Processors...

[Abaddon]

Ok. So it looks like I am back in the market for a laptop.

Last time I entered the market, the pentium 4HT was the mutts nutts.

I understand things have moved on in the last decade

However, my gaming hasn't. I still play Civ3, Morrowind.. etc

BUT, I might like to give civ5 a whirl.

I don't want to spend much, since almost any modern laptop will run the games i play. I only really use it for internet and music.

Essentially, what are the cheap and nasty processors from the last few years I need to avoid (assuming all others will more than cut the mustard)

I'll try and find a laptop with an individual graphics card, but i've found my old games are fine on modern intergrated ones imo...

 

[Aramazd]

Nothing really comes to mind immediately. Atom, of course, but you won't find that unless your looking at netbooks.

The minimum requirements for Civ5 have core i3 integrated graphics. Integrated ATI graphics like the 4250 should be comparable to that. Anything discrete should run Civ5 fine.

 

[GoodGame]

But what if you pick up a Celeron laptop? I think that'd be a no-go for modern gaming, but probably ok for circa-2003 games. Newegg has such an Acer for $450.

 

[tokala]

Ok. So it looks like I am back in the market for a laptop.

Last time I entered the market, the pentium 4HT was the mutts nutts.

I understand things have moved on in the last decade

However, my gaming hasn't. I still play Civ3, Morrowind.. etc

BUT, I might like to give civ5 a whirl.

I don't want to spend much, since almost any modern laptop will run the games i play. I only really use it for internet and music.

Essentially, what are the cheap and nasty processors from the last few years I need to avoid (assuming all others will more than cut the mustard)

Avoid intel Atom and the cheapest AMD based notebooks and anything with a (ultra-) low voltage processor. Usually anything that has 2 cores will do fine, even the Core2Duo based Celerons.

If you are buying a new laptop at all, it probably don't make much sense to go for the cheapest one possible. Just a little more money will gain usually disproportionate increases in perfromance. If you are seriously planning on getting into civ5, you should at least go for a Core2Duo 2GHz, any i3/i5 would als do.

You might also try to look for dealers who specialize in Obsolescent/refurbished/used notebooks. I got myself a new Thinkpad for half the regular price from one of those

If you go for a dedicated video card, make sure that it is indeed more powerful then an integrated one. The i3 GPU is the "high end" of integrated video cards. Anything from nVidia with a "GT" in the name should be fine, or an equivalent ATI GPU.

 

[civ_king]

Avoid intel Atom and the cheapest AMD based notebooks and anything with a (ultra-) low voltage processor. Usually anything that has 2 cores will do fine, even the Core2Duo based Celerons.

If you are buying a new laptop at all, it probably don't make much sense to go for the cheapest one possible. Just a little more money will gain usually disproportionate increases in perfromance. If you are seriously planning on getting into civ5, you should at least go for a Core2Duo 2GHz, any i3/i5 would als do.

You might also try to look for dealers who specialize in Obsolescent/refurbished/used notebooks. I got myself a new Thinkpad for half the regular price from one of those

If you go for a dedicated video card, make sure that it is indeed more powerful then an integrated one. The i3 GPU is the "high end" of integrated video cards. Anything from nVidia with a "GT" in the name should be fine, or an equivalent ATI GPU.

9400M>Intel IGP

 

[Souron]

If you go for refurbished, consider buying a separate new hard disk. Hard disks are the number one component to fail, and with a refurbished machine failure is that much more likely.

 

[Tarkhan]

Hard disks, optical disks, power supplies and fans are the usual suspects for failure. Anything with moving parts will eventually fail - it's physics at work.

 

[civ_king]

If you go for refurbished, consider buying a separate new hard disk. Hard disks are the number one component to fail, and with a refurbished machine failure is that much more likely.

mine hasn't failed after years... so refurbished isn't always bad

 

[Abaddon]

Is there anywhere i can get a list of processors by date of release, and cost at release?

I want to get a laptop with something a few generations ago, but top class at its time...

 

[Perfection]

Has your gaming not changed because your laptop hasn't changed?

Maybe if you got something modern you'd play newer games.

 

[Tarkhan]

you'd be better just looking at a list of available laptops..

Cost at release doesn't really mean much now.

 

[tokala]

Is there anywhere i can get a list of processors by date of release, and cost at release?

I want to get a laptop with something a few generations ago, but top class at its time...

List

You will want to get a Core2Duo based system, period.
The difference between the different variants will be a few percent for the same clock speed. So a 2 year old C2D at 2GHz will essentially perform the same as a 2 month old model at 2GHz. Even the Pentium/Celeron Dual-Core variants are in the same ballpark.
Price at release is irrelevant for the performance.

Oh, and if you would like to use the gorgeous graphics mods for morrowind, you should get at least 512 GB for the video memory, preferably more. But beware of ulltra-slow GPUs with loads of memory, the manufacturers just love to do that ...

 

[Genocidicbunny]

List

You will want to get a Core2Duo based system, period.
The difference between the different variants will be a few percent for the same clock speed. So a 2 year old C2D at 2GHz will essentially perform the same as a 2 month old model at 2GHz. Even the Pentium/Celeron Dual-Core variants are in the same ballpark.
Price at release is irrelevant for the performance.

Oh, and if you would like to use the gorgeous graphics mods for morrowind, you should get at least 512 GB for the video memory, preferably more. But beware of ulltra-slow GPUs with loads of memory, the manufacturers just love to do that ...

The first part is not really true. I would go for a more modern Core i5/i7 because they are significantly faster per clock, they use a lot less power and are by now fairly common.

For video cards, the video memory is largely irrelevant by now since most GPU's have at least 512MB built in. Beware of the ones that use shared memory exclusively since those are going to be much slower. You also want to avoid the lower-end models since they're not good for anything but basic 2D. Anything made by intel, or anything in the x5xx and below range from nVidia you should avoid.

Here's a list of different notebook GPU's, ranked by performance:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

Ideally you dont want to get anything below the 100th position on that chart, but at the same time, the top 40 might be overkill for what you're looking for. Also bear in mind that a discrete GPU will use up a lot more battery power, so if that is important to you, you may have to go with integrated graphics after all.

 

[tokala]

The first part is not really true. I would go for a more modern Core i5/i7 because they are significantly faster per clock, they use a lot less power and are by now fairly common.

I want to get a laptop with something a few generations ago, but top class at its time...

A bit hard to do that with a Core iSomething
I was talking about "historic" CPUs

 

[Genocidicbunny]

My post was directed at you, not the OP.

 

[Abaddon]

Geo, but looking more in the past, was the move to dual core thesignifiant leap of the last 10 years? P4ht's were fine for morrowind, but I want a generation on from that.

I feel a laptop with the new processors will be a significant leap, I'm not willing to pay.

I want a laptop 5+ years old, so now dirt cheap (sub £200) but back in it's day was a sweet laptop, an more than good enough to kick morrowinds ass.


@ Perf, perhaps, but n general I feel I have played all genres now, an slightly shinyr graphics will not make it any better. Also, I have a backlog of games I want to play from that era, if I ever get bored of them, then I'll push my taste forwards, an hopefully by then, again, I'll still be a long while behind the tech curve, and only need a cheap lappy to play... I'm generally about 8 years behind release date!

Also, I live on here, who needs games?

@Tok, cheers, indeed I am mod heavy in morrowind... More trees, npc's, children, textures etc

 

[tokala]

Geo, but looking more in the past, was the move to dual core thesignifiant leap of the last 10 years? P4ht's were fine for morrowind, but I want a generation on from that.

The jump from P4 to C2D is probably the most significant leap in performance since the original Pentium. To give a perspective, ONE core of a C2D at 2GHz is about as fast as a 4GHz Pentium 4, while consuming way less than half the power to achieve that. And the second core is useful even if the game uses only one, as everything else that is using up CPU cycles can be offloaded to the second core.

The next best thing to get would be a Pentium/Celeron M based notebook, the later models are labeled Core Solo/Duo. Those are basically the predecessor of the C2Ds, and ANY of those is preferable to ANY Pentium 4, but you still would want to get something upwards of 1.5GHz. Clock for clock they are almost as fast as a C2D, and the Core Duo models even sport a dual core

And it would be a real mismatch if you would use one of those nice CPUs with a crappy intel integrated GPUs

Something like THIS is probably as good as it gets for £200, used laptops with a decent GPU are rare, it seems.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Geo, but looking more in the past, was the move to dual core thesignifiant leap of the last 10 years? P4ht's were fine for morrowind, but I want a generation on from that.

I feel a laptop with the new processors will be a significant leap, I'm not willing to pay.

I want a laptop 5+ years old, so now dirt cheap (sub £200) but back in it's day was a sweet laptop, an more than good enough to kick morrowinds ass.


@ Perf, perhaps, but n general I feel I have played all genres now, an slightly shinyr graphics will not make it any better. Also, I have a backlog of games I want to play from that era, if I ever get bored of them, then I'll push my taste forwards, an hopefully by then, again, I'll still be a long while behind the tech curve, and only need a cheap lappy to play... I'm generally about 8 years behind release date!

Also, I live on here, who needs games?

@Tok, cheers, indeed I am mod heavy in morrowind... More trees, npc's, children, textures etc

Dont bother if you're gonna limit yourself to 200 pounds. Up that to 300-350 and you can get a pretty sweet used laptop that will last you half a decade with your requirements. 300 pounds should get you a low-end C2D with a older midrange GPU -- something definitely capable of playing 5+ year old games.

 

[tokala]

Dont bother if you're gonna limit yourself to 200 pounds. Up that to 300-350 and you can get a pretty sweet used laptop that will last you half a decade with your requirements. 300 pounds should get you a low-end C2D with a older midrange GPU -- something definitely capable of playing 5+ year old games.

While you may get a C2D laptop for £300, you would have to look at the £400-450 range if you want a GPU that is faster than that ancient X700 of my £200 example.

But it may indeed be a better (and in the long run not much more expensive) idea to buy every 5-6 years a new budget gaming laptop than every 3-4 years a 4 year old high-end one.

 

[civ_king]

The jump from P4 to C2D is probably the most significant leap in performance since the original Pentium. To give a perspective, ONE core of a C2D at 2GHz is about as fast as a 4GHz Pentium 4, while consuming way less than half the power to achieve that. And the second core is useful even if the game uses only one, as everything else that is using up CPU cycles can be offloaded to the second core.

The next best thing to get would be a Pentium/Celeron M based notebook, the later models are labeled Core Solo/Duo. Those are basically the predecessor of the C2Ds, and ANY of those is preferable to ANY Pentium 4, but you still would want to get something upwards of 1.5GHz. Clock for clock they are almost as fast as a C2D, and the Core Duo models even sport a dual core

And it would be a real mismatch if you would use one of those nice CPUs with a crappy intel integrated GPUs

Something like THIS is probably as good as it gets for £200, used laptops with a decent GPU are rare, it seems.

I need proof to believe that