Gateway P-7811 FX: We've Got Upgrades
by Jarred Walton on August 15, 2008 5:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
Going for the Gold
For our first look at benchmarks of the P-7811, we thought it would be best to focus on comparisons to Gateway's other FX series laptops. We have earlier results from the P-6831, but since it has such a slow processor we also added results from the upgraded P-171XL. The P-171XL is no longer in production, but it provides a better indication of graphics performance when the CPU is not a bottleneck, as it has a Core 2 Duo X7900 (2.8GHz, 4MB cache) processor. It also ships with two 200GB hard drives in RAID 0, 4GB of RAM (but a 32-bit OS, so only 3GB is visible), and a WUXGA display. It had an initial launch price of $3000, which quickly dropped to $2500, and now it has been replaced by the $2000 MSRP ($1630 at TigerDirect) P-173XL - the primary difference being the inclusion of a T8300 processor instead of the X7900. Here are the three test configurations for this first look at the P-7811.
| Gateway P-6831 FX Test System | |
| Processor | Core 2 Duo T5450 (1.67GHz 2MB 667FSB) |
| Memory | 1x1024MB + 1x2048MB Samsung DDR2-667 5-5-5-15 |
| Graphics | NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTS 512MB GPU/Shader/RAM Clocks: 500/1250/799 NVIDIA drivers: 167.46 |
| Display | 17" WXGA+ (1440x900) UltraBright (Samsung LTN170X2-L02) |
| Hard Drive | 250GB 5400RPM Western Digital (Scorpio WD2500BEVS-22UST0) |
| Optical Drive | Optiarc AD-7563A SuperMulti DVD+/-RW |
| Battery | 9-Cell 86WHr |
| Operating System | Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit |
| Gateway P-171XL FX Test System | |
| Processor | Core 2 Extreme X7900 (2.80GHz 4MB 667FSB) |
| Memory | 2x2048MB Samsung DDR2-667 5-5-5-15 |
| Graphics | NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTS 512MB GPU/Shader/RAM Clocks: 500/1250/799 NVIDIA drivers: 175.95 (Hacked from LaptopVideo2Go.com) |
| Display | 17" WUXGA (1920x1200) Matte (Samsung LTN170WU-L02) |
| Hard Drive | 2x200GB Seagate Momentus 7200.2 in RAID 0 |
| Optical Drive | Toshiba DVDR/HD-DVD TS-L802A |
| Battery | 9-Cell 86WHr |
| Operating System | Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit |
| Gateway P-7811 FX Test System | |
| Processor | Core 2 Duo P8400 (2.26GHz 3MB 1066FSB) |
| Memory | 2x2048MB Samsung DDR3-1066 7-7-7-20 |
| Graphics | NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTS 512MB GPU/Shader/RAM Clocks: 600/1250/799 NVIDIA drivers: 176.02 (beta from Gateway) |
| Display | 17" WUXGA (1920x1200) Glossy (AU Optronics AUO 1088) |
| Hard Drive | 200GB Seagate Momentus 7200.2 |
| Optical Drive | 8X SuperMulti DVD+/-RW |
| Battery | 9-Cell 86WHr |
| Operating System | Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit |
Note that we won't have all benchmarks on all three laptops; in particular, we no longer have the P-6831 for testing and so we were unable to run some of our latest benchmarks. We were able to run all of our tests on both the P-171XL and the P-7811. We do expect the P-7811 to perform faster in all of the gaming benchmarks, since the 9800M GTS offers more graphics horsepower because of the increased GPU core clocks. Similarly, we expect the P-171XL to outperform the other two configurations in application benchmarks that depend more on CPU and hard drive performance.
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JarredWalton - Tuesday, August 19, 2008 - link
Gateway doesn't offer the option to custom configure laptops; what they do offer is about 8 notebooks that use the same base design, with different options and prices. Right now, the P-7811 is the only model using DDR3 and 9800M GTS, but there will likely be other models in the future.http://www.gateway.com/systems/series/529598056.ph...">P-series Reference Page
okron1k - Thursday, August 21, 2008 - link
thank you, i have been to that page already but i am going to look it over again. i am most likely going to be buying this laptop in the next few weeks. i just don't know of any other place where i can get something similarly spec'd for even close to the same price.Engage - Monday, August 18, 2008 - link
Any word on when/if and to what degree Gateway might be going to upgrade the P-173XL FX Edition?JarredWalton - Monday, August 18, 2008 - link
Well, the P-173XL is already pretty well equipped. It has 2x200GB HDD, WUXGA (non-glossy I think?), 4GB RAM, and a T8300, plus 4GB DDR2. So it should be a bit slower on the CPU than the T-7811, and the 8800M GTS GPU is a bit slower as well, but you get more HDD space and performance. You also don't get an early PM45 chipset and BIOS. Still, I would assume in the near future Gateway will migrate most of their P-series FX parts to the PM45 with 9800 GTS platform.strikeback03 - Monday, August 18, 2008 - link
Adobe is very likely to release the next generation of their applications (CS4?) this fall, which will probably be 64-bit as LightRoom 2 is.Jarred has mentioned before that he is editor for other articles, does someone else edit his work, or is he using (Ed.) to insert comments into his own article?
JarredWalton - Monday, August 18, 2008 - link
I "ed" myself. So do some of the other editors at times (Gary). It's more of an "insert personal comment that isn't necessarily a direct part of the review" thing - or for humor at times. Don't take away my artistic license, dammit! :-)Hrel - Sunday, August 17, 2008 - link
Since I never run anything over 1440x900 I don't want to be forced to pay for a screen that costs more money when I see no benefit from that high of a resolution; not to mention it would make everything too small. Gateway needs more user customization on their website; like HP. Also, you can't say with a straight face that anyone needs a gaming laptop? What wrong with you? If you expect to be able to play current games on a laptop you bought 4 years ago you need a gaming laptop; even though you'll be playing those new games on min settings. Who doesn't need a gaming laptop? Who doesn't play games when they're away from the house if they have the ability?strikeback03 - Monday, August 18, 2008 - link
I think the point was that with the possible exception of some people who work in the gaming industry, not many people NEED to be able to play games.I'm with Jarred on wanting the highest resolution LCD available, so we both agree that they need more customization options.
spuddyt - Saturday, August 16, 2008 - link
I want one A LOT!!!! but i'm in the UK, so i'm effectively screwed and am just going to end up getting some crappy dell POS....MamiyaOtaru - Saturday, August 16, 2008 - link
I would never buy a laptop with a glossy screen. I'd rather look at what I'm working on (or playing with) than a reflection. Glossy screens are idiotic bling for idiots. Unfortunately mot people are idiots, as glossy screens sell better from stores than matte (it's shiny!).