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Is there a 12.1 - 13.1 inch, ultra-portable, affordable laptop decent for Gaming?

post #1 of 32
3/30/05 at 7:45pm
Thread Starter 
I'm really only posting this thread as a way to torment myself seeing as how I bought the 700m already. But when buying it I thought "I'm going off to college, I need portability over gaming," and decided, hey, it'd be a good way to ensure that I get some work done. But I've come to the realization that I'm not fooling anyone, least of all myself! I'm a hardcore gamer and though I don't want to do heavy gaming (No DOOM III, No Far Cry, No Battlefield 2), I at LEAST wanted to be able to play Counter-Strike: Source. However, despite my notebooks 1.8ghz Pentium M and its 1 gig of ram, the integrated graphics just make it impossible. It runs at a slideshow pace and crashes to desktop mercilessly if I try to alter some of the advance video settings. Thus this makes the thread a two-part question:

1) Is there any laptop that I should have gone with that is ultra-portable (like the 700m) but also has something better than Integrated graphics?

2) Does anybody with a 700m know of or have the same problem when playing CS:S and do they know of any way to fix it? I've updated the drivers for my 700m video card multiple times. Is there any way to optimize the game to be able to play on this thing?

However, for some reason, Half-Life 2 plays SUPRISINGLY well. Outdoors, indoors, fast-paced, slow. On low-low-medium graphics it runs smoothe (however theres plenty of crash-to-desktop bugs).

Thanks in advance for any help!!
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post #2 of 32
3/30/05 at 8:08pm

Sony sony sony

Quote:
Originally Posted by black_hat
I'm really only posting this thread as a way to torment myself seeing as how I bought the 700m already. But when buying it I thought "I'm going off to college, I need portability over gaming," and decided, hey, it'd be a good way to ensure that I get some work done. But I've come to the realization that I'm not fooling anyone, least of all myself! I'm a hardcore gamer and though I don't want to do heavy gaming (No DOOM III, No Far Cry, No Battlefield 2), I at LEAST wanted to be able to play Counter-Strike: Source. However, despite my notebooks 1.8ghz Pentium M and its 1 gig of ram, the integrated graphics just make it impossible. It runs at a slideshow pace and crashes to desktop mercilessly if I try to alter some of the advance video settings. Thus this makes the thread a two-part question:

1) Is there any laptop that I should have gone with that is ultra-portable (like the 700m) but also has something better than Integrated graphics?

2) Does anybody with a 700m know of or have the same problem when playing CS:S and do they know of any way to fix it? I've updated the drivers for my 700m video card multiple times. Is there any way to optimize the game to be able to play on this thing?

However, for some reason, Half-Life 2 plays SUPRISINGLY well. Outdoors, indoors, fast-paced, slow. On low-low-medium graphics it runs smoothe (however theres plenty of crash-to-desktop bugs).

Thanks in advance for any help!!
Sony S. It's teeny (slightly bigger than Dell's 700m at 13.3"), and it has a decent graphics card.

And purtiness.
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post #3 of 32
3/30/05 at 8:10pm
I concur. Sony S is the way to go in this case. Or you could wait for the Asus W3.
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post #4 of 32
3/30/05 at 8:18pm
Sony S series...
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post #5 of 32
3/30/05 at 9:31pm
one more vote for Sony S series, but I'm not sure how affordable those are...
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post #6 of 32
3/30/05 at 9:50pm
MSI Megabook S270 if you live outside the US. Cheap, and high performance. Sony S series if you're in the US
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post #7 of 32
3/30/05 at 9:54pm
the megabook is not bad for a 12" but the RS480 core BLOWS, its worse than an X300, it not really designed for games but will play older games at an okay res. the sony is a rip off plain and simple, the W3 would be your best bet here
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post #8 of 32
3/31/05 at 5:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by pr50wner
the megabook is not bad for a 12" but the RS480 core BLOWS, its worse than an X300, it not really designed for games but will play older games at an okay res. the sony is a rip off plain and simple, the W3 would be your best bet here
Geez man, why don't you keep your opinions in perspective? Just because it doesn't play Doom3 or HL2 at 60 fps you say it blows?

You say it's not bad for a 12", heck, do you know of any other 12" PC laptops with higher GPU performance? at all? (Screw the macs, you can't game much on them anyway.)

Oh, and would you mind quoting some sources for your RS480 benchmarks, it's new enough for me that I haven't heard anything about it's performance.



I curse you to the hell of intel integrated graphics! (though the GMA900 ain't half bad)
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post #9 of 32
3/31/05 at 6:55am
There's only one ultra-portable and affordable laptop with 12.1" screen that is decent for gaming, and that's the MSI MegaBook S270:
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/produc...ng.php?UID=608



The integrated graphics performance of the ATi RS480M chipset equals ATi Radeon X300, far superior to other integrated graphics solutions (e.g. about twice as fast as Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900).

Detailed specs here:
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/produc...il.php?UID=608
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post #10 of 32
3/31/05 at 9:24am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Labmouse
I curse you to the hell of intel integrated graphics! (though the GMA900 ain't half bad)
LOL the S720 GPU is on par with a radeon 9200 (ibook), the sony beats the msi in gpu performance but you are gonna pay an extra XXX amount that doesn't make up in HW.

IMO anything 9600 and lower isn't really for gaming, its more for office and business related apps that are non GPU intensive, hence NON-Gaming. so ther card basically sucks for games compared to other notebooks that are cheaper and faster (but the other notebooks are not 12")
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post #11 of 32
3/31/05 at 9:33am
Quote:
Originally Posted by snorre
The integrated graphics performance of the ATi RS480M chipset equals ATi Radeon X300, far superior to other integrated graphics solutions (e.g. about twice as fast as Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900).
you are correct, the x200 isn't bad compared to intel extreme graphics

here is a link for the great battle between the weak and the crappy

http://www.digital-daily.com/motherb...80/index06.htm

the X300 is better than the X200 by a substantial margine. the X300 is also found in notebooks that are CHEAPER

edit: NM my original post was correct, the x200 sucks

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post #12 of 32
3/31/05 at 11:42am
The Vaio S-270 that had the 9700 Pro was the best one in that size. Did they discontinue it? It really sucks that Sony went nuts and decided to use the Turbocache 6200 stuff in their new models...
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post #13 of 32
3/31/05 at 12:31pm
the S360 has the 9700 64 meg card

this thing runs painkiller smothley @1280 x 800
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post #14 of 32
3/31/05 at 3:14pm
as noted, your best bet would be the sony S series. if u order directly from them u can choose a model w/ the radeon 9700 for around the price u'd pay for the 9200 model in retail.

here's a few machines in their clearance section. otherwise configure at will. if it had been a bit more sturdy in construction i would have likely gone for it over my iBook. many ppl r happy w/ theirs however.
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post #15 of 32
4/2/05 at 7:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ccbrowning
The Vaio S-270 that had the 9700 Pro was the best one in that size. Did they discontinue it? It really sucks that Sony went nuts and decided to use the Turbocache 6200 stuff in their new models...
Well, it's roughly equivalent, or a little bit faster than the Ati MR9200 it replaced which is what they seemed they wanted to do with it. Now if they'd drop the price by about $300-$400, their stuff would be more inline with the rest of the market.

Oh yeah, and the S260/S270 is still available from their website when I checked last week. You just have to configure it with the MR9700
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post #16 of 32
4/3/05 at 12:50am
sorny
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post #17 of 32
4/3/05 at 3:13am
a mix between sony and being sorry?
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post #18 of 32
4/3/05 at 12:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by pr50wner
a mix between sony and being sorry?
There was a Simpsons episode where they went to some cheapo store and they had all the name brands, like "Magnetbox, Panaphonics, and Sorny".
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post #19 of 32
4/3/05 at 12:38pm
The Acer TM3000 series in Asia is a 12.1" WXGA and comes with an 128MB ATI X700.
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post #20 of 32
4/3/05 at 1:38pm
sony s360 13.3 inches i think has a 9700 in it
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