So I decided to go against building a pc. I dont know how long I will be in China and it seems that prices for building a pc are higher than in the states. Also if I build one in the states and have it shipped to China, I would have to pay a high shipping cost if I want it well protected from dings and such damage. I have been looking for a good laptop and I found the one in the link below. I am sorry I keep bugging you guys for opinions. I looked at the opinions on Amazon and on the Lenovo website, they mostly seem to be positive. What do you guys think of this laptop?


http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/y-series/y510p/

or this one (Is the extra video card worth the extra 300 dollars?)

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/y-series/y500/


Jens


last edited 634 weeks ago by Ulrich Stormbringer

Dreaubaut replied

634 weeks ago

Looks like a nice Laptop it does have the power for all the system requirements for the game but i havent heard of the brand before tho the reviwes on that page all seem fairly solid id say its a fairly nice choice if it fits ur budget well the 2nd link didnt rly show and specs so not sure what one u were looking at asumeing its a 2nd gpu that would just mean better grapical power I think the M14x from alienware would be worth the moneys if ur gona spend 1200 or so

Tannlore replied

634 weeks ago

Fun Fact: Lenovo is what IBM used to be called. ^_^

Idea pads are a good brand of computer. Very solid and dependable (has to be really). Now for the choice, I would go with the higher graphics card. Since it is a laptop, upgrading that piece of the hardware might be near impossible so it is best to just go with the better on in those respects.
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Maxi Celestus Admin replied

634 weeks ago

Out of the choices there, I would stick to the ones on the first link, simply because of the 4th Gen i7 processors.

The $819.00 one does not natively support 1080p (native is 1366x768), but if that's not a factor for you then that's the best option hands-down.

If you DO care about 1080p however, then it's not as simple. A 750M is a pretty great card, but chances are it might not have enough power to run certain games at consistent framerates. Of course that also depends on the graphical settings you're expecting to run on. If you don't care for high details, then get the $999 one. If you do, then the $1,199.00.

A bit all over the place, but I hope that helps. ^^

Dreaubaut replied

634 weeks ago

The Pc Guru has Spoken!
Arggg!

I read your post and was mind blown Maxi. I put the link for the wrong laptop. When you mentioned the 3rd gen and 4th gen processor, i was like what did i do. The one I am actually looking at is the one in the far right of this link

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/y-series/y510p/

This model: 59370007

I am sorry about the confusion. This model has two video cards, both 750. What do you think the game would run like. What kind of numbers would i see on the benchmark, what would be a guesstimate?

@Tannlore I didnt know that they used to be IBM. Good turn around.

Jens

Maxi Celestus Admin replied

634 weeks ago

Wasn't too sure, so I did a little research beforehand.

Someone with similar specs to the laptops you're eyeing (SLI GT 750M but i7-3630QM processor) scored a 6514. This was on 1920x1080 on Maximum settings. Keep in mind that Maximum is optimized for Desktop PCs and were not made to run on laptops. In fact, laptops have their own graphical presets for ARR.

From here on, it's guess work. I don't know exactly how CPU intensive ARR is, but if it's anything like most games, a better processor should give you better performance. So with 4th Gen i7 and SLI 750M, lets say it gets about 7000.

As I said, no point really pushing it on Maximum on a laptop, especially on a 15" display. So on high settings lets push it up to about 8000. If we tweak it and toggle things like Depth of Field, Ambient Occlusion, LOD, etc. We're talking about 9000 now.

Now if we remove one card we're at about 4500 (This is NOT how SLI works at all, but for the sake of argument let's half it). To put this in to perspective, I was running Beta Phase 3 on a PC that scored about 5000 on Maximum. On Max, I was not able to get consistent frame rates while playing. I did get good rates on High settings however (unfortunately I don't remember what my benchmark score was on these settings).

Again, depends what you really want out of it. If you really want the best experience then SLI might be the best choice.
Wow! Thanks for looking into the cards for me. So you what settings should be ran on a laptop. You mentioned that high settings is more optimized for desktops and laptops should be middle settings? I am looking for a laptop that will run ff14 smoothly with good looking graphics. I don't want to many pixilated graphics. I don't want the super duper settings on the laptop, but I want to be able to run the game comfortably and maybe do some window mode or something. I also don't want the laptop to sound like its going to explode.

I have an alienware M11xr3. I really like it, but when i run the game on high settings, sounds like its going to take off on me, lol. I want to get a different laptop, so I dont kill this one. I like carrying this one around.

So to recap if I run it on medium settings, if will be running at a very decent frame rate? I just want good reaction time and less of a console look to the game

Maxi Celestus Admin replied

634 weeks ago

So you what settings should be ran on a laptop. You mentioned that high settings is more optimized for desktops and laptops should be middle settings?JSchubis
This should help explain it a bit:


As you can see, there are High and Standard settings for both Desktop and Laptops. Maximum is really only meant for Desktop PCs, though that doesn't mean you can't run it on a laptop. But those are only presets, you're still free to customize some stuff that are performance heavy like the ones I listed before. For comparison, the PS3 version is more close to the Standard preset.

Wow, I just re-read my earlier post. That last paragraph was poorly worded o.O. Lemme clear up three things:

  • When I talked about "consistent frame rates" on my other PC, I didn't really mean to sound so negative. What I meant was having it able to run 60 FPS all the time, which is really difficult to do most of the time. In towns it would drop to about 20-40 FPS depending on how many people were on screen, which is actually pretty normal. I'm just a nerd and like consistent numbers so don't mind that lol.
  • I was also thinking about the whole thing from a 60 FPS perspective. ARR also has an option to cap at 30 FPS. This is still a perfectly viable option and a single 750M should do just fine on that. Most PS3 games (ARR included) run at 30 FPS, so it's not really making anything worse.
  • Almost ALL of this is completely moot if you go for the 1366x768 native laptop. You should have no trouble running the game on high settings at that resolution. It is still HD resolution and above 720p (also above PS3 ARR native resolution). Even if you get any of the 1080p laptops, you can always run the game at 720p resolution which will give you massive performance boost.
Also Tannlore brought up the point about longevity. SLI laptop will last you longer in terms of how many new/modern games you can play. Might want to think about that too.

EDIT: tl;dr version: You should be able to play the game fine on a single 750M, but if you want higher quality and ensure you don't have to upgrade again in the near future, get the SLI 750M.
All right! I think I finally got this. So even if i chose to get the laptop with the two NVIDIA cards, its best to run it at 720p resolution so I can get better numbers while playing ff14. I just want to make sure that when I am out an about exploring its going to look as good as some of the screenshots i have seen. I understand the slowdown once you hit the cities, but I want to see some good frame rates when we are running around killing or running away from evil rabbits who amass piles of bones outside their lairs. Thanks again for your help. I think I am going to go for the 1080 with the 4th gen I7. Would be a smart idea for upgrade purposes like you and Tannlore mentioned.

Thanks again!
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