Purchasing Laptop, what will I need to wow?

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Rubilac

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Hi

I am looking to purchase a laptop, I know, Laptop... yeah right. But i'm getting it through work. What would I need, in the way of video cards to run wow 25man raids acceptably at around 30 FPS. I have around a R10k budget and would prefer a 17", but i will inevitably plug it into my monitor at home.

I've read a bit about the new Intel Integrated GMA 4500MHD, and would like to hear from any1 using it, if it runs WoW at an acceptable level. Also, if it will support me using my 22" monitor.

I know my way around normal video cards, PCIE etc. But have not the foggiest about laptop cards and GFX in that area.

Any help or advice will be appreciated.

Thanks in advance
 
Nononono. 10K won't cut it. That'll buy you something pretty entry level, with an integrated video card, and that just doesnt cut it. I have a pretty decent laptop with an Intel GMA and WoW is completely unplayable on it.

Something i googled..

http://www.bizwaremagic.com/best_gaming_notebooks.htm

Stick with an ATI or nVidia GPU, something with a decent amount of DEDICATED memory. Don't compromise on this. It'll bite you in the arse later if you do. TRy and get a decent dual core cpu as well, and if you intend to run Windows 7, you'll need more than 2gig ram. For your budget, something like this may be adequate.
 
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If you want a laptop to play games on, there are 2 routes you can go.

1. Mac (Very expensive, OK Performance)
These lappies usually have a decent NVidia GFX card in, and you can dual boot it between OSX and Windows. There is also a OSX Client for WoW so natively even this game will run great on these lappies. You need to pro version of the laptop though to have the good performance.

2. Alienware (Expensive, Great Performance)
These lappies nowadays come with the Integrated NVidia 240M or 260M graphics card. Starting price is at R12k from supplier in SA, so I bet around R15-20 from Shops.

I prefer option 2, as those are meant for gaming.
 
yeah.. g210M dedicated gfx, dual core, 4g ram, for 9g's. I'm wondering wheres the catch.
 
Rubilac said:
Hi

I am looking to purchase a laptop, I know, Laptop... yeah right. But i'm getting it through work. What would I need, in the way of video cards to run wow 25man raids acceptably at around 30 FPS. I have around a R10k budget and would prefer a 17", but i will inevitably plug it into my monitor at home.

I've read a bit about the new Intel Integrated GMA 4500MHD, and would like to hear from any1 using it, if it runs WoW at an acceptable level. Also, if it will support me using my 22" monitor.

I know my way around normal video cards, PCIE etc. But have not the foggiest about laptop cards and GFX in that area.

Any help or advice will be appreciated.

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

I have the Dell M1730x <---- runs on ultra at 60fps
I have a HP 8510p <----- runs on Mid to High at 45 -60fps
I have a HP Pavilion DV9000 <---- Runs on Low to Mid at 30Fps
 
Rubilac.

That laptop you were thinking of... the 10K one... will probably run VANILLA WOW (no expansions) pretty well.

Thing is, every expansion so far has added a whole lot of extra graphics and rendering work to make it look better.
Inline with that, as soon as you get to Burning Crusade, and Lich King thereafter, you will start taking heavy knocks to your performance.

Im currently sitting with a 16K Acer notebook, ATI Graphics card, 4GB memory, fastest HD i could find, etc.
25man raids, i need to drop my settings to LOWEST just to maintain a 30+ fps.

All in all, if 10K is all you got, i dont see 25man raiding in your future at all tbh.
Not pleasantly anyway.
 
wheunis speaks the truth. Simple fact is laptops are not for gaming and if you are buying one with that in mind you are simply wasting money.
 
Check out the Dell Vostro 1720 at Take 2.

Core 2 Duo P7570 (2.26ghz)
3Gb DDR 2
320Gb 7200RPM Hdd
Nvidia 9600 512Mb
R8858

As far as i know a 9600 will Run WOW.
 
Have you guys been living under a rock? He can get a nicer Acer with 4gb ram and a 512mb (or 1gb, i forget) nvidia for about R9k....
 
Link? And rather say what GFX it comes with. Graphics memory size especially on a laptop means squat.
 
I have a Acer Aspire 5738Z (Processor Speed: 2.1 GHz Processor Type: Intel Core Duo , NVIDIA® GeForce® G105M with up to 2303 MB of TurboCache™ (512 MB of dedicated DDR2 VRAM, up to 1791 MB of shared system memory*, supporting NVIDIA® CUDA™ PureVideo® HD technology, 3GB DDR3 RAM 1066 MHz.) and i play wow just fine. Maybe not max quality but i used to raid just fine with 40 man and new 25 mans as well as battleground no problems. I imported it from Dubai. Even with custums and shipping it cost me R6500
 
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Acer Aspire 5738G, Incredible Corruption for R8999

15.6" Widescreen
T6600 2.2GHZ Core2Duo
4GB RAM, 320GB HDD
ATI Mobility 4570 512MB dedicated, up to 2304MB Hypermemory.

I'm not too impressed with the graphics perfomance of this machine at all, having bought it as a secondary machine that I'd still like to play games on.
That said, if you turn detail levels down to a reasonable level - 1xAA, drop shadows and texture filtering to 1 for example) then it runs WoW quite happily, in addition to being a decent work machine too.
 
...don't say you weren't warned.

I am currently sitting on an Acer laptop:

Intel Core2Duo T7500 (2.2Ghz)
4GB DDR2
ATI Mobility Radeon HD2400XT with 512 dedicate, 512 shared


25man requires me to disable AA, lowest settings except for particle detail (spell level) is at middle coz i need to see whats going on (fire etc).

25man i run 25fps if im lucky at those settings.
 
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