Toshiba Satellite L645D: Mobile AMD at 3GHz
by Dustin Sklavos on March 9, 2011 3:20 AM ESTStill Not Enough to Game
At this point you should be expecting these results: the HD 4200/4250 just isn't powerful enough to run modern games at 768p. That said, reviewing the L645D gives us an opportunity to at least gauge how much CPU power can affect gaming performance with the HD 4200/4250 as well as pad out our results for two recent bench inductees: Mafia II and Metro 2033.
At 768p the GPU is too heavily taxed for any improvement in CPU performance to pick up slack; the only game that shows any improvement is the notoriously CPU-limited StarCraft II; everything else performs basically on par. Notice how NVIDIA's dismal GeForce 310M, the subject of endless ire among AnandTech staff, still offers a substantial improvement. I've said it before and I'll say it again (many times no doubt): Llano can't get here soon enough.
These are all recent titles, of course, and if you go back several years you can certainly find older games that will run fine on HD 4250. Jarred is working on a roundup of sorts to pit AMD's Brazos, HD 4225, and HD 4250 against Intel's GMA 4500MHD, HD Graphics, and HD Graphics 3000 with a suite of older/less demanding games. Generally speaking, you'll need low to medium detail with titles from around 2006, or if you want high details you'll need to go back to circa 2003. Stay tuned for that article....
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piroroadkill - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
5400 RPM HDD, decent CPU hampered by terrible graphics, intentionally ruined graphics drivers, glossy screen, 10/100 ethernet?Pass.
XZerg - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
no usb3 also.it feels like these guys and many others purposely f**k up on AMD version to ensure they make more even though they could have sold it at a much cheaper price with all the bells than what a similar config from intel would have been.
alent1234 - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
it's $619. some people don't care about good graphics or USB3. some people just want a laptop to surf the internet and hold some datai just want something in the $600 range with a 15" screen, SB and 500GB hard drive. i use android and iOS a lot more than Windows so most of the time the laptop is off.
piroroadkill - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
Then why the decent CPU?Why the blu-ray drive?
They're setting a standard the rest of the system utterly fails to match.
alent1234 - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
because this stuff is dirt cheap now. it's not like they make this stuff up. they have projected selling prices and profits per unit. they get a bill of materials from suppliers before designing something and prices probably dropped so much they can put in more hardware and still sell for a low price.a lot of times it's cheaper to use a more expensive part but use less parts in your products overall. think apple. it makes logistics easier and cheaper. and since toshiba is part of the blu ray consortium they are pushing their other products with this
Sam125 - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
I think AMD was the first to realize that there comes a point where going dirt cheap is kind of stupid when you end up with gimped/lopsided systems like this L645D which is why they're cutting the manufacturer out of the picture when it comes to choosing a balanced system architecture. That's why going SOC always made sense for AMD but not Intel.quiksilvr - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
Seriously. Go to Newegg and look at the cheapest Core i3 laptops. They are all ProBookks that are mostly under $500. I'd rather get a slightly bigger laptop for less than gimp out just for "portability" (The Probooks are 5.25 lbs. That's plently portable enough)mino - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
Sorry sir to spoil your party, but calling the second-best IGP (after Brazos) on the amrket a terribel graphics ?Well shall we talk about ALL those Intel notebooks (taking 50% of the market) selling with their IGP's ... who not only do not have the performance are not actually able to _run_most of the graphics stuff ?
Just remember, those Intel notebooks had a similar or faster CPU on board ... and sold for much higher prices ...
piroroadkill - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
Do you think I'm anti-AMD or something?Because I'm not.
JarredWalton - Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - link
HD 4250 is hardly the "second-best" IGP. In order, the best IGPs at present are:GeForce 320M (only in MacBook)
HD 6310 (Brazos E-series)
Intel HD Graphics 3000 (not as compatible with games, but generally more than twice as fast as the other stuff below)
GeForce 9400M (yup, this was still faster than the 4250!)
HD 6250 (Brazos C-series)
HD 4250. Yay! So I'd put it as the seventh-best IGP, or sixth-best if you want to lump the two Brazos IGPs together. (I didn't because they have wildly different clocks.)