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Who uses a gaming laptop? Redux

taltamir

taltamir

Lifer
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2306838&enterthread=y
I made a poll asking who uses a gaming laptop... it occurred to me that the fact I posted it in the laptop forum might have skewed the results, as such I am reasking the question, this time in the video cards and graphics forum.

Mods: please don't merge the two threads, so that the result difference (if any) between them can be noted.

The post:
http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=3569

In this recent review Jarred states:
For better or for worse, most of the notebook manufacturers seem to be most interested in sending us their top-end gaming laptops for review. We hope to have a roundup of several "normal" laptops in the near future -- you know, laptops that weigh less than five pounds and hopefully get over three hours of battery life.
Click to expand...

I think he is absolutely right, most my friends are gamers, some PC gamers, some console gamers, some both.. but none that I know of play games on laptops... expensive, hot, short battery life, small monitor, uncomfortable keyboard and mouse... laptops are just not very good gaming platforms in my opinion...

So, do people actually want gaming laptops or are computer companies developing for an imaginary client base? like the mythical "hardcore gamer" targeted by reviewers and game makers, who hates plot, thinks a game's quality is measured by its graphics, and owns an overclocked 1000$ CPU and a triple or quad video cards... on windows XP... with 2GB of "gamer" ram.
 
Your poll is kind of awkwardly worded...

- Do I use a gaming laptop?
No. By "gaming laptop", I normally think of something along the lines of an Acer Ferrari, ASUS G1, Dell XPS / Alienware laptop, etc. I don't think I'd ever consider shelling out money for a laptop marketed as a "gaming laptop" for the reasons you already mentioned (heavy, hot, expensive - yet inferior gaming experience). If I were still in college with space at a premium and I were really well off, I might consider it. Otherwise, I'm not sure what the market for that would be.

- Do I play games on a laptop?
Yes? Maybe? I'm sure I've played some flash games or older 2D games on a laptop before.
 
I think the question should have been "do you game on your laptop?".

There are plenty of very good retro games that will run well on intel integrated graphics, believe it or not. Gaming is not all about the graphics.
 
If I had the money, I might go for a desktop replacement system... it would be really convenient, since I could go over to a friend's house and play games. I do have a friend who owns a giant "gaming laptop" for precisely that reason. But he's done with college and, you know, actually has a job and an income. I do see a niche market for desktop replacement systems, but to be honest, I think it is fairly small - most people who have an interest in such a thing are simply too young to be able to afford it, and by the time you can afford it, you are most likely not an avid gamer anymore.
 
Have a friend who upped from an ASUS G1 to a W90. Sweet laptop but there is no way that I would spend that amount of money.
 
I have a laptop that I bought specifically for gaming. An Asus G50VT-X5. It plays The Orange Box, plus Bioshock, Fear2 etc. wonderfully. I play CoD 4 and CoDWAW on it also. Most in-game settings are maxed, the worst I've seen is CoDWAW dip into the 50's on the fps at times.
I got it mainly for sitting on the deck/couch web browsing, and for travel which I do frequently enough for work. Nice to be able to fire up Teamspeak and play with my buddies when I'm away in a hotel room somewhere.
It does require that I bring my headset and my MX-518 along with me, no big deal. Battery life isn't an issue for how I use it, or how large the unit itself is. The size is a compromise, I wanted a 17" screen, but the weight of most of those units goes up along with the price.
It does overclock, and the gpu (9800M) is adequate for now.
I may even replace my spare gamer with it, no use in having three computers, that's just crazy!
 
Originally posted by: SickBeast
I think the question should have been "do you game on your laptop?".

There are plenty of very good retro games that will run well on intel integrated graphics, believe it or not. Gaming is not all about the graphics.
Click to expand...

yea, it probably should have been. sorry.

but interestingly enough, we got 80% who play only on console PC here in graphics forum, while only 30% in the laptop forum. (with 15% playing only on laptop and not on desktop/console)
 
don't game on my laptop and never will because
1. GMA isn't made for 3d gaming.
2. dont want to break the keyboard since i press keys hard when i play FPS games
3. 12in 1280x800 screen is too small and weak for gaming
4. only have 1 gaming mouse for PC.

other stuff may influence gaming on laptops, but not a factor for me since i dont game (lol):
-overheating w/ powerful gpu's
-screen response time too slow
 
Yes.

When I moved into the dorms last fall I bought a XPS m1530 (4th of july deal, $600 off)

From memory...
t8300 (2.4gHz C2D, maybe a different model)
4gb ddr2-800
8600m GT
250gb 5400rpm HD
slot load DVD
1920x1200 LCD
integrated bluetooth

With vista home premium, 3 yrs mcafee and a bunch of goodies for about $1400. It served me very well and I am glad I bought it. I wasn't about to take my desktop to the dorms, and I wanted something for WoW, COD4/5, and HL:2, which it handles fine at max res with medium settings. I use it now for autocad when I'm in the field


It's quite small and light for a gaming laptop, and while the 8600 isn't exactly top dog it handles well enough, even at the 1920x1200 res. It does get hot though, and battery life is pretty bad. Luckily I neither use it on my lap nor off of AC power very often, so both of those are minor
 
Got an Acer Aspire One.

The Intel onboard video is so slow I can't even start to describe it.
I'm pretty sure my old Radeon 7500 was a bit faster.
All I play in it is Deus Ex and Duke Nukem 3D.
I'd be surprised if it could even run the Windows Vista Chess in 3D!
 
I game on a Gateway P-6860 FX. Frequent business trips where I have evenings all to myself have made it a great purchase. I think there is definetely a market for gaming laptops just not a very big one.
 
Originally posted by: nitromullet
...perhaps you should post this in the PC Gaming forum instead of either Video or Laptop.
Click to expand...

there is a PC gaming forum?

Also I bet the PC gaming forum will be skewed towards PCs... in the laptor forum almost 70% said they game on their laptop, in the general video and graphics forum 70% said they don't.
 
I have two notebooks currently. The 1st is a Dell Vostro C2Duo and an 8600M. I kind of inherited it from my in-laws. I could probably play games on it, but have zero urge to do so. Unless you are a travelling businessman besides being a gamer, I see no yearning, IMHO, to play games on a lappy.
Just to reinforce this sentiment. I just bought myself the Dell Inspiron 1545. 2GHz C2Duo, Intel HD4500 graphics. I have no idea how good or piss poor it is at gaming, but there is little chance of me finding out. I bought this for music production. Sonar & Pro Tools mainly.
 
Gaming Laptop is a contradiction in terms if you ask me.
I think there are two major reasons why I have never considered gaming on a laptop:
1) Gaming on a laptop is pretty awkward. You'll want a proper desktop keyboard, mouse and monitor for a good gaming experience. At that point, you might aswell use a desktop PC aswell.
2) Even the very fastest of laptops are still way slower than high-end desktops. Especially the videocards are letting them down... nVidia may call their mobile GPU a 9800M, but don't be fooled. It's not as fast as a desktop 9800... Let alone that you'll get performance in the regions of GTX285 videocards. Another thing that REALLY annoys me is how incredibly slow laptop harddisks always are. They bog down the whole system, takes ages to boot them up, ages to load a game etc. I'll just stick to a nice raid0 system with two fast 3.5" terabyte disks in my desktop, which costs peanuts these days.

A decent gaming laptop is also always WAY more expensive than a desktop delivering the same level of performance, so from a bang-for-the-buck perspective, I would never consider a laptop for gaming either. I do have a laptop, but it has Intel graphics, because it doesn't matter anyway, for anything other than games. I think you could argue that you save enough money from buying a 'non-gaming' laptop, that you have enough to build a decent gaming desktop. Best of both worlds?
 
Originally posted by: taltamir
Originally posted by: nitromullet
...perhaps you should post this in the PC Gaming forum instead of either Video or Laptop.
Click to expand...

there is a PC gaming forum?
Click to expand...

http://forums.anandtech.com/ca...tid=80&flcache=1953336

Also I bet the PC gaming forum will be skewed towards PCs... in the laptor forum almost 70% said they game on their laptop, in the general video and graphics forum 70% said they don't.
Click to expand...

Your results make sense because laptop users will frequent the laptop forums, while more desktop users will frequent Video where the most prevalent topics are discrete video cards and monitors/displays, which tend to lean more towards desktop usage.

The common factor between desktop gaming and laptop gaming are the games, right? My take on this is that you approach this from a "You are a PC gamer, do you play on a desktop or laptop?" angle. The best place to find both types of PC gamers would be the PC gaming forum because laptops and desktops are both PCs.

 
Originally posted by: taltamir
Originally posted by: nitromullet
...perhaps you should post this in the PC Gaming forum instead of either Video or Laptop.
Click to expand...

there is a PC gaming forum?

Also I bet the PC gaming forum will be skewed towards PCs... in the laptor forum almost 70% said they game on their laptop, in the general video and graphics forum 70% said they don't.
Click to expand...

Was that a serious comment? 😕 In any case, desktop replacement class laptops, the true gaming laptops are so much more expensive than a desktop with similar components that almost no one buys them. There are however people with more money than common sense and have that insatiable urge to have a laptop capable of playing every modern game out, and then playing DOTA instead 😛

I for one play most of my games on my laptop (all 5+ years old, not graphics intensive in the slightest), and I use my desktop for everything my laptop won't run well with.
 
i bought the ASUS W90 (in sig below) because i travel many times during the year, sometimes twice a month and i like to take my games with me so i can play when i'm sitting at a hotel with nothing else to do. At home i keep it in my bedroom because my wife would never alow me to put a desktop in the bedroom hehehe, you guys just don't know how many fights we had about pc's in the bedroom.

it's a very capable machine, the cpu and gpus can be overclocked, it has two ATI's 4870 in crossfire (ASUS call them 4870X2) that run any game on the market right now.
 
Originally posted by: Gikaseixas
i bought the ASUS W90 (in sig below) because i travel many times during the year, sometimes twice a month and i like to take my games with me so i can play when i'm sitting at a hotel with nothing else to do. At home i keep it in my bedroom because my wife would never alow me to put a desktop in the bedroom hehehe, you guys just don't know how many fights we had about pc's in the bedroom.

it's a very capable machine, the cpu and gpus can be overclocked, it has two ATI's 4870 in crossfire (ASUS call them 4870X2) that run any game on the market right now.
Click to expand...

That is a beast of a laptop.

I have a m1340 with a 9500GE card, its capable of running modern games on low settings and playing older games, but usually I don't game on it. I only game at home at my console, otherwise I'm probably out and doing actual work.
 
Originally posted by: krnmastersgt
Originally posted by: taltamir
Originally posted by: nitromullet
...perhaps you should post this in the PC Gaming forum instead of either Video or Laptop.
Click to expand...

there is a PC gaming forum?

Also I bet the PC gaming forum will be skewed towards PCs... in the laptor forum almost 70% said they game on their laptop, in the general video and graphics forum 70% said they don't.
Click to expand...

Was that a serious comment? 😕 In any case, desktop replacement class laptops, the true gaming laptops are so much more expensive than a desktop with similar components that almost no one buys them. There are however people with more money than common sense and have that insatiable urge to have a laptop capable of playing every modern game out, and then playing DOTA instead 😛

I for one play most of my games on my laptop (all 5+ years old, not graphics intensive in the slightest), and I use my desktop for everything my laptop won't run well with.
Click to expand...

let me ask you this... how many modern games have you played recently that came close to being as fun as day of the tentacle? wait... DOTA... dota is not day of the tentacle... what does it stand for?
 
Originally posted by: taltamir
Originally posted by: krnmastersgt
Originally posted by: taltamir
Originally posted by: nitromullet
...perhaps you should post this in the PC Gaming forum instead of either Video or Laptop.
Click to expand...

there is a PC gaming forum?

Also I bet the PC gaming forum will be skewed towards PCs... in the laptor forum almost 70% said they game on their laptop, in the general video and graphics forum 70% said they don't.
Click to expand...

Was that a serious comment? 😕 In any case, desktop replacement class laptops, the true gaming laptops are so much more expensive than a desktop with similar components that almost no one buys them. There are however people with more money than common sense and have that insatiable urge to have a laptop capable of playing every modern game out, and then playing DOTA instead 😛

I for one play most of my games on my laptop (all 5+ years old, not graphics intensive in the slightest), and I use my desktop for everything my laptop won't run well with.
Click to expand...

let me ask you this... how many modern games have you played recently that came close to being as fun as day of the tentacle? wait... DOTA... dota is not day of the tentacle... what does it stand for?
Click to expand...

Lol, DOTA stands for Defense Of The Ancients, the most popular Warcraft 3 mod around. Warcraft 3 is not a very intensive game to run (as most Blizzard titles short of WoW are). And while it was a joke, thats my point; most people enjoy playing many older games since many of them were meant to be games instead of shameless plugs/revamps of the same old formula. I personally play very few modern games (but that might have something to do with my dislike of 95% of FPS games).
 
The sad part is the shatastic gpus that get put into your average laptop are way to slow to play modern games...and since recent ATI and Nvidia drivers/video hardware have really started to blow ass with support for old games they aren't even good for that. You know they're fucking phoning it in when starcraft has graphical corruption in menus...I mean, wtf...that game isn't even 3d and they screwed it up!
 
Originally posted by: PingSpike
The sad part is the shatastic gpus that get put into your average laptop are way to slow to play modern games...and since recent ATI and Nvidia drivers/video hardware have really started to blow ass with support for old games they aren't even good for that. You know they're fucking phoning it in when starcraft has graphical corruption in menus...I mean, wtf...that game isn't even 3d and they screwed it up!
Click to expand...

+1
in an effort to wring out higher performance they neglect backwards compatibility. but then the laptop GPU can't even perform anyways.
 
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