Ati 3650 and 3470

I'm indecisive, but hey, is it a problem that I want the best laptop that suits my needs?

Anyway, I'm considering a Lenovo T400 or a T500 along with some other laptops (if you got any to suggest, suggest away). What intrigues me about these 2 is the battery life and the switchable GPU's. The T400 can get 8+ hours with the Intel 4500 with decent settings, the T500 around 5+ hours.

Being a previous owner of the HP dv5t, I'd say it was a little big/heavy that it made my shoulder sore after awhile when I was using my messenger bag, so I was considering a 14.1". I like that the T400 is well, obviously smaller, and that it has great battery life. The T500 on the other hand has good battery life and extra weight, but a better GPU.

So GPU help...
Knowing myself, I know I won't really be playing any intensive FPS shooters, I might just play CS:S, but that's it. Right now i only play WC3 and picked up on D2. In the future, I'd want to try out SC2, and i'm sure I'm going to play D3. Those are probably the games i'm going to play. I might play demigod since I enjoy dota a lot, bit am not sure. Blizzard has pretty low requirement for their games so they can reach a wide variety of audiences. I'd like to be able to play those later games, SC2 and Diablo 3 with a native resolution of WXGA+ for 14.1" or WSXGA+ for 15.4" with med-high settings.

For some "benchmarks", how does WoW play on the ATI 3650 and the 3470? It's the only game that's stressing my PoS comp running an Ati Radeon X700 desktop GPU.

 

WoW isn't too GPU demanding if you tone down the graphic eye-candy(such as dynamic shadows). Without he eye-candy off, WoW is mostly a RAM and internet connection dependent game.

The HD3650 can certainly max most settings and the HD3470 can probably run med-high just to be on the safe side.

 

The ATI 3650 will run games much much better than the 3470. I believe the 3650 can max out WoW at either WXGA+ or WSXGA+ resolution (I forget, and I don't play WoW). The 3470 will likely run at medium settings. They should both be able to run SC2. I'm guessing (full system reqs aren't out) that the T400 will run it at medium settings, while the T500 will likely max it out.

But if battery life is a concern, remember that when you really need the battery life, you should be using integrated graphics - on the T500 with the 9-cell, I can get 7-8 hours with the GMA, which is almost on-par with the T400 (only difference is the screen size & backlight technology, which accounts for the difference in battery life).

 

With my GPU/CPU on my current desktop, WoW ran around 20 FPS in Dalaran, a heavily populated city. The settings were at the lowest settings. In raids, it was even worse. (Just giving a comparison, don't really play wow anymore though).

It's still a toss up for me on the T400 or T500 then. Are there any other well-built laptops similar to the T series, switchable GPU's with good build and battery life? I know it's dumb but I might OCD over the thinkpad's pointing device and ultranav thing. I can't decide whether to use the pointing device or the touchpad. I'd prefer a touchpad with it's own scrolling up/down on the side. Basically, i'm a little turned off by the T series's looks.

I just noticed the 3470 doesn't have a WXGA+ LED option... WXGA+ TFT or WXGA LED? How much better is LED in terms of battery life?

 

I highly doubt the 3650 will max out SC2. Certainly playable, but not at the highest fidelity.

 

Meh, in actuality the detail is not important to me, it's about the game play. I'd just like to play at low details at native resolution then, and possibly other things that affect gameplay, like view distance in wow.

 

i would get the one with the ati 3650. it will be future proof your laptop.