Notebook Cards

I am thinking of buying a notebook. I would like it to run SL. I looked at the Wiki page on graphics cards. They are saying that none of the Intel Extreme or Extreme 2 cards work and that you need an ATI 8500 or better.

Well, in order to get something that Linden claims will work you need to buy the most expensive computer out there. I do not feel it is worth spending $1800-$2000 for a notebook just to run SL when, I can have a top of the line notebook that does everything else for less then $1500.

My question is this; what is working in real life? What graphics cards are you using that are working?

Jenny

There are a number of good laptops that can run SL for under $1000. I know I just saw some Compaq's for around 600-800 depeneding on what all you wanted. The trick is ATI's product numbering scheme (just like their drivers) is crap. The X200 is actually more advanced (though probably not quite as powerful as its a value version) than the 8500. I'd recommend going with an AMD turion based laptop with a gig of RAM and dedicated video memory (stay away from ones that say shared memory or up to so much system memory used).

I'm glad this thread exists because I was about to ask the exact same question.
I have my eye on an HP/Compaq nx6125 with an ATI Mobility X300 graphics card in it.

The desktop version got a respectable review with a Doom3 framerate score at 1026x768 that is comparible to my GeForce 4 Ti4200 that I currently struggle to run SL on, Can anyone tell me is the mobility version with it's crappy shared memory architecture is likely to perform similarly.

I'm not too fussed about Doom3, but the idea of being able to play SL over GPRS during the week when I'm away from home is appealing

Keep in mind you get what you pay for when you are talking laptops. $1800 - $2000 is not extravagant prices. All those millions of door stop laptops made 5 years ago or before cost $3000 - $7000 and you were lucky if you could play Age of Empires on it.

You can shop around and find a notebook that can run SL in the $1000 range, you just have to know what you are looking for. My Fujitsu Lifebook has the ATI Mobility 9000 and it plays SL. Not anything to write home about but it does work. The X200 is based on the X300 video card and from what I have heard and read it doesn't play SL very well. They advertise it has dedicated memory and it does, system memory( go to Tom's Hardware and read all about it). Anything with shared memory is going to suck for SL because the memory bandwidth or "pipe" is too small. 256megs of shared memory is basically useless as the pipe is too small to move the information fast enough. The new PCIe based systems like the X200 have a bigger pipe to play with but in all reality it is still too small to play high performance games with like SL.

This is a problem for me. In the US it's nice and easy as you have the likes of powernotebooks.com who will let you pick a laptop and make every single manufacturer option available.
Here in the UK, vendors mostly just pick one, maybe two variants and that's all you can get. The US version of the nx6125 has tons of options and even ording direct form HP we're stuck with just one.

Also, I need something that I can justify to my boss, so if it screams "Gaming Laptop" like the Acer Ferrari range with it's bright red casing with carbon fibre inserts or any AlienWare product, it isn't going to happen.

Can anyone provide a list of which laptop chipsets will actually work, so I can narrow down the search a bit?

Also, define "not going to work well" I currently am lucky to get 10fps on my desktop, and aren't expecting anything better from the laptop. A GPRS connection is going to slow down texture loading anyways.

In the uk too, i got mine from dabs they had some good deals on acer laptops, i got mine for £600 and it has a ati mobile 9700 with 512Mb ram, 60Gig dvd ram, widescreen display, wireless, Intel pentium M 725 (no dodgy celeron)

Model number was Acer 1682WLMi its not too bad, probably needs a bit more cpu for a dedicated machine, but averages about 30fps, while my main machine gets about 70.

My Compaq Presario, with a GeForce 4 card, runs SL quite well and I have rarely crashed. I think it cost around $1,500 USD.

Melissa, I am willing to pay around $1500. Sorry, I am not a computer geek and I can't see paying for something I really don't need, outside of SL.

Can someone explain the numbering system for the graphics cards? I don't know how, say a x300 compares to a 7500. In most things, the bigger the number the newer and, supposedly better, the whatever. However, I get the impression that this isn’t the case here?

Also, why doesn’t the Intel Extreme 2 work with SL. I see it on a lot of computers. I thought Intel was the leader in computer chips? What is it about SL that makes it so hard to run?

Jenny

Hi Jennifer. I know very little about PCs and laptops but I do know that SL seems to run best with Nvidia (GeForce) cards. My GeForce 4 not only runs fine but the graphics are nearly as good as on my friend's PC and she has something like a GeForce 6800 super turbo card. I couldn't be happier with this Compaq laptop especially since I bought it just for Second Life. It also does great with other things like music and movies.

Intel Extreme 2 cards are (DX7/DX8/OGL*1.1, SL wants dx9 hardware support preffered on the vid card) pretty much only made for office use , not for games, why so many use them as integrated.

Intel is in my eyes ripping off their customers , they are overpriced and dont come close to Amd' in price/what you get
(they cost 40-50$ to make ;P ok so im not taking into the consideration how much was spend to make the factories/research , theres a report about it out there if you dont belive they are that cheap to make)

Intel used to be low power/watt so they didnt make as much heat as Amd's , but that flipped on the head now, now its the Amd's that has lower watt use and heat.

And yeah higher numbers usually indicate a better vid card
Ati x200 x300 ~ ect x850 higher the better usually
Nvidia gf2 gf3 gf4 gf5 gf6 gf7xxx like gf6800

But then you have diffrent odd things on the back of their numbers.
Avoid anything that has the word "lite" if you plan on using it for games, GT/Ultra/Gtx are the high end ones.
(warning some like to advertise "ultra" cards and then they are utter junk in specs )

ViVo = Video in , Video Out

Most cards are pci-express now, unless you got a integrated one, wich on laptops cant be upgraded at all cause of space/integrated, and the heat they make/power would drain a laptop.¨

Laptop - battery - so they try to lower power consumption, and then its usually the vid card that get it , i know theres some kits out there that you can use with laptops incase they keep overheating, i never used one.

For SL use its all about your prossesor ,ram ,vid card, then harddrive, internet over 1mbit doesnt really do much for it unless youre watching video streams in SL

For 1500$ you could build alot more powerfull workstation then a laptop, but its not that easy to carry those

GPRS connection? Aren't those usually charged by the megabyte? Man, if it is, 5 minutes of SL could cost an arm and a leg. Might want to look into that as you can easily DL a gig or two in a relitively short time.

Ok, as far as laptops are concerned and what constitutes not working well, that is a relative term obviously. SL is very CPU dependant but it still needs a modern video card to get the most out of the game. There are a lot of pitfalls when dealing with laptops as you have to balance battery life vs performance vs heat.

To give you an idea I have two compters that are roughly equivelent, I have 2.6 P4 laptop and a 2500+ AMD desktop.
Excluding graphic intensive applications, one would expect the CPUs would be close speedwise but that is far from the truth. Because of the way laptops are a series of compromises it performs worse than an 1800+ AMD desktop on purely number crunching applications and my AMD 2500+ blows it out of the water (roughly 25% faster). In other words, I paid $1500 on a computer that actually performs worse than a $400 desktop computer. $1100 went for portability. I get between 5-10 fps on the laptop on a good day in SL (that's with everything turned way down, no AA or AF filtering) on a moderatly built up sim with a couple of avatars in it. Playable to be sure but nothing to write home about. Something like an X200 based laptop may have less performance than that since mine has dedicated memory.


My best advice is to go to a computer store (preferably a smaller one) and ask to see how it performs with SL before you buy it. My wife did that, told them she wouldn't buy the computer unless it could play SL. They hooked it up and DLed it then verified it could.

Well, I found this laptop
http://www.acernotebooks.co.uk/asp/spec.asp?V_ID=6918
which looks pretty good. Pentium M chip and a Radeon X700 video card, and it's just within my price range. How well do these components take to SL?

The Pentium M seems to be roughly equivalent to a P4 2.4 in most but not all applications.


And as for GPRS being charged by the megabyte, you are correct, fortunately it will be my employer that picks up that bill. If they're going to make me stay away from home all bloody week, they can't really complain if I find some way to keep up with my friends now, can they.

Plus, I'm sure the software updates I have to pull down cost them just as much.

At the risk of sounding like I'm bragging about my l33t hardware or something. I managed to get the Acer 8101WLMi laptop, about £850 + VAT and install SL on it, and it rocks.

Connected, got 40FFPS in my home and even in heavily populated areas I'm still seeing double-digit frame rates for the first time. On my desktop I thought I was doing well if I got 8fps and usually got 2-4

downloading and rezzing still runs like crap, but this was to be expected as the machine is on the same network (Nildram 2mb ADSL) so unlikely to be the fault of the laptop.

Our Global company is about to have monthly meetings in SL and wouldn’t you know it that the Regional is unable to run SL!!

He wants to use his new ACER Ferrari with Windows Vista.
I’ve update every possible driver and video related software and now I don’t even get an error..
It just sits there running the HD (led) and nothing happens at all.. BAZAR..

Lastly, I ran the program under compatibility mode - Window XP (pro)
and same thing, HD blinky light to nothing..

Does ANYONE have any idea or suggestions?


-Big

What graphics card is in that Acer laptop? If it's an ATI card then try getting the latest desktop Catalyst drivers from www.ati.com, then using the ATI driver patcher from www.driverheaven.com to patch them to support mobile chipsets.

That is what I have to do to get my Acer Travelmate to work, and the Acer Ferraris are just a high spec travelmate in silly red plastic.

theres a ton of laptops that have low end nvidia or ati video systems in them, most of them have amd cpus in them also, intel has this attitude about their chiptsets, which are total crap


dont get me wrong they make a fine cpu, but its kinda like a pizza place, they may make an awesome pizza but their pasta is cold , and their salad is brown