X-bit labs

Dell Supercharges Its Latest Gaming Notebook with New Graphics Sub-System.

Category: Video

by Anton Shilov

[ 01/30/2008 | 10:26 PM ]

Dell, one of the leading producers of state-of-the-art systems for gamers, has updated its latest high-performance notebook with a new graphics sub-system that features Nvidia Corp.’s top-of-the-range mobile graphics chips. As a result, Dell is the first maker of mobile systems that actually managed to put two GeForce 8800M GTX into its machine.

Dell’s XPS M1730 is one of the most powerful notebook computers today, which is also available as a special “World of Warcraft” edition. The M1730 system comes with 17” screen with 1920x1200 resolution and is based on Intel Core 2 Duo processor T7500 (2.20GHz, 4MB cache, 800MHz processor system bus) or Intel Core 2 Duo X7900 (2.80GHz) and comes equipped with 2GB of dual-channel PC2-5300 (667MHz) memory, two Nvidia GeForce graphics processing units, Ageia PhysX 100M accelerator, 200GB hard disk drive with 7200rpm motors, 802.11a/g/n network controller, Bluetooth 2.0 module, embedded webcam and microphone.

Earlier the speedy system from Dell came with two Nvidia GeForce 8700M GT graphics cards in SLI mode, but this week Dell started to offer its machine with two Nvidia GeForce 8800M GTX graphics accelerators. The two of Nvidia’s most powerful mobile chips come inside a special package and cannot be installed as a single-chip graphics solution. The package costs $700 when bought with a new laptop; it is unclear how much should pay early adopters of Dell XPS M1830 for it.

The new Nvidia GeForce 8800M GTX and 8800M GTS graphics processing units (GPUs) are based on the cut-down versions of the code-named G92 graphics core made using 65nm process technology. The new GeForce 8800M-series products fully support DirectX 10, high-definition video playback as well as technologies that help to reduce power consumption.

Nvidia GeForce 8800M GTX has 96 stream processors enabled that work at 1250MHz, while all the other domains of the product are set to operate at 500MHz. The mobile graphics accelerator features 512MB of GDDR3 memory at 1600MHz.

It is interesting to note that Dell XPS M1730 is the first mobile computer in the world to utilize two GeForce 8800M GTX graphics chips in SLI multi-GPU mode. While its performance should be on-par with leading-edge desktops, the cost of such graphics accelerators may be too high even for mobile gaming enthusiast.