Advice on GPU suitability for games

footman · 16 Feb 2009 at 14:22

I'm looking for a laptop that will play my games, act as an HTPC and other simple stuff like internet.
As its the machine I will carry with me the only games I will want to play are the older FPS games: MOHAA, COD 1&2 (possibly COD4) BF2.
The only way I find I can assess the performances of GPU's is from the 3DMark06 benchies on a well known notebook website.

Looking at the sort of games I want to play, I'd like some views on the minimum 3DMark06 values I should be looking at.

lukext · 16 Feb 2009 at 16:05

~3000 Minimum at a guess if you include COD4 at a res of 1280x800

Just as an idea, my dv5 with a 9600M GT GDDR2 plays COD2 butter smooth at 1280x800 with all settings on high. It gets 4400 in 3d mark

footman · 16 Feb 2009 at 16:34

excellent, cheers
whats the clock speed of the HP CPU?

GuruJockStrap · 16 Feb 2009 at 20:07

8600GT will play games fine.

Was playing COD4 with decent graphical settings at 1280x800

lukext · 17 Feb 2009 at 08:31

2.26GHz. It should have come with a P7350 @ 2 GHz but the factory must have run out or something, so thay stuck a P8400 @ 2.26GHz in so i got a free speed boost

slambo69 · 17 Feb 2009 at 14:48

Wow, this was like me one week ago. I also want to play older games like bf2, half life mods, doom 3 etc. so decided to upgrade my laptop to one with a dedicated gfx card.

I was looking at laptops with the 8600m gt and good processors for around £500-£600 but got a good deal on a hp dv7 with a 9600m gt which should do me fine.

footman · 17 Feb 2009 at 15:59

slambo69 said:
Wow, this was like me one week ago. I also want to play older games like bf2, half life mods, doom 3 etc. so decided to upgrade my laptop to one with a dedicated gfx card.

I was looking at laptops with the 8600m gt and good processors for around £500-£600 but got a good deal on a hp dv7 with a 9600m gt which should do me fine.

Well done, I just missed a good one on the bay by a tenner. I was in town looking at laptops...Oh the irony!

footman · 17 Feb 2009 at 17:25

I've just bought the HP DV-7-1004ea for £699. It was the 9600M GT that swung it for me.

slambo69 · 17 Feb 2009 at 18:34

footman said:
I've just bought the HP DV-7-1004ea for £699. It was the 9600M GT that swung it for me.

Coo! After looking around it was hard to find a laptop with a 9600m gt for a lot under £700.

Will you be playing bf2 or cod 2? I hear both are still popular but im dying to get back into bf2 again!

footman · 17 Feb 2009 at 18:44

slambo69 said:
Coo! After looking around it was hard to find a laptop with a 9600m gt for a lot under £700.

Will you be playing bf2 or cod 2? I hear both are still popular but im dying to get back into bf2 again!

both

and hopefully cod4.

slambo69 · 17 Feb 2009 at 22:19

Well, post in the battlefield 2 thread when you get it, I think quite a few of the ocukers play together.

footman · 20 Feb 2009 at 17:29

lukext said:
2.26GHz. It should have come with a P7350 @ 2 GHz but the factory must have run out or something, so thay stuck a P8400 @ 2.26GHz in so i got a free speed boost

Now that I've got mine it has the same "upgrade"...sweet!

slambo69 · 20 Feb 2009 at 17:51

Cool!

Have you installed any games yet? I wonder what settings bf2 will run at with the 9600m gt...?

footman · 20 Feb 2009 at 17:54

Only Cod2 demo! Runs OK 30-45 fps according to fraps.

lukext · 20 Feb 2009 at 19:01

footman said:
Now that I've got mine it has the same "upgrade"...sweet!

You got the P8400 too??

lol

my first dv5 came with a P7350 but went back as the 9600 in reached 106degC. my new one came, booted up with the spec on screen (as vista does) and it said P8400. I thought thats odd. CPUz said P8400, 2.26GHz too. Guess it was karma

slambo69 · 20 Feb 2009 at 20:24

lukext said:
You got the P8400 too??

lol

my first dv5 came with a P7350 but went back as the 9600 in reached 106degC. my new one came, booted up with the spec on screen (as vista does) and it said P8400. I thought thats odd. CPUz said P8400, 2.26GHz too. Guess it was karma

What is the hottest it should be allowed to? I think I will invest in a laptop fan cooler after hearing stories.

lukext · 20 Feb 2009 at 21:15

My new one never goes above 85 (peak). max avg is about 80. I would see anything above 95 as gpu life reducing. thermal throttle comes in at about 110 afaik so Nvidia obviously think higher, but we all know their track record with mobile gpu failure rates (cough 8000m series cough).

I did accidentally game in powersaving mode once and admittidly there was some stutter, but not as much as would be expected. The game was COH and details were on high. temps then only got to approx 75 max. Think i may look at undervolting the CPU (maybe :S). if you just raise the back up about 2cm ( i have mine on the COH and COD 2 game cases) it allows more air to the fan. A desk cooler thou maybe a good idea...

footman · 21 Feb 2009 at 07:47

lukext said:
My new one never goes above 85 (peak). max avg is about 80. I would see anything above 95 as gpu life reducing. thermal throttle comes in at about 110 afaik so Nvidia obviously think higher, but we all know their track record with mobile gpu failure rates (cough 8000m series cough).

I did accidentally game in powersaving mode once and admittidly there was some stutter, but not as much as would be expected. The game was COH and details were on high. temps then only got to approx 75 max. Think i may look at undervolting the CPU (maybe :S). if you just raise the back up about 2cm ( i have mine on the COH and COD 2 game cases) it allows more air to the fan. A desk cooler thou maybe a good idea...

what application do you use to measure the temps?

lukext · 21 Feb 2009 at 10:22

HWmonitor for CPU, GPU and HDD. Use GPU z aswell to record GPU temp and clock. So far never seen a temp above 85 on the GPU

footman · 21 Feb 2009 at 10:31

lukext said:
HWmonitor for CPU, GPU and HDD. Use GPU z aswell to record GPU temp and clock. So far never seen a temp above 85 on the GPU

cheers, just installed hwmonitor, shows 47 for GPU idle. So far been able to play Cod2, BF2, Far Cry all at decent settings. These would be about the most gpu intensive games I want to run on this laptop as its not meant to be a desktop replacement.
I just want to be able to take it away on holiday and play a few games. I might try Cod4 though