Synthetic Gaming Performance

We don't place a lot of stock in the performance results generated by Futuremark's 3DMark applications, but many people like to see the numbers nonetheless. Here are the GPU scores from 3DMark03/05/06. (We have dropped the CPU results as they seem to be less than useful considering their dependence on the graphics chip. Please refer to previous laptop articles if you want to see those.)

Futuremark 3DMark03

Futuremark 3DMark05

Futuremark 3DMark06

Futuremark 3DMark06

Futuremark 3DMark06

Outside of bragging rights, we find the above results only moderately interesting. Drivers always seem to be better optimized for 3DMark than for actual games, as evidenced by the fact that Intel's X3100 chip can actually complete the entire 3DMark06 performance suite yet it fails to run the vast majority of SM3.0 games -- and quite a few other games as well. Depending on the benchmark, the GeForce 8700M GT finishes either behind or slightly ahead of a single GeForce Go 7900 GTX, while the GeForce Go 7950 GTX is anywhere from 5% to 55% faster (looking at the XPS M1710, which admittedly has a slightly faster processor). Now let's see how the GeForce 8700M GT actually does with running games.

General Performance Actual Gaming Performance
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  • mostlyprudent - Friday, August 31, 2007 - link

    Will the follow up article give a little more info about the quality of the LCD display?
  • Inkjammer - Friday, August 31, 2007 - link

    I'm actually using the same Toshiba x205 laptop right now. The LCD is fairly decent, but to be honest I've seen better. I just can't seem to ever shake the feeling there's just not enough contrast - the colors seems slightly muted. They're by no means bad, but could be slightly better.

    The quality is good, and the blacks seem rather decent enough - HD-DVDs look fantastic. Hot Fuzz and 300 really do shine on the monitor.

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