Video card for gaming?

Hi! I'm thinking of getting a new laptop soon. I'll be using it for gaming, internet, and school (Note: I usually multitask: I may have 3 internet windows open, Microsoft Word, and MSN, so I need it to handle that too...).

I'll be playing Age of Empires III, Rise of Nations, Supreme Commander, World in Conflict, and Empire Earth III (maybe) on it. I know a couple of those games need high graphics (and WiC need DX10), so I'm pretty much lost... I was considering all the DX10 GPUs: 8600GT (G1S-A1), 8700GT (Satellite X205-S9359), Quadro 2500 (Dell M90), or maybe an ATI GPU (do they have DX10?). I'll definatly want to run WiC on max graphics, but I don't care about the other games (yeah, kind of stupid, but it just looks so good...). Also, I should point out that I can't really spend much more than $2000, but I'm willing to go a bit further.

Thanks in advance!

 

To play WiC at max settings I'd recommend a laptop with a video card at least as good as these:
ATI HD2600
nVidia 8600GT
ATI HD2600XT
nVidia 8700GT

 

Since your looking for a notebook....

I would recomend an Acer 5920G (if your looking for a 15.7" widescreen). It has a 256mb DirectX-10 nvidia 8600m GT video card (with a extra 764mb turbo cache) and will be around for a long time. The Acer 5920G will play anything that you throw at it. It is one of the newest Acer products, and the build quality is superior to previous models.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHAj27rxcbg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zal2cW4mBqE

 

I recommend 8700m GT or a 8600m GT with DDR3 if possible..

 

I have a Toshiba X205 with the new Nvidia's 8700M GT 256 MB DDR3 VRAM . Runs any "today"s game on high with decent fps.

 

The Toshiba X205 would be great if your looking for a 17" widescreen.

 

I don't care about screen size... And what's DDR3?

 

Get the 17" if you dont care about the size. 17" is best for gaming IMO.

DDR3 = DDR3 SDRAM which stands for Double-data-rate three synchronous dynamic random access memory.

Its primary benefit is the ability to run its bus at four times the speed of the memory cells it contains, thus enabling faster bus speeds and higher peak throughputs than earlier technologies. This is achieved at the cost of higher latency.

 

AFAIK, no mobile GPU today uses DDR3 ram. Most use either DDR2 RAM or GDDR3 RAM. Read more about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GDDR3

 

hmmm. I thought hes asking about DDR3.....my mistake

 

Uh... what's the difference?

So the Asus G1S-A1 and Toshiba X205 are both good, but what about the Dell M90? And are there any ATI video cards with DX10?

I appreciate the help guys, I'm pretty much lost when it comes to this...

 

Both Asus/Toshiba offers superior quality when compared to Dell. Only get a Dell if you are a budget gamer.....
BTW... Asus makes the BEST motherboards/chips...

 

There are ATI cards I just don't think they're out yet

 

Actually, the Dell Precision M90 that the OP was asking about is widely considered to have better build quality and durability than either the Asus G1s or the Toshiba. Also, I don't know if you realize this but the Dell M90 does not have a DX10 GPU.

 

pretty sure that those won't cut it for WiC at maxed out settings

you need at least 7950gtx

 

That's true, probably not fully maxed out settings, however the OP specified a DX10 GPU, and it's unlikely that a DX10 GPU greater to or equal to the 7950GTX will come out soon in his price range.

 

http://www.elitebastards.com/cms/in...sk=view&id=432&Itemid=29&limit=1&limitstart=3

this is how demanding WiC is in DX10 mode

the 8800gts 640mb with NO AA and AF at 1024x768 only gets 31fps average, tell me how the 8700gt will run WiC in dx10 at max. (well i guess i'm kinda biased, the 8800gts also gets 22 fps at 1600x1200 with 4xAA and 16xAF. goes to show how much of a difference the 380bit interface is vs 128bit)

the 8600gt (which is almost comparable to the 8700) gets 13fps average and at 1600x1200, gets 8fps with NO AA or AF

seriously, DX10 is over hyped/rated

 

Beta DX10 programming is known to be incredibly inefficient, in many games. Look at the Call of Juarez DX10 demo, or the Lost Planet DX10 demo. In both cases, I believe the designers have admitted that the DX10 programming is actually less efficient than the DX9 programming. However, I for one believe this is because DX10 programming hasn't been fully tested and explored yet, and because DX10 drivers haven't had that long to mature. I still say that an 8700GT is more future proof and will probably last longer than a 7959GTX.

 

currently, the 8700GT can be compared to that of the 7900 GT(X?) so that's pretty good already. Especially as driver mature.

 

well the 3dmark scored were pretty much the same, but tht doesnt prove nethign towards real world performance, still impressive for a card with half the bandwidth

 

the 7900gtx > than 8700gt in real world performance and more so as resolution increases

 

So I'd be better off getting a laptop with 7950GTX? But will that be able to run games with DX10? I thought only 8 series could do that...

 

The 7950GTX is a dx9 card so it wont be able to run dx10. However, as some have pointed out, current dx10 performance on the 8 series cards is nothing to write home about. So until Nvidia gets the drivers right or the 8800Go comes out the only way you'll be able to play WiC at max settings will be a 7950.

 

Okay, I'll start looking for a notebook with the 7950. Any recommendations?

EDIT: This one looks okay, but I've never heard of the brand...:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834224071

 

The brand is ABS "Always Better Service" its a computer manufacturing company owned by Newegg itself.

 

Oh, okay, that explains why I haven't heard of it. Does anyone know if they're good? The specifications look fine...

 

I think ABS is pretty good. That particular computer appears to be a rebranded Clevo M570U, which is a very good notebook.

 

But the ABS costs almost $2500 and you can get the same config with the new clevo M570ru for around $2200 at xoticpc.com or powernotebooks.com
Or am i missing something?

 

No, you're not missing anything. The ABS isn't a great deal, but that doesn't mean it's a bad notebook. Some also like the design of the M570u better than that of the M570Ru. Though in general, I'd probably recommend the newer M570RU.

 

Wow! That one's inexpensive! I'm definatly bookmarking that.

 

Hey, look at this article I found: http://www.engadget.com/2007/03/20/clevo-strikes-again-with-nvidia-8800-based-m570ru-17-inch-laptop/

Does that mean that if I buy the M5750RU with the 7950GTX, I can upgrade later to the 8800 when it comes out? Or does it mean that when the 8800 comes out, it'll be customizable with it?

 

Oh, and does Vista still have the problem where it couldn't run with 4GB of RAM? If not, is it overkill to get 4GB for the games I listed, or would it not make a difference?

 

Umm... where'd everyone go? I've asked about three questions, but no answers...

 

Sorry, I just checked this thread again.
1) Yes, the M570Ru should be upgradeable to the 8800 series card.
2)Vista 32-bit won't recongnize all 4gigs of ram, though Vista 64-bit will.
3)With the 7950GTX, 2gigs of ram should be plenty, 3gigs max. 4gigs would be overkill, yes.

 

Okay, thanks a million! It's a bummer no other laptop can compete with this one...