Gaming Laptop Recommendation

[CptTripps]

Originally posted by: CptTripps
Nah, I'm pretty picky actually, I'm just saying the interpolation is very minimal on the WUXGA Truelife screens, it handles it really really well and just plain looks good, I own one and will vouch for it. On the other hand my desktop LCD is 1280x1024 native and I indeed notice the difference on that screen when running anything but native resolution.

P.S. Even on a CRT 1280x1024 vs 1152x864 is quite noticable imo.

I'm not sure how the 6800 handles 1920x1200 (I've seen it running WOW very smooth at the res but that's it), but the 6800 Ultra handles it amazing and that's at 4AA & 8AF. I figure for any newer games to run at that res I will just have to drop the AA and AF abit.

 

[GimpyOne]

Originally posted by: Mike01

4 - 6 hours of watching DVDs? That's amazing! How do you do that? The processor can't make that much of a difference for DVD watching, can it? What do you have your screen brightness set to?

I actually get about 3 hours with DVD watching after playing around with screen brightness...but 4 to 6 is amazing.

Well I really haven't done much. On battery mode the laptop takes the screen down to 75% brightness and I hit play. I did buy the 9 cell battery when I got it instead of leaving the standard 6 cell in.

With all due respect...how thoroughly did you check?

And, sorry about the delay in my response, but I've now gotten DPB and checked 3 laptops and 4 LCD screens on desktops here in the lab. All Dell and all purchased in the last 1.5 years. Not a single dead pixel on any of them.

I think part of the problem here is volume. Dell sells how many millions of screens a year?(I could only guess so I won't) You hear from what, 50, 100, maybe a few hundred people with problems. That is a miniscule fraction of a percent. They sell more than anyone, so of course they will have more problems. Doesn't mean they are perfect, far from it. But I think people like to get on the high horse against them because they are seen as the MS of the hardware world.


edit: One other comment. I'm not sure if it is available on other LCDs, but one of the nice things about Dell's Screens and Laptops is you can have it not interpolate the game view. So you have small black bars on the sides/top/bottom but at least the image isn't streched if you don't want it to be.

 

[Mike01]

Ah...the extended battery!

That will do it.

Dead Pixels...I'm really glad that's the case. I had three laptops and one monitor with dead pixels all in the same week and I think I've developed a phobia.

It's good to know that it really is a rarity like manufacturers claim. Unless you just got lucky...

 

[bhanson]

Originally posted by: Mike01

I'm not knocking the Dell 9300...if you are majorly into FPS games, that's the best laptop you can get (except the XPS or whatever they call that thing). And, in all graphics intesnive games, the dell will give you much frames per second (though anything over 30 or 40 is lost to the eye). But for just about everything else, that Gateway is going to be just a little (or a lot ...depending on which CPU you get) faster.

That's crap, your eye can sense more than 40 fps. There is a clear difference between 40 and 60, and 60 and 80. Some people can see more.

 

[fbrdphreak]

For those who missed it, ATI will be releasing a 16 pipeline notebook graphics card.
Link

 

[CptTripps]

Originally posted by: fbrdphreak
For those who missed it, ATI will be releasing a 16 pipeline notebook graphics card.
Link

Very cool, although I was very pleased at how well the 6800U Go runs with 12 pipelines vs. the desktop flavor GT and Ultras with their 16 pipes.

Sounds pretty cool from the article though, would like to see some benchies.

 

[Mike01]

That's crap, your eye can sense more than 40 fps. There is a clear difference between 40 and 60, and 60 and 80. Some people can see more.

I didn't say you couldn't see the difference...it's a common misconception that people cannot see more than 30fps. I said it's lost to the eye.

If I sit you down next to two games, one running at a minimum of 40fps and the other, identical game, at a minimum of 80, you would be hard pressed to tell me which is which.

The reason you can tell the difference in real world games (notice I said minimum above) is that a game running at an average of 40fps will frequently dip down to 20, sometimes even less. A game running at 80 will dip down to 40 or 30...therefore that game will seem much more smooth.

On an LCD display, however, you are much more likely to be bothered by motion blur and ghosting than occaisional dips in framerate. So unless that Dell has an 8ms (or better yet 4ms) panel....your first person shooter performance is going to be second rate no matter what video card you have in there. I have an 8ms panel on my desktop, and I'm still annoyed by motion blur...but then I don't play many FPS.