# Buying Laptop, want ability to play games like oblivion...need help!



## hayze (Apr 13, 2006)

Ok, so, right now I have a crappy old compaq desktop, which would take a total mobo upgrade inorder to add the latest graphics card (only PCI slots)...(oddly enough, it does run sims2). But I am looking to buy a laptop, for a number of reasons, one of which is that I want to improve my gaming ability. However, I am on a budget & don't want to spend over $1,000 and would be really happy if I could only spend less than 900 w/ tax....(perhaps a pipe dream...)
Anyways, bestbuy has a gateway notebook w/:
amd turion 65 1.8ghz processor,
1600mhz system bus, 
1gb memory, 
100gb hard drive, & 
an "Ati Radeon xpress 200m chipset with integrated Ati radeon x300 based graphics", 64mb shared....

Definatly a large leap above what I currently have (plus its only like $800). However, I would like to be able to play next gen games like Oblivion...is the video card good enough, on low settings w/ Omega drivers added on & ini tweaks? If not, could someone please steer me in a good direction?

On a similar note, it was suggested to me that there may be a way to edit the BIOS to up the size of the memory alloted for the video card to 128mb...any truth to that?


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## Hypermagic2 (Mar 28, 2006)

i don't know about that, but unless you're looking for portability, buy a desktop for gaming (unless you're looking to wardrive or sit at the coffee shop all day playing wirelessly). You'll get a better everything for the money you shell out. Laptop CPU's will always suck until they invent the neverending battery for it. For $1000 you can get a dual core system from Dell or Gateway or any other manufacturer. This is the computer I have (plus one or 2 upgrades):

http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsdt_400?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

it rocks.


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## Hypermagic2 (Mar 28, 2006)

plus, buy direct from the manufacturer if possible. you'll be paying for what dell charged best buy for the computer plus their markup on it.


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## hayze (Apr 13, 2006)

Unfortunatly, If I'm going to invest the money, I'd prefer a laptop, simply because I'm an undergrad about to go to grad school...so portability would definatly be preferable

Also found a custumizable hp with all the same specs except for the hard drive which would be 80gb & a the video card, which would be a 128MB ATI RADEON(R) XPRESS 200M w/Hypermemory(TM) ...is that better? Would that run oblivion?


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## GCDude (Apr 1, 2005)

If youre looking for a gaming laptop, u need to get one with a decent graphics card. The ones you have pointed out have integrated graphics. These may not even run oblivion, or if they did it wouldnt run very well.

You may struggle to get a laptop with a decent graphics card for under $1000

edit: take a look at www.alienware.com at their gaming spec machines. thats the sort of graphics you need. That not a recommendation to buy there though, just info on what sort of spec u should be looking at


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## bonk (Sep 8, 2005)

AllienWare has one but a bit out of your price range I think...check out this link

http://www.bizwaremagic.com/best_gaming_notebooks.htm


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## masterfei195 (Apr 8, 2006)

When i was shopping around for my laptop, I wanted good gaming abilities, plus a reasonable price, so when i called dell to make my Order, i told them the games i wanted to play which included Half life 2 and doom 3, and they told me the equipment i'd need etc. The price only came to $1,115 after taxes, so you could try that... Just let them know your price range and what capabilities you want, I'm sure they can help you out.


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## Couriant (Mar 26, 2002)

Like GCD said, the most likely issue you will have will be the video. Most video cards in notebooks are intergrated. But the real problem with them is that they use system memory to run the video.


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## Chaostar (Apr 14, 2007)

Sorry, but your requirements aren't very realistic. There's a few things that you need to keep in mind about laptops (these are often overlooked):

1. Most laptop hard-drives are 5400 RPM. This will slow you down.

2. All laptops will throttle their speeds down when a certain temperature is reached. You can deviate from this but then you risk damage (and if you feel your laptop when it gets hot, you won't doubt that damage will occur). The laptop internals are in a very small enclosed space and heat is a big issue. It's easy to see your framerate cut in half once you hear the fans kick up in speed. In my experience (with many laptops), it doesn't take long to reach this point...about half an hour to an hour.

3. With any LCD screen, you either run a game at the full native resolution of the screen or it looks terrible. LCD's don't adjust in resolution as well as CRT's do. This is usually not such a big deal on a desktop since a common LCD (19" to 22") will run at 1280x1024 to 1650x1050 depending on the screen format and size. These resolutions aren't usually a problem for most modernly-equipped desktops. Most laptops today between 12" and 15.4" in size will run at 1280x800 (WXGA) without paying more for an upgraded screen.

You can alleviate issue #1 with a 7200 RPM drive, available on some laptops. This will definitely increase cost and it will also exacerbate issue #2. You can help alleviate issue #2 with a USB-powered fan base (a base your laptop sits on which has two fans built into it) but this reduces mobility. The only thing you can do about issue #3 is live with the look of the game at a non-native resolution or get a really powerful laptop that can handle it.

I currently have both a desktop and three laptops (work, wife's and my own) that I've tried gaming on. My work laptop has a Quadro 110M chip, my wife's has an integrated Radeon XPress 200M and my own has a GeForce 7400 Go. The work laptop and my wife's won't play much at all. It's laughable. The best I could get to run on my wife's laptop was "The Movies". My Sony SZ430N/B with the 7400 Go is the most powerful and is a $2,000 machine (equivalent in specs and price to the Dell XPS M1210). It can run TitanQuest at med-low settings. I tried Oblivion and gave up. It's almost a slide-show. I continue to do my gaming on my desktop.

If you can ease up on the price requirement, I recommend looking into the Asus A8JS (http://1toppc.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=GPS&Product_Code=A8JS&Category_Code=). It's the cheapest laptop I've found with a very decent 7700 Go 512mb dedicated graphics chip. It goes for about $1,500. Also buy a USB-powered cooling base for around $30 (search Amazon...there are lots of them). If you're deadset on your price requirement, to be honest, you either will have to give up your gaming ambitions or settle for a desktop. I really see no other way around it.


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## airman19 (Apr 14, 2007)

I have had a couple of friends tell me that Ibuypower.com usually has pretty good gaming laptops at cheaper prices.


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