Recommendations for gaming laptop?
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So this past winter, you fine CPians recommended some components for a gaming PC. It worked out brilliantly, and I've been so happy with my current rig, zero problems, great performance...thanks CP! Now, our 2 laptops, both about 7 years old, are dead. And my son's school is starting to require some of his papers typed out in print. We're looking to get a laptop. We'd like to use the laptop for gaming, too. So, dear CPians, got recommendations for a laptop with enough juice to do 3d gaming for under $1000? NVidia's Ion graphics[^] thing looks cool...maybe that's the road to take? But I can't find any laptops with this in it...
Religiously blogging on the intarwebs since the early 21st century: Kineti L'Tziyon Judah Himango
It is tough to get a good gaming laptop. I'd get a second gaming PC and a cheap ($400-$500) laptop. Just my opinion.
I didn't get any requirements for the signature
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Judah Himango wrote:
NVidia's Ion graphics[^] thing looks cool...maybe that's the road to take? But I can't find any laptops with this in it...
It's an atom CPU. The atom's slow enough that the CPU would be a bottleneck with newer games with a decent GPU (and even there, ION is IIRC a very low end 8xxx series chip). Asus has a good rep for gaming laptops, and I think they've got some in the sub $1k range. Mobile GPUs are often significantly less capable than their equivalently named desktop models (Fewer cores, slower clocks) so make sure you know what you're actually getting to do comparisons.
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall
Ok. The video on the ION graphics page listed above, where you see them playing Call of Duty : World At War...smoke and mirrors?
dan neely wrote:
Mobile GPUs are often significantly less capable than their equivalently named desktop models (Fewer cores, slower clocks) so make sure you know what you're actually getting to do comparisons.
Exactly why I'm asking here. I have no idea what I'm doing. Out of touch with the hardware scene for years now.
Religiously blogging on the intarwebs since the early 21st century: Kineti L'Tziyon Judah Himango
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It is tough to get a good gaming laptop. I'd get a second gaming PC and a cheap ($400-$500) laptop. Just my opinion.
I didn't get any requirements for the signature
If I was made of money, I'd do it gladly. We're not doing the very latest hardcore 3d games. Our favorite game right now is a 4 year old RTS called Age of Mythology. It's 3d, but isn't exactly pushing vertex shaders out the butt.
Religiously blogging on the intarwebs since the early 21st century: Kineti L'Tziyon Judah Himango
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So this past winter, you fine CPians recommended some components for a gaming PC. It worked out brilliantly, and I've been so happy with my current rig, zero problems, great performance...thanks CP! Now, our 2 laptops, both about 7 years old, are dead. And my son's school is starting to require some of his papers typed out in print. We're looking to get a laptop. We'd like to use the laptop for gaming, too. So, dear CPians, got recommendations for a laptop with enough juice to do 3d gaming for under $1000? NVidia's Ion graphics[^] thing looks cool...maybe that's the road to take? But I can't find any laptops with this in it...
Religiously blogging on the intarwebs since the early 21st century: Kineti L'Tziyon Judah Himango
IMO for this amount of money the only decent “gaming” laptop you can get is Acer.
The narrow specialist in the broad sense of the word is a complete idiot in the narrow sense of the word. Advertise here – minimum three posts per day are guaranteed.
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If I was made of money, I'd do it gladly. We're not doing the very latest hardcore 3d games. Our favorite game right now is a 4 year old RTS called Age of Mythology. It's 3d, but isn't exactly pushing vertex shaders out the butt.
Religiously blogging on the intarwebs since the early 21st century: Kineti L'Tziyon Judah Himango
Judah Himango wrote:
but isn't exactly pushing vertex shaders out the butt.
I should hope not. If that does happen you really want to see a doctor about that STAT!
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IMO for this amount of money the only decent “gaming” laptop you can get is Acer.
The narrow specialist in the broad sense of the word is a complete idiot in the narrow sense of the word. Advertise here – minimum three posts per day are guaranteed.
Is Acer good or bad? I'm clueless on the hardware scene.
Religiously blogging on the intarwebs since the early 21st century: Kineti L'Tziyon Judah Himango
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So this past winter, you fine CPians recommended some components for a gaming PC. It worked out brilliantly, and I've been so happy with my current rig, zero problems, great performance...thanks CP! Now, our 2 laptops, both about 7 years old, are dead. And my son's school is starting to require some of his papers typed out in print. We're looking to get a laptop. We'd like to use the laptop for gaming, too. So, dear CPians, got recommendations for a laptop with enough juice to do 3d gaming for under $1000? NVidia's Ion graphics[^] thing looks cool...maybe that's the road to take? But I can't find any laptops with this in it...
Religiously blogging on the intarwebs since the early 21st century: Kineti L'Tziyon Judah Himango
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If I was made of money, I'd do it gladly. We're not doing the very latest hardcore 3d games. Our favorite game right now is a 4 year old RTS called Age of Mythology. It's 3d, but isn't exactly pushing vertex shaders out the butt.
Religiously blogging on the intarwebs since the early 21st century: Kineti L'Tziyon Judah Himango
Judah Himango wrote:
If I was made of money, I'd do it gladly.
Oh, I was suggesting a gaming PC and cheap laptop because it is cheaper than a high end gaming laptop. BTW,I'm currently playing Dead Space with the wired Xbox 360 controller. It is a damn good game. I just finished the Supreme Commander games, they were great fun.
I didn't get any requirements for the signature
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Is Acer good or bad? I'm clueless on the hardware scene.
Religiously blogging on the intarwebs since the early 21st century: Kineti L'Tziyon Judah Himango
I had Acer laptop once. After a while it would always over heat and just shut down. The gaming pad didn't help. I can't say that will happen with all Acer's but the one I bought was a couple hundred dollars cheaper than the comparable Dell or HP. Turns out, it was not worth the money.
I didn't get any requirements for the signature
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Is Acer good or bad? I'm clueless on the hardware scene.
Religiously blogging on the intarwebs since the early 21st century: Kineti L'Tziyon Judah Himango
They are good for the money. For ~$900 you should be able to find one with nVidia mobile card, good amount of memory, 17” screen, build in camera, TV tuner etc. Solid build and good design/the Acer produces the Toshiba notebooks/. The only shortage is the crap load of preinstalled Acer software but you can uninstall it. Just don’t expect miracles from a “gaming” laptop. The “M” versions of the video cards and CPUs are far from the performance of their desktop counterparts. You will be able to play all new games but on low or middle settings.
The narrow specialist in the broad sense of the word is a complete idiot in the narrow sense of the word. Advertise here – minimum three posts per day are guaranteed.
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Ok. The video on the ION graphics page listed above, where you see them playing Call of Duty : World At War...smoke and mirrors?
dan neely wrote:
Mobile GPUs are often significantly less capable than their equivalently named desktop models (Fewer cores, slower clocks) so make sure you know what you're actually getting to do comparisons.
Exactly why I'm asking here. I have no idea what I'm doing. Out of touch with the hardware scene for years now.
Religiously blogging on the intarwebs since the early 21st century: Kineti L'Tziyon Judah Himango
Judah Himango wrote:
Ok. The video on the ION graphics page listed above, where you see them playing Call of Duty : World At War...smoke and mirrors?
I haven't watched the video because I'm at work. IIRC COD:WAW isn't an exceptionally GPU heavy game; I also suspect it's being done at low resolution and quality settings at low values. Looking at the summary table in WP, I wouldn't recommend anything less than the one of the 9800's (or an 8800 in a older model). The lowest end one roughly corresponds to a desktop 9600 which straddles the line between upscale OEM and entry level enthusiast. (The gpu's in the GF275/280/285/295 desktop cards all have 240 cores.) If you can't afford at least that much performance I'd lean strongly toward seperate laptop and gaming systems. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_9_Series#Technical_summary_2[^] I'm not familiar enough with ATI's parts to make a similar off the cuff assessment, but look at the 4xxx series card they have at the $75-90ish price range online and then use WP's comparison tables to ID the mobile part with the same number of stream processors. For ATI to nVidia comparisons, 1 NV core ~= 4 ATI cores. I think I've bookmarked a more detailed comp guide at home, if so I'll post back with it in a few hours.
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall
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I had Acer laptop once. After a while it would always over heat and just shut down. The gaming pad didn't help. I can't say that will happen with all Acer's but the one I bought was a couple hundred dollars cheaper than the comparable Dell or HP. Turns out, it was not worth the money.
I didn't get any requirements for the signature
Mine tended to do the same after one and a half years of heavy duty but the solution is simple: Open the back panel and remove the cooling system, not a big deal – several copper elements and put the radiator lamellas under a water stream to remove the dust. The notebook will start working like new.
The narrow specialist in the broad sense of the word is a complete idiot in the narrow sense of the word. Advertise here – minimum three posts per day are guaranteed.
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I had Acer laptop once. After a while it would always over heat and just shut down. The gaming pad didn't help. I can't say that will happen with all Acer's but the one I bought was a couple hundred dollars cheaper than the comparable Dell or HP. Turns out, it was not worth the money.
I didn't get any requirements for the signature
Did you try opening it up and cleaning out the heatsink? Eventually they'll clog with dust and you're SOL. The same thing can happen with desktops, but the much larger sinks will take a lot longer to fill up, and desktop parts typically operate farther from the crash point to begin with.
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall
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So this past winter, you fine CPians recommended some components for a gaming PC. It worked out brilliantly, and I've been so happy with my current rig, zero problems, great performance...thanks CP! Now, our 2 laptops, both about 7 years old, are dead. And my son's school is starting to require some of his papers typed out in print. We're looking to get a laptop. We'd like to use the laptop for gaming, too. So, dear CPians, got recommendations for a laptop with enough juice to do 3d gaming for under $1000? NVidia's Ion graphics[^] thing looks cool...maybe that's the road to take? But I can't find any laptops with this in it...
Religiously blogging on the intarwebs since the early 21st century: Kineti L'Tziyon Judah Himango
I'd second whoever it was with the recommendations for ASUS laptops. I've got one with the a dedicated ATI chip in it and while nothing compared to my desktop it can handle most older games (Test Drive Unlimited, GTA San Andreas, Vice City perfectly happy). It can just about manage GTA IV on minimum settings but just play it on my desktop because of the better screen. The one which I have is of the ASUS F5 Entertainment line (F5VL if I remember correctly) with an ATI X2300 and Core2Duo. The only modification I have made has been to upgrade the hard drive to a 320GB model from a 160GB one and while I was at it upgraded it to a 7200RPM one and that makes a huge difference (haven't tried games on it though). My sister has the same but without the dedicated graphics card and she's unable to play the new Tomb Raider game but mine handles it quite well from what I remember. Price wise it was £550 when I got it a year ago (almost to the day since it was a birthday present). Don't know what they're like at the moment for cost, but presumably come down quite a bit.
I doubt it. If it isn't intuitive then we need to fix it. - Chris Maunder
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Did you try opening it up and cleaning out the heatsink? Eventually they'll clog with dust and you're SOL. The same thing can happen with desktops, but the much larger sinks will take a lot longer to fill up, and desktop parts typically operate farther from the crash point to begin with.
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall
@ECHO OFF
:-D
The narrow specialist in the broad sense of the word is a complete idiot in the narrow sense of the word. Advertise here – minimum three posts per day are guaranteed.
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Judah Himango wrote:
If I was made of money, I'd do it gladly.
Oh, I was suggesting a gaming PC and cheap laptop because it is cheaper than a high end gaming laptop. BTW,I'm currently playing Dead Space with the wired Xbox 360 controller. It is a damn good game. I just finished the Supreme Commander games, they were great fun.
I didn't get any requirements for the signature
Wow...a gaming PC and a cheap laptop is cheaper than buying a high end gaming laptop. Hmmm. I don't think the wife will go for that.
ToddHileHoffer wrote:
I'm currently playing Dead Space
Wife loves that game.
Religiously blogging on the intarwebs since the early 21st century: Kineti L'Tziyon Judah Himango
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I'd second whoever it was with the recommendations for ASUS laptops. I've got one with the a dedicated ATI chip in it and while nothing compared to my desktop it can handle most older games (Test Drive Unlimited, GTA San Andreas, Vice City perfectly happy). It can just about manage GTA IV on minimum settings but just play it on my desktop because of the better screen. The one which I have is of the ASUS F5 Entertainment line (F5VL if I remember correctly) with an ATI X2300 and Core2Duo. The only modification I have made has been to upgrade the hard drive to a 320GB model from a 160GB one and while I was at it upgraded it to a 7200RPM one and that makes a huge difference (haven't tried games on it though). My sister has the same but without the dedicated graphics card and she's unable to play the new Tomb Raider game but mine handles it quite well from what I remember. Price wise it was £550 when I got it a year ago (almost to the day since it was a birthday present). Don't know what they're like at the moment for cost, but presumably come down quite a bit.
I doubt it. If it isn't intuitive then we need to fix it. - Chris Maunder
Thanks! I'll look into this.
Religiously blogging on the intarwebs since the early 21st century: Kineti L'Tziyon Judah Himango
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So this past winter, you fine CPians recommended some components for a gaming PC. It worked out brilliantly, and I've been so happy with my current rig, zero problems, great performance...thanks CP! Now, our 2 laptops, both about 7 years old, are dead. And my son's school is starting to require some of his papers typed out in print. We're looking to get a laptop. We'd like to use the laptop for gaming, too. So, dear CPians, got recommendations for a laptop with enough juice to do 3d gaming for under $1000? NVidia's Ion graphics[^] thing looks cool...maybe that's the road to take? But I can't find any laptops with this in it...
Religiously blogging on the intarwebs since the early 21st century: Kineti L'Tziyon Judah Himango
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Wow...a gaming PC and a cheap laptop is cheaper than buying a high end gaming laptop. Hmmm. I don't think the wife will go for that.
ToddHileHoffer wrote:
I'm currently playing Dead Space
Wife loves that game.
Religiously blogging on the intarwebs since the early 21st century: Kineti L'Tziyon Judah Himango
I've seen basic quad core systems on sale for $400, the GTX260 (or ati equivalent) turn up on sale for $200 every once in a while. $400 will get a bare bones 15" laptop. You might need to add $75ish for a better PSU in the desktop to power the GPU. To get a gaming laptop close to (but still less than) that spec would cost several grand. IIRC the only mobile quad costs ~$1000 from intel, and you'd need 2 SLIed 9800M cards (which you won't see until you get into the $2k+ range).
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall
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So this past winter, you fine CPians recommended some components for a gaming PC. It worked out brilliantly, and I've been so happy with my current rig, zero problems, great performance...thanks CP! Now, our 2 laptops, both about 7 years old, are dead. And my son's school is starting to require some of his papers typed out in print. We're looking to get a laptop. We'd like to use the laptop for gaming, too. So, dear CPians, got recommendations for a laptop with enough juice to do 3d gaming for under $1000? NVidia's Ion graphics[^] thing looks cool...maybe that's the road to take? But I can't find any laptops with this in it...
Religiously blogging on the intarwebs since the early 21st century: Kineti L'Tziyon Judah Himango
Something else to consider. For a gaming laptop you want a low resolution screen to keep the load down on the GPU (native 1280x800 looks better than 1920x1200/1680x1050 scaled to 1280x800), and $1000ish laptop won't be able to game at higher resolutions. If your son needs a higher res display for other uses get him an external monitor.
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall