiscent of LOTR) I felt Oblivion would emerge into a solid game as I got absorbed into the game play, but was initially underwhelmed in the dungeon “tutorial” which felt very linear. I’m assured by those who have played it, that this changes pretty soon, with expansive outdoor environments and many free-roaming quests.
So you want a game that contains Rats as big as Dogs? Welcome to Oblivion.
The screenshot above was taken at the highest resolution available (1280×768) which like many games is not true 16:10 ratio, but you would be very hard pressed to notice the difference. Coupled with V Sync, and all Distant Rendering turned on. The in-game graphic settings were left at their slider defaults. Strangely it was only possible to turn on HDR lighting effects, or AA. Otherwise using AA, you are limited to Bloom lighting, which is no way as satisfying knowing HDR effects are there. For the majority of these screenshots, I chose AA at the highest quality (8 Samples) with Bloom. In the dark dungeons you are initially released, HDR effects are not worth turning on, due to their ineffectiveness. However, I will give an idea of how both look, and let you decide which you can live without.
Personally, I still haven’t decided which I prefer. AA makes the game look so much better, giving weapons definition and characters sharpness. But outdoors without HDR, makes the surface look flat. The trade-off being better lighting or aliased (jaggy) object outlines. I can’t believe games like Half Life 2 Episode 1 allows both to be used, but Oblivion is locked to only one.
The visual quality (HDR Off) with all settings turned on is very playable and all of the screenshots, bar one have been taken using 8AA. The actual in game Despite Vsync being turned on, a majority of the time, the frame rate cannot keep to 60 FPS which frame rates are locked to. It cannot even lock to 30 FPS. The graphics are pretty with AA turned on (below), but can look downright poor with AA turned off in favour of HDR.
Thus most of the time, you will be left with a frame rate indoors of between 25 and the lower end of 40. Which is usually around 25 when combat occurs. The amount of enemies makes a difference, and controls can get laggy when a lot of action takes place.
The image above has AA 8 Samples turned on, with bloom lighting. Very pretty. However, as you can see, from the second screenshot (below), HDR has a lower performance hit resulting in a lower frame rate. However turning AA down to either 2 or 4 Samples with increase the frame rate at the expense of increase aliased objects.
Whilst the above HDR screenshot looks similar in quality to the AA of the same, the jaggies are more present, but not overly bad. Reminiscent of playing a game at 1024×768, and not being able to do anything about the sharpness of the graphics. Yet, I find myself whilst playing to be drawn towards using HDR effects, because they just look damn good, whilst giving better performance. An extra 10 FPS makes a difference. Plus HDR lighting looks more natural as objects transition from light to dark. Without it, weapons go from two – tone light to dark depending on the direction of the sun.
If anything, upon reflection, the performance of Oblivion is very similar in visual appearance, handling and performance of Halo 2. Note the similar frame rates achieved in both. In fact, I’m convinced somewhat that Oblivion is Halo 2 in disguise with swords and magic, as opposed to guns and grenades…I mean the Giant Rats are sort of like Covenant Grunts, whilst Goblins similar to elites, instead of ships we have castles…you get the picture, plus both have that blocky graphics feel, however no “shiny” textures here…Anyway…
The 5920 runs Oblivion fine. It struggles at times, especially if using the maximum 8X AA outdoors, but keep it to 2x or 4x and the game is very playable. You can adjust the options in-game to reduce details etc…but I rarely like doing this for games, but if you wish to squeeze every last frame rate out of the game, go right ahead. I’m not one to chase frame rates unless a game is already unplayable.
“Don’t come any closer matey…look, I’m backing off!” (Warning: Please do not play this game if you have a phobia of giant pest…I have a feeling there’s going to be a giant spider creature anytime soon…at which point I’ll have to stop playing and tell myself its not real…)
“You were warned! Eat my Magicka giant Rat!, that’s what you get for following me until I killed you, or you got me” (Actually why not just call it Magic…unless Magic The Gathering copyrighted that word…who knows…)
You want comments? We got comments:
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mos wrote, on August 9th, 2007:
Perfectly perfect Jing, would have been a bit better if you have included Oblivion in your test.
Thanks Jing, your article was like a charm.
Michael Walsh wrote, on August 9th, 2007:
Oblivion’s coming. As soon as Jing get’s it he’s already said he’ll add it to the review.
Iain wrote, on August 9th, 2007:
Just out of interest, which drivers are you using Jing?
Jing wrote, on August 9th, 2007:
I’m using the modded 158.45 Vista32 x86 drivers from the Laptopvideo2Go site.
Hope that helps.
Iain wrote, on August 9th, 2007:
Cheers, Jing… I was running on the latest myself until last night, but after a few things I’d read I switched to 158.45. Not put them through their paces yet – but thinking of buying Oblivion at lunch time.
5920 wrote, on August 10th, 2007:
Hi acerguy I like your reviews =D
I need an answer from an expert:)
Wil crysis be runnable at the acer 5920?
5920 wrote, on August 10th, 2007:
ah Jing made this review so i’m wrong with my last comment xD
TC wrote, on August 11th, 2007:
I got the 5920G as my first notebook and was glad to run into this site and review. I don’t PC game much since I do it mostly on consoles, however my schooling is game design so I wanted something to run 3DS Max 9, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Flash 8 Dir well. So far everything has worked like a dream and the only pc game I play is Final Fantasy XI. Which works great on acer’s stock drivers with all max settings including 1280×800 after the registry fix.
I tried the Lost Planet DX10 demo on my stock drivers and it wouldn’t load up saying something about a missing dll or something. Everything seemed current but figured it was a bug because the newest drivers on the nVidia site say in the description “fixed lost planet demo” bug.
Great site, definitely bookmarking this for any updates.
Jing wrote, on August 11th, 2007:
Hey TC, yeah the 158.45 modded drivers Im using are newer than the Acer stock drivers by about 2 months or so. Thought newer drivers are not always better. If the stock drivers work fine for you, then I would say keep using them.
I never liked the idea of using modded drivers, until one problem too many forced my hand.
Also make sure you have the latest DirectX version.
David Southall wrote, on August 15th, 2007:
Thanks for this, helped me decide to go for the Acer, with performance like that at such a decent price it looks like a winner.
Probobly worth adding world of warcraft too, most laptop games sites get bombarded with queries about it
I might even send you my review when my laptop arrives.
coolio wrote, on August 18th, 2007:
I have recently installed ffxi on my acer aspire 5920g, but was disappointed that my game lags badly, almost to the point of crashing. The lag is almost like what I would encounter when windows update is running, but there didn’t seem to be extra processes running when I play the game.
The graphics are beautiful, but it simply lags alot.
Is it due to vista?
Jing wrote, on August 18th, 2007:
No, its down to your drivers. I get the same thing when playing Guild Wars. If feels like your connection is slow, and causing lag, and frame rate drops, but its almost certainly down to the drivers.
Vista is not that bad for games. But it should be much better by the time SP1 is released.
Think of it this way, if drivers or Vista are restricting your GPU of reaching the height of its capability, then any performance boost in the future, from better drivers, to service packs, will be a welcome bonus. Currently the GPU runs nearly everything I throw at it, and I’m certain the full capabilities of the card have not been realised.
I await better drivers. Hopefully the 170.xx series improves things, as the 160.xx drivers are currently very poor.
TC wrote, on August 21st, 2007:
Well the Bioshock demo is out, not sure if it will install because it requires the new beta drivers from nVidia.
Jing wrote, on August 22nd, 2007:
I get more consistent frame rates with the 163.44 drivers, but they on average, lose about 3-6 frames in some games compared to the 158.45 drivers, otherwise performance is pretty much similar to the 158.45. The Vista Gaming index drops by one though, from 5.3 to 5.2. I don’t trust these readings much anyway. If you’re looking for an upgrade from 158.45 (as I’ve been for ages), these are keepers.
I think its worth it considering the amount of fixes and compatability fixes
“Added PureVideo™ HD decode acceleration for GeForce 8600, 8500 and 8400 series GPUs.”
Rogerroot wrote, on August 22nd, 2007:
I got the Bioshock demo last night and only had a little play.. I am using the 158.45 drivers and it would crash shortly after displaying the splash screen. Adding -dx9 caused it to work, although obviously without dx10 effects. Runs very well at max details, 1024×768
Will have another play tonight with different drivers and resolutions.
Rogerroot wrote, on August 23rd, 2007:
Ok had a bit of a fiddle last night and managed to get it working properly, without the need for the -dx9 switch
From a factory 5920 setup, all I did was:
- Install latest nvidia v163.44 drivers, modded from laptopvideo2go.com
- Install the 3708 BIOS update from: ftp://ftp.support.acer-euro.com/notebook/aspire_5920/vista/BIOS/
- Install latest directx from microsoft.com/directx
———-
Now I can run it with full dx10 glory in 1280×800.. quite a good framerate too with max graphics settings
Deyrick wrote, on August 23rd, 2007:
Good to hear, downloaded those drivers and bios last night, not installed yet. Only had the 5920 since Tuesday. Will get DX update as well.
Del
Jing wrote, on August 23rd, 2007:
I want the BIOshock Demo, but its so BIG! 1.8GB. Yawn.
BTW, Rogerroot, what is your method for installing the 163.44 drivers?
Do you use the “Have Disk” method, or the SETUP method? I’ve only ever tried the “Have Disk” Method. Additionally, do you remove the Stock drivers before installing the 163.44?
I ask, because after installing the 163.44, I have problems installing other drivers. For example, 158.45 gets graphic glitches on weapon models in CSS, with missing textures etc…
Glad to hear you got BS working though. These drivers are the best!
Rogerroot wrote, on August 23rd, 2007:
Yeah it’s a massive download for a demo, a relatively short one at that. I’ll definately be going over my download limit this month (/sigh at BT forcing you to sign a new full length contract for plan upgrades). But worth it in the end to see if it actually worked and to see if I actually liked it.
Jing, normally I have used the “Have Disk” method, but this time used the setup.exe method for 163.44. No particular reason why, maybe because there’s too many dialog boxes to get through for have disk. I’ve never removed the existing drivers before installing, but also haven’t tried downgrading to previous versions yet.
Rhov23 wrote, on August 24th, 2007:
I have a problem with all drivers from nvidia on my 5920.
The Nvidia installation program says it’s not compatible, and won’t install.
I’ve tried laptop2go drivers… (just downloaded and tried to install) I’ve updated DX and bios.
Any clue why this happens?
Deyrick wrote, on August 24th, 2007:
You need to download the updated inf file from Laptopvideo2go as well and replace the one in the extracted drivers with it before installation.
I did this yesterday with no problems.
Del
Deyrick wrote, on August 24th, 2007:
Its actually a disp file and not an inf as mentioned in their quickstart guide. (with the Vista drivers anyway).
Del
David Southall wrote, on August 24th, 2007:
Anyone gotten around to trying Bioshock ?
David Southall wrote, on August 24th, 2007:
I need to refresh my page before posting! I just saw the above Bioshock comments.
In other news my machine arrived today so hopefull I’ll be trying it myself later.
Rhov23 wrote, on August 24th, 2007:
Ok. I discovered that. things went a little fast for me, cause I was so excited to test Bioshock, which worked good on 5920. Thanks for the “tutorial”.
Rhov23
morrislee wrote, on August 24th, 2007:
Hello, I recently brought a Aspire 5920 too, before I purchased it, I did look up on this forum, great job Jing( my chinese names is Jing-Yu) lol anyways, if anyone is wondering about the performence on oblivion from this beast, it performs very will, you can have all to max, even force 4X AA no problem, I am usin the Nvidia BETA driver 163.44, installed by replacing the modded INF to the offical driver, installd no problem. the version i got is Aspire 5920-6313 with Core 2 duo T5250 (1.5 GHz, 2mb L2), 2 GB DDR2 Dual channel 667Mhz, 8600GT with 1024 MB(partially shared with system RAM). I am extremly impressed and familiar with this laptop. If any questions, email me @ morrismurphy@gmail.com
morrislee wrote, on August 24th, 2007:
Forgot a few more info, my laptop performed on 3D Mark 06 3100 mark(don’t remember the exact number, some where a bit higher then that though) beated my desktop computer which performed only 2072 on Windows XP Pro on a Intel Pentium 4 3.0GHz( OC’ed to 3.21GHz) 2 GB dual channel DDR PC 3200, X1600 Pro 512 MB AGP Overclocked to 600MHz/468MHZ vs stock 499MHZ/390MHZ via bios flashing method. Only thing that this computer is slow at is the loading speed, probably harddrive too slow or RAM too slow, caused Quake 4 and Doom 3 on ultra quality alot pre-caching(ie: stutter/lag at any new opening door in games) even though my desktop was able to handle ultra no problem.
morrislee wrote, on August 24th, 2007:
ARR, forgot another part, the CONS of this computer in my opinion, the position of the touchpad is too left, alot unnessary programs installed on this computer, only came with Vista premium, not ultimate. Video RAM is always shared with system RAM, unable to find a way to change the RAM sharing amount ( or is there another way I donno? please reply on this question). the webcam can’t rotate since it is the lid handle. the left side( if you are looking at the computer screen) always get hot, since CPU, GPU, RAM, HARDDRIVE all the heat stuff is there, my left lap always gets really hot when gaming lol, just left… but this keeps the battery nice and cool since it is a litium ion type( bad to heat) Please reply if you got solution/s for the graphics card RAM sharing option, or if you know there is no way
Alex wrote, on August 27th, 2007:
Hello,
Hope I don’t bore you with my question:
I own an ACER 5920G (2GB Ram,Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT).
I recently bought Bioshock , but I have troubles with my video drivers. I’ve found a beta version of drivers but it seems impossible to install them.
Could you give me an advice where to find the right drivers ?
Thanx in advance
Jing wrote, on August 28th, 2007:
All 5920G are essentially the same, so if you can’t install them, its because of user error.
Plenty of 5920 owners including myself have had success.
Try following the instructions for installation here:
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=11997
Good Luck this time around.
David Southall wrote, on August 28th, 2007:
Ok stupid question I suppose but are you all running games under the balanced power plan or performance?
Does this actually affect gameplay much?
In other news the laptop plays WoW magnificently, I getting 50 fps in busy towns easily running everything on maximum.
morrislee wrote, on August 29th, 2007:
yes the power plan does matter in some cases, but you can configure it manually, the few things might have affected your performence it like the CPU% when idle, and the PCI-E thing, but other then that, if you are running on wall power, no big difference, but the power saver kinda slows it down. Try playing a game, and unplug the power, you will see the FPS in game goes down(with default settings) but you can always force it to run at max speed even on battery, but of course, it uses alot battery power. Laptop saves power by under-clock the processing units such as the CPU, and the GPU, and disabling some un nessary devices.
morrislee wrote, on August 29th, 2007:
Jing, do you know how to set the video RAM sharing? like as limiting to share only 256MB to the video card instead of 768MB?
Morris Lee
Jing wrote, on August 29th, 2007:
The 8600M GT dynamically shares RAM, thus it only takes it when it NEEDS it. The card will rarely ever need more than the 256mb it has built in, so I wouldn’t worry about it.
That said, I don’t know any way of restricting the graphics card access to system memory.
If the card doesn’t need the extra Ram, it won’t use it, and if it does, it will. Surely it’s better to have that overhead in place, than worrying if the graphics card has enough RAM?
Chris wrote, on August 29th, 2007:
Got my hands on this on Friday (3 days late thanks to laptopsdirect!), then found it at Tesco with 1799 clubcard points on Saturday, doh!
Anyway bit of a wuss as this is my first laptop so don’t really want to mess with modded drivers (I did with my desktop, but I could add fans etc to that).
David: Balanced power makes a big difference; running FEAR & fps are limited to 30max on balanced power. Set to max performance you get up to 79fps with All settings on High.
Jing: I have a number of games and would like to give you guys some comparable frame rates using stock drivers, I have Doom3 & expansion, so could easily compare the performance difference. How do you get the fps to be displayed in the upper corner of the screen (running doom on high (with VSync) minus AA) and fear with all High plus 2x FSAA and 2x AA (if I turn these off I get 1% of frames less than 25 from the performance test, with them on I get 11%).
I would be interested to see the performance difference between the driver types. Did you ever try Oblivion its on my list along with and ‘C&C3′).
Jing wrote, on August 29th, 2007:
FEAR is one of those strange games I’ve encountered recently. Im used to how a game feels when Im playing to be indicative of performance, but whilst FEAR feels like a game running at 20FPS, its actually pumping out frames are around 60 on average.
Chris,
I have to say with the power settings from balanced to Performance, I have only noticed around a 10 FPS increase in like to like scenarios. The frame rate is not locked to 30 when I use balanced power settings. Perhaps the stock drivers allow Acer to underclock the GPU more aggressively than with my current modded drivers, 163.44. At times I exceed the 79 FPS. But on average, I get about 60 FPS, falling when i encounter enemies, and decreasing further with SlowMO effects.
I did try Oblivion, and Michael has yet to put it up, he’s probably still on his hols. I’ve not got C&C3, but I hear its a performance hog. Anyway, I’m more into my Civilization.
Chris wrote, on August 31st, 2007:
I could only really comment as I am using the performance test values in FEAR. I may have achieved a greater frame rate, but definitely encountered this 30fps limit, as it was present at all detail levels. It was the first game I run on the machine, so was really disappointed to think initially that my old GeForce 4200Ti could kick its butt!
In relation to my previous message: I have just noticed you used FRAPS to show fps. I miss-understood and thought that was only for screenshots. As I believe you can display fps in doom3 via the control panel.
Final note: I have just downloaded a large number a demo’s for new games like lost planet etc. I will run them in and as soon as I can I will give you a review based on stock drivers or just the fps info depending on the amount of time I have.
David Southall wrote, on August 31st, 2007:
I’ve bought C&C3 today so I’ll post results once I’ve tried it.
Michael Walsh wrote, on September 1st, 2007:
Hope you guys have noticed Oblivion’s now up
Habitatd wrote, on September 2nd, 2007:
Hello. Very nice review you got here:) I recently got my 5920G, and I’ve had major problems. I saw that the stock drivers were performing bad, and it wont run Bioshock, so i chose to change. My 3dmark scores with the stock driver was 5156 in 05, and 3123 with 06. Then I tried these drivers:
163.44
163.14
162.18
158.36
All from laptopvideo2go.com, and my 3dmark 05 score went down to 3k. And bearly made 1800 points in 06.
So I reinstalled vista, and the stock drivers and im now back at scratch. With 5156 points in 3dmark 05. But, my graphical performance is shit. Any advice, or anyone with a similar problem?
Help is very much appreciated:)
Cathal61 wrote, on September 2nd, 2007:
Hey,
I too bought an acer 5920G but was just wondering how to go about updating the bios update 3708 safely??
Help would be greatly appreciated!
Jing wrote, on September 2nd, 2007:
Download the 3708 BIOS, extract, and read the Readme file attached. Its incredibly easy. Basically, there is a program, that you open, browse to the BIOS file, and simply click Update. The laptop’s BIOS will then update and restart automaically after it has finished.
I got a score of 3188 when I first installed 3D mark 06 with Stock Drivers, and balanced default power settings.
I upgraded to 158.45 drivers, but 3D Mark 06 would not run with these drivers installed, for reasons I cannot fathom.
I updated to 163.44 with a fresh installation using Acer’s eRecovery utility, and I got 3287, near 100+ points more than with the stock drivers. You may think 100 points more would not make a difference, but it does. Games run much more smoothly than you would expect with only 100 extra points added. This is because of the awful stuttering in actual game performance under the stock drivers, which 3D Mark 06 cannot make you aware of
Benchmark programs should only be a guideline. Even if the 3Dmark06 score using the 163.44 drivers was exactly the same as the stock drivers, I would bet money the performance would be much improved regardless of any 3D mark score.
Bioshock runs extremely well using these drivers from what I have seen in the Demo. The graphics are breathtaking in the first few minutes, but soon look pretty standard. In fact Bioshock runs better than some older games I’ve played, such as Call Of Duty 2. Seems as games get optimised for DX10, the 8600M GT just runs better, since the shaders take a lot of work off the clock cycles. Or perhaps it’s because the environments are more tight in Bioshock.
Habitats wrote, on September 2nd, 2007:
What was it that caused my low 3dmark scores then. If it aint the driveres that are bad:s?
I dont want to do the same mistake again, but im in need of a new driver.
David Southall wrote, on September 2nd, 2007:
Running 3D Mark 6 on stock drivers plugged into the main (balanced plan) I got a score of 3174 which seems a bit low.
Jing wrote, on September 5th, 2007:
Habitats, try updating your BIOS, if you haven’t already done so. There have been quite a few BIOS revisions since the 5920 was released.
Select the 3708 BIOS from here
http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/notebook/as_5920.html
I seen that 3D Mark can report scores wrongly sometimes. Base your drivers on actual in-game performance. Not the score 3D Mark gives you.
David, that 3D Mark score looks about right, only a few marks off my score, but a variety of factors could affect that, from the components used during manufacture, to the variable factors within your system. If you want to increase it by installing modded drivers:
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=14562
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=11997
If it doesn’t work, you can always roll back to the original Acer Drivers.
Habitats wrote, on September 6th, 2007:
Changing bios solved it, got 5765points in 05 now:)!
Chris wrote, on September 6th, 2007:
OK let me get this right, as I am very temped to update my drivers, but only really want to do it once…..well for a bit anyway.
First I should update my BIOS, what will this do? As acer say you should not do this unless instructed to so so, I assume I can recover the machine if it does go wrong?
Secondly I update my driver. Are the 163.44 drivers best? Do they do anything funny like stop sleep mode etc.
Will updating my drivers make the machine run hotter, it already runs hot enough, need to build a laptop cooler! How can you monitor the CPU and GPU temperatures?
Finally instead of a modded inf (which is generic by the way), could you not just use the inf from the stock driver?
Thanks for your help, please answer my questions,
Chris
Jing wrote, on September 9th, 2007:
The 163.44 drivers with the 3708 BIOS work prefectly. No issues with hibernate/sleep not working. The Nvidia Control panel works fine. No Powermizer though.
A BIOS update usually coincides with the laptop manufacturer increasing hardware support on their machines. In the case of the 3708 update, it’s major reason for existance was to introduce integrated tv-tuner support for future 5920 builds…
You know that unpressable dummy button on the left hand side? That’s (going to be) the internal tv-tuner switch
according to some reports.
The find the system runs slightly cooler as a result of the latest BIOS. It seems that the fan kicks in sooner. meaning heat in windows is very low. However it still get’s as hot as it usually does when gaming.
I would say use the included modded INF on the laptopvideo2go driver post. Just to be safe.
A BIOS update is completly recoverable as the previous BIOS is backed up…somewhere. I’ve never needed to use it but I have successfully flashed an older BIOS onto my 5920 without any problems.
Dean wrote, on September 12th, 2007:
got one of these laptops and it appears I cannot play any Directx10 games on it.
Tried the latest drivers from the laptopvideo2go site and still nothing.
anybody got any ideas?
Michael Walsh wrote, on September 12th, 2007:
Hey Dean,
That’s a bummer. Thanks for putting it up on the blog. First of all we’re going to need to know which game(s) you’re not having much luck with.
Chris wrote, on September 12th, 2007:
Thanks for the help.
Seems a stupid question, but have you updated DX?. The first time I installed a game it forced me to put direct x on the machine and refused to install without it, although when I installed it on my desktop it did not ask (as I already had DX9.0c). I therefore think that it may not come with an upto date DX.
I ran the online updater and check the dxdiag and it said I had DX10. Had no problems since.
Chris
Dean wrote, on September 13th, 2007:
well i am running Vista. Doesn’t that all ready come with DX10?
i have run the update online and still no joy.
the two games i have tried are the demos for World in conflict and Lost planet.
Jing wrote, on September 13th, 2007:
Yes Vista comes with a version of DirectX 10, but its NOT the latest. It’s strange that the latest drivers from LaptopVideo2go do not work, but I’m not convinced you are using the best drivers.
Please do not use 165.01, I only ever had problems with that one. They may look like the latest by their number, but its the dates of release which are important. Try 163.44, its SUPPOSED to fix problems with BIOSHOCK, also contains previous fixes for the titles you mentioned.
Then update your DirectX version. Even when you run DXDIAG in the Start Menu Search, it will report DX10, but its not the latest.
LW wrote, on September 13th, 2007:
hi
i recieve my acer 5920 tomorrow. As im a keen gamer i will want to update to some decent drivers, please advise. Also i notice some drivers on laptop2video do not have an inf file next to them so which one would you use
thankyou
Benzino wrote, on September 14th, 2007:
Hi can you tell me is there a way that i can change my resolution to anything highter than 1280×800, is that the maximum rez, if so can you tell me is there a way for me to change this, replacing the screen to a better one perhaps? as i’m really keen to do this
Dean wrote, on September 14th, 2007:
ok i changed back to the 163.44 drivers and performed the update. Still no change
im sad that i cant play these good games.
anyway to remove DX and reinstall it or something? anybody else been able to play these games?
LW wrote, on September 14th, 2007:
oh no, just realised i have ordered the 5920h with the hd-drive & turbo memory, thing is this version has the 8600gs and not the gt. I will be playing games such as warcraft, company of heroes and medieval total war 2. Will i really notice a difference in performance playing these type of games????
please help
Jing wrote, on September 14th, 2007:
LW, yes you will most likely be playing current games on Medium Low settings as opposed to High Medium if you want to get satisfactory performance.
Dean, I’ve run into no problems with DX10 titles. I’ve tried Bioshock and Lost Planet with problems. Have you tried doing a full Acer System Restore? That may fix problems. No idea how to remove or reinstall DirectX, it seems integrated into the Windows Platform.
If you run into more problems, it may be worth looking to get a replacement or take to an Acer Customer Support Rep.
LW wrote, on September 17th, 2007:
thanks for the advice, im sending the 5920 hd version back and should be getting the bluetoothe cersion by end of this week, i noticed the hd version had the latest bios version already installed i hope thats the case when i get the bluetooth one with the gt gpu
Michael Walsh wrote, on September 17th, 2007:
Dean,
Simone’s got an answer.. or the start of one at least
Chris wrote, on September 17th, 2007:
Benzino: You cannot set the resolution of your desktop above 1280*800, but you can do it with games as I am running Lego Star Wars at 1280*1024 on Ultra high settings. It runs fine.
Oh and trhis machine runs the new Medal of Honour game like a charm, looks amazing and runs at 25-30fps at 1024*720, or 15-20 on 1280*800, but I still have the old bios and drivers so this is bound to improve.
I have also noticed that I occational get an games locking-up and a message saying the graphics driver has stoped working but has recovered. I wonder if this will be fixed by the upgarded drivers? Its definately not heat!! as the machin is still cold when this happens?
Chris wrote, on September 17th, 2007:
Quick addition, What is PowerMizer?? Does this effect the performance? What does it do
Benzino wrote, on September 18th, 2007:
Can anyone tell me, The GeForce 8600GT has 256MB of dedicated memory, what is this about it can borrow up to 512MB from the main system memory, is this done auto or do i have to do it in setting somewhere?
LOTG wrote, on September 18th, 2007:
I updated the bios to 3708, but then the SD card reader started giving me trouble.
When I tried to copy something on or of it, I got the semaphore timout error. So, I went back to 3508.
Any idea what might be causing it since I need the card reader?
Morris Lee wrote, on September 19th, 2007:
uh, nope, sorry about that, but my card reader always worked fine, even after 3708 BIOS update, really sorry…
Chris wrote, on September 19th, 2007:
Anyway one know how to make a BIOS Crisis Recovery CD / Flash Drive? As recommended by the SWFlash.exe, you get with the BIOS update.
This is one for the Acer people! I have contacted support but no joy. I want one so if the BIOS upgrade fails I can recover the system without sending it to Acer. I want to flash the BIOS, but I have a friend who did it on his old Acer Travelmate and entered a world of hurt.
Oh and I seem to remember reading that you cannot set the Graphics card to steal more memory from the system, or I would set mine to 512MB! Its automatic.
L.W. wrote, on September 21st, 2007:
hooray, i have at last recieved my 5920, although with the 3508 bios version. does this really need updating for games, if so how much difference does it really make, even for stuff other than games
David Southall wrote, on September 25th, 2007:
Has anyone tried Team Fortress 2 yet ? (Usign the HL2 Engine)
I was hoping to buy the Orange box if it ran well.
Dean wrote, on September 27th, 2007:
hey guys.
just wanted to let you know that i had to do a reinstall of Vista in order to get the games working…
could not figure out what was causing it.
Jorge wrote, on September 27th, 2007:
Hi guys,
please let me know if anybody have problem playing HD-DVD with the 163.44 driver, because I have it.
Thanks,
Jorge
alan wrote, on September 28th, 2007:
Hi Guys,
I know this is gonna sound old, but I just purchased a 5920G and ‘blue-screened’ halo 2 to the end, fine, finished. And then out of boredom began playing heroes of might and magic 5, (a thoroughly boring game) which began simply crashing, or to put it nicely, turning itself off rather quickly and without warning, not even blue-screening… is this due to my drivers? the computer is getting seriously hot, and I was worried it was an external problem. The game would work perfectly and then zap, gone.
Thanks for any help,
Al
faruk wrote, on September 29th, 2007:
Hi guys, Has anyone notice any change in acer epresentation mode is not responding after nvidia driver update. I am using my laptop for presentations and its a big problem for me
Chris wrote, on October 2nd, 2007:
I am still using the stock driver, as NO-ONE will tell me how to make a recovery disk for the BIOS!!!!! Not even Acer Support!
But I can say that the stock drivers are VERY UNSTABLE, expecially with new-ish games. Mostly things like Project:Snowstorm (yes its old) and Just Cause, also happened once to CnC3. Its not the Temperature of the machine as since making a riser, it runs alot cooler.
I know this as the program will crash-out to windows leaving a ‘display driver has stopped working, but has since recovered error’ in the bottom right corner next to the clock.
So I really want to update, why does acer not just update their release drivers on their site!!
Michael Walsh wrote, on October 2nd, 2007:
Hi Chris,
Simone just came back with an answer to your first question:
Michael Walsh wrote, on October 2nd, 2007:
Faruk,
Again, Simone to the rescue….
Michael Walsh wrote, on October 2nd, 2007:
Hi Alan,
The answers are coming thick and fast…
Michael Walsh wrote, on October 2nd, 2007:
Jorge,
Simone hasn’t been able to verify this yet as he doesn’t have a HD-DVD 5920 to play with. The moment he does he’ll get back to you.
I haven’t even seen the HD-DVD version myself and notice it’s not up on the UK site anywhere. I’ll try and get in touch with the product guys in the UK and see what they’re up to but don’t hold your breath.
The reason we need to know is that as far as we knew (that means the two of us) the 5920 had the nVidia 8600GT and not GS so we’re not sure what to make of these driver issues…
Michael Walsh wrote, on October 2nd, 2007:
Roberto,
You need to send your query to the right address. I take it you’re in Brasil so you need to go to http://www.acersupport.com, select your country and then on the left-hand menu you’ll see “email support”. Try there.
Fred wrote, on October 3rd, 2007:
Hi guys.So I also have an Acer 5920 and after having some problems I found this site.So I uninstalled the Nvidia drivers that came with the notebook and downloaded the newest from Nvidia.com.
Tried to install them and I could cause it said that the pc couldn’t find the hardware compatible….So i read that the drivers should be downloaded from laptopvideo2go and so I did.
Downloaded the 163.44 ones.Tried to install them and same problem…What am I doing wrong???I mean my System Vista evaluation has gone down from 5.0 to 1.0(which means the computer is currently using the motherboards vga.)Can someone please help me?Thanks
Note: I also cant seem to find my 8600M Gt on my device manager…what have I done??? :/
Michael Walsh wrote, on October 3rd, 2007:
Hey Fred,
Don’t panic. We’ll get you sorted one way or another. I’ll send Simone your problem and see what he has to say. And if anyone sees Jing anywhere online, give him a nudge from me…
Fred wrote, on October 3rd, 2007:
Thanks Michael for helping but fortunately theres no need anymore.All my problems where caused do to the simple fact that I didnt know I had to replace the nfo file in the folder of the Nvidia Drivers
.
So now I’m playing Oblivion at maximum everything and I cant believe how well it runs!!! My first laptop and its so damn good( for 999 euros you cant beat it ).
Thanks again and have a nice life evryone
Chris wrote, on October 8th, 2007:
Thanks for the info. It’s just the BIOS update help file states that the program backups up your BIOS prior to installing the new one, and says if it goes wrong you will need a recovery disk (obtained from your manufacturer).
I have Acers accidental damage cover on my laptop, will it be cover if the BIOS upgrade fails?
May give it a try at some point, but I am hoping to wait until I can go to a friends as I can use his PC should my install fail. I don’t mine updating the drivers as they can easily be rolled back, its just the BIOS which is the critical point and the better drivers are apparently useless without the update.
Thanks
Chris
Michael Walsh wrote, on October 11th, 2007:
Hi Chris,
Simone just came back with this reply. Hope it helps:
Michael Walsh wrote, on October 11th, 2007:
Before I go and change nappies all night (my turn) is anybody here prepared to do a step-by-step guide for novices (think of me) who want to update the nVidia drivers so that games like Bioshock work properly?
It’s a recurring question I’m getting via mail. Thanks.
Jing wrote, on October 13th, 2007:
LaptopVideo2Go already have the best guide there is to updating your graphics drivers. A link is on every page of driver offerings they have.
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=11997
When you wish to install a new driver, instead of overwriting the previous, I would always do a “driver ROLLBACK”, restart and then apply the new updated driver. I have encountered problems by installing newer driver compilations on top of previous versions other than the stock drivers.
———-
Aww. Nappy duties. I can imagine worst…actually no I can’t!!!
. Just kidding Michael, Im sure you’re loving every minute of sleep you’re losing.
Michael Walsh wrote, on October 15th, 2007:
Thanks Jing.
You know what? He’s a sleeper… Third time lucky!
Slaven Dobroslavic wrote, on November 24th, 2007:
Hello everyone, I’ve enjoyed reading your comments and reviews for a whole day now. I will have my 5920G on Tuesday, and it suppose to come with 8600GT card, but with 512MB of it’s own memory. Since I haven’t read that any of you have this version, is my provider lying to me or what?
It also comes with 250GB HDD which I haven’t found on your specs.
Also, I want to thank you all for useful tips and links to the latest drivers. I’ll get back with more info after I test my new baby.
Best regards from Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina
BigL wrote, on November 26th, 2007:
Can anyone tell me if the 163.44 is the best driver for the GeForce 6800 GS? I know that many of you have the GT card, so not sure if this drivers is also best in my case. The card is 256MB, up to 1024MB with turbocache. Thanks!
BigL wrote, on November 28th, 2007:
Typo, mean to say 8600 GS
Andrew wrote, on November 29th, 2007:
On my 5920G with the 8600m GS nvidia card, I am running 169.09 drivers which work fine. I don’t know if they are the optimum drivers to use, but they certainly are the latest.
I installed them from http://www.laptopvideo2go.com make sure you choose the Vista 32 drivers, and follow the instructions as per the read me for Vista installation. It really is quite easy.
Now the Bioshock demo runs fine, I’m not a big gamer but it’s nice to know it all should work if I plan to play a game etc.
XEL wrote, on December 2nd, 2007:
Hi guys, I have problem with temperature durang game play. Acoording to Riva tuner temperature of video card gets till 92 Celcias ? IS this ok. What temperature you have please advise very neede.
PETE wrote, on December 4th, 2007:
back on the 03 Oct 2007 at 7:34 pm 79 Fred said …
“Hi guys.So I also have an Acer 5920 and after having some problems I found this site.So I uninstalled the Nvidia drivers that came with the notebook and downloaded the newest from Nvidia.com… Note: I also cant seem to find my 8600M Gt on my device manager…what have I done???”
I’m struggling with the same thing; the 8600GT has disappeared from my Device Manager and I have no idea how to get it back. Can you help?
Andrew wrote, on December 5th, 2007:
Pete, install them from laptopvideo2go with the modded inf as per my post above, cheers, Andrew
Adam wrote, on December 5th, 2007:
Hi,
I’ve been waiting for the laptopvideo2go site to get itself back up and running so that I can upgrade from stock to 163.44 drivers. Is there anywhere else to get these from? Can someone who has them post them somewhere as I’m sure there are many people in my situation waiting for the site to come back up.
Thanks,
Adam.
Matt wrote, on December 5th, 2007:
Hey Adam
I just looked and the forums are back up so it shouldnt be too long till the downloads are back. Also the latest driver is 169.12 but I would check out their forums to make sure they are stable or if there are any complaints. Im using 169.09 version at the mo and that is working very well for me, just incase you dont want to try the newest ones.
Adam wrote, on December 6th, 2007:
Hi Matt,
Thanks. I read earlier that the latest drivers may not be the best for performance and stability… Can I ask, which do people recommend for the acer 5920G 8600GT?
Adam.
Matt wrote, on December 9th, 2007:
Well Ive got that exact model too, so I would recommend 169.04 as it runs great for me ( I know I said .09 earlier, I was wrong
).I would upload the installer but I dont think laptopvideo2go want other people hosting their files.
marek.x wrote, on December 10th, 2007:
Hi all, can you give me advice, i bought 5920H its diferent does have a 8600 GS not GT.Whats the best way to update my driver on nvidia 8600GS?And where from can i download it?
P.S.: marek.x@post.sk
thanx a lot
Morris wrote, on December 11th, 2007:
try http://www.laptopvideo2go.com, forums has been weird lately, but I hope it is up by the time you check this reply
Morris wrote, on December 11th, 2007:
oops, try http://www.laptopvideo2go.com without the “,”
Richard Russell wrote, on December 27th, 2007:
Hi all, Aspire 5920G with the 8600m GT im playing Bioshock with the nvidia modded drivers from Laptopvideotogo….so driver:7.15.11.6904. Ist this the correct driver now? I think so.
I have only today updated to the new acer bios 3708. Yet to check if this improves performace in game.
Bioshock was running smooth at the 1024ÃÂ768 resolution with a few graphical options turned off. I would like to be able to boost the resolution but I get lag in game at the highest resolution. Half Life 2 can play on top resolution and lag a lot less and I think that looks amazing too. So I tend to avoid that top resolution for Bioshock.
Can anyone tell me what settings theyve got running in Bioshock as a balance between graphics and performance? And is there anything Ive forgotten to do here?
Thanks for your time and thank you for this excellent site.
Richard Russell wrote, on December 27th, 2007:
Yeah that has deffo helped with the frame rates..It runs well on top resolution…I think ill knock it back all the same tho to guarantee I dont get lagging. This game looks amazing!
Chris wrote, on January 10th, 2008:
Help! Graphics drivers are unstable!
I have not updated my drivers / Bios past the stock drivers provided by Acer for my 5920 with the 8600GT. I run CnC3, HL2 Ep1,the Witcher,NFS Most Wanted etc….You name it I run it, but since getting my machine back in August I have had 45+ crashes of graphics programs with a ‘the draphics driver has stopped responding, but has recovered’ message, on all programs. Running nTune and temp is only 71 degrees after at time of crash, only just installed it so its not that. Reinstalled stock driver still not fix, yet there has not been a newer driver release by Acer ever, even though these drivers are naff, but they don’t support you using cracked.
Don’t want to flash bios as I have friends who killed there laptops by doing it and I don’t think the bios is covered by my 3 yr Accidental damage cover.
Help please
Chris
Chris wrote, on January 25th, 2008:
NEW ACER 5920 DRIVERS FROM ACER:
NEW VGA 158.72
NEW Chipset driver
NEW Touchpad driver
NEW Audio driver
NEW card reader driver
Phelim wrote, on September 9th, 2008:
I have found it hard to find reviews for midrange gaming laptops and this helps alot. But on thing I am going to buy the acer aspire 5920 2 GHz core 2 duo and I plan on playing only unreal tournament and Fallout 3(two very varying games) so if you could include these games in your review that would be very helpful. Thx.
Morris Lee wrote, on September 10th, 2008:
Phelim,
I am a proud owner of an Aspire 5920(and Aspire one YES!!) 5920 with 8600m gt does the games mentioned above just fine(you can read my old review by clicking on my name and click “Back to Aspire 5920 Review” link), only problem is that the new drivers from nvidia downlocks the video card to power saver clock speed when it reaches certain temperture, and I tell you, not that hot unless you overclock. but like I said, the new 17X.XX series and up for sure downclocks every now and then(might be fine in the winter times)(not sure about the 16X.XX versions though, some of them are fine i recall) so, a 8600m gt or 9500m gs are currently experiencing these problems right now. However, you can force performence mod using rivatuner(restart required) it will not downclock the video card at all. that being said, avoid 8600m gt and 9500m gs ones. if you want to use the new drivers just for Physx support, it is not such a good idea. best to even stay away from all the g84 series card, 9600/9700 are great choices I’ve heard.
You request more detailed info if you want, but I gotta go quickly finish my homework now, I will be back on here again before bed or something