Need help to find laptop for PA.

hello. My cousin would like to buy a laptop that can play planetary annihilation. It needs to be $1000 or less. And preferably a very light one.

Is this possible? Can anyone provide some suggestions?
Thanks!

You can get a pretty decent laptop for PA for $1000 or less, although I would highly recommend a desktop. This one is a pretty decent one http://www.ncix.com/detail/sony-vaio-e-series-i7-79-76653.htm, and I think would fit your cousins needs. I suggest you have a broader look around and try to get the best bang for your buck.

P.S. If possible to get a desktop instead for $1100 you could probably squeeze a FX-8350 Octo Core and 3GB 280X and 8-16GB of RAM would run beautifully. I wish you the best of luck on your hunt.

I don't support idea of laptops for gaming because it's always bad idea, but if your cousin don't have choice it's better to get one with Nvidia graphics.

AMD graphics drivers are pretty bad when it's come to updates and compatibility. For example AMD won't provide any official driver updates and and there is pretty high chance that generic drivers will break back light, hybrid graphics or something else.

Just don't actually put it on your lap because you'll probably give your thighs 3rd degree burns. Don't get Apple either, it'll just add another layer of problems. Also stick with Nvidia, because it generally has less issues than AMD. HP might have some worth looking at.

Couldn't resist:

Definitely suggest to him a desktop if possible, BulletsFrozen has the right idea. Generally speaking, laptops with a lot of grunt don't tend to be very light. I'm a huge fan of Asus machines; I've had one as a 3D modelling / Adobe / rendering workstation for years and it's still great. Great performance for money.

Too bad Adobe software costs double the price of a laptop.

It's not just less issues, it's only two issues as far as I know:

1. Hybrid graphics on Sony Vaio Z (VPCZ12X5E) with 1st generation of Intel HD and Nvidia GT330m.
   Require some BIOS patching to update, more details here.
2. Some other crazy laptop with 3GPUs: low-end Nvidia 9XXXm + two other 9XXXm in SLI.

For all time since alpha released I didn't see any other issue with Nvidia drivers. In same time laptop with AMD graphics that can be updated without pain in *** is extremely rare and there is dozens of generic drivers problems. I even have special topic about those crappy drivers.

So for sure guys, you don't want laptop with AMD.

I am really quite surprised. I have played PA on a laptop with an a6 quad core @2ghz, 4 gb of ddr3 ram, and 512mb integrated vram on 1600x900 resolution. The fps stayed between 30-60 for most of the game except for very late game an hour in at 7fps still playable. Did no driver or bios updates XD. I am so in aware that Amd lines cause trouble for PA

I'm looking for actual suggestions on laptop models. I would like to know if anyone plays PA on a laptop and if it works well. If it does please let me know the model.

Thank you. my cousin is wanting a laptop because he is going to be traveling and he would like to go to play PA while traveling through southeast Asia.

Which surprises me, because my desktop rig with an AMD PhenomII CPU and Firepro v5900 runs PA and everything else I put on it flawlessly. I find it weird that AMD's mobile GPUs handle the game terribly. :/

Just want to notice that AMD hardware is fine and even drivers performance not that bad if you have recent drivers. Unfortunately AMD don't care about driver updates on laptops as well as laptop manufacturers.

For example there is usually no download links for mobile drivers on their website except some detection tools that never worked for anyone. So usually you have to manually remove old drivers, then download latest one from external source and then possible fix problems that appear. In same time with Nvidia you just update them with few clicks.

I personally use AMD GPU on my desktop, but situation with laptops support is extremely bad.

I'd personally recommend steering clear of Sony Vaio. I have one; in fact, I spent a pretty penny a few years ago on a custom one. I still use it, and it works great, but I'll never get another Vaio because: Sony gets really funny and proprietary with the Vaio laptop. You can't do anything outside of the box with it. I've forgotten the details at this point, but I remember not being able to image the hard drive for a backup. I'm also having vague recollections of them using their own version of UEFI or something. I won't even try to update drivers any more.

This is opposite of Sony in other regards; I love Playstation for its open platform and welcoming posture for independent game developers; Sony definitely tops Microsoft Xbox on that front (though m$ has come around recently due to pressure).... donno how they went so wrong with Vaio. Maybe it has something to do with bullet-proofing the laptop and spending less money on tech support people helping customers reverse their screwups.

My laptop has an i7 processor with a nvidia 765m and it runs the game very well. If you get one with the 860m it will run the game very will with high textures etc. Mine is a Clevo which tend to be ugly but you get high specs for a decent price. The speakers are rubbish but i use headphones so it is okay. The screen is full HD and very nice. It has travelled with me through three countries in the last 6 months and at the moment i carry it around everyday so it seems to be holding up okay in terms of build quality. You can get Clevo in Europe, the US, Australia and Asia for sure and probably other areas of the world too. They are often taken and re-branded by other companies.
An i5 with a 850m would work fine too I would think if you want to go cheaper and they do a 13.1" model too if you want it to be more portable, though that might mean you want to take a cooling pad of some sort as Asia can get pretty hot and the little laptop can too.
This website may be useful to you http://www.notebookcheck.net/Notebook-Laptop-Reviews-and-News.48.0.html
They have this list which should give you an idea what is out there though I don't know how exhaustive it is http://www.notebookcheck.net/Notebookcheck-s-Top-10-Gaming-Notebooks.98628.0.html
Costs will obviously vary per country. I am talking about Clevo here as I own one and have spent a lot of time researching them in the past. There are no doubt other brands you should look into and consider.
Good luck.

for that price, it's pretty much cheaper to get a $800 desktop with a $200 tablet for the mobility....


As a DTR laptop user (with AMD graphics) i can tell you that it works, but it's not ideal. For the kind of money you need for a proper laptop, you're better off with a desktop. Hell, i'm convinced you can get a better deal with a cheap, light laptop and a desktop and still have the desktop be better than a laptop.

(as you can infer from this, yea my next buy is a desktop).

I used to own a customized laptop, and went that route.

Never again.

Once you actually build a PC yourself, its very apparent that a laptop can never, ever compete with even a decent desktop. I mean, heat dissipation alone puts an upper limit on laptop performance. Plus the ability to upgrade them, which is always nice.

As Far as Laptops go, I really like my ThinkPad I picked up a couple years ago, it was certainly more than 1K but I do far more than just gaming on it so I needed that extra umph. I've actually not fully testing playing PA on it yet despite having it installed and such, I'll have to give that a go sometime....

Mike

Here's what I play on:
Lenovo Y510p
$819-1199 Depending on your rig.

• Up to 4th Gen Intel® Core™ i7 processor
• Windows 8 64
• Up to NVIDIA GeForce GT750M GDDR5 2GB
• Up to 1920 x 1080 resolution
• Up to 16GB DDR3 memory - This is what ups it to $1199.
• Up to 1TB hard drive + 24GB solid state drive
• Up to 3 hours/6-cell battery
• Up to 15.6" FHD LED Glossy Widescreen display
• Starting at 5.95 lbs./ 1.40" thin

The battery is the downside. Thing dies quite quickly. But it's been able to cope with most things I throw at it including Rome Total War 2. Weighs like 1-2 kilos I'd guess. Not that light and about an inch thick in places.

I remedied that somewhat by upgrading to a 9-cell battery right away. I know as it is right now if I adjust the screen brightness and such I can get about 2-3 hours doing 3D work without charging.

Mike

With mine Thinkpad x220i without discrete graphics and 9 cell battery I able to play SupCom or Civ5 for something like 5-6 hours easily.

Hmm, maybe I need to go over the options again to optimize then! I do know that for flights I can get at least 6 hours of video playback!

Mike