ASI's IQ17-D2: Is Mobility Radeon HD 3870 X2 Still Fast Enough?

By Thomas Soderstrom
published

Benchmark Results: Audio And Video Encoding

Apple iTunes doesn’t respond to anything more than two processing cores, allowing the high-speed dual-core X9100 chosen by ASI to shine.

Lame MP3 encoding appears to have a stronger preference for the i7’s architecture, which benefits from Turbo Boost technology.

DivX 6.8.5 gets a huge boost from the D900F’s Core i7 desktop CPU, while Xvid appears to lack such optimizations.

MainConcept scales almost perfectly to core speed and the number of processing cores available, benefiting the D900F with a huge lead. It’s important to note here that the ASI IQ17 supports any Socket P performance processor, including quad-cores, though mobile quads such as the one used by MSI are significantly frequency-limited due to thermals.

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.
32 Comments Comment from the forums
  • i have a 3870 x2 and its still rocking the new games great!
    1920 x 1200 resolutions run smoothly,
    i just have to tone the antialaising to like 2x or off on a few games like re5
    Reply
  • lashabane
    I love ASI's products.
    Reply
  • CoryInJapan
    That not bad for a gaming laptop.Could play COD4 and TF2 on there all day.
    Reply
  • lashabane
    There really needs to be an edit function.
    Reply
  • doomtomb
    Eurocom had some awesome performance but the power consumption is scary. You can't be away from an outlet for more than 45 minutes.
    Reply
  • tacoslave
    i like my desktop for gaming but when i have to go someplace and its a long trip i use this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152126
    its got pretty decent battery life (3 hours) and it doesnt hurt the wallet that much anyway.
    Reply
  • curnel_D
    I'm an ASI partner, and I've been reselling these laptops since 2005. Most of their lineup are Brandless Compal (second largest OEM notebook supplier) notebooks. Not many score real high in the looks department, but the quality and durability is head and shoulders above the competition.
    Reply
  • melvis72
    I'd like to see a review on an Alienware M17x with Dual 280's or Dual 4870's just to see if all the money wasted is fast or not.
    Reply
  • liquidsnake718
    Not bad, I wouldnt get a laptop for gaming. Just get a mobile gaming device like a psp or dsi. I would rather play with a regular laptop than spend on a crazy laptop when I can just buy a ps3 or even build another great PC for that insane price. Crysis, COD5, STALKER and Fallout arent meant to be played with Laptops anyway on their max settings. You can play these in low or medium settings which is fine but I would never expect the world with even these mobile beasts.
    Reply
  • Ehsan w
    I suggest Ati drops whatever they have now, and start working on the mobility 5xxx series
    Since the desktop versions already don't use a lot of power
    but gives really good performance, they could totally rape Nvidia in a year
    Reply