AVADirect Clevo X8100 Core i7 Gaming Notebook Review

by Paul Lilly — Monday, May 17, 2010, 11:00 AM EDT

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PCMark & 3DMark Tests

To start things off, we fired up Futuremark's system performance benchmark, PCMark Vantage. This synthetic benchmark suite simulates a range of real-world scenarios and workloads, stressing various system subsets in the process. Everything you'd want to do with your PC -- watching HD movies, music compression, image editing, gaming, and so forth -- is represented here, and most of the tests are multi-threaded, making this a good indicator of all-around performance.

Futuremark PCMark Vantage

Simulated Application Performance

To say that the Clevo X8100 performed well in PCMark Vantage is an understatement of gross proportion. Not only did our test system turn in the fastest score of any notebook we've ever tested, it slapped previous review units silly, including the Asus G73JH-A1, which also comes configured with a Core i7 processor. In the end, the combination of a faster Core i7 chip, higher frequency RAM, dual videocards, and performance oriented SSD put the Clevo on a pedestal all its own.

Futuremark 3DMark06 and Vantage

Simulated Gaming Performance

Next we switched gears to Futuremark's 3DMark Vantage benchmark, which focuses squarely on gaming performance. Some of the technologies in 3DMark Vantage are only available with DirectX 10, making this a better barometer of modern gaming prowess than the the older 3Mark06 benchmark. And unlike previous versions, 3DMark Vantage puts a bit more emphasis on the CPU rather than focusing almost entirely on the GPU(s).

Once again, the Clevo X8100 walked away with the performance crown, though not by much this time around, edging out the Eurocom M98NU Xcaliber by a little less than 600 points. Compared against single-GPU setups, both systems are on a different plane entirely.

For those of you still keeping track of 3DMark06 scores, we ran the Clevo X8100 through a benchmark run with the above results. Rest assured, you're not going to run into any hiccups trying to play older titles.