MALIBAL's Lotus P150HM: GeForce GTX 485M Gets Its Game On

By Thomas Soderstrom
published

Using the latest advances from Intel and Nvidia, MALIBAL attempts to prove that portability and performance are no longer mutually exclusive. Can a fully-loaded Lotus P150HM meet the needs of performance enthusiasts and gamers at a more reasonable price?

Benchmark Results: Crysis And F1 2010

XoticPC’s G73JW has been retained in today’s benchmarks to reflect the capabilities of a previous-generation, high-end gaming notebook of similar weight. The firm already has a Sandy Bridge alternative that we hope to test soon.

Yes, the GeForce GTX 485M can play Crysis at the panel’s native resolution and a high level of details, so long as AA is disabled. An elder game, this has become more of a system-wide benchmark, as other engines have been optimized for newer graphics architectures.

1280x720 is a viable option for anyone who really wants to crank up Crysis details on a 16:9 panel, but we’d probably prefer to play the game at the previous settings and 1920x1080, if we still played it.

The GeForce GTX 485M appears CPU-bottlenecked at our lower F1 2010 settings, even though it’s paired with Intel’s awesome Core i7-2920XM. Fortunately, that bottleneck occurs well beyond the minimum FPS needed to experience smooth game play.

F1 2010 apparently prefers AMD's architecture, though the GeForce GTX 485M-equipped Lotus P150HM is still perfectly playable at our highest settings. We even recorded minimum FPS and found that the slowest system in today’s comparison pulled at least 20 FPS throughout the test.

Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
24 Comments Comment from the forums
  • cable4
    Sweet laptop!
    Now all I have to do is plan a bank robbery to afford it ;)
    Reply
  • Crashman
    cable4Sweet laptop! Now all I have to do is plan a bank robbery to afford itI think you can save around $1500 and still keep the good graphics card if you're willing to give up the fast processor, SSD, and extra RAM :)
    Reply
  • lee3821
    CrashmanI think you can save around $1500 and still keep the good graphics card if you're willing to give up the fast processor, SSD, and extra RAMGood point.
    With that taken off price, it looks really appealing, honestly.
    Size+Wieght+Power+Price+Battery=great!
    ...if I wanted a gaming laptop.
    For me, the HD6550M and i5 480M serve me well enough at 1366x768 until I can get back to my kickass desktop.
    Reply
  • Bigmac80
    I have a pretty good gaming laptop Asus G73. I remember when i bought it i was thinking to myself that this can really change everything because of how fast and how portble it was. But even though i have a fast laptop i still prefer gaming on a desktop.
    Reply
  • neiroatopelcc
    Too bad you made no comparisons to desktop midrange systems. So we still don't know if it's worth going for only a laptop like this, or getting a cheap i3 laptop for the road and a proper gaming system for stationary use.
    Reply
  • Maziar
    Impressive results. 1:38 is quite good for a gaming notebook like this.
    to neiroatopelcc
    GTX 485M performs between desktop GTS 450 and GTX 460
    Reply
  • bhaberle
    I wouldn't say only seven pounds mate. That is on the heavier side for notebooks. =) But I am glad that laptops are finally not going to be a huge compromise.
    Reply
  • oz73942
    The batterly life on the review is no where close to what owners are getting. 3 hours under typical daily use ;)
    Reply
  • WyomingKnott
    Am I just stupid? What is "Clevo?"
    Reply
  • JackNaylorPE
    WyomingKnottAm I just stupid? What is "Clevo?"
    Most of the brands you heard of don't actually make any laptops. The vast majority of laptops on the market are manufactured by a small handful of Original Design Manufacturers (ODM).

    Major relationships include:

    * Quanta sells to (among others) HP/Compaq, Dell, Toshiba, Sony, Fujitsu, Acer, NEC, Gateway and Lenovo/IBM - note that Quanta is currently (as of August, 2007) the largest manufacturer of notebook computers in the world.
    * Compal sells to Toshiba, HP/Compaq, Acer, and Dell.
    * Positivo Informatica sells to Samsung, Sony, Siragon, Toshiba, HP
    * Wistron (former manufacturing & design division of Acer) sells to HP/Compaq, Dell, IBM, NEC, Acer, and Lenovo/IBM.
    * Flextronics (former Arima Computer Corporation notebook division) sells to HP/Compaq, NEC, and Dell.
    * Itautec sells to Siragon, LG, Samsung, Sony
    * ECS sells to IBM, Fujitsu, and Dell.
    * Asus sells to Apple (iBook), Sony, and Samsung.
    * Inventec sells to HP/Compaq, Toshiba, and BenQ.
    * Lanix sells to Sony, Compaq, Toshiba, Siragon, Itautec
    * Uniwill sells to Lenovo/IBM and Fujitsu & PC World UK own brand Advent.
    * Clevo sells to known boutique brand OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers)… notably Sager, VoodooPC, Falcon Northwest, Eurocom, Xoticpc, Prostar, etc.

    http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/91510-clevo-guide-v2-0-faq-reseller-info.html

    They are also considered (by whoever knows about notebooks) to design and manufacturer the best of the best notebooks in terms of superior build quality and innovative designs
    .
    Reply