SgtJoo

You're an e-bully and I'm going to cry in a corner now. No I still haven't bought the computer that I ask about every 4 months.

Seriously though, I wanted to get a laptop to take notes in class (in uni now) and still be able to get OK fps in like MW2. I was looking at the Alienware M11x because even though it's tiny (11.5 inch screen?) and the processor (mobile i7) is weak because they intentionally make it so, it has like a nvidia 335m with a huge fan inside.

I know it's not a desktop replacement like the 15x or 17x and I sacrifice gaming power of a PC or aforementioned laptops, but would it suit my needs? I know it's portable but would it run MW2 alright?

As for the PC I'm not sure how that's going to play out seeing as my uni costs are 15,000 a year and I'm only getting 5500 in government money (Fuck you America) but I digress.

__________________

Fandom Ruck

It would be fine with Modern Warfare 2. Any laptop without Intel Graphics would.

However, screen size is an important factor in gaming.

__________________

abc

Um, well, I guess with uni you can forget about the $1500 systems?

A smaller screen means a smaller res thus less GFX card power is required, and MW2 is a very VERY simple task for any half modern GFX card (even laptop versions) so... my point is that any small-screen laptop with a dedicated GPU could play it on medium settings & res with a decent FPS.

Performance for ya money, gateway is the best laptop vendor I've ever seen. It's not exactly new tech, but a decently clocked dual core and (as things go) a respectable GPU the P series FX looks great for $800. Gateway Official Site: Shop - Notebooks - P-7815u FX Edition Laptop Product Details

Real shame there isn't a bigger range of spec or options to customise. I've only looked for a few seconds though so you may find a "gaming FX" section of the site or w/e that I missed.


Don't forget AMD & nVidia also do integrated solutions which, although a hundred million billion times better than anything with "intel" in the title, would still be pants for modern gaming. Last I heard (AMD 785g - desktop) the integrated HD3300/3400 were RV6xx (from the HD2400) and could just manage games like Half Life 2, CS etc at 30 FPS on low/medium settings. Impressive for integrated chips, but still not quite viable.

__________________
"I don't like new Linkin Park, I don't like old Linkin Park... I JUST LIKE LINKIN PARK"

COD owner - COD expansion pack owner - COD2 owner - COD2: BRO player - COD3 owner - COD4 owner - COD:WaW owner - COD: MW2 owner - COD: BO owner

This is getting repetitive.

SgtJoo

Well here's the benchmarks for the Alienware card...

Notebookcheck: NVIDIA GeForce GT 335M

With an i7 (even though it's underclocked) it looks like I'd be ok?

Plus the Alienware has shiny LEDS :S

The specs are as follows...

PROCESSOR: Intel® Core™ i7 640UM (4M Cache, 1.2 GHZ with 2.266 GHz Max Turbo Frequency) - Overclockable
OPERATING SYSTEM: Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
MEMORY: 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 800MHz
HARD DRIVE: 500GB SATAII 7,200RPM
VIDEO CARD: 1GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 335M

It can switch between dedicated and integrated GFX with one click on Nvidia Optimus to save battery life.

__________________

Olaf Vikingsson

A 1.2Ghz i7 is still retardedly fast on a platform like that.

__________________

abc

That (GT 335m whatever the f*** they are calling it these days) has 72 cores but the usual god-awful clock speeds of laptop GPUs... it will probably perform circa 9600GT/HD4670 so look for that in benches.

Note that whilst those benches you linked looked good, they're in 1366*768 which is rubbish, so expect to take an FPS hit at native res (but the visuals are worth it)

Despite the very VERY low clock speeds the architecture of an I7 is very handy and turbo mode should go a substantial way to negating the negatives (low clocked dual core with more efficient architecture + HT vs older but much higher clocked dual)


It's a shame there's such little benchmark info on the web. Speculating is all well and good but what you really want to do is get 5 CPUs at 133MHz intervals and stick em with the exact same system and test for bottlenecks etc, but instead most laptop benches are rather unscientific (the site which you linked compares different GPUs in laptops of a roughly similar but not identical CPU/RAM/MOBO/etc spec)

__________________
"I don't like new Linkin Park, I don't like old Linkin Park... I JUST LIKE LINKIN PARK"

COD owner - COD expansion pack owner - COD2 owner - COD2: BRO player - COD3 owner - COD4 owner - COD:WaW owner - COD: MW2 owner - COD: BO owner

This is getting repetitive.

SgtJoo

Does this help?

Notebookcheck: Review Alienware M11x R2 Subnotebook

Bit TL;DR

__________________

abc

Well, that's the problem with laptops. My mere mid-range desktop gets 12k in 3dmark06, whilst according to their chart the fastest laptop in the world (i7 920m, SLI GTX 285m) gets 11k. Likewise a 3 year old athlon X2 2.6GHz (which bottlenecks a GeForce 8600GT) gets 2k as the CPU score, whereas the I5 520um gets 1400 points which you'd have to assume (?) would therefore be 25% slower and bottleneck a card 25% slower than an 8600GT which does not sound promising at all.

But we knew laptops were slow, I just hadn't appreciated just how slow they were.

Reading the conclusion, perhaps you need to find a laptop forum and just say "this is how much i have, what's the best laptop for gaming/all-round/battery life/looks/whatever."

__________________
"I don't like new Linkin Park, I don't like old Linkin Park... I JUST LIKE LINKIN PARK"

COD owner - COD expansion pack owner - COD2 owner - COD2: BRO player - COD3 owner - COD4 owner - COD:WaW owner - COD: MW2 owner - COD: BO owner

This is getting repetitive.

oneinchwunda

At stock, I'm guessing? Mine has reached over 15k.

/brag

__________________

abc

No lol. Stock is 11.5k. Given that a 720 BE can cope with a 5850 before bottlenecking starts to be an issue I've not yet found the need to OC it so haven't tried to improve the CPU-test bits. Despite seeming amazing (nice big cooler, copper heatsinks on the RAM and VRM modules) my 4830 is utterly awful for OC'ing and it's not really stable at anything above stock. The 12k run was at +12.5% on the core clock speed. To compound the crap-ness of the OC-ability of this card, it's memory bandwidth which the 4830 lacks. Bad news for OC'ing my particular card given GPU memory is always the hottest and most unstable component to OC. All the other 4830s in the world seem to be ace overclockers as, in theory, all you need is +20% on the core clock to rival an 8800GTS/GTS250/9800GTX/9800GTX+/HD4850 and most cards seem to OC by 40% on the core clock which is massive.

You're forgetting that, whilst I have wtf-awesome parts like the SSD, D9G** RAM and a TRU cooler... I'm using a 2 year old £90 GFX card (HD4830, similar to a 9800GT) and most of a 3Dmark score is the GPU, hence it's no suprise you win.

I'd like to justify a GTX 460, but all I'll gain is the ability to use AA in games like Far Cry 2 and BC2 whilst I'll lose the equivilant of a bucket seat, front splitter, FRP door trim or 2/3 of a 4-2-1 exhaust manifold yada yada yada - all things that once I get this damn Puma, I'd rather have over "double FPS + AA."

I spent equivilant of GTX 460 money on a new 24" monitor the other day, and I think that's made more of a difference than AA and more FPS in single player parts of games.



Sorry for OT. I shall edit this post once the OP replies.

__________________
"I don't like new Linkin Park, I don't like old Linkin Park... I JUST LIKE LINKIN PARK"

COD owner - COD expansion pack owner - COD2 owner - COD2: BRO player - COD3 owner - COD4 owner - COD:WaW owner - COD: MW2 owner - COD: BO owner

This is getting repetitive.