Dell XPS M1710 - GeForce Go 7900 GTX 512 Mobile Gaming, Part 1
by Jarred Walton on April 18, 2006 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
Half-Life 2 Benchmarks
Valve's Source engine arguably has the best interface for selecting widescreen resolutions -- or any other resolution for that matter. Here we're looking at the original Half-Life 2 performance, but we'll take a look at Lost Coast (HDR) performance in the follow-up article. Again, we tested with and without audio enabled.
Turning on the sound effects clearly has a major impact on performance in the Source engine. As with Far Cry, the M1710 seems to not be affected as much. In fact, with audio enabled, the M1710 is able to lead all contenders. Looking at the numbers, though, HL2 is clearly CPU limited with this level of graphics card, and testing so far has indicated that the T2600 is faster than the other two processors.
Valve's Source engine arguably has the best interface for selecting widescreen resolutions -- or any other resolution for that matter. Here we're looking at the original Half-Life 2 performance, but we'll take a look at Lost Coast (HDR) performance in the follow-up article. Again, we tested with and without audio enabled.
Turning on the sound effects clearly has a major impact on performance in the Source engine. As with Far Cry, the M1710 seems to not be affected as much. In fact, with audio enabled, the M1710 is able to lead all contenders. Looking at the numbers, though, HL2 is clearly CPU limited with this level of graphics card, and testing so far has indicated that the T2600 is faster than the other two processors.
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timmiser - Tuesday, April 18, 2006 - link
Quieter than my Inspiron XPS version 1.Bluestealth - Tuesday, April 18, 2006 - link
Do they turn off, because that would just get annoying...timmiser - Tuesday, April 18, 2006 - link
Yes. You can change the color and intensity of the lights plus configure the 3 light positions: Speakers/air vents/XPS lid, seperately.The lights are controlled in the BIOS and also in an included Dell windows utility.
JarredWalton - Tuesday, April 18, 2006 - link
Yes, all the lights can be disabled within the BIOS.Patrese - Tuesday, April 18, 2006 - link
Great review, I found the addition of the game tests with sound quite good, just as the inclusion of reference desktop systems for comparison. And the laptop is just awesome...Not that I have the money to buy one of these (not even close, to be honest), but I got curious about the battery life on uses likes web/office. I wonder if the energy saving features can take it a bit closer to the "normal" laptops on that kind of use, since in gaming the 7900GTX certainly needs a lot of juice. And how hot does it get under gaming?
JarredWalton - Tuesday, April 18, 2006 - link
I'll be getting a copy of MobileMark shortly, but I didn't have it in time for the first part. There are quite a few other things I'm going to try to cover in part 2, like potentially turning down GPU performance for longer battery life. Maximum temperatures are warm but not hot - older P4M laptops are all substantially hotter, and even some PM laptops get warmer. The larger size does help with cooling, I would imagine.One43637 - Tuesday, April 18, 2006 - link
i feel sorry for the person that tries to game with that thing on his/her lap. battery life on that thing must be horrendous. good thing it's billed as a DTR.JarredWalton - Tuesday, April 18, 2006 - link
The system gets warm, but not uncomfortably so (for me). I will get some specific numbers for part 2.plewis00 - Tuesday, April 18, 2006 - link
Who games with a laptop actually on their lap? You need a decent mouse anyway and that means a table surely?Rock Hydra - Tuesday, April 18, 2006 - link
I sit on the couch with my Dell 110L in my lap and use the couch cushion next to me as my mousing surface and play games.