IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad T43
Startup Performance and Video Performance Index
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The times listed below reflect the time it took for the system to power up until the cursor appeared with no busy indicator on the desktop background.
Given that the IBM notebooks have more software to load during boot up, the long boot time can be reduced if you disable a few of software enhancements that IBM provides. We left it on to get a real world read.
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In this section, we should make a few things clear first. We are inserting a video performance index based on Halo (a DX9 game) so that we can at least show relative 3D graphics capabilities. The reason we are not going to run a bunch of current game titles, is that we are only trying to show a snapshot of the notebook's graphics capabilities. We are only doing this because we see the need to show the video performance index of discrete GPUs, even though the notebook in question isn't considered a "gaming notebook." When we review gaming notebooks, we will focus on performance with more titles and more settings. We chose Halo over a DX8 title and Doom 3 because it is a good midpoint in performance measurement; something not too light or demanding in graphical performance.
Interestingly enough, the X300 in the T43 is one of the first notebooks we have seen using a integrated memory package with a mobile PCI Express GPU. This may have some small performance benefits, but the main reason system builders opt for this is to reduce the required real estate.
Clocked at about 230MHz for both core and memory speed, this is another notebook not designed for serious gaming. Some light gaming won't faze this notebook, but we would recommend sticking with a resolution of 1024 x 768 lower if you are going to play something like Halo. More intensive games like Doom 3 are better left to notebooks with higher performance GPUs, though you can play at 800 x 600 reasonably well.
