Question about Malibal and GPUs

Hi! I'm impressed with these notebooks, and your entire forum's knowledge and readiness to help people!

I was lucky enough to have a lot of free time to spend thinking about buying a new notebook this afternoon while I was waiting for 45 minutes for my appointment at a Genius Bar. My grumpy little genius was quick to diagnose my problem and charge my credit card, but, to his defense, he seemed overworked and stressed out. He was quite patient with the older lady next to me who yelled at him for not having a master backup of all her files at "Apple HQ," pausing only for smoke breaks.

Sorry, I needed to vent.

My real question: I've been reading a lot of Malibal's reviews on here and they seem to be receptive to customer issues and friendly to deal with.

I'm not necessarily looking to run intensive games on ultra settings, but I'd like a machine that has portability, but leans towards improved performance. I played around with a couple models on their site, but I can't seem to figure out the difference between the Lotus P150HM and P151HM1, aside from the cost increase.

Also, a lot of posts here mention GPU "throttling" performance. For a casual gamer, what minimum GPU would you guys suggest? As far as specific games, I've been out of touch with recent FPS since the last one I played was in 2003. Otherwise, I play WoW and kind of want to try out Skyrim.

Thanks!

 

For travel 15" (8130 or 8150) more or less same thing except extra weight in the power "bigger" supply. The $300 price difference might be worth the 6990m initial cost.
17" 8170 is bigger and heavier.

All these models might be a shocker for Apple laptop owners regards to weight.
The performance 6990m + 2760m gains over latest Apple's is insane so worth the extra weight.

Minm spec would be nvidia 560m with 2760qm that should work good for most games with playable settings at reasonable resolutions. If you can then the AMD6990m with same cpu is a very good option and can push it to the limit.

The 8130 and the 8150 is more or less the same thing except a cheaper priced version or it would cost more to later upgrade parts like video and then get the bigger needed power supply (+$130 about + gpu cost) .

Jumping from 560m to 6990m is a huge difference for that small price and the extra weight of the power supply is not that a big deal. The 560m might remind you of a Apple where the 6990m would make you forget about Apple in 3 hours.

You can sell you Apple at a loss and still have extra cash to get a 8150 with amd6990m.

GPU and cpu spec look at and select desktop and mobile gpu + cpu for each.
Mobile Graphics Cards - Benchmark List - Notebookcheck.net Tech

Mobile Processors - Benchmarklist - Notebookcheck.net Tech

Check out all the retailers, some has a buy now update later plan included and only pay for the later newer gpu part so then still have the latest tech without buying a brand new laptop.

 

The P150HM and P151HM1 only differ in a few ways:

- Plastic exterior on the P151HM1, rubberized on the P150HM
- 120w power supply on the P151HM1 (which limits the ability to upgrade GPU's), 180w on the P150HM
- Matte stock screen on P151HM1, glossy on P150HM (both can be upgraded to the 95% screens)

As for your question on GPU "throttling"- it's not throttling, but rather bottlenecking. The fastest mobile GPU's are the 580m or the 6990m, but both are only roughly equal to mid range desktop cards. Meanwhile the mobile Sandy Bridge CPU's can equal or surpass some of the higher end desktop CPU's. This is why even the lower end processors can be limited by the fastest graphics options. As far as CPU choices go, for gaming you probably don't need more than the 2670qm or 2760qm models.

 

I ordered mine from you today. I only got the 2630qm with a 6990. I should be okay right? I don't use any programs that require a lot of processing. I will just be using it for games like BF3 and schoolwork.

 

Yep, for gaming the 2630 is more than a match for the 6990. You shouldn't have any trouble at all for school work or BF3

Most games are heavily GPU dependent, so the choice of CPU isn't as important.

 

Look at my specs, I am very happy, with Malibal and the notebook.

 

Also, I've created a FAQ that would answer most of your questions. It's in my signature down below.

Mr. Mysterious

 

Thanks for your responses, guys, it's been helpful! The waters you tread so gracefully are quite murky for an Apple user who's never seen the interior of his pretty silver box. Special thanks to Mr. Mysterious; your FAQ was good reading; it's nice knowing that even if my entire machine will be obsolete in two years, at least some of the components can be upgraded.

So I've designed a particular machine with a price range of $1400-$1600. Are there any components here that you'd consider overkill for my needs, or any that I'd be loathe to miss?

Lotus P150HM
15.6" 1920 x 1080 FHD LED Backlit Matte Display
Intel® Core™ i7-2630QM, 6MB L3 Cache, 2.0-2.9GHz
**(8GB) 8192MB, PC3-10660/1333MHz DDR3 - 2 SO-DIMM
AMD® Radeon HD 6990M 2GB GDDR5
**500GB 7200rpm 2.5" SATA 300
8X Multi DVD+/-R/RW RAM Dual-Layer Drive
Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium; 64-bit
**Internal 802.11B/G/N LAN and Bluetooth Card
Stock OEM Thermal Compound, CPU & GPU
LIFETIME Ltd. Labor and 1 Year Parts Warranty with 24/7 Support (USA)

I put asterisks next to parts I'm really not sure about. There are so many options for memory and what I know so far tells me 6-8GB is plenty for my needs. I've read 1333 to 1600 upgrade won't make much of a noticeable difference.

My current machine has only 120GB capacity and wasn't maxed out, so I figure 500 GB, along with a 320 GB external HD I have would cover me. I also hear a lot of praising for SSDs in threads, but I have to admit I'm intimidated by the technical jargon around them. I have no clue what TRIM, RAID, or a page file does, but it sounds dreadfully complicated and I'd likely end up destroying something.

I don't know what my current computer has, but I have difficulty grabbing my wireless signal where I live. My partner has a new MacBook Pro and has no problems moving about in the house.

 

That looks like a pretty solid build! You'll be fine with the stock wireless card unless you travel around a lot and connect to a lot of different wireless networks. Even then it wouldn't be a huge deal.

You're right about the RAM. The SSD would be a good upgrade, especially since you haven't maxed out a 120GB hard drive yet. Don't let that jargon scare you though, there are some relatively easy walkthroughs for how to optimize your SSD.

Overall, that looks very good.