T4200 2.0GHz good enough for gaming?

Is T4200 2.0GHz good enough for gaming with Ati 4570?

Next upgrade is T6400 which is also 2.0GHz but has 2MB chache instead of 1.

After that it's P8600 but Dell is charging too much for it.

I guess I'll go for T4200 and upgrade later when prices are cheaper. I'd like some feedback.

 

Should be enough relax, GPU is more important today

 

A 4570 is decent but probably won't be able to run current games at medium settings. You might want to look at a laptop with HD4650/9600M GT or better.

 

For that card it will be fine, it you had a higher end card with a 256bit bus, this would start to bottleneck.

What games are you playing? That card will be able to play pretty much anything out here, mostly at medium settings though.

 

Not sure yet. I haven't been playing games in a long time but wanted to get a laptop now that can. And I want it to look good.

I heard HD 4570 does 4300 in 3D Marks 06. That should be good enough for what I want. Just not sure about what display to order.

 

Hehe im still gaming on a t2400 and nvidia 7600 go

Your laptop should handle quite smooth, i'd estimate my score would be..Lowish lol.

I had to overclock a bit to get mirrors edge to run fast but your card should eat mine.

One thing though, checking notebookcheck, its saying the card has a 64bit bus :S however clock speed is high, and 4300 in 3dmark is great for that card

If your after a new laptop, MSI release some real good priced machines with amazing performance.

 

it has 80 shaders and a 64bit bus. not that great.

 

I've heard that. But then they also say it does 4300 in 3dmarks 06, which should be enough for my use.

 

The T4200 is good for basic gaming. I have it, and I'm really happy. I have a 9300m GS GPU and I can run newer games in low/medium/high settings - Its depending on what game I play. CoD4 can I play with 1280 X 1024 res. and low graphics or 1024 X 768 and medium/high graphics.

 

80 shaders is a fair amount, even with 64bit bus, some 7600 go's have dedicated shader/pixel units, this has 80 unified, and the clocks are very nice.

I believe that card is a good choice Phil, but this day and age i would reccomend something with 128bit bus, or the lower end of a high card 256 bit bus.

Do you have the laptop? or are you looking to buy?

 

I'm considering Studio 15 with HD4570. With discounts it's hard to beat.

 

Buy it. I have the T4200 and its a good processor in my opinion

As you said - You can always upgrade!

 

I hate to act like I am boasting my own stuff all the time but check out my W90 review: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=370294

Since the Q9000 is also 2ghz stock it should give you a good idea of where the cpu stands.

I did 2.3ghz runs also so you can cleary see if the cpu was a problem holding back the gpu's and of course I was running higher gpu setup.

So far the games I tested only Crysis had any benifit with more cpu speed.

 

Hmm the CPU barely holds it back, using the q9000, but 2ghz + this ati card he wants to use would need to be very powerfull to bottle neck.

I agree, with a discount that dell is a steal, you could even upgrade the processor to the t6*** i think for an extra $70 on the lowest package

 

I have a higher end card with a 256 bit bus and my CPU clock rate is 2.0 Ghz. In dual optimised games I experience no bottleneck at all. Every single game I have tried (Crysis, Assasins Creed, Supreme Commander) I get good performance at 1680 X 1050. Most recent games run at way above 50-60 fps maxed out.

A 2.0 Ghz clock will not bottle neck a higher end card, even a 1.8 Ghz won't do that.

I honestly don't know why people keep on saying that a 2.0 Ghz clock rate will bottle neck (or start to bottleneck) any GPU. Many benchmarks prove otherwise.

 

I have a T4200 in my Studio 17 - I can play Bioshock great with every setting maxed @ 1280x800 DX10.

 

the hd4570 will be the bottle neck

 

I score in the 4-4200 range in 3dmark with my card and I can do all the casual gaming I want. You'll be fine, plus if you skimp on the CPU with dell you may be able to score a p8600 from a vendor. My 8600mGT still games all of orange box maxed at 1920x1200, same with WoW and such.

 

I agree, it wont bottle neck, but it will hold frames back if its 2.0ghz, demanding and non multi threaded.

Granted 1.83 also works really well (what my sony has atm)

 

maybe you should read the reviews on my sig then, cause coming from 1.7Ghz to 2.8Ghz made a world of difference in alot games.

Secondly this card will only be good at lower resolutions, where CPU is much more dependant than normal, the only reason you see no difference if because your playing at 1680x1050, which is a pretty high res.

 

Yes, alot of it does depend on the resolutions you are using, I should have mentioned I was referring to that particular (1680x1050) higher resolution only. This is part of the reason why I got a screen in this resolution.

I have seen benchmarks on Tomshardware comparing the frame rates between various games, one of them being Crysis at high settings at 1680 X 1050 between a 1.8 Ghz CPU and a 2.8 Ghz CPU and they were getting identical frame rates. However, once you go to much lower resolutions everything will be different.

I notice that your benchmarks were a 1.67GHZ CPU.

It also depends on the type of game you are playing too, as you know.

 

I post a message for Pentium t4200 and I didn't see you already answered in this thread.

DELL Studio 15
Dual Core T4200 Intel Dual Core procesor T4200 2.0GHz / 1MB L2 Cache / 800MHz
15.6" HD Wide TrueLife display (1366 x 768)
2GB (2x1) 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 RAM
320GB Serial-ATA (5400 okr/min)
ATI Mobility Radeon HD4570