Thinkpads Forum

I was testing my 2503 dock with PerformanceTest 7 for this topic: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=113724

...when my roommate brought in his X60/61 Frankenpad while I was doing control tests with my X60 Thinkpad. He wanted to run the tests so we could see how it compares to the X60.

For some reason... beyond our full understanding, the X61 seems to find itself unable to consistently score higher than the X60 on the graphics benchmarks. And this is PerformanceTest Version 7, released well after the production of both the X60/61, and other tests have shown very logical, reasonable results.

Here's the basic results between the machines:

X60 SXGA+ L7400
CPU: 875.8, 2D: 230.2, 3D: 105.5
X60/61 e SXGA+ L7700
CPU: 1074.4, 2D: 185.5, 3D: 92.2
X60 XGA L2400
CPU: 768.6, 2D: 245.8, 3D: 105.1

Of course, it's to be expected that the CPU on the Frankie scores higher, but the 2D video score is dramatically lower, and the the 3D score is quite overshadowed as well. We ran the tests multiple times, and there was little variance between the tests despite messing with the Fan profile on TPFC, or straining the machine first with flash games or Photoshop.

The third test produces the most significant performance difference, but that's because the X60 tablets don't run VS 2.0 or PS 2.0(Vertex Shader/Pixel Shader) in the test, while the X61 Frankie attempts the effects, at the obvious expense of performance. But we agreed that even if we shut the effects off, the X61 would still be outperformed, because even in the first and second tests(simpler 3D output tests, the first being bouncy balls and the second a bare effects version of the third) the X61 had a discernable performance difference compared to the X60. The fourth tests are aborted by all machines- the X60 tablets because they don't support DX10, and the X61 because it doesn't support 4x AA or higher.

Here's a video showing us comparing the three machines side by side: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLDEgGE ... e=youtu.be

You can see the difference in the third test very clearly, and what exactly each test comprises of. The video doesn't show the 2D testing. The 2D testing we can see that the L2400 XGA X60 scores the highest... we assumed that was because of the XGA screen- the bus or memory somewhere in charge of 2D drawing on the screen has much less pixels to deal with. But the 3D graphics are extremely close between both X60 tablets, with mine scoring higher than the XGA L2400.

Also try turning aero off and set your LPM (Lenovo Power Manager) to 'Highest' CPU speed. You might want to set the fan to 'Maximum' as well. Would any difference be reflected in your scores?

Update on this, that is my
x60/x61 Frankie's stats.

During that test, aero was on, but CPU was running on the highest setting.
I ran the test again without aero, and a re-installed the graphics driver;
no change at all on PTV7, strange.

Hi thanks for the results! I too am using a 2503 and have updated my post in the What video card is in your 2503? thread with a series of new test results. Question- is there any special way to get the x60 and x61 to fit on the advanced dock? IIRC the x6x series have their own docks.

Indeed they do, and they are not physically compatible with the 250x docks. However, the docking connector appears to be the same, so if one found an extender/interposer cable for such a connector (I've never seen one, but then again I haven't been looking), one could in theory plug the X6x to the 250x docks. There is however the question of electrical compatibility, and that depends on how the connectors are wired on the different systems.

Best case - everything will just work. Middle case - some things will work, and some things won't (including maybe the external GPU). Worst case - you will fry the laptop because of voltage pinout incompatibilities.

So as you see - many assumptions and what-ifs.

Interesting. Thanks for your input dr_st

The X6 Ultrabase- which is the X6x's dock, has an Ultrabay, VGA, Parallel, and Serial, as well as more USB ports and other extended capability that the 2503 has. In fact, the UltraBase is more expansive I think than the 2505(the least capable T6x/T5xx dock). However-the most alarming difference between the 2503 and the UltraBase obviously, is the fact that the 2503 uses it's own beefy PSU(well, in contrast with the laptop's charger) to help power the e-GPU and UltraBay components, while the UltraBase can use just the 90W/65W charger.

Judging by this, I wouldn't be surprised if someone made an interposer or extender of some sort, that you'd be able to plug an X6x into the 2503. I guess there's only one way to find out for sure... but I myself wouldn't personally try it, as dr_st is hinting at... there's quite a bit of room for skepticism.