Performance - Part 1
Before we get on to benchmark results, here's a detailed specification of the reviewed HP Pavilion dv6 and a range of other laptops.
Comparison Notebooks |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laptop | HP Pavilion dv6 | ASUS Zenbook UX31 | Dell XPS 15z | Dell Inspiron 14z | Lenovo ThinkPad X1 |
| Processor | AMD A6-3430MX (1.70GHz, 4MB L2 cache, quad-core, 45W) | Intel Core i7-2677M (1.80GHz, 4MB smart cache, dual-core, 17W) | Intel Core i5-2410M (2.30GHz, 3MB smart cache, dual-core, 35W) | Intel Core i5-2430M (2.40GHz, 3MB smart cache, dual-core, 35W) | Intel Core i5-2520M (2.50GHz, 3MB smart cache, dual-core, 35W) |
| Memory | 6GB DDR3 | 4GB DDR3 | 4GB DDR3 | 4GB DDR3 | 4GB DDR3 |
| Graphics | AMD Radeon HD 6520G + AMD Radeon HD 7470M | Intel HD 3000 | Intel HD 3000 + NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M 1GB | Intel HD 3000 | Intel HD 3000 |
| Display | 15.6in - 1,366x768 | 13.3in - 1,600x900 | 15.6in - 1,366x768 | 14.0in - 1,366x768 | 13.3in - 1,366x768 |
| Battery | 6 cell, 62Whr | Polymer, 50Whr | 8 cell, 64Whr | 6 cell, 65Whr | 6 cell, 38.4Whr |
| Weight | 2,533g | 1,405g | 2,517g | 2,057g | 1,741g |
| Wireless | Broadcom 4313GN (802.11bgn) and Bluetooth | Atheros AR9485WB-EG (802.11bgn) and Bluetooth | Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6230 (802.11bgn) and Bluetooth | Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1030 (802.11bgn) and Bluetooth | Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 (802.11bgn) and Bluetooth |
| Disk drive(s) | Toshiba MK7575GSX 750GB, 5,400RPM, 8MB cache | ADATA XM11 120GB SSD | Seagate Momentus 500GB HDD, 7,200RPM, 16MB cache | Seagate Momentus 500GB HDD, 5,400RPM, 16MB cache | Hitachi Travelstar 320GB HDD, 7,200RPM, 16MB cache |
| Optical drive | DVD-RW | None | DVD-RW | DVD-RW | None |
| Operating System | Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit | Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit | Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit | Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit | Microsoft Windows 7 Professional, 64-bit |
Benchmarks |
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| Cinebench | Using Cinebench's multi-CPU render, this cross-platform benchmark stresses as many cores as possible. Run using high-performance mode. | ||||
| Geekbench | A cross-platform benchmark used to measure memory and processor performance. Run using high-performance mode. | ||||
| 3DMark Vantage | A PC benchmark used to test the DirectX 10 performance of a system's graphics card. Run using high-performance mode. | ||||
| PCMark 7 | PCMark 7 combines various single- and multi-threaded CPU, Graphics and HDD tests to score overall system performance. Run using high-performance mode. | ||||
| Power Consumption | Using balanced power settings, we record mains power draw whilst playing back a 720p movie trailer. | ||||
| Battery Test | To calculate battery life, we run the notebook on a balanced power plan and loop a 720p movie trailer, measuring the time taken to hibernate. | ||||
CPU performance
Our first benchmark, Cinebench, focuses solely on the multi-core performance of each laptop's respective CPUs.
The nature of the benchmark suggests that the quad-core HP Pavilion dv6 should beat the dual-core Intel chips, but higher clock speeds and Hyper-Threading - which allows the Intel chips' two physical cores to operate as four virtual processors - gives the Intel laptops an edge in CPU performance.
Geekbench provides a look at combined CPU and memory performance, and the results are much the same; Intel's CPU architecture is second to none.
