Few questions on new laptop
By
Burst_Eagle,
Posted on: 2009-06-26 21:41 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
To use a current political metaphor, the power of a *gaming* PC rests on a three legged stool: CPU, GPU, and RAM.
[u]GPU[u]
Graphic Processor Unit manufacturers (nVidia and ATI) create a range of GPU chips that range from simply showing pictures and basic video, to rendering the high-end 3D graphics polygons, textures, and special Graphical FX.
For nVidia, the second number of the series number will tell you how powerful the GPU is in rendering high-end graphics from 0 to 9. So, you may have numbers like: 5000, 7200, 6500, 8800, 290. The graphical savvy of those GPUs are, respectively: 0, 2, 5, 8, 9. To do 3D gaming right, it should be 6 or higher. The first number indicates the generation. The current nVidia generation is 9000 or 200. Last year it was 8000, and before that 7000 and so on. For CoH, you shouldn't go back past 6000.
If you're using a CPU that's less than a 6600, then you're not going be able to display the high-end textures, or have high frame rate, or have special effects like bloom.
[u]RAM[u]
If you turn up all the graphical bells and whistles, CoH/V can use up to 1.3 GB of RAM. At the low graphical end, it certainly goes over .5 GB. Thus, the usual recommendation is 2 GB of RAM. Since many claim Vista itself needs 2 GB to run anything well, you'll often here people say 3 GB is needed for Vista, though, on my Vista computer, I've never seen memory usage go over 2 GB.
It's important to have more RAM that the game + operating system use, otherwise, you'll start to swap memory to the hard drive ('page filing'), which is excruciatingly slow compared to RAM.
[u]CPU[u]
For CoH/V if the first two legs above are sturdy, then a previous generation of CPU is OK. Any old Pentium 4 would work or an Athlon 2000+ and up. But, more power is better. *Any* dual core is more than sufficient. The game isn't written to take advantage of quad cores, so there's no advantage there unless you want to run background programs, which usually isn't recommended for intensive programs like a 3D MMORPG, which is what CoH/V is.
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Wow! Wasn't expecting a reply that fast! With tons of information to boot!
Thanks alot! That will surely help! 
Whoops, sorry for the double post, but what about the Windows 7 issue? With it so close to release. should I old out until it comes preset?
Also: Here is what I ment as confusing on prices:
During Customizing the processor, I get this:
Starting: Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 2.4GHz
Adding $450 = Intel Core 2 Duo T9800 2.93GHz
But add $250 = Intel Core 2 Quad Q9000 2.0GHz
What would have been the best option? Why is the Quad cheaper then the Duo? But the Quad is more expensive then the next lowest option of Duo (Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 2.8GHz) by $50.
This is what I've come up with -- an edit of the Alienware M17x
PROCESSOR Intel® Core2 Quad Q9000 2.0GHz (6MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
OPERATING SYSTEM Windows Vista Home Premium (64 bit) + Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade Coupon
VIDEO CARD Dual NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260M, 2GB SLI® Enabled
LCD PANEL 17-inch WideUXGA 1920x1200 (1200p)
MEMORY 6GB DDR3 at 1066MHz
HARD DRIVE 320GB 7,200RPM w/ Free Fall Protection
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE Slot-Load Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
Edit for Specs
It comes to $3073, which hurts me to say it. I can cut down my ram from 6GB to 4GB and save $400, but would that be a good idea to do so? Planning on upgrading to Windows 7.
Keep the 6gb of memory, ditch the quad core, get the Core2 Duo T9600 2.8GHz. higher clock speeds > cores for most games out there, CoX included.
The SLI'd vid cards are a bit much, can get the single 1gb card and be happy as a clam (this *is* still a laptop, afterall...)
Doing these steps gets you down to 2500.
Oh, nice! Thanks for the tips!
As a former ATI guy I can say stay away from mobile ATI.
The driver trouble is just not worth it and I have no idea when ATI is gonna wake up and demand OEM lap top makers allow off the shelf ATI drivers.
I can suggest a laptop for about $1000 that will allow you to turn up settings to max and handle the game for a while in the future, check out the Gateway FX laptop at Best Buy's website. It has a good graphics card, 4gb RAM, 320 gb HD, and a 17 inch screen (pretty heavy laptop though). I'd loved it so far (had it for about 4-5 months) and the only trouble you need to watch out for is to keep it cool (keep it on a hard, flat surface, no blankets or soft materials underneath that could block the fans).
Best Buy laptop link
[ QUOTE ]
I can suggest a laptop for about $1000 that will allow you to turn up settings to max and handle the game for a while in the future, check out the Gateway FX laptop at Best Buy's website. It has a good graphics card, 4gb RAM, 320 gb HD, and a 17 inch screen (pretty heavy laptop though). I'd loved it so far (had it for about 4-5 months) and the only trouble you need to watch out for is to keep it cool (keep it on a hard, flat surface, no blankets or soft materials underneath that could block the fans).
Best Buy laptop link
[/ QUOTE ]
Best Buy also has an Asus Laptop with the Nvida M series graphic card (512mb video ram) that I bought for under $900 and runs the game fantastsically at full settings.
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Hey there all tech guru's! Had a few quick questions. Looking into getting a new laptop, but I'm not really sure what to "look at" as the numbers tend to mash into each other.
I wanted to know what would be a good starting graphics card/ammount of RAM, and processor speed/types.
I'd probably want to just customize a laptop from Dell or Alienware or such, but as I was playing around with them, the price jumps seem to be outrageous for .1 more speed on certain things!
Just wanted to know what I should be looking at. I'd like it run CoH almost flawlessly, and be capable of holding it's own in the future. Price is touchy, probably -no more- then 3k. But that would be 'really' pushing it. Around 2.5ish would be better overall.
Also: should I wait to invest in one until Windows 7?
Thanks in advance!