best notebook - no cost limit - Page 2

If you get it from www.go-l.com , make sure you get PuRam. It's solidstate hard drive. No spinning.. thats pretty gnarly.

The only side by side comparsion I ever saw between 9600 (maybe 9700 ?) and a FireGL was in an issue of MaximumPC at least 6 months ago. For the most part CGameProgramer is correct that the two cards are hardware identical, with the exception of the FireGL having 2 DVI ports. Keep in mind the review was of desktop cards not laptop cards, so the laptop varients may be exactly the same. Another difference is that the FireGL cards are priced quite a bit higher then the Radeons. Again this is for desktop cards, never having seen the prices on laptop varients, I can't say the situation is the same there. I believe the reason for the higher prices is that the FireGL cards and drivers are tested and certified to meet certian standards. Remember that FireGL is intended for workstations not desktop gameing systems, and workstations generally carry a premium. The difference in the drivers is why the FireGL has poor game performance. The normal Radeons are optimized for high fill rates, while the FireGL sacrifice these high fill rates inorder to optimize for geometric precision. Its all about optimizing performence with the intended user in mind. High fill rates are not important in CAD/CAM work while geometric precision is a must. Conversely in a game oriented system high fill rates are much more important then geometric precision. I apologize for not having any hard data, and its is quite possible that the situation has changed in the last 6 months, but I don't see why it would have. If you need hard data try a Google search, or check out one of the tech sites like HardOCP or Anandtech, as I do believe that the topic has been covered in the last year or so. Another aproach would be to hit the forums and ask those who actually have FireGL casrds what there game performence is like. Can you use Catalyst (game oriented) drivers on a FireGL? I don't have a clue about that.

I installed a Catalyst (v 3.10) on my T40p and it works great. In fact, it allows me to get DVI pass thru at 1600 X 1200 resolution instead of the max 1280 X 1024 for the IBM installed drivers.

Be careful of go-l.com
Might want to check out Meddude's thread about buying from them in the Sager section.

The Go-L machines are Clevos- same computer that Sager resells (btw- if you want a Sager, try PCTorque.com)

If you want a tough machine, wait a week or two for the Sager 8790 to come out. The 8890 is already a mean machine. The 8790 is going to be meaner.

One of these days when I actually get some time I'll install 3DMark and run some benchies on my T41p w. the Fire GL T2. That and maybe try and get some benches out of different games for reference.

I've read in other forums where people claim that ATI reps have stated that the T2 will be identical to the 9600 in game performance - and that the difference in price is indeed the certification process of writing optimized OPENGL drivers for a mess of different 3D applications. The Direct3D performance apparently isn't impacted at all.

Don't know the reality of it - not really all that worried either. I loaded up Neverwinter Nights - Hoardes of the Underdark the other evening just so I could see what it looks like (haven't got to play yet - too much work). Anyway - I was stomped by how nice it really looked and at how smooth *everything* was at 4x AA and 1400x1050 resolution.

Anyway - it may end up not being the frame rate king once all is said and done - but I know *I'm* damn happy!

yup it's faster...

I don't think any of us are disagreeing the Desktop P4's are faster than the Pentium M's in the t41/r50. What the IBM folks were saying is that we felt these systems were the best all around laptop from a holistic sense. Meaning we can chug out a mid to high 9k in 3DMark *and* run for 5 hours while sitting on a plane. Not to mention construction quality that beats the dog soup out of *anything* Clevo makes.

So - the question was - what's the best laptop $$ not withstanding - not 'what's the best gaming laptop'. As far as out and out gaming only laptops - yeah - price wise - you can't beat a Sager.

I am pretty darn impressed with a fully loaded HP zd700. I ordered one with all the goodies and I know it is gonna kick some dust up when I install some of the applications I use. It has above all the 3.2 Ghz P4 with Hyper Threading Technology. An 800Mhz FSB, 80 Gig 5400 rpm HD, 128 MB NVidia 5600GO card, 1 GB DDR RAM. 17 inch WXGA 1440 by 990 screen and a DVD+RW?CDRW drive, TV Tuner, Fullsized keyboard and lots of ports such as 4 USB 2.0 and Firewire, Bluetooth and WiFi. If a person can deal with the wieght of 9.3 lbs and shorter battery life, this is a beauty.