Processor to use with the 7900 GS

I recently made a post looking for a laptop in the recommendations section and had decided on a 15.4" Asus, but then I thought about it more and realized that it didn't really need to be all that portable, and 17" wasn't all that much bigger, so I decided to move to a 17" with a 7900 GS vice the 15.4" with the 7600, as it is the same price. My question now, is will a T5300 (1.73 GHz/2MB L2/533MHz FSB) be able to bring out the full potential of the 7900 GS, or would I have to upgrade to a T7200 (2GHz/4MB L2/667MHz FSB) for an additional $150. The Laptop has a WUXGA screen, 2 gigs of RAM, and a GeForce Go 7900 GS. If the difference would be next to nothing, then I will obviously go for the cheaper one. I know that with the 7600, it wouldn't have made a difference, but I'm not sure if the more powerful graphics card would need a better processor. Thanks for your help.

 

I think the T5300 will be enough for the current games.
The CPU intensive games might cause trouble.
And T7200 has the best price/performance ratio.
Of course you can always wait for the DX10 GPUs.

 

Would it be good for the upcoming Warhammer Online (Q1 2008 RvR MMORPG) and the newest RTS games coming out? I'd prefer to spend as little as possible, but I also don't want to come to regret not getting the more powerful one later. I want this laptop to last about 3 years if possible.

 

i agree with mujtaba, the T7200 is a great value for the money

 

Any of the core duo/core2 duo's should do just fine with the 7900GS, you will however have some trouble playing current titles at the native wuxga res with the 7900GS. If this primarily a gaming machine, you might want to look for something with WXGA+, though gaming at native isnt as big a deal as it used to be, most panels scale very well in games.

 

The T5300, like mujtaba siad, should be fine, but a faster processor should be better. The T7200 would go very well with a Go 7900 GS, and it does sit in the Core 2 Duo range with the best price to performance ratio. I would recommend to go with the T7200, or if possible a T5600 or T5500. as those processors should aso be fine with a Go 7900 GS.

 

Well, I can drop the WUXGA to a WXGA and pick up the T7200 for the difference. I was considering doing this anyways, as I was thinking along the same lines (wouldn't really be playing the newest games at more than 1280x800 anyways).

 

That would probably be the better thing to do. The WXGA+ resolution is 1440x900 and its a resolution that is more suited to graphics cards that are in the performance class of a Go 7900 GS. It will give you that extra money that you can spend on the faster processor.

 

I've chosen a WXGA screen too, and i'm happy i made that choice, so i can game well in the future too.

 

I would pick up to the T7200 just to make sure the processor won't be the bottleneck.

 

Yep, very smart choice to go for the 1440*900 screen. I mean, you cannot play Crysis on WUXGA resolution but you might play it at WXGA+ resolution at medium settings.

 

I don't know how much of a difference the processors will be, but I can tell you that I have a T7200 with the 7900GS and couldn't be happier. With some slight overclocking, Oblivion looks fantastic at 1440X900 resolution. I've tried it at 1920X resolution and it was a little too choppy for my taste, but it held up pretty well. I researched it and also thought the T7200 was the best bang for the buck.