Looking at a new laptop

[Firvulag]

I've read a few of the threads here, but nothing useful to me (unless I'm blind...)

I'm making sure my machine 'should' play Civ V and be ok at doing it.
Currently looking at and Inspiron 15R without modification.
i7 2.0Ghz
8Gb 1333MHz DDR3 SDRam
NVidea GeForce GT 525M 1Gb
640Gb 5400 RPM HDD (would love to upgrade that to at least a 750Gb 7200 though)
Windows 7 64bit Home Premium

Any advice on what might be underpowered?

 

[Shaithis]

Video card is terrible; Radeon 5870 or a GTX 460M should be the bare minimum. Hard drive - definitely get a 7200 RPM unless you are planning to upgrade to a SSD in the near future.

Link to laptop video card comparison:

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

 

[tokala]

Almost all laptop video chips are "terrible" by desktops standards
And your bare minimum is already very close to the upper end of the single chip scale for a laptop

For laptop standards a 525M is not that bad, it can get WAY worse than that. Just don't expect to run stuff at maximum settings

 

[Shaithis]

Almost all laptop video chips are "terrible" by desktops standards
And your bare minimum is already very close to the upper end of the single chip scale for a laptop

For laptop standards a 525M is not that bad, it can get WAY worse than that. Just don't expect to run stuff at maximum settings

The OP specifically asked for us to pinpoint what is underpowered. Considering that the machine is an i7 with 8G RAM, the video card in question will be the clear bottleneck. 5400 RPM for hard drive is just a bad idea to boot.

 

[Firvulag]

Thanks guys. Was expecting the vid card to be where the bottleneck was. Thanks for the options and I'll see what I can do to get something better in it.

Being a laptop, it isn't my primary gaming machine, but I'm going to be away for a few months and still want a machine capable of playing like I used to with my old laptop for civ IV.

Don't care about having it at max settings, heck, my desktop can run at max but I still don't most of the time.

And yes, 5400 for a HDD is a bad idea and hoping I can get a better one put in.

 

[Shaithis]

Thanks guys. Was expecting the vid card to be where the bottleneck was. Thanks for the options and I'll see what I can do to get something better in it.

Being a laptop, it isn't my primary gaming machine, but I'm going to be away for a few months and still want a machine capable of playing like I used to with my old laptop for civ IV.

Don't care about having it at max settings, heck, my desktop can run at max but I still don't most of the time.

And yes, 5400 for a HDD is a bad idea and hoping I can get a better one put in.

The thing with laptops is that you really do have to be ready to spend over $1k. Below that, you'll be forced to compromise on 2+ year-old technology.

Word of caution, this game seems to be very brutal on laptops due to some inefficient programming; I have an Asus G73 and still have lag (see my thread, hoping I can figure out why and work this out).

 

[Firvulag]

Yeah, hoping to be able to get a decent enough one for $1500. The one I mentioned was $1300, so with a better graphics card and better HDD spin rate it should be about that I guess. Now to work out which model they'll allow me to change how I'd like...

Also, gaming + laptop usually = pain.

 

[Shaithis]

Yeah, hoping to be able to get a decent enough one for $1500. The one I mentioned was $1300, so with a better graphics card and better HDD spin rate it should be about that I guess. Now to work out which model they'll allow me to change how I'd like...

Also, gaming + laptop usually = pain.

Well, I picked up this Asus G73 for $1k, just keep checking Newegg for open box laptops. If you are going to spend that much money, you can definitely find something built on <1yr old tech.

 

[civ_king]

Core i5 2520M 2.5GHz 3MB (Turbos to 3GHz w/ both cores)
4GB DDR3-1333
GTX 460m 1.5GB GDDR5
$1,577

 

[Smote]

civ king's suggestion is a good one

 

[civ_king]

Yeah, fast CPU and GPUs for the price

 

[Smote]

Basically any decent video card (not integrated or 3 yrs old) and any 2nd gen i5 or i7 (indicated by a 4 digit 2000 number)