Alienware m15x Performance and Benchmarks

by Charles P. Jefferies

Our review unit is configured as follows:

• 15.4" WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 LCD (1200p)
• Alienware AlienFX System Lighting
• 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX
• Intel Core 2 Extreme X9000 2.8GHz (6MB Cache, 800MHz FSB)
• 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 667MHz - 2 x 2048MB
• Intel Turbo Memory (1GB)
• Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit
• 200GB 7200RPM (16MB Cache)
• 320GB 5400RPM (8MB Cache) Smart Bay
• 2x Dual Layer Blu-ray Disc Burner (BD-R, DVD±RW, CD-RW)
• Internal Intel Wireless 4965 a/b/g/Draft-N Mini-Card
• Internal High-Definition Audio with surround sound
• AlienFX Illuminated Keyboard

See our full Alienware Area-51 m15x Revew.

System Performance Benchmarks

Windows Experience Index

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Overall System Performance using PCMark05

Scoring over 7,500 points in PCMark05 is unheard of in a 15.4-inch notebook - that makes the Alienware Area-51 m15x the fastest 15.4-inch notebook we have ever tested.

Processor Performance Benchmarks

wPrime

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wPrime is a multi-threaded CPU test - it is similar to SuperPi but has a few more features. It is a much more accurate benchmark for dual-core CPUs. Please see our big comparison thread here.

SiSandra Arithmetic

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SiSandra Multimedia

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Rendering Performance using Cinebench 10

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Cinebench Release 10 is the latest version of Maxon's rendering benchmark, based on the Maxon CINEMA 4D animation software. It is designed to measure the performance of the processor and graphics card under real world circumstances. More information can be found at http://www.maxon.net/pages/download/cinebench_e.html

Hard Drive Performance

HDTune 2.55

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The Hitachi 7K200 200GB 7200RPM is currently the fastest hard drive available for notebooks.

Gaming Benchmarks

Synthetic Gaming Performance using 3DMark06

The m15x gets incredible 3DMark scores courtesy of the Nvidia GeForce 8800M-GTX and the Intel Core 2 Extreme X9000. This is one of the fastest gaming notebooks on the market with a single graphics card.

Real-Life Games

I benchmarked three of the latest games on the m15x: Crysis, Unreal Tournament III, and Call of Duty 4. All tests were done with the Nvidia 167.55 video drivers (stock).

Crysis

I benchmarked the m15x using the built-in GPU benchmark. The game was patched to 1.2 prior to testing.

Settings:

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Benchmark Results:

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Crysis is certainly the performance killer, as even the 8800M-GTX is brought to its knees in this game. I have seen higher FPS in this game using other 8800M-GTX systems; Alienware is using slightly different 167.55 drivers. I assume a driver update would fix the Crysis performance. Unfortunately as of writing, no drivers but the included ones are compatible with the 8800M-GTX. Until then, Crysis players will have to turn down the system settings and play the game in DirectX 9 mode to get playable performance.

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Unreal Tournament III

I benchmarked two different levels in UT3 with FRAPS.

Settings:

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Benchmark Results:

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The game is more than playable on the m15x - the 8800M-GTX has no problems rendering the game at full detail at the highest resolution and it looks wonderful.

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Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

I also benchmarked Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare with FRAPS.

Settings:

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Benchmark Results:

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The 8800M-GTX simply tears through this game - even at the extreme 1920x1200 resolution with 4x anti-aliasing and every other setting maxed out, this game is fluid and looks stunning.

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It is obvious from the benchmarking that the m15x is a force to be reckoned with. I am more than impressed with this performance. There were some driver issues with Crysis but other than that, gaming performance was flawless. Let us not forget that this is all coming from a svelte 15.4-inch notebook that can get over two and a half hours of battery life!