Laptop Question - Do I Need a Gaming System If I Want to Play Games?

[Thebazile78]

OK, so I'm in the market for a new computer. I would like to get a laptop rather than a desktop.

The one thing I am adamant about is that my new system be able to run Civilization IV.

Here's what the game needs:

System Requirements to run Civilization IV (http://www.2kgames.com/civ4/support_msr.htm)

I'm starting to look at various systems and noticed that there are basic laptops and there are gaming laptops.

Beyond the Civ games, I don't do much on my PC besides web surfing. (And I'm thinking about downloading a C-64 simulator so I can play Mail Order Monsters and Lords of Conquest.)

Can I get by on a regular system or do I have to get the gaming system? (Keep in mind that the gaming system will cost twice as much.)

[Chigworthy]

The one thing I would look for is a laptop with a non-integrated video card.

[dino_electropolis]

i tell anyone in the market for a new cpu the same thing: Macbook Pro


best piece of technology i ever purchased....although, as most games are on MS platform, this may not be the best advice. good luck.

[Snoogans]

You can play games on these? I just thought a computer was a $1000 porn TV that you could also use to talk to people

[Tenbatsuzen]

You can play games on these? I just thought a computer was a $1000 porn TV that you could also use to talk to people

I think the egg discs have gone to your head.

[Snoogans]

I think the egg discs have gone to your head.

I didnt eat them, I ate one, it sucked ass, i threw the other one away and cried into my hashbrowns

[LordJezo]

Civ IV on a laptop: not very hard.

Crysis on a laptop: hard.

Are you going to want to do something crazier than Civ IV and games like that on the machine or will you be using it more as a casual gaming machine and not really getting into the high end stuff?

[EliSnow]

Last year I bought the Dell Inspiron E1705 laptop to use as our main home computer. Needed the laptop because the only good place in our new house for a computer was in a nook in the kitchen. I didn't go with a gaming computer, because I knew I wanted it to be family friendly and I'd only play maybe 2 games on it.

Then I bought Halo II, and while I can play Halo II on the laptop, it's at the lowest visual settings for the game. Should have went with the gaming latptops.

[Death Metal Moe]

You can use a somewhat normal laptop to play games, sure. You may not be playing them on the highest settings but most game designers are smart enough to make sure a wide variety of comps will play their game.

As someone said earlier, make sure you get a laptop that has a seperate video card, not the intergrated one. Those basic cards on the motherboard are garbage and will not let you do a damn thing besides basic crap.

I got an HP last year and I couldn't be happier with it. I suggest going to their website and at least looking. It was the best site I found for modifying your laptop on screen to see pricing and packages.

But whatever you get, if your budget allows it, please come alittle above the MINIMUM requirements or you're not going to be very happy playing your game, trust me.

Lastly, stay away from Macs unless you plan to do a lot of video and picture editing and only want to play the 4 games out for it. No one develops shit for mac.

[Reynolds]

You should be fine with a non gaming laptop. Civilization isn't very graphics intense. Just make sure it has at least 1 gig of ram, and room to expand to at least 2 gig. Don't get a cheap processor either. What laptop were you looking at?

[Death Metal Moe]

Holy shit, I just went and looked at the recommended requirements for this game. That's it? What the hell is this game, video chess?

You can probably keep your eyes open and play that game on a $500 sale laptop. Those stats are butt.

Get a seperate graphics card, 2 gigs of ram since most new laptops run fucking Vista now and I like a nice HD screen but maybe thats just me.

This mine and it was worth every penny

http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/feature_stories/2006/images/06hidef-2.jpg

[Thebazile78]

Thanks folks!

Running any of the Civ games on minimum settings sucks ass. I like to watch the animations and in-game movies, so I have to have the higher-end requirements.

Yes, it's effectively video chess, but it makes me happy.

Isn't Halo a first-person shooter? Those make me sick. I have absolutely zero interest in playing anything like that.

The only other PC game I play and enjoy is Roller Coaster Tycoon, which is effectively Sim City, but in an amusement park. (I think that the one thing that makes me happiest in Tycoon is watching the digitally animated maintenance staff sweep up puddles of virtual vomit.)

The primary use of this computer will be web surfing, MS Office (Word, Excel, etc.) and, for something different, the aforementioned games. Nothing flashy.

[Freitag]

I don't think my wife needs a gaming system. She's mainly happy with sims like Civ IV, Roller Coaster Tycooon, etc. We don't game on PC's that much - we already have a PS2, a 360, and maybe a Wii coming soon.

I was just concerned about the chip and graphics card I'd need on a laptop.

[Thebazile78]

I don't think my wife needs a gaming system. She's mainly happy with sims like Civ IV, Roller Coaster Tycooon, etc. We don't game on PC's that much - we already have a PS2, a 360, and maybe a Wii coming soon.

I was just concerned about the chip and graphics card I'd need on a laptop.

Um, did you even read my post? I just wrote that!!!!

(And they say I'm the one who needs to work on their reading comprehension!)

Here's the summary of everyone's opinions: use the "recommended" specs from the link in my initial posting to figure out the system requirements. And get a system without an integrated video card because integrated cards are crap.

[Freitag]

Um, did you even read my post? I just wrote that!!!!

(And they say I'm the one who needs to work on their reading comprehension!)




Hi, I wrote everything out but didn't hit "post reply" for about 10 minutes because I was busy with a project. So excuse me for not having the cognitive abilities of Byron Orpheus.

[walking joint]

the poor flies on your walls.

[DolaMight]

Probally not but the game will only run on med-low resolution if you get the 500$ laptop with an integrated graphic card

the Civ4 specs aren't much so you'll just need to look for a laptop with "B.Low-end" or "C.Mid-range" Video Cards to run at max. Those shouldn't cost you much more but they only tend to be in the larger 17" laptops.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=39568

I bought a laptop with a "D.Performance Video" 7600Go card last year and it runs games pretty much on par with the 7600GT desktop equivalent. Problem is it added 500$ to the price of the laptop(work paid for it), while the desktop 7600gt was only worth about 140$ at the time. Prepare to pay 4x more for desktop videocard equivalent speed on a laptop if you go that route.

[DolaMight]

This is handy for a quick reference


THE BIG CHART
This chart ranks every current notebook GPU's performance from least at the top to greatest at the bottom.
Quote:
Intel GMA900
Intel GMA950*
ATI Radeon Xpress 200M*
Nvidia GeForce Go6100/6150*
ATI Radeon Xpress 1100/1150*
ATI Radeon Xpress 1200/1250*
Intel GMA X3100
Nvidia GeForce Go6200
ATI Mobility Radeon X300
Nvidia GeForce Go7200
Nvidia GeForce Go6400
ATI Mobility Radeon X600
Nvidia GeForce Go7300
ATI Mobility Radeon X1300
ATI Mobility Radeon X1350
ATI Mobility Radeon X2300
Nvidia GeForce Go7400
ATI Mobility Radeon X1400
ATI Mobility Radeon X1450
Nvidia GeForce 8400M-GS
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2400
Nvidia GeForce Go6600
ATI Mobility Radeon X700
Nvidia GeForce Go7600
ATI Mobility Radeon X1600
ATI Mobility Radeon X1700
Nvidia GeForce 8400M-GT
Nvidia GeForce Go7700
Nvidia GeForce Go7600GT
Nvidia GeForce 8600M-GS
Nvidia GeForce Go7800
ATI Mobility Radeon X1800
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600 DDR2
Nvidia GeForce 8600M-GT DDR2/Nvidia GeForce 9500M-GS
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600 GDDR3
Nvidia GeForce 8600M-GT GDDR3
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650
Nvidia GeForce Go7900GS
ATI Mobility Radeon X1900
Nvidia GeForce Go7800GTX
ATI Mobility Radeon X1800XT
Nvidia GeForce 8700M-GT
Nvidia GeForce 8600M-GT SLI
Nvidia GeForce Go7900GTX
Nvidia GeForce Go7950GTX
Nvidia GeForce 8700M-GT SLI
Nvidia GeForce 8800M-GTS
Nvidia GeForce Go7950GTX SLI
Nvidia GeForce 8800M-GTX
Nvidia GeForce 8800M-GTX SLI

[Freitag]

the poor flies on your walls.

It's weird, the most fighting we do is here. As we said, it's a cheap form of marriage therapy. Louis CK would be Ward Cleaver if he and his wife posted here.

[LordJezo]

What is your budget for this machine that you want to buy?

[Thebazile78]

What is your budget for this machine that you want to buy?

$700 or less.

[Freitag]

Wife already answered, but it looks like we're gonna go with the Vostro 1500. Core 2 Duo 2 GHZ, 2 gigs of ram, GeForce 8400M GS.

[bobrobot]

Wife already answered, but it looks like we're gonna go with the Vostro 1500. Core 2 Duo 2 GHZ, 2 gigs of ram, GeForce 8400M GS.

you may wanna consider a 256mb viddy card in there... just sayin...

[LordJezo]

$700 or less.

Oh.

Well in that case you wont even be able to consider a gaming laptop. Those would cost you more than double that.

Just max out whatever Dell you can then for that price rage and try to get a non integrated graphics card.

[Freitag]

you may wanna consider a 256mb viddy card in there... just sayin...

Why? The recommended specs says a 128, and you can't get a 256 without going overbudget...

[DolaMight]

you may wanna consider a 256mb viddy card in there... just sayin...

The GeForce 8400M GS looks to be a good bargain for what they need.

video ram can often be useless, 128 is more than enough for a game like Civ4.

1.Is a GeForce 8600M-GT 256MB DDR2 better than a GeForce 8600M-GT 512MB DDR2?
This is a very common train of thought – more video memory must mean better performance. This is not true – the video card itself matters much more than the memory it has.
In this case, both cards have the same performance. The 8600M-GT DOES NOT HAVE ENOUGH POWER to use more than 256MB of memory. It has a limited 128-bit memory bus. Only cards with a 256-bit bus or greater are going to be able to use more than 256MB of memory. It is not worth spending any extra money on a mid-range card like the 8600M-GT with more memory. There is no performance gain to justify the price.
Why can't it use more memory effectively? Here's a primitive example. An office worker can use a maximum of three computers at a time. If he is given an additional three computers, is he any more productive? No, because he can only use three of them to begin with. The extra three do nothing.

[Tenbatsuzen]

To bring this to a close, we got a closeout computer from last year at Staples for 200 dollars less than what we originally were going to pay, and got a bigger screen to boot.

We got a Dell 1721.

[Gwen]

Congrats on the new purchase. Glad to see you'll be able to enjoy it and your game, chick.

Also, I don't want the sheer brilliance of this lost in amongst the other words of this thread

"I just thought a computer was a $1000 porn TV that you could also use to talk to people"

I wish I had a tshirt that said that. :clap:

[Tenbatsuzen]

Congrats on the new purchase. Glad to see you'll be able to enjoy it and your game, chick.

Also, I don't want the sheer brilliance of this lost in amongst the other words of this thread

"I just thought a computer was a $1000 porn TV that you could also use to talk to people"

I wish I had a tshirt that said that. :clap:

Well... your wedding gift will be AWESOME then.