3D Gaming Notebooks: Fantasy or Reality? Part I

[bgerber]

If you believe the graphics card and notebook platform vendors, nearly every notebook available today is suitable for PC gaming. We look at four very different notebook systems to see whether this is pure hype or hard truth.

 

[pato]

Small note regarding the Asus download site.
They are currently adding many more download servers because of their bad performance.
So it should soon be better

Btw. you can use the Omega drivers which support all notebook GPUs.

 

[falsterbo]

Widescreen is 16:9 not 16:10...

 

[thecolonel2323]

Widescreen notebook resolutions are most certainly 16:10. I am currently running 1920x1200. 1920/1200=1.6.

 

[doofdog82]

Personal experience with the Alienware Aurora m7700:

I recently purchased this system with the upgraded display (1920x1200) and I can honestly say that this is one of the fastest, most capable notebooks on the market today...if you can call it a notebook.

My configuration:
Athlon 64 X2 4800+
2GB RAM
2x80gb 7200RPM HDD (RAID 0)
GeForce Go 7800GTX

I normally play World of Warcraft, Oblivion, Space Cowboy and CS:S on it. All these games are played at max resolution (unfortunately, Space Cowboy caps at 1600x1200 and gets squished) with max settings and it runs beautifully. When I get home today I can provide some benchmark numbers on these titles, if wanted.

The only cons about the system are the sheer weight of the laptop and the power brick (more like a cinderblock) together and the absence of battery life...although with a system like this, it is expected.

 

[Multiplectic]

Nice in-depth comparison. Good work!
I hope there will be some benchmarks in part 2! 8)

 

[MrCommunistGen]

My Asus Z71V is a 16:10 as well. Also, does anyone know what game they are using for their comparison of 4:3 to 16:10? As long as its not one of those subscription based MMORPGs I may just have to get it.

-mcg

 

[killernotebooks]

I wish they would actually review a gaming notebook you can afford like Killer Notebooks.

 

[MrCommunistGen]

Hmm... it ate my post... if a duplicate shows up I apologize.
My Asus Z71V is also 16:10. Does anyone know what game they are using for the 4:3 and 16:10 comparison? It looks like a sci-fi of some sort and also looks like it might be cool. As long as its not one of those subscription based MMORPGs I might just have to get it

-mcg

 

[ccstooge]

It's neither fair nor correct to say that you *have* to sit through either stretched or interpolated graphics on a wide screen notebook - many/all notebooks offer different ways of viewing the resolution, whether it is fit to screen, *true size/centered*, or maintain aspect ratio. With the Centered option the image is the real size on the lcd, not the native resolution of the screen necessarily, and displays the image perfectly, albeit at best slightly smaller/with black bars: but black bars are still not image degradation or stretching.

 

[ghoststalker]

i agree. i looked at your site and you have some good stuff. any chance you could get one of your notebooks with a TV tuner? or would it be easier to buy an external one later.

 

[Sirsri]

On page 30 http/www.mobilityguru.com/2006/06/13/3d_gaming_notebooks/page30.html

Those two screenshots are from a game I don't recognize, can someone enlighten me?

Also, at some point, can you guys review the gaming capabilities of notebooks with cards like the radeon mobile m200, so that when my friends buy computers and wonder why they can't play oblivion properly, I can point them at the review and say "don't buy crappy video cards and expect to play games!"

I look forward to the rest of the article.

 

[frollo]

i was also wondering what the game was

 

[Luscious]

SLI notebooks are still scarce both for purchase and testing.

Somebody at THG is evidently still in their winter hibernation - WAKE UP!!! 8O

Hypersonic, Sager, Eurocom, Alienware and Clevo all sell and have available SLI notebooks, and they have been available for quite a while.

Heck, you even sent your editor Patrick Schmid to Monterey Park to take a look at a SLI notebook from iBuyPower:

TG Daily Video: Ibuypower launches 19" SLI notebook

Come on guys, I mean, is it really that difficult to get your act together? Do I have to personally buy one and take it to your office?

Also, in your comparison, you did not include the Toshiba Qosmio G35-AV650. This is also a pretty impressive notebook worth taking a look.

I hope to see some nice benchmarks soon.

EDIT: I should correct myself - for about $200 more than what the Toshiba costs, you can get an Alienware Aurora m9700 with SLI.

Question remains - Can a dual Go 7900 GS compete with a single Go 7900 GTX 512MB solution like the Dell M1710.

 

[frollo]

arg it ate my post too! i want to know what game that is as well

 

[spwatkins]

It would be unfair to the widescreen systems not to point out how great they are when they are used with games that *support* widescreen like Serious Sam II (impressively forward looking) and HL2. In fact I played HL2 through the first time on my notebook rather than on my much more powerful desktop machine because I liked that wider field of view so much.

 

[spwatkins]

It would be unfair to the widescreen systems not to point out how great they are when they are used with games that *support* widescreen like Serious Sam II (impressively forward looking) and HL2. In fact I played HL2 through the first time on my notebook rather than on my much more powerful desktop machine because I liked that wider field of view so much.

 

[ccstooge]

It annoyingly ate my post too. I stated that it's not correct to say that you have to deal with stretched screens on a widescreen laptop - I have a 14" widescreen laptop (and previously a 17" laptop), and most if not all laptops have a feature to disable stretching, and do a centered display at the true resolution/size on the laptop (so that 1024x768 is not stretched to 1280x800). Yes, you have to deal with a slightly smaller viewing area, but it is not *THAT* crucial to lose 1-1.5 inches of game/movie/whatever on either side. The article needs to be edited to mention this, because you can have circles and not ellipses for planets on widescreen laptops,

Oh, and while I can appreciate reviewing other notebooks, it would be nice to NOT mention your own company to promote business KillerNotebooks - Yours is not the only affordable company out there! If your company is worthwhile enough, other people will mention it, which is a more true sign of quality.

 

[ccstooge]

It annoyingly ate my post too. I stated that it's not correct to say that you have to deal with stretched screens on a widescreen laptop - I have a 14" widescreen laptop (and previously a 17" laptop), and most if not all laptops have a feature to disable stretching, and do a centered display at the true resolution/size on the laptop (so that 1024x768 is not stretched to 1280x800). Yes, you have to deal with a slightly smaller viewing area, but it is not *THAT* crucial to lose 1-1.5 inches of game/movie/whatever on either side. The article needs to be edited to mention this, because you can have circles and not ellipses for planets on widescreen laptops,

Oh, and while I can appreciate reviewing other notebooks, it would be nice to NOT mention your own company to promote business KillerNotebooks - Yours is not the only affordable company out there! If your company is worthwhile enough, other people will mention it, which is a more true sign of quality.

 

[ccstooge]

It annoyingly ate my post too. I stated that it's not correct to say that you have to deal with stretched screens on a widescreen laptop - I have a 14" widescreen laptop (and previously a 17" laptop), and most if not all laptops have a feature to disable stretching, and do a centered display at the true resolution/size on the laptop (so that 1024x768 is not stretched to 1280x800). Yes, you have to deal with a slightly smaller viewing area, but it is not *THAT* crucial to lose 1-1.5 inches of game/movie/whatever on either side. The article needs to be edited to mention this, because you can have circles and not ellipses for planets on widescreen laptops,

Oh, and while I can appreciate reviewing other notebooks, it would be nice to NOT mention your own company to promote business KillerNotebooks - Yours is not the only affordable company out there! If your company is worthwhile enough, other people will mention it, which is a more true sign of quality.