Asus' G51J: Affordable Core i7 Mobile Gaming?

Test Settings

In order to gauge the CPU performance improvements of Intel's Core i7 mobile technology, we compared Asus’ G51J to MSI’s similarly-priced, Core 2 Quad-based GT725-212US. To gauge the limits of Core i7 mobile technology, we also compared Eurocom’s ultra-expensive, desktop CPU-based D900F Panther.

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Graphics Notebook Performance Details
ModelAsus G51JEurocom D900F PantherMSI GT725-212US
CPUIntel Core i7-720QM 1.60 GHz-2.80 GHz, Quad Cores DMI 2.5GT/s, 6.0MB L3 CacheIntel Core i7 Extreme 965 3.20 GHz-3.46 GHz, Quad Cores QPI 6.4GT/s, 8.0MB L3 CacheIntel Core 2 Quad Q9000 2.00 GHz, Quad Cores FSB-1066, 6.0MB L2 Cache
ChipsetIntel PM55 Express PCHIntel X58/ICH10RIntel PM45/ICH9M
RAM4.0GB DDR3-1066 CAS 76.0GB DDR3-1066 CAS 74.0GB DDR2-800 CAS 6
GraphicsNvidia GeForce GTX 260M 1.0GB 500 MHz GPU, GDDR3-1800Nvidia GeForce GTX 280M 1.0GB 580 MHz GPU, GDDR3-1900ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB 500 MHz GPU, GDDR3-1700
HDDSeagate ST9320423AS (non-RAID) 320GB, 7,200 RPM, 16MB Cache2x Seagate ST9500420AS RAID 0 500GB, 7,200 RPM, 16MB CacheWD Scorpio Black WD3200BEKT 32GB, 7,200 RPM, 16MB Cache
SoundIntegrated HD AudioIntegrated HD AudioIntegrated HD Audio
Wired LANIntegrated Gigabit LANIntegrated Gigabit LANIntegrated Gigabit LAN
Wireless LANIntel WiFi Link 1000 802.11nIntel WiFi Link 5300 802.11nAtheros AR928X 802.11n
OpticalH-L Data GT30N DVD-RAM 8x DVD±R, 6x DVD±RW, 5x DVD-RAMPanasonic UJ-130 BD-ROM DVD±RW 2x BD-ROM, 8x DVD±R, 4x DVD±RWOptiarc BC-5500S BD-ROM DVD±RW 2x BD-ROM, 8x DVD±R, 4x DVD±RW

Encouraged by performance parity in our Benchmarking/OS Comparison and discouraged that Asus’ drivers will only execute under the latest Windows version, we compared all systems with as-delivered software.

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Benchmark Configuration
3D Games
CrysisPatch 1.2.1, DirectX 10, 64-bit executable, benchmark tool Test Set 1: High Quality, No AA Test Set 2: Very High Quality, No AA
Far Cry 2DirectX 10, in-game benchmark Test Set 1: Very High Quality, No AA Test Set 2: Ultra High Quality, 4x AA
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear SkyAverage of 4 segments "A-Tested Object" Test Set 1: High Preset, DirectX 10, EFDL, no MSAA Test Set 2: High Preset, DirectX 10, EFDL, 4xMSAA
World In ConflictPatch 1009, DirectX 10, timedemo Test 1: Very High Details, No AA / No AF Test 2: Very High Details 4x AA / 16x AF
Audio/Video Encoding
iTunes 8Version: 8.1.0.52 (x64) Audio CD ("Terminator II" SE), 53 min. to default format AAC
Lame MP3Version: 3.98 64-bit (07-04-2008) Audio CD "Terminator 2" SE, 53 min. .wav to MP3
TMPG 4.6Version: 4.6.3.268 "Terminator 2" SE DVD (5 Minutes) at 720x576 (PAL) 16:9
DivX 6.8.5Insane Quality, Enhanced multithreading, SSE4, Quarter-pixel search
Xvid 1.2.1Display encoding status = off
MainConcept Reference 1.6.1MPEG2 to MPEG2 (H.264), MainConcept H.264/AVC Codec, 28 sec HDTV 1920x1080 (MPEG2), Audio: MPEG2 (44.1 kHz, 2 Channel, 16-Bit, 224Kb/s), Mode: PAL (25 FPS)
Productivity
Autodesk 3ds Max 2009Version: 11.0, Rendering Dragon Image at 1920x1080 (HDTV)
Grisoft AVG Anti-Virus 8.5Version: 8.5.287, Virus database 2094, Benchmark: Scan 334MB Folder of ZIP/RAR compressed files
WinRAR 3.90 x64Version 3.90 beta 2, WinZIP Command line Version 3.0, Compression = Best, Dictionary = 4,096 KB, Benchmark: THG-Workload (334 MB)
WinZip 12Version 12.0, Compression = Best, Benchmark: THG-Workload (139MB)
Synthetic
3DMark VantageVersion: 1.0.1, 3DMark score
PCMark VantageVersion: 1.00, System, Memory, Hard Disk Drive benchmarks, Windows Media Player 10.00.00.3646
SiSoftware Sandra 2009 SP3Version 2009.4.15.92, CPU Test = CPU Arithmetic / Multimedia, Memory Test = Bandwidth Benchmark
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.