Re-introducing AVADirect's Clevo X7200

A little over seven months ago, we took at look at a Clevo X7200 courtesy of AVADirect that featured a desktop hex-core processor and a pair of NVIDIA's then-fastest mobile graphics cards, the GeForce GTX 480M. Since then NVIDIA has refreshed their mobile top end, and while we hope to review the GTX 485M in SLI soon, in the meantime we have another pair of mobile parts that have been making waves: the AMD Radeon HD 6970M.

Since our previous review, nothing has changed about the Clevo X7200 whitebook that AVADirect sent us. At its core, it's still an X58-based monster of a notebook, and the review unit we received is essentially comparable to the last one with only minor differences between the two.

Since our previous review, Intel updated their top end processor to the Core i7-990X; it's a minor 133MHz speedbump, but the 990X is still one of the fastest, if not the fastest, processors available today. This is a desktop processor in a "mobile enclosure," running at a nominal 3.46GHz on all six cores and able to turbo up to 3.73GHz. Our review unit this time around is also down a Crucial RealSSD C300, so we'll have to settle for "just one" instead of two in RAID 0.

It's worth noting our display panel in this review unit is actually different than the previous one; the last one had a HannStar panel but this one includes an LG and as you'll see in our screen tests, it's both better and worse.

And of course, there's the reason we're all here: two AMD Radeon HD 6970M GPUs in CrossFire. The 6970M is basically the mobile equivalent of AMD's desktop Radeon HD 6850, with 960 shaders in the old VLIW5 configuration and a 256-bit memory bus. Clocks are much lower, though: the 6970M runs at only 680MHz on the core and 900MHz on the GDDR5 (for an effective 3.6GHz). To compensate for the mobile market, AMD stacks it with 2GB of video memory instead of the 1GB found on desktop cards.

For this review we're going to eschew the usual look at the notebook and its build quality; this is the same shell we reviewed last year, so there's nothing new to say. You can read the previous overview if you have any additional questions.

Application and Futuremark Performance

While PCMark performance is expected to be a bit of a wash with the last X7200 we reviewed (the 990X is slightly faster than the "old" i7-980X, but the previous X7200 had two SSDs in a RAID 0), it's worth comparing the 990X's performance to a current Sandy Bridge mobile quad core if for no other reason than to see just how close they get.

We'll start with a focus on PCMark 7, as an all-inclusive benchmark suite. We ran all of the available tests, and you can see how the focus shifts from multi-threaded to storage to GPU depending on what you're doing. Of particular interest is the Computation score, which leverages Intel's Quick Sync and thus gives the K53E and i7-2820QM a huge lead. (Strangely, the Optimus-enabled XPS 15 only seems to get partial credit for Quick Sync.) The only other test where the hex-core i7-990X fails to take the crown is in the Creativity suite, which again appears to favor the presence of Quick Sync.

Our remaining applications fail to make use of Quick Sync, so the Gulftown CPUs return to prominence in multi-threaded workloads. The single-threaded Cinebench results are also worth pointing out, as they show the benefit of Sandy Bridge's extremely aggressive Turbo Boost states--even the dual-core SNB chips can come within striking distance of the i7-990X in such tests. In the other tests, the i7-2820QM puts in quite a show, and it will likely take Sandy Bridge E or Ivy Bridge to dethrone Gulftown for multi-threaded tasks.

Unsurprisingly, the CrossFired Radeon HD 6970Ms thoroughly dominate in 3DMark. As the versions get newer, CrossFire also begins to scale more linearly until finally in 3DMark Vantage it practically doubles from a single 6970M. (3DMark 11 would be a similar situation, but we don't have results from the older version.) But you didn't come here to see how these ran in canned synthetic benchmarks, you want to see how they perform in real games.

Gaming on a Pair of AMD Radeon HD 6970Ms

Spoiler alert: they're fast. The X7200 with the dual AMD Radeon HD 6970Ms is the fastest gaming notebook we've ever tested, and as you'll see it's usually by a healthy margin. We start with our "high" preset, and what's really impressive is that you'll see the top end start to actually get a little CPU-limited. This is the first time I've really seen this happen with notebook graphics and a processor this fast.

The X7200 is at the top of the charts nearly every time, and often with a very heavy lead. The only game NVIDIA still wins is Mafia II, and given the substantially improved performance of the GTX 485M over the GTX 480M it's not unreasonable to assume that game is going to be an NVIDIA stronghold for some time. In every other case, the 6970M CrossFire solution is as fast at 1080p as the GTX 480M SLI is at 1600x900. When we move to the "utlra" preset, the gap will only widen.

Once we ratchet up the quality settings and resolution, the pair of 6970Ms in CrossFire win every time, and better still, CrossFire scaling results in a near perfect doubling of performance in most of the games tested. It really is simply the fastest mobile solution we've ever tested. A pair of GeForce GTX 485Ms from AVADirect could very well be faster, but they'll cost you another $600. We think the 6970M CrossFire solution is more than adequate for high-end 1080p gaming, so unless you're buying a notebook to plug into a 30" external display, this should keep you covered for a couple years.

Heat, Noise, and Battery Life

It goes without saying that the Clevo X7200 with an Intel Core i7-990X and a pair of AMD Radeon HD 6970M GPUs is the fastest notebook we've ever tested, but it ought to be: the combined TDP of the processor and two graphics chips is nearly 330 watts. Understanding that this 13-pound land monster is seldom going to be run off the mains, the included battery is basically a glorified UPS system. Take a look.

Hope you weren't planning to game on the battery. The pair of 6970Ms may be faster than the 480M SLI configuration, but they also seem to draw just a bit more power in our non-gaming testing. And again, this is a high-end desktop processor in the X7200; it just can't compare to the sub-45W envelopes of the mobile chips.

Before we get into thermals, though, a brief tangent on noise and power consumption proper. We've seen reviews of the Clevo X7200 where the 300-watt power supply just can't handle the stress and begins to shut down. So far, the most stressful test I've seen for any gaming system has been Mafia II's benchmark: nothing I use on desktop testing gets anywhere close to as high in power consumption as that does. When I tested power draw at the wall, the X7200 peaked at 301 watts with this configuration: not great, and maybe cause for concern, but the system never throttled or shut down. What may be more amusing (depending on your sense of mirth) is the 130 watt idle consumption, which handily beats the majority of desktops I test. That's not entirely fair, though, since the X7200 has to power its own screen as well.

As far as noise goes, it's not exactly pleasant. From about a foot above the notebook (I tried to approximate where my head would be), my sound meter picked up 50.8dB during the Mafia II benchmark. The speakers are going to have a hard time drowning out that noise, so you may want to pack a pair of headphones. There's only so much you can do, though: there are four fans inside this notebook, and they're cooling about 300 watts worth of hardware in a "small" chassis. Idle noise isn't quite as bad, but it still measured 40dB at 12", with periodic cycling of the fans to 43dB.

Thankfully, those fans keep the system running surprisingly cool. With a now-mature 32nm process, Intel's Core i7-990X actually doesn't get too hot, and the Clevo X7200 chassis does a decent job of keeping temperatures down. We were only able to get one temperature reading of the 6970Ms, but it seems like they're both running cool, too. At least you don't have to worry about the X7200 overheating.

Naturally there are hot spots, but nothing particularly dire. You'd be insane to try and run this notebook on your lap (especially with the intakes on the bottom of the chassis), but at least it's not going to make your palms sweat when you're trying to game. That's appreciated given the sheer amount of performance the X7200 is capable of supporting.

An Improved Screen

Maybe Clevo uses a panel lottery, or maybe they've just slightly updated the X7200, but either way our review unit has a different panel than the last one. It's an improvement in some areas, but unfortunately it's worse in others.

First, the bad new: the new panel doesn't have anywhere near the contrast ratio as its predecessor. Jarred tends to rate that as the most important metric, at least until you reach 500:1 contrast, but in some cases raw brightness can win out. That brings us to the good aspects: the new panel is brighter overall and has substantially improved color accuracy with a gamut that almost perfectly matches the sRGB color space.

The previous unit used a HannStar panel, but our current review unit has an LG panel. There's a slightly bluish cast to the image, but generally speaking it goes with our conventional wisdom: if you want a quality notebook screen, go 1080p. Thus far we've only seen one that's been less than impressive, with the rest being of reasonable quality. Anyone looking for a mobile workstation with a good screen can at least consider the X7200. HP's DreamColor and Dell's RGB-LED panels are still the best laptop LCDs we've seen (and the Lenovo ThinkPad's upgraded panel would be similar), but most of the 17.3" 1080p panels are pretty good.

Conclusion: Nothing Wrong with the Radeon

As far as the Clevo X7200 itself goes, our previous conclusions still apply: budget be damned, if you simply must have the fastest, most powerful notebook on the market, here it is. While Clevo's dogged persistence in using this awful keyboard feels like God's punishment for a hateful world, and the notebook itself is easily big and heavy enough to use as a murder weapon, it's also more powerful than...well, anything. It's certainly in contention with a lot of the desktops I review, and that's saying something.

The real subject of our review today is the AMD Radeon HD 6970M, specifically in CrossFire, and this is a big winner. After a long dry spell of mobile graphics having a very hard time catching up with their desktop counterparts, the 6970M at least makes a decent stride towards closing the gap. AMD's much improved CrossFire scaling pays off in spades here, too: generally you'll get close to 100% performance improvement with the second GPU (at least at higher quality settings), and that's outstanding.

Thermals for the X7200 are mostly unchanged from last time, as Intel's Gulftown processor consistently impresses in both this shell and on the desktop. Power consumption is a little bit up on the battery, a little bit down on the mains, and ultimately inconsequential: this isn't a notebook you're going to run on the battery.

If you simply must have the fastest notebook gaming performance, it stands to reason a pair of GeForce GTX 485Ms will probably (however slightly) beat the AMD Radeon HD 6970M CrossFire solution. Of course, at AVADirect you'll pay dearly for the privilege: an extra $638 more than the two 6970Ms for what'll be at best around 10% more performance and certainly nothing that's going to break any games wide open. That's not AVADirect gouging you, either; a visit to Sager reveals a similar premium, and CyberPowerPC doesn't even offer the GTX 485M.

AMD has had a storied history with their high performance mobile parts, oftentimes struggling to actually get them to market. That history is over: the 6970M is here, it's available, and it's fast. Get two.