New Laptop Help!!

[LatashaGrey]

Hi! so I'm getting a new lapgop since I havent been able to steadily play Second Life for 4 months and I was looking around and I made my own laptop :) Now before you say "Desktop PC's are better, it would be better to get that", I travel a lot and I would love to be able to play Second Life wherever ^-^. I would like to be able to use Second Life with AT LEAST 15 FPS in a crowded place like a club on a saturday night lol. I would like Medium graphics or higher but anything lower is just fine for me :)

(Posted a screenshot because it wouldn't allow me to paste? lol)

Please tell me if there is anything I need to update.

If there is any other information I need to provide since I'm not techy and isn't very good at posting forums lol

 

 

[Taeem]

Hi Latasha.

Desktop PCs are better

No, sorry, using a laptop for SL myself usually. Your configuration doesn´t look bad for your expectations. The GTX 950M would be considered as lower end graphics card by many people (960, 965, 970 as mid-end, 980 as high-end) but it´s a dedicated graphics card and there are weaker dedicated ones around as well, not to talk about integrated graphics even, so personally I don´t quite agree with that view, I´d call it mid-range for laptops. I think medium graphics should work in crowded places, but nobody who doesn´t actually use a laptop with a 950M in crowded places will guarantee you that maybe someone who has one will show up. There was someone who bought a laptop with a 950M after asking about it on here, and came back to the thread to say she was happy with it, but I don´t know about crowded clubs, iirc she was more looking for something to take pics on high settings.

A 5400 rpm hdd is pretty slow, if the configrator offers an upgrade to one with 7200 rpm for not much more, I´d take it, best/fastest/most silent of course would be a ssd, but that´s usually an expensive upgrade to choose. You might be able to exchange the hdd for a ssd later on yourself, when you've processed the cost for the new laptop, it´s not that hard to do. That´s provided the laptop model you chose allows for that, but usually configurable 'made my own laptop' laptops should have that possibility.

In case you consider, spending a bit more for a better SL experience, I´d think about, in that order, a GTX 960M instead of the 950M, a ssd, more RAM. But if the specs you posted meet your budget, keep with that, should be okay

(If you want to keep the latter two options open to you, make sure to get a laptop that allows for that, you could do it yourself as upgrades later on, it´s not that hard, or let a local pc repair shop do it - ask the people you´ll buy it from if it´s possible to exchange hdd for ssd and pop in additional RAM yourself, or post a link to the exact thing you´re looking at, we can´t say with the data you provided.)

 

Generally for any laptop considerations, to not get loads of 'PCs are better' replies and also for help when something goes wrong, or you´d want to install more RAM etc., I can recommend this forum: http://forum.notebookreview.com/

They´ll want exact links to what you´re considering to buy though but there are lots of people with lots of laptop experience and willing to help, and even chances are good that someone there already has the exact same laptop you consider buying or upgrading. If you tell them in which country you want to buy, they might even give you either cheaper options for what you´re looking at, or tell you of lmachines with more power for your money.

Of course it makes sense to ask here when you specifically want a laptop for SL, but here there´s a better chance for more 'Buy a desktop.'  posts than there, as you see it´s a notebookreview forum, so they are inclined to not judge those of us who want to use a laptop too hard  And there´s lots of gamers, and the requirements of SL and games are pretty similar, even if SL isn´t a game

 

[Jean Horten]

Looks like a nvidia/intel optimus hybrid graphics machine.

Optimus gpu switching does not work  correctly under Windows 10, I propose a downgrade to a working operating system like windows 7 or 8.

J.

[Qie Niangao]

"Desktop PC's are better."

Really, it is kind of a shame that we can't get SL running passably on a tablet or some other ultra-portable, and leave the high-end experience to machines with enough space to dissipate the heat of a capable GPU. Maybe Sansar will be reasonably supported on Android and iOS, but with SL we're still stuck on old-timey platforms.

Mostly I wanted to second the suggestion to consider SDD. Personally, I'd dump both the HDD and optical drive: given the physical environment laptops endure, HDs don't enjoy much of a reliability advantage over SDDs, and really, does anybody still use optical drives? I honestly can't remember the last time -- it's certainly been years. (But maybe if I didn't have one, suddenly I'd need one and curse the day I decided to go without. The "Big Yellow Taxi" effect.)

[Freya Mokusei]

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Qie Niangao wrote:

(But maybe if I didn't have one, suddenly I'd need one and curse the day I decided to go without. The "Big Yellow Taxi" effect.)

---

They paved paradise,

And put up a NAND stack.

[Jean Horten]

---

Qie Niangao wrote:

"Desktop PC's are better."

Really, it is kind of a shame that we can't get SL running passably on a tablet or some other ultra-portable, and leave the high-end experience to machines with enough space to dissipate the heat of a capable GPU.

Maybe

Sansar will be reasonably supported on Android and iOS, but with SL we're still stuck on old-timey platforms.

Mostly I wanted to second the suggestion to consider SDD. Personally, I'd dump both the HDD and optical drive: given the physical environment laptops endure, HDs don't enjoy much of a reliability advantage over SDDs, and really, does anybody still use optical drives? I honestly can't remember the last time -- it's certainly been years. (But maybe if I didn't have one, suddenly I'd need one and curse the day I decided to go without. The "Big Yellow Taxi" effect.)

---

Your problem that you try to run SL on an underpowered shiny  giant sized pocket calculator. This simply will not work.

I am sure that using an SSD will solve all WIndows 10 graphics driver problems  automagically.

J

[Qie Niangao]

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Jean Horten wrote:

Your problem that you try to run SL on an underpowered shiny  giant sized pocket calculator. This simply will not work.

I am sure that using an SSD will solve all WIndows 10 graphics driver problems  automagically.

---

No, I wasn't suggesting that they shouldn't take your suggestion to heart. I personally run Windows 10 on desktops with no problems at all, but I have very common graphics cards -- and maybe just dumb luck. I only mentioned Android and iOS as part of the running joke in this thread about desktop envy, and the fact that the distinction between laptops and tablets is shrinking by day.

Similarly, the SSD suggestion doesn't detract from Windows 10 considerations, but the thread seemed to be about more than just Windows 10 compatibility.

[Madelaine McMasters]

Here's the counterpoint to "Big Yellow Taxi", which isn't a counterpoint at all...

[Jean Horten]

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Qie Niangao wrote:

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Jean Horten wrote:

Your problem that you try to run SL on an underpowered shiny  giant sized pocket calculator. This simply will not work.

I am sure that using an SSD will solve all WIndows 10 graphics driver problems  automagically.

---

No, I wasn't suggesting that they shouldn't take your suggestion to heart. I

personally

run Windows 10 on desktops with no problems at all, but I have very common graphics cards -- and maybe just dumb luck. I only mentioned Android and iOS as part of the running joke in this thread about desktop envy, and the fact that the distinction between laptops and tablets is shrinking by day.

Similarly, the SSD suggestion doesn't detract from Windows 10 considerations, but the thread seemed to be about more than just Windows 10 compatibility.

---

You already got the point yourself: You're using it on a desktop machine, not on a hybrid graphics laptop device.

The Nvdia support forums are full with people complaining about Win 10 not working with these hybrid gpu solutions where Win 7, 8 or 8.1 simply worked.

A quick search about nvidia optimus windows 10 will bring up these comments quickly.

J.

 

 

[LatashaGrey]

Thank you everybody and Taeem for the suggestions I will use them and tell you how it goes when it delivers ^-^ 

[Taeem]

Yes, please do, feedback from people on what they finally got and how it turned out for SL, is rare and precious for those in the same boat, and gives the people who know of threads on this that dissappeared from the first pages info to pass on in newer threads, people don´t always use search, and search doesn´t always work well.