ASUS N61Jv-X2: Optimus GT325M Meets Arrandale
by Jarred Walton on March 13, 2010 10:00 PM ESTASUS N61Jv-X2 3DMark Performance
Before we get to the gaming tests, here's a look at theoretical graphics performance as measured by the various 3DMark iterations. With 48 SPs and 22GB/s of memory bandwidth, the GT325M is a big step up from most of the other GPUs. For these entry-level and midrange laptops and notebooks, the next closest competitor is the G210M-equipped ASUS UL50Vf, followed by the HD 4330 in the Inspiron 15. The GT325M has nearly three times the shader processing power of the G210M with over twice the memory bandwidth, so we should see a very large gap between the N61Jv and the rest of the competition (and let's not even discuss the old GMA 4500MHD performance). That said, the GTX 260M and 280M are likewise a big step up from the GT325M… but of course those GPUs don't support Optimus Technology.
The lead over the HD 4330 ends up being 73% in 05, 84% in 06, 89% in 03, and a whopping 150% in 3DMark Vantage. Considering Vantage represents the state of the art in gaming a lot better than the earlier 3DMark tests, we expect Medium and High detail settings to correlate better with it rather than with the earlier 3DMark versions. Note that we tested at 1280x768 in 3DMark06 since none of these laptops support the default 1280x1024 setting without an external LCD; we also tested 3DMark Vantage at the "Entry" defaults (1024x768) since most of these laptops can't handle the "Performance" defaults—the N61Jv is a likely exception, though again it lacks support for the default 1280x1024 resolution. But enough about 3DMark; let's look at some actual gaming results.
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digitalicecream - Sunday, March 14, 2010 - link
Not just that, but you have to be sitting RIGHT in front of the screen at the correct elevation in order to see the movie well. I have the latest powerDVD 9 Ultra and the movie looks like garbage AT BEST. I'm going to post a video on youtube so you can all see what I'm talking about...It's definitely a dealbreaker for some. For me, well I found this out after I bought it but DVD movie playback is not why I got this.
Does explain the lack of a Bluray drive though.
Gaming looks great btw.
digitalicecream - Sunday, March 14, 2010 - link
I take it back. I turned off AVIVO hardware acceleration in powerDVD and made some fine tuning and it looks great... my bad.bobjones32 - Sunday, March 14, 2010 - link
With all this optimus tech talk, it's dissuaded me from purchasing an m11x. The m11x has the 335M, compared to the 325M in this laptop, and I'm wondering if anyone knows how much they differ?16" mammoths just don't interest me. I really want something portable like the m11x, with it's fantastic battery life, but I want some options to pick between.
1) Any chance that Anandtech will be reviewing the m11x? I was surprised it was never covered beyond the CES reveal.
2) Any word on the 335M extending beyond its apparent m11x exclusivity any time soon, in case it's noticeably faster than the 325M?
gomakeit - Sunday, March 14, 2010 - link
I second that as well - I'm putting off on the m11x because of Optimus and the relatively lowsy CPU spec. Hopefully it'll get a refresh sometime during summer. But I'm interested in seeing a review from Anand nonetheless.Fastidious - Sunday, March 14, 2010 - link
I was originally concerned a bit about that as well but got a M11x anyways. I keep reading reviews just to make sure I didn't make a bad choice. Even this much larger system seems worse in games albeit better in CPU heavy tasks. Optimus is cool and I wish I had it but it really isn't that bad having to manually switch GPUs(just press fn+f2 on the M11x). Unless I'm plugged in I'm rarely gaming heavy stuff and I'm instead in conserve energy mode with the Intel GPU, less bright screen, etc. The CPU in the M11x is the weak point but the battery life in it is great so it depends what kind of balance you want. I don't think there is any laptop with a great CPU and great battery life in a smaller form factor. I get around 6-8 hours with decent screen brightness, wireless and just general browsing/word/light games on the Intel GPU. You can game just about any modern game but you might need to tweak settings(often specifically CPU heavy settings such as shadows) or lowering the resolution a bit but doing that doesn't bug me.http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5...">http://www.notebookreview.com/default.a...are+m11x... is the best review of the M11x I've seen
JarredWalton - Sunday, March 14, 2010 - link
M11x has a faster GPU for sure, but the problem is CULV -- even overclocked -- can start to become the bottleneck. We're still waiting for a review sample; Alienware has said next month due to demand. It's a promising unit, for sure, but the lack of Optimus really makes it like a faster version of the old UL series.hagen81 - Sunday, March 14, 2010 - link
at notebookcheck you have a list of mobile graphic cards as well as some benchmarks, there's quite a diff between 335M and 325Mf4phantom2500 - Sunday, March 14, 2010 - link
Is this computer able to power down one of the CPU cores? If so what kind of difference does that make to battery life? Seeing as this is an Arrandale CPU with hyperthreading, 1 core should be plenty fast in battery mode.lloyd dd - Thursday, March 18, 2010 - link
it would be cool if the i5 had a mode in which you could power down 1 core and turn off turbo and underclock the active core.that plus optimus should give great battery life, with the performance when needed.
JarredWalton - Sunday, March 14, 2010 - link
Arrandale can put one core into a deep sleep state, but just how far that goes is difficult to say. Obviously, the standard Arrandale with the Intel HD graphics draws more power than CULV + GMA 4500MHD, but it also appears to draw quite a bit less power than an older Core 2 + 4500 laptop (see relative battery life chart).