Looking at buying a new laptop, can it run ultra mode?

Ventrisk · 10-11-2010 11:48 AM

First off, sorry if this is the wrong place to post this.

So my desktop just crashed and my laptop can barely run CoH. I'm looking at getting a new laptop that's around ~$1000. Right now I'm looking at this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220700

Now I know some stuff about computers, but I have no clue at all about video cards. This has NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M.

So could this run ultra mode? Any suggestions on gaming laptops around this price? And if this isn't the right thread just yell at me and I'll post it in the right place. Thanks.

Sardan · 10-11-2010 11:51 AM

I think most of the hardware gurus hang out in the Technical Issues & Bugs forum. You might want to repost there.

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Lemur Lad · 10-11-2010 12:02 PM

I'm by no means an expert, but looking at the listing for the laptop, then looking up that video card, the writeup I found says that it is roughly equivalent to an nvidia 9800GT

Which according to Posi's Ultra Mode buyer's guide will allow you to enable Ultra Mode features, but only at lower quality settings.

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Father Xmas · 10-11-2010 01:50 PM

It will likely work but likely not very well at the laptop's native 1920x1080 resolution, too many pixels and at UM settings beyond performance (lowest). It's a powerful GPU for a laptop but it's still rather middle of the road when compared with desktop models.

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Lord_Apollon · 10-11-2010 11:30 PM

I just recently purchased a laptop, with ultra mode in mind.

This is what I found would run ultra mode without breaking the bank:

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/sh...=WQ859UA%23ABA

Lakevren_ · 10-12-2010 12:42 AM

I would not recommend HP laptops, at all. They tend to be designed with a 2 year lifespan with an incredibly inefficient cooling system (loud AND hot). I'd either stick with the Asus, or this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220695 . This one is faster by around 10-20%, but might be variable due to CoH not working well with ATI cards in the past.

Most Asus laptops (that I've worked with) tend to have excellent cooling systems. When comparing them to HP laptops, the Asus laptops are beyond better. They also don't have that loud annoying fan noise that plagues HP laptops.

Unfortunately, I don't know much of the quality of Dell laptops recently. In the past, they were only slightly better than HP laptops, since they didn't have that incredibly loud fan noise. Still hot, but I think the HP laptops were hotter. As for lifespan, they tend to maybe have better lifespans. HP laptops start having things break within 2 years, and break even more after that. With Asus after 1 year: No problem so far.

Here's an overview of the Nvidia GTS 360M as well as benchmarks:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-...M.24058.0.html
You can compare it to other mobile video cards and decide which one's better.

Lord_Apollon · 10-12-2010 07:45 AM

We have two HP laptops, a Dell, an MSI Netbook, and two Toshiba. Your charge against HP is correct, for their Intel based solutions. The AMD HP we have is quiet, and does not have any heat issues over what any other laptop offers. I'd not recommend a Dell at this time, unless you have the moola for an Alienware or Precision.

I'd note, I'm finding the AMD based laptops (one of the HP, the MSI and both Toshibas) are outperforming the Intel for playing CoH. Even the little MSI Netbook, with it's single core AMD and Radeon 3200 graphics is playing with some Ultra Mode settings enabled (Shadows and Reflections).