This year's CES is all about tablets and 3D. Everything is going 3D, and the latest to jump on the bandwagon is Dell. The company today announced that its high-end Sandy Bridge 17-inch laptops would be getting the option of 120Hz 3D 1080p LCDs.
The XPS 17 laptop with the 3D display comes equipped with the Nvidia GeForce GT 555M graphics card, but if you want 3D, you'll have to buy the NVision 3D glasses separately.
We chose to go hands-on with the even higher-end option with the refreshed Alienware M17x, the line's first 3D-capable gaming laptop. Unlike the XPS system, this one includes a set of 3D glasses, which should be expected with a starting price of $1,499.
The demonstration material that we got to see was Crysis 2, which we suppose answers the question about the Alienware M17x – Yes, it can play Crysis 2… in 3D.
Of course, Crytek has worked hard to make Crysis 2 scalable to a wider range of hardware, this time including consoles, so more machines ever can play Crysis 2. The impressive part is that the machine was rendering it with 3D on with all the settings on high. Frame rate appeared to be very smooth and the 3D graphics were gorgeous.
The one unfortunate thing is that the machine would get hot enough running Crysis 2 that the temperature control would kick in and it would throttle the chips, leading to noticeable slowdown. If you plan to be gaming on this 10lbs gaming laptop, then you're going to need some kind of laptop cooler.
