Notebook selection help

[Luci Himmel]

Hi, I've been offered to choose a notebook to work when out of town. Now i like to play SL and i was wondering which of the choices would be better in regard of SL Performance. The work requirements are met by both.

1) ASUS N55SF-S1244V:

i5 2410M; 8GB DDR3; NVIDIA GeForce GT555M 2048 MB DDR3 VRAM; 15,6" Anti Glare Panel (Full HD, 16:9, 1920 x 1080) 

or

2) SONY VPCF23A9E/B

i7 2670QM; 6GB DDR3; NVIDIA GeForce GT540M 2GB GDDR3 VRAM; 16,4" VAIO-Display Plus (1920 x 1080, 16:9)

 

which of both is the better option and will they even be able to run SL decently without overheating?

Thanks

[Linda Brynner]

Hi Luci,

The GT555M is faster than the 540... that is if the 555M is delivered with 192 memory bandwidth. The standard version has only 128 which is the same as the 540.

However i would try to find a notebook with a 580M onboard. It has a memory bandwidth of 256. The difference with 128 is night and day, especially textures do load very slow with a 128. 192 is something in between, but 256 usually is so fast and SL is already so slow. You need all the possible power for SL these days.

But ok, 192 can be a acceptable compromise; such might be out of date sooner of course for SL.

Only the Dell XPS 17 and Alienware M14x are delivered with a 555M with 192. All the rest are 128's But do ask the sales person explicitely.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-555M.41933.0.html

560M's and 570M's are always shipped with 192. 580M's always with 256.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-560M.48313.0.html

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-580M.56636.0.html

Best of luck

 

 

[Luci Himmel]

Hello,

I've asked for 560 and 580 gpu's but apparently only laptops with up to the 555 are available for selection, or the rebranded 630M.

[VRprofessor]

So, you have option A or option B?  In this case I like option Asus.  You won't be running on high or ultra settings, but you should have enough for medium.  If you are primarily chatting or hanging out this should be good enough.  Busy sims or dance clubs will be less than satisfying.

[Seven Overdrive]

I have a Dell XPS 17 with a nVidia GeForce GT 555m and can run SL on ultra settings with shadows in most places.  Turning shadows off I get great framerates on ultra settings no matter how poorly built a sim is or how congested with avatars.  

[housgear]

I would say that SONY would be the good choice and better than ASUS. They normally good at making motherboards, and their machines are very solid. So you can get good quality notebook.

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[Luci Himmel]

Hello, thank you all for your help!

I ended up getting the asus and so far it looks very high manufacturing quality.

After i figured out how to enable the nvidia graphics for sl it now runs very well. i'm pleased with it's power and it definately more than meets my requirements, even at 300m draw distance.

 

Luci