Spec Help

[Vraciu]

Do these integrated video cards work in AH3?  I’m guessing no, since it’s not a dedicated card.

https://www.cnet.com/products/dell-latitude-e4310-core-i5-13-3-tft-series/specs/

Found a good deal on this one but it’s not a gaming rig...      My ancient Acer bit the big one and I would love to kill two birds with one stone.

[Skuzzy]

The biggest issue with built-in graphics is the lack of dedicated high speed video RAM.  Secondarily, they are designed with power management as a priority which cuts performance out of the equation.

The latest generation of Intel video will sort of work, but you have to cut every graphic related option to a minimum and even then it is not going to play smoothly.

Video chips fighting the system memory bus for time (bus contention) just kills the performance.

If you are looking for a decent laptop which can also play AH3 well enough, take a peek at some of the ASUS ROG laptops.  I think they finally got away from the red back-lighting for the keyboard.

[Vraciu]

I’ll take a peek.  Thanks, Skuzzy. 

[Spikes]

The biggest issue with built-in graphics is the lack of dedicated high speed video RAM.  Secondarily, they are designed with power management as a priority which cuts performance out of the equation.

The latest generation of Intel video will sort of work, but you have to cut every graphic related option to a minimum and even then it is not going to play smoothly.

Video chips fighting the system memory bus for time (bus contention) just kills the performance.

If you are looking for a decent laptop which can also play AH3 well enough, take a peek at some of the ASUS ROG laptops.  I think they finally got away from the red back-lighting for the keyboard.

I just picked up a Dell 7577 on hardwareswap and it runs AH like a champ. i7-7700k, 1060 6GB, 16GB RAM. Used Like New for $700. It is amazing how far laptops have come in the last few years.

I'd just say get something with a minimum 1050/1050ti in it, that way you avoid the mobile version of the video cards that used to be.

[Vraciu]

I just picked up a Dell 7577 on hardwareswap and it runs AH like a champ. i7-7700k, 1060 6GB, 16GB RAM. Used Like New for $700. It is amazing how far laptops have come in the last few years.

I'd just say get something with a minimum 1050/1050ti in it, that way you avoid the mobile version of the video cards that used to be.

How about the Radeon R5?  It’s a 1GB. 

I’m not sure I can cross that $750 barrier unfortunately.   I want something that I won’t cry about if it gets mashed by accident. 

[Bizman]

A friend bought a Lenovo laptop last summer and it runs AH3 fine. The price tag was €1200 but there was a bargain for €799 including 24% VAT. I can't remember the model, but IIRC it has a Nvidia GTX 960M inside. The most important thing is that the video memory has to be of the GDDR5 type instead of the DDR3 of the lesser models. As Spikes said 1050(Ti) is the minimum to look for unless you really want to learn how to swear.

The Radeon R5 looks like a very weak card based on benchmarks. It may well perform worse than the Intel chip.

[Skuzzy]

Spikes the only reason I pointed out ASUS is due to software.  I am leery of Dell, HP, and other OEM's as they like to load up laptops with all manner of background processes.  Some are difficult to clean up.

So you end up losing a significant amount of performance due to all that unnecessary software.

ASUS sticks with a pretty generic installation of the operating system.  Out of the box they are pretty clean.

Quite frankly, most hardware is pretty generic these days.  You just look for the options you want and then hope whoever made it did not kill it with 400 background processes.

[Vraciu]

A friend bought a Lenovo laptop last summer and it runs AH3 fine. The price tag was €1200 but there was a bargain for €799 including 24% VAT. I can't remember the model, but IIRC it has a Nvidia GTX 960M inside. The most important thing is that the video memory has to be of the GDDR5 type instead of the DDR3 of the lesser models. As Spikes said 1050(Ti) is the minimum to look for unless you really want to learn how to swear.

The Radeon R5 looks like a very weak card based on benchmarks. It may well perform worse than the Intel chip.

Wow.  What a bum deal.   

I’ll keep looking. If it works for my skinning I’ll call that a win maybe. 

[Vraciu]

Spikes the only reason I pointed out ASUS is due to software.  I am leery of Dell, HP, and other OEM's as they like to load up laptops with all manner of background processes.  Some are difficult to clean up.

So you end up losing a significant amount of performance due to all that unnecessary software.

ASUS sticks with a pretty generic installation of the operating system.  Out of the box they are pretty clean.

Quite frankly, most hardware is pretty generic these days.  You just look for the options you want and then hope whoever made it did not kill it with 400 background processes.

Can those background processes be dumped or does that wind up destabilizing things?

[Spikes]

Spikes the only reason I pointed out ASUS is due to software.  I am leery of Dell, HP, and other OEM's as they like to load up laptops with all manner of background processes.  Some are difficult to clean up.

So you end up losing a significant amount of performance due to all that unnecessary software.

ASUS sticks with a pretty generic installation of the operating system.  Out of the box they are pretty clean.

Quite frankly, most hardware is pretty generic these days.  You just look for the options you want and then hope whoever made it did not kill it with 400 background processes.

Yeah I ended up wiping it and putting my own copy of windoze on. I liked the Asus stuff and it was a little cheaper, but I didn't like how they looked. With the exception of the red keyboard, the dells are pretty normal looking

[Skuzzy]

Can those background processes be dumped or does that wind up destabilizing things?

It depends on the manufacturer.  I cannot say for sure about any of them.

Yeah I ended up wiping it and putting my own copy of windoze on. I liked the Asus stuff and it was a little cheaper, but I didn't like how they looked. With the exception of the red keyboard, the dells are pretty normal looking

That works for some laptops.  If the laptop is a generic design and the OEM has left it alone and not tried to do something proprietary.

It is a crap shoot.

[Bizman]

Can those background processes be dumped or does that wind up destabilizing things?

If nothing else works, a clean install of the plain vanilla OS plus the necessary drivers will work.

As for Asus, not too long ago they launched an option to get a clean system. The regular version still has as much crap as all the others.

[Skuzzy]

If nothing else works, a clean install of the plain vanilla OS plus the necessary drivers will work.

As for Asus, not too long ago they launched an option to get a clean system. The regular version still has as much crap as all the others.

Ahhhh.  I only know from the ROG series which look to have always been pretty clean.

[Vraciu]

If nothing else works, a clean install of the plain vanilla OS plus the necessary drivers will work.

As for Asus, not too long ago they launched an option to get a clean system. The regular version still has as much crap as all the others.

Never understood the OEM obsession with bloatware.   

[Bizman]

Vraciu, if price is an issue, take a look at the refurbished Dells: https://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&N=100006740%20601205664%20601285496%20601286598