Notebook vs Desktop System Requirements

This will probaby sound like a really dumb question, but I just purchased my first PC (Dell E1505, T5600, 2 GB RAM, X1400 w/256 MB) in more than 10 years. I've lived off the computers at college and the office in that time until now.

I harken back to the days when looking at game's system requirements was an important factor because your PC would quickly fall behind the curve of the latest stuff. When I was looking at a potential game purchase today I viewed the system requirements:

DirectX Version 9.0c
Intel Pentium 4 (2.66ghz or higher)
DX9 compatible AGP 8X or PCI Express video card,
128 MB VRAM, Pixel Shader 1.4
16-bit Direct Sound compatible sound card,
512 MB RAM

How do I compare my Core 2 Duo processor to these requirements, obviously setup for the older Pentium 4? I presume that my processor being newer, trumps anything listed in Pentium 4 terms no matter the clock speed, but I guess I'd like someone to confirm that...? As the games advance...will they start to list system requirements in terms of T5600/T7200...just trying to figure how to compare desktop and notebook requirements down the road.

Also, I only have the integrated sound card that comes with the Dell...I presume games won't refuse to work just because I don't have a true sound card, right? Will my integrated sound card work ok if top-level performance isn't what I need?

Thanks very much! This is my first post!

 

It's very difficult for game manufacturers to provide recommended specfications for there games, as there is such a vast variaeity of processors and graphics out these days. As a result, they will try to compare against the most common, or the major models out.

The will also mainly compare against desktop models as those are most likely to buy games. In the future, they probebly won't compare aginast a T5600 or a T7200, but against an Intel or AMD desktop model, like a Core 2 Duo E6600 or an Athlon 64 X2. Perhaps they may decide to include mobile processors as the number of people who play games on their notebook is increasing rapidly. It will certainly help people to choose games, that will work well on their computers.

 

You are correct in your assumptions. Your CPU should be faster than any Pentium 4. Integrated soundcards are standard any more, and actually work surprisingly well. If you don't need 5.1 sound, your integrated card will work with any game. Congrats on the new machine

 

any coreduo CPU is faster than pentium4. i'm guessing the T5600 is equivelant to Pentium 4 3.4->3.6Ghz w/HT.

the intergrated card is fine as long as its intel HD Audio with decent onboard codec; your should be HD audio, don't worry. so the feature you would miss would be somthing like.... 3D sound effect (EAX), environment ambiance, etc. next year vista drop support for this kind of stuff anyway, they'll be using some new Audio API so... i guess its all good .

 

Thanks for the quick replies, its good to know I found a new game I want that my brand new PC can run! Through 1 week I am not yet out-of-date!

 

what game are you looking at ? mayby we can help you even a tad more

 

It's not FEAR or Oblivion or any of these big time games...

I'm actually hoping to do some casual video and photo editing with Adobe's products...but for the occasional game...the new Star Trek: Legacy game caught my eye. The old Star Trek games were always adventure/episode like...this one is blow the crap out of everyone action-type...sounds like fun.

That and throw in whatever the latest Mechwarrior-type game is (grew up playing Battletech) and maybe an AoE III to renew my battles from college days with my old friends...