Alienware M11x: World’s Smallest Gaming Laptop
by Jarred Walton on March 30, 2010 8:16 AM ESTM11x: Ultraportable Gaming Goodness
For the gaming tests, we’ve standardized on a comparison at 1366x768 and minimum detail settings, but the M11x can obviously do better than that. We'll include results at Medium (gold), High (red), and Very High (orange, where applicable) settings to show just how far the M11x can go before frame rates start to choke. Given the specs of the M11x, the closest competition in terms of performance comes from the ASUS N61Jv, which we've colored black for comparison.
There's no problem running games at minimum details and the native 1366x768 resolution—and in fact the GPU could easily handle the 23% megapixel increase of a 1440x900 LCD. Medium detail gaming is also plenty fast, with Far Cry 2 and Crysis: Warhead being the only titles to dip near the 30FPS mark. Move to High settings and Crysis is no longer playable, which is hardly surprising considering it can tax even the fastest desktop GPUs. Far Cry 2 and DiRT 2 also fall below 30FPS (barely) at High/Very High settings, while Empire: Total War and Stalker: Call of Pripyat flirt with 30FPS. Batman has no problem running at maximum detail settings, provided you leave off PhysX and antialiasing, and the same goes for Mass Effect 2 and Left 4 Dead 2. In general, you'll want to run games at Medium to High detail settings to get fluid frame rates.
What about the GT325M paired with a much faster CPU? The N61Jv routinely outperforms the M11x at low detail settings, but that's hardly the target market for either laptop. We did a second comparison with both laptops running at "reasonable" settings—the target was to go as high as we could on the M11x while maintaining 30FPS. We chose Very High for Batman and Mainstream for Crysis; we used Medium for Empire: Total War (High wasn't supported on the N61Jv with the current Optimus drivers), Far Cry 2, and DiRT 2; Stalker is run at High + Enhanced DX10 lighting; and finally we maxed out the settings on Left 4 Dead 2 and Mass Effect 2. Note that we disable antialiasing on all of these tests; we feel AA is great when you have a fast enough GPU, but few laptops are at the point where you can run High Quality settings and still have enough GPU performance left for AA.
With the above settings, the M11x manages to outperform the N61Jv in every test except for Far Cry 2—and we should note that FC2 at High/Very High does run faster on the M11x, but we skipped that setting in order to stay above 30FPS. We mentioned earlier that the two GPUs have the same memory bandwidth but the GT335M has 63% more shader processing power. Stalker: Call of Pripyat makes the best use of the extra shader performance, with most of the other titles close enough that the difference isn't particularly important. Of course, considering the N61Jv is a 16" chassis we again have to question why ASUS didn't give us a bit more GPU power. And likewise, we can only scratch our heads about the lack of Optimus Technology on the M11x.
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bobjones32 - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
Thanks so much for your comprehensive review, Jared. I've read a bunch of reviews for the m11x, but they're always mixing up overclocking, non-overclocking, GPU enabled, GPU disabled, and a bunch of other factors that make it extremely difficult to discern how the thing actually performs.Your review, on the other hand, covers all the bases thoroughly, and answers every single question I have!
Well, one question left - I wonder when the 335M will be made available in other laptops? I'm interested to see what ASUS and other manufacturers could do with it....
JarredWalton - Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - link
I'm guessing it's just a question of laptop manufacturers asking for chips from NVIDIA. There are lots of options so they can take their pick. For example, a great alternative that's not from NVIDIA would be the Radeon Mobility HD 5670... we'll show you why soon enough. :-)aguilpa1 - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
Thanks for the review and only confirms my initial thoughts that this tiny notebook is hardly qualified to be a gaming computer. I knew it was all marketing hype. I don't enjoy gaming in low res, thank you.PrincePickle - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
As an M11x owner your review pretty much sums up the M11x pretty well. Once I got my Alienware unpacked and setup I immediately started loading some games onto it and was pleasantly surprised. I've only played Wolfenstein and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, but they look good and are definitely playable with no problems. Will it play Crisis as well as my desktop? No way, but I don't expect it to either.I found the keyboard tight, but I got used to it quickly. I don't really care about the lack gigabit ethernet or optimus, however I do find the screen kind of glossy. Glossy screens are a problem with every other laptop manufacture on the planet, so I don't blame Alienware directly.
One thing that really surprised me when I opened up the packaging was an actual Windows 7 install disk was included. The system manual was actually useful as in it gave graphical pictures on how to replace the hard drive, memory and battery. Granted I don't buy that many laptops but I haven't seen either these things included with a computer since 2002.
There's a laptop for everybody and this one will suit some and not others. The angular looks and the system lighting are the greatest thing since sliced bread IMHO, but I'm sure others will disagree. I'm in the military and deploy fairly regularly so small form factor and power are crucial when your trying to squeeze hundreds of pounds of stuff into small bags. This computer is almost perfect for a deploying gamer and I'm sure I'll be testing that out soon enough. Anyway, good review even if I thought you were being just a little bit picky.
synaesthetic - Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - link
The lack of Optimus is more a driver concern than anything. The old push-button switchable graphics probably won't get more than token driver support from nvidia, while they're pushing Optimus very hard--Optimus drivers will soon be included in the Verde package.Personally even if I had Optimus, I'd tell it to change GPU switching to manual since there's a lot of weirdness with some apps when you let it try to decide on its own.
RamIt - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
Such a huge mistake to not include report post in the new web setup :(JarredWalton - Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - link
Working on it, and will be hopefully filtering out spam automatically in the near future.Fastidious - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
As an M11x owner I thought I'd just comment/question on a few things:1. I know there are two different LCD panels(one a bit brighter, one a bit better contrast) used and both pretty much suck ratings wise, yet I find mine looking more than good enough for me. My 24" LCD for my desktop is rated much better all around(double M11x quality or more) but I honestly can't tell much of a difference between it and the M11x screen. So while I do understand better is better, I see why the LCD is the corner that is cut most often in a notebook.
2. My fan never turns on unless I am using the 335M. Once I use the 335M it kicks in instantly and can get loud if you don't have sound(games, music, etc) going.
3. How well does GPU assisted video editing work? I know you said fast but does it make up for the weaker CPU? I am planning to use it on vacation most likely once I get around to buying a camcorder.
Overall I think the M11x is sorta for people who want something as small as possible that can game well and have big battery life in standard tasks like browsing. I got it for traveling/mobility myself, I liked the better performance in bigger notebooks but I knew I their size or extra weight would defeat the purpose. I almost never use the 335M for gaming unless I am going to be sitting plugged in for a while so it works perfect for me.
JarredWalton - Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - link
As far as the fan, either my unit is flaky or your unit is better than most. Fan noise levels top out at 36 dB, which is certainly lower than a lot of laptops, but it kicks on ALL the time for me.Video editing is generally far more CPU bound than video encoding, and here the CULV processor will be a definite bottleneck (at least AFAIK... maybe someone can recommend a good video editing package where the GPU will make a difference). Since you asked about video, though, I did a quick check of Badaboom with the GT335M.
The result (using the same test as here: http://www.anandtech.com/show/2878/9) is an encoding speed of 53.1 FPS on the GT335M. With the CPU using TMPGEnc, we got a result of just 22FPS. A faster CPU can surpass the GT335M, but we're looking at quad-core Kentsfield before we get to the crossover point.
Finally, in regards to being picky, I admit to being a bit occupied with my wife and pending birth. LOL. But I tried to make it clear where the flaws are and where the M11x excels. If your primary criteria is getting a smaller laptop with good battery life that can still play games, it's awesome. If you're concerned about drivers, I'm not convinced. The LCD is also a weak spot, but it's no worse than 98% of laptop LCDs, so that's almost a wash. Optimus and an i7 ULV processor would have been a silver award for sure.
synaesthetic - Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - link
When I first heard about the M11x, I was really pretty shocked Dell didn't use the Arrandale ULV processors. A Core i5-520UM or i7-620UM would have been perfect in this (along with Optimus), but it appears the problem was that Intel did not have the ULV chipset with support for discrete graphics available at the time the M11x was ramping up. It wasn't until later that I saw Arrandale ULVs with a discrete graphic option... and right now, only one of the MSI X-Slim is the only one I can think of.