Acer laptop. Good for gaming?

I have been looking at a budget laptop that will do well for gaming. There is an Acer I've been looking at.

Linky: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834115196

The specs look good, I'd be bumping up the memory to a gig of course. The only worry I have is the 64 MB of video memory. Would I be able to run WoW, UT2k4, HL2, CS:S, BF2. I would think so, but the laptop area is new to me.

 

No, it's terrible for games.

64MB of video memory is going to kill your performance. Most games require 64MB; and the ones in the near future will begin to require more. 128MB is strongly recommended.

I had that laptop and it overheated during games.

There's an explanation of video memory in my graphics card guide:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=39568

 

Thanks for the quick reply.
I was wondering if there would be anything under $1200 that would be a decent gaming laptop? Low settings are fine, just something to mess around with on work and be playable, not maxed out gfx.

 

you would seriously kill all gaming performance. for a dedicated card, i would say 128 (as chaz recommended) is the minimum.

WoW-yes although not very well. UT2k4- low settings..maybe medium settings with more ram. HL2- no. CS:S- no. BF2- no.
pb,out.

 

More than likely you're going to want a laptop with a DEDICATED video card, not one that shares memory. Also you can look into getting a laptop that has a removable card that isn't integrated, so you could upgrade it later if you want and have more flexibility.

 

also remember with removeable cards (MXM or AXIOM), you also have to find the card to replace it. you cant simply upgrade to any card, they need to be the same "type" i guess you can call it.. (MXM1 to MXM1, MXM2 to MXM2..etc...). also, i think dell has cards you can buy for their systems to upgrade the GPU.

hope this helps..

pb,out.

 

I'd take a look at the Compaq V5000t, the MSI-1029 or the Quanta KN1-PM are good too. www.istnc.com has the Quanta; www.rawpowerpc.com has the MSI.

 

That Acer should be able to run ut2k4 at at least medium-high settings, possibly all the way up without antialiasing enabled. My old 5205 ran it just fine on medium settings with its underclocked Nvidia 5600.

That being said, you can probably do better for $1300. You can configure a Quanta KN1-PM or MSI MS-1029 quite nicely for that price.

 

Thanks for the quick replies guys. Ill take all of this into consideration. Since it's a graduation present from highschool, prices will probably go down by say end of May/early June, so hopefully I'll be able to buy a better rig right in my budget.

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

 

With coupons, doesn't the Dell e1705 fall in that price range?? That would be more than enough to last for your gaming needs for a while

 

It sure does, but not at this very second. $1184 was the last deal of a core duo 1GB 7800go machine. That price will pop up here and there again.