Gaming and Battery Life
Our regular laptop gaming benchmark is Just Cause 2 at 1,366x768 with medium quality settings. This, clearly, isn't a challenge for these high-performance machines, with the Optimus V and SkyFire III scoring 104fps and 90fps, respectively.
Native Gaming Performance (Average FPS) |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| Game | Quality Settings | SkyFire III X14 |
Optimus V X17 |
1,600x900 |
1,920x1,080 |
||
| BioShock Infinite | Medium Quality | 67.8 |
57.0 |
| High Quality | 59.2 |
49.6 |
|
| Maximum Quality | 34.8 |
29.2 |
|
| DiRT Showdown | 4xMSAA, Medium Quality | 98.9 |
89.2 |
| 4xMSAA, High Quality | 83.7 |
69.4 |
|
| 4xMSAA, Ultra Quality | 32.1 |
29.1 |
|
To better stress the laptop's hardware, we've tested two modern games - BioShock Infinite and DiRT Showdown - with varying degrees of image quality at each laptop's native resolution - 1,600x900 on the SkyFire III and 1,920x1,080 on the Optimus V.
It's clear that when gaming at the native resolution, the SkyFire III doesn't necessarily need a more potent GPU. The GeForce GTX 760M is well suited to the task at hand and even manages to deliver in excess of 30 frames per second when both games are cranked-up to maximum quality.
Interestingly, it's the Optimus V that faces the bigger challenge, as the GeForce GTX 765M is being asked to draw over two-million pixels on the large 17.3in display. Both laptops have ample gaming potential, though you will need to dial-down quality settings if you happen to prefer playing at a silky-smooth 60fps.
Our battery rundown test entails looping a 720p movie clip with 50 per cent screen brightness and all wireless radios disabled until the laptop succumbs to hibernation.
The SkyFire III's 46Whr battery managed to keep going for four-and-a-half hours, while the Optimus V's 77Whr battery fell just short of the four-hour mark. The results aren't bad when compared to previous-generation solutions, but rival Intel Haswell-based gaming laptops are now showing an ability to run closer to six hours.
