can the cheaper alienware with nvidia 750m play blizzard titles?

[hodgenutts]

Question. Does anyone know if the new alienware 14 with the following specs:

Generation Intel® Core™ i7-4700MQ processor (6MB Cache, up to 3.4GHz)
LCD:
14" WLED HD (1366 x 768) Anti-Glare Display

Primary Battery:
6-cell Lithium Ion 69 wHr
Memory:
8GB Dual Channel DDR3L at 1600MHz
Video Card:
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 750M with 1GB GDDR5
Hard Drive:
750GB SATA 3Gb/s (7,200 RPM)

Run blizzard games (W.o.W., Diablo 3, Star Craft 2) and Star Wars the old republic at Max settings? I ask because I have no experience with alienware and my company has a deal where I can get one shipped for $1079. Thanks for the help.

 

[Liquid_Static]

Diablo 3 you may be able to do at maximum settings, but likely not the other two. You will be able to PLAY all of the games however (at reasonable settings).

 

[birthdaymonkey]

At that crummy resolution, Blizzard games will run pretty well.

For $1000 though I'm betting you could get a better gaming laptop from another vendor.

 

[hodgenutts]

Well I was trying to go as cheap as possible, but the rep told me the best deal he could do would be the same exact compents for pricessor, ram and hdd, but upgrade to a 1080p 17.5" monitor and an nvidia gtx 765 with 2 GB ddr5 for $1399. He claimed that was a "really good deal" but I didn't know if those were very good upgrades for the 300 buck, and I also didn't know how the $1399 faired for a 17.5" gaming laptop. Once again thanks for the advice.

 

[birthdaymonkey]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834313740

Here's a much more powerful laptop with a 1080p screen for $100 cheaper.

Dual 2GB GPU, bigger hard drive + caching SSD, same CPU.

 

[hodgenutts]

Yes it is and I appreciate the recommendation. But I'm going to stay away from Lenovo do to previous experience. But thank you very much for taking the time to post. I guess another reason I was looking at the alienware was cause of the option interest free payments. However interest free payments doesn't mean a product is really "worth it" I also was curious, I thought I heard do to alienwares cooling abilities you could achieve really good over clocking. But I'm not sure if the end result would be much better performance...

 

[birthdaymonkey]

Yes it is and I appreciate the recommendation. But I'm going to stay away from Lenovo do to previous experience. But thank you very much for taking the time to post. I guess another reason I was looking at the alienware was cause of the option interest free payments. However interest free payments doesn't mean a product is really "worth it" I also was curious, I thought I heard do to alienwares cooling abilities you could achieve really good over clocking. But I'm not sure if the end result would be much better performance...

Ah, well if the financing is the main draw, I guess you wouldn't have many other options (except for saving your money). In any case, the Alienware is not much of a deal.

If you don't like Lenovo, here's are two Asus and MSI gaming laptops for $1K with 1080p and better GPUs than the Alienware:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834231320
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834152406

 

[frozentundra123456]

My grandson has had an Asus gaming laptop for close to 5 years, and it is still going. Just one case, but overall I think Asus has a good reputation and are priced right.

Personally, I think Alienware is pretty reliable because of good cooling, but considerably overpriced. I also think you could do better than that one you initially posted. Even Best Buy has an asus for less than 1200.00 with a 765M and the same cpu. It also has a 1080p screen.

 

[TeknoBug]

MSI makes great gaming laptops, and aren't as expensive as Alienware.

 

[Rakehellion]

I ran Starcraft 2 and Diablo III at 1080p on max settings on a 525M. A 750M should handle them no problem.

 

[frozentundra123456]

I ran Starcraft 2 and Diablo III at 1080p on max settings on a 525M. A 750M should handle them no problem.

I am surprised. I ran HoTS at 1080p maxed on HD7770 and I think the gpu was maxed out. I do think HoTS was more gpu demanding than WoL though, if that was the game you were referring to.

 

[birthdaymonkey]

I am surprised. I ran HoTS at 1080p maxed on HD7770 and I think the gpu was maxed out. I do think HoTS was more gpu demanding than WoL though, if that was the game you were referring to.

Yes there were situations where Starcraft II made my overclocked 7950 and GTX 670 chug, i.e. with a lot of units on the screen, especially if there are cloaked units and lighting effects (e.g. Colossus beams).

 

[Roland00Address]

These are the rough performance of graphic cards you can find in 14/15 inch laptops currently. While they are not blizzard games, they below numbers do illustrate well performance you will find in similar blizzard games.

Battlefield 4 fps are from notebook check, they are average numbers taken from multiple laptops.
31 fps GT750M
41 fps GT755M 32% faster than GT750m
47 fps GTX760M 52% faster than GT750m
55 fps GTX850M 77% faster than GT750m
71 fps GT750M SLI 129% faster than GT750m
74 fps GTX860M 139% faster than GT750m

Currently alienware are not having 14" laptops with the 800 series of graphics (they do have it as a 17" option), other vendors do have 14" laptops with the 800 series of graphics. The 800 series of graphics were released less than 30 days ago.

 

[Insomniator]

You generally only get one shot with laptops so make the one you buy the best you can get for the money. I guess if financing then you are stuck but that is a crappy deal and since its a laptop its not like you'll be upgrading it in the future for more value.

That screen is weak and the GPU is very under powered for the money. You can see in the post above the 760M is 52% (!) faster than the 750M. Yes the alienware you listed will play Blizzard games, but it won't play them as nicely and will be obsolete much faster than the other systems listed. Do you want to be making monthly payments on a laptop that will barely play whatever Blizzards next big game is?

 

[TreVader]

In my experience the 750M on my 15" rMBP is capable of driving pretty much any game at high detail with no AA at 1440x900 consistently which is some 10% larger than the resolution on that laptop. I'm impressed alienware kept the screen resolution at the perfect size to allow that GPU to be competitive.



It's an OK solution, but don't expect wonders. You need a GTX 765M or better to run 1080p well.

 

[ZGR]

I have the 1gb 650m in my notebook. Stock speeds are 775 MHz core and 2000 Mhz memory.

Overclocked is 1037 Mhz core and 3000 MHz memory. CPU and GPU temps never go above 80c. This is only attainable by flipping my notebook upside down; connected to a keyboard/mouse and monitor.

The 750m should overclock very well and remain cool without using too much power.

If you don't wanna overclock, get a notebook with the GTX 860m!

 

[hodgenutts]

Thanks for the responses everyone. I now have two more options:

This 17" with a 765m GPU. The only difference from the links specs is the hdd on the one I can get is a 750 GB 6 GB/S data 3. All other specs are are the same. The price I can get it for is $1399 tax free...

http://m.dell.com/mt/www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-17/pd.aspx?mboxDisable=1&oc=dkcwj01s3d

My final option is this sli enabled 18" tax free for $1799

http://m.dell.com/mt/www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-18/pd.aspx?mboxDisable=1&oc=dkdcx01h

I'm thinking the 17" would work and is a good price. I wasn't sure if the 18" ski was worth the price bump or not.

Once again thank you everyone for all the advice.

 

[Automaticman]

Yes it is and I appreciate the recommendation. But I'm going to stay away from Lenovo do to previous experience. But thank you very much for taking the time to post. I guess another reason I was looking at the alienware was cause of the option interest free payments. However interest free payments doesn't mean a product is really "worth it" I also was curious, I thought I heard do to alienwares cooling abilities you could achieve really good over clocking. But I'm not sure if the end result would be much better performance...

Just FWIW, Newegg has a lot of financing deals as well, including 6mo-1yr interest free financing with their credit line. I've been using it to buy my PC's since...well since I've been building PCs.

 

[Annon2255]

Will the m860 be found in an ultrabook anytime soon? Or is that card too big to fit in a laptop that small?

 

[Mand]

Yes there were situations where Starcraft II made my overclocked 7950 and GTX 670 chug, i.e. with a lot of units on the screen, especially if there are cloaked units and lighting effects (e.g. Colossus beams).

SC2 is more often than not CPU-limited rather than GPU-limited.

 

[DaveSimmons]

If you can hold out for a little while, the manufacturers should start replacing their 750m models with 850m ones soon. That will offer a huge increase in speed -- more than 20% faster than a 760m.

 

[ZGR]

If you can hold out for a little while, the manufacturers should start replacing their 750m models with 850m ones soon. That will offer a huge increase in speed -- more than 20% faster than a 760m.

The 850m has no gddr5 variant! The 860m is definitely the card to get.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Should be able to play them fine at those resolutions.

 

[tviceman]

The 850m has no gddr5 variant! The 860m is definitely the card to get.

Incorrect.

http://www.xoticpc.com/force-msi-1492-31028-850m-msi-ge40-barebones-p-7082.html
http://www.xoticpc.com/msi-ge60-apache033-p-6959.html

But agreed on your second part - the maxwell 860m variant is the mobile to be equipped with.

 

[ZGR]

Incorrect.

http://www.xoticpc.com/force-msi-1492-31028-850m-msi-ge40-barebones-p-7082.html
http://www.xoticpc.com/msi-ge60-apache033-p-6959.html

But agreed on your second part - the maxwell 860m variant is the mobile to be equipped with.

My bad. I could have sworn I read that there wouldn't be a gddr5 variant somewhere... The maxwell 850/860m is a really good chip for a laptop though.