Which laptop for SL?

Now that I'm addicted, I need to run SL on a laptop for those times when I'm not at my desktop. I'm especially interested in the CPU/GPU/RAM angle. Turion 64X2 v. Intel Core 2 Duo? or maybe less power? ATI vs. nVidia? dedicated VRAM vs. Shared (all or partial) RAM? 1 or 2 GB RAM, shared or not?

I'd love to get a sense of the minimum setup (not the minimum req to run SL) for good graphics performance and if the more powerful setups give meaningful improvements.

I'd love to know about the various experiences y'all have had with laptops in SL ... you're the experts ... let me know!

Thanks!

Since you have a desktop already, why not wait until Vista is generally available (early next year) before getting a new laptop? The reason I say that is there may be hardware improvements being released soon to support Vista, especially new GPU architectures for both desktops and laptops (to support DirectX 10.)

Anyway... Core 2 Duo over the Turion X2. Shared nothing, get dedicated RAM if possible. 1GB is fine but the more the merrier.

SL has issues with any multi-core CPU so be sure to check out the Technical forum if you haven't on how to set the processor affinity.

That said almost any mid-range laptop these days would run SL perfectly fine.

-peekay

My MacBook Pro runs SL great even over wireless. Simple, stable, and I can even get about 1.5 hours of play time on a single charge.

I'm always looking at the Mac but been a PC girl since the advent of MS and Intel ...

I've heard nothing but bad about Vista ... will probably wait until they shake it out a bit ... I listen to tech podcasts ...

I've got XP working for me and am reluctant to abandon it now. I wasn't an early adopter but after SP2 and all the updates it works OK.

Your comments, though, have given me food for thought!

Thanks again!

Hi Pazzo,

Like you I'm going to wait a long while before going to Vista. But the GPU improvements which are coming out (because Vista) would presumably help XP as well, so there's a benefit to wait for better hardware even if not upgrading the OS.

However I don't have any insight into when DirectX 10 GPUs will be available in laptops, and SL isn't GPU-bound anyway.

Except that many laptops come with an Intel Graphics card, which SL's requirements page says is not supported. I think you have to be sure to get one with an ATI or Nvidia card.

Realted question: The requirements/recommendations for SL says that it hasn't been tested on the ATI Radeon XPress cards and can't guarantee they will work. Is anyone here using one? If so, how is it with SL?

I wonder how current those requirements are?

SL plays perfectly fine on my Toshiba laptop which has an Intel GPU.

-peekay

I can say that my current laptop, whihc is a Sony Vaio with a Radeon graphics card, won't run SL at all.

I just went through the same exercise. I ended up buying a HP DV6000t custom built. I was able to get a corporate employee discount so I paid right around $1650. It has a nice 15.4" WXGA 1280x800 display, bluetooth, built-in webcam/mic and high speed wireless. I'm getting 60fps, have had no problems with the wireless and am very happy when I pop up Excel or IE in the background (2nd CPU is great for this). Here are a few of the specs:

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU T7200 @ 2.00GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 2046MB RAM
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400
Display Memory: 256.0 MB
100GB HDD Model: FUJITSU MHV2100BH PL
TSSTcorp CD/DVDW TS-L632D

I added a bluetooth mouse and haven't looked back. Runs better than my desktop.

Oh, and a free Vista upgrade to boot.

with nVidia 7600

lee

I have an ASUS laptop with 2.0 GHz CPU, 2 GB RAM, and an ATI Mobility Radeon 9700. It is a bit old by today's standards, but after installing Omega drivers it handles SL pretty well.
Although from everything I have read, if I were to get a new laptop I would go with a nVidia GPU.

Toshiba T2400 Dual Core notebook here with 2GB RAM and an ATI Radeon X1300 card. No problems.

Ummm, might want to put price tags with some of these recommendations. That Toshiba is probably $3000 or more.

The Dell MP1710 with GeForce Go 7900 will be very nice, but the price is going to punch you square in the gut, at $3500+ or so. Don't believe the ads with a starting price around $2000. That is usually without the 3D card, only 512 megs of memory, and a 40 gig hard drive.


Shared memory sucks, you do not want it for something like SL. A graphics card with at least 256 megs of dedicated video ram is a must, and 512 megs is better yet. Meanwhile SL wants at least a gig of system memory to be happy.

With a cheap laptop with 1 gig of shared system memory, the 3D card may well eat half that for video just starting up, and your experience will go way downhill from there.

I've got an Acer 5672:

2 gigs memory
ATI mobility radeon X1400
120 gig HD
Core Duo CPU at 1.6

Overall, it runs EVERYTHING nice.

Just make sure you can find a laptop with a high-end video card. Anything with intel video on it is a bad idea, go with Nvidia or ATI. And avoid ATI 6x00go cards: Too weak in most cases.

My Toshiba (15" wide screen) cost me less than $1700 back in July. I bought a similarly-configured Dell in July for about the same price. When I buy notebooks, I check all the brands I trust on a daily basis; they try their best to make comparisons difficult, and specials and deals and packages and configurations change weekly.

I've got a brand new notebook from HP on the way.

In hindsight, I should have just grabbed the 2 Ghz processor, but the 1.8 Ghz/1MB Dual core Turion should work just fine.

Here's the whole goodie list... (I'm pretty sure this will run SL)

- AMD Turion(TM) 64 X2 Dual-Core TL-56(1.8GHz/1MB)
- 17.0" WXGA+ BrightView Widescreen (1440x900)
- 256MB NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) Go 7600
- FREE Upgrade: HP Imprint Finish/Microphone/Webcam
- 2048MB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
- 80GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive

(Yes, I skimped on the hard drive, but that's because I have a 400GB WD mybook external drive that wasn't being used)


And that's the PC for travelling. At home, I've got a custom built tower from ibuypower that runs SL without any trouble at all. Put it together earlier this year. (Building PC's is almost as bad a habit as SL!)

Brewer

Your so right, I have a Toshiba Sattelite Pro A40, Celeron 2.60Ghz, 512 MB mem, 64 MB Intel extreme Videocard and it's not running smooth, video is so slow it's irritating in 5 minutes.

I hope in near future SL will also support somewhat older laptops or lower video cards since they are stick with the Nvidea and ATI cards will also have lots of ppl can't run SL
on there laptops.

My home system is running SL fine!