Is this laptop good enough to run current games?

Hi all

Ive been searching for a new laptop for a couple of days now
and ive found a laptop i really like theres just one thing
thats bothering me and thats the graphics card, dont get me
wrong im happy enough with the card itself but whats
concerning me is that it only has 128mb of video memory
and i cant help but thinking thats not good enough these days.

The machine im looking at will mainly be a multimedia desktop
replacment and i would like it to perform well on all applications
im not looking to buy a dedicated gaming laptop because
im definitely not a hard core gamer just a casual one, so i dont
require a laptop to play the very best games at the highest settings
if i could just play newish games on any kind of setting that would do.

Below are the basic specifications of the laptop im interested in, so
could everyone possibly tell me is this laptop good enough to play
games like starwars:empire at war, oblivian, doom 3, far cry etc
if its not good enough do you think you could all possibly
tell me what games do you think will run on this sony vaio
and what games you think wont run on it.

Sony VGN-AR31M

CPU: Intel core 2 duo T5600 (1.83 GHZ)
RAM: 2 GB DDR II SDRAM - 667MHz
Graphics: Nvidia geforce go7600 (128MB VRAM)
Harddrive: 160GB - serial ATA-150 - 420 RPM
Display: 17" TFT active matrix 1440x900 (WXGA+)
OS: Windows vista premium

I would really appreciate any help anyone could give me

Thankyou

 

It'll play them fine, except Oblivion where you'll need to do some hands on tweaking to get acceptable frame rates. The 128MB will hurt performance a little but if you're getting a good price on the rig then go for it.

 

as Gator said, will play just about everything good, except the really demanding ones, where you'll have to be content with medium settings

 

What is your budget and how much would that laptop cost you?

 

The SONY VGN-AR31M costs about £1200
which is about $1800 give or take.

 

I'm about 99.9% shure that you can get a much better one, for less!

 

And other system intensive games like crysis

 

I know that in the states you get excellent
products for cheap prices but over here in the uk
for £1200 the sony ar31m is about as good as it gets
unfortunately.

 

check out the samsung x60

ive seen it for 1100 pounds. it comes with a 256 mb x1600

 

If you want the best 17inch laptop for the money and excellent Graphics, go for the Toshiba Satellite P100! Most of them come with the Geforce 7600 128/256mb and they are the lightest 17inch laptop out there and have an amazing screen!..

 

Aren't Dells available in the UK? A Dell E1705 has a 7900gs in it, much better than 7600.

This HP laptop seems like a better deal also:
HP dv9288ea.
It has 2 hard disks totalling 320 gb of storage versus 160, spinning both at 5400 rpm which is much faster than 4,200 rpm. It has a 7600 with an abundant 512mb of dedicated memory, so no worry there. I'll try to find other deals but these seem like pretty good choices.

 

Hmm.. Are you shure? At newegg.com you can get a notebook with either a 256mb 7700 or 256mb x1700 for under $1300 which would be about £900

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220142

You can't import!!?

 

Thankyou
Ive just found this for about £1270
what do you think

ASUS G1-AK005C

CPU: Intel core 2 duo T7200 (2.0 GHz)
RAM: 2GB DDR II SDRAM - 667 MHz
Graphics: Nvidia geforce go7700 (512mb VRAM)
Harddrive: 160GB - Serial ATA-150 - 5400rpm
Display: 15.4" 1680x1050 (WSXGA+)
OS: Windows vista premium

 

Good enough to play most current games with all frills and whistles.

The 7700 that comes with it is slower then the 7900GS though but its the best graphics card at the moment in the 15.4" screen size laptops.

 

it should play fine with most games on min requirements. I had a Vaio K series lap with 128 shared vram and it played the NeedforSpeeds, LOTR, Call of Duty, SplinterCell etc.
You may run into slight probs if you were to try play Quake4, C&C, SupremeCommander, Fear

 

Note : He means the Vaio.
The G1 has a great value for money.It's gaming performance is better than the Vaio.(3000 3DMark05 score vs 4200)

 

jpb82, I live in the UK as well, and you can get a much better price than that.

You can get a maxed out Dell 9400 for about £940, with an immensely powerful mobile graphics card, the 7900GS.

Just type in "Dell" in the google page, and it will take you to the UK site.

Trust me, you aren't getting a good deal if you're paying over a thousand pounds for a computer without a high-end graphics card.

 

Yeah, good that you gave the note. Even i was confused there for a moment..

 

Yes i was referring to the orig poster about the Sony AR he was interested in.
Sometimes ill just quick reply to the orig post without reading what others have posted. It so happens that my post was directly after some off-topic discussions. Thanks for clarifying.

And yey the G1 is great value but the 17" Sony AR monitor is sure sweet!

 

With the British pound strengthening daily, it might be even cheaper to fly to the US and get it in person! But seriously, Fishy made a good suggestion, check out Toshiba's Satellite line of notebooks too.

 

hey, check out zepto.com
I'm hearing that those notebooks are good.
and they sell around the world..

 

Thanks to every body for the advice so far
and ive come to the conclusion that everybodies
right, the sony AR31M isn't worth the money
so ive been shopping around and have found
this for the same price could everyone let me know
what you think?

Toshiba satellite pro p100-465 £1200/£1300

CPU: Intel core 2 duo T7200 (2.0GHz)
RAM: 2GB DDRII SDRAM - 533MHz (2x1GB)
Graphics card: Nvidia geforce go7600 (512MB VRAM)
Harddrive: 200GB - Serial ATA-150 - 4200 rpm
Display: 17" TFT 1440x900 (WXGA+)
OS: Windows vista business

As you can see the operating system on this laptop
is windows vista business, honestly i dont know anything
about operating systems so could anyone tell me if this is
alright.

 

I apolagise but there is a piece of info i forgot
to mention about the graphics card.

The graphics card does have 512MB of video memory
but apparantly its turbocache memory which i think
means it has a 256MB dedicated graphics card
and 256MB shared RAM, making 512MB total
is this a good thing or a bad thing?

 

jpb82.. you can get Dell Inspiron E1705 for $1646 fully loaded after $300 drop of price!

2.0ghz t7200 intel
160GB 5400rpm HDD
geforce 7900gs 256MB(greatest for gaming for laptop class under $2000)
bluetooth, wi-fi
2gb 667mhz RAM

the best! dont buy anything other!

 

I totally agree with nukec.

The Dell Inspiron 9400 is only £940, yet it is FAR more powerful. The 7900GS totally owns the 7700.

Why would you pay £200 pounds more (US$350) for a weaker machine? It just doesn't make sense.

 

The Dell won't be as nicely or carefully built. But given the price difference, yeah.