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General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: Eagler on February 15, 2025, 02:03:48 PM

Title: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: Eagler on February 15, 2025, 02:03:48 PM
Any suggestions for laptop specs to play AH with via monitor?

Is it possible to use a VR headset with a laptop?

Thanks for any info!

Eagler
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: xanax on February 15, 2025, 11:04:57 PM
Any suggestions for laptop specs to play AH with via monitor?

Is it possible to use a VR headset with a laptop?

Thanks for any info!

Eagler

This will be an interesting thread to watch as Leisure and myself have Shanghai'd an old player back into the game and he needs a windows machine along with all the other stuff to get going again. A laptop along with a decent monitor might just be the ticket. I worry about keeping a laptop cool however but I have a feeling cooling has improved greatly since the last time I used a Windows laptop years ago.
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: The Fugitive on February 15, 2025, 11:35:28 PM
Finetime played on a couple laptops he got off of Ebay for cheap.

Brooks builds some cheap desktops, $650 and run AH at 60 fps no problem.

Running the game isnt an issue if your just looking to play, VR on the other hand can set you back a bit.
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: Eagler on February 16, 2025, 08:03:49 AM
Does a laptop have the video connections to run vr?

Eagler
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: Oldman731 on February 16, 2025, 08:19:02 AM
Does a laptop have the video connections to run vr?


A fair question, I'd like to know, too.  There are all manner of adapters which will connect with USB and/or C ports.  I don't know if VR hardware can run through an adapter, or whether that would slow it down or cause some other mischief.

- oldman
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: Masherbrum on February 16, 2025, 03:56:30 PM
Sager is still tops for gaming laptops.
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: hazmatt on February 17, 2025, 11:14:09 AM
Does a laptop have the video connections to run vr?

Eagler
Not sure which VR headset you're asking about but I've played on a laptop with my quest 2. All you need to do is plug it in to a USB port with the link cable if you're not using the wireless.
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: Eagler on February 17, 2025, 11:34:25 AM
Both my vive pro and crystal light use usb and video connections

Eagler
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: Eagler on March 01, 2025, 07:20:25 AM
https://www.pcworld.com/article/2623508/snag-this-beloved-rtx-4060-gaming-laptop-for-just-625-while-you-can.html

Would this laptop push AH in vr?

Is Acer a decent brand these days?

Eagler
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: Meatwad on March 01, 2025, 07:40:37 AM
Last acer laptop I bought barely had the processing or video power to run any game, so I personally wont recommend an acer unless you are just using it to surf the web or check email.
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: Bizman on March 01, 2025, 08:40:50 AM
Can't name any brands but based on the gaming laptop comparison reviews I've read you can't trust the numbers. First, a well known fact is that the laptop GPU's aren't as powerful as their desktop counterparts. Second, and this is the biggest issue, without proper testing it's impossible to tell which laptop performs best even if all the components are similar. Some may start strong but after a while of tough action they slow down to a crawl due to inefficient cooling. Some may seem slower but maintain their speed for hours. Even physical size doesn't directly tell about the efficiency of cooling.A laptop with a weaker CPU can outperform many equipped with a more powerful one. The reason may be in better airflow or potentially also well optimized bios settings.
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: hazmatt on March 01, 2025, 10:04:10 AM
https://www.pcworld.com/article/2623508/snag-this-beloved-rtx-4060-gaming-laptop-for-just-625-while-you-can.html

Would this laptop push AH in vr?

Is Acer a decent brand these days?

Eagler
I would bet that this would run AH3 in VR with a Quest 2 based on having done it with a laptop that had a 3060 and a less powerful CPU. The main question would be if it has the ports you need to connect your VR if that was your plan. Something to keep in mind is that the laptop version of a GPU is usually not as powerful as it's desktop counterpart, however this one appears to be close.

https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-RTX-4060-Laptop-vs-Nvidia-RTX-4060/m2040979vs4150

My laptop 3060 was significantly less then the desktop version.

https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-RTX-3060-Laptop-vs-Nvidia-RTX-3060/m1452971vs4105

If I was looking for a laptop to run AH3 with a Quest 2 I would buy this laptop.
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: Eagler on March 04, 2025, 07:01:58 AM
Does the cpu matter? AMD or Intel?

Eagler
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: Bizman on March 04, 2025, 09:06:36 AM
Not too much.
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: Spikes on March 04, 2025, 01:19:31 PM
Last acer laptop I bought barely had the processing or video power to run any game, so I personally wont recommend an acer unless you are just using it to surf the web or check email.
Brand is largely irrelevant.
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: Bizman on March 05, 2025, 01:46:16 AM
Brand is largely irrelevant.
True, to some extent.

Warranty regulations wary in different countries but in any case all global brands stand behind their products for a given time. Things may be different with house brands, though. For the price you may get a bit more powerful components which make them a tempting purchase. So far so good, but what if something goes wrong before due time? Recently a customer asked my opinion for repairing such a laptop, the keyboard was partially failing after mere months. So he took it to the store to be repaired under warranty. The laptop came back without having been fixed with the explanation was that it's a moisture damage. The customer said that nothing has been spilled on the laptop. Of course it's possible that a family member has done that but decided not to confess. Anyhow, house brand laptops include parts that may be very hard to find as spares so it's also tempting for the repair personnel to tell that the damage is caused by the customer and thus not under warranty. Word against word, and especially when talking about moisture related issues on a circuit board there's no way the customer can prove that such doesn't exist. Heck, laptops are designed to be carried around and if the outdoors temperature is different to that indoors some condensation will happen and that can leave marks inside the laptop.

Related to the above, back in the day I read about an Iphone been refused to be repaired under warranty because of moisture damage. Said damage was caused by the owner having had the phone in their inside breast pocket so that the moisture evaporating from their skin could not escape. The operating temperature range for Iphones is 32º to 95ºF (0-35C) so outdoor usage in the winter is not recommended, nor should they be used in the hot summer weather. And how about the arm bands or sleeve pockets used by joggers, skiers and other outdoor active people? Does that mean that mobile devices such as laptops and cell phones are intended for temperature controlled indoors only?
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: hazmatt on March 05, 2025, 08:25:03 AM
True, to some extent.

Warranty regulations wary in different countries but in any case all global brands stand behind their products for a given time. Things may be different with house brands, though. For the price you may get a bit more powerful components which make them a tempting purchase. So far so good, but what if something goes wrong before due time? Recently a customer asked my opinion for repairing such a laptop, the keyboard was partially failing after mere months. So he took it to the store to be repaired under warranty. The laptop came back without having been fixed with the explanation was that it's a moisture damage. The customer said that nothing has been spilled on the laptop. Of course it's possible that a family member has done that but decided not to confess. Anyhow, house brand laptops include parts that may be very hard to find as spares so it's also tempting for the repair personnel to tell that the damage is caused by the customer and thus not under warranty. Word against word, and especially when talking about moisture related issues on a circuit board there's no way the customer can prove that such doesn't exist. Heck, laptops are designed to be carried around and if the outdoors temperature is different to that indoors some condensation will happen and that can leave marks inside the laptop.

Related to the above, back in the day I read about an Iphone been refused to be repaired under warranty because of moisture damage. Said damage was caused by the owner having had the phone in their inside breast pocket so that the moisture evaporating from their skin could not escape. The operating temperature range for Iphones is 32º to 95ºF (0-35C) so outdoor usage in the winter is not recommended, nor should they be used in the hot summer weather. And how about the arm bands or sleeve pockets used by joggers, skiers and other outdoor active people? Does that mean that mobile devices such as laptops and cell phones are intended for temperature controlled indoors only?

Due to what Bizman said here, I try to buy laptops that are very common and not anything that is "off the beaten path" I have found that when I do this that it is very likely that I will be able to find one for parts on ebay (as I've done numerous times) My advice would be to go with something mainstream by a mainstream manufacturer so you're not looking for some obscure part and have a better chance of finding one used if you need parts. I pretty much do all my own repairs though so your milage may vary. If you have to take it in to a repair shop I think your chances are much better if you bring in a laptop that is common and that they've seen before vs a laptop that they've never seen and don't have any manuals for or know where to get parts from.
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: Spikes on March 05, 2025, 08:47:18 AM
True, to some extent.

Warranty regulations wary in different countries but in any case all global brands stand behind their products for a given time. Things may be different with house brands, though. For the price you may get a bit more powerful components which make them a tempting purchase. So far so good, but what if something goes wrong before due time? Recently a customer asked my opinion for repairing such a laptop, the keyboard was partially failing after mere months. So he took it to the store to be repaired under warranty. The laptop came back without having been fixed with the explanation was that it's a moisture damage. The customer said that nothing has been spilled on the laptop. Of course it's possible that a family member has done that but decided not to confess. Anyhow, house brand laptops include parts that may be very hard to find as spares so it's also tempting for the repair personnel to tell that the damage is caused by the customer and thus not under warranty. Word against word, and especially when talking about moisture related issues on a circuit board there's no way the customer can prove that such doesn't exist. Heck, laptops are designed to be carried around and if the outdoors temperature is different to that indoors some condensation will happen and that can leave marks inside the laptop.

Related to the above, back in the day I read about an Iphone been refused to be repaired under warranty because of moisture damage. Said damage was caused by the owner having had the phone in their inside breast pocket so that the moisture evaporating from their skin could not escape. The operating temperature range for Iphones is 32º to 95ºF (0-35C) so outdoor usage in the winter is not recommended, nor should they be used in the hot summer weather. And how about the arm bands or sleeve pockets used by joggers, skiers and other outdoor active people? Does that mean that mobile devices such as laptops and cell phones are intended for temperature controlled indoors only?
Fair point. I guess my issue with the quoted post "don't buy Acer because I bought one and it couldn't run my games" is disingenuous as Acer, along with most brands, make plenty of products with proper hardware to play said games.
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: Eagler on March 08, 2025, 04:08:19 PM
Is an AMD cpu better bang for the buck than an Intel cpu for a laptop?

I've only used Intel for the last 25 years in my desktop boxes..

Eagler
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: AKIron on March 08, 2025, 04:26:03 PM
AMD has the fastest gaming CPUs.

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-hierarchy,4312.html

You can find the Ryzen 7 9800X3D for under $500 but you have to watch and pounce.
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: Eagler on March 08, 2025, 04:49:40 PM
Check this out on @Newegg:MSI - 15.6" GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU - AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS - 16GB Memory - 1 TB PCIe SSD - Windows 11 Home 64-bit - Gaming Laptop - 144 Hz IPS (Thin A15 B8VF-270US )  https://www.newegg.com/msi-thin-a15-b8vf-270us-15-6-amd-ryzen-9-8945hs-16gb-geforce-rtx-4060-1tb-pcie-black/p/N82E16834156648?tpk=1&item=N82E16834156648

Is this a decent laptop? Brand/specs..

Anyone know if it can push vr?

Thanks

Eagler
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: AKIron on March 08, 2025, 04:53:15 PM
That laptop should have no trouble with VR in AH. We have a couple of laptops and never use them so I'm just guessing based on what I read. I haven't used a laptop for gaming since I left KPMG in '97 to stop traveling.
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: The Fugitive on March 08, 2025, 05:00:38 PM
I didnt see anywhere on that page where it said it was VR ready. From what Ive seen these days they cant get the word out fast enough that their machine is VR ready.
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: AKIron on March 08, 2025, 05:26:25 PM
There's like an order of magnitude difference between doing VR in AH and something like DCS. Obviously there are variables, what you're going to play, what headset.
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: thndregg on March 08, 2025, 05:49:41 PM
Just happened across this thread, and thought I'd share what I run. Seems to have worked for the four years I've had it. Holds up fairly well in my travels across the Pacific pond between the States and the Philippines. I did just replace the monitor screen after the display blurred.

MSI GF-75 Thin 10SCXR
Processor: Intel i5-1-300H CPU 2.50GHz (8 CPUs)
16GB RAM

Display 2 runs an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti (VRAM: 3962 MB -- Shared Mem: 8102 MB)

I've used a second larger monitor for gaming off of this thing, and it has performed well.
The only thing that concerns me a bit, although this is what normal is for this machine, is the heat generated from high graphics demands.
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: Eagler on March 08, 2025, 06:05:19 PM
Vr would be a vive pro

I need to see if it has the needed connections

But would stick with playing on a 43" samsung 1080p using trackir if vr is too much

Are there different wifi options, some better than other?

Starlink uses wifi6..not sure the differences in wifi as I am wired at home

Thanks for providing this information

Eagler
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: thndregg on March 08, 2025, 06:36:54 PM
Vr would be a vive pro

I need to see if it has the needed connections

But would stick with playing on a 43" samsung 1080p using trackir if vr is too much

Are there different wifi options, some better than other?

Starlink uses wifi6..not sure the differences in wifi as I am wired at home

Thanks for providing this information

Eagler

My brother, Flayed1, uses VR and has Starlink out in the sticks of eastern Oregon. He runs on a home-built very high-end tower PC setup, though. He's had no problems with connectivity in general. Don't know much more than that. I'll see if he can pop on here & share his experience.
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: hazmatt on March 09, 2025, 04:07:20 PM
Check this out on @Newegg:MSI - 15.6" GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU - AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS - 16GB Memory - 1 TB PCIe SSD - Windows 11 Home 64-bit - Gaming Laptop - 144 Hz IPS (Thin A15 B8VF-270US )  https://www.newegg.com/msi-thin-a15-b8vf-270us-15-6-amd-ryzen-9-8945hs-16gb-geforce-rtx-4060-1tb-pcie-black/p/N82E16834156648?tpk=1&item=N82E16834156648

Is this a decent laptop? Brand/specs..

Anyone know if it can push vr?

Thanks

Eagler

I have a very similar model with a 3060 that would run AH3 on a Quest 2 and it looks like it has a display port. If this is true I would say yes.
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: Eagler on March 09, 2025, 05:01:12 PM
I have a very similar model with a 3060 that would run AH3 on a Quest 2 and it looks like it has a display port. If this is true I would say yes.

Is this the display port?

1 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C w/ DP1.4 3 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A..

..the DP1.4?

Thanks

Eagler
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: hazmatt on March 09, 2025, 06:08:26 PM
YA

DisplayPort 1.4 (DP1.4) is a digital display interface standard developed by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA). It was first published in March 2016. Here are some key features of DP1.4:

    Bandwidth: DP1.4 has a maximum total bandwidth of 32.4 Gbps and a maximum total data rate of 25.92 Gbps. This allows it to handle high-resolution video and audio streams.

    Resolution and Refresh Rate: It supports 4K UHD resolution at up to 120Hz with 24-bit/px color, 5K resolution at up to 60Hz with 30-bit/px color, and even 8K video at up to 30Hz
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: AKIron on March 09, 2025, 06:59:52 PM
3d Interlude.

If you've never considered how 3D VR works consider this.

I have three monitors. I can spread a game across all three thus increasing the game display resolution to the sum of the three monitors. How is that different to displaying video in VR? A VR headset may have as high a resolution for each of its two mini monitors as a high resolution monitor. So my 3 vs your 2 VR monitors. Yours should be faster right? Probably not. 3D comes with overhead that 2D doesn't. Your VR monitors each have a display with a perspective that is offset based on the difference between the position of your eyes. The PC must calculate that difference each frame and output different images to each VR monitor.
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: AKIron on March 09, 2025, 07:10:18 PM
Got me to thinking, could I run a sim on two monitors with a slight shift in the lateral seat position between the two and add a divider so one eye sees one monitor and the other the other. Would that create a 3D effect?

I feel a youtube video coming on. ;)

Thinking it through. I believe the perspective created by the seat position would have to change if I moved my head.
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: Eagler on March 12, 2025, 02:39:34 PM
Which would you

Check this out on @Newegg:MSI - 15.6" GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU - AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS - 16GB Memory - 1 TB PCIe SSD - Windows 11 Home 64-bit - Gaming Laptop - 144 Hz IPS (Thin A15 B8VF-270US )  https://www.newegg.com/msi-thin-a15-b8vf-270us-15-6-amd-ryzen-9-8945hs-16gb-geforce-rtx-4060-1tb-pcie-black/p/N82E16834156648?tpk=1&item=N82E16834156648

Or

Check this out on @Newegg:MSI - 16" GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU - Intel Core i7-13700HX - 16GB Memory - 1 TB PCIe SSD - Windows 11 Home 64-bit - Gaming Laptop - 144 Hz IPS (Sword 16 HX B13VGKG-665US )  https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16834156651

Would the performance be worth the difference?

Thanks

Eagler
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: Bizman on March 13, 2025, 02:08:55 AM
Knowing that laptop components don't quite reach the performance level of their similarly labeled desktop counterparts, and knowing that the GPU is the most critical part in modern games I'd vote for the 4070 model. The 4070 version is also about a quarter of an inch thicker which hopefully means better cooling. And if you play AH on the monitor the 16:10 ratio gives you 120 pixels more visibility up and down, making following vertical maneuvers that tiny bit easier.

That said, although both rank quite high the critical reviews should be taken seriously. At least you should keep a keen eye on similar symptoms as long as the computer is still under warranty. Then again, the lemons could be made on Mondays.
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: AKIron on March 13, 2025, 03:59:03 PM
I agree with Bizman. Get the most you can afford.
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: hazmatt on March 14, 2025, 02:38:53 PM
I would go with the most you can afford. It's better to cry once then to cry ever time you use it.

Also, keep in mind that the laptop 4070 and the desktop 4070 are not close at all in performance. This is a site that I used to get a ballpark on the benchmarks and it shows that the desktop 4070 scores almost 50% higher then the laptop. I would guess that the desktop 4070 would benchmark closer to a desktop 4060. Just something to keep in mind when buying a gaming laptop.

https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-RTX-4070-Laptop-vs-Nvidia-RTX-4070/m2033663vs4148
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: Eagler on March 15, 2025, 07:25:45 AM
Thanks!

Using this advice I ordered this one for my 66th birthday next month..

https://a.co/d/f8UnmSb

Hoping I can use it when we're out of town at the in-laws and restricted to our starlink connection there.

Thanks for the info!

Eagler
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: hazmatt on March 15, 2025, 10:33:06 AM
Nice! Happy early birthday.

The specs on mine are 3060 10500H with 16GB 1TB SSD. (The laptop version of the 3060 has about the same performance at a desktop 2060)

I would say my system is probably close to the minimum spec to run a Quest 2 VR with decent performance. I'm sure yours will do much better.
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: Prayer on March 15, 2025, 01:38:50 PM
More than enough for AH.
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: Molsman on March 20, 2025, 10:42:21 PM
Great Looking Laptop Eagler ,,,, Happy 66th next Month I am an April Kid also,,, I have an Old Asus Gaming Laptop sitting in my closest just trying to figure out what to do with it since I do not need it anymore to play games at work. just has battery issues and i replaced both the charger and battery
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: Meatwad on March 21, 2025, 08:46:05 AM
Great Looking Laptop Eagler ,,,, Happy 66th next Month I am an April Kid also,,, I have an Old Asus Gaming Laptop sitting in my closest just trying to figure out what to do with it since I do not need it anymore to play games at work. just has battery issues and i replaced both the charger and battery

What type of battery issue does it have?
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: Eagler on March 21, 2025, 09:25:03 AM
Great Looking Laptop Eagler ,,,, Happy 66th next Month I am an April Kid also,,, I have an Old Asus Gaming Laptop sitting in my closest just trying to figure out what to do with it since I do not need it anymore to play games at work. just has battery issues and i replaced both the charger and battery

Thanks Molsman

From what I have read it seems that you need to use the a/c power adapter when gaming on these laptops as batteries cannot provide enough power for the gpu/cpu combos in them these days..

So far so good on the setup..I am not able to play on the 15.6" screen as it's all way to small..

Another issue is the tm1600 hotas slides all over the place as they are not anchored down to the desk as the hotas on my desktop is..

Picked up a USB c to display port adapter to try to get the vive pro going on it today..keep you posted

Eagler
Title: Re: What's a good laptop to play AH on these days
Post by: Eagler on April 01, 2025, 05:06:07 PM
The first adapter didn't work for some reason
https://a.co/d/9KMpe02

But this one did
https://a.co/d/dvn1gOt

I was able to then use the vive pro vr setup on the laptop.

The AH experience both wired and wifi into the cable internet work well enough

I then got a quest 2 and got it going..it has a clearer resolution than the vive pro

Going to hook it up to starlink tomorrow night

Eagler