Product Listing

Meow! The Acer Aspire 5530G Reviewed (AMD Puma)

By Aloysius Low - 6 Oct 2008

Performance Benchmarking

Performance Benchmarking

Here's where it gets tough for the notebook and the review in general. There aren't really any comparable notebooks in the Aspire 5530G's class, so we had to make do with compromises across the general spectrum to get a decent comparison.

Specifications/ Notebook Acer Aspire 5530G HP Pavilion tx2500 Toshiba Satellite A300 BenQ Joybook S41 MSI PR200
Processor AMD Turion X2 RM-70 (2GHz ) Processor with 1MB L2 cache AMD Turion X2 RM-70 (2GHz ) Processor with 1MB L2 cache Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 (2.5GHz) Processor with 6MB L2 cache Intel Core 2 Duo processor T7100 (1.8GHz) with 2MB L2 cache Intel Core 2 Duo processor T7300 (2.0GHz, 4MB L2 cache)
Chipset AMD M780G AMD M780G Intel PM965 Intel PM965 Intel GM965
Memory 1 x 1GB DDR2 1 x 2GB DDR2 1 x 2GB DDR2 2GB DDR2 1 x 1GB DDR2 2 x 1GB DDR2
HDD 1 x Western Digital 320GB SATA (WDC WD3200BEVT) - 5400RPM / 8MB Buffer 1 x Western Digital 250GB (WDC WD2500BEVS) - 5400RPM / 8MB Buffer 2 x 200GB HDD SATA 1 x Hitachi 120GB SATA (HTS541612J9SA00) - 5400RPM / 8MB Buffer 1 x Western Digital SATA - 5400RPM/ 8MB Buffer
Video ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470 Hybrid CrossFire ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3200 (Integrated) ATI Mobility Radeon HD3650 NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS Intel GMA X3100

System Benchmarking

Having offloaded the tons of non-essential programs that normally come included with Acer products, we then proceeded with running our standard suite of benchmarking programs: PCMark05, PCMark Vantage and 3DMark06. We're none too surprised by the results of the Aspire 5530G - they were within our expectations for AMD's Puma platform. While the scores showed the the system wasn't exactly a blazing fast speed demon, it was a good match for the older Intel Santa Rosa platform machines (though still not obviously there). CPU performance was behind even when pitted against the slower clock speed processor of the BenQ Joybook.

Against another similar Puma based notebook like the HP Pavilion tx2500 though, the results showed a much better score even though both machines used the same processor for our PCMark Vantage test. We double checked the scores for the tx2500 to be sure, but didn't find any changes.

Sadly, the 5530G really shows its weakness when pitted against a similar 15.4-inch entertainment class notebook, the Toshiba Satellite A300. To be fair though, the A300, which performed well in overall scores and beat the the Acer unit by a sizable margin, has much better specifications overall and does retail at close to twice the price of the Acer unit, so in that regard, the Vantage scores do make much more sense.

Gaming Benchmarks

In our 3D performance test for the Aspire 5530G, we used our usual suite of benchmarking programs - 3DMark06 and Quake 4 and also threw in the Sony VAIO VGN-Z17GN into the mix due to the NVIDIA GeForce 9300M GS that it uses. The NVIDIA GeForce 9300M GS, as some of you may know, is the closest equivalent to the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470 that's found on the 5530G (though the HD 3470 is technically faster). Our tests showed that the 3DMark06 scores are similar, but do bear in mind that CPU performance does matter for the score obtained, which also explains the Quake 4 results despite the HD 3470 being rated as faster and more powerful than the 9300M GS.

Lastly, the results of our 3DMark06 test for the Hybrid CrossFire performance of the HD 3470 are close to what AMD has already released to us and as you can see, it's almost twice as fast as the HP Pavilion tx2500 which only has integrated graphics (Radeon HD 3200). All this confirms what AMD has been telling us, so the company definitely has a winner on its hands with its integrated graphics (which does outperform the Intel's X4500).

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