Alienware M11x: World’s Smallest Gaming Laptop
by Jarred Walton on March 30, 2010 8:16 AM ESTAcceptable Application Performance
For general applications, the GPU is less important and so the M11x is going to end up quite a bit slower than many other "midrange" laptops. We should see about the same level of performance as the ASUS UL50Vf, with slightly better scores from the 7200RPM hard drive. That's the theory at least. As noted earlier, the actual overclock appears to be 1.60GHz instead of 1.73GHz, which means the UL50Vf is clocked 8.3% higher and should outperform the M11x except in cases where the faster HDD and/or GPU come into play. We've colored the N61Jv black and the UL50Vf gold for ease of comparison in our application benchmarks.
As expected, the M11x ends up beating the UL50Vf in some tests and trailing in others. It's 25% faster in PCMark05 (mostly from the GPU result, it appears), 7% faster in PCMark Vantage (GPU and HDD), but around 10% slower in the CPU-limited tests of Peacekeeper, Cinebench, and x264 encoding. Again, it's odd that Alienware would limit the multiplier to 6x when overclocked but then claim to have a 1.73GHz CPU. Note also that in overclocked mode, the various power saving CPU functions don't seem to kick in—CPU-Z reports the processor running at a constant 1.60GHz instead of dropping to a 4x multiplier when idle.
Does any of this really matter? In terms of getting acceptable application performance, not really: practically any dual-core CPU will be fast enough for general computing, and if you're doing 3D rendering or video encoding you should be using a different tool. (NVIDIA would of course recommend Badaboom with CUDA for video encoding, and we admit that it's quite speedy on the GT335M.) If on the other hand you believe in truth in advertising, Alienware needs to update the BIOS or update their web page. We'd also like to see SpeedStep functioning with the overclocked CPU, as we've seen that work on the ASUS laptops.
Our final stop will be the 3DMark results. Yes, they're synthetic and we've already looked at gaming performance. For those that like to see the numbers, though, we've included them as usual. The M11x makes short work of the ASUS UL series, with scores that are anywhere from 50% to 220% higher. 3DMark Vantage shows very close to linear scaling with the shader processing power of the GT335M compared to the G210M. (The M11x also manages to run Vantage at Performance defaults (but 1280x768 resolution) with a reasonable score of P3217, if you're wondering.) The N61Jv matchup is a bit more sensible, with the M11x leading by 7% in 06, 18% in 03, and 32% in Vantage… but oddly it trails by 7% in 3DMark05. Now you know why we take 3DMark results with a large dose of skepticism; the 3DMark results are only truly indicative of 3DMark performance.
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Fastidious - Thursday, April 1, 2010 - link
Thanks for taking a quick check of Badaboom, I really appreciate it. I will end up using that now for sure. Good luck with the newborn too BTW! :-)I would also prefer Optimus and a slightly beefier CPU but I eventually had to bite the bullet and buy something. I already had held out quite long, I was going to get either a netbook or the Asus UL30/80 but once I saw the GPU and price of the M11x I ordered one without hesitation. I hope the drivers hold up as that is honestly an angle I didn't consider when I bought, but if I can get 3 years or more use I'll consider it a good deal. Cheers...
Rocket321 - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
I'd like to add that gaming is not the only thing that benifits from video driver updates. I have a mid-range HP laptop from a few years ago with NV 6150 integrated graphics. HP has never added and updated driver from nvidia since release. The driver available has significant issues with TV-out. Yes, I worked around it with uncertified drivers & a hacked INF file, but I would never expect Mom & Dad to figure that out. SHAME on the multi-billion dollar PC companies who cannot issue driver updates.RMSistight - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
The one thing that was VERY VERY lacking and that was the dealbreaker was essentially USB 3.0. I was ready to put down $850 for this machine (through Dell EPP and varies coupons), but in the end without USB 3.0, it remains unattractive to me. Optimus technology would have been great as well. However, I will not spend money on old USB technology. The laptop also doesn't have an expresscard slot so I can't use it a USB 3.0 card.Once they fix these issues, then and ONLY then will I consider this laptop. My next laptop must contain USB 3.0. If it doesn't, I won't consider it period.
JarredWalton - Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - link
USB 3.0 is an early feature right now; I have a feeling when it's part of chipsets rather than an extra chip on the mobo, it will be better than the early USB3 implementations. We'll see, but right now it's not a deal breaker for me at all.liemfukliang - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
I want to ask where is the print version of the article in the new Anandtech? Thank you.furyagain - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
330 's shader is 48 and 335 is 72but the clock between them are different
575 mhz gt330
450 gt 335
which will make the different only around 20%
beginner99 - Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - link
IMHO too expensive. Ok you can play some ganes at that res and low settings. But I hardly believe anyone actually does it. Or where to you game? On the train/bus going to work? Can't really see how you can play games wihtout a mouse expect maybe round-based strategy games.BTW is there anywhere a usefull list that compares all the nvidia card (and maybe with the radeon version)? it's a completey mess what nv is doing with there naming sheme especially if you also consider the buisness versions which are not comparable by name to standard version.
Pratyushg - Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - link
Precisely my point. If on the move better have a PSP. In my opinion a better config would have been with core i3 & an optical drive, even if asked for screen size upto 13".For graphics benchmark, I refer this:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards...
and for more abstract version:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Comparison-of-Graphic...
Hope it helps.
Cheers
Fastidious - Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - link
A PSP isn't going to do anything close to what a real computer can do so I think that is a moot point. M11x might not run insane settings but the graphics it can run at good frame rate look good. Who cares if you can't have anti-aliasing, maxed shadows, or maxed rag dolls physics, etc I can live without those settings. A lot of settings I can barely even tell if they are on yet they do a lot to drain performance. Hell why even carry a 'large' PSP just play games on your cell phone which you'll have anyways, LOL. If I can have access to my own desktop a notebook which can game is almost pointless to me. However I go on trips where I am days/weeks/months away from my desktop so having something that can be very portable and game is a big plus.JonnyDough - Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - link
Who picked it? :)