I have some questions about a new laptop and gaming

Firstly, what does the "shadow" settings use? The GPU or processor? And if I turn them off, I assume I'll get some sort of boost to FPS, right?

Now, it's got a full HD resolution (1080p; 15.6" screen).

I'm wondering about non-HD resolutions.

1400x1050 is the highest one I can run that is 4:3
Now, I've never had a screen that can go higher than 1366x768. So my question is, will "older" games that do not support 16:9/16:10 be able to support the 1400x1050 resolution or is it completely dependant on the game? (assuming the games can support 1024x768, say from the year 2000 onwards or so)

Secondly, I've read through the guide to removing bloatware and other things when you buy a laptop but I wanted to know, would installing one game (ESIV: Oblivion) right away be a bad idea or would it be okay to install it, see what it looks/plays like and then remove the bloatware, etc.

Thirdly, this is the laptop I've chosen. It does not state if I can add more RAM but, assuming I can, how difficult would it be for someone that's never tried changing hardware on a laptop or a computer?

Fourthly, I'm greatly confused over resolution. I heard a few times than playing a less than native resolution is bad. But I've never been able to find out why. I understand that the graphics will look worse than if they were at a higher resolution but does it have any actual "bad" effects other than it not looking as good?

Finally, I'm really confused about anti-aisling. The best card I ever had was an ATI 4200 HD, which, is bad. So, I was never able to use anti-aisling but is it that important if my screen is only 15.6"? What's better overall (generally speaking): anti-aisling on or a high resolution? Or is it 100% based on the game?

Ugh, small edit: I have a TV that's about 24-28" (I forget exactly), if I wanted to play a game in say... 720 or even 1080p, would I need better specs than if I had it on my laptop with the same resoultion and settings? In otherwords, since my TV has a bigger screen, will I need a better laptop to play games on the TV?

And cheers for any help.

 

Shadows use GPU. They are a graphical effect.


Resolution is the amount of pixels displayed on your screen. The higher resolution, the more pixels. It doesn't matter if you have a huge screen or a small screen, if both have the same resolution. If you can play a game on your laptop at 1920x1080, then you can play the same game on any external big screen.

The resolution being bad on non native is exactly just for looks. LCDs do not scale resolution like previous CRT monitors, and using non native resolution gives you a softer, streched image that simply does not look as sharp as native. If you don't care about that particular detail, you can easily play on non native resolutions. Nothing dangerous about it.

Bloatware is every software installed on a PC that you will most probably never use, including trials for software and other types of useless things. You can uninstall those if you will, and there is no problem installing Oblivion to check it.

As for gaming on 1920x1080, you just gotta keep in mind that the GT555m from nvidia is not powerful enough to be proficient in such high resolution. you will most probably play at lower res. If you do want to play games at such a high res you will need a high end GPU, at least on the GTX460/GTX560m and up, or AMD HD5870m and up. this is, of course, about newer games, as older games like obvlivion should still run fine despite the high res.

Hope that helps. Cheers!

 

The info about gaming on my TV was just... amazingly great to hear. Thank you so much for all the answers!

 

You are welcome!