Laptop Performance

Asus N56VZ System Specs

  • 15.6" LED-backlit Full HD 1920x1080 display
  • Intel Core i7-3620QM (2.6GHz - 3.8GHz, 8MB L3 cache)
  • 8GB of 1600MHz DDR3 memory
  • Nvidia GeForce GT 650M 2GB DDR3 VRAM
  • 750GB 7200RPM hard drive
  • Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)

HP EliteBook 8460p System Specs

  • 14.0" LED-backlit HD anti-glare 1366 x 768 display
  • Intel Core i5-2520M (2.5GHz - 3.2GHz, 3MB L3 cache)
  • 4GB of 1333MHz DDR3 memory
  • 1GB AMD Radeon HD 6470M
  • 320GB 7200RPM hard drive
  • Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)

HP ProBook 6360b System Specs

  • 13.3" HD AG LED SVA 1366 x 768 display
  • Intel Core i5-2410M (2.3GHz - 2.9GHz, 3MB L3 cache)
  • 4GB DDR3 SDRAM
  • Intel HD 3000 Graphics (650MHz - 1.3GHz)
  • Hitachi 320GB 7200RPM hard drive
  • Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 System Specs

  • 13.4" TFT 1366 x 768 display (covered with Corning Gorilla glass)
  • Intel Core i5-2520M (2.5GHz - 3.2GHz, 3MB L3 cache)
  • 4GB DDR3 SDRAM
  • Intel HD 3000 Graphics (650MHz - 1.3GHz)
  • Hitachi 320GB 7200RPM hard drive
  • Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)

HP Envy 14 (2010) System Specs

  • 14.5" HP Radiance 1600 x 900 display
  • Intel Core i5-450M (2.4GHz - 2.66GHz, 3MB L3 cache)
  • 4GB DDR3 system memory
  • 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650
  • Seagate Momentus 500GB 7200RPM
  • Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Benchmark Results

Synthetic Tests EliteBook 8460p ProBook 6360b ThinkPad X1 Envy 14 Asus N56VM (HD 4000) Asus N56VM (GT 650M)
3DMark 06
3DMark Score 5029 pts 3951 pts 3750 pts 6866 pts 7033 pts 9665 pts
PCMark Vantage
PCMark Suite 7408 pts 5859 pts 7607 pts 6840 pts 7349 pts 8675 pts

With the discrete GeForce GT 650M disabled, the Asus N56VM was forced to use the i7-3610QM's Intel HD 4000 graphics engine. This resulted in a 3Dmark score of 7033pts and a PCmark score of 7349 pts.

This already made Asus N56VM was faster than any laptop we've tested in 3Dmark 06, while it was only slightly slower than the EliteBook 8460p and ThinkPad X1 in PCmark Vantage. However, with the GT 650M enabled the 3Dmark score increased by 37%, while the PCmark score was boosted by 18%.

Application Tests EliteBook 8460p ProBook 6360b ThinkPad X1 Envy 14 Asus N56VM
iTunes Encoding Test 72 sec 83 sec 75 sec 94 sec 65 sec
File Transfer Test
Small files 83 sec 78 sec 83 sec 80 sec 77 sec
Large file 65 sec 55 sec 62 sec 74 sec 57 sec

The Asus N56VM's iTunes Encoding performance was impressive as the Core i7-3610QM took just 65 seconds, making it 10% faster than the Core i5-2520M in the EliteBook 8460p.

Gaming Performance EliteBook 8460p ProBook 6360b ThinkPad X1 Envy 14 Asus N56VM (HD 4000) Asus N56VM (GT 650M)
Far Cry 2
1024x768 Medium 27.0 fps 26.2 fps 26.5 fps -- 43.3 fps 85.2 fps
Native Res, High 22.2 fps 17.9 fps 17.9 fps -- 20.5 fps 36.4 fps
StarCraft 2
1024x768 Medium 44.7 fps 14.7 fps 15.2 fps -- 31.2 fps 68.4 fps
Native Res, High 27.7 fps 10.7 fps 10.4 fps -- 17.6 fps 31.5 fps

The Asus N56VM's gaming performance isn't anything to write home about when using the HD 4000 integrated graphics core, averaging 31.2fps at 1024x768 in StarCraft II and 43.3fps in Far Cry 2 at the same resolution. The EliteBook 8460p's Radeon HD 6470M was 43% faster. However, enabling the GT 650M improved the N56VM's performance by 119%, pushing the average frame rate to 68.4fps, though this plummeted to 31.5fps at the native resolution of 1920x1080.

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