**Can My Notebook Run It?** - Ask about your notebooks here

What if I could buy i7/5870 but the product is refurbished? is it okay to buy refurbished laptops? The refurbished is from cowboom.com and the laptop is called asus g73jh. I think new asus costs around 1500/1700 but the refurbished one from the website costs 1023 bucks. Should I risk it and buy this instead?

FYI i5/5870 is as everybody knows MSI GX740 and i7/5730 is ASUS N61JQ.

 

Refurbished can be fine but it is not worth it in this case at all. I strongly recommend you go with the Intel core i5 450m (2.4 GHz) with the Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5.

The only game you won't be able to play very well is GTA IV. BFBC2 used to give problems on Dual Cores but after the patch it seems to be ok now. As others have said, the GPU is the bottleneck 98% of the time.

 

How well do you think the msi GX-640 will play ff14?

 

Don't get that one, it will probably GSOD on you!

 

TF2 and WoW on a baseline MBP?

 

I'm currently looking at two different Asus laptops but the only thing keeping me buying one from another is the graphic cards.

So between the ATI Radeon HD 5150 and the Nvidia 325M w/ Optimus Technology which preforms better for games? And if one out-preforms the other, by how much? I am a mild gamer and won't be using my laptop for games like COD, only MMO's.

Thanks for your time and answers in advance.

 

At what settings can I run Starcraft 2. Specs in my sig

 

325M. Speed you won't notice between the two, but usefulness away from a plug you definitely notice the battery life with Optimus

 

The 310m is with an i3 processor while the 4650 is with a Centurion 2 Both are dual core but the i3 is better than the Centurion but the 4650 is better than the 310m I believe.
Which one would be best for gaming? (I know they are both pretty trash, but I have a small budget!)

Or if you feel up to the job, you can recommend a good gaming laptop (kinda an oxymoron, I know) around the price range of $800. I'm looking to play Starcraft II at high levels and whatever else I may have a sudden interest in.

Thanks!

 

The GX640's 5850 should be able to play FF14 quite well on medium/high.

I assume you mean the 15"/17" model, in which case, yes it'll run reasonably well. I ran WoW on my GeForce 6200, so I don't see why a GT 330M can't handle it

High. I've played the beta on the Inspiron in my sig. Works fine @50FPS on medium, 1440x900

 

The HD4650 is much better than the 310m

 

nice utube videos,think il buy BFBC2 since it runs okon ur rig it should run very good on mine :=)

 

+1 for 325M. having optimus is a BIG plus.

 

Notebookcheck: AMD ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650

 

no the baseline 13

 

So what about the 330m vs the 4650?
Basically, I'm looking at these. The first is a Samsung with 330m and the second is a Sony Vaio with the 4650.

Samsung - Laptop / Intel® Core™ i5 Processor / 17.3" Display / 4GB Memory / 500GB Hard Drive - Red/Black - NP-R780-JS01US

or

Sony - VAIO Laptop with Intel® Centrino 2 Processor Technology - Silver - VGN-FW518F/B

 

The 4650 is slightly more powerful, but you might not notice.

Notebookcheck: Review Samsung NP-R780-JS03DE Notebook

Notebookcheck: Review Sony Vaio VGN-FW51MF Notebook

^not exactly the same notebooks, but you should be able to get an idea.

^^note that the benchmarks are done at different resolutions between the reviews.

 

I would get the 4650 am personally very happy with it and it overclocks well i overclocked from 550/700 to 630/900 and it runs under 80C while gaming

 

I thought the 330m was stronger than the 4650? Especially since the 330m is running with a i5 processor while the 4650 is with a Centrino 2? Or am I just completely wrong here?

 

I was just looking at a Lenovo Y560 which has a Radeon 5730, which is basically a higher-clocked 5650. I currently own an HP DV7 which has a 5650. Provided the prices are more or less the same, should I return the DV7 and go for the Y560 instead? The screen is smaller (15") but the rest of the specs are the same (i7, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD). The only thing that worries me is whether the Y560 can handle intense gaming sessions. It has a pretty decently-sized vent, much larger than the HP, but the surface of the HP is made of some sort of brushed aluminum that acts as a sort of heatsink. So I guess my question is 'which is a more reliable gaming notebook, the Y560 or the DV7?'

 

I don't really know why my thread was moved here, I was just wondering which of two laptops was my better choice. In any case, anymore inputs?

 

I bought a laptop for the road to watch netflix with the following

AMD Athlon II P320 Dual-Core Processor 2.10 GHz up to 3.2gt/s system bus,
1mb L2 cache
ATI Mobility Radeon hd 4250 with 128mb gddr3
3gb ddr3 system memory

Now I didn't buy it for games but since i'm on the road months at a time, I was wondering if it will at least run some of my older desktop games. The games are splinter cell, splinter cell chaos theory, knights of the old republic, orange box (hl2, tf2 etc.), lost planet and maybe mass effect. I know intergrated isn't for games so if it can't play them, cool.
Currently away from home for bout a month so can't test myself.

 

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T6600 (2.2 GHz 800MHz FSB, L2 Cache 2MB)
4gigs of ram
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 4500MHD

can anyone tell me if this is able to play starcraft 2 at lowest settings with a decent frame rate?

 

It is correct what you said that integrated graphic chips are not suitable for gaming, but one you have, Radeon HD4250, is better than most part of regular integrated GPU's.

Most probably you'll be able to play those games you listed, on low to medium settings. Keep in mind that resolution weighs the most when it comes to getting playable experience so you will have to adjust it primarily since mere sliding down basic graphic settings (like shadows, grass, textures etc) might not help. Of course, lower resolution leads to uglier picture, but it cannot be avoided if you want to play smoothly.

Mass Effect and Lost Planet are pretty demanding ones, particularly graphic wise. You could try the demo if you want or borrowing the copy from friend to try out, but giving money for these is not the wisest decision considering the little chances to play them on.

 

i would just keep the hp... its looks much better than lenovo and if u really want to OC , u can do so using AMD GPU tool and get a 5730 in the hp..

it will run at at low-med settings...

no it won't be able too.. u won't run it at all... u better get a new laptop..

 

no it won't get this... u'd play literally every game on high settings.. just update drivers to latest 10.6 ones..

 

On what settings can the GX640 run SC2?

CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-450M (2.4Ghz-2.67, 3mb, 32nm, 35W)
GPU: ATi Mobility Radeon HD 5850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express 16X DX 11
RAM: 4gb ddr3 1333mhz
Display: 15.4" WSXGA+ Super Clear Glossy (1680x1050)

 

I have nearly similar specs (smaller screen, more ram, and better processor) and I want to play SC2 and HoN with high fps? I seem to only be getting 20fps on HoN currently =[

 

I'm looking to get a laptop that is under $900 that can run TF2 on med-high/high settings without any issues. I've been searching around for a while and these two look like the most promising candidates for my price range and their capabilities.

Acer Aspire AS5745G-3690 NoteBook Intel Core i5 450M(2.40GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory DDR3 1066 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M.

Gateway NV79C47u NoteBook Intel Core i5 450M(2.40GHz) 17.3" 4GB Memory DDR3 1066 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650

Any thoughts/suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

I'd go with the HD 5650, it's slightly faster than the 330M, and it's Dx11:

Notebookcheck: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650

Notebookcheck: NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M

However, that Gateway is a 17" compared to Acer's 15", if mobility and size aren't deal breakers for you, then definitely go with Gateway.

 

Thanks for the quick response. Mobility and size are definitely not deal breakers, as I'd be using it as a desktop replacement at home and sitting it at a desk when I'm on the road with work.

I did read this on notebook check though, "Currently the HD 5650 is a good gaming pick for well priced laptops with a 15 inch screen and a resolution of about 1366x768." Do you think that really matters?

 

What's the native resolution (max resolution) of that Gateway?

It doesn't matter, it all depends on the game resolution. Obviously, the lower you set the game resolution the better performance you will get.
Majority of 15" widescreen laptops nowadays have 1366x768 as their max/native resolution (1280x800 was the trend a couple of years ago), so of course most games will perform a lot better if they are set in this resolution, especially for a mid-class graphics card like HD5650.

 

I think the 5650 is a better pick. BUT the last two links in my sig have some gameplay footage of the 330m.

 

If I get a laptop with with an i5-450m and the 5650, approximately at what settings could I play most current games? I'm thinking minimum medium for almost all, and high/max for some older games, right?

Also, how long into the future will this last me? Could it last 2 years? I'm thinking it will have to run games on low pretty soon. Will the 5850 last 2 years?

I'm new to PC gaming so sorry if I'm way off.

 

The 5650 will probably play most games at medium/high at lower resolutions (720p-ish).

The 5850 will definitely last 2 years - at least until the next generation of consoles arrives. Most games nowadays are made with consoles in mind, so the system requirements probably won't get much higher for games until next gen consoles come out.

 

Hi guys

I will be moving to US in August for my graduate studies. And I am planning to buy a new laptop when I arrive there. I am in a fix between Sager NP8760 and NP8850. My budget is $2500. With NP8760, I can configure it with SSD and blue-ray burner and reader. Whereas with NP8850, I would miss on the blue-ray, and I think I can do without that. I have configured both the system with i7-840QM. So it basically comes down to the graphic card, NP8760 got ATI Mobility Radeon HD5870 and NP8850 got nVidia GeForce GTX 480M. Now I check there reviews on notebookcheck, and it says 480M has only 10% performance gain over ATI 5870 and it costs about $300 more. I don't know anyone who own either of the system to see there respective performances in real life myself, so I thought I would ask you guys.


PS: I will be using the machine for some heavy gaming, video editing, CAD designing and a lot of CFD stuff.

 

If you use a good thermal grease like OCZ Freeze/IC Diamond 7/Arctic Silver 5 and replace the thermal pads with something better, .5mm, I would go with HD5870M.

With the Clevo you will be able to game with clocks 800/1200 which is 95% of HD5770 desktop. When you do that, pretty sure the difference between HD5870M and GTX 480M will be negligible.
- You'll have the same power but with all the other options you mentioned you wanted.

There was a D900F owner who had a HD5870M with a desktop i7 processor. His scores were exact match for Nvidia's released scores for D900F with GTX 480M. So go figure...

You will get better scores in Tessellation with GTX 480M, but the scores are so low that it won't matter for gaming. Tessellation isn't good enough hardware yet for game studios to fully utilize it. Plus 90% of the games I've been playing with latest releases are DX9 anyhow. IMO it's DX11 DirectCompute that game developers will be using more of anyways. Having great shadow effect, lighting etc. using DirectCompute is better than a few extra bumps on texture...

If you are using CAD, I don't think much difference between HD5870M and GTX 480M. Both are consumer gaming graphics card. If you want significant difference, I'd go with a FireGL or Quadro. Seems Quadro has better support in CAD atm.

 

I'd take the GTX 480M personally - but then again, I am a bit of an NVIDIA fanboy.

The 480M could potentially last you another 6 months where the 5870M just won't cut it, with it's 10% performance increase.

Also, don't worry about heat issues. The only people that claim heat issues on this card are the people who have never owned a machine with it. Clevo's typically have top class cooling systems in their higher end models, and if you take a look at the Sager and Clevo subforum, those with the GTX 480M aren't at all reporting abnormally high temperatures - as a matter of fact, the temperatures are around the same as the 5870.

Power consumption is a non-issue, since if you are seriously considering this machine, I take it that you will nearly always be near a power outlet, da?

If you are doing a lot of CAD, then maybe you should take a look at the machines that come with the ATI FirePro M7820, or a Quadro FX 3800M. They will be far better at handling CAD and developer applications that a gaming class GPU will ever be. Also, take a look at the Clevo D900F as well - video editing typically uses much more CPU than GPU, and the desktop i7 will do a much better job of those hungry applications.

EDIT: I got ninja'd.

 

Thanks man. I want to stick with gaming cards thats why I'm not opting for Quadro or FirePro machines. And yeah I configured NP8760 with IC Diamond.

 

And yet Shadow here is using a HD5870M...

I disagree about the 10%. The 10% is only valid because Nvidia only tested GTX 480 on games that use either PhysX or benchmarks with Tessellation.

On games like Dirt 2 HD5870M matches it. For games like Crysis, HD5870M crushes it. Why? HD5870M crushes the GTX 480M for texture fill rate and polygon output. And with better DirectCompute, IMO HD5870M will be more than fine for future games. That's fact, look at the hardware specs. The HD5870M almost has twice the GPGPU power of the GTX 480M.

As long as game developers continue to make games cross platform, the HD5870M will more than suffice, but overkill. Transformers latest game looks unbelievable for a DX9 UT3 engine game and it run incredibly well on the HD5870M for example. There are many more UT3 engine games coming, both MMO, RPG and FPS, covering all genres pretty much.

Games slated for 2012 and on are being developed now... which means they are using engines that the HD5870M can handle with ease. No worries on that. Game developers saw how much of a failure Metro 2033 was for sales and well general satisfaction from gamers. Development costs were way high with no one able to enjoy it fully, not even GTX 480 owners. So I don't think we'll be seeing many games like that.
- All publishers and all game developers have said it over and over. If you want money, you gotta go cross-platform. And that's what game development is, chasing the money.

 

What about i7-940XM? If I drop blue-ray drive, then I can configure NP8760 to 940XM and still manage to stay around $2500! I can always update the graphic card later; say after six months when I would have some more money with me!

 

To be honest for gaming, I'd say even an i7-620M would be very very good already. No need to spend so much on a new CPU, you can always upgrade later on down the road. It won't make much of a difference in gaming anyways. Video editing will take an improvement.

 

should be high at native res...

Second option for sure.. u get DX11 and 5650 is new tech and much cooler and better than GT330M...

 

u really don't need a 940XM for gaming... if u want to have a sense of being faster, i would rather get an SSD...

 

I am already getting an SSD. 940XM would help with CAD and Video editing, that is the main motive behind getting it. And it falls well under my budget, provided that I go with ATI 5870 rather than 480M

 

Def the 5870m over the 480m. The marginal performance gain for the price is never worth it. Especially if you have a budget you need to fit.

 

I just went through Asus G73JH-A1 listed on xoticpc. Mighty impressive rig! Its just perfect for me, with following configuration:
- 17.3" FHD 16:9 "Glare Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Glossy Screen (1920x1080)-
- ASUS Zero Bright Dot (ZBD) 30 Day Pixel Guarantee
- - Intel® Core™ i7-840QM, 1.86-3.2GHz, (45nm, 8MB L3 cache)
- IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU FREE w/ CPU Upgrade
- ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD5870 1024MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11
- 8,192MB (8GB) DDR3 1066MHz Dual Channel Memory (2GBx4) - Standard
- Standard Finish
- - 4X Blu-Ray Reader / 8X DVDRW/CDRW Super Multi Combo Drive - Standard
- - 80GB Intel G2 X25-M Solid State Drive (SSD Serial-ATA II)
- - 500GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache Buffer (Serial-ATA II 3GB/s) - Default
- Internal 8-in-1 Card Reader: MMC/SD/Mini-SD/XD/Memory Stick/MS Pro/MS Duo/MS Pro Duo
- Internal Bluetooth + EDR
- Built-in 802.11 Wireless A/B/G/N - Stock Wireless Card
- Built in 2.0 Megapixel Camera
- Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
- Asus G Series Matching Backpack made by Targus
- Smart Li-ion Battery (8-Cell)
- Asus G Series Razor Gaming Mouse
- Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit Pre-Installed + Drivers & Utilities Disk!
Its cheaper than NP8760 for the same config! Now I heard some people rant about heating issues on G73JH. Though it looks to me that those massive vent would take care of all the heat this monster would generate but there is no harm in getting a confirmation from the folks who already own it.

 

If you are willing to take it apart or pay GenTech to redo the thermals on the GPU, the cooling is excellent.

I'm gaming with 800/1200 overclock and highest temp so far is 83C which is well within safe limits. I will replace the thermal pad later this week and see how that goes, I expect even better results.

Ken at GenTech has his running on Furmark for 20 minutes @ 1080p and 8X AA and highest temp being 86C, that's awesome.

 

Great, thanks for the advice. It should run TF2 decently with those specs, right?

 

Well, after recently coming to the disappointing realization that, for my needs and budget as a student, I'm much better off getting an HP dm4t over a dv6tse, I'm concerned about the significant drop in graphics performance. I figure it should be enough for school (I might have to run CAD, but I'm not sure), and I've never even had a computer with a dedicated graphics card, so I'm not a huge PC gamer in the first place. Still, I want to play some select games and I'm willing to turn down settings/resolution/DX level to do so.

Specs:

• Intel Core i5 430M
• 4GB DDR3 RAM
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5450
• 1366x768 resolution

Games:

• Portal
• Team Fortress 2
• Left 4 Dead
• Left 4 Dead 2
• Battlefield Bad Company 2 (not too hopeful about this one at all)

Suggestions for other laptops in the same weight class and with similar durability and battery life but better graphics would be appreciated.