Laptop gaming
Moderators: The Preacher, $iljanus, Zaxxon
- Vegetable Man
- Posts: 223
- Joined: Thu Oct 14, 2004 4:02 pm
- Location: San Francisco
- Contact:
Laptop gaming
I know this topic used to pop up every once in awhile over at GG, so I thought I'd be the first to ask it on the new boards. I've turned my aging desktop rig into a linux server, rendering it pretty much useless for gaming. So, while I'm in the process of building a new machine, I'm left with only my laptop to play games.
It's not absolutely terrible, but it's not great either. It's basically a 2Ghz P4 Celeron with 512MB RAM and an Intel integrated graphics chip(supporting up to DirectX 8.1, I believe). I figured now would be a good time to figure out what some of the better strategy games I might of missed over the last year or two. Any recommendations?
[edit] Anyone have experience with Kohan 2? I saw the recommended specs in IGNs review were a 2Ghz proc and 512 RAM, but how much does it stress the graphics chip?
Thanks
It's not absolutely terrible, but it's not great either. It's basically a 2Ghz P4 Celeron with 512MB RAM and an Intel integrated graphics chip(supporting up to DirectX 8.1, I believe). I figured now would be a good time to figure out what some of the better strategy games I might of missed over the last year or two. Any recommendations?
[edit] Anyone have experience with Kohan 2? I saw the recommended specs in IGNs review were a 2Ghz proc and 512 RAM, but how much does it stress the graphics chip?
Thanks
-
- Posts: 2343
- Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:17 pm
- Location: Kansas City, MO
Massive Assault ... period.
- Vegetable Man
- Posts: 223
- Joined: Thu Oct 14, 2004 4:02 pm
- Location: San Francisco
- Contact:
-
- Posts: 36420
- Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 7:17 pm
- Location: Nowhere you want to be.
You'd be better off with the old Kohan games. That laptop you have isn't built for 3D anything.
Massive Assault is a fun game though and should foot the bill as well. Also check out http://massiveassault.wargamer.com for more info.
Massive Assault is a fun game though and should foot the bill as well. Also check out http://massiveassault.wargamer.com for more info.
- dbt1949
- Posts: 25747
- Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 12:34 am
- Location: Hogeye Arkansas
As a strategy gamer,perferably turn based,I find my laptop will play every game I'm interested in. Of course mine's a little bit better at 2.4Ghz,1Gig ram, 64meg vid card(ATI 9000).I even have one FPS game that I tried on it (Halo) and it worked fine.
Your's would probably handle Diablo 2 okay.
Your's would probably handle Diablo 2 okay.
Ye Olde Farte
Double Ought Forty
aka dbt1949
Double Ought Forty
aka dbt1949
-
- Posts: 2343
- Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:17 pm
- Location: Kansas City, MO
- hitbyambulance
- Posts: 10261
- Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 3:51 am
- Location: Map Ref 47.6°N 122.35°W
- Contact:
- Jancelot
- Posts: 2423
- Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 5:20 pm
- Location: San Anselmo, CA
- hitbyambulance
- Posts: 10261
- Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 3:51 am
- Location: Map Ref 47.6°N 122.35°W
- Contact:
- Hamsterball_Z
- Posts: 1799
- Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 2:39 pm
- Location: SF Bay Area, CA
I've got a Dell C400, P3 1.3Ghz and Intel integrated graphics. I play Neverwinter Nights on it quite a bit. Sure, I have to bring the settings down and it struggles when the action gets really heavy but it's still playable most of the time.Jeff V wrote:You'd be better off with the old Kohan games. That laptop you have isn't built for 3D anything.
If a game has a 16 bit option that helps a lot. I could get 70fps numbers out of Quake 3 that way. On a laptop display that little reduction in image quality wasn't noticable. If NWN had the 16 bit option I think it would clear up those slow spots. I wouldn't want this as my primary rig but it works fine for my commute.
(HBZ)
-
- Posts: 2343
- Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:17 pm
- Location: Kansas City, MO
It never really gets "hard" .... just .... challenging. All missions are beatable but some really do require you to think a couple/few turns ahead. That's one of the things I love about it.hitbyambulance wrote:i just downloaded the Massive Assault demo and went through the tutorials... it is pretty neat, tho i can see where it'd get really hard later on...
- Cylus Maxii
- Posts: 3348
- Joined: Fri Nov 05, 2004 10:13 pm
- Location: Denver, CO
- Contact:
My Sager NP3790 rules!
Pentium Mobility 755 (2 GHz 2MB L2 ache)
1 GB DDR PC2700 RAM
Radeon Mobility 9700 128 MB
15.4" 1680x1050 15.4" widescree display
a little over 7 lbs (with the 12-cell that gives 4-5 hours)
all for <$1900
I love this thing!
I bought it from discountlaptops.com. They rate a 10 on resller ratings - I'd have to agree with that after my own good experience. Shipped it in 3 days.
Pentium Mobility 755 (2 GHz 2MB L2 ache)
1 GB DDR PC2700 RAM
Radeon Mobility 9700 128 MB
15.4" 1680x1050 15.4" widescree display
a little over 7 lbs (with the 12-cell that gives 4-5 hours)
all for <$1900
I love this thing!
I bought it from discountlaptops.com. They rate a 10 on resller ratings - I'd have to agree with that after my own good experience. Shipped it in 3 days.
- knob
- Posts: 3446
- Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 12:19 am
- Location: St. Louis
- Contact:
dbt1949 wrote:Yesterday I went over to Falcon NW and checked out their desktop replacement laptop. The way I configured it,it was only $4000!
Anybody want to loan me some money?
I didn't know Falcon NW got into the Laptop scene.
If I had 4k, I'd be all over it. But I'm not rich.
If I had a sig, would you read it?
- Meghan
- Posts: 1618
- Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 4:27 pm
- Location: The Group W Bench
I'm toying with the idea of Falcon's thin laptop for 3k. I want to get a laptop but I haven't decided if I'm going budget or BFG.
One thing that concerns me about laptops - I use my pc pretty much all day - 12-18 hours sometimes. Can a laptop - especially a really powerful one - be left on and plugged in for that thime without overheating?
One thing that concerns me about laptops - I use my pc pretty much all day - 12-18 hours sometimes. Can a laptop - especially a really powerful one - be left on and plugged in for that thime without overheating?
If I ventured in the slipstream / between the viaducts of your dream
aka merneith, aka kylhwch
aka merneith, aka kylhwch
- Charlatan
- Posts: 1628
- Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 10:46 pm
- Location: Sekrit Pirate Hideowt!
I have a laptop I use for work, since I travel a bit. In addition I was carting it home every night for the first 18 months I had it, so I used it about 18 hours a day all told. As long as you make sure you don't block the airflow to the processor, you won't have any problems. That said, I used a wooden lap desk at home, because it certainly did heat up, and I wouldn't advise sticking it on your lap when you're using it, not unless you have a way to dissipate enormous amounts of heat through your groin (cue rimshot!).Meghan wrote:I'm toying with the idea of Falcon's thin laptop for 3k. I want to get a laptop but I haven't decided if I'm going budget or BFG.
One thing that concerns me about laptops - I use my pc pretty much all day - 12-18 hours sometimes. Can a laptop - especially a really powerful one - be left on and plugged in for that thime without overheating?
When all is said and done, there's more said than done.
- Beer Goggles
- Posts: 819
- Joined: Mon Oct 25, 2004 9:48 am
- dbt1949
- Posts: 25747
- Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 12:34 am
- Location: Hogeye Arkansas
- The Meal
- Posts: 27992
- Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 10:33 pm
- Location: 2005 Stanley Cup Champion
My major concern with laptops and heat build-up is that the battery life gets degraded with temperature cycling. I try to keep my lappy off (and thank goodness XP has reasonable boot-up times, so this isn't a huge PITA issue) when it's not in use for just this reason. I probably do 25% of my notebooking unplugged, and I purchased a Pentium-Mobile for just this reason, so it makes sense to do what I can to keep those batteries in good shape.
~Neal
~Neal
"Better to talk to people than communicate via tweet." — Elontra
- The Meal
- Posts: 27992
- Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 10:33 pm
- Location: 2005 Stanley Cup Champion
I've done the same and swap them on a weekly basis. They start to degrade as soon as they're created, so it doesn't make sense to purchase two and then "save one for later" once your first one has gone.dbt1949 wrote:I like to buy an extra battery and rotate them about once a month.I found out the hard way if you wait too long your spare will be down quite a bit over time.
~Neal
"Better to talk to people than communicate via tweet." — Elontra
-
- Posts: 388
- Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 3:45 pm
- Location: GG Refugee
I have a Dell Inspiron 5150 P4 3.5GHz with a gig of RAM. It has an NVidia card with 64 megs of video ram and screams like a banshee when it really gets going. I play everything on it with no trouble. I also run it 24 hours a day, often letting it run complex access queries over night for work the next day. I did blow a fan out after about 8 months, but Dell came out and replaced it the next day for free. Other than that, no problems at all. And believe me, I'm getting my money's worth off of this machine!!!!