Voodoo Envy M:855 Part 1 - Athlon 64 DTR and Mobility Radeon 9600 Pro
by Andrew Ku on November 4, 2003 5:45 PM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
The Test
Our test configuration for our Athlon 64, Athlon 64 FX, and Intel Pentium 4 scores are the same as previously mention our Athlon 64 and Athlon 64 FX – It’s Judgement Day and Intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz – The Real Slim Shady articles.
It is important to note that the PowerNow (AMD’s equivalent of Intel’s SpeedStep) drivers that came with our Voodoo Envy M:855 are premature. They are full version (non-betas), but never the less are early. Voodoo will qualify the new PowerNow drivers next week, and this will concurrently affect performance. AMD has a general footprint of PowerNow that is sent to OEMs/ODMs/SIs/etc… However, system vendors have the choice of modifying the footprint to a degree. The modification of the PowerNow drivers is dependent on how much a system vendor is willing to take on thermal emissions for performance, and vice versa.
The new drivers from Voodoo should increase performance, as they are readily willing to increase their thermal budget. Additionally, we should note that in many timing benchmarks, PowerNow will create a conflict, as the timing between intervals is often times derived from the CPU. Because CPU frequency dynamically changes in response to the operating environment, the timing is derived incorrectly, and therefore the benchmark reports incorrectly.
| Windows XP Professional Test System | |||||
| Voodoo Envy M:855 | Dell Inspiron 8600 | Dell Latitude D800 | Gigabyte NB-1401 | IBM T40 | |
| CPU(s) | Athlon 64 DTR 3200+ | Pentium M 1.7GHz | Pentium M 1.6GHz | Pentium M 1.4GHz | Pentium M 1.5GHz |
| Motherboard(s) | Voodoo K8T800 | Dell 855PM | Dell 855PM | FIC 855GM | IBM 855PM |
| Memory | 512MB PC2700 | 512MB PC2700 | 512MB PC2100 | 512MB PC2100 | 256MB PC2100 |
| Hard Drive | 60GB 7200RPM | 60GB 7200RPM | 40GB 5400RPM | 40GB 4200RPM | 40GB 5400RPM |
| CDROM | CD-RW/DVD | DVD+RW | CD-RW/DVD | CD-RW/DVD | CD-RW/DVD |
| Video Card(s) | ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 Pro 64MB DDR | NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5650 128MB DDR | NVIDIA GeForce4 4200 Go 64MB DDR | Integrated 855PM | ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 |
| Ethernet | Onboard VIA 10/100 | Onboard Broadcom 10/100 | Onboard Intel Gigabit | Onboard Intel Gigabit | Onboard Intel Gigabit |
| Operating System | Windows XP Professional SP1 | ||||
| Video Drivers | ATI 6.14.10.6378 (latest available for Voodoo) | NVIDIA 44.82 (latest available for Dell) | NVIDIA 42.56 (latest available for Dell) | Intel 6.13.10.3510 | ATI 6.13.10.6278 (latest available for IBM) |
| Benchmarking Applications | ZDM Business Winstone 2002 ZDM Content Creation Winstone 2003 Massive: AquaMark3 Yeti Studios: Gun Metal Egosoft: X2 Ubi Soft: Splinter Cell |
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Shalmanese - Wednesday, November 5, 2003 - link
Well, seeing as this is the first 9600 based production notebook they have in the lab in the moment, its kinda hard to bench it against any others. WHEN they review the Sager, I'm sure they will have the Voodoo benchie in there.ssamurai26 - Wednesday, November 5, 2003 - link
Ok, who makes the closest notebook to the Voodoo then?Locutus4657 - Wednesday, November 5, 2003 - link
No offence.... But why didn't you compare the preformance of this notebook v. several other notebooks when it came to game preformance... I'm more than a little dissapointed to see yet another ATI/nVidia comparison in what should be a comparison of finished notebook products.KristopherKubicki - Wednesday, November 5, 2003 - link
#7: AnandTech doesnt get paid to do reviews. What a troll. Did you even notice Andrew wrote this review and not Anand? I'm writing this on a Sager by the way.Kristopher
petz - Wednesday, November 5, 2003 - link
"Up to par" with DELL's best? Is that what you call 50 to 100% higiher FPS on every benchmark?Madcat207 - Wednesday, November 5, 2003 - link
In NO way is AW the closest.Unless your taking about the deepest pockets......
ssamurai26 - Wednesday, November 5, 2003 - link
Yes, would have been nice to see some competition in there. It was interesting none the less, but it even says in the review that the closest competitor is Alienware. And Alienware has both fx5600go and M10 in their machines.Madcat207 - Wednesday, November 5, 2003 - link
Andrew, that is fine, but it still doesnt explain why there was no comparable model tested. Was Anand not paid enough to test a Sager along with it?Boonesmi - Tuesday, November 4, 2003 - link
unlike some of the folks above, i liked the review... and im looking forward to part 2 (part 2 will have the info im more interested in)Andrew Ku - Tuesday, November 4, 2003 - link
There is a reason that this can still be called a 9600 Pro. First of all, the revelation of the requirements for the Pro name only came to light in the last 48 hours. Sager themselves wouldn't have known about this until recently.