G55VW Gaming Performance in Nvidia 3D Vision & Full HD

On feedback from our community, we’ve heard some are considering the latest G55VW gaming notebook, but the Nvidia GeForce GTX 660M is an unknown performance factor.

To provide you with a greater insight of the G55VW’s capacity we’ve got our game on (!) and played some of the most popular and intensive titles out there. Below we’ve detailed the performance on the Nvidia 3D Vision enabled version of the G55VX, as well as using a single, Full HD monitor (1920×1080) over HDMI (with no 3D).

As the G55VW offers both display choices, this gives everyone an idea whether 3D or Full HD should be the one they go for.

To record performance, frames per second is the standard metric, although we prefer to do it a little more openly than generating a number over a single section of a game.

Instead we played to find the best playable settings. Generally speaking a consistent 30-40FPS is smooth enough to play games, so we tweaked the image quality and available performance settings to see how high they can go before it became unplayable.

With this information you can either mirror it directly onto your G55VW when you play, or use it as a guide for future games.

1920 x 1080 Resolution:

Battlefield 3

A combination of mostly High settings, SSAO enabled and 8x AF gives a game a great look with several more FPS for those that use a more twitch sensitive play style, although the standard ‘High’ setting can also yield a playable result with upgraded Effects, Texture, AA and HBAO settings.

Mass Effect 3

There’s not a huge amount of finesse in the customization of Mass Effect 3, but everything you can tweak can easily be maxed out on the G55VW without any sense of lag.

The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

Using the ‘Ultra’ setting and exploring the open area of Bleakwind Basin yields a very playable FPS. Increasing the AA to 8x or 16x requires dropping the setting to ‘High’.

Nvidia 3D Vision @ 1366 x 768 Resolution:

The native resolution of the Nvidia 3D Vision enabled G55VW is 1366 x 768, with a 120Hz LED backlit display. 3D Vision taxes the GPU hard, so even though we’ve dropped the resolution from Full HD to ‘just over’ HD, the game still needs to process a large amount of raw data.

Battlefield 3

With the same custom settings that were applied at 1920 x 1080, the GTX 660M and G55VW can generate a playable frame rate with 3D at 1366 x 768. Battlefield 3 is rated as 3D Vision Ready.

Mass Effect 3

3D Vision requires some fixes for ME3, however the ‘bugs’ are not overly distracting in combat. Everything can again be maxed out in the display options, generating ample FPS for very smooth game play.

The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

3D Vision is again not perfect – in fact the lack of accurate crosshair creates its own challenge! There are some community made patches to try here. The settings were reduced one notch to High with 0xAA, but with an increased AF to 16x.

Let us know your own gaming results on the G55VW in the forums!