A flagship graphics launch is bound to fail unless it's the fastest game in town. Well, both AMD and Nvidia say their respective juggernauts have that title. Clearly, only one company can be right. Is the Radeon HD 6990M or GeForce GTX 580M quicker?
A thick arm, a fat wallet, and a little technical knowledge are all that stands between you and portable gaming paradise. System builder and hardware co-developer Eurocom makes it that easy to get a top-end gaming configuration, with a bit of help from its chassis and GPU partners.
Central to its efforts, the aged Panther 2 chassis now houses Intel’s desktop-class (130 W) Core i7-990X hexa-core processor, in addition to a pair of MXM-based graphics cards.

At this point, we could frankly start recycling photos and go into a full description of the Panther 2, a machine that has garnered more than its share of attention in various Tom’s Hardware notebook reviews if we include its X7200 siblings.
But rather than rewrite previously-published information, today’s article focuses on the things that make this Panther 2 special: namely, its ability to accommodate incredibly powerful dual-card mobile graphics configurations. Below is the configuration that first arrived in our lab.
| Eurocom Panther 2 Component List | |
|---|---|
| Platform | Intel LGA 1366, X58 Express / ICH10R, MXM-Based Discrete Graphics |
| CPU | Intel Core i7-990X (Gulftown) Six-Core 3.46-3.73 GHz, 6.4 GT/s QPI, 12 MB L3 Cache, 32 nm, 130 W |
| RAM | Samsung 12 GB (3 x 4 GB) DDR3-1333 SO-DIMM, CL9, 1.5 V, Non-ECC |
| Graphics | Dual AMD Radeon HD 6990M, 2 GB GDDR5, CrossFire |
| Display | 17.3" Glossy LED Backlit TFT, 1920x1080 |
| Webcam | 3.0 Megapixel |
| Audio | Integrated HD Audio |
| Security | Built-in Fingerprint Reader |
| Storage | |
| Hard Drive | 3 x Intel 510 250 GB SSD, 750 GB (Striped), SATA 6Gb/s |
| Optical Drive | Matsushita UJ240AS 6x Blu-ray Burner |
| Media Drive | 9-in-1 Flash Media Interface |
| Networking | |
| Wireless LAN | Bigfoot Killer Wireless-N 1102 (Atheros AR5BHB116) |
| Wireless PAN | Internal Bluetooth V2.1/3.0 +EDR Module |
| Gigabit Network | JMicron PCIe 10/100/1000 Mb/s Ethernet |
| IEEE-1394 | Optional (not installed) |
| Telephony | Not Available |
| Peripheral Interfaces | |
| USB | 3 x USB 2.0, 2 x USB 3.0 |
| Expansion Card | Not Available |
| HDD | 1 x eSATA 3Gb/s |
| Audio | Headphone, Microphone, Line-In, Digital Out Jacks |
| Video | 1 x Dual-Link DVI-I w/VGA Adapter, 1 x HDMI |
| Power & Weight | |
| AC Adapter | 300 W Power Brick, 100-240 V AC to 15 V DC |
| Battery | 14.8 V, 5300 mAh (78.44 Wh) Single |
| Weight | Notebook 13.4 pounds, AC Adapter 3.6 pounds, Total 17.0 pounds |
| Software | |
| Operating System | Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit Edition, OEM |
| Service | |
| Warranty | Three-years parts, labor and tech support |
| Price | $7038 |
Since today’s article compares the latest mobile GPUs from both Nvidia and AMD, Eurocom also included a pair of GeForce GTX 580M graphics cards. That’s a $581 upgrade for most buyers, yet it barely compares to the sexy $1755 hard drive upgrade already installed in the configuration that showed up at our door. If you were really worried about pinching pennies on this thing, you could cut the price by $268 and choose a one-year warranty instead.
Moreover, if you really want to switch graphics modules around, you'll need the different GPU heat sinks. All of these parts arrived separately so that we could experience the upgrade process available to any owner of an X7200-based chassis. Eurocom even sells alternative upgrade components if you own a Dell or HP notebook, for example, and would like to upgrade.
- Flagship Mobile Graphics Go Head-To-Head
- From High-End Desktop To Elite Notebook
- Installing New Mobile Graphics Cards
- Test Settings And Benchmarks
- Benchmark Results: Crysis
- Benchmark Results: F1 2010
- Benchmark Results: Just Cause 2
- Benchmark Results: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call Of Pripyat
- Benchmark Results: Audio And Video Encoding
- Benchmark Results: Productivity
- Power Consumption And Battery Life
- Radeon HD 6990M Or GeForce GTX 580M?
This entire article is eminently STUPID! Who is going to spend that kind of money on a notebook simply so they can play games on it?
And is there a human being on this planet that can make use of a resolution like 1920x1080 on a 17" notebook screen in order to play games?
It is little wonder that the rest of the world finds us degenerate when we will indulge ourselves with toys like this, and at such a scandalous price, while millions of our fellow human beings are simply starving to death as we speak ... ;(
Not sure if troll or just stupid...
Well, there certainly is a market for those. I wonder how many professionals actually run on gaming workstations because the same kind of power using professional cards are so much more expensive.
Other than that, buying such a machine purely for gaming is not for everyone. But if you are not able to stay home often, and are an avid gamer, then spending 7k every year or so just to be able to game while on business trips doesn't seem too expensive, actually. Better than not being able to play at all, really.
Get a mid range laptop which plays games and not only that with the money you left over you could save it to buy a new laptop in the future.
Peace.
Yeah, actually most of our stuff is based off of wants. So how about we sell all our stuff that we don't need and donate the money to our fellow human beings. Seriously, dude? > 99% of us just oooohhh and aaaaahhh and flip to another webpage, while you get on your soapbox. get a life