Tom's Hardware > All Reviews > Solutions > Notebooks > Asus' G51J: Affordable Core i7 Mobile Gaming?

Test Settings

07:10 - Friday 20 November 2009 by Thomas Soderstrom

In order to gauge the CPU performance improvements of Intel's Core i7 mobile technology, we compared Asus’ G51J to MSI’s similarly-priced, Core 2 Quad-based GT725-212US. To gauge the limits of Core i7 mobile technology, we also compared Eurocom’s ultra-expensive, desktop CPU-based D900F Panther.

Graphics Notebook Performance Details
Model	Asus G51J	Eurocom D900F Panther	MSI GT725-212US
CPU	Intel Core i7-720QM 1.60 GHz-2.80 GHz, Quad Cores DMI 2.5GT/s, 6.0MB L3 Cache	Intel Core i7 Extreme 965 3.20 GHz-3.46 GHz, Quad Cores QPI 6.4GT/s, 8.0MB L3 Cache	Intel Core 2 Quad Q9000 2.00 GHz, Quad Cores FSB-1066, 6.0MB L2 Cache
Chipset	Intel PM55 Express PCH	Intel X58/ICH10R	Intel PM45/ICH9M
RAM	4.0GB DDR3-1066 CAS 7	6.0GB DDR3-1066 CAS 7	4.0GB DDR2-800 CAS 6
Graphics	Nvidia GeForce GTX 260M 1.0GB 500 MHz GPU, GDDR3-1800	Nvidia GeForce GTX 280M 1.0GB 580 MHz GPU, GDDR3-1900	ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB 500 MHz GPU, GDDR3-1700
HDD	Seagate ST9320423AS (non-RAID) 320GB, 7,200 RPM, 16MB Cache	2x Seagate ST9500420AS RAID 0 500GB, 7,200 RPM, 16MB Cache	WD Scorpio Black WD3200BEKT 32GB, 7,200 RPM, 16MB Cache
Sound	Integrated HD Audio	Integrated HD Audio	Integrated HD Audio
Wired LAN	Integrated Gigabit LAN	Integrated Gigabit LAN	Integrated Gigabit LAN
Wireless LAN	Intel WiFi Link 1000 802.11n	Intel WiFi Link 5300 802.11n	Atheros AR928X 802.11n
Optical	H-L Data GT30N DVD-RAM 8x DVD±R, 6x DVD±RW, 5x DVD-RAM	Panasonic UJ-130 BD-ROM DVD±RW 2x BD-ROM, 8x DVD±R, 4x DVD±RW	Optiarc BC-5500S BD-ROM DVD±RW 2x BD-ROM, 8x DVD±R, 4x DVD±RW

Encouraged by performance parity in our Benchmarking/OS Comparison and discouraged that Asus’ drivers will only execute under the latest Windows version, we compared all systems with as-delivered software.

Benchmark Configuration
3D Games
Crysis	Patch 1.2.1, DirectX 10, 64-bit executable, benchmark tool Test Set 1: High Quality, No AA Test Set 2: Very High Quality, No AA
Far Cry 2	DirectX 10, in-game benchmark Test Set 1: Very High Quality, No AA Test Set 2: Ultra High Quality, 4x AA
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky	Average of 4 segments "A-Tested Object" Test Set 1: High Preset, DirectX 10, EFDL, no MSAA Test Set 2: High Preset, DirectX 10, EFDL, 4xMSAA
World In Conflict	Patch 1009, DirectX 10, timedemo Test 1: Very High Details, No AA / No AF Test 2: Very High Details 4x AA / 16x AF
Audio/Video Encoding
iTunes 8	Version: 8.1.0.52 (x64) Audio CD ("Terminator II" SE), 53 min. to default format AAC
Lame MP3	Version: 3.98 64-bit (07-04-2008) Audio CD "Terminator 2" SE, 53 min. .wav to MP3
TMPG 4.6	Version: 4.6.3.268 "Terminator 2" SE DVD (5 Minutes) at 720x576 (PAL) 16:9
DivX 6.8.5	Insane Quality, Enhanced multithreading, SSE4, Quarter-pixel search
Xvid 1.2.1	Display encoding status = off
MainConcept Reference 1.6.1	MPEG2 to MPEG2 (H.264), MainConcept H.264/AVC Codec, 28 sec HDTV 1920x1080 (MPEG2), Audio: MPEG2 (44.1 kHz, 2 Channel, 16-Bit, 224Kb/s), Mode: PAL (25 FPS)
Productivity
Autodesk 3ds Max 2009	Version: 11.0, Rendering Dragon Image at 1920x1080 (HDTV)
Grisoft AVG Anti-Virus 8.5	Version: 8.5.287, Virus database 2094, Benchmark: Scan 334MB Folder of ZIP/RAR compressed files
WinRAR 3.90 x64	Version 3.90 beta 2, WinZIP Command line Version 3.0, Compression = Best, Dictionary = 4,096 KB, Benchmark: THG-Workload (334 MB)
WinZip 12	Version 12.0, Compression = Best, Benchmark: THG-Workload (139MB)
Synthetic
3DMark Vantage	Version: 1.0.1, 3DMark score
PCMark Vantage	Version: 1.00, System, Memory, Hard Disk Drive benchmarks, Windows Media Player 10.00.00.3646
SiSoftware Sandra 2009 SP3	Version 2009.4.15.92, CPU Test = CPU Arithmetic / Multimedia, Memory Test = Bandwidth Benchmark