Can this laptop run the latest games?

I'm planning to buy this cheap laptop by my place (around $820)...is good enough?

Pentium M Centrino 1.6ghz (2mb cache, 400mhz fsb dothan?)
1gb DDR1 ram
40GB PATA
x700 128 dedicated memory
15.4" Screen
Got DVDR/W

something like that..i saw a more steeper priced laptop around $900 but it goes with 512mb ram, 2.0ghz centrino (500+mhz fsb i forgot), GeforceGo6600, 80gb and has that dvdrw too..

can any of these rigs play bf2 nicely?

 

Can it play? Yes - but at what setting/resolution is the question.

 

Take a look at the GPU Guide.


The x700 is not a bad card by any means--you may want to look at upping the memory.

They will both play BF2 decently--I had it running on my x1400 on about medium settings.

 

Of the two, that's definitely the better option if you're at the top of your budget (I shudder to think of gaming on less than 1GB of RAM these days). It will play BF2 quite nicely - medium-high settings, I'd imagine, at 1280x800.

The processor will only be a bottleneck when multi-tasking or doing particularly CPU-intensive operations (audio/video encoding, running games with a lot of bots, etc.) 1GB of RAM should be fine for a while, although an upgrade to two is always nice.

Speaking of which, If you can afford it, maybe getting the other (I prefer nVidia myself, and a faster processor and larger HD is always nice) and upgrading the RAM yourself to one or even two gigs would make for a fairly nice gaming machine for $1000-$1100 max.

 

It seems a bit dated...and overpriced.

 

Thanks for the quick reply! Im planning to upgrade to 2gb (that's inevitable)..the 2.0ghz seems to be really good..but BF2 is like the most intensive game i'm gonna play. i play mostly HL2 CS, War3 and DoD most of the time and nothing else..800x600 and 1025x768 is very acceptable to me already. and i will use it for multiplay as well

hard drive is not a problem, i have a sata drive 40gb with an enclosure where i keep my downloaded files..


so between the two, the procs are the one only fighting right? partly i just want to know if x700 is much better than go6600 or vice versa

 

i agree..compared to your laptop deals in the US, ours in the philippines is a bit late behind..or just too expensive.

 

i would go with the 900 dollar one. Ram is fairly cheap, check newegg.com. Also, why dont you check Dell.com? They have cheapnotebooks. As for BF2, it might run it, but you wont be able to have full graphics. Would need more info to help anymore.

 

BF2 really likes 2gb of RAM, the X700 128mb or 6600 256mb should handle BF2 well if you have 2gb of RAM.

CPU doesn't really matter as much.

 

so ram is the key..thanks guys!! i think i'll go for the 900 dollar one. but i can enjoy first HL2, CS:S and war3 with a 512mb stick right? i need to save up again for the 1gb upgrade and eventually another 1gb.

 

here's the other laptop im mentioning..is it good?


- HYBRID VGA!
- Sonoma 2.0 ghtz at 533 mhtz bus speed
(perfroms like a p4 3.2 ghtz)
- Nvidia Geforce Go 6600 with 256 mb independent video memory. Shader 3 compliant fully dx 9c compliant. High Dynamic Range shader 2 and 3 Capable
PCI Express interface!!
- Intel Graphics Accelerator 900
- 15.4 Wide screen SXWGA up to 1600 res
- Combo Drive DVD player Cdburner
- 512 mb DDR2
- 80 g hdisk Mobile SATA
- Azalia Hi definition Audio
- Amazing 3d stereo speakers are loud!
- 4-in-1 Media Card Reader: SD, MMC, MS, MSPro
- Manual WIFI on off switch
- HYBRID VGA!
Manual graphics toggle between intel 900GM graphics for increased battery life and NVIDIA Geforce Go 6600 for fastest performance.
- Intel 915 chipset
- Intel Wifi 802.11 a/b/g
- Fully Centrino certified
- Power Cinema Instant On
Play multimedia without an Operating system! Longer battery Life!
- 6 cell lithium ion battery
- PCMCIA type 2
- Gigabit Lan 10/100/1000 mbps!
- Mic in
- Headphone in
- Support Digital S/PDIF Output
- 56k modem
- 3 usb2 ports
- Firewire
- VGA out
- TV OUT
• 3 External USB 2.0
• 1 IEEE 1394 port
• 1 Mic-in jack
• 1 Audio-out/SPDIF jack
• 1 RJ-45 Ethernet plug
• 1 RJ-11 Modem plug
• 1 External VGA
• 1 S-Video output port
• 1 PCMCIA Card Type II
• 1 DC-in jack
• 4 in 1 Card Reader
• 1 15 Pin CRT port
• 1 VGA Switch
Width: 14.9" (358mm)
Depth: 10.7" (272mm)
Height: 0.9" ~ 1.4" (25.3 ~ 35.7mm sloped)
Weight: 6.43lbs, (3043 kg)

 

You can stick with 1.5 GB, it should work quite nicely in your setup with anything you may want to play. I wouldn't buy a second 1GB stick just to throw away your 512MB though, you just wouldn't get that much more out of the purchase moving from 1.5 to 2GB.

Edit: I just saw your huge update post, yes that's a sweet laptop for the price. I love the dual GPU setup so you can switch between them for battery life. Also the fact you can use it like a ginormous i-pod is very appealing. As mentioned, get more RAM. But very nice notebook---check the fine print for the warranty if it's a used laptop though.

 

I'd definitely go that route. The 256MB Go6600 will be generally a little faster than the 128MB x700, nVidia's the champ in OpenGL and cross-platform driver support, and it has SM 3.0 while the x700 only has SM 2.0b. On top of that, it appears that that PC has switchable GPUs, allowing you to use the GMA 900 on battery to save on battery.

 

thank you very much guys..now i'm decided. the laptop unit was said to be brand new and even has 1 year warranty at the store. the screen is a a bit smaller than the first one (which has 15") but this works much better i guess..

as long as it can play HL2, BF2 at med-to almost high settings, i think i will be happy with it.

thank you very much!!

 

Actually it does, if you want to play big games with lots of people. BF2 is not multi-core capable, so it runs on one core on my Turion based machine (see specs below). Because of that, it has a tendancy to just crash when the single core gets overloaded (it's either that, or it's due to BF2's ****ty programming, or both) during times of very high orchestration, such as when an airplane crashes close by, killing alot of people around the area, blowing stuff, all at the same time. It's alot for a single core to handle. On the laptop I had previously, which had an Athlon 64 4000, it never crashed during times like that, although it would crash in the typical BF2 fashion which is randomly and unexpectedly.

 

As far as the laptop you first mentioned goes it is good, I have a similar set up:

Acer Aspire 5500
Pentium M 760 2.0ghz (Dothan)
1GB Crucial 533mhz DDR2
Mobility x700 64mb

Now to give you an idea I can run Far Cry with everything maxium detail but with like two options turned slightly down. Battlefield Veitnam runs with everything on maxium + 64 bots, no hassels. Age of Mythology runs like it is not even there, Age of Empires III does lag but only when alot is going on and Battlefield 2 brings my system to its knees if I try for maxium detail but on medium its OK.

Hope that helps

 

It still helps..but i think im going for the more priced laptop at 2.0ghz and Go6600..am i right that x700 and go6600 is almost at par with each other?

 

I see... yes the 6600 and x700 are virtually the same but the X700 does out perform the 6600 due to it having slightly higher fill rates and more vertex pipelines. I would be inclined to lean toward the 2ghz / 6600 over the first one you descirbed as the extra CPU power will more than make up for the 6600's 'slack' when compared to the x700.

I hope this helps some...

 

is the go6600 really comparable to the x700's performance?

 

As I stated in my last post yes it is. If the X700 was a car that had a top speed of 100 kph the 6600 would be one with a top speed of 95 kph. It is that close.

Dont worry there really is no right or wrong answer when trying to decide between the two of them.

 

Oh stop confusing the poor fellow. The laptop with the 6600 is clearly the better value, and it comes equipped with a lot of functionality that you usually pay a premium for. If you can get a look at the unit before you buy, or better yet hold the unit and get something of a feel for its build quality, it'll make this decision much easier. Heck if this is a limited time offer I'd snatch it up right now.

 

Excuse me but he was asking me about the X700 vs the 6600 and I gave him straight to the point answers. There was no confusion there.

 

Get the one equiped with the X700. It's better at producing polygons, about the same as the 6600 for pixel shading and rendering. That and having a single powerful CPU dedicated to a game as opposed to one core on a dual core is alot better.

 

http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=100&card2=193

Hum, the x700 may actually be slightly better then the go 6600.....

Only problem is it have directx 9.0b. If you ever upgraded to vista, that'll be a bit of a problem......

Another problem is x700 doesn't have shader model 3.0.

Newer games may not be playable on x700, or they'll be downgraded.

While the x700 is slightly faster, the go 6600 is the better value.