The m15x is an evolutionally leap in mobile gaming technology. Many mobile gamers are willing to sacrifice desk space and portability to have all the latest gizmos in their 17” notebooks. But Alienware’s m15x is the world’s first top performance 15” notebook. sleek, stylish, and most important its portable. Not only can gaming extremist have some portability, but this open the gates for high end gaming in a mainstream sized notebook.

I’ve been on the lookout for a high performance notebook that is < 17” for a couple of years now. The m15x is definitely the PC for me but nothing else even comes close!

I’d like to share the benchmarks of past and present games I had on the m15x, along with 2 other recent “high performance” 15” notebooks I have lying around.

The Contenders

Alienware m15x
Purchased 6/2008 $2500
Specs:
Nvidia 8800M GTX 512MB
Intel T9300 Core 2 Duo. 2.5Ghz 6MB cache
15” UXGA (1920x1200)
2GB PC2-5300 DDR2 (2x 1024)
160GB 5400RPM SATA Hybrid HDD /w 265MB Flash
Windows XP Professional

My latest notebook, and a dream come true. FINALLY the top performing GPU in a 15” notebook!


Alienware m5550
Purchased 5/2007 $1500
Specs:
Nvidia GeforceGo 7600GT 256MB
Intel T7200 Core 2 Duo. 2.0Ghz 4MB cache
15” UXGA (1920x1200)
1GB PC2-5300 DDR2 (2x 512)
80GB 5400RPM SATA HDD
Windows XP Professional

Alienware previous top performance 15” notebook. When I purchased this notebook it was the best 15” 3D performance notebook out there. It was difficult to find one with a UXGA screen and no one outside of Alienware put at least the 7600GT GPU in (no one put anything better). Only a year old and check out the differences found.


HP/Compaq 8510w
Purchased 1/2008 $3300
Nvidia Quadro FX 570M 256MB
Intel T7500 Core 2 Duo. 2.2Ghz 4MB cache
15” UXGA (1920x1200)
4GB PC2-5300 DDR2 (2x 2048)
120GB 7200RPM SATA HDD
Windows XP Professional

What’s this doing here? This is my work laptop, provided by the company. This is one rock solid, high performance, business based notebook While not designed for gaming it does have the Nvidia Quadro FX 570M, which packs a punch. And it’s a $3000+ notebook . I never game on this guy, but for the purpose of research we “borrowed” its systems recourses for comparison.


3DMark06
The first thing I did was run a 3DMark06 on all three of these guys, at the same time.
It looks like this:




Anyway, the results are as follows.


I’d take a good look at this chart, because everything else is going to be very similar.

The results say it all. The m15x is 452% more powerful then its AW predecessor. You just don’t see this type of power in a 15” notebook ever!


Built in Benchmarks
Built in benchmarks are great. They give a very accurate rating on how your exact system will perform in that specific game. We compared all three system using the built in benchmark tools for Crysis & Doom 3.

Note: I tried to keep this as real world as possible. All benchmarks are done with in game “medium” settings. The Nvidia control panel is set to “Let application decide” settings. Antialiasing (AA) was adjusted with in game options.


Crysis UXGA (1920x1200)



Crysis XGA (1440x900)



Doom3 UXGA (1920x1200)



Doom3 XGA (1440x900)




I also benchmarked Oblivion and World of Warcraft using FRAPS to get the average FPS. While not as accurate as a built in benchmark, it’s about as realistic as you get. These are the FPS I got while actually playing the game. I ran the same part on each system to keep everything equal.


Oblivion UXGA (1920x1200)



Oblivion XGA (1400x900)




WoW UXGA (1920x1200)


WoW XGA (1440x900)

WoW test were only done with 0 AA.

I guess the point is clear; the m15x blows the underpants off anything else in its class. Nothing else is even coming close, you have to compare it to a 17” notebook to even get started. Even with today’s notebooks no other 15” notebook comes close. Outside of Alienware the best gaming GPU I see in other vendor’s 15” notebooks is the 8600M GT, which scores roughly the same as the HP used in these benchmarks.