Games on a Laptop

beer enigma

What's the issue as far as running games on a laptop ?? - Many of my titles that run extrememly well on a desktop won't even load on the Laptop, yet its much newer technology ?

Is there any way round this ?

koneko

It depends on the spec of the laptop. It might have a much slower CPU than your desktop, and it will most likely have a much worse graphics chip, which is essential for running games smoothly.

If you know what laptop you have, post up the details, such as the model (like "Dell blah blah").

There are laptops out there with good graphics and lots of memory and a great CPU, but they'll cost more than the low-end ones, or the older secondhand ones.

beer enigma

Its a new Dell 9300 Inspiron, with the 1.7Ghz Centrino Chip, 512Mb RAM & ATI Mobility Radeon X300 Graphics (128Mb DDR)

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/inspn_9300?c=ie&cs=iedhs1&l=en&s=dhs#tabtop

petes

What games are you trying to run. Try the alternative to ati drivers found here http://www.omegadrivers.net

beer enigma

The main one that doesn't seem to like the laptop is MS Flight Sim 2003 or 2004

Magnolia_Fan

I know the big hitch to gaming on my laptop is the graphics card. Can't play alot of games on it and some I can and they don't work properly

jesus_thats_gre

The X300 is an entry level card for graphics cards now.. FLight Simulator is fairly greedy when it comes to graphics card, thus the two dont go together..

Lower your graphics settings is the best optio..

po0k

the components in laptops are generally tuned for low-power usage while still giving sufficient performance for general tasks.

Things like memory bandwidth, various bus speeds etc. are usually 75-50% of what the equivalent desktop is.

The Mobility X300 is a very entry-level card, it's better than Intel intergrated graphics, but it isn't a patch on a real desktop card.

condra

i have a laptop and Ive found most games to be ok. I got an error message saying "cannot find direct 3d" even tho i shud have it..

godtabh

I'm just after buying the same laptop. While I do not intend to use it for all my gaming needs (I have an Xbox for that) I would like to play some games that may not be available on the Xbox.

Even for an entry level GFX card shouldnt this laptop be able to play the latest games (but at a performace of less than the best of the best)?

Will increasing the system ram have an effect? ie 512mb to 1gb or even 1.5 gb?

tHE vAGGABOND

A bunch of games companies do not support gaming on laptops at all..

I think there is a logo on the back of every EA PC game that says no laptop support if I remember correctly..

That means it *should* work - but if it does not, tough sh1t..

Ri_Nollaig

you can still get some very impressive spec laptop from likes of alienware and dell that should run almost all games well but they will cost 2500+ and running on battery will last about an hour... stick to desktops if u want games

Stephen

Or get one of roughly the same spec from Lidl/Aldi for a grand less. In fact, Lidl have one this week afaik. I got one from Aldi a few weeks back for €1500 with the following specs:
Intel Pentium M 1.73ghz (2MB cache)
1GB DDR2-533 RAM
Nvidia GeForce Go 6600/128MB PCI-express (not shared with ram)
Seagate 100 gig hard disk/5400RPM
15.4" WXGA screen
Slot loading DVD+/-R/RW/RAM drive
TV card
bluetooth adaptor
56k, Ethernet and WLAN
Memory card reader
USB2 x4/Firewire x1

battery lasts about 2 and a half hours for me.

It plays Half-Life 2 and Brothers in Arms in the screen's native resolution of 1280x800 beautifully. Haven't tried any other games on it, but GTA San Andreas will be going on it as soon as it is available in the shops.

I specced out a Dell on their site as closely as possible, and it came to well over €2500 including VAT, and that was with a smaller hard disk and lesser warranty and without the extras like bluetooth, tv, memory card reader etc.


...

After all that though, I still prefer my desktop PC for gaming, even if it is starting to get a bit long in the tooth (AMD 2800+/1gig DDR333/9800Pro), but being able to pass the time with a game or two on the laptop is great, which was simply not possible on my old laptop (Toshiba P4 1.7ghz with 512mb of ram and crappy 16MB ATI mobility).

Scruff

i have a dell inspiron 9100, 3.2ghz p4, 1gb ddr ram, 128mb ati radeon 9700.
I used to be able to play hl2\hl2dm\cs2 with no problems at all at 1024x800 and 2 x FSAA with no problems at all. I hadnt played it in a few weeks and when i went to play it last week Steam told me my graphics driver was out of date and recommended i update. So i did and got the latest from the dell site. Now hl2 is bloody unplayable at 1024x800 and is struggling on 800x600. Dont know what driver version was on it before so i cant go back

Sarn

I only play games on my laptop now (HL2, WOW, SWAT 4), 1.7 GHz PM, 1 GB RAM, 64 MB Radeon 9700. Haven't had a problem to date running anything (not that I play much). The x300 could be the problem.

TerrorFirmer

Sarn wrote:

I only play games on my laptop now (HL2, WOW, SWAT 4), 1.7 GHz PM, 1 GB RAM, 64 MB Radeon 9700. Haven't had a problem to date running anything (not that I play much). The x300 could be the problem.

The x300, although entry level, is still a decent card - thats not the reason for games not running at all. That card will run anything at current time - maybe not at the best resolution, but it will run them.

Lord Oz

I find the only thing limiting on my laptop is memory, 512mb isn't enough. Try turning off cpu stepping if it's slow.

1huge1

halo works perfectly on my laptop
half life 2 very good not at good as halo though

1huge1

Stephen wrote:

Or get one of roughly the same spec from Lidl/Aldi for a grand less. In fact, Lidl have one this week afaik. I got one from Aldi a few weeks back for €1500 with the following specs:
Intel Pentium M 1.73ghz (2MB cache)
1GB DDR2-533 RAM
Nvidia GeForce Go 6600/128MB PCI-express (not shared with ram)
Seagate 100 gig hard disk/5400RPM
15.4" WXGA screen
Slot loading DVD+/-R/RW/RAM drive
TV card
bluetooth adaptor
56k, Ethernet and WLAN
Memory card reader
USB2 x4/Firewire x1

battery lasts about 2 and a half hours for me.

It plays Half-Life 2 and Brothers in Arms in the screen's native resolution of 1280x800 beautifully. Haven't tried any other games on it, but GTA San Andreas will be going on it as soon as it is available in the shops.

I specced out a Dell on their site as closely as possible, and it came to well over €2500 including VAT, and that was with a smaller hard disk and lesser warranty and without the extras like bluetooth, tv, memory card reader etc.


...

After all that though, I still prefer my desktop PC for gaming, even if it is starting to get a bit long in the tooth (AMD 2800+/1gig DDR333/9800Pro), but being able to pass the time with a game or two on the laptop is great, which was simply not possible on my old laptop (Toshiba P4 1.7ghz with 512mb of ram and crappy 16MB ATI mobility).

yeah the targa one from lidl is top class

Farls

Ri_Nollaig wrote:

you can still get some very impressive spec laptop from likes of alienware and dell that should run almost all games well but they will cost 2500+ and running on battery will last about an hour... stick to desktops if u want games

I have an alienware sentia, got a radeon card in it and a gig of ram, its a pentium M 1.8GHz and its run any game i've thrown at it. In fact it came with a demo of doom3 when i got in in december to show the benchmarks!

And i didn't spend 2 and a half grand on it...altho it was a lot!

Farlz

joe316

Farls wrote:

I have an alienware sentia, got a radeon card in it and a gig of ram, its a pentium M 1.8GHz and its run any game i've thrown at it. In fact it came with a demo of doom3 when i got in in december to show the benchmarks!

And i didn't spend 2 and a half grand on it...altho it was a lot!

Farlz

i didnt think the sentia comes with a dedicated graphics card i thought it was shared with the ram, couldnt provide a link to the system you bought? would be very interested in buying one if it had a dedicated gfx card that was the only reason that was putting me off a sentia

ShiverinEskimo

jesus_thats_gre wrote:

The X300 is an entry level card for graphics cards now.. FLight Simulator is fairly greedy when it comes to graphics card, thus the two dont go together..

Lower your graphics settings is the best optio..

My god Jesus - you passed up the perfect opportunity to pimp your laptop! :eek:
Get this man some medical attention! Stat!

Ri_Nollaig

Farls wrote:

I have an alienware sentia, got a radeon card in it and a gig of ram, its a pentium M 1.8GHz and its run any game i've thrown at it. In fact it came with a demo of doom3 when i got in in december to show the benchmarks!

And i didn't spend 2 and a half grand on it...altho it was a lot!

Farlz

how much was it?
they have upgradeble graphics cards too dont they?

hairball

got an inspiron 9100 late last year and so far it's played everything I've put in it, including hl2 running at 1600 x 1050 in widescreen mode, great framerate...I have to say ,so far I'm chuffed ...and really looking forward to bf2...got 1 gig ram...p4 3.4 ghz and a 256mb mobility rad 9800:)