A few questions about hardware and Napoleon: Total War

[Player44]

I'm planning to get a new computer somewhere in the future, the Asus G-73JH
Core i7 Mobile (1.6ghz quad core, which seems weak at best, but this processor is of new technology (turbo boost that brings the speed up to various levels depending on amount of cores used) that actually makes it compare favorably to an intel core 2 duo T9600 at 2.8 Ghz.
ATI Radeon 5870
8GB DDR3 either 1066mhz or 1333mhz not sure yet
Will this run Napoleon: Total War?

And uh, is Napoleon Total War optimized towards nVidia cards in the manner that Crysis is?
And does Napoleon Total War have Quad Core support?

[Doono]

Do you really need a gaming laptop? As powerful as it is, it comes with a ludicrously high price tag of about £1800 in the UK. You can easily build a far superior desktop and purchase a half decent laptop for that sort of capital.

That laptop is hardly portable it's about 3.6Kg, and I would imagine gets ludicrously hot.

In regards to the other questions, as far as I know it still uses the same engine empire used so I don't think it will use quad core processing and that card you have selected will stomp all over the graphics requirments so don't worry about optimisation for Nvidia, it will be weaker than a desktop equivalent by probably a significant margin however.

[Player44]

It's $1550 U.S. here, so it's not that bad.

[Roman_Man#3]

Empire engine uses multi-threading after a patch, so I'd imagine Napoleon would as well.

And yes, that laptop would run it, but I don't think anyone here would recommend you buying it.

[Capt. Fozdike]

Yup, that laptop will run it. I have a Toshiba laptop with 2.2Ghz CPU, ATi Radeon HD4850 1GB GPU and 4GB of RAM and it runs it quite well.

[Top-Tier-Tech]

(1) ETW (NTW included) can use, at most, 2 CPU cores. So a T9600 would perform far better than that mobile i7.

(2) That laptop will run the game pretty well (not as good as one with a 2.6Ghz or above dual core would though)

(3) ETW / NTW run fine on either ATI or Nvidia cards favoring neither.

(4) A gaming laptop is a bad idea, a $850 desktop would play the game at higher settings than that laptop which sells for $1,500.

(5) To actually play a game on a laptop that requires so much power to run it's GPU and CPU you'll be stuck plugging it in anyway so you don't gain portablility.


Conclusion: You could build a gaming desktop that would outperform that laptop AND buy a good laptop for portable use for the same price as that.

[Player44]

(1) ETW (NTW included) can use, at most, 2 CPU cores. So a T9600 would perform far better than that mobile i7.

(2) That laptop will run the game pretty well (not as good as one with a 2.6Ghz or above dual core would though)

(3) ETW / NTW run fine on either ATI or Nvidia cards favoring neither.

(4) A gaming laptop is a bad idea, a $850 desktop would play the game at higher settings than that laptop which sells for $1,500.

(5) To actually play a game on a laptop that requires so much power to run it's GPU and CPU you'll be stuck plugging it in anyway so you don't gain portablility.


Conclusion: You could build a gaming desktop that would outperform that laptop AND buy a good laptop for portable use for the same price as that.

The mobile i7 is designed so that if all four cores are not in use the remaining 2 are overclocked so the i7 will most likely beat other CPUS.

And for Freddy, my P-7811 FX which I got for $1000 more 18 months ago is still working perfectly fine, and the Asus G-73JH has a new cooling design that keeps the CPU and GPU below 60 degrees even when playing the most stressful games.

[Top-Tier-Tech]

The mobile i7 is designed so that if all four cores are not in use the remaining 2 are overclocked so the i7 will most likely beat other CPUS.

I have never seen Turbo boost go into effect while gaming (even when 2 cores are seeing 100% use), and few games use more than 2 cores. Regardless turbo boost is supposed to overclock the CPU based on demand and the temperature of the CPU, on a laptop it probably won't be able to give any boost as laptops cannot exhaust heat very well.

And for Freddy, my P-7811 FX which I got for $1000 more 18 months ago is still working perfectly fine, and the Asus G-73JH has a new cooling design that keeps the CPU and GPU below 60 degrees even when playing the most stressful games.

Freddie didn't say that every gaming laptop goes bad, keep in mind that your laptop has both a CPU and GPU that run cooler than the one you are looking at now. He is correct we do see lots of threads with laptop problems where the root cause is heat.

[Capt. Fozdike]

Yeah, that's what I did when I bought my most recent desktop. I had a choice whether to buy a gaming laptop and stick with my crappy desktop or build a new desktop. I chose to build a new desktop because they can handle more demanding stuff and are much cheaper.

[Freddie]

A gaming laptop is bad idea purely on the grounds that they nearly always break, I've seen countless threads in here with people asking for help when their laptop has become unstable and they have always been using it for games. The problem as I see it is the laptop just isn't as efficient as dealing with heat from the CPU and video chip as a regular desktop because of the size, heat builds up and breaks down the silicon on the board and after a couple of years the laptop starts to multifunction.

[GasMask]

A gaming laptop is bad idea purely on the grounds that they nearly always break, I've seen countless threads in here with people asking for help when their laptop has become unstable and they have always been using it for games. The problem as I see it is the laptop just isn't as efficient as dealing with heat from the CPU and video chip as a regular desktop because of the size, heat builds up and breaks down the silicon on the board and after a couple of years the laptop starts to multifunction.

Not even years .

Sometimes months.

[jegui]

Hey Guys,

Just check the new Alienware 11X... For North America market it's under $1000 and it rocks... it's portable as well (2 kg) Even for UK market it's still under £1000

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dells...N00W1101&s=dhs

[Player44]

To be honest, I didn't ask whether or not to buy this laptop, more like whether it will run NTW at highest settings at 1920x1080 and from every review I've seen heat is a non-issue on this laptop thanks to its cooling design. And I'd doubt that my GPU generates less heat than the Mobility Radeon 5870, as the 5870 is of 40NM design while mine is of 65NM design.

[Capt. Fozdike]

To be honest, I didn't ask whether or not to buy this laptop, more like whether it will run NTW at highest settings at 1920x1080 and from every review I've seen heat is a non-issue on this laptop thanks to its cooling design. And I'd doubt that my GPU generates less heat than the Mobility Radeon 5870, as the 5870 is of 40NM design while mine is of 65NM design.

It won't run it perfectly on maxed out settings.

[Top-Tier-Tech]

I thought this was funny, ASUS responded to a product review where the guy concluded "So go for the desktop and build your own, and save money and get more gaming performance" and ASUS responded "we believe that our other Asus customers do find value in this particular model." Obviously the only people who find value in such a thing are either rich or dumb.

Regardless that laptop won't max NTW out, the laptops screen resolution is 1920x1080, to max out ETW at 1920x1200 requires at least a 5850 which is twice as powerful as the GPU in that laptop (mobile 5870 performs nearly identical with a 5750), and ETW/NTW are very CPU heavy, 1.6Ghz. won't cut it and you will not see a big boost like you think from turbo boost as a laptop cannot afford more internal heat.

A desktop with better performance would go for about $850, keep in mind that laptop is 8 pounds, you won't be carrying it with you everywhere.