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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JarredWalton - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
Hi everyone,In case you have any questions for me, I'm very likely not going to be able to respond for a few days. My wife is in labor, and I'll be heading out shortly, so wish us luck! Hope you enjoy the M11x review!
Cheers,
Jarred Walton
Lunyone - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
Good luck! Hope all goes well with mom and kid. Hope that they both are healthy and I'll officially welcome you to parenthood! Lot's of work and sleepless nights, but well worth it, IMHO!JarredWalton - Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - link
Corbin Derrik Walton was born yesterday (March 30) at 2:33PM PDT.Mom and baby are doing fine, and we had a great experience. We used a midwife and delivered at the local birthing center, and after having my first daughter delivered in a hospital I have to say that this was an awesome change--much more intimate and relaxed, and the birthing tub was extremely helpful!
This is my second child, but Becky (my new wife's) first, and she was amazing! After around eight hours of labor, she gave birth au natural to our gigantic baby boy: 10 pounds, 4 ounces, and 21.5 inches long! We're back home, I managed to get some sleep for the first time in two days, and mom is trying to do likewise (with less success of course, since there's a big little boy wanting food on a regular basis).
Thanks for the well wishes, and thanks for the comments... I'll have to look through them in detail later.
--Jarred
Matt Campbell - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
Congratulations Jarred! Great news :)therealnickdanger - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
On the "baby and stuff":Congratulations and God bless!
On the article:
Very nice, I'm happy that you pointed out the lack of Optimus, Arrandale CULV, and driver issues. Even if the MX11 was $500, I would still hesitate given the potential for the MX11 mark 2. I was very excited for the MX11 after CES... then what seemed like only a month later I saw all the press surrounding Optimus and Arrandale CULV. Bad timing, indeed.
teko - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
Good luck =)fabarati - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
Congratulations Jarred!at80eighty - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
Best wishes man! hope all goes smooth & happy!Voo - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
All the best and don't worry about us! We'll just wait and bombard your mailbox with mails.. uh no that wasn't a threat, really ;)MonkeyPaw - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - link
Hope your baby enjoys his/her new gaming notebook!