laptop buying advice

acidlacedpenguin · March 2012

Hey guys, I've been tasked with picking a laptop whose main requirement is running starcraft 2 well at max settings.
Think this is powerful enough for that task?
http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=68126&vpn=08623TU&manufacture=Lenovo&promoid=1009

specs in a nutshell:
i7 2670QM
GT555M
6GB DDR3

thanks in advance for any advice.

bowen · March 2012

You'll get poor performance on a laptop video card unless you're shelling out for a $2000 laptop. Looks like benchmarks on that one put it in somewhere around 26 FPS in Starcraft 2 on ultra, 40 FPS at high, and 60+ at med/low.

lowlylowlycook · March 2012

Here is a chart that should point you in the right direction, but doesn't list 768 with max setings. The GPU on that laptop should do 42 fps on high instead of max settings.

To me it looks like you would be fine with a 560M or better as long as you stuck to 720p instead of a high rez screen.

acidlacedpenguin · March 2012

Thanks guys, from what I can tell, it looks like that i7 and GT555M combo is in this weird spot where it's the best you can get from at least Dell, Asus, Acer, and Lenovo until to hit the next class of notebooks which are at least $500 higher than the lenovo I linked. I doubt he'll be willing to make that kind of price jump, but hopefully playing on high will suffice.

I imagine maybe if he used the ultra setting but no AA or anisotropic filtering it might perform well enough?

bowen · March 2012

Yeah I mean it's an RTS, I remember I wowed at graphics for like 3 days with WC3 then cranked them down so I could micro better without delays in my FPS getting in the way.

acidlacedpenguin · March 2012

I think mostly what he wants is for all the animations to play, I know on the machine he has now he's got to run it on low and things like portrait animations and destruction animations don't actually play. Alright, thanks for the info guys I'll get back to him with this conclusion and see what he thinks.

Ryael · March 2012

A budget would be good just to put a more accurate machine together. Also, I'd generally suggest moving away from the larger companies for a gaming machine. I have experience with XoticPC and everything I've seen from there has been well priced and held up to travel pretty well. They sell Asus, Clevo/Sager, MSI and a couple other brands from what I remember. I just purchased a Malibal (based on Clevo p170hm) laptop the other day so I can't say anything yet from a reviewer standpoint but everything I read sounds good.

I'd strongly suggest purchasing a Clevo based machine. They rarely have problems in my experience and typically are cheaper than what you'll find from a large company. Not to mention wider availability of internal hardware.

acidlacedpenguin · March 2012

I imagine around $900 is his budget, that's specifically the machine he's asked about. I know that he's had issues with Asus, Acer, and Dell, so he's probably less interested inbuying from any of them.

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