Benchmark Results: Gaming And 3DMark Vantage
In our desktop Clarkdale coverage, we compared 3DMark performance using the Performance preset, if only to keep the results relevant to the discrete platforms used to prevent a graphics bottleneck. Here, though, we step back to the Entry preset in the interest of generating more meaningful numbers. Given the Overall and GPU results, it’s clear that HD Graphics are more effective than the GM45’s GMA 4500MHD controller.
The biggest performance boost comes from the 32nm host processor, which almost doubles the performance of Intel’s Penryn-based Core 2 Duo P8700 in the physics- and AI-oriented processor tests.
We’re not going to spend a ton of time talking about gaming. After all, you’re going to be fairly limited in the number of titles that will run well on an integrated graphics core—even if it has been pulled into the CPU package.
But a quick jaunt around Dalaran in World of Warcraft shows us that frame rates do exceed anything that was possible on a Montevina-based notebook. With that said, dropping detail settings to Low and the resolution to 1024x768 is not a recipe for pretty visuals. When it comes to mobile computing, you’ll have to make a critical decision. Sacrifice battery life and invest in discrete graphics or settle for an integrated GPU and give up 3D gaming.
