Best CPU/Video Card for Empire

[Armenum]

I know this is a frequent question asked, but I've been doing some research in order to buy a gaming laptop that will run Empire very well at high settings. I know desktop is better for gaming but for convenience I need a laptop and rather have one that can handle ETW well.

I've come across several laptops such as Alienware M15x, Asus G73JH, and Gateway FX laptop. However the main question that has emerged from looking at these is first of all for what cpu do you think empire will run better on?

i7 720QM(1.6GHz) Quad Core
or
Core 2 duo P8700 @ 2.53 GHz

Or do you think non of these would handle empire well? The i7 seems to have a low speed only 1.8 but I'm sure given its hyper threading and other features it's faster than the core 2 duo, after all it is more expensive.

And the next thing is the video card. I've heard that there have been some problems with certain Nvidia video cards. Here are choices:

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870
or
Chassis with NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTS Graphics with 1GB of GDDR3 Discrete Video Memory and Intel® PM45 Chipset
or
1GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M

I would believe the GTX is better but I've heard there's been some serious problems with that card regarding Empire.

For RAM, anything 4gb and above should be fine I believe.

Any input would be great.

[mrcrusty]

Since you already know that a gaming laptop is ultimately more expensive than a netbook and a decent desktop, the question still must be asked, why do you still want a gaming laptop?

Due to the heavy power requirements, you'd be lucky to crank two hours from a gaming laptop before the battery runs out of juice, meaning that you'd need to be plugged in to play anyways.

If you're going to use it at uni, all you really need is a netbook so that you can go on facebook.

If you're dying to play ETW, why does it need to be in high settings and high res? Crank that shiz down to 1024x768 and medium quality. As long as it's playable, right? Besides, you'd get more battery life out of it.

Get this laptop: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220667

Pocket the difference, save it, or spend it to pimp up your dekstop with two 5870's in Crossfire. Then you can laugh at any game that comes out for years to come that aren't developed by CryTek.

[Armenum]

Since you already know that a gaming laptop is ultimately more expensive than a netbook and a decent desktop, the question still must be asked, why do you still want a gaming laptop?

Due to the heavy power requirements, you'd be lucky to crank two hours from a gaming laptop before the battery runs out of juice, meaning that you'd need to be plugged in to play anyways.

If you're going to use it at uni, all you really need is a netbook so that you can go on facebook.

If you're dying to play ETW, why does it need to be in high settings and high res? Crank that shiz down to 1024x768 and medium quality. As long as it's playable, right? Besides, you'd get more battery life out of it.

Get this laptop: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220667

Pocket the difference, save it, or spend it to pimp up your dekstop with two 5870's in Crossfire. Then you can laugh at any game that comes out for years to come that aren't developed by CryTek.

Yes I know that battery life for gaming laptop is much more limited, but on the other hand I'm not going to use laptop for lectures, going to use paper and pen. Most of the time when I use laptop I will be at home or in my college room. Besides, having a desktop will be a pain to transport and I will have to do that several times a year back and forth from my house to college. Going on train/bus/plane with that desktop&monitor will be a great hassle.

[Top-Tier-Tech]

Yes I know that battery life for gaming laptop is much more limited, but on the other hand I'm not going to use laptop for lectures, going to use paper and pen. Most of the time when I use laptop I will be at home or in my college room. Besides, having a desktop will be a pain to transport and I will have to do that several times a year back and forth from my house to college. Going on train/bus/plane with that desktop&monitor will be a great hassle.

So then go with a cheaper laptop running a lower res as mrcrusty recommended.

[Armenum]

So then go with a cheaper laptop running a lower res as mrcrusty recommended.

Yeah, but the cheaper laptop won't be able to run ETW as well as a more expensive laptop. Anyways, that's not the point I'm just trying to get your opinion on which hardware is empire better suited for which I wrote in the first post.

[Mediteran]

id go for Core 2 duo P8700 @ 2.53 GHz and NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTS. but you should wait until someone smarter than me says something better

[Top-Tier-Tech]

Yeah, but the cheaper laptop won't be able to run ETW as well as a more expensive laptop. Anyways, that's not the point I'm just trying to get your opinion on which hardware is empire better suited for which I wrote in the first post.

Your missing the point, a cheaper laptop can max ETW out at a lower res such as 1280x720 or something.