Dell XPS M1730 Mobile Gaming Notebook
Test Setup & 3DMark06 CPU
The system was left "as delivered" for the duration of benchmarking. Nothing was installed or altered, with the exception of the necessary benchmarking software. We decided to compare the XPS M1730 to another desktop replacement laptop and several actual desktops. We decided to include the desktops in our benchmarks to give you an idea of how much power you will be able to wield on-the-go with the XPS M1730. The desktop replacement laptop we chose to compare the XPS M1730 to is the recently reviewed ASUS C90S whitebook. It was equipped with a GeForce 8600M GT, which is one of the most popular high performance mobile video cards and can be found in a large variety of performance mainstream laptops as well as many desktop replacement laptops.
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| Dell XPS M1730 Intel Core 2 Extreme X7900 (2.8GHz) 2x1GB DDR2-667 Dual 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8700M GT On-Board Ethernet On-Board Audio 2x200GB in RAID0 7,200 RPM SATA Windows Vista Home Premium Intel INF 8.3.1.1009 NVIDIA Forceware v163.86 17" WUXGA Display (native 1920x1200) |
Mobile Comparison (ASUS C90S) Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 (2.66GHz) Intel 945G Chipset 2x1GB DDR2-667 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT On-Board Ethernet 160GB Hard Drive Intel INF 8.3.1.1009 NVIDIA Forceware v101.16 15.4" WXGA Display |
Desktop Comparison 1 Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.4GHz) Asus P5E3 Deluxe (X38 Chipset) 2x1GB Corsair DDR3-1800 CL 7-7-7-20 - DDR3-1600 GeForce 8800 GTX On-Board Ethernet On-board Audio WD740 "Raptor" HD 10,000 RPM SATA Windows Vista Ultimate Intel INF 8.3.1.1009 NVIDIA Forceware v163.75 |
Desktop Comparison 2 AMD Athlon X2 6400+ (3.2GHz) Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-DQ6 2x1GB Corsair PC2-8500 GeForce 8800 GTX WD740 "Raptor" HD NVIDIA Forceware v163.75 |
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To start out our testing, we began with a focus on CPU performance, utilizing FutureMark 3DMark06's CPU performance module. 3DMark06's test is a multi-threaded "gaming related" DirectX metric that's useful for comparing relative performance between similarly equipped systems. This test consists of different 3D scenes that are generated with software and hardware GPU renderers, which is also dependant on the host CPU's performance. In its CPU tests, the calculations normally reserved for your 3D accelerator are instead sent to the central processor. GPU rendering tests employ a mix of SM2.0, SM3.0 and HDR techniques and effects.
The XPS M1730's Intel Core 2 Extreme X7900 processor, running at 2.8GHz gave it the top spot in the 3DMark06 CPU benchmark. It was able to nudge out the Athlon 64 X2 6400+ by a few points and it defeated the other Core 2 Duo based systems which run at a lower frequency so it was to be expected.
