Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: lambo31 on September 13, 2008, 03:24:20 PM
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I'm going to be getting a laptop in the next 3 or 4 weeks so I've started to shop around to see what I like in my price range. I just thought home pc's were confussing, but after looking at laptops I realize I need to turn to AH bbs once again.
My biggest question is what is the difference in the processors? I notice some are Centrinos, some are P series such as P9500, and then there's T series such as T8300.
I'm looking for one that will be a good gaming PC for AH and BF2.
thanks,
Lambo
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I'm not up to speed on the latest Intel mobile processors, but the video processor (GPU) will be much more important for running AH on a laptop than the CPU. I do know that the latest intel processors mostly offer very minor improvements from the previous cpus, so you won't get too much of a benefit by spending a lot for the latest mobile cpu. The latest ones will get you a bit better battery life and maybe run a bit cooler, but the performance should be pretty much the same as the last generation for cpus with the same clock speed.
You might even be able to get a bit of a price benefit by not insisting on the latest laptop cpus, since the performance difference is so small. Look for other features like the graphics chip, what kind and how much memory it has (DDR2 is fine and should be a lot cheaper than DDR3), hard drive size and speed (I would insist on a 7200 rpm drive but 80 gig is probably big enough for a laptop unless it's going to be your main computer), display size, resolution, and type (glossy vs. anti-glare, etc), what kind of optical drive it has (you'll pay $300-$400 more for a blu-ray capable drive), how many ports it has, if the secondary video output is a VGA or DVI connector (I would strongly prefer DVI), what kind of sound it has if you plan on hooking it up to surround sound speakers at home, weight, and battery life.
Nvidia still has the fastest mobile video chips, but they just got burned badly by shipping a few million defective video chips. I think they have the manufacturing problem fixed by now, but you should be aware that if you get a used, refurbished, or clearance-sale laptop with an nvidia mobile graphics chip, it's possible you might get one of the bad ones.
I read somewhere that the new laptop cpus were being branded "centrino II" or something like that, but the manufacturer can't use that brand if they don't include the intel video and network chipsets that make up the "centrino" platform.
As for how to research this stuff, www.anandtech.com usually has great articles on the technology behind these things.
If you still can't get the info you need, just compare four specifications:
1. Processor speed.
2. Number of cores (2 is standard)
3. Cache size
4. Manufacturing process (I think 45nm is the newest)
Processor wattage is another clue, but cpu power usage is heavily dependent on what it's actually running at the time so it's tough to figure out what is marketing nonsense and what is an actual technical specification.
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I got my laptop at cyberpowerpc...they are usually cheaper than the big name company laptops are of better quality imo. 95% of their laptops have video cards with 8 series nvidia or ATI 2600 or better. Most of them are under $1000 as well.
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Centrino II preview: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3356
Some gaming laptops reviewed: http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=3396
Anandtech liked this gaming laptop back in March: http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=3273
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Thanks for the links and tips Eagl.
Yes Hoarach, I'm probably going to be buying from cyberpower also. Infact that's where I was when I started wondering the differences in the cpu's. What confussed me, and still does, is I could choose the T9400 cpu or the P9500. Both are the same GHz, FSB, and Cache with the T9400 $40 cheaper. If the P9500 is better than the T9400 in some way I don't mind spending the money and I would stay with it, but if their the same it would be money saved. This is the laptop I was considering:
Gamer Xplorer X5-7900
• Intel Core2 Duo Mobile P9500 2.53GHz CPU
• Windows Vista Home Premium
• 15.4" WXGA TFT LCD 1280x800 Display
• NVIDIA Go 9600M-GT 512MB 16X Video
• Mobile PM45 Chipset Mainboard
• 4GB PC6400 DDR2/800 RAM
• 250GB 5400RPM SATA150 HDD
• 8X DVDRW Drive
• Built-in 2.0 MP Webcam
• Intel 5300 a/g/n Wireless, GbLAN
$1295
Lambo
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I just bought an Acer Aspire 5920G-6A4G32Mi...nice specs for 700 euros.
Core 2 duo T5750 2Ghz
4GB DDR2 RAM
ATI radeon mobility HD3650 with 512Mb dedicated memory
320GB HDD
15.4' widescreen
But as long as HTC doesn't improve core 2 duo support I'm stuck in Win98 compatibility, using a single CPU and 512Mb RAM....
I hope they do something about this soon, as more and more players are playing on laptops now. And don't tell me its Intel/Microsoft fault or whatever I'm playing Crysis in medium details with no problem, same with supreme commander.
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There is nothing we can do about it, short of removing support for threading in the game.
The problem with laptops is the lack of proper support for individual high resolution timers per core. This is a power savings feature for laptops and breaks any application which is dependent on each CPU having its own high resolution timer.
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Thanks for the quick answer.
Somehow I've worked around the win98 mode memory limitation. I turned the win98 mode off and changed the core affinity of aceshigh.exe using the imagecfg software http://www.robpol86.com/pages/imagecfg.php (http://www.robpol86.com/pages/imagecfg.php).
Now I can play using a single core and most of my memory, and I have less stutters than before with a decent latency.
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well it looked flat at first but then it changed after a while...sometimes it does small drops of variance like this
(http://mapage.noos.fr/rsm/variance2.jpg)
and sometimes it just goes
(http://mapage.noos.fr/rsm/variance1.jpg)
I use fsautostart and my process list is looking like that :
(http://mapage.noos.fr/rsm/taskmgr.jpg)
this is so frustrating.....in win98 mode its hell on earth with stutters allover the place...and in this mode I get variance problems.
I think the non compatibility with Intel laptop CPUs should be shown in the system requirements of AH.
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That variance is a direct result of power management. It is not a process, but built into the hardware. New laptop CPU's and GPU's have the ability to shut down parts of the circuits to help conserve battery power. Does not take them long to wake-up, but it does take some time.
If it can be disabled, it would be a BIOS, possibily a software utility setting supplied by the laptop manufacturer.
In some ways,older laptops actually play games better than newer ones do.
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Do you have an option in battery where you can choose power saver or high performance option? Some laptops have it and unless Im not plugged in my laptop is always on high performance so I dont worry about that kind of thing.
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of course I'm always in high performance.
I removed the battery and the graphs are better now.