Thinkpads Forum

Classes will be starting once again very soon! This means that I will be relying largely on my laptops (Chromebook and x2001 Frankie) for the academic year. I've been using my x2001 Frankie docked for the last week and it struggles to output 1080p YT videos to my external monitor. The x2001 Frankie has Intel 5700mhd integrated graphics which play local (i.e. external hard drive) high resolution videos fine however when it comes to YT 1080p HTML5 videos the frame/sec drops considerably. It essentially becomes a chop-fest

I've been wondering how the Intel 4000 mobile graphics of the x230 would fare. Does anyone with an x230 have any issues watching 1080p YT videos on an external monitor? Any choppiness?

EDIT:

Okay so the choppiest videos (as expected) occur in 60fps videos. Other 1080p non-60fps videos stream less choppy but not worth viewing in 1080p. I switched video quality to 720p 60pfs on a YT test video and less choppiness but the benefits of 60fps are null as visual smooth frame rates are simply not present. It seems the Intel 5700mhd is fine for local high resolution videos but when watching higher bit-rate videos on the web the older 5700mhd cannot keep up

I do have a desktop capable of watching the videos fine at 1080p however I have that itch to try another x-series. I just would like to ensure that the x230 can handle 1080p YT videos. TIA.

EDIT:

Hooked up my Chromebook c720 and decided to give that a run for comparison. Not really surprised but the Haswell graphics embedded in the Celeron 2955U fared a lot better- on battery power no less. I entered in '1080p test video' into the YT search engine and ran a couple of videos. Slight choppiness in 1080p 60fps on some videos and in others it is smooth with the c720. Using the x2001 Frankie it is not usable. Too laggy. Trying out a 1080p non-60fps is fine on the c720 and fares okay on the x2001 Frankie (still not good enough for my tastes). Doing some research and I find that the Intel 4000 IGP performs roughly similar to the Haswell integrated graphics of the Celeron 2955U. Considering the x230 uses full-voltage CPUs I am guessing that the Intel 4000 IGP may have an edge over the Haswell IGP of the 2955U.

So (starting to sound like a broken record here ) if anyone has a Thinkpad w/Intel 4000 IGP perhaps you could verify whether outputting a 1080p YT video works decently. TIA.

I have a T430. No problems with 1080p.

Are you using chrome? Firefox with both html5 and flash videos play quite slower than chrome's html5 player (in my experience). Try updating video drivers as well. You should have no problem playing 1080p video on your x201.

I am running arch linux on my X301 and I can play buttery smooth 1080p 60fps with chrome, fullscreen, on a 1080p monitor (very surprising, considering my T9500 4GB ram T61 struggles greatly with the same configuration). Contrast using firefox, even 720p video fullscreen is choppy. However, I am running a very minimal install and GUI, so that might contribute a bit as well.

The X230 handles YouTube 1080p at 60 fps just fine.

Ivy bridge should handle 60fps easy.

on sandybridge with intel hd3000, i tested this video, in firefox: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPluisl0vEw

it played pretty smooth, with cpu usage close to 20%

GPU was running at 650-850mhz, from a maximum of 1300mhz
with GPU utilization of around 65-80%.

So it was using less than 50% of GPU power.

@brchan. I am using FF. I did not have Chrome installed on my x2001 Frankie but it is now installed. Using Chrome makes the biggest difference for sure! I've only looked at 4 videos and right away 1080p videos were noticeably better. Watching 1080p 60fps videos were as well however I feel there are some dropped frames- still a noticeable improvement! Thanks for your suggestion!!!

@85101, lead_org, and hhhd1. Thanks for confirming that the intel 4000 mobile IGP will handle 1080p (and 60fps confirmed by hhhd1) YT videos. Much appreciated!

Well the browser that I have often felt is a memory hog is actually good for something lol. I am still planning on picking up an x230 sometime soon. Not sure what I will do with my x2001. I may give it to a friend or put it up for sale. We shall see. Thanks again for your help all!