Why so much disrespect for mobile gaming rigs?

As for the fans going nuts, I agree, it can be annoying at times - especially if you're using the laptop's speakers, you can barely hear the game. Headsets are a must! :thumbsup: But laptops are quieter than desktops, by a long shot.

I'd like to see improved quality on the M18x. For example, double-ball bearing fans. Small changes like this can make a big difference.

 

Notebooks can accommodate upgrades just fine... its the manufacturers that are the problem and their trigger happy tendency to put a high price on mobile components simply because they are mobile (from a manufacturing point of view, we are talking about desktop chips, simply reduced in capability to fit the notebook form factor) along with intentionally mucking up various connectors with different iterations.

On the subject of expand-ability... desktops are more or less equally gimped like laptops in the CPU department.
Intel seems to be changing their sockets with every architecture change (even though there's no need), so desktops will have to undergo a full motherboard replacement either way in that regard as well.
Can it be cheaper?
Only from a point of view if you don't see the need in changing other components and sticking to the same casing - and even then it's questionable on the front of being worthwhile.

Notebooks with MXM capabilities are able to swap out with other compatible gpu's... desktops have an edge here because the cards manufacturers do NOT muck up the slot and stick with one layout for a reasonable time frame (unlike its done in notebooks - such as 'inverting', and different MXM form factors to prevent upgrades and force people to buy new systems - or the prices of these components are prohibitively expensive for no apparent reason).

Yes, desktops do have their advantages, but in terms of power... the lines are blurring on a faster level because everything is going 'integrated' and smaller.

 

Which also gives desktops even more room for massive GPUs that would never fit in a laptop, such as the GK110. Notebooks may be catching up but there is a limit to thermal dissipation.

I wouldn't say I'm prejudiced against gaming notebooks, but they've never quite meshed with the "needs" I had. I wouldn't say I'm biased against mobile gaming, I just think it's over prescribed on these boards.

 

You mean on the gaming section of a laptop forum?

 

On NBR in general. ;D It's some sort of panacea for all the issues you have with performance. Go get a Clevo!

 

These days you don't need a Clevo for mobile gaming anymore. Even the integrated graphics are able to run most games at 768p, and it looks like Haswell IGP can handle 1080p. My three-year old hp envy can still run nearly everything at 1080p.

 

Don't count on it:
AMD Richland A10 6800k Vs Haswell GT3 – graphics performance analysed | KitGuru
Asus F2A85-V Pro & AMD A10 5800K Review (w/ HD7660D) | KitGuru

HD 4000 can barely keep up with previous gen AMD integrated, and next gen won't be any better than current gen Trinity. While AMD may be making great strides with IGP performance, they are rarely used in any decent laptops. Plus it depends on which games. Of course games 2+ years old will perform well on an IGP, but newer titles will struggled at 720p usually. IGP's have made great improvements and I'm thankful for that, but they still can't manage anything but older games and usually at decreased detail. It will allow you to game in a pinch, but I wouldn't play any modern games on an IGP on a regular basis. It's not only raw performance but there's more likelihood of stutters or skips due to its sharing of resources with the CPU, and limited to system RAM bandwidth and performance.

 

I ran the HD4000 on my desktop for sometime (about a month). It was terrible on my old 1280x1024 monitor. It would jitter even in Torchlight II. Trinity and Haswell may be different beasts, but I don't have either. The HD3000 is likewise terrible (especially with an ULV processor as in my UX32a-DB31) but at least I didn't expect it to be fast. If you reduce the settings to low Torchlight II will run reasonably well.

 

I haven't used any IGP myself, as I don't have switchable graphics, but what I've read from Anandtech suggests the HD4000 can handle most games just fine at 1366x768:









The jury is still out on Haswell IGP, but they had a few demos at CES running Skyrim and Dirt 3 at 1080p on High settings.

 

Benchmarks look promising, but gaming with them is not. Trust me. The Trinity A10 with 7660G is AMD's top of the line mobile APU and while it can game, it is borderline playable with any reasonable detail and resolution (720p) to maintain a fluid gaming experience, and it's twice as powerful as the HD 4000. And I wouldn't ever look at any BF3 benches unless you only plan on playing single player, because MP is a train wreck. Even 800x600 at low detail it runs horribly in multiplayer.

Haswell will be lucky meet the performance of Trinity's 7660G, and it's borderline low end dedicated GPU as it is.

I'm not one for high end graphics, as long as the game mechanics are good and fun. But sometimes you need a little more than low end graphics to help with immersion. And 30FPS in multiplayer is only asking for a death sentence. So you're best to stick with older single player games.

 

I've been through this before, and MXM cards are still not standardized enough to make them freely interchangeable. A MXM card, even with correct pin-outs, may still not work 100% because the main board has issues with the VBIOS, which means it may not be able to transition through the GPU's p-states properly, so you're stuck in the idle clock speeds even in 3D gaming, or vice versa. Heatsink mounting brackets are another issue; you can't just expect to move a MXM card from one machine to another without having to modify or cut up the stock heatsink to accomodate the new card.

...And why does anyone need to change out the CPU every time a new generation is introduced? The three year old Nahalem platform still isn't a bottleneck for the GTX 680 or HD 7970. My father's desktop runs Microsoft Flight Simulator on a PC built back in 2007 and all that machine's gotten over the last five years was a $350 upgrade last year to get it from a Core 2 Quad to a Core i5 2500K CPU/motherboard/RAM. Everything else has stayed the same.

I'm going to have to disagree here based on my past notebooks. The only laptop I've had that is quieter than my desktop during gaming was the ASUS G53SW. Everything else -- the GT683R, second generation Envy 15, M14X R1 and R2, and the Sandy Bridge 15" MBP was way louder. The highest I've seen from a sound level meter sitting 2 inches away from the case is 38 decibels while encoding AVC-HD files.

 

Why so much disrespect for mobile gaming rigs?

there isn't. get out more

 

IDK, my M17x is by far the loudest laptop I've owned, but it's still quieter than one of my 5 year old dessktops with integrated graphics lol.

cool story

 

All Alienwares have loud fans, even my M11x on load, the fan is quite audible.