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9100 for hard core gamer ? - Page 2

post #21 of 43
8/21/04 at 1:29am
The keyword there is portability, not mobility. But that wasn't a bad guess. Here's something else for you to guess at: Why would someone come to "notebookforums.com" and ask about the performance of a laptop if they were not interested in being somewhat portable and not being tied to a desk?

For someone that's more interested in portable gaming than benchmarking, the 9100 is a great choice, period.

To the original poster: If you want to have fun playing games, the 9100 will serve you well. Most games look great even if not at the absolute highest settings. But, if your only game is 3DMark2003 and it's only played at home, you'll be better off with a desktop PC.
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post #22 of 43
8/21/04 at 1:40am
Ever considered a Shuttle or other SFF? The new SN95G5 by Shuttle houses the AMD 64 939 socket. Take an AMD 64 3500+ processor, a Geforce 6800 GT gfx card and a 74 GB WD raptor HDD and you still way within the price of a 9100. You could even buy a 15"TFT screen and still make it cheaper than the laptop. In terms of 3DMark scores your talking more than double the 9100 with around 12000 pts in 3DMark 03!!

As for portability the only problem with the Shuttle system would be the monitor otherwise it works out at about the same weight as the 9100.

I would think twice if you really are a 'hard core gamer'
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post #23 of 43
8/21/04 at 1:56am
You people are way to open-minded then I am. If a state-of-art computer can run a new game on 90 fps then no computer that run the same game slower then 2/3 of that 90 fps can be called "hardcore gaming computer".
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post #24 of 43
8/21/04 at 2:18am
geeze...

being a 'hardcore gamer' has nothing to do with hardware and everything to do with reflexes!!

think dell can sell me some of that??
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post #25 of 43
8/21/04 at 2:29am
Quote:
Originally Posted by zooner
geeze...

being a 'hardcore gamer' has nothing to do with hardware and everything to do with reflexes!!

think dell can sell me some of that??
If you count selling you a laptop to practise gaming on.
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post #26 of 43
8/21/04 at 6:24pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks guys you have given me alot to think about. The reason I am considering a lappy is not portability but space to be honest. I already have a very light business laptop, but having a very capable games PC that I can simply fold up and put in a drawer when the need arises is really appealing to me. Also the facility to pick it up and play somewhere else over wireless lan is even better.
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post #27 of 43
8/22/04 at 12:40am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dodge
Thanks guys you have given me alot to think about. The reason I am considering a lappy is not portability but space to be honest. I already have a very light business laptop, but having a very capable games PC that I can simply fold up and put in a drawer when the need arises is really appealing to me. Also the facility to pick it up and play somewhere else over wireless lan is even better.
sounds like the 9100 would be PERFECT for you.
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post #28 of 43
8/22/04 at 12:55pm
Thread Starter 
Yeh - just wondering about PCi Express with the facility to upgrade graphics card when newer versions come out. I will see first if they really are going to arrive in laptops in a month or two, if not 9100 with MR9800 will be on order !
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post #29 of 43
8/22/04 at 2:10pm
pcie might arrive in a few months, but remember that it is still the option for the companies whether or not to use upgradable interfaces... I still dont see them doing it even though they know demand for such upgrades have been there forever. I really think companies will do something like what dell did with the XPS and offer one upgrade and for a steep price. Personally even if a pcie notebook comes out in a few months, i would think it would be using an X600 graphics card which probably won't be as powerful as the 9800 anyways... I think any notebook without the fans like the 9100/XPS will have a lot of heat problems since those DTRs with graphics better than the 9800 will be offered in prescotts that run hotter than those today... just my opinions peeps...what do you all think?
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post #30 of 43
8/22/04 at 3:41pm
If you're looking for future upgradeability, you might wait and see what Dell has in store for the next 9100 refresh (which is supposed tobe in Oct/Nov, I've heard). Also, you might be interested in Adam's posts from a few days ago in the News/Information/Rumors part of the Sager section above.

http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=37534

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post #31 of 43
9/7/04 at 4:36am
what tweaks do you speak of? Please save me from getting rid of my pretty Ferrari 3200....

do I NEED at least 1GB of ram? i want to play CS Source WELL. Over 50fps at all times.. .

I know it's still beta...but it didnt' seem like my MR9700 was sufficient. What other tweaks can i do? I ordered 2 sticks of 512mb Corsair XMS 3200 RAM, I will try those and hopefully it'll HELP A LOT! Will getting a 7200rpm HD help at all for gameplay...i don't care about loadin time.

I was really tempted to buy the i9100 today. but i guess i should wait for PCI-e.
Also, does anyone know what the response time for the LCD of the i9100 is?
Alienware is boasting of their new LCD laptop screen which will have 20 ms response time. = eliminate ghosting? :O

if tweaking means overclocking..... what is a SAFE overclock for the mr9700? i've tried the omega drivers...seemed to improve things by a LITTLE bit.
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post #32 of 43
9/7/04 at 4:43am
Hyogen,

The exrta memory DO help a lot. I played Americas Army and BF-Vietnam and with 512 Mb of RAM, there are lots of HDD activity DURING gameplay that just made the game stutter.. so much that sometimes it goes to like 5 fps for 3-4 seconds. Enough to get me "killed".
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post #33 of 43
9/7/04 at 5:12am
Is XPS worth getting over the i9100? is it better built, more durable? it has aluminum casing right? instead of plastic case for i9100. I hear they both have magnesium alloy internal chassis though.. gah I'm still wondering if i should get the i9100 or wait for pci-e. how will the ati x800 (mobility) compare with geforce go 6800 pci-e.

and then there's the matter of ghosting and response time. Alienware is the only one to have advertised that their new LCDs on upcoming laptops will have 20ms response timE :O any thoughts? is this insignificant? I'm a hardcore counterstrike player, hoping to be hardcore CS source player.
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post #34 of 43
9/7/04 at 10:46am
Quote:
Originally Posted by hyogen
Is XPS worth getting over the i9100? is it better built, more durable? it has aluminum casing right? instead of plastic case for i9100. I hear they both have magnesium alloy internal chassis though.. gah I'm still wondering if i should get the i9100 or wait for pci-e. how will the ati x800 (mobility) compare with geforce go 6800 pci-e.

and then there's the matter of ghosting and response time. Alienware is the only one to have advertised that their new LCDs on upcoming laptops will have 20ms response timE :O any thoughts? is this insignificant? I'm a hardcore counterstrike player, hoping to be hardcore CS source player.
the XPS and 9100 are the same unit. XPS is a US product, playing off the XPS branded desktop part as well. Probably means Xtreme Performance System or something

the diff is they don't sell the 9100 with the 3.4 or EE cpus in the US, but you'll notice in the other parts of the world where the XPS is not offered, the 9100 is offered with a configuration that equals the XPS (minus the cute XPS only bag and the XPS only tech support).

I've been playing CS:S with the 9700 at medium quality, 1280x800, no AA/AF and it looks and run fine. I haven't seen anything I'd consider ghosting. I've seen some really bad screens before, and so far I haven't seen anything on this one that makes me regret it. I'll have a 9800 later this week, so I'll be able to compare soon. With the Source stress test, at 1280x800 and no AA/AF as above, I am able to score 60FPS, so not too shabby. I think you'll find it's acceptable, and if you are buying new and get the 9800, well then it's not even worth discussing if you'll be happy, it's assured
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post #35 of 43
9/7/04 at 11:53am
Man, after reading this and some other posts about pci-x, I'm kinda nervous that I'm going to buy a 9100/XPS and then regret it a month later. I just keep telling myself that the new bleeding edge 9100 with pci-e would be out of my budget anyway. Anybody know if that's true? Will the new XPS/9100's be a lot more expensive or will they be about the same with the old 9100's dropping in price? Thanks,

SkEp
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post #36 of 43
9/7/04 at 12:05pm
I'm in the same boat as you are. and I'm getting seasick D:
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post #37 of 43
9/7/04 at 2:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by SkEpTiKaL
Man, after reading this and some other posts about pci-x, I'm kinda nervous that I'm going to buy a 9100/XPS and then regret it a month later. I just keep telling myself that the new bleeding edge 9100 with pci-e would be out of my budget anyway. Anybody know if that's true? Will the new XPS/9100's be a lot more expensive or will they be about the same with the old 9100's dropping in price? Thanks,

SkEp
In desktop world, PCI-E cards do not show notisable (if any) advantage over AGP cards with the same chips. (Probably because x800 and 6x00 both are AGP-native and both have PCI-E-to-AGP bridges, one external, another - on-chip.)
PCI-E cards for notebooks will have new generation chips - that's what will make them more powerful - interface (agp or pci-e) and even amount of memory are not so important.
So, this is not about waitnig for pci-e - this is about waiting for newer hardware - and this is endless story...

Does anybody know if MR9800 is going to be the last possible video upgrade for 9100/xps?
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post #38 of 43
9/7/04 at 7:28pm
when I read the reviews/previews of the 9800, I'm pretty sure they stated ATI said this would be the last AGP part.
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post #39 of 43
9/8/04 at 8:41am
Quote:
Originally Posted by SkEpTiKaL
Man, after reading this and some other posts about pci-x, I'm kinda nervous that I'm going to buy a 9100/XPS and then regret it a month later. I just keep telling myself that the new bleeding edge 9100 with pci-e would be out of my budget anyway. Anybody know if that's true? Will the new XPS/9100's be a lot more expensive or will they be about the same with the old 9100's dropping in price? Thanks,

SkEp
dont be nervous.

I'm only running an 9100 with a m9700 128meg.

I havent had any issues at all, 100% satisfied with my choice.
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post #40 of 43
9/9/04 at 12:28am
I was in the same boat when considering upcoming system improvement (for instance, pci-e) ..... order..... don't order..... order...... don't order. After reading the advice offered on this forum, I decide to order a 9100 this week. As has been mentioned, the first generation of pci-e doesn't appear to be offering any groundbreaking performance improvements. In the latest Consumers Report, they looked at a Dell Dimension 8400 with pci-e, and their comment was "We saw improvments, but they were hardly significant." That confirmed what VRT and others had been telling me. Certainly this will improve with better designs in future generations, but, isn't that true with any technology? Personally, I decided not to wait since it didn't seem to be worth it in the near term.
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