AVADirect’s X7200: The GeForce GTX 485M SLI Mobile Graphics Giant
Hot on the heels of Eurocom’s Radeon HD 6970M CrossFire-based launch, AVADirect promises even bigger performance using pair of GeForce GTX 485M modules in SLI. Can AVADirect claim the performance crown at a lower price than its competition?
Taking It To The Limit, One More Time
Gamers might be better served by Intel’s latest Sandy Bridge-based mobile processors, but Clevo’s LGA 1366-based X7200 remains the only chassis capable of supporting Nvidia’s hottest graphics modules in SLI. Capable of holding both Core i7 and Xeon processors with up to six physical cores, AVADirect equipped this workstation-class notebook with an enthusiast-class Core i7-980X Extreme.


Regular visitors will notice the recycled images. Nothing has changed about the X7200 since last year’s introduction, though AVADirect made the thoughtful move to include a second power supply with today’s configuration.
Remembering that each of these 300 W power units is larger and heavier than a traditional facing brick, we were happy to find that the second power adapter is only required under unrealistically-extreme use scenarios (such as using FurMark and eleven threads of Prime95 simultaneously).
Desktop vs. Mobile GeForce Graphics | |||
---|---|---|---|
Row 0 - Cell 0 | Desktop GeForce GTX 480 | Desktop GeForce GTX 560 TI | GeForce GTX 485M |
Transistors | 3 billion | 1.95 billion | 1.95 billion |
Engine Clock | 700 MHz | 822 MHz | 575 MHz |
Cuda Cores | 480 | 384 | 384 |
Texture Units | 60 | 64 | 64 |
ROP Units | 40 | 32 | 32 |
Compute Performance | 1345 GFLOPS | 1.26 TFLOPS | 883.2 GFLOPS |
DRAM Type | GDDR5-3696 | GDDR5-4000 | GDDR5-3000 |
DRAM Interface | 384-bits | 256-bits | 256-bits |
Memory Bandwidth | 177.4 GB/s | 128 GB/s | 96 GB/s |
TDP | 250 W | 170 W | 100 W |
We’ve even discussed how the GeForce GTX 485M’s specs resemble those of an underclocked GTX 560 Ti, though we’re told it uses the older GF104 core with power-optimized BIOS and software. This power-saving design compares favorably to AMD’s Barts-based Radeon HD 6970M, at least on a specifications sheet.
Desktop vs. Mobility Radeon Graphics | |||
---|---|---|---|
Row 0 - Cell 0 | Desktop Radeon HD 6970 | Desktop Radeon HD 6850 | Radeon HD 6970M |
Transistors | 2.64 billion | 1.7 billion | 1.7 billion |
Engine Clock | 880 MHz | 775 MHz | 680 MHz |
Shader (ALUs) | 1536 | 960 | 960 |
Texture Units | 96 | 48 | 48 |
ROP Units | 32 | 32 | 32 |
Compute Performance | 2.7 TFLOPS | 1.49 TFLOPS | 1.3 TFLOPS |
DRAM Type | GDDR5-5500 | GDDR5-4000 | GDDR5-3600 |
DRAM Interface | 256-bits | 256-bits | 256-bits |
Memory Bandwidth | 176 GB/s | 128 GB/s | 115.2 GB/s |
TDP | 250 W | 127 W | 100 W |
With no new parts to show, let’s see how this new configuration of previously-reviewed components performs!
Stay On the Cutting Edge: Get the Tom's Hardware Newsletter
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Current page: Taking It To The Limit, One More Time
Prev Page Better? Faster? Cheaper? Next Page Test Settings-
tacoslave these thing are ridiculously expensive. Besides it seems dual gpu's(at least in the mobile sector) scale HORRIBLY in most scenerios.Reply -
LuckyDucky7 Those who really, really need the power, or just have lots of money to blow on stuff like this.Reply
Those who need to process large data sets on the go would likely see lots of use from a machine like this.
Also, those who develop software and need a mobile machine to showcase their new products (especially if that software happens to be a game).
Diminishing returns? Maybe with personal laptops < 1000 dollars. Not with this class of machine. -
Crashman tacoslavethese thing are ridiculously expensive. Besides it seems dual gpu's(at least in the mobile sector) scale HORRIBLY in most scenerios.If you look at the 1920x1080 highest detail results, it's somewhere around 60-80%. I wouldn't call that horrible. You do want to game at the panel's native resolution, no?Reply
-
Maziar Great review as always Crashman :)Reply
Judging from the specs,1 GTX 485M performance falls between a desktop GTX 460 and GTX 560Ti right ? -
Crashman MaziarGreat review as always Crashman Judging from the specs,1 GTX 485M performance falls between a desktop GTX 460 and GTX 560Ti right ?It looks that way on paper...I'm sure there's an X7200 review with a desktop card that you could use to make the conversions.Reply -
Maziar Yep,right.Reply
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/malibal-lotus-p150hm-geforce-gtx-485m-core-i7-2920xm,2855.html
But I liked to see a desktop system in the comparison charts. -
silverblue Crysis 1280x720 is a bit of an abberation for the 6970 in Crossfire. Had it not misbehaved there, the result would have been closer, however now AMD have to drop their prices as NVIDIA have brought out a very good solution.Reply -
americanbrian I kind of object to using all of the low resolution results on a configuration like this. It seems like all that it does is skew the results in favour of Nvidia, where in actual fact at the highest details and resolutions (i.e. the targeted area for a gaming laptop) the radeons conclusively win in performance.Reply
I understand that the value proposition is not very good still, but your conclusion is misleading in my opinion. People splashing out to be able to play the most modern games at highest res simply do not care how many excessive frames are pushed at the low end. -
Pointdexter Ok there's something I don't understand : on Eurocom's website an HD6970M costs 475$ LESS than an GTX 485M ... in fact the 6970M costs the same as an GTX 470MReply
so how can an SLI'd GTX 485 could be cheaper than an Xfire'd GTX 485M ?