How is playing games like DoD:s on laptop?

[Arsenault 1st MRB]

Hi guys,

As I'm probably gonna have to let my actual PC to my father and buy a laptop, I was wondering how different is the experience when you play on that.

I noticed on the forums that several members here play DoD:s and other games on laptops so I thought that I could get some feedbacks from those.

Also. I read Gearhart's topic on what to buy and was wondering if that one was enough for most of the actual games or if I should really go with something stronger like this one.

Thanks for your comments guys!

[Orozco BAR]

I used to use a laptop for DoDS, and it worked pretty well. I had to have the quality turned down to get acceptable performance, but I got the laptop in 2005 for school, so one you get these days will work better. The one word of caution I have, is to watch out for the F$%#ing touchpad. It's really easy to accidentally have your thumb tap it, and register as a "click", meaning you shoot your gun accidentally - this can be very bad in a realism. Might be worth some time poking around to see if you can disable the touchpad before firing up the game.

Edited May 31, 2012 by Orozco BAR

[Janke 1st MRB]

I tried once, after playing San Andreas for about 3-4 hours prior, to run an assault MOS on my laptop, and found that the heat was causing it to be choppy and the performance was sluggish, and my laptop's brand new and fairly high-end. My advice would be buy some form of cooling pad if you plan on gaming on a laptop, the little fans in them can struggle after prolonged periods of time to cool adequately and you may notice a decrease in performance, a cooling pad helps keep the air flowing, elevates the laptop off the desk a bit, and keeps cool air pointed at the hottest parts of the laptop.

Most laptops have some ability to disable the touchpad via keystrokes, so plug in a mouse and disable the touchpad when you're gaming (this goes for you too, Orozco). This is usually facilitated by the Fn key most laptops have, the "function" key. It's usually Fn and one of the F-keys, there should be a small image in the corner of the F-key that looks like a touchpad and a circle-with-a-line-through-it image usually synonymous with "no entry" or "not allowed." Hitting those two keys simultaneously disables the touchpad, hitting them again re-enables it.

Either of those computers would do fine for DOD:S, but I think the Lenovo would probably be a better choice, not just because I'm an Intel fanboy, but because it has a dedicated graphics card with a gig of dedicated VRAM, whereas I believe the ASUS uses an integrated card, that if I'm not mistaken allocates some of the actual RAM for use as VRAM, and won't perform nearly as well in higher-detail games. This would give you an all-around better gaming experience in other games as well, not just DOD:S, as it would be able to handle some of the more graphically-intensive games better. NVidia chips, though, are notoriously hot, no matter the platform, so definitely look at investing in a cooling pad.

That, and the Lenovo has more features to it, such as Bluetooth, an e-SATA port, and 2GB more RAM (not that you really need 6GB, but still). Both of them are from fairly reputable brands, and both of them are on sale, it just depends if you want to spend the extra money on the Lenovo.

One thing to be wary of is that the ASUS seems to be a new product, there are no reviews on it so you can't gauge how well received by customers it has been, or if there have been any issues. The Lenovo has generally positive reviews and has been on the market for a bit, you can read up about how other people felt it was and if it's been working out for the others who've bought it.

[Arsenault 1st MRB]

Wow thanks to both of you guys, especially you Janke. I appreciate those clear and clever advices and will definitely be searching for a cooling device. This clarifies lots of things in my head. Now I'm pretty sure that I will go with the Lenovo.

Again, thank you very much guys!

[Captain Giraffe BAR]

I not only play my games on a laptop, I play them on a Mac! And for the most part the games I want to play work fine. Overheating can be a problem with any laptop, so it's not a bad idea to get an external fan or a laptop cooler. I've got one by Tangus that works fine, looks a bit like this

Most laptops have the option of disabling the trackpad. If not, attaching an USB keyboard can help. I have a wired mouse, and my computer has an option where whenever I plug it into the USB, the trackpad is disabled automatically.

I think you'll probably be fine

[McClendon 1st MRB]

playing games on a laptop kinda falls under the same rules as playing games on a desktop: it all depends on your hardware. Most laptops that are well known will be able to run DOD:S fine and everything but if you try to play a game that is graphically heavy, you will get a serious lag and your computer will overheat. (i had an old HP touchsmart tried to play splinter cell; double agent and grand theft auto on it)....needless to say, i burnt out the process AND graphics card :'( so I upgraded to a ASUS G74-SX and can run battlefield 3 on it at almost 50 fps (on ultra)

[Arsenault 1st MRB]

What about games like Assassin's creed 2 and A's. C. Brotherhood? I bought both like 3 weeks ago? and Martinez what's the name or number or brand of that thing?? Thanks again guys.