Getting my head around current tech...

[Ben Stuart]

Hi guys.

To give you an idea of my situation. Planning on dropping consoles for awhile, at least until the next gen is fairly well established. Essentially I would like a laptop that is powerful enough to play games well, like not just well, exceptionally well. For me, that would mean a high res, anti allising etc all while holding a decent frame per second.

Now, as i understand the i7 is what i should be looking at. Possibly paired with something like an Nvidia 660 upwards? 6 gigs of ram? Maybe an SSD?

I think my main concern is that perhaps new tech is just around the corner? I made the mistake a few years back in purchasing a dell XPS only to find two months later they released a new ATI graphics card, which was kinda a blow as the 4670 mine had was already feeling a bit meh.

Can anyone shed some light? If i spend good money now, what kind of gameing life expectancy can i expect?

Cheers in advance everyone.

 

[Space Monkey]

If you want all the eye candy then you'll be needing a 7970m or 680m minimum, maybe even dual cards, depends on your budget really? And as far as I know new cards aren't due for a good few months yet and even then they may be just rehashes of current tech (I'm looking at you Nvidia!).

And yes an i7 would be needed

 

[drakioned]

AMD aren't expecting to refresh their top line in 2013... maybe nVidia will force their hand, but... I doubt it.

 

[iv-tecman]

You'll be looking at i7 not i5 as desktop and mobile CPU are not the same. i5 mobile is 2 cores, destkop i5 is four cores, i7 mobile is 4 cores etc..

7970m is around 7850 desktop, 680m is however the single fastest mobile GPU out there, its around 670GTX speed, however nvidia are known for messing with numbers, such as the 675m and 675mx, 675m being a renamed 5 series and the 675mx being a kepler chipset..

Best combination for price is i7 with a 7970m with switchable GPU that you can turn off, this being an Alienware M17x but expect to pay around £1400 + for this.

Next would be a clevo, but with the clevo you cant turn off switchable GPU and the 7970m has had issues with this, so this means clevo and 680m but again this wil be into the £1400+ price range.

OCUK do a sub £1000 7970m laptop, but research..

AMD are not expected to refresh their top lines this year as stated, they are more focused on driver updates at the moment.

with AMD being in the PS4, Wii U and from the looks the next xbox, i'd be rather tempted by the 7970m with a laptop where you can turn off the enduro features.

I'd expect my laptop in my sig to last well into 2014 when next gen takes off. Then I'd expect it to last until 2015 by turning down settings etc to keep up fps, then in 2016 i'd be looking to sell it on and replace. which is my 3 year plan.

I made the mistake of getting a samsung G700 gamer laptop. Upgraded to this from a Dell XPS studio, only to then see the 7970m and 680m hit the markets and I was like.. Nah, sell that before it loses to much value and get the 7970m instead.

I had my XPS for three years, I intended to have the samsung the same length of time, instead it will be my M17x instead..

I can fully understand your concern.

 

[Ben Stuart]

Thanks for the replies! Very interesting.

So from this, I'm thinking the i7-3630 should be great for what i need? No real benefit from spending £100+ on CPU upgrades?

I must admit, i do have a soft from for ATI from way back when; 9700 pro era...

With this in mind, either the 7970m or the 680m? By the time either start to slow down, the difference between the two shouldn't make enough difference to have gone for one over the other right? Sorry if that is an awkwardly wondered sentence ha.

One thing to note, can the 680m do the 3 monitor setup that the ATI is capable? Would i even want to game like that or is it more just a novelty as a workstation?

I have also heard things about Nvidia and a physics chip? Is this something i should be aware of?

Question of RAM, 8 gig upwards?

Sorry to keep throwing questions, i just find you guys to be far less biased than what I've managed to read online.

Cheers guys!

 

[iv-tecman]

You won't be using triple screens across a laptop, AFAIK the 680 doesn't work with triple screen and the AMD 'can' do triple screen but how it'd work I'd never know as you have Display Port and HDMI out and VGA. I've never attempted it, but my Alienware could 'do' it but I'd not want to, I don't believe the 7970m has enough grunt in it to handle triple screen gaming.

The 7970m with enduro turned off holds it own against the 680m. If you look over on Dell Website at the Alienware range, they have many laptops depending on your budget.

you can kit one out right up to 18" screen with two GPU and the whole lot, cost you a fortune mind.

Personally, a 17" i7-3630QM, 7970m with enough storage and an SSD with a 1080p screen will pretty much destroy all console games released today and handle a far few of the newer next gen titles, but won't know for sure how well until games for next gen start to appear.

8GB is more then enough for gaming, 16GB if you intend to video edit, CAD or virtualise.

 

[Ben Stuart]

Thanks mate, i'll look at specking one up as of next week. I'm starting a new job and I'm holding out just in case they had planned on providing me with something, in which case i'll try to swing them towards an Alienware. Quite excited! If not, I'll have to bite and pay for one myself ha!

Wonder if i could get much for my current laptop. Dell XPS i7 Q820, 6 gig ram, ati 4670 1 gig, 500gb hd, 16inch screen upgrade RGBLED, battery upgrade, bluray...

 

[iv-tecman]

I had a Studio XPS with an i5 540M and a 5650m 1GB GPU, 500GB HD and only 4GB memory, sold that back in November 2012 for £260, so you should be looking at around that price mark I’d say, little less depends on condition. Mine was mint.

I sold my Samsung G700 with i7, 6970M, 8GB memory, 2TB over two 1TB drives for £800 (miss that 120hz screen the Samsung had mind) which helped pay the huge bill for my Alienware. I paid £1450 for mine in my sig, so when you start looking be sure to haggle with Dell, and search online for discount codes and offers.

The alienware offers a lot of machine for your money, don’t listen to those who say don’t buy a gaming laptop, or buy an Alienware one..

Alienware laptops are VERY good and offer good features and performance. No other laptop I know off where you can turn off switchable GPU, use the screen for PS3 /xbox360 with its HDMI in, offer 18” screens etc..

The Alienware 17x and 18x offer MXM GPU slots, meaning you ‘could’ upgrade the GPU later. Its not cheap to do so, but many using M17x R3 use the M17x R4 7970m or 680m MXM GPU’s.

Just do your research on the GPU. With the Alienware either the 7970m or 680m will more then be enough, as you can turn off the switchable GPU for the 7970m but other makes such as Clevo you can’t. By the time you get a new laptop the driver issues with enduro could be 100% fixed, but I’d not want to spend that sort of money and see game performance suffer because of it.

Also, be sure to look around other stores for SSD and memory upgrades. Swapping memory and HD in laptops is easy, but Dell for example charge WAY too much for these upgrades. And be sure to get 1080p screen, don’t consider anything else if you’re looking at 17” screens.

Should last you a while and be a lot of fun, practically a mobile desktop with PC gaming performance.

 

[Ben Stuart]

I remember reading into MXM GPU slots, i was disappointed to discover the xps wasn't compatible. However its fantastic to hear that the Alienware is! Along with the inclusion of an HDMI input, a huge incentive.
I'm basically moving to Dubai in around 4 months time and i don't fancy blowing loads on a full TV setup, the cost of extra bags just to take my ps3 and 360... Nah. The idea of having a mobile computer that does it all, paired with some tidy headphones really has me itching to spend money! Roll on Monday so i can discuss the finer, far more important details of my contract ha.

I may just gift the XPS to my girlfriend as i don't see much point selling it for much less than 300 really.

Thanks again for all your advise buddy!

 

[iv-tecman]

Yes, the Alienware becomes a true mobile platform, I’ve amazed work colleagues when working weekends doing support and you get no calls, it can get boring.

I get me M17x out, play PC games, tether up my HTC one x and I have an instant collection of Steam games, Netflix streaming as surprising it works across a 3G network surprisingly well or if I’ve got bored of this, connect my phone via HDMI to the laptops screen and play angry birds or some junky mobile game.. Bored of that, ok fire up the PS3 and play Wipeout HD in 1080p.

All from one laptop? Now if that’s not truly mobile gaming and entertainment from your home, then I don’t know what is. It amazes them at times, even more so when its really slow at work and we use the call monitor screens to watch movies.

I got an Orion Alienware backpack, and you’d be amazed at what you can fit onto one of these.. I get all my kit, laptop, tablet, phone, PS3 and external keyboard, mouse and External 2TB drive with chargers, all cables and various bits n bobs into one rucksack. I’ve even walked to work with it on my back, no problems..

Get home, fine, who needs a desk. Just sit in the living room PS3 down side of sofa, fire up the laptop, play games whilst the missus watches junk.. missus decides she wants to watch a movie, no problem, hook up to my 42” TV and watch movies via Netflix from again my laptop. She enjoys using it for BBC iplayer as well. Although since Sky introduced iplayer she does tend to use that.

We want to watch Sky in the bedroom, don’t need a sky box, use the laptop, HDMI to the telly, use Sky go, job done.. Endless, not just a gaming machine.

Best £1500 I’ve ever spent.