X-bit labs

Portable Gamer’s Dream: Asus G2 Gaming Notebook Series Review (page 13)

Category: Mobile

by Alexander Britvin

[ 06/01/2007 | 11:15 AM ]

The notebooks are each equipped with a discrete graphics core ATI Mobility Radeon X1700. We tested their graphical performance in three versions of 3DMark: 3DMark 2003 3.6.0, 3DMark 2005 1.2.0 and 3DMark 2006 1.0.2.

3DMark is a set of 3D scenes rendered by a unique engine that can load the computer’s graphics subsystem in various ways. Compared with the previous version, 3DMark 2005 uses Shader Model 2.0x/3.0 instead of Shader Model 1.x, provides full compatibility with Shader Model 2.0, includes more complex tests (over a million polygons per each frame), and employs normal maps. 3DMark 2006 brings support for HDR, Uniform Shadow Maps, and multi-core CPUs. It is overall oriented at Shader Model 3.0, but two out of its four graphics tests work within the Shader Model 2.0 framework.

The more advanced graphics solution installed in the ASUS G2Pb enjoys a small lead in every test. The notebooks slow down greatly when they have to work on their batteries due to aggressive power-saving algorithms implemented in PowerPlay technology. The notebooks didn’t pass the Shader Particles Test. It is because the ATI Radeon X1000 architecture doesn’t support the vertex texture fetch feature, which is only available on the GeForce 6 and 7 architectures.

Another interesting thing, the CPU tests from 3DMark 2003 and 2005 are not as CPU-dependent as the one in 3DMark06 – this is indicated by the performance hit in the battery mode. The latest version of the benchmark has a “purer” CPU test.

Next, we tested the notebooks in two modes in Quake 3 :

• 640x480; 16 bit; Vertex Lighting; Low Detail; 16-bit Texture Quality; Bilinear Texture Filter
• 1024x768; 32 bit; Lightmap Lighting; High Detail; 32-bit Texture Quality; Trilinear Texture Filter

And in one mode in Quake 4 :

• Overall Quality – High; Resolution – 1024x768; Format – 4:3; Multi-core Optimization – Yes. Other settings were left default

There was no standard demo record in Quake 4 , so we had to create one by ourselves. We will use it in every following review of notebooks on our site so that different notebooks could be compared under identical conditions.

The G2Pb feels at ease in Quake 3 when powered from the mains. When working on the battery, it is slower than its opponent due to even more aggressive power-saving settings. The same settings lead to a threefold performance hit in Quake 4 , but you have a longer battery life instead.