Playing Computer games on a laptop question
 

OK, first off I have a laptop work computer with ATI graphics, 2.2 Duo CPU and 1.96 GB of ram in a HP laptop.

The quesiton I have will this be powerful enough to run computer games like Bioshock etc...

I will be spending a lot of time on the road in coming weeks and figured I would purchase some computer games to play to pass the time.

Sorry if this is the wrong form I was not sure if it belonged here or Tech talk.

Thanks,

Re: Playing Computer games on a laptop question
 

I haven't played the PC version of Bioshock, but I'd imagine you could run it on low settings. I know games like WoW, The Sims 3, and Spore can be run as well with an ATI card (assuming it's a 3200/4200).

Re: Playing Computer games on a laptop question
 

You need to be a little more specific. A 2.2 Core 2 Duo is plenty fast to handle numerous games, but only if the ATI graphics card is good. If it's an non-dedicated (integrated) graphics card, you can forget about most 3d games unless it's a really recent laptop.

Re: Playing Computer games on a laptop question
 

It says it is a ATI Mobility Radeon X2300

Re: Playing Computer games on a laptop question
 

I dunno about that one. At least it's not the intel one.

Re: Playing Computer games on a laptop question
 

According to Notebookcheck, which admittingly rounds down, you should be able to get Doom 3 running on Ultra at 29 FPS and FEAR running on Medium with no problem. Past that it's anyone's guess.

Install Steam on the laptop and download the BioShock demo, see if it works. Laptop Graphics Cards are a bit tricky.

Re: Playing Computer games on a laptop question
 

I'd also note that if it's a work laptop, odds are your IT department has locked it down so you can't install your own software.

Re: Playing Computer games on a laptop question
 

One more question, do you use the keyboard to play or would I need to purchase some type of controller for it?

Our IT dept. blocks certain websites but when I am not on the network I can do as I please. So I will have to check the Steam and demo later.

Re: Playing Computer games on a laptop question
 

I always use the keyboard. For example, typically to move it's either the arrow keys (which I prefer) or the more popular "w-a-s-d" scheme.

Re: Playing Computer games on a laptop question
 

I'd buy a mouse and use the keyboard for WASD

Re: Playing Computer games on a laptop question
 

Yeah, you'll definitely want a separate mouse to play. There's demos for most games out there, so that's the best way to test and see if the game works.

Re: Playing Computer games on a laptop question
 

Go here: http://cyri.systemrequirementslab.com/srtest/ and see what you can play. While it won't tell you how well you can run it, it will at least give you a good starting point as to if you should even bother with a given game.

Re: Playing Computer games on a laptop question
 

That video card is really weak, and won't play games well at all. I am more of a Geforce fan myself, but I believe that Radeon 2000 series is equal to the Geforce 8000 series.

The first number in the four digit sequence indicates the generation, and the second number indicates how powerful it is.

For example, for the Geforce cards there is the 7000 series, 8000 series, 9000 series (and then it wraps back around to the 200 series which is the most recent generation).

Inside each generation, there are essentially three different levels of power. If the second number is 5 or below, this means the video card is not meant for gaming. It just simply lacks pixel shaders and a lot of other technical terms that gaming requires. If the second number is a 6 or 7, this means the card is meant for casual gaming, and it will play most games on medium to high settings at a modest resolution. If the second number is an 8 or 9, this means the card is meant for hardcore gaming, and it will max out all the graphical options and play at 1080p or higher resolutions.

Your Radeon 2300 simply won't be sufficient for gaming because it lacks a lot of horsepower. You will be lucky to play at even low settings at a low resolution. The Xbox360 video card is quite a bit more powerful than your card. If I remember right, the Xbox360 card is roughly equal to a Geforce 7800. While that is one generation behind the Radeon 2000 series, the Geforce 7800 is a high-end card, and high-end cards from the last generation are much more powerful than the low-end cards from the next generation.

Re: Playing Computer games on a laptop question
 

On top of all the number they start throwing random letters in there too!

GT, GTX, GTXOC, CTXOCXTCO!

They should just toss a giant Crap, Decent, Good, Great and Awesome sticker on their boxes too.

Re: Playing Computer games on a laptop question
 

:lol:

The letters do make a difference, but it is nowhere near as significant as the numbers. A Geforce 9800 GTX is slightly more powerful than a 9800 GT, but we are generally only talking about a few frames per second here and there. Only a very hardcore person is going to truly care about that. The numbers make a much more significant difference. A 9200 is going to be able to play older games like Doom 3 and FEAR at medium settings at around 30 frames per second while a 9800 is going to be maxing the settings at over 60 frames per second. When you get into more modern games like Bioshock and Assassin's Creed, the difference will be even more staggering. The 9200 will be choking on even low settings while the 9800 will be playing very comfortably on all high settings.

Re: Playing Computer games on a laptop question
 

Thanks for this the demo seem to play just fine on the work laptop.

A game shopping I will go!

Re: Playing Computer games on a laptop question
 

Get's even worse when you look at a chart like this one and you see older cards that are more powerful than newer cards and start looking at fill rates and pixel pipelines.

I'm waiting for Nvidia and ATI to merge so I can by my HD45350EX GTOC 4TB Virtual Reality Engine Card that requires a 2000w power supply.

Re: Playing Computer games on a laptop question
 

This is the very reason I bought my 360 at launch vs a gaming PC. This bullshit about video card updates on the PC side of gaming is such a hassle. The graphics on my 360 look great. I don't need 8x AA, and 4 GB of video ram, blah blah blah just so I run the game at 16000 x 9000 resolutions to make my games fun.

Re: Playing Computer games on a laptop question
 

It's not really that bad though, in my opinion. Honestly, a bit of research and you can find the best bang for your buck card that will last you a decent amount of time. For instance, the system that I built 2 years ago with an 8800GT is still decent enough today.

Re: Playing Computer games on a laptop question
 

This is true. Most people are just clueless about PC gaming, and they just go by old cliches like "PC gaming is too expensive" because they don't know any better.

I just built a new PC for myself back in November. An Athlon II X2 3.0 Ghz, 4 GB RAM, and a Geforce 9800 GTX. Total cost was about $450 from newegg. Granted that buying a prebuilt PC does cost significantly more because of the middle man markups, but if you are willing to build it yourself it doesn't cost that much at all. Building it yourself isn't that difficult either. I just read a few online guides about how to build a PC, and basically taught myself everything.

My new PC is only $150 or so more expensive than the consoles, but it is easily three times more powerful, completely maxing out games that only run on low to medium settings on the 360. My PC isn't even top of the line either. It is only a dual-core instead of a quad-core. It also uses a last generation video card. Granted the newest cards are freaking expensive. The Geforce 290 is about $300 alone, but you don't really need a card like that when a last generation card is still maxing out all the games. (Except Crysis of course, but not even the newest cards can max out that beast of a game.)

Re: Playing Computer games on a laptop question
 

That's the other issue. Many PC game makers aim "high" because "people can always upgrade", so if you don't upgrade your machine over a couple years, you're now getting the low end of quality in your games. Whereas game programmers for consoles, since they are basically standardized hardware, learn to optimize their work for the standard requirements and produce *better* games for the same specs as time goes by.
Basic PC gaming might be as cheap if you build your own, but they sure don't make it easy unless you're a PC geek or follow the industry (which I don't) so you know what the hell 8700GTX means as compared to 7800GT, and if it's worth 75$ more (just making up numbers.)

I will say that I think PC gaming is more expensive for the same amount of work. For my 360, the only decision was which size hard drive to get. I personally also prefer gaming on a console, with a game controller.

Re: Playing Computer games on a laptop question
 

So much wrong with this post.

Most PC developers don't "aim" that high. This is yet another common misconception that non-PC gamers tend to have. These developers are the exception to the norm. Crysis is the only game that comes to mind that can't be maxed out easily. Most of the main companies, like Blizzard for instance, make their games easy to handle. Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 won't have insanely high system requirements.

The Geforce 9000 series came out at the beginning of 2008. It is 2 years old, but yet the 9800 GT can still max out any game except for Crysis. The 8000 series came out in 2006. While the 8800 GT can't max out games at 1080p, it can max out most games at 720p. The 8800 GT is going on 4 years old, and it is more powerful than the card in the current consoles which are about equivalent to a 7800 GT. So a 4 year old card is still more powerful than consoles. So thinking that you need to constantly upgrade your PC is yet another misconception by non-PC gamers.

You also don't need to follow the PC industry that closely to keep up with it. I certainly don't follow it as closely as a lot of the more hardcore people. I usually stay a generation behind because that is most cost-effective. The newest cards, like the Geforce 200 series, are way too expensive costing several hundred dollars for the card alone and I honestly don't see a point in spending that much money when the last generation cards are still more than sufficient for any game but Crysis. So I do follow the current industry but I am certainly not hardcore about it.

It isn't as difficult as you think building your own PC. I just read a couple online guides and built my first PC in about 3-4 hours. First time is always hardest of course, and now I can build one in half the time.

The preference of gaming with a controller I will give you, but most games on PC can be played with controllers too if you so desire. If I remember right, the 360 controller is compatible with PCs and most current games can be played with it. However, a controller will never match the precision of a mouse. You simply cannot line up headshots in a FPS or control an army in an RTS as easily with an analog stick as you can with a mouse.

Re: Playing Computer games on a laptop question
 

I dunno, I own a GTX260 216 (got it new for $150 in early '09) and can play Crysis in High without issue :shrug:

And while I wouldn't recommend playing an FPS with a gamepad online, in single player there usually isn't an issue and it is a bit more relaxing.

Edit: Oh wow, those cards actually held their value :lol:

Re: Playing Computer games on a laptop question
 

My current PC only has an AGP bus so I bought the fastest AGP card I could get. My processor is a 3.2 single core intel. Last time I checked I was getting just over 30 fps with all settings maxed out on Doom 3. Since most of my gaming has been spent on the consoles like the 360 and PS3 I haven't bothered to upgrade this computer. However, as Diablo 3 release slowly approaches I do plan to upgrade then. Hopefully I won't have to wait much longer after Starcraft 2 comes out. I did buy a few games for my PC during the Steam sale over Chirstmas but most of those were not graphics heavy games and they run fine.

Re: Playing Computer games on a laptop question
 

As much maligned as the Wii is by just about everyone, pinpoint precision in the few PROPERLY done FPS's on the Wii rivals that of the PC's mouse/keyboard combo.

As far as video card confusion, you have to remember, most of the people we encounter online in forums think like you do since forums draw specific demographics. I've been shopping for video cards and seen the bemused looks on peoples faces as they try and figure out what exactly they are looking at. I keep up with PC tech and I build my own PC's and choosing a video card is by far the part I dread most.

Re: Playing Computer games on a laptop question
 

You got a 260 for $150 a year ago? Wow. You got a great deal. I just looked at the current prices on newegg, and they are about $200. The 280s are about $300. The prices will plummet this spring however when the 300 series comes out.

What resolution do you play Crysis? High resolutions and AA/AF are actually much more taxing on a video card than higher textures and graphics. I doubt a 260 could play Crysis at 1080p or better with full AA/AF and still stay above 30 fps.

I prefer mouse/keyboard any day, not just because of the extra precision but also because of hot keys on the keyboard. With a controller, you have to hold down a button and fumble through a bunch of menus. With a keyboard you can just press 1 for pistol, 2 for shotgun, 3 for rifle, etc. I watched a buddy of mine play Dragon Age on his PS3. It amused me that he had to constantly fumble through menus just to use different spells and skills.



Doom 3 is 6 years old, so yeah it is easy to max out. The original Xbox had a Geforce 3 card, and it could handle Doom 3 on low settings.



The Wiimote basically is a mouse though, so that isn't really a fair comparison to compare it to a traditional controller with analog thumbsticks.

Choosing a video card isn't that difficult in my opinion. You just have to remember what the numbers mean. The first digit is the generation and the second digit is the power. If the second digit is below a 6, it is not suitable for gaming. If the second digit is a 6 or 7, it is decent for casual gaming at modest resolutions. If the second digit is an 8 or 9, it is meant for hardcore gaming. That is basically all you need to know, and it has suited me well. The most difficult choice for me is choosing between a Geforce or Radeon card since they tend to leap-frog each other with one generation favoring one and the next generation favoring the other.

But yeah, I notice that some forums favor different platforms. This forum is very heavily on the console side. PC doesn't even have its own official thread here like each of the consoles have. I guess because there would probably only be three or four people posting in the official PC thread.

Re: Playing Computer games on a laptop question
 

Yeah it's almost like the 260 216 went up in price. Strange. I have played it fine in 1920x1080 but have only done so once (when it was hooked up to a 1080p TV) don't think AA was maxed out though (believe it was set to 2x) and this was just regular Crysis, not Warhead. The fact my last card had problems with FEAR and this one runs it at 177 fps makes me chuckle.

I still have a 1280x1024, 19" LCD monitor (been meaning to upgrade .. but you know... why do 24" 1920x1200 IPS panels still cost so damn much :( ($315 for a 23" 1080p IPS being the closest I've seen to reasonable) and only 720p TV/Projectors... so I don't have much to worry about in terms of gaming (I can max out almost everything without issue) on it for now.

And I understand a lot of people prefer KB+M for everything, but since I started working 40+ hours a week in front of a computer, I decided the less time "off" spent in front of a kb+m the better. Sitting on a comfy couch or bed with a controller usually suites me better. But again, I still prefer kb+m for competitive gaming.

Re: Playing Computer games on a laptop question
 

This and the fact that the life cycle of any given card so short (not how long it is useful, but the time from when a card is introduced to when it's successor comes out).

As much as I bitch about it though, I will go through it again. Heck, I'm getting ready to build a PC to put in my garage so it's off to compare specs on general purpose cards! That segment seems to be the most crowded. :mad:

Re: Playing Computer games on a laptop question
 

I actually see that as a positive. When the new cards come out, the old cards plummet way down in price. Most of the time, the new cards aren't going to really provide a cost-effective benefit making it worth the upgrade. The Geforce 9800 GT can max out any game but Crysis easily, and this will most likely hold true until the next-gen consoles come out in a couple years. The 9800 GT can be bought for $100 or less now, and it is much more powerful than either the Xbox 360 or PS3. I honestly don't see a point in spending three times as much money on the newer 280 card for only a minimal extra benefit (being that it can handle just one game better than the 9800... Crysis). The 300 series cards come out this spring, and that is going to be even more pointless of an upgrade. It will make the price of the 200 series plummet though.

My 9800 GT will last for at least a couple more years. When the Xbox 720 and PS4 come out, it will be time to upgrade but by then the 300 series will be coming down in price. I imagine it will still be slightly ahead of the next-gen consoles since the consoles will most likely be based around 200 series tech in order to keep costs down.


I play on my PC from a couch. I have it set up on a TV dinner folding table/tray. :lol: