$800 Gaming Laptop Question

[etiolate]

I've been looking for a laptop with a video card around that price range and all I've come across is Toshibas with AMD processors. I was trying to go Intel dual core for the laptop, but all the dual cores have on board video. How gimped is the AMD chips in comparison to the Intel laptop chips? And is the ATI 3100 for Laptops up to snuff?

I am basically using the laptop for internet, gaming(say warhammer online/bioshock level) and writing. I know Dell had their Studio series laptops on sale for around 800 before, but I think they are 1k+ normally.

PS: Don't tell me to google, I have shite internet connection at home and can not complete more than one page load per 15 minutes(if I am lucky enough to load a page at all).

This also makes me wonder if anyone has experience with Aircards and cellular broadband.

[etiolate]

So this won't run anything at a decent frame rate?

http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/pdet.to?seg=HHO&poid=418432

Most of them come with that 3100 graphics card, but I can't find anywhere that compares laptop graphic cards.

[etiolate]

Eek. According to these benchmakrs, you can't get a laptop video that will even run F.E.A.R. at a decent rate until you hit the geforce 8800s.

[Fresh Prince]

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Comparison-of-Graphic-Cards.130.0.html

Maybe of some help.

[etiolate]

Looks like I will have to spend more if I want a decent gaming setup. I am also unsure how good an AirCard is for gaming broadband.

So far, this one interests me the most.

http://www.gateway.com/systems/product/529668141.php

Most of the gaming ones are 17 inch and thats too big for me to drag around for writing purposes.

[TVC15]

Eek. According to these benchmakrs, you can't get a laptop video that will even run F.E.A.R. at a decent rate until you hit the geforce 8800s.

Yeah, I wouldn't use FEAR as a benchmark.  FEAR is kind of a hog of a game, technically. 

I think 1000 is probably the magic number for laptops, when it comes to cost.

[etiolate]

Hrm Bestbuy has that Gateway for $850

[T234]

I hear willco is sellin one for cheap. You might wanna jump on that.

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

I noticed the laptop that I just bought (Gateway P-7811) went on sale for $1200 at Best Buy.  It's no longer at that price but you know with the holidays coming up it'll go back down again.

Operating System:   Genuine Microsoft® Windows Vista® Home Premium (64-bit) SP1
Processor:    Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor1 P8400 (2.26GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 3MB L2 cache)
Memory:     4GB (4096MB) DDR3 800MHz Dual Channel Memory (2 x 2048MB modules)
Hard Drive:    200GB 7200rpm Serial ATA hard drive w/ 16MB Cache5
Video:     NVIDIA® GeForce® 9800M GTS with 512MB of GDDR3 discrete video memory
Display:     17.0" WUXGA Ultrabright TFT Active Matrix (1920 x 1200 max. resolution)
Color:    FX Design with Copper Core Accent
Chassis:    Intel® PM45 Chipset
Optical Drive:     8x Multi-Format Dual Layer DVDRW with DVD-RAM featuring Labelflash™ Technology6
Web Camera:    Integrated 1.3 Megapixel Web Cam
Adapter:   120 Watt AC Adapter
Application Software:   Microsoft® Works 9.0, Microsoft® Money Essentials & Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2007 (60-day complimentary trial period)
Audio:   High-Definition Audio- 2 Channel, Built-In speakers, microphone, headphone/SPDIF Audio Out
Backup Media:    Cyberlink Power2Go
Battery:   Primary 9 Cell Lithium Ion battery (7800mAH) w/ 1 Yr. limited battery warranty



If you're set on an $800 limit though and you want to game on it,  you may want to consider a refurbished unit.  Looking at the Dell outlet site, there are quite a few M1530's out there hovering around the 800 dollar mark.  Sure you can only get 'em with a 256MB 8600M GT card but you can certainly play games with it.  Check YouTube for some examples.

http://www.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/notebooks?c=us&cs=22&l=en&s=dfh