Lenovo ThinkPad X300 Ultraportable Notebook

Name: Lenovo ThinkPad X300 Ultraportable Notebook - Page 6
Brand: Lenovo

by Jeff Bouton — Thursday, April 17, 2008, 12:45 PM EDT

Test Setup & 3DMark06 CPU

Page 6: Test Setup & 3DMark06 CPU

For our evaluation of the Lenovo ThinkPad X300, we ran all performance tests on the system in its factory configuration. The only exception was with MobileMark 2007, which would not run. Once 3DMark06 and PCMark Vantage test were completed, the system was formatted, a fresh copy of Windows Vista Business installed and all factory drivers installed as needed. We compared the performance to that of the recently covered ASUS U6S, which was our closest available reference while including performance results from an ASUS C90S and Dell XPS M1730 for a broader comparison.

HotHardware's Mobile Test Systems

Covering the bases

Lenovo ThinkPad X300

Intel Core 2 DuoSL7100 (1.2GHz)

Intel GM965

1x2GB DDR2-667

Intel GMA X3100

On-Board Ethernet
On-Board Audio

64GB Hard Drive
Solid-State

Windows Vista Business

13.3" WXGA+ TFT LED Display
(native 1440x900)

ASUS U6S

Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz)

Intel GM965

2x1GB DDR2-667

128MB NVIDIA
GeForce 8400M G

On-Board Ethernet
On-Board Audio

160GB Hard Drive
5,400 RPM SATA

Windows Vista Business
Intel INF 8.3.1.1009
NVIDIA Forceware v101.38

12.1" WXGA Display
(native 1280x800)

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)

ASUS C90S

Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 (2.66GHz)

Intel 945G Chipset

2x1GB DDR2-667

512MB NVIDIA
GeForce 8600M GT

On-Board Ethernet
On-Board Audio

160GB Hard Drive
7,200 RPM SATA

Windows Vista Ultimate
Intel INF 8.3.1.1009
NVIDIA Forceware v101.16

15.4" WSXGA+ Display
(native 1680x1050)

Performance Comparisons with 3DMark06

Details: http://www.futuremark.com/products/3dmark06/

To start out our testing, we began with 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.

Becuase this test focuses solely on the CPU, it is not all that surprising that the Lenovo ThinkPad X300 was the lowest performer of all four systems tested. The system runs no less than 1GHz lower than any other system tested. As we'll see further on, the Lenovo ThinkPad X300 will demonstrate that the CPU is a single piece of the performance puzzle, and one that is not necessarily the most influential.