Laptop to wait for Haswell?

Dannysaurus

My laptop gave out a while ago, and I'm now stuck with an old single core Centrino based laptop packing an Intel 915GMA IGPU/chipset (wonderful >.>) for about two months now and it's really getting to me.

I can barely play League of Legends or even something simpler like Maplestory. Though, for the former, it seems to work fine, as long as everything is turned low and I pick out my targets properly before the intense lag kicks in. So now my gaming is confined to those two. I'm not expecting spectacular graphics either. Skill > pixels.

I usually borrow le mother's laptop for school which packs a previous gen Sandy Bridge and the HD 3000, which seems to serve me pretty well, so instead of splurging on a laptop now, I could get something remotely decent until Haswell based laptops come out due to the rather large increase in processing power. That and perhaps next gen NVidia/ATi GPU's would be out.

The only problem now is that my ideal notebook costs a surplus of 1200E. I like to game a fair bit, but also I'm not home often as I'd usually be at a friend's, so it's never really in one place, nor is it plugged in for a very extended period of time, hence the need for a larger resolution that's not 720p, and also a good enough battery life (4.5 hours on average).
Which is why I've had my eye on the U2442N since March, and now that it's been out for a while, I'm contemplating on getting it. But with Haswell not too far off, maybe it's not a wise choice?

freestyla

U2442N is sweet machine, i would go for it now.

Haswell.. dunno but could expect them to be more expensive, and it was 10W TDP ? can you play games on such low power?

freestyla

Try this on that Centrino laptop if still want to wait for Haswell

http://www.gmabooster.com/home.htm

It does give few extra FPS in games really

Dannysaurus

Well, the performance improvement is somewhere in the 40% range over Ivy Bridge, so like... Yeah.

And eww, I don't want to use this any further than I have to! The six key doesn't work, so does a few others. some keys are even missing :L

freestyla

Dannysaurus wrote: »

I can barely play League of Legends or even something simpler like Maplestory... So now my gaming is confined to those two. I'm not expecting spectacular graphics either. Skill > pixels.

The only problem now is that my ideal notebook costs a surplus of 1200E....

resolution...

battery life...

Dannysaurus wrote: »

Well, the performance improvement is somewhere in the 40% range over Ivy Bridge, so like... Yeah.

IMO you don't need Haswell speed so wouldn't really bang my head about it.
3rd gen core i5 will give you more than enough speed + very good battery life especially if you got an ULV core i5.

U2442N is really perfect machine but mid-class GT 640M is a bit overkill for your purpose and under-performer in more demanding games @high settings.
Btw, is it €1000 ish with shipping and taxes at ebay? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Gigabyte-U2442N-CF1-Core-i5-3210M-8GB-DDR3-128GB-SSD-GT-640M-2GB-14-Ultrabook-/140873386083?pt=Laptops_Nov05&hash=item20ccb54863

league of legends system-requirements

See FPS here, how playable League of Legends is with Core i5-3570K (3.4GHz) 4GB RAM @high settings and full HD

I doubt this game can use more than 2 cores max (i5-3570K has four cores^^) but to be on the safe side you get more RAM of 2x4Gb

Dannysaurus wrote: »

And eww, I don't want to use this any further than I have to! The six key doesn't work, so does a few others. some keys are even missing :L

:rolleyes:

freestyla

HD4000 Game Benchmarks (scroll down)
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-4000.69168.0.html

this link more then good nite!

40FPS running on virtual Windows:

Model: MacBook Air 2012 (13inch)
CPU: 1,8 Ghz Intel Core i5 Ivy Bridge
RAM: 8GB
Graphics: Intel HD 4000

Running on internal display on native resolution (1440x900)

Gameplay recorded with Screenflow - consider that Screenflow affects the systems performance and result in a lower FPS count.

Dannysaurus

freestyla wrote: »

IMO you don't need Haswell speed so wouldn't really bang my head about it.
3rd gen core i5 will give you more than enough speed + very good battery life especially if you got an ULV core i5.

U2442N is really perfect machine but mid-class GT 640M is a bit overkill for your purpose and under-performer in more demanding games @high settings.
Btw, is it €1000 ish with shipping and taxes at ebay? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Gigabyte-U2442N-CF1-Core-i5-3210M-8GB-DDR3-128GB-SSD-GT-640M-2GB-14-Ultrabook-/140873386083?pt=Laptops_Nov05&hash=item20ccb54863

league of legends system-requirements

See FPS here, how playable League of Legends is with Core i5-3570K (3.4GHz) 4GB RAM @high settings and full HD

I doubt this game can use more than 2 cores max (i5-3570K has four cores^^) but to be on the safe side you get more RAM of 2x4Gb

:rolleyes:

Well, on 1366x768 (derp, the number 6 is always on clipboard so that I can just ctrl+v whenever needed), the HD 3000 is more than enough, as I've stated previously, so a HD 4000 is quite sufficient for the lower requirement games.

They're the only ones I've mentioned is because those are the things I'm able to play for the mean time. Though preferably I'd like to go back to the slightly more demanding ones like WoW, SC2 (Heart of the Swarm pre orders are out ) and perhaps give GW2 a go, therefore, the 640M might be sufficient enough, not necessarily at high settings, medium would do fine. But if there's something substantially better coming out within 6 months, I figured getting something temporary might do better.

I am warming up towards getting the U2442N though. I've been keeping tabs on it since CeBIT xD
Can anyone confirm if the 128GB model still retains the expandability of the 128GB+750GB version of it? I could just get the cheaper SSD only version and add my own larger hard drive at a later date. That and also if the 640m is a DDR3 or DDR5 version?

freestyla wrote: »

HD4000 Game Benchmarks (scroll down)
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-4000.69168.0.html

this link more then good nite!

40FPS running on virtual Windows:

Model: MacBook Air 2012 (13inch)
CPU: 1,8 Ghz Intel Core i5 Ivy Bridge
RAM: 8GB
Graphics: Intel HD 4000

Running on internal display on native resolution (1440x900)

Gameplay recorded with Screenflow - consider that Screenflow affects the systems performance and result in a lower FPS count.

Brilliant! It's expected since it pulls off a fluid 60fps with the HD3000 at 1366x768 res with most settings to high.
Side note; thanks for the GMA Booster link! The fps boost may not be too substantial, but every bit helps xD

freestyla

Dannysaurus wrote: »

..Though preferably I'd like to go back to the slightly more demanding ones like WoW, SC2 (Heart of the Swarm pre orders are out ) and perhaps give GW2 a go, therefore, the 640M might be sufficient enough, ..

I am warming up towards getting the U2442N though. I've been keeping tabs on it since CeBIT xD

Yep dedicated graphics then.

Dannysaurus wrote: »

and also if the 640m is a DDR3 or DDR5 version?

I would like to hear that too please?

Might sell my 15" Asus soon then could even go for smaller U2442N. It really ticks every requirement for my purpose too especially these things

2xUSB 3.0 and 2x USB 2.0
backlit keyboard
both a VGA and a HDMI
2 years global warranty
Nvidia GT 640M + Optimus technology

freestyla

Dannysaurus wrote: »

and also if the 640m is a DDR3 or DDR5 version?

Don't think GDDR5 is available for GT 640M.

"Nvidia GeForce GT 640M, a middle-class graphics card based on the Kepler architecture.

The technical specifications of the 28 nanometer GK107 chips have not changed: a total of 384 shaders and 32 TMUs run at 625 MHz. In addition, depending on the temperature, the Turbo can boost the clock frequency up to a maximum of 709 MHz. The graphic card uses slow DDR3-VRAM (2 GB, 900 MHz) via a 128 bit memory interface.

In comparison to the AMD competition, the GT 640M places just ahead of the Radeon HD 7730M, and lags behind the Nvidia Geforce GT 650M by around 30 percent.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Gigabyte-U2442N-Notebook.79020.0.html

They say "slow" DDR3 - ok it's slower than GDDR5 but at least in some other card comparison (GT650m?) between ddr3 and gddr5 there was no much difference.