Laptop Gaming!

[guy patterson]

I'm buying a laptop. I'm trying decide between a macbook pro and a sony sz series laptop. I'd rather have the sony because I love windows and don't really want to get a mac. My concern is that I won't be able to play any good games on the sony because of it's graphics card.

My question is: is there anyway to replace the graphics card after I buy it?

If not, what would be a good PC laptop that's 14.1" or under (small and portable) that has the video card to allow me to play the occasional game?

 

[Geoff]

For gaming I would personally go with a Windows-based PC, since theres usually a much larger variety of parts to choose from. For gaming, you will want a dedicated video card and a dual-core processor (Core 2 Duo would be best). Generally speaking however, you can't upgrade a laptop's GPU.

What GPU does the Sony have?

 

[just a noob]

i think you could partition(or however it is spelled) the hard drive on the mac, and have dual boot os, that way you could play windows games.

 

[G25r8cer]

There is such thing as Laptop Gaming? LOL I would def go with the sony over the mac as game compat is better with windows. Are you limited to those two choices? B/c I am assuming the sony is going to be way over-priced b/c of the name and you wont get what you are expecting. Set your standards higher!!

 

[guy patterson]

For gaming I would personally go with a Windows-based PC, since theres usually a much larger variety of parts to choose from. For gaming, you will want a dedicated video card and a dual-core processor (Core 2 Duo would be best). Generally speaking however, you can't upgrade a laptop's GPU.

What GPU does the Sony have?

I'm not sure. Last year's model had the Nvidia GeForce Go 7400 graphics card with 128MB of video memory. Is that good enough to at least run counterstrike source at decent settings?

 

[guy patterson]

There is such thing as Laptop Gaming? LOL I would def go with the sony over the mac as game compat is better with windows. Are you limited to those two choices? B/c I am assuming the sony is going to be way over-priced b/c of the name and you wont get what you are expecting. Set your standards higher!!

I'm not limited to those options, but I want something small. I'll mostly be using it for school, but want to be able to game occasionally. I really like the design of the sony, and I'm willing to pay the premium. My brother has one, and it runs like a champ. I also like dell; the laptop I have now is a slightly-out-dated latitude, but it runs great and has never had a problem. I had an HP and experienced several problems and really don't want another. I thought about an asus, but I don't know anyone who has one and feel more comfortable with a brand that has already proven itself to me.

 

[just a noob]

you could get an alienware, there's a 15.4 inch model that can get an 8800 gtx mobile graphics card, you really will pay a premium for it, another laptop you could check for is a vigor pc i think there website is vigorgamingpc.com or something like that, or you could check on a voodoo pc, but those are outrageously overpriced, there website is voodoopc.com or something like that

 

[guy patterson]

you could get an alienware, there's a 15.4 inch model that can get an 8800 gtx mobile graphics card, you really will pay a premium for it, another laptop you could check for is a vigor pc i think there website is vigorgamingpc.com or something like that, or you could check on a voodoo pc, but those are outrageously overpriced, there website is voodoopc.com or something like that

I've seen those, but they are just too big. My first dell was 15.4" and 6lbs. It got way to heavy lugging it around campus. My priority is that its light and small. I may just have to hold out on the games for a few years and just build a kick-ass desktop when I graduate.

 

[just a noob]

lol, try vigor gaming, i think they make a 14 inch or so laptop that has a decent graphics card, otherwise i would strongly recommend the macbook pro because of the fact you can dual boot the os, its light and well...thats all i can think of

 

[Kill Bill]

Get a macbook pro. It will be worth it. Then get windows xp/vista copy and use boot camp assistant and you can run it at darwin bootloader.

 

[Geoff]

i think you could partition(or however it is spelled) the hard drive on the mac, and have dual boot os, that way you could play windows games.

Get a macbook pro. It will be worth it. Then get windows xp/vista copy and use boot camp assistant and you can run it at darwin bootloader.

Mac's can be good for gaming, but if thats your sole purpose then the PC Laptops have a much greater variety of parts to choose from, anywhere from your basic 8400GS to 8800GTX's in SLI. Also, the price for a Mac with dedicated video can get insanely expensive, and if you will be using Windows most often, then I just don't see the point in it.

There is such thing as Laptop Gaming? LOL I would def go with the sony over the mac as game compat is better with windows. Are you limited to those two choices? B/c I am assuming the sony is going to be way over-priced b/c of the name and you wont get what you are expecting. Set your standards higher!!

Sony is overpriced, I've had great experiences with Dell and I would recommend them, especially their XPS line up.

I'm not sure. Last year's model had the Nvidia GeForce Go 7400 graphics card with 128MB of video memory. Is that good enough to at least run counterstrike source at decent settings?

The 7400 is a low-end card, it would be able to run CSS but probably on the lower settings. Even the 8400GS won't be able to run it on medium/high.

 

[Justin]

7300gs here. running source engine games on high w/o aa and hdr on 1024x768(native res).

my brother-in-law has a macbook pro and he dual booted vista on it to just to play games. he uses leopard for work and windows for games. seeing you're a student that would work and play games on that laptop, the macbook pro is better than the sony. and it has a 8600gt! a gpu that will play decent games.

 

[guy patterson]

Thanks for all the info guys! I feel well informed now and will definitly let you guys know what setup I do with. I appreciate all you're help!