Laptop Graphics comparison?

[Marcos]

Is shared video RAM that bad? I mean, for the odd game, not world-class unreal tournament deathmatches or anything. I would like the odd game of CoD single player and BF1942.

How are the x600 128mb and Ati radeon 9700 64mb?

[skattrd]

Can't comment on the x600, but a 64MB 9700 is ok on a laptop, thats what i've got on mine, and it plays just about anything at decent quality.

Avoid shared gfx if poss - it does suck.

[Timmy!!!]

I have the 9700 128mb in my laptop (mobility obiously) and it plays hl2 1024x768, everything on high, 8xAF 0xAA and I get about 70-110fps. Not bad condidering it is a laptop.

My friend has just bought himself a travelmate 8100, my god its nice and gameplay is so smooth. His laptop has an X700 in it and it is incredibly fast for a laptop. On a huge resolution it is still very smooth.

Have a look at this web site for mobility radeon comparisons.

Edit: Shared graphics is ok for normal use, but game play is pretty bad. Don't be fooled by the name 'Intel Extreme Graphics 2'.

[Marcos]

Anyone know anything about a GeForce Go 6200? I read it has 32mb dedicated, and can use another 96 from main ram

[Tobeman]

Its gonna eat away at your system ram, and in newer games where you need as many resources as you can get, it isnt going to help. However, it still serves better than shared RAM.

[Marcos]

Ok, so its halfway there

Hmm, i was just hoping to run some of the games from the past couple of years and maybe some even older titles. Probably nothing new new

[Matt1eD]

I have the 9700 128mb in my laptop (mobility obiously) and it plays hl2 1024x768, everything on high, 8xAF 0xAA and I get about 70-110fps. Not bad condidering it is a laptop.

Not bad indeed

[Tobeman]

Ok, so its halfway there

Hmm, i was just hoping to run some of the games from the past couple of years and maybe some even older titles. Probably nothing new new

The main stress of the card is going to come from the resolution you run, aslong as you dont intend to use a 17" laptop and run it at 1920x1200 you should be ok. Should provide for 1024x768 and 1280x1024 (assuming its not widescreen) fine, especially for older games.

[Marcos]

The main stress of the card is going to come from the resolution you run, aslong as you dont intend to use a 17" laptop and run it at 1920x1200 you should be ok. Should provide for 1024x768 and 1280x1024 (assuming its not widescreen) fine, especially for older games.

I dont mind playing at lower res, about 800x600 works for me.

The laptop in mind has a 1280x800 screen, and a 1.7Ghz centrino, 512mb DDR ram

[Tobeman]

Just in passing conversation, as Im looking at getting a lappy soon, what make/model do you plan to get?

Those specs are quite good, will help the 'GPU' (if you can call it one ) out a bit. Everything would work great at 800x600, probably even on integrated graphics.

[Marcos]

I've used Sony Vaios for years (4 now at least) and they've been great.

And I was hoping to find another brand with better specs and cheaper price like everyone says but couldn't help but be put off by the terrible designs and cheape build quality. Not to mention the screens and resolutions.

So i'll stick with sony, but i dont suggest you buy new since they are known for having terrible customer service. And i've heard bad things about their new FS series, which i was very keen on getting but was put off by plenty of feedback speaking of bad build quality issues, faulty drives, crap hinges, backlight failures/buzzing.

I've been mainly looking at the A series (both 15.4" and 17") and the S series.

I'm usually a portable laptops person as i like the form factor and dont mind working on a machine that size. But since the S series is quite expensive i looked at the A-series for another extreme. And with the hope that it may run games good.

The S3 has the Geforce Go 6200 128mb* (32mb dedicated, etc), lovely small machine with a built-in DVD-RW (incredible for its size) and nice Xblack display at 1280x800.

The A317M has a huge 17" xblack display, 128mb x600 card, DVD-RW etc, but it weighs twice that of the S series.

I'm actually quite stuck on that, not sure wether i'll prefer portability or the ability to play games decently.

[Marcos]

Update, I've just put an offer through on an S3 series, 1.6Ghz.

I'm still not 100% sure its going to be a good laptop for me but it has everything i think i need. The only possible thing that could go wrong is fan noise, which i have heard this model suffers from.

I'll see how bad it is really, not putting all my eggs in one basket

[Tobeman]

Heh

Well, Im still stuck between buying a kick-ass laptop that will be completely inpractica portability wise, or buying a cheaper small laptop and building myself a SFF PC for portable gaming :\

[Marcos]

What's your budget?

I'd go for the weaker laptop + SFF option. In fact thats what i was going for until i ran out of cash/time. Now i need to get a laptop that does ok at both.

You can get something fairly decent for portable power for £600 i reckon, thats on ebay, but its fairly safe there if you are cautious/experienced

[Tobeman]

Im not really sure, I think £1500 would be maximum though. Can get a Dell XPS Gen 2 Lappie for that too, however Im really not sure how portable they are, I can carry a bit of weight around with me, as I already do around 6th Form, and I have a locker I can stash it in. Still, its lighter and cheaper than the Alienware 7700m laptop Wish I could afford a voodoopc laptop though

I think its about time Sony did a notebook with any X800 or GeForce 6800 card, cos I'd snap it up straight away... for the right price.. which it wouldnt be

[Matt1eD]

Tobeman, you might be able to squeeze a savrow out of yur budget