My reminder as to why I hate PC gaming (1 Viewer)

[stazi]

I recently got an awesome laptop. It's specs are:
Intel Centrino Cor Duo Processor 1.66ghz (equivelent of 3ghz)
2X512mb dual channel ddr2 ram (1gb)
Geforce Go 7300 Video Card (128mb on-board, 128mb shared = 256mb total)
XP Professional SP2

So, the other day, I thought that I'd get STALKER - chernobyl (or whatever it's called) as it looked like it was a good game with decent graphics. I installed it and it met all system requirements. When I got around running it, I could only do it on very average settings and it's performance would still be quite average.

This is on a laptop which is worth over $1.5k. Whilst STALKER is playable, it feels like I'm playing a game stuck in between the Xbox and Xbox 360 in terms of graphics. This compared to Gears of War and many other games which run amazing on the 360. Even the PS3 is much the same (and at $1000 it's still cheaper than the kind of PC you need to run similar games).

 

[sunny]

This is laptop gaming, not PC gaming.

 

[DeathB4Life]

turn on static lighting. dynamic lighting seems to pretty much kill everyones rig.

im running it with static lighting on high settings (not max), and getting +40fps with a:
+2700 Athlon
1GB DDR400
6600GT

edit: and gaming laptops generally are just a waste of money imo, you could get an equivalent desktop for around half price

edit2: and turn on your flashlight 24/7 while playing with static lighting, it makes the graphics look that much more bearable

 

[stazi]

edit: and gaming laptops generally are just a waste of money imo, you could get an equivalent desktop for around half price

I only need a laptop, as I mostly use my computer when i'm out and about around uni. I don't exactly want to fork out another $1000 for a desktop when I don't need one.

Still, even if I run it at 40 (or more) fps, the graphical quality isn't on par with PS3/360 games.

This is laptop gaming, not PC gaming.

PC can be laptops, after all a PC is simply a personal computer built around a microprocessor. A laptop is the same thing. I assume you mean desktops: there's not that much difference, apart from that desktops haver a higher ceiling for performance when upgraded.

 

[The_highwayman]

my laptop retailed for $3300 and it only just started to die after i installed the sims 2(plus 5 expansions), AOEIII and Sim CIty 4.

for me, the main problem is overheating which can be oversome more easily in a desktop.

 

[Josie]

I love my laptop. It does everything AWESOMELY except it needs more ram, which I'm getting soon.
It's 2 years old, and was $2200 when I bought it.

 

[runtlocks]

If you need a reminder as to why you hate PC gaming, get onto battle.net with Diablo 2

 

[stazi]

I love my laptop. It does everything AWESOMELY except it needs more ram, which I'm getting soon.
It's 2 years old, and was $2200 when I bought it.

What kind of ram does it use? I have a spare stick of DDR2 SODIMM

 

[S1M0]

I recently got an awesome laptop. It's specs are:
Intel Centrino Cor Duo Processor 1.66ghz (equivelent of 3ghz)
2X512mb dual channel ddr2 ram (1gb)
Geforce Go 7300 Video Card (128mb on-board, 128mb shared = 256mb total)
XP Professional SP2

So, the other day, I thought that I'd get STALKER - chernobyl (or whatever it's called) as it looked like it was a good game with decent graphics. I installed it and it met all system requirements. When I got around running it, I could only do it on very average settings and it's performance would still be quite average.

This is on a laptop which is worth over $1.5k. Whilst STALKER is playable, it feels like I'm playing a game stuck in between the Xbox and Xbox 360 in terms of graphics. This compared to Gears of War and many other games which run amazing on the 360. Even the PS3 is much the same (and at $1000 it's still cheaper than the kind of PC you need to run similar games).

You expected to play that game with the all the setting at max, with a laptop...

The specs are indeed good, in fact they're very good, but not good enough if you want to play Stalker with the settings at max at good performance. Your money would've been better spent buying a desktop pc, with a better graphics card. A DX10 card is the most desirable option, although its too expensive for 99% of us. A Go 7300 is not good enough for the level of performance that you expected from buying the laptop.

Your memory is also shared, which is bad, very bad. Thats a pretty significant bottleneck, and as Stalker, and all games in general, use both the Ram and the graphics memory, having shared memory is NOT good.

On the plus side, those specs are more than good enough to play TES: Oblivion, a very, very good game indeed. If you're into free, open RPG's that is.

 

[stazi]

You expected to play that game with the all the setting at max, with a laptop...

The specs are indeed good, in fact they're very good, but not good enough if you want to play Stalker with the settings at max at good performance. Your money would've been better spent buying a desktop pc, with a better graphics card. A DX10 card is the most desirable option, although its too expensive for 99% of us. A Go 7300 is not good enough for the level of performance that you expected from buying the laptop.

Your memory is also shared, which is bad, very bad. Thats a pretty significant bottleneck, and as Stalker, and all games in general, use both the Ram and the graphics memory, having shared memory is NOT good.

On the plus side, those specs are more than good enough to play TES: Oblivion, a very, very good game indeed. If you're into free, open RPG's that is.

Ok, I expected to at least 'almost' reach the 360s level. The graphics card features 1/2 shared 1/2 physical memory, which isn't too bad, especially considering I have 1 gigs ram.

I tried oblivion on my laptop, and was also disapointed, when I compared it to what it looks like on my 360. Don't get me wrong, it looks nice on my laptop, but it just looks AMAZING on the xbox.

 

[Josie]

What kind of ram does it use? I have a spare stick of DDR2 SODIMM

That's a good question, I need to have a look.

 

[Cyan_phoeniX]

The only computer in my house that comes close to running games is my laptop. I gave up PC gaming (or laptop gaming) ages ago though, because of a fairly average 3d card (Radeon IGP 345M) in an overwise fairly powerful laptop (for one thats 5 years old that is: Pentium 4 2.80Ghz 448mb of ram). I can only play the older games (half-life, unreal, UT, deus ex), even though it could easily run newer games if it werent for the 3d card. Its really pissy.

 

[sanjeevprasad99]

PC gaming = $$$$
if u want to play a new game, then u need a new comp.....TOP OF THE RANGE!
or......forget max settings
my comp speces:
3800+dual core (clocked)
6600 (clocked)
2 gig ram
.....and games lag, i got it 2 years ago (back then it was the newest thing out) it ran everything...and now....no where near
my comp is like, better than most ppls comps, but still it lags, games hav reached a new leval, they are more gfx intensive
1 year ago, this guy spent $10 000 AU, on a comp...and now, he plays flight simulator 10 on max settings with 20fps
he plays stalker with 35 fps(max)...tho he has a 30 inch screan-_-
his specs:
8800gtx sli
quad core extreme
2 gig ram
.......that comp is killa, its still expencive, and still lags
if u wanna game on computers.....NVA USE A LAPTOP!

 

[DeathB4Life]

PC gaming = $$$$
if u want to play a new game, then u need a new comp.....TOP OF THE RANGE!
or......forget max settings
my comp speces:
3800+dual core (clocked)
6600 (clocked)
2 gig ram
.....and games lag, i got it 2 years ago (back then it was the newest thing out) it ran everything...and now....no where near
my comp is like, better than most ppls comps, but still it lags, games hav reached a new leval, they are more gfx intensive
1 year ago, this guy spent $10 000 AU, on a comp...and now, he plays flight simulator 10 on max settings with 20fps
he plays stalker with 35 fps(max)...tho he has a 30 inch screan-_-
his specs:
8800gtx sli
quad core extreme
2 gig ram
.......that comp is killa, its still expencive, and still lags
if u wanna game on computers.....NVA USE A LAPTOP!

thats pretty cool considering the 8800 series is only 6 months old and even 6 months ago a rig like that would have cost ~$4k

and stalker is a very unoptimized and buggy game and not all that great graphically. as for flight simulator, it doesnt support SLI and its meant to be a laggy POS in the first place, its practically a benchmarking program. sure PC gaming may be expensive, but come up with better examples than the 2 most laggiest games on the market.

the 6600 vanilla may have been the newest thing out 2 years ago, as in, it was just released, but even then it was still a mid range card. could have gone for the 6600GT or 6800GT/Ultra which would have futureproofed your rig a little longer.

 

[Serius]

your problem is its a laptop. My pc costed about 3k when i got it, it plays pretty much everything on max and looks sweet.

Also you cant just compare pc gaming to console gaming like that. Every single godamn xbox360 is exactly the same when it comes to specs. This makes it incredibly easy to completely maximise the code, make the game look better and so on. PC programers aim towards the middle of the road option, stuff is coded so that the average pc can play it, and that those with a higher end system get alot more out of it.

Give it a year or so and pc games will start looking better than the xbox360, just like it did with the xbox.

oh, one thing i forgot. PC's are modular, consoles and laptops are not. Your desktop starts having trouble with the newer games? most likely its your gfx, buy a new one, pop it in and there ya go.

 

[stazi]

your problem is its a laptop. My pc costed about 3k when i got it, it plays pretty much everything on max and looks sweet.

Also you cant just compare pc gaming to console gaming like that. Every single godamn xbox360 is exactly the same when it comes to specs. This makes it incredibly easy to completely maximise the code, make the game look better and so on. PC programers aim towards the middle of the road option, stuff is coded so that the average pc can play it, and that those with a higher end system get alot more out of it.

Give it a year or so and pc games will start looking better than the xbox360, just like it did with the xbox.

yes, another year, and another grand put in to upgrade the computer with the newest graphics card.

 

[Serius]

the gfx card i got now would cost about $300, i bought it for $750, it stil runs everything on full. So basically if you are about a year behind on the eightball, all you need to spend is $300 or so every year to play all the latest games.

 

[sanjeevprasad99]

thats pretty cool considering the 8800 series is only 6 months old and even 6 months ago a rig like that would have cost ~$4k

and stalker is a very unoptimized and buggy game and not all that great graphically. as for flight simulator, it doesnt support SLI and its meant to be a laggy POS in the first place, its practically a benchmarking program. sure PC gaming may be expensive, but come up with better examples than the 2 most laggiest games on the market.

the 6600 vanilla may have been the newest thing out 2 years ago, as in, it was just released, but even then it was still a mid range card. could have gone for the 6600GT or 6800GT/Ultra which would have futureproofed your rig a little longer.

yeah, flight sim isnt sli....buh he plays stalked on 35 fps! o well
yeah, i coulda got a better card back then.....buh it didnt matter, coz evn tho it was a mid range card, it played everything 35fps+(back then)
imma build a new comp afta hsc, my comp now it "shit".....actuali, i dun wanna share it with my family-_- lol o well
i would jus get the 8800gtx b put it on this comp, buh.....i want a new comp lol, o well

 

[sunny]

PC can be laptops, after all a PC is simply a personal computer built around a microprocessor. A laptop is the same thing. I assume you mean desktops: there's not that much difference, apart from that desktops haver a higher ceiling for performance when upgraded.

Yes I meant a desktop. And you're right, laptops and desktops are both built around microprocessors, but not the same microprocessors. A laptop is designed to be compact and consume as little power as possible, not to maximise performance like you can with a desktop.

Like someone already mentioned having 1/2 shared memory is a bottleneck because its taken from main memory, which is off board away from the graphics card and hence takes longer to access. So having 1GB of RAM helps, but still is not as good as having X MB of dedicated memory to the graphics card. Some laptops just aren't meant to play games, no matter what the specs say.

yes, another year, and another grand put in to upgrade the computer with the newest graphics card.

Thats the way I do it now, but like Serius said its not that expensive. Before your old card is completely redundant, buy the next mid/high range card and sell your old one. I sold my 6600GT and bought a 7600GT a couple of weeks ago (8800 are out, 7600s cheaper), which costed about $70 after selling the 6600GT. $70 for a 7600GT isn't a bad deal at all.

 

[Cyan_phoeniX]

Hw hard is it to put a new 3d card into a laptop? And Are there limitations to what kind of 3d card a laptop can hold? I never thought about changing the card because I didn't think it was something that is generally done in laptops...