Business laptop and Civilization IV

I am in the market for a new laptop. Cost is not a prohibitive factor. About 95% of time will be dedicated to work/internet. The other 5% is gaming. And I do love that 5%. Mostly I play Civ 4 and Galactic Civilizations. I don't have much interest in real time or first person shooters. Maybe some Tiger Woods now and again. I am looking for a 14" inch sturdy machine that can handle my gaming and the three dimensional visualization software I use for work.

The Lenovo T60P looks great as it has a standard 4:3 aspect ration which i really like. The ATI Mobility Fire GL V5250 256MB has me a bit concerned though. I don't think it will be able to handle Civ 4. The T61P is soon to be released (only in wide screen) with the nvidia quadro fx 570M. Should I hold off? Should I look for a different notebook entirely?

Any help is appreciated.

 

I'm not speaking from any experience with the v5250, but having had to run Civ4 and GalCiv2 on a Geforce 5500 (I know, the horror! the horror! what can I say...I was young and naive when I bought that card...), I can tell you that those two games don't t have really high graphics requirements. There shouldn't be any reason why you couldn't run those games easily on the T60p.

If it were me I'd wait for the t61p (if those two were my only choices). Despite some of the negative criticisms of the new t61 series, I still think the t61 line is worth waiting for and getting.

 

Well the v5250 256mb is based off the X1600.. which is mid-range and should handle those games well, so you shouldn't be worried too much. But if 95% of your computer time is working, a Lenovo Thinkpad is really the best choice, with solid high-quality notebooks.
The NVS 140m (in the T61 also) is like a 7400 performance.. I think that both these cards would be able to handle what you need it to handle.

Then again... you could always go for a consumer laptop.. not as sturdy but more powerful for gaming (and less so for work).. these laptops have 7600s or 7700s or X1600s which will play Civ4 very well.. but I tihnk waiting for the 570m will be worth it in the T61p.. so if you can wait!