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PC Mark Vantage test results
PC Mark Vantage uses real data to run its suite of tests, and is more indicative of how a system will run in the real world. This is by far more meaningful than just running fully synthetic benchmarks.
In these tests I will also introduce an SSD into the mix. There are many people who still think an SSD only helps in reducing the time taken for the system to boot, and then launch applications. This is far from the truth of the matter. In a system which has a reasonably fast CPU and enough RAM, by far the biggest bottleneck is a spinning HDD.
This is really the first time I have had the opportunity to prove this, as normally I only test SSD against SSD in a high performance desktop PC, and that only proves which SSD is the faster. This time I am testing a complete system, in the shape of the Asus X53E SX-1186V. The only thing that will change from the original specification is that the WD Scorpio Blue will be replaced by a Crucial RealSSD C300 128GB SSD.
To do this fairly, I first ran the PC Mark Vantage tests on the default system with the WD Scorpio Blue HDD fitted. I then cloned the WD HDD over to the RealSSD C300, replaced the WD HDD with the C300 SSD, and reran the tests. The system is identical apart from the HDD/SSD, so this should show quite clearly how much of a performance boost can be had by replacing a spinning HDD with an SSD.
Let’s get on with the tests.
PC Mark Vantage – memories
The memories suite measures the performance of the following.
- CPU image manipulation performance (2 threaded)
- GPU image manipulation performance (2 threaded)
- Video transcoding performance
- HDD import and export performance
It’s already quite plain to see that the Asus X53E SX-1186V is a good performer, with the SSD boosting performance substantially.
PC Mark Vantage – TV and movies
The TV and movies suite tests the performance of the following.
- CPU HD video transcoding performance (2 threads)
- HD video playback
- HDD media centre performance
This test is more CPU based, so it’s harder for the SSD to gain an advantage, but nonetheless the SSD is still faster, and the poor old Fujitsu Siemens laptop is left for dead.
PC Mark Vantage – Gaming
The gaming suite tests the performance of the following.
- GPU game test (Alan Wake)
- CPU game test (Alan Wake) and decompression performance (2 threads)
- GPU and CPU game test (Alan Wake – 3 threads)
Once again the old Fujitsu Siemens is struggling, and with massive game maps to load, the SSD is miles ahead of the spinning HDD.
PC Mark Vantage – Music
The music suite tests the performance of the following using 3 simultaneous threads.
- Web page rendering with music content
- Audio transcoding
- HDD media centre performance
Music transcoding doesn’t require massive CPU performance, and as we can see the Asus X53E SX-1186V with an HDD is not much faster than the old Fujitsu Siemens. What is also very clear is that once again an SSD really does boost performance by a very large margin.
PC Mark Vantage – Communications
The communications suite tests the performance of the following using 3 simultaneous threads.
- Data encryption (CNG AES CBC)
- Data compression
- Web page rendering (graphics content 1024×768 pixels windowed)
- Data decryption (CNG AES CBC)
- Windows defender and Windows Mail HDD performance
- Audio transcoding to simulate VIOP
This time the tests are more CPU intensive, so the Asus X53E SX-1186V is quite a bit faster than the Fujitsu Siemens, and once again the SSD is faster than the HDD.
PC Mark Vantage – Productivity
The productivity suite tests application multi tasking performance using up to 3 threads, and uses the following test procedures.
- Text editing
- HDD application loading performance
- HDD Windows start up
- Windows contacts search
- Windows defender performance
- Windows mail (run message rules)
- Web page rendering (simultaneously open several tabs on IE, then close them one by one)
Being largely HDD based, it is no surprise to find the SSD makes a huge difference to multi tasking performance. There really is no contest.
PC Mark Vantage – HDD
The HDD suite tests the performance of the HDD in different scenarios. So for this test I only used the Asus X53E and didn’t bother with the Fujitsu Siemens since this test is only showing the difference in performance between the HDD and SSD.
I would guess that by now you are not surprised to see that the SSD is much faster than the HDD.
PC Mark Vantage – Overall score
This score is derived from the sum of all the other scores in the PC Mark test suite.
It should be no surprise to learn that the Asus X63E SX-1186V is a good deal faster than the Fujitsu Siemens, even although the Fujitsu is running on an SSD, albeit an old SSD (Intel G1 80GB). Once again it is also clear to see how much an SSD boosts performance on the Asus X53E SX-1186V over the default WD HDD.
Just for the fun of it, I also ran the PC Mark Vantage suite of tests on the two desktop based PC’s. So here are the overall scores that you can compare with the Asus X53E SX-1186V.
It’s no real surprise to find that the Sandy Bridge i7 2600K based system is the fastest. It also sports the fastest SATA SSD currently available in the shape of the OCZ Vertex 3. What I do find interesting though, is how close the Asus X53E SX-1186V pushes the Core i5 750 based system in these tests, even although the Core i5 system has an SSD, and a discrete graphics card.
It just goes to show that the Asus X53E SX-1186V is a nippy little performer, especially when the HDD bottleneck is removed.
Let’s head to the next page where I will conduct a few real world tests….
