Who games on a lappy? If you do, why?

[PingSpike]

You know, if they would just build a proper external PCI-E expansion bus for laptops I'd swallow the extra cost and buy one of those and build some kind of docking station setup with my desktop monitors + keyboard and a separate box containing an graphics card. Then you could do work and light gaming on the go and still have 90% of a powerhouse gaming system on the same machine when you were at home.

There's been talk and some external box products that never made it to the market, but nothing has happened to fill this niche. I get that video cards suck juice like no one's business, make a ton of heat and just aren't great for a laptop...but who says I always need that much power? There's a few laptops that have an ok midrange card and can switch off between that and crap integrated...but why bother lug that around all the time? The lamest part is all one needs is an exposed PCI-E bus and the rest of the problem is easy to solve.

 

[Tom]

I think a better question is why buy a gaming desktop ? I have a couple, but hardly use them anymore. I find it more enjoyable to play on a laptop even around the house because I can play anywhere. In the kitchen, on the deck, in bed, watching tv with the kids.
Desktop computers are like corded phones, the world is moving away from them.

 

[PingSpike]

Well, if the graphics card situation on notebooks wasn't so utterly pathetic I'd be forced to agree with you. Even with that, for most applications you're right.

 

[Schadenfreude]

Echoing the same sentiments as many others:

- I've recently returned from been overseas and have been moving from place to place at a rate of ~1x/year ever since I was 18, so portability is an issue; I can play most of the games I want on my laptop fine (at this point a laptop does all the things that I need to 90% as, if not just as, well as a desktop IMO): although I sometimes DO miss the larger monitor real estate when I play MP FPS'/mess with graphic design.

- On a related note I like that it's all in one place/is portable: that gives me more options as far as setting up a "station" even if I end up living in a 1-bedroom or a studio.

- I have buddies that live 1/2/30 hours away: I can't imagine lugging a desktop along and prices on laptops have been steadily falling.

- I usually think of upgrading the laptop first, and then if we ever settle in one place that has room I would consider building a desktop and its accompanying shrin- erm, office.

- To put it succinctly; laptops have caught up to desktops in price and performance, with the added benefit of portability for 90%~99% of my (and I assume the general public's) daily use IMO - to the point where for me, laptops would be my primary point of purchase for a computer and a desktop would be my "discretionary" purchase, even if it were to become my "daily driver".

(On a sidenote, it's because of these very same @*^-$*&# reasons I can't justify owning a motorcycle! Boo!)

 

[grandosegood]

its a lot nicer to play on a desktop, but if you play dota, wc3, sc2 or tf2 on a dv9000 (2.0 ghz C2D, 4gb, nvidia 8400 gs), you should really overclock your gpu and use a cooling pad. it is possible to get better drivers from tweakforce.com or laptopvideo2go.com for your graphics card but ultimatley having a weak gpu will give you the disadvantage. in my case, i got abt 25-30 fps on tf2 and all low settings and low res.

 

[Toonces]

I live in Japan.
Taking my desktop seemed like an unnecessary burden with all of the other things that I had to think about moving to a different state/culture. Since my first place, I've moved three more times and haven't wanted a desktop to lug around.

I toughed it out with a 6 year old Dell Inspiron (8Mb Rage128 Pro) for a year before getting an ASUS M50-A1 with its 9600GS-M. I've been able to play games reliably at medium settings for the last two+ years; I consider it a good investment.

 

[thescreensavers]

the Desktop I build in 05, Mobo died and the laptop I have was better at gaming. Unless I upgraded the video card in my desktop. So I decided to leave my desktop broken.

 

[blastingcap]

You know, if they would just build a proper external PCI-E expansion bus for laptops I'd swallow the extra cost and buy one of those and build some kind of docking station setup with my desktop monitors + keyboard and a separate box containing an graphics card. Then you could do work and light gaming on the go and still have 90% of a powerhouse gaming system on the same machine when you were at home.

There's been talk and some external box products that never made it to the market, but nothing has happened to fill this niche. I get that video cards suck juice like no one's business, make a ton of heat and just aren't great for a laptop...but who says I always need that much power? There's a few laptops that have an ok midrange card and can switch off between that and crap integrated...but why bother lug that around all the time? The lamest part is all one needs is an exposed PCI-E bus and the rest of the problem is easy to solve.

OnLive is another potential alternative that has some drawbacks for fast-paced games where latency matters but works quite well for other games. The price is kinda steep, though: after the promo period expires, you end up with connection fees AND pay for games at full price, even though it's just a rental since you can't take it with you should you leave the service. Still, it's one way for crappy PCs and laptops to play high-end games.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ytech_gadg/20100702/tc_ytech_gadg/ytech_gadg_tc3028

http://www.maclife.com/article/reviews/onlive_review

 

[gorcorps]

OnLive is another potential alternative that has some drawbacks for fast-paced games where latency matters but works quite well for other games. The price is kinda steep, though: after the promo period expires, you end up with connection fees AND pay for games at full price, even though it's just a rental since you can't take it with you should you leave the service. Still, it's one way for crappy PCs and laptops to play high-end games.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ytech_gadg/20100702/tc_ytech_gadg/ytech_gadg_tc3028

http://www.maclife.com/article/reviews/onlive_review

I've been in the beta for a while, and agree with everything here. It does what it advertises well enough, but there's definite input lag that would make many games a mess. But there's other slower stuff on there like Batman and Assassin's Creed that aren't as affected by it.

Because of that, the price is pretty steep. You have to pay full price for most games (only a few have 3 and 5 day rental passes) plus the constant service fee. It might not be terrible if that's the only way you can game, but it makes little sense for anybody with other ways to play games. It's not exactly aimed at the hardcore gamer IMO.

 

[ed21x]

while living in New York, space was at a premium, so very few people had full size desktops with 5.1 sound systems. i didn't really do any cutting edge gaming, so my laptop was more than adequate for starcraft 2, output to an external monitor and usb hub to a full size keyboard + mouse. Best of both worlds in terms of portability (to be productive elsewhere) and home experience methinks. will never go back to a full size desktop.

 

[khansolo]

I have a friend who games on a laptop and his main reason for purchasing it is for space and portability. For him, it's worth that extra bit of premium price for the convenience of taking it anywhere.

 

[Scouzer]

I use my computer to play games in many places. My laptop goes with me everywhere. I'm generally hauling this mofo around to different places every single day. It doesn't make sense to run a laptop and a desktop simultaneously (huge PITA!) so I just buy expensive laptops.

I definitely miss the speed of a desktop at times though.

 

[pwnagesarus]

I am away from home for another 4 months so my laptop is all I have. Games don't look as pretty and the frame rate isn't ideal but it's not so bad once I got used to it. Plus, I don't game nearly as much anymore and don't find much enjoy in keeping 3-4 machines in the house anymore.

Next computer upgrade I get will probably be a beefy laptop and a docking station.

 

[alkemyst]

I am away from home for another 4 months so my laptop is all I have. Games don't look as pretty and the frame rate isn't ideal but it's not so bad once I got used to it. Plus, I don't game nearly as much anymore and don't find much enjoy in keeping 3-4 machines in the house anymore.

Next computer upgrade I get will probably be a beefy laptop and a docking station.

Usually when people have more than 1 machine there is a reason, not just a collection.

I have my desktop...my wife has her main laptop. I have a laptop I carry to travel and a laptop in my workshop.

We also have an iPad.

 

[htwingnut]

I game on both my laptop and desktop. My desktop is in my finished basement, but since I have two little kids, and we stay on our main floor, I keep my laptop there. Also I keep a decent gaming laptop so I can LAN on occasion. I used to have a Shuttle desktop and just took that with me, but after I got a decent laptop, never again.

 

[Wyndru]

I do all my gaming on my laptop. Mainly because it is higher specs than my desktop which hasn't been updated in a LONG time, but also because I like being able to sit wherever I want with it, and when I go on trips, I have all of my games with me.

It's a Dell XPS 1530 with an upgraded vid card, but I still need to turn graphic settings down a little on most games. The tradeoff is worth it for me though.

 

[scooterlibby]

I have a very nice rig, but if my job ever starts to require travel, which it might, I would definitely get a laptop that could game. This one seems like a pretty good deal:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834152206

 

[cecco]

I have my main gaming rig as a desktop. However when the time came to buy a second computer for the house, I chose a laptop just because of the savings in size. Even though it's only a VAIO FW290, it has enough power to run torchlight and World of Warcraft. That way when I need to be away from my desktop upstairs or the kids are using it, I can still have a quick go at a few games.

Eventually when I decide to hand this laptop over to the kids, I think I will go the same route again. The one thing that sucks is battery life. Not a big deal most of the time since I'm plugged in, but set power to the 'performance', and it drinks the charge in an hour if I'm lucky.

 

[tvdang7]

my only computer. 5730 doing fine.

 

[Rifter]

My main rig seen in sig is my main gaming machine, you are never going to beat a full sized desktop PC for gaming.

That said i have a 15.6" acer laptop with a ATI 4570 GPU and T6600 CPU that i use to game and kill time at work, and while not nearly as powerful as my desktop in can play pretty much any game from a few years back and older, or new but less graphically demanding games. I was honestly very impressed with the gaming performance when i first got it as it was my first laptop and all the ones i had used and seen in the past sucked really bad at gaming.

 

[evident]

sc2 on my laptop when i travel