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Synthetic Benchmarks
Sager targets the budget laptop market by outfitting the NP6852 with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB, but includes a 7th generation Intel Core i7-7700HQ, 16GB of DDR4-2400 memory, a 256GB SSD, and a 15.6” Full HD (1920x1080) display.
We're comparing it with the Sager NP8165, which is almost identical, except that its graphics are processed by the more powerful GTX 1060 6GB GPU. It also features a 15’6” FHD display, but includes Nvidia’s G-Sync technology.
The biggest competitor among our test subjects—at least in price—is Dell’s Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming, which also features a GTX 1050 Ti 4GB GPU and a 256GB SSD. The Dell laptop's price is lower because it only contains an i5-7300HQ and 8GB of DDR4-2400 memory. The Inspiron has a 15.6” display, but it doesn’t have IPS technology like the two systems from Sager.
Finally, we’ve included the Acer Predator 17 to illustrate the performance of a system with a 2x price disparity. The Predator 17 features an i7-6700HQ CPU, but also a GTX 1070 GPU, along with 16GB of DDR4 memory and two 128GB M.2 SSDs in RAID 0, and a 1TB 7200RPM HDD. The Predator performed well in our benchmarks.
3DMark
3DMark features a handful of taxing benchmarks. We use Fire Strike, Fire Strike Extreme, and Time Spy, which are primarily taxing on the GPU, save for a couple of scenarios, like the Physics scores. The Sager NP6852 falls into its expected spot, behind the overwhelmingly powerful Acer Predator 17 and the NP8156 with its stronger GPU. The NP6852 falls close to the Dell Inspiron 15 7000 because they share the same discrete GPU, but the Sager’s stronger i7 CPU brings its Physics scores closer to those of the NP8165, and help it exceed the Acer scores.
Cinebench R15
Cinebench’s single and multi-core tests produce better results with stronger CPUs, while the OpenGL shading test caters more towards GPU horsepower. The NP6852 benefits from its Kaby Lake Core-i7 CPU, scoring about as well as the NP8156 and beating the Predator 17 in the CPU-based tests. NP6852’s Core-i7 outright demolishes the Dell and its Core-i5 processor, especially in mult-core performance, scoring nearly 30% better.
CompuBench
On the other hand, CompuBench’s Video Processing and Bitcoin Mining tests are more GPU-based. This time, the two GTX 1050 Ti systems land in spitting distance of each other, whereas the NP8165 gets a considerable performance increase because of its more powerful GTX 1060.
IOMeter
We measure read and write speeds by running IOMeter on each laptop’s primary drive. Both Sager laptops come equipped with Sandisk’s X400 SD8SN8U-256GB-1122 M.2 SSD, so we should expect similar read and write speeds. The Dell laptop also employs an X400, but of the SD8SN8U-256GB-1012 variety. Finally, the hulk-like Acer features two 128GB LiteOn CV1s running in RAID 0.
The NP6852’s X400 matches the NP8165 in random and sequential speeds, which is to be expected. It’s also even with the Inspiron 15’s X400 in sequential speeds, but it handles small Windows files much more efficiently. The NP6852's sequential performance is dwarfed by the Acer's two CV1s, which gives the Predator an advantage in loading large files like games and videos.
PCMark 8
Instead of the typical pre-loaded tests that are included in PCMark 8, we use the Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative suites, which provide better real-world performance results. The updated Kaby Lake architecture provides an excellent performance increase in its mobile form compared to Skylake, so the NP6852 manages to surpass Acer’s behemoth during the Adobe Creative suite tests. Naturally the i7-7700HQ pulls far ahead of the Dell laptop’s measly i5-7300HQ in both Office and Creative tests.
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