11. 3DMark Vantage

We don’t normally run 3DMark on conventional notebooks, but we thought it would be of interest for these multimedia units. Given their Windows Vista operating systems and mostly 8xxx class graphics circuitry, we thought they might perform better in this realm than other notebooks do. Given the heavily game- and motion-oriented nature of these benchmarks, their results often speak more to systems intended for serious gaming, animation or 3-D modeling. Nevertheless, their inclusion of DirectX10 coverage and a serious graphics workout make this a test of graphics capability.

Here’s a summary of the 3DMark Vantage results for its tests, which were conducted at 1024x768, 1280x1024 and 1920x1080 resolutions. The "low" values report results with no anisotropic filtering (AF) or anti-aliasing (AA) turned on; the "high" values report results with 4AA and 8AF. Values go down as resolution go up, and as AA and AF are turned on.

By any metrics, the Eurocom is a real screamer — as you’d have to expect from an SLI rig with a quad-core CPU. If you check out the various score posting forums, you’ll see that any score over 10,000 is at least respectable and the Eurocom manages to deliver those numbers at all but the most demanding setting. The HP pulls in a decent second place finish (even for a desktop), with the Acer solidly in third. What we also find interesting is the way the Sony changes places with the Asus at 1920x1080 resolution for both high and low settings. Go figure!