What is taking up hard drive space!?

the HD 2600 has always been a good mid-range card, in line w/ the 8600GT or there abouts. Mid range cards can play most games at a lot of high or mid settings, however Crysis is the machine crippling exception. Any machine that can even run crysis at any settings is at least a mid-range gaming laptop IMO. Desktops are better suited if you want absolute state of the art running Crysis at 30 FPS with high settings. Who made you think the 2600 had the performance of a Geforce 8800 or 8700 or 8700? I've never seen anyone represent it as such.

 

Remember that the 2600 is a mid range card from last year, so keep that in mind when trying to play a game like crysis that cant be fully maxed on top desktops yet.

 

Agreed, if he got this he would be playing crysis in 1920x1200 in all high settings and still getting 25-40fps avg. Atleast if he was playing on Windows XP.

liquidxit2, I max out crysis on all very high settings and average 35fps on my desktop in sig (on XP of course) in 1920x1080 so that's actually wrong. I actually run a custom config that is higher than crysis' max settings, the FOV is wider, and distance fade is set to unlimited. And that is just a 512mb factory OC'd 8800GT and a Q6600 mildy OC'd.

 

Exactly what liquid said. Even top of the line desktops can't max out Crysis that effectively.

Try other games like Bioshock and Gears of War and Unreal Tournament 3. Very graphically impressive games, and you should be able to run a lot of mid to high settings.

Crysis is just a system destroyer in general. Don't make it make you feel bad bout your purchase, as typically a laptop w/ a mid-range graphics card will sell for around $1000

 

think twice if you are only want to play Crysis on the laptop.

maybe it's just my opinion but why would you want to spend more $$$ just to play that one game (or maybe it's just cause i was never impressed with Crysis)?

at your age and considering you are still in school, you might want to save the money for more important things or even an eventual laptop upgrade after a couple of months

 

I'm in college and needed a decent laptop because I'm going into computer concepts/game design. It doesn't help that one of my best friends just spent $3,000 on a sick Alienware laptop.

 

Doesn't Best Buy still have a "no questions asked" return policy within ten days of purchase?

Also, trying to run Crysis at 1280x800 is your problem there; try 1024x768 or 1024x640.

 

best buy's return policy for computers and laptops is 14 days, w/ a 15% restocking fee (according to their website and backs of their receipts)

 

I saw a movie where a guy have tri SLi and it dipped bellow 40. Think this was it but I may be wrong:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?d...DNJpCKrwLblaHBDw&q=tri+sli+crysis&vt=lf&hl=en

Vista was the OS but still kinda sucks when a setup like that can dip bellow 40.

 

Yeah if your going to school for gaming and Im assuming on a different budget then your friends Id try to get the 7811FX as it will do you well with a 9800GTS and a montevina chip.

 

The best answer is always wait...

Wait until your "want" turns into a "need"

I've generated my demand list for my next laptop, it has kept me on track from all the distractions coming out. Here's my list of demands.

- 15.4" Laptop (or the new 16"ers which are catching on)
- Backlit LCD which is stupendous!
- SSD HD 200Gb+ in size and doesn't suck like they do now
- GPU capable of playing latest games on med/high settings
- Superior build quality
- Priced under $2,500

It's pretty obvious why I still haven't bought a new laptop and I may have a few more years to wait... but I shall not compromise!!!

 

If I have to pay a restocking fee and I lose my 2yr warranty then there is no way I can get the new FX.

 

Although I agree with waiting til you need an upgrade, waiting for a dream can leave you empty handed indefinitely. I think the OP needs something for the fall for school so his need is now.

 

Im sure they will work something out if you are coming back to swap a $1200 laptop for $1400 laptop.

 

If I had to guess, the OP has a bit of envy that a friend of his who obviously had an enourmous budget got a $3000 gaming laptop, and he wants to compete. But he has a more realistic budget that typically will only get someone integrated graphics. The reality of the situation is you can't get $3000 performance out of a $800 or $1000 laptop.

 

I can play Bioshock with MAX settings on the ATI 2600 HD.

 

You see the card can play very visually intensive and beautiful games at very good settings, it's just Crysis is an anomoly. Try out Gears of War if there's a demo or whatever. I heard it can do that at mostly high settings too and that's to this day still considered one of the graphically best games out there.

 

The 2600/8600 is still a mid level gamer card from last year. I love mine(8600mGT) but then again I dont game as much as I multitask and work. being as though he is going to school for gaming the 2600HD will become too weak too soon.

 

Oh yea I know it's a mid-range card, but 360gamer is kinda like getting down on himself it seems like it's a piece of crap card, just cuz it struggles w/ Crysis at 1200x800 resolution. Lots of computers struggle w/ Crysis at resolutions even lower then that. So just wanted him to see it's a capable card.

 

Oh i agree about crysis 110%. I play alot of newish games maxed at 1920x1200 on my 8600mGT and I love it. UT3 is AMAZING graphically @ 1920x1200 and the gameplay is still awesome. I will be applying to a game maker here soon and might be selling my dell if I need stronger graphics for work... if I get the job.

 

Yea it's like if you really wanna experience struggling graphics, I've had integrated graphics for the past 2 years. I can't play games from 2005 via Gametap even (like Beyond Good and Evil) with them getting more then 15FPS. Even 2D games like Darkstalkers run slowly. Only things that run smoothly are NES and SNES games lol. Now THAT is a graphically poor laptop

 

their you go:

http://www.alienware.com/customize/...A51M15X-AI1&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT&tab=specs_tab

don't forget to rep

 

I won't be doing anything super graphic intensive until next year so maybe I should go exchange this Gateway for another Gateway just to get rid of the issues my current one has and stick it out til next years, get a job, and buy a nice one.

 

Your ATI 2600 card should carry you through this year with many games with high settings and some mid settings.

in 2009 you may have to settle for mid settings all around with some in low

And by 2010 you probably will have to use quite conservative settings, but this is just a guesstimate.

Still that's not a bad laptop investment timeline for the money you spent

 

lol you should get anti-rep for recommending one of those toasters

 

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

2 8800 GT's couldn't do that A 4870 can't do that:laugh:

That custom config must really make the game look like crap XD

 

It dose satisfy the requirements that he laid out in his post. I would recommend xoticpc but it's hard 2find one with SSD and if he wants laptop with SSD that cost $2500 and play latest games medium/high then m15x will do just that.

 

It is getting closer to my requirements but it's missing a few things. SSD's (all of em) are pretty sub-par to my liking, and the prices need to come down a bit.

And I coulda swore I put high quality in my list:tongue:

Realistically though, we are getting very close to what I am hoping for and I expect that a laptop which satisfies those needs will be out within one years time. The Alienware M15X is very close, but still needs a little more work IMO.

 

If this is really the case, you should really consider if good gaming capability is so important thing for your laptop. Usually small, very lightweight laptops with good battery life are a lot more convenient for students, especially if you really are always carrying the laptop with you.

So I would still highly recommend you getting the desktop (especilly when seeing all your Crysis threads... ) and if really needed, get a cheap ultraportable along with it.

I'm also almost certain that your school offers good computers to do the more demanding tasks (Modelling, 3D animation etc.), if needed at later stages of your studies.

Just for example, I'm studying computer engineering in university and there haven't been any real need for a laptop in any courses. But sometimes it would have been handy. I have regretted spending my savings on powerful gaming laptop years ago, because it really isn't something I want to drag with me in the school. Now I would have gone for cheap ultraportable, like Asus EEE and a decent desktop for gaming ( here's example guide for a budget desktop) .

Just my thoughts.

 

I merged 9 of your threads dealing with related topics into one. It's a mess, but so were the 9 threads you created. Keep all related questions in one thread for next time. Thanks.