I shall go do pancake research..

EDIT:: http://www.msi.com/product/nb/GT70-Dragon-Edition.html#?div=Specification

8 gigs ram 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7 Processor

Not sure of price tho

Edited January 10, 201313 yr by WelshPancake

I'm going to try and understand the "graphics card" thing...

 

This is the recommended grahpics card settings for GTA IV:

 

Video Card: 512MB NVIDIA 8600 / 512MB ATI 3870

 

Under Sager Video Card options, I have:

 

AMD Radeon HD 7970M GPU with 2GB GDDR5 Video Memory

Nvidia GeForce GTX 670M GPU with 1.5GB GDDR5 Video Memory

Nvidia GeForce GTX 670MX GPU with 3GB GDDR5 Video Memory (Currently Highlighted under CUSTOMIZE IT menu)

Nvidia GeForce GTX 675MX GPU with 4GB GDDR5 Video Memory

Nvidia GeForce GTX 680M GPU with 4GB GDDR5 Video Memory

Nvidia Quadro K3000M Graphics with 2GB GDDR5 Video Memory

 

Under MSI suggestion, I have:

 

High-end NVIDIA® GeForce GTX 675MX discrete graphics card (with GDDR5 4GB VRAM)

 

Me being a total newbie at this, I'm not sure which card is better. What is the difference between M and MX?

 

@Ceril, I could use your advice again.

 

@Ceril

 

Your post was extremely helpful...but not enough to mark "solved".

 

I applaud your "graphics for dummies walkthrough".

 

I have one more question to ask; okay, two.

 

What is the difference between recommended settings and minimum settings? And, if I got a laptop that is BELOW the "recommended" settings BUT ABOVE the "minimum" settings, would I still be okay with running the game well?

 

I'm definitely going to be looking more into these Sager Notebooks; they look like the real deal AND small enough to be portable.

 

I'm looking for something that is within 10'' - 15'' in length.

 

@WelshPancake, I would get an Alienware, but if I can find something a bit cheaper, than that's a benefit. How good is the RAM on Alienware? I read an article on Alienware, that they offer very little RAM.

 

I'm glad that my post helped :]

Recommended settings are the what the company thinks that the game would run well on. Not necessarily great, but run okay. Minimum settings are the absolute lowest that the game can actually be played on. Anything below minimum generally just doesn't work. In terms of minimum settings, it really comes down to what the company believes is "playable". I had a laptop that was just above minimum settings for SW:TOR, and the game played at 5-20fps. Most of the time, it was like playing a slideshow. Hardly playable. But yet, the company still deemed it playable.

If you were to buy a laptop somewhere between Minimum and Recommended, the game should run. It might not run great, but it will run. I would try to get as close to recommended as possible. I personally recommend getting something above minimum. Nothing sucks more than paying $1000 to play a slideshow, when a few hundred extra would mean a smooth game.

Right, that's what I'm aiming for right now. For GTA IV ABOVE Recommended. So far, based on what has been suggested, I'm up to a 2.8Ghz Processor (Intel Core Duo) and a Nvidia GeForce 670GX with 4GB Video Memory.

 

If you could help me a little with my graphics card comparison, then this topic will be that much closer to being marked "solved".

 

So far, I'm hooked onto Sager, but I'm making comparisons of graphics cards I come across to see which is better. Silly me; I just realized the MSI grahpics card is offered as an upgrade to the Sager Notebook, LOLs.

So I'm looking at Alienware laptops right now and they offer Turbo boosts for processors...Does this mean a 3.4 GHZ processor can be boosted to 3.6 GHz?

 

Also, if GTA IV calls for 2 GB of video RAM and another game asks for 4 and my Video RAM total is 6, will I be able to install both games? Does RAM run out or is it virtual in the sense I just need to have the required amount of RAM to run a game?

here's a good comparison tool:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

 

I'm fairly certain that any of the Sagers that start with 91, and the 6350 have more than capable graphics processors.

the GTX 670 is definitely a great card, and is well above the minimum for GTA IV, as is the 660. I'd say anything GTX 660 and above with 2GB GDDR5 is great.

 

In terms of RAM for your computer, i would go with 6GB or more (not counting the Video Ram, which is a separate ram) RAM is not cummulative, if you have something that calls for 2GB, and another that calls for 4, you're perfectly fine with 4. The only reason you wouldn't be fine with 4 is if you wanted to run both of the games at the same time, which would just be silly.

 

edit -

Video ram works the same way, i see now that you specifically asked about the video ram :]

Edited January 10, 201313 yr by Ceril

Looking to wrap this up soon.

 

I'm comparing both laptops through GAME DEBATE; perhaps you've heard of it. Well, I ran the Sager laptop specs through GAME DEBATE and it came out with:

 

10 for the Processor

9 for the Video Card

9 for the Memory

 

I also ran an Alienware for kicks (Mx18)

 

10 for Processor

9 for Video Card

7 for Memory (LOL)

 

The Sager is looking more and more like the one for me, but still comparing. Will now use this suggested comparing tool. Thank you again, Ceril.

Edited January 10, 201313 yr by LegendOfGta

Besides the Sager Notebooks, I've been looking into Alienware. I know that Alienware is "overpriced" but when I looked at some of the other games I wanted to play on this laptop (besides GTA IV) like Saints Row 2, ArmA, Saints Row the Third and GTA San Andreas, they are asking for 2.8GHz and above to run the game well.

 

This is where the Sager Notebook fails to meet the processor specifications (at least to me). Alienware's Mx14 can be upgraded to 3.4Ghz with a 2.0GHz Turbo Boost; the Sager NP9150 can only be upgraded to 2.8GHz, so Alienware beats Sager in this category, but is the amount of GHz a BIG FACTOR in running games well?

 

Other than that, Sager and Alienware both have very good graphics cards and can be upgraded to even more powerful graphics cards including the Nvidia GeForce GTX 660M which is really damn fast!

 

 

Another question, when it says is 2GB of Video RAM good or bad?

Edited January 11, 201313 yr by LegendOfGta

Besides the Sager Notebooks, I've been looking into Alienware. I know that Alienware is "overpriced" but when I looked at some of the other games I wanted to play on this laptop (besides GTA IV) like Saints Row 2, ArmA, Saints Row the Third and GTA San Andreas, they are asking for 2.8GHz and above to run the game well.

 

This is where the Sager Notebook fails to meet the processor specifications (at least to me). Alienware's Mx14 can be upgraded to 3.4Ghz with a 2.0GHz Turbo Boost; the Sager NP9150 can only be upgraded to 2.8GHz, so Alienware beats Sager in this category, but is the amount of GHz a BIG FACTOR in running games well?

 

Other than that, Sager and Alienware both have very good graphics cards and can be upgraded to even more powerful graphics cards including the Nvidia GeForce GTX 660M which is really damn fast!

 

 

Another question, when it says is 2GB of Video RAM good or bad?

 

Keep in mind that the processors that you'll be buying are the newest generation. the new 2.8GHz quad core processor should be able to handle it.

2GB of GDDR5 Video Ram is very good.

Games in general (as far as i know) probably won't need anything above 1.5GB of video ram. With my PC at home, GTA IV doesn't run above 700MB of my video ram.

As always, thank Ceril for your response. You've taught this "console gamer" a lot in the past few days.

 

I'm just about ready to make a decision; it's come down between Sager NP9150 upgraded to a Intel Core i7 2.8GHz processor and a Nvidia GeForce GTX 670MX (I think) and an Alienware Mx14 upgraded to a Intel Core i7 3.4GHz processor with a 2.0 GHz Turbo Boost and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 660M.

 

My last question pertaining to narrowing down the laptops is this:

 

Which laptops tend to OVERHEAT easier? Also, what are the usual causes of overheating?

 

An off topic question but related to PCs:

 

What are these?

 

 

3DMark05 3DMark06 3DM Vant. P GPU 3DMark11 P GPU

 

These are all listed under the Graphics Card comparisons and I'm wondering if they mean anything important in weighing on my decision.