When A Smaller Notebook Makes More Sense
The main reason we asked for Eurocom’s Racer was to test its Radeon HD 6990M graphics module in a less-expensive, more-portable package than the workstation we reviewed previously. When we achieved similar gaming performance compared to the Core i7-990X-based X7200 rocking a single GPU, we knew we had achieved exactly what we wanted to see. The prices for our performance-per-dollar chart were updated Christmas week.
No good deed goes unpunished, though, and a 10% average performance loss in our productivity suite moving from the Core i7-990X to the mobile Sandy Bridge-based part diminished the overall value chart slightly.
Both notebooks include 1920x1080 displays, and all three configurations are capable of playing most games at moderately high quality settings using that resolution.
Based on the desktop Radeon HD 6870, AMD's Radeon HD 6990M proves itself to be an almost-perfect notebook-oriented GPU by combining moderately-high performance with moderately-low power consumption. While it can’t outperform the power-hungry GeForce GTX 580M in most games, the graphics chip does let Eurocom build one of the few portable gaming rigs we wouldn’t mind carrying around. Our only reservation in making a full-fledged recommendation favoring the Racer has to do with its price. Had we been able to compare this notebook sporting Intel's quad-core processor to a dual-core model, we think you would have been even more impressed with the configuration's value.
