HELP! Would VAIO® F Series Laptop run Second Life really good?

[Yosho Sirnah]

I'm getting a new laptop(hopefully) and I already have it picked out. The VAIO® F Series Laptop is looking really good to me, but a priority of mine is if it can run Second Life in really good quality. :( I looked into the Second Life System requirements, looked at the graphics card that is recommended, but I'm too computer naive to understand it I guess. It says the recommended graphics card for Windows 7 is:

NVIDIA Graphics cards

9000 Series:

• 9600, 9800

200 Series:

• 275 GTX, 295 GTX

ATI Graphics Cards

4000 Series:

• 4850, 4870, 4890

5000 Series:

• 5850, 5870, 5970
  
  But the laptop I want has a graphic card name is NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 425M GPU . And I don't see it in that list. :( So does that mean it's not compatible for Second Life? Please help!



[Storm Clarence]

Yes, any of those series NVIDIA will work well for SL.  However, I personally don't think you are getting the right bang for your dollars for a not so 'new' machine.

That being said, the i7 processor will deliver.  Graphics will be dependent on what card - i would select the ATI 5970.  It is what you should be paying for.

[Ansariel Hiller]

Because it is not on the official requirement's list doesn't mean it isn't working. What is important is, is that the GPU is listed in gpu_table.txt which you will find in the viewer's installation directory. And if it's not in that list, it can also be added manually so SL works with that GPU.

For NVIDIA cards higher number depicts newer cards - not necessarily faster cards. But that GPU IMHO should be able to run SL in at least high quality settings, although it's a mobile chipset version that is always slower as their desktop counterpart.

[LoveAngeL Lyre]

Hello Yosho. Recently i purchased a new laptop with GeForce GT 520M and it runs SL perfectly. To understand better the series 500M refreshed series 400M. Generally NVIDIA cards, especially new ones (series 400M presented in 2010) seems to run SL without problems. If it possible to find a laptop with series 500M is better more. On the other side i repeat that the series 400M is able to run SL very well.