Dell Alienware M18x 18.4in gaming notebook

Playing away from home

Crysis point

Actual gaming corroborated the benchmark results. Crysis ran maxed out at 1920 x 1080 on Very High with 8xAA and VSYNC at 39FPS. Crysis 2's vanilla build (DX10) ran at 1920 x 1080 on its Hardcore setting at 48FPS. An even sterner test was provided by patching Crysis 2's recent DX11 and high-res texture packs, in which the M18x still performed admirably, at 36FPS on Ultra settings.

Benchmark Tests

PCMark Vantage Results

Longer bars are better

Battery Life Results

Battery life in Minutes
Longer bars are better

Two of 2011’s major titles confirmed its DX11 credentials, suggesting the configuration will remain competitive for the next couple of years. Deus Ex: Human Revolution ran at 48FPS on average with all DX11 features on. And Battlefield 3’s alpha trial, although not presently supporting CrossfireX (or indeed SLI, for that matter), still ran at a rock-solid 54FPS on high settings in single-card mode.