ASUS Lamborghini VX2

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by Rob Williams on May 2, 2007 in Systems

When we took the VX1 for a test drive in November, we were impressed. ASUS has returned though with an update, appropriately called the VX2. It includes revamped styling, a much more appropriate video card, a fingerprint reader and high-end webcam. If you’ve been holding out for a revision, you will be glad you did.

Page 6 – Testing Methodology, Benchmarks


As I mentioned, I will not be testing the laptop with Windows Vista, since many of the programs I wanted to use would not run. Instead, I formatted and installed Windows XP Professional and used the drivers/software that are available on their support site. To elaborate on why I prefer Windows XP, here are a few quick reasons. Far more than others, it’s due to the fact that Vista really drags down performance in some applications, especially since the NVIDIA drivers are not half as good for Vista as they are for XP. In fact, Half-Life 2 had it’s average FPS cut in half. Therefore, I want to give performance results representative of what the notebook is capable of, rather than giving performance results that are held back thanks to the lackluster OS.

I will state that some benchmarks did run in Vista, and most of them didn’t have major decreases. Some would not run at all though, such as Super Pi. It would start up, but as soon as a calculation was executed, it would crash. I’ve had Super Pi function in Vista before, but it’s really hit or miss. It was a miss in this situation.

That also said, the VGA drivers off the ASUS support site were not used, due to complications that arose. While the games would deliver solid performance, the gameplay would be very sticky. There were a few instances where the game would lock up entirely, then snap out of it after a few moments. I downloaded the latest WHQL drivers (97.92) from LaptopVideo2Go, which took care of those problems completely. I am not sure what was wrong with the drivers ASUS supplies, but it’s something you should be aware of.

Before testing, minor applications were closed, such as MultiFrame and Splendid. Everything system specific was left in-tact, such as WiFi, Bluetooth, TPM, power saving utility, audio and so forth. For comparative purposes, we will be showing the results of the VX2, VX1 and the recently reviewed A8Js. Here are the simple specs for each notebook:

Lamborghini VX2
Lamborghini VX1
A8Js

Intel Core 2 T7400 (2.16GHz)
2GB DDR2-667 (2×1)
NVIDIA Go7700 512MB
160GB Seagate 5400.3
8x DVD-RW-DL

Intel Core 2 T7400 (2.16GHz)
2GB DDR2-667 (2×1)
NVIDIA Go7400VX 512MB
160GB Seagate 5400.3
4x DVD-RW-DL

Intel Core 2 T7200 (2.0GHz)
1GB DDR2-667 (1×1)
NVIDIA Go7700 512MB
120GB Hitachi 5400RPM
8x DVD-RW-DL

For our synthetic benchmarks, the VX2 compared nicely to the VX1. Since both of these laptops include the same CPU and memory, it wasn’t a surprise. Our 3D Mark and PC Mark results show just how much more suitable the VX2 is for gaming, however.

Benchmark
ASUS Lamborghini VX2
ASUS Lamborghini VX1
ASUS A8JS
3D Mark 01 23602 15660 22467
3D Mark 06 Overall 2407 830 2675
3D Mark 06 CPU 1834 1840 1737
PC Mark 05 4784 4274 4699
HD Tune 99.0MB/s Burst
32.9MB/s Average
16ms Latency *
66.3MB/s Burst
34.7MB/s Average
17ms Latency *
67.4MB/s Burst
33.0MB/s Average
17.8ms Latency *
HD Tach 132.0MB/s Burst
35.0MB/s Average

15.8ms Latency *
84.5MB/s Burst
36.8MB/s Average
16.2ms Latency *
116.7MB/s Burst
35.1MB/s Average
16.9ms Latency *
Super Pi 1 M – 24.375s *
8 M – 306.797s *
1 M – 24.156s *
8 M – 306.15s *
1 M – 25.938s *
8 M – 330.70s *
Sandra Arithmetic 19842 / 13734 19813 / 13607 18410 / 12665
Sandra Multi-Media 118567 / 63883 117174 / 63395 109386 / 59096
Sandra Memory 3896 / 3906 3942 / 3949 3574 / 3596

Here are a few miscellaneous tests. When compared to the original, the VX2 proved a little better for DVD Playback and a lot worse for book reading. I believe this to be thanks to the larger screen and the greater white surface area. While the VX2 took two minutes longer to rip a DVD, it proved half a minute faster for ripping a CD to FLAC.

Real World Benchmark
ASUS Lamborghini VX2
ASUS Lamborghini VX1
ASUS A8JS
Depleted Battery to Fully Charged * 2h 40m 2h 30m 1h 50m
DVD Playback On Battery 2h 41m 2h 36m 2h 14m
Book Reading on Battery 2h 23m 2h 59m 2h 25m
DVD Ripping * 33m 51s 31m 33s 30m 01s
CD Rip to FLAC * 18m 33s 18m 58s 19m 23s

For our gaming tests, I am comparing directly to the A8Js which utilizes the same graphics card, but slightly smaller CPU. All results were gathered with FRAPS 2.82 and were manually played through. No time demos here.

Game
VX2
1024×768
VX2
1440×900
A8Js
1024×768
A8Js
1440×900
Half-Life 2: Episode 2 80.367 50.572 85.983 53.800
Oblivion 45.289 37.156 45.817 37.800
Ghost Recon: AW 34.490 37.156 34.367 22.483
NFS: Carbon 21.070 N/A 20.933 N/A

The VX2 fell behind the A8Js in every gaming related test, but not that far. The VX2 actually performed far better in GRAW at 1440×900, but that’s the only advantage we saw. Although both notebooks have the same GPU, I would have figured the VX2 would have the better scores, thanks to the better CPU. I shift partial blame to the choice of video drivers used. On the A8Js, the drivers that were included with the laptop were used. Since the VX2 doesn’t support XP naturally, I used newer video drivers found on LaptopVideo2Go. It could be that the A8Js had drivers that were better suited for it, or that the VX2 just doesn’t have the same airflow scheme as the A8Js. Many factors could come into play.

Regardless, these were still good scores, so gaming is definitely something you can get into with the VX2.


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Rob Williams

Rob founded Techgage in 2005 to be an 'Advocate of the consumer', focusing on fair reviews and keeping people apprised of news in the tech world. Catering to both enthusiasts and businesses alike; from desktop gaming to professional workstations, and all the supporting software.

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