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High Performance Gaming Laptops On A Budget?

Posted by simoniker on from the portable-gaming-goodness dept.

Cory Tunney writes "In my quest to find a gaming laptop that will fulfill my gaming fantasies, but not kick me in the wallet at the same time, I've come across many options. Alienware is out of the question, as are companies like VooDooPC, but out of the rough comes companies less known but with impressive hardware. Sager seems to have won over a pretty large group of fans, and iBuyPower also seems to put out a decent amount of bang for the buck. However, when it comes down to it, I am still left with several options and I do not know what road to travel. So here's the jist of it - a system with a price tag around $2,000, a high-end video card (Radeon or the equivalent NVidia) and a system with an AMD would be a plus, but I will not rule out Intel if they can offer similar performance. So, Slashdot readers, what systems can you recommend?"

2 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. Hmm... by Rie+Beam · · Score: 5, Funny

    " So, Slashdot readers, what systems can you recommend?"

    A desktop computer and a midget to carry it around?

  2. Don't get a laptop by mrluisp · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I know this isn't exactly on topic, but don't get a laptop for gaming. My last two computers have been "gaming" laptop. It just isn't worth it. It really isn't. The cost of a laptop is so much higher than a desktop, and the performance is so much lower. A Geforce4Go 5600 isn't anything like a Geforce 5600 FX. Laptops are essentially crippled by their graphic cards, no matter how hard Ati and nVidia try otherwise. My biggest argument against laptop is that the graphic drivers aren't updated. nVidia specifically states on their driver pages that laptop users should get updated drivers from their manufacturers. Maybe this issue is limited to Toshiba, but my graphics card's drivers have not been updated once by Toshiba since I bought my laptop a year ago. If you get a laptop, it will be fine for the first 6-8 months, but as soon as new games come out which rely on updated drivers, you will start missing out. I've tried upgrading my drivers, and all that does is create sub par performance and quite a few artifacts. Simply put, the graphic drivers are not optimized for laptops.