Gaming Laptops and Oblivion

[neuroticmancer]

Hola. I need some direction. I'm getting ready to purchase a laptop to replace my old one, and I'm looking for the most bounce per ounce - which is to say, I want a laptop for under 2 grand that will run Oblivion on the decent settings. Here's what I found:

Asus Z81-SP
P4 3.6 (or so - 3.8 is doable)
Upgradable GeForce Go 6800 256 (PCI 16 pipe, I think)
2 gig Corsair ram
80 gig hard disk (at 7200 rpm)
15.4 inch screen
etc.

This'll set me back about 1900, which I'm fine with. My only concern is that this rig isn't up to the Oblivion challenge. I'm also not well-versed in the dual core arts. There is another rig with an intel core duo running at 2.16 for the same price, but I don't know if a dual core is the best option for gaming. If anyone has an opinion, I'd sure appreciate it. Hate to sink 2 grand into what will be a glorified paperwieght in a year or so. -R

 

[nottheking]

Hola. I need some direction. I'm getting ready to purchase a laptop to replace my old one, and I'm looking for the most bounce per ounce - which is to say, I want a laptop for under 2 grand that will run Oblivion on the decent settings. Here's what I found:

Asus Z81-SP
P4 3.6 (or so - 3.8 is doable)
Upgradable GeForce Go 6800 256 (PCI 16 pipe, I think)
2 gig Corsair ram
80 gig hard disk (at 7200 rpm)
15.4 inch screen
etc.

This'll set me back about 1900, which I'm fine with. My only concern is that this rig isn't up to the Oblivion challenge. I'm also not well-versed in the dual core arts. There is another rig with an intel core duo running at 2.16 for the same price, but I don't know if a dual core is the best option for gaming. If anyone has an opinion, I'd sure appreciate it. Hate to sink 2 grand into what will be a glorified paperwieght in a year or so. -R

I'd recommend the Core Duo, or even a Core Solo or Pentium M, over a Pentium 4 any day of the week; The Core processors, in gaming, are about 1.85 times as good, (2.16GHz works out to around a 4GHz P4) AND they're better on battery life; Oblivion also sees worthwhile benefits from dual-core chips. On a side note, this is why Intel's ditching the Pentium 4 for the "Core" processors.

As for the graphics card, it will do in a pinch, but if you ever want to play Oblivion at your native resolution and stay sane, I wouldn't go for anything less than, say, a GeForce Go 7800 or Mobility Radeon X1800; note that these cards tend to be a bit weaker than their desktop counterparts with the same names, (because speeds are reduced for heat/power reasons) hence why I recommend what are normally killer cards.