Sager NP9262 Performance Benchmarks

I performed a variety of benchmarks under Windows XP and Vista Ultimate 32-bit.

Our test Sager NP9262is configured as follows:

• Display: 17-inch WUXGA (1920×1200) Glossy Widescreen

• DUAL NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX in SLi Mode w/1,024MB

• Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz Processorw/6M L2 Cache – 1,333MHz FSB

• Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound

• 4GB (2 SODIMMS) DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory

• 640GB RAID 0 ( Dual 320GB SATA II 3GB/s 5,400 RPM Hard Drives(8MB Cache Buffer) )

• Combo 8x8x6x4x Dual Layer DVD +/-R/RW 5x DVD-RAM 24x CD-R/RW Drive w/Softwares

• Built-in Intel® PRO/Wireless 4965 802.11a/g/n

• Built-in Bluetooth Wireless

• Smart Li-ion Battery (12 Cell)

• Windows XP Professional AND VISTA Ultimate 32bit on two sets of hard drives

Prior to testing, I updated the system with Windows Updates and updated the video drivers to the Nvidia Forceware 174.82.

System Performance Benchmarks

Windows Experience Index

Now that is impressive – although Vista’s built-in benchmark is not regarded as accurate, it is rare to see systems getting more than a 5.0. It turns out the processor was the bottleneck, capping the NP9262 at 5.6.

PCMark Vantage

PCMark Vantage is a new system test suite from Futuremark that works only on Windows Vista.

Overall System Performance using PCMark05

Windows Vista has a slight edge here, showing a 1.7% performance increase over the XP-based system.

Processor Performance Benchmarks

wPrime

wPrime is a multi-threaded CPU test – please see our big comparison thread here. Windows Vista is showing a slight edge in the wPrime benchmark, performing the 32M and 1024M calculations in 6% less time.

SiSandra Arithmetic

SiSandra Multimedia

Both operating systems produced near identical results for this benchmark, which is why only the Vista screenshot is posted (it looks nicer).

Rendering Performance Using Cinebench 10

Cinebench Release 10 is the latest version of Maxon’s rendering benchmark, based on the Maxon CINEMA 4D animation software. It is designed to measure the performance of the processor and graphics card under real-world circumstances. More information can be found at www.maxon.net/pages/download/cinebench_e.html

While the Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 processor scored about the same in both benchmarks, take a look at the OpenGL benchmark results; XP is almost 20% faster.

Hard Drive Performance

HDTune 2.55

Windows XP has a 10% faster average transfer rate as well as a slightly higher burst and minimum transfer rate. The results of this benchmark are extremely high thanks to the RAID 0 array, which stripes data across both 320GB 5400RPM hard disks.

Gaming Benchmarks

Synthetic Performance Using 3DMark06

The Windows XP score is slightly over 5% faster. In recent months, the gaming performance difference between XP and Vista has been reduced to almost zero. These results are nothing short of amazing; there is no doubt that the Sager NP9262 with dual Nvidia 8800M-GTX graphics cards is the highest-scoring notebook we have tested in 3DMark06 here at NotebookReview.

Unreal Tournament III

I benchmarked UT3 with FRAPS on three different levels. I patched the game to v1.1 prior to testing. The following settings were used for benchmarking:

Benchmark Results:

Even with all the settings cranked up to maximum at the highest available resolution, gameplay was completely smooth. The average FPS is nearly identical and the game was more than playable on both setups; the only notable difference between XP and Vista here is that XP maintains a steadier FPS (see the minimum FPS).

Screenshots:

Call of Duty 4

I benchmarked Call of Duty 4 using FRAPS through two different levels. I patched the game to v1.5 prior to testing. The following settings were used for benchmarking:

Benchmark Results:

Needless to say the dual 8800M-GTX cards ate this game alive, with the average framerate over 60FPS. XP and Vista make a similar showing here as well, with both setups providing about the same playability.

Screenshots:

Crysis

I updated Crysis to the latest version, 1.21, and used the built-in GPU benchmark with the following settings:

Benchmark Results:

I could not figure out why the Windows XP setup refused to give good FPS results in this game, but it is clearly a software issue as in all other games XP and Vista had extremely similar results. Nevertheless, the Crysis performance in Vista was absolutely astonishing; it really does take dual 8800M-GTX graphics cards to drive this game at a 1920×1200 resolution. The game was a joy to play at such a high resolution and FPS.

Screenshots:

Conclusion

The system performance of the Sager NP9262 is truly desktop-like. Overall system performance was astonishing thanks to the desktop processor, 4GB of fast DDR2-800 RAM (most laptops have 667MHz), and a super-fast RAID 0 hard disk array. Its gaming performance easily bests that of any notebook we have tested; not even Crysis could slow this monster down.