Futuremark Performance

While we don't consider performance results in 3DMark or PCMark to be anywhere near as meaningful as actual gaming/application performance - outside of bragging rights - these applications do provide a consistent means of measuring performance and scores do tend to correlate reasonably well with a variety of real-world games/applications.


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3DMark03

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3DMark05

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3DMark06

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3DMark06

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3DMark06

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3DMark06

Outside of PCMark05 (which measures system performance as well as graphics performance), the 3DMark scores are relatively consistent with our gaming results. The 8800M GTX scores 114% faster than the 8700M GT in 3DMark03, 47% faster in 3DMark05, and 100-150% faster in 3DMark06 (depending on which score you look at). Compare that with the gaming results where we saw performance increases ranging from 37% to 235%, depending on settings. Games that are primarily CPU limited (Battlefield 2, Far Cry, and Quake 4 without antialiasing) put the 8800M at around 50-75% faster than the 8700M, while games that are more GPU limited - shader, bandwidth, or both - generally show the 8800M GTX as being more than twice as fast as the 8700M GT.

What the above clearly demonstrates is that 8700M SLI has essentially been made pointless in terms of performance. A single 8800M GTX should offer better performance than 8700M GT SLI in every situation. It has three times as many stream processors, and while they may be clocked slightly slower (500MHz vs. 625MHz) there's still a net gain. Memory bandwidth is twice as large on the 8800M, since it uses a 256-bit interface. We would also expect 8700M SLI to use more power than a single 8800M GTX, though it might be a tie. Whether or not you can find an 8700M SLI notebook for less money than an 8800M GTX notebook is about the only point that might favor running two of the lesser GPUs, but we don't even expect that to be the case.

1680x1050/1600x1200 Gaming Performance Battery Life and Power Use
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  • stassas - Tuesday, January 8, 2008 - link

    I just cannot believe there are manufacturers of FullHD notebooks not puting HDMI port to their products. Same thing for Dell 1730, I just hope Alienware will not make that mistake.

    Can you believe that HP do not have Gigabit internet port in their top HDX?

    I am happy to spend tons of cash on my gaming/multimedia desktop replacement notebook but I want all standard stuff I could easily pack into my desktop. The only comprimise I can accept is slight performance difference.
  • fabarati - Wednesday, January 9, 2008 - link

    This has Dual-link DVI instead, meaning you can drive a WQXGA screen att full resolution. There are few laptops who can.
  • strikeback03 - Tuesday, January 8, 2008 - link

    Depends what display you plan to connect the laptop to. As this doesn't have a Blu-Ray/HD-DVD drive, it is probably more likely to be connected to a true monitor than a TV, and monitors are more likely to have DVI than HDMI. Plus, adapters are cheap.
  • Yahoo - Monday, January 7, 2008 - link

    Hahaha, I love the add in about the cake being a lie. Portal was fun :)
  • Foxy1 - Monday, January 7, 2008 - link

    I’m at CES this week. During one of the many presentations, I seated myself behind the cutest guy in the room (as I figured he would be more enjoyable to watch than the presentation). After much eavesdropping, I was able to determine that it was none other than Jarred Walton of Anandtech (the author of this article). I’m happily involved with my own cutie; otherwise I would have made my move. With no wedding ring in site, I’d say he is fair game. A tall, dark, handsome geek, what more could we ask for?

    Foxy
  • JarredWalton - Monday, January 7, 2008 - link

    I'd take you up on the offer, but I too have a new lover. She's short, dark, about 17" wide, and she has this cute spider tattoo. The orange pin-striping seals the deal. What's better, she lets me play computer games like The Witcher and doesn't get jealous (well, not very) when I look at other women. I'd marry her, but the courts are claiming she doesn't have a soul. I keep arguing that there's more soul in some computers than in women - the only souls they have come from the hearts they rip out of their boyfriends.

    (One silly post deserves another, I suppose. Back to your regularly scheduled comments.)
  • SiliconDoc - Monday, July 28, 2008 - link

    Best two comments I've seen so far. Congratulations, that 'ell teach the hotties that their nerd desires might wind them up with more than they can handle. Outside the box !
  • eye smite - Monday, January 7, 2008 - link

    It's interesting to see how much the advancements are accelerating in technology. I have an x700pro 256 card in this system. I'll be sticking with it for a while yet. hehe
  • Gholam - Monday, January 7, 2008 - link

    Just for the reference, who is it this time? Clevo again?
  • fabarati - Monday, January 7, 2008 - link

    Yes it is. It's a Clevo M570RU. Used by many other resellers. So you can get the same Laptop, save the Spider logo, for much cheaper.

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