Overclocking and battery life
OverclockingNVIDIA's adamant that NV41M's good for core speeds in excess of 450MHz. Our sample was clocked in at 275MHz core and 600MHz memory. GeForce 6800 Go overclocking was undertaken via PowerStrip.
The engine limit was imposed by PowerStrip and not core failure. Assuming that this sample is indicative of NV41Ms in general, I'd hope that ODMs and distributors will feel confident enough of raising core clocks in the near future. We know that GeForce 6800 Go is already fast at 275MHz. Something like 325MHz/650MHz would be even nicer. Perhaps NVIDIA is waiting for ATI to make its next mobile graphics move before launching a GeForce 6800 Go Turbo Edition.
I re-ran Xpand Rally at 1280x1024 4x AA/8x AF. Faster than a 500/1000-clocked GeForce 6600 GT 128MB desktop card!.
Battery life
The Ixius 3.6 reduces clock speed to 2.94GHz in battery-powered mode. I also disabled WiFi during testing. GeForce 6800 Go was set to maximum battery life in PowerMizer 5.0's settings. 3D gaming takes a significant toll on the supplied 6600mAH battery, but that's to be expected given the use of a desktop CPU and high-performance video card. Battery-powered longevity is difficult to achieve on a laptop that's designed for power above all else.
