Performance
A quick, full-fat Core i5 processor and a new Fermi-derived NVIDIA GPU looks certain to be a winning combination.
Taking a closer look at the GeForce GT 425M, the GPU slots into the middle of NVIDIA's 400-series range with a modest specification that includes a 560MHz core, 96 shaders clocked at 1,120MHz, and 1GB of GDDR3 memory clocked at 800MHz and connected via a 128-bit bus.
To see how it fares, we'll be comparing GPU performance against a previous-generation GeForce GT 335M inside a Dell Alienware M11x.
We'll also provide comparative numbers for a selection of other notebooks measuring between 11.6in and 15.6in in size.
Here's a detailed look at the key specifications of the five notebooks in question, as well as a brief rundown of the benchmarks we use.
| Comparison systems | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laptop | Dell Inspiron M101z | Dell Alienware M11x | Acer Timeline 3810T | Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 15 | Acer Aspire 5745DG |
| Processor | AMD Athlon II Neo K325 (1.30GHz, 2MB L2 cache, dual-core) | Intel Core i5 520UM (1.06GHz, 3MB L3 cache, dual-core) | Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 (1.40GHz, 3MB L2 cache, dual-core) | Intel Core i5 430M (2.26GHz, 3MB L3 cache, dual-core) | Intel Core i5 450M (2.4GHz, 3MB L3 cache, dual-core) |
| Memory | 4GB DDR3 | 4GB DDR3 | 2GB DDR3 | 4GB DDR3 | 4GB DDR3 |
| Graphics | AMD ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4225 | Intel HD Graphics + NVIDIA GeForce GT 335M 1GB | Intel GMA 4500MHD | Intel HD Graphics | NVIDIA GeForce GT 425M 1GB |
| Graphics driver | AMD ATI Catalyst 10.7 | Intel 8.15.10.2182 + NVIDIA Verde 257.30 | Intel 7.15.10.1666 | Intel 8.15.10.2057 | NVIDIA Verde 259.12 |
| Display | 11.6in - 1,366x768 | 11.6in - 1,366x768 | 13.3in - 1,366x768 | 15.6in - 1,366x768 | 15.6in - 1,366x768 |
| Battery | 6 cell, 56Whr | 6 cell, 63Whr | 6 cell, 56Whr | 6 cell, 48Whr | 12 cell, 99Whr |
| Weight | 1,572g (including battery) | 2,010g (including battery) | 1,645g (including battery) | 2,476g (including battery) | 2,839g (including battery) |
| Wireless | Broadcom WLAN (802.11bgn) and Bluetooth 2.1 | Dell DW1520 (802.11bgn) and Bluetooth 2.1 | Intel WiFi 5100 (802.11bgn) and Bluetooth 2.0 | Intel WiFi Link 1000 (802.11bgn) and Bluetooth 2.1 | Broadcom WLAN (802.11bgn) and Bluetooth 3.0 |
| Disk drive | Seagate Momentus 320GB HDD, 7,200RPM, 16MB cache | Samsung 256GB PM800 SSD | Hitachi 500GB HDD, 5,400RPM, 8MB cache | Seagate Momentus 320GB HDD, 5,400RPM, 8MB cache | Hitachi Travelstar 500GB HDD, 5,400RPM, 8MB cache |
| Optical drive | None | None | None | DVD-RW | Blu-ray/DVD RW combo |
| Operating System | Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit | Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit | Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, 32-bit | Microsoft Windows 7 Professional, 64-bit | Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit |
| Benchmarks | |||||
| Geekbench 2.1.6 | A cross-platform benchmark used to measure memory and processor performance. Run using high-performance mode. | ||||
| Cinebench 11.5 | Using Cinebench's multi-CPU render, this cross-platform benchmark stresses as many cores as possible. Run using high-performance mode. | ||||
| 3DMark06 | A PC benchmark used to test the DirectX 9 performance of a system's graphics card. Run using high-performance mode. | ||||
| Battery test | In order to measure battery life, we run the notebook on balanced power settings and loop a 720p movie trailer, measuring the time taken to hibernate. | ||||
| Power consumption | Using balanced power settings, we record mains power draw whilst playing back a 720p movie trailer. | ||||
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 | DX9, 1,366x768 | ||||
CPU performance
The 2.4GHz Core i5 processor is the quickest on paper, and its credentials are backed up by the Geekbench benchmark.
There's certainly no shortage of CPU performance here. A six per cent increase in clock speed over the ThinkPad Edge 15's Core i5 430M gives the Aspire 5745DG's Core i5 450M a six per cent performance boost.
GPU performance
NVIDIA's mid-range GeForce GT 425M gets off to a good start, too, but aside from DirectX 11 support, 3DMark06 suggests there's little to separate it from the older GeForce GT 335M.
Looking at gaming potential, popular first-person shooter Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is just about playable on the Acer Aspire 5745DG with medium quality at the notebook's native resolution.
Lowering image quality to the bare minimum helps, at which point the system's CPU is able to chime in and help boost performance to a perfectly-smooth 68 frames per second.
This clearly isn't a proper gaming notebook, and the mid-range GeForce GT 425M will struggle with modern titles. Stereoscopic 3D gaming in particular is going to be a problem as the notebook will be pushed twice as hard in order to render separate images for each eye.
To give you an example, running Mafia II at 1,366x768 with ultra-low quality returned an average frame rate of 33.4fps when playing without stereoscopic 3D. Running the same benchmark with 3D Vision enabled saw performance drop dramatically, to just 13.9fps.
Battery life and power consumption
We had feared the worst when we discovered that the notebook would be without power-saving Optimus technology, but the GeForce GT 425M GPU is able to dynamically adjust its speed to keep power consumption in check.
Talking numbers, the GPU's core drops to 50MHz when idle and rises to just over 200MHz - less than half the maximum - whilst playing back a 720p movie.
With power consumption kept to a reasonable level, and a massive 12-cell battery on tap, battery life is decent at just over 3hrs 30mins of movie playback.
Unfortunately, with the discrete GPU always drawing juice, that number barely rises during light use. On a balanced power plan, we managed to eke out just under four hours of battery life whilst surfing the web and checking email.
