Laptop with fairly a good graphics card

L31mr0d

Looking to get a 15" or lower laptop (not a netbook, I need the optical drive)

I'd need it to be able to play 1080p video and run some games at low settings (Street Fighter IV... etc)

I really don't know what I'm supposed to be looking for in regards to laptops with decent graphics cards. Do they make them with DX10 capable laptops yet?

Battery life isn't really an issue as this will most likely be used as a desktop replacement for a while.

Budget... well I don't really want to break €700 if possible.

Any advice on models I should start reading reviews on would be a real help.

Voodu Child

DX10 has been around for ages, I wouldn't worry about that.

Actually, ATI are just about to launch DX11 mobile cards (5000-series) and i've seen a few reviews already. http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-5650-Graphics-Card-Review.24035.0.html.

That's the kind of card id be hoping for in the €700 budget.
One model ive seen already is the Acer 5740G with ATI 5650. It'll launch this month or next. Check google and you'll see it in a few UK stores for around £600, and you can also see it on Elara through google cache.

L31mr0d

Voodu Child wrote: »

It'll launch this month or next.

hmm... well I could hold off for a month or two. Is there any definite release date on that?

Also, what laptops currently are capable of running games in DX10?

Voodu Child

CES is Jan 7th so you'll know pretty soon when they're shipping. But the aforementioned Acer 5740G already has order pages on many websites so its bound to be Jan/Feb.

Personally I think you'd be mad to buy anything without at least waiting the few days to see what launches at CES. The launch of the i5 and i3 processors mean that basically every manufacturer is going to update its Core2Duo laptops over the very near future.

DX10 has been in mobile cards since the Nvidia 8-series. Check the list down the side on notebookcheck here. It'll tell you what cards are dx10 and what arent. On a €700 budget, I would want something as high up their 'class 2' category as possible.

L31mr0d

Sorry for the bump.

Now that CES is well over has there been any word on when we can imagine the new range of laptops to start filtering into the etailers?

That new 11" Alienware looked interesting :pac:

Voodu Child

Well, looking at the Acer 5740G (the 'G' being the model with HD5650 afaik), Dabs say 1-2 weeks, Play.com say 20th Feb, Lambdatek say 8th Feb, LaptopsDirect say 'End of Jan'....they all seem to be priced in or around the £600 range, so within your €700 budget i'd say.

Basically some time in the next month.

Nvidia didn't really unveil anything mobile at CES, so if you're looking at any Nvidia-based machines i'd just go ahead and buy, nothing much interesting coming out any time soon. But those ATI 5000 series should be great cards, and they are 40nm so they are pretty light on power too.

Crucifix

If you find anything that suits you please post it up!

I'm in a similar boat, looking for a 15-16 inch or lower notebook that will be able to handle modern games ok for ~800 euro

edit: here's one I was looking at as an example: Link
I don't really know much about video cards, though I noticed the card is "class 2" in the link Voodu Child posted

Voodu Child

Crucifix wrote: »

If you find anything that suits you please post it up!

I'm in a similar boat, looking for a 15-16 inch or lower notebook that will be able to handle modern games ok for ~800 euro

edit: here's one I was looking at as an example: Link
I don't really know much about video cards, though I noticed the card is "class 2" in the link Voodu Child posted

The GT130M is okay, its mid-range, but for that price (€860) you will do a little better. If I recall, there is actually some more recent Acer model with GT240M for that kind of price. Use GT240M in a search and you might find it.

Crucifix

Voodu Child wrote: »

The GT130M is okay, its mid-range, but for that price (€860) you will do a little better. If I recall, there is actually some more recent Acer model with GT240M for that kind of price. Use GT240M in a search and you might find it.

This looks like it here. I'll see if I can find it being sold somewhere good.

Cheers!

Voodu Child

Crucifix wrote: »

This looks like it here. I'll see if I can find it being sold somewhere good.

Cheers!

No, thats even higher-end, and to be honest that would be well above your €800 budget. And its also 18.4" whereas you said you wanted 15-16" :pac:

Crucifix

Voodu Child wrote: »

No, thats even higher-end, and to be honest that would be well above your €800 budget. And its also 18.4" whereas you said you wanted 15-16" :pac:

Ha, whoops! I think this is the one in question then! With a very attractive price! Cheers

L31mr0d

Voodu Child wrote: »

Well, looking at the Acer 5740G (the 'G' being the model with HD5650 afaik)

From the main page for this laptop on dabs.ie it seems to say it has the HD 5470

Do you know which model will have the HD 5650?

Also, in regards to screens. I might pay a bit extra to get a laptop with a decent panel that has better viewing angles. Which laptop manufacturers are known for not using cheap TN panels.

Voodu Child

L31mr0d wrote: »

Do you know which model will have the HD 5650?

Also, in regards to screens. I might pay a bit extra to get a laptop with a decent panel that has better viewing angles. Which laptop manufacturers are known for not using cheap TN panels.

Two Acer 5740G models I can see with HD5650 are:
- LX.PMB02.001 (i3-330M)
- LX.PMB02.093 (i5-430M)

Looking at google.co.uk shopping, I can see the first one for about £599 in a few shops. Havent checked the shipping or done the currency conversion yet. LX.PMB02.001 is also showing up in elara for €735. i3-330M is decent enough, its not high-end but is certainly a fair replacement for the lower end Core2Duo processors from the last gen.

Regards the screens, its probably best to try and find a review of the model, or try to find someone who has already bought it. Heres a notebookcheck.net review of the 5940G, and it touches on the display quality Link. Now its a different model, but its 15.6" and id imagine they might be using a similar panel in the 5740G.

L31mr0d

Outside of the bloated pricing on Alienware laptops, do you know where I'd find a laptop with the GT 260M (or better)? dabs and komplett don't offer it.

Is there anywhere that stocks laptops with some of the newer graphics cards?

Voodu Child

Are we still talking €700 and 15" ? Because its going to be very hard to find a laptop that fits those criteria and has a high-end GPU.

The only way you'll do that is with 2nd hand or refurb. For example, you can get a refurbished Asus G51VX (or similar models) with GTX260M from ebay in America. I know someone who brought one in for like €700 all-in. But being a refurb, you've only got a 3 month warranty so if something goes wrong you're out of luck.

Of course, if you're not on a €700 budget anymore, there's quite a few options. Whats the current budget, and are you still after a 15" model?

L31mr0d

Voodu Child wrote: »

Of course, if you're not on a €700 budget anymore, there's quite a few options. Whats the current budget, and are you still after a 15" model?

Well the laptops I looked at with GT 280M cards are just out of my price range. So I was looking to see what my options where for laptops with GT 260M cards. I can't seem to find them anywhere.

I'd still want a 15" laptop.

Voodu Child

Right, heres about all the 15" gaming laptops I can think of, with GTX260M or similar performance:

Asus make quite a few 15-16" laptops with GTX260M. They're all still mighty expensive though. G60J, G60VX, G51VX, etc. To buy them in Europe, you're talking €1350+

Clevo make a 15" laptop with GTX260M, GTX280M or GTX285M (basically an o/c GTX280M). Again, very expensive, Kobaltcomputers.co.uk have the GTX285M model starting at £1299.

MSI have the GT628 with GTS160M for €1050 on komplett. The GTS160M is not at GTX260M levels, but its still high-end as far as laptops go. Its a 256-bit card, G94b based with 64 shaders, 9500 3DMark. Its actually an 'old' model, the newer one (GT640) has the GTS250M which is a step backwards in performance. Next model is the soon-to-be released GX640, again 15" but with the ATI 5850.

HP have the 15" Envy-15 with ATI 4830 (new one coming with 5830). Not at the GTX260M level, but about par with the GTS160M above (5830 will be faster obviously). £1200 ish

Thats about all I can think of in the 15" range.

L31mr0d

It's just an odd difference in costs. I can get a laptop with a GT240M for €600. But to get one with the next step up in only the graphics card and I'd be looking at paying double the price. I don't get how the price scales.

Voodu Child

Its just one of those things.

GT240M is a 23 watt card, GTX260M is 75 watt. You can't just plonk the high-end card into an existing chassis, you've got to design it from the ground up. Cooling, power supply, stability, making sure all the surrounding components are okay.

So you're doing all that design work specifically for the gaming laptop, but unlike an Inspiron or something, its not going to sell in high numbers and spread the cost. And then you've got warranty returns, which are MUCH higher for a gaming laptop than an Inspiron. Both because of the temps that the components reach, and also because gamers run their machines much harder. So they have to factor in all those warranty returns in the cost.

In fairness, in the US they do have some budget gaming laptops. Just never really seemed to happen over here.

L31mr0d

Thanks for the info, I didn't know there was such a power difference between the 260 and 240. I think I've resolved to just get the notebook that has a GT 240M card. I want nVidia for the CoreAVC CUDA and physx support.

I managed to find a laptop with a decent C2D CPU, 4GB's of RAM and a GT 240M for €588 so I'm going to get it. It may be power hungry but I really just need a mobile desktop replacement for a few months until I can get a desktop PC again.

RuggieBear

L31mr0d wrote: »

I managed to find a laptop with a decent C2D CPU, 4GB's of RAM and a GT 240M for €588 so I'm going to get it. It may be power hungry but I really just need a mobile desktop replacement for a few months until I can get a desktop PC again.

i'd be looking for something similar. have you a link?:)

Crucifix

Here's another nice looking one I found:
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=519695

I don't know much about MSI, but the specs look decent

L31mr0d

RuggieBear wrote: »

i'd be looking for something similar. have you a link?:)

Sorry only seeing this now.

I got a refurb from dabs.ie, the Fujitsu Pi 3560. It didn't come with any OS which is why I got it so cheap.

There was only one of them in stock. Keep an eye on dabs.ie though to see if any more come in.

L31mr0d

I did a video review of the Fujitsu Pi 3560 I bought. Have to say I wasn't expecting it to be as powerful as it is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wvtboWAgCY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ-ORxoh8z8

Voodu Child

Nice review, thanks for the update. The GT240M is definitely very good as far as mid-range laptop GPUs go, and I think for the money you got brilliant value.

Also, just to update the list of laptops with decent mid-range GPUs, the Dell Studio 17 now has the ATI 5730 as an option. Thats a very good card, could almost be lumped in the high-end category.

Its a bit expensive right now at €840, but thats because its a new model without any discounts. Keep an eye on that model and im sure you'll see €100 or €200 off the odd time. That would make it excellent value for someone looking for a laptop with good GPU.

Crucifix

Sorry to bump again, but is a 2ghz processor enough for gaming? The laptop I'm looking at has an Intel Core 2 Duo P7350

Voodu Child

Crucifix wrote: »

Sorry to bump again, but is a 2ghz processor enough for gaming? The laptop I'm looking at has an Intel Core 2 Duo P7350

Normally in a mid-range laptop the graphics card would be the bottleneck (or limiting factor) when it comes to gaming. So any half-decent processor would be fine, and P7350 fits that bill.

cyberwolfkorn

Advent 7555, opinions guy's. This is a refurb and was available for 500stg a few weeks back. Hopefully the price will go down again but it has gone back up for now. Awesome specs though.

Voodu Child

cyberwolfkorn wrote: »

Advent 7555, opinions guy's. This is a refurb and was available for 500stg a few weeks back. Hopefully the price will go down again but it has gone back up for now. Awesome specs though.

Link?

For £500 i'd go for it. The 7555GX is based on a MSI GT725 (or a similar model). Its a very decent laptop...... Advent have lowered the specs in some areas (screen, optical drive, etc) but if its got the HD4850 then it'll tear though most games. Still one of the highest performing mobile GPUs on the market.

cyberwolfkorn

It's on the currys or dixons websites. As i said price is gone up again to £799. But it dropped too £499 a few weeks back and the few available were snapped up quickly, hoping it goes down again.

enfant terrible

Voodu Child wrote: »

Nice review, thanks for the update. The GT240M is definitely very good as far as mid-range laptop GPUs go, and I think for the money you got brilliant value.

Also, just to update the list of laptops with decent mid-range GPUs, the Dell Studio 17 now has the ATI 5730 as an option. Thats a very good card, could almost be lumped in the high-end category.

Its a bit expensive right now at €840, but thats because its a new model without any discounts. Keep an eye on that model and im sure you'll see €100 or €200 off the odd time. That would make it excellent value for someone looking for a laptop with good GPU.

Hi Voodu Child,

Where did you see the ATI 5730, I can't find it on the Dell site?

Voodu Child

enfant terrible wrote: »

Hi Voodu Child,

Where did you see the ATI 5730, I can't find it on the Dell site?

It was there on the Dell Ireland site at the time that I posted.

It seems to be replaced with the 5650 right now. I don't know if that means that the 5730 was a mistake, or if its just a case that they've just run out of their first batch of 5730s. I suppose you could contact Dell to see if it's coming back if you were really pushed.

The cards are quite similar as far as I know, the 5730 is just clocked higher.

enfant terrible

Voodu Child wrote: »

It was there on the Dell Ireland site at the time that I posted.

It seems to be replaced with the 5650 right now. I don't know if that means that the 5730 was a mistake, or if its just a case that they've just run out of their first batch of 5730s. I suppose you could contact Dell to see if it's coming back if you were really pushed.

The cards are quite similar as far as I know, the 5730 is just clocked higher.

Cheers Voodu,

Ya your right thought it had GDDR5.
Was the 5730 system dearer?

Does dell carry the HD 4850?

Voodu Child

enfant terrible wrote: »

Cheers Voodu,

Ya your right thought it had GDDR5.
Was the 5730 system dearer?

Does dell carry the HD 4850?

I can't remember the upgrade costs, here is a google cache of the €840 model I posted about at the time: Link. Its the third model in. You can compare prices with the current HD5650 model yourself if you want.

No ordinary Dell laptop has the HD4850. They just don't put high-end GPUs in their 'regular' laptop range (Inspiron, Studio XPS, etc). The best you'll see for the forseeable future is the 5650 and I guess the 5730 if it wasnt a typo.

Obviosuly their Alienware line-up has high-end cards but they are awful expensive.

enfant terrible

Voodu Child wrote: »

I can't remember the upgrade costs, here is a google cache of the €840 model I posted about at the time: Link. Its the third model in. You can compare prices with the current HD5650 model yourself if you want.

No ordinary Dell laptop has the HD4850. They just don't put high-end GPUs in their 'regular' laptop range (Inspiron, Studio XPS, etc). The best you'll see for the forseeable future is the 5650 and I guess the 5730 if it wasnt a typo.

Obviosuly their Alienware line-up has high-end cards but they are awful expensive.

How much of a difference is there between 5650 and 5730 anyway.

Was trying to figure out what these guys were saying but they lost me

"And this way we made sense of HD5730. This card would be worthless if 5650 could have been 650/800.
There would be no difference between best of 5650s and 5730. Seems we already found two mistakes- core clocks for 5650 probably should be 450-550. Wonder if anyone else noticed"

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=456895&page=5

cyberwolfkorn

I think they are just saying there is very little difference between the 2 cards. And that the specs are not what they are said to be in the 5730.
It is only slightly better than the 5650.

Voodu Child

The cards seem to be mostly identical. The 5730 just has a higher core clock. The 5730 is 650/800, and the 5650 looks like its going to be clocked 550/800 in most laptops (going by the reviews ive seen).

Otherwise they seem to be the same...same architecture, number of stream processors, bandwidth etc. Likely they just take the ones that are stable at slightly higher core clocks and call them 5730.

So the difference is nothing massive. Ive seen benches of the 5650 and its a very solid card. Upper-mid range.

Lenny

Sorry to bump this thread..
so did anyone go for the acer 5740g in the end? the one with the i5 processor?
thrown between this one and the hp dv7-3112