Dell DTR Laptop Shootout - M1710 vs. E1705
by Jarred Walton on May 30, 2006 1:30 PM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
Gaming Performance: Call of Duty 2
Call of Duty 2 is interesting because it's one of the few games touted as supporting SMP. (We will get to Quake 4 later, and we don't have results from Oblivion for this article. Without seriously reducing graphics quality, Oblivion is only playable on the M1710.) We're running with the official version 1.2 patch, with high-quality lighting, anisotropic filtering, and maximum (Extra) texture sizes on everything but the specular highlights, which are set to high detail. We also enabled "Optimize for SLI" on all three systems, and it appears that the setting might actually be better labeled as "Optimize for SMP". We aren't entirely sure how the game and driver settings are changed at this time, but CPU usage on dual core systems definitely increases when it is enabled, and frame rates are improved quite a bit as well - at least in situations where we're not GPU limited.
As before, the X1400 configuration makes a dismal showing. (After finishing the Call of Duty 2 benchmarks, we decided it was pointless to continue benchmarking 4xAA on the X1400.) You can also see that while the GeForce Go 7800 is at least twice as fast as the X1400, it struggles with the latest games on high-quality settings as well. The clock speeds of the GeForce Go 7800 are quite low relative to desktop 7800 cards (it's clocked at 250/658 instead of the 425/1000 clock speeds that desktop models carry), and combined with the fact that it has 12 pixel pipelines versus 24 on the GeForce Go 7900 GTX and it's easy to see why it's less than half as fast. Of course, it also costs about one fourth as much. (The GeForce Go 7800 is a $200 upgrade from Dell, and the GeForce Go 7900 GTX is a $400 upgrade from the 7800 GS, which is already a $350 upgrade.)
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Gary Key - Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - link
Jarred will be reviewing these in the near future.tthiel - Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - link
I've been issued plenty of Dell laptops at the various companies I have worked for and they were all cheap plasticky junk. I've lost track of how many died on me. I was just given a new Thinkpad T43P and it is much better. Very well made, rock solid. So many of the engineers where I work wanted those instead of Dells that they had to restructure the ordering process and images to take care of all the new Thinkpads.JarredWalton - Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - link
I've heard about problems with ThinkPads now that Lenovo has taken over. (I haven't used any personally, so I can't say for sure.) I have also used many of the older Inspiron models, and have been unimpressed. These are definitely in a different league, however -- the cheap plastic case (at least on top) has been replaced by aluminum, for example. The problem is that most businesses don't buy higher end Dell laptops; they go with the more value oriented offerings, and whenever prices cut you can be sure that quality is cut as well.We're hoping to expand our mobile coverage in the future, so this is merely the beginning. As time goes on, we'll have more products that we can directly compare new offerings with. For now, I'm generally impressed with what the E1705 offers. Impressed enough that I recommended one to a family member, after browsing around looking for a suitable equivalent. Getting a large laptop with a 17 inch (or larger) display, 1920x1200 resolution, dual core processor, etc. is pretty difficult right now. Getting one with 2 GB of RAM for $2300 is even more difficult. Not everyone wants a laptop this large, certainly, but for those that do the E1705 is quite good.
jenson - Monday, January 7, 2013 - link
when cheap laptops really got a good shake, with many models looking and behaving a lot more like their costly cousins than in the past.