Here, we will be testing the DM1Z and it’s ability to play games. This is more of a “how playable is X game on this laptop” rather than a “can we run X game on this laptop on max settings?”. We will talk about the graphics settings, the frames per second (or FPS for short) of the game, and the games’ playability on this laptop. Of course, everyone’s definition of “playable” is different, and you may completely disagree with us on some games, but keep in mind this is a 2000 DHS machine that is set to compete against netbooks, and not a monster gaming machine. But we play games, and nothing will ever stop us from seeing how good (or bad) this thing is at running games.We will skip games that will obviously run great on any computer, such as Pop Cap’s games and games based on the first Unreal Engine, and really old games in general.

Also, some games may remain playable regardless of how bad the frames per second, because they don’t depend on how fast you react and do multiple actions quickly. Anyhow, let’s go to the first 5 games:

Left 4 Dead 2

I like to keep this game as the benchmark of games that run on the Source engine by Valve. If this game runs decently, them I’m sure most other Source-based games will run at least just as well. When in a small room or corridor without much details, the FPS can easily go above 30, though that never happens when you’re looking at a group of zombies, which is usually at around 16 FPS, but when facing a horde of zombies on the Expert difficulty, the FPS can dip down to 10 FPS. Despite the rather low numbers, especially the lowest FPS, we found it to be rather playable overall. It’s certainly not that great, but It’s certainly playable. We had the settings all on lowest, and the resolution set to 1024×600. Despite the really low graphical settings, it doesn’t look that bad at all. Though I’d say playing the game at a lower difficulty level than expert should be more playable, since there would be much less zombies coming after you.Result: Playable, on lower difficulty settings.

World of Warcraft

Setting the graphics to the lowest preset available, the game ran quite smoothly. When wandering around a large area with monsters and such, it was running at around 40 FPS. Hanging around in Orgrimmar, the Horde’s most populated city (or so they say), made the FPS go down to around 20 to 22. I wouldn’t expect anyone to go raiding on this laptop, but for most activities such as the smaller battlegrounds, general questing, and stuff like that, this laptop does the job. I remember playing this game on a mid-range laptop (and IBM Thinkpad T30) from the year 2002. It definitely runs better than that laptop, and certainly with better visuals too! We found ourselves switching between the lowest graphical preset and the one above it depending where we are. The resolution was set to 1366×768.Result: Playable.

Dragon Age: Origins

The game doesn’t run as well as the previous two games, but I think they’re playable enough, especially with the fact that this game doesn’t depend on how fast you do actions, unlike the previous games. The FPS is around 10 to 25, usually under 20 FPS, but it is constant enough to be playable. The game was set to 1024×600 and with all the graphical settings set to the lowest possible. Under the settings we’ve set, the game looks bland and ugly, but if you really want to play this game on this laptop, there’s no other way.Result: Playable, if you can stand the low FPS

Civilization V

First things first, playing the game in normal view will run at a single digit FPS, or two digits if you just started a game. Switching it to the “Strategic View” will greatly speed up things (that button to the bottom left of the minimap), where it will use a 2D grid and 2D icons to show you what’s going on in the game, as opposed to 3D models and stuff. In testing the game on this laptop, I created the largest map possible, with 24 city states, and 22 AI players. The AI does take a while to process its turn towards the end of a game, but it’s not long enough to forget what you wanted to do in the next turn or make you want to bash your head on the wall. The game was played in 1366×768 with all the graphical settings set to lowest, and played in Strategic View mode. Playing in either Direct X 9 or 10/11 does not seem to matter.Result: Playable, if you set it to Strategic View.

Brink

No matter what we did, the FPS barely went over 10 in the relatively empty “Parkour This!” challenge level, and that is FAR from being anywhere close to remotely playable for a very fast-paced team-based first person shooter. For a game like this, something above 25 FPS would be good, but 10 is just too low.Result: Unplayable.

More to come in the next parts. We are now using a different netbook of the same specs (only modified) to see what the hardware can really do, check it out here