Download the Tom's Hardware App from the App Store
The reference for current tech news
Yes No

Benchmark Results: Synthetics

by

Our scores here represent a mix of graphics and processing performance. The overall 3DMark score clearly favors the two GeForce 8800M GTXs in Killer Notebooks’ Odachi, followed by Alienware’s pair of GeForce 9800M GTs in SLI. Eurocom places third with its single 9800M GT and ASUS pulls up the rear with the 9700M GT.

The CPU score accurately reflects how we’d expect to see each machine’s processor rank. The desktop Core 2 Quad Q9650 clearly has an upper hand given the threaded nature of this test. Way behind is Eurocom’s dual-core Core 2 Extreme X9100. The X9000 in Alienware’s m17x is just behind that, and ASUS’ T9400 places last.

Finally, the GPU score reflects the same order seen in 3DMark’s overall metric—naturally the SLI configurations take a commanding lead.

In a synthetic suite like PCMark Vantage, variations in hardware are exacerbated in relation to real-world benchmarks. The overall PCMark score demonstrates the performance advantage of Killer Notebooks’ quad-core processor. Next up is the Alienware machine, with its powerful SLI graphics config and striped storage array. ASUS places third and, although it showed better in our real-world tests, Eurocom’s Montebello pulls up the rear.

As you sort through the individual suites, it becomes clear where each notebook’s advantages lay. Perhaps the most surprising results are Alienware’s last-place finish in the Gaming subset and its poor finish in the HDD test.

Sandra correctly places each processor where we’d expect it to fall. More interesting, perhaps, are the memory bandwidth numbers, which clearly favor the quad-core platform, but also show the DDR3-equipped Centrino 2 systems serving up reasonable throughput.

Share:
4
Comments
X
Submit

Comments
Read the comments on the forums
Anonymous 25/09/2008 09:45
Hide
-0+

Your blog is very helpful to me.I have got good and useful information about Laptops,note books and coputers and it can be helpful for other users also.For Laptops and note books I would suggest This site:http://www.testseek.com/

leexgx 26/09/2008 07:02
Hide
-0+

Please use Propper size pictures as i am not zooming every one (takes 3-4 secs to load each one when doing that)

even when i use the Print option thay are still in 200 x 120 pixels when it should be 450 x 271 pixels for both print and per page viewing

rest of the review is good

Solitaire 26/09/2008 17:22
Hide
-0+

Okay, I have no idea about the battery life of ANY of the contenders - no mention of them in the text and that one vital image of the battery chart is missing from Toms. Good going guys!

Not that you can claim credit for any of the graphs on this article - all the rest are borked as well. They do show up - as tiny thumbnails. Nice one. Real classy.

Now back to the actual article subject, aka Rant#2. Hasn't it occured to the OEMs that we have a major niche going unfulfilled here? I can think of several nomadic user bases (how about students for starters anyone?) who want gaming laptops but who are unwilling to part with €5000 for something that has the same performance as a €500 desktop. Even with Centrino 2 bringing the RAM and motherboard back up to scratch the near-inability to run games such as SupCom and Crysis shows that the gap between standard and mobile CPUs and GPUs is now reaching crisis point.

You'd think that with such a large potential user base some of the big facs or OEMs would be innovating, but they ain't. AMD seem to have given up on mid-high-range lappies entirely, which give nVidia and Intel carte blanche to sit there doing very little (note to Nintel fanboys - this is what would happen to desktops if your hated AMD died for you - €5000 desktops to not-run Crysis). And yet OEMs continue to specify WUXGA screens that the tiny GPUs cannot hope to power, and all that HD clarity will go out the door if you drop down the res - LCDs suffer badly when running resolutions that aren't native or a root of 2 of the native (and the root-2 res for WUXGA is 950*600 - nonstandard and way too small for use!). Why aren't OEMs using high-quality (and potentially cheaper) 1650*1080 or even 1440*900 screens instead?

As for processors... if Intel really gave a damn they should have implemented mobile quads that electrically isolate half the cores when away from AC, halving TDP. Even without this some OEMs should have put in BIOS tools that overclock and underclock CPU/GPUs depending on power status (battery, AC...). Nope. Asus did try, bless 'em, but their lappy isn't even a high-end gaming machine! Desktop-replacers take note. Alienware should be taking notes - they could really do with those features, especially as their machine is supposed to be a gaming lappy - unlike Killer, who isn't afraid to admit their "laptop" is really a small desktop light enough to be carried :)

At least AW got the ventiltion right... everyone else still has easily-blocked fan ports on the bottom. Why hasn't Clevo tried to put some side intakes on their larger units yet?

leexgx 28/09/2008 01:30
Hide
-0+

guess thay do not bother to read these posts any way
them pictures are to small mite be ok if my desktop was at 640x480, mite even be viewable on my PDA (if it was not for the best of media stuff)

Best offers

Newsletters


OK