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The Best Gaming Laptop Money Can Buy

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the money-to-burn dept.

Parz writes "Gameplayer has gone live with their winners for the best gaming laptops money can buy as of Q3 2008. The analysis is broken into three sections to cater for three different budget requirements. There is a detailed explanation of why each laptop was selected, going into each hardware component individually. Regular Slashdot users will remember the site's article from a few weeks ago, which analysed the Best Gaming PCs that Money can Buy. Prices may vary depending on where you live."

17 of 161 comments (clear)

  1. Results will be valid for four days... by Joce640k · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...until the next one comes out.

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  2. Never use a laptop for gaming. by telchine · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I always think that using Laptops for gaming is a bit of a silly idea. Every couple of months a new game comes out that requires more powerful graphics, and you can't upgrade the graphics cards in a laptop. So your top of the range laptop bought today will be a pale shadow of its former self when playing the latest game in a year's time. With a desktop PC, you can simply replace the old graphics card with a new one.

    1. Re:Never use a laptop for gaming. by mcsqueak · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You are right. Using a laptop for a primary gaming device, unless you have a lot of money to burn is a rather silly idea since you cannot upgrade it. I found when I was in college and doing a lot of gaming that having a desktop I could upgrade every two years for about $500-800 was the way to go, and it would give me another two years of being able to play the latest titles.

      I recently purchased a fully-loaded Dell XPS 1530 laptop for Photoshop on-the-go functionality, and it has been fun being able to to play some older titles like Half-Life 2 again, but I don't expect it to be able to keep up with what is coming out.

    2. Re:Never use a laptop for gaming. by Hatta · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I just got a laptop for gaming. It's a 1.13 GHZ P3 with 256MB of ram. I spent all weekend playing apple II and TG16 games on it. I had a blast.

      It's not playing games on laptops that's silly. It's the obsession with playing the latest resource hogging games that's silly.

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    3. Re:Never use a laptop for gaming. by 4D6963 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Which is why I for one will be doing my laptopish gaming on a Pandora. Close enough in shape and function to be on topic, after all it's like a DS-sized EEE with good gaming controls and keyboard theoretically usable enough to use the device both as a laptop and a gaming console.

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    4. Re:Never use a laptop for gaming. by Creepy · · Score: 4, Interesting

      well, there isn't too much better than a 8600M GT as of yet, at least performance-wise, but that card is one generation behind. The best nVidia you can get is still a 9800M GTX, and those are just a die-shrink of the 8xxx line (the GTX 200s don't have a mobile platform yet).

      If you always want the latest-and-greatest graphics in a laptop, you should maybe look for something upgradable - nVidia standardized their mobile graphics on the MXM platform and, although ATI has a competing standard (AXIOM), it has so far been losing badly and it is now fairly common to find ATI cards that use MXM.

      The real problem comes with MXM systems that are upgradable - the ASUS C90 is, and I've read MXM Acer laptops are, but after that it's anyone's guess - some MXM computers like the 24" iMac are not. There are also 4 separate sized slots - MXM I, MXM II, MXM III, and MXM HE and larger slots can take the smaller GPUs, but not vice versa (most laptops I've seen that have them are MXM II). Sometimes you also need to buy the notebook manufacturer's branded card, as well. Also note that there is now at least one desktop card that uses MXM - the ASUS Trinity. Basically, it has 3 MXM modules on a regular PCI-E card, and when the graphics card needs updating, you replace the MXM modules, not the card, supposedly saving you some expense.

  3. How about... by Rie+Beam · · Score: 3, Funny

    A Beowulf cluster of Eee PCs glued to a go-cart. ...what? Can't a man dream?

    1. Re:How about... by Lord+Aurora · · Score: 3, Funny

      Only if Natalie Portman is driving.

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  4. Re:Too much RAM? by Trent+Hawkins · · Score: 5, Funny
    This whole review is bullshit. I mean come on:

    GPU - ATI 4870 X2
    Price: ~$655
    If Golem had a computer, this would be his precious.

    The guy can't even spell "Gollum".
    Geek license revoked!

  5. "The Best Gaming Laptop Money Can Buy" by Rie+Beam · · Score: 4, Funny

    I have no money, is there a list of laptops for people with large piles of string?

  6. Reviews on spec by liquiddark · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's obvious from the article that the reviewer didn't actually use the machines in question, and some of the choices are really questionable - he recommends a machine with Vista 64bit. Given the continued instability of a lot of 64 bit graphics drivers even on desktops, buying a laptop - where custom drivers tend to rule (and ruin) the day - with the OS seems like a massive waste of cash. I think this is a case of Reader Beware.

  7. Re:From the article... by oldspewey · · Score: 4, Funny

    Churro?

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  8. Except it's not PC games by Moraelin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I can see your point, but the question and the context was about laptops that run PC games.

    Portables like the original gameboy or the newer DS, are a bit of a fixed target: a game either runs on that one configuration, or it doesn't. There are no games written for a DS with an upgraded graphics card, or with more RAM.

    PC gaming doesn't really have such fixed targets. All games try to surpass last year's in terms of graphics, if nothing else because screenshots sell, and the hardware requirements are occasionally outright silly. I can think of some games (e.g., EQ2) which were launched to match hardware specs that didn't even yet exist. E.g., seriously, to run EQ2 with full graphics details you needed a 512 MB graphics card, and that just didn't exist yet. (Well, ok, maybe except as a high-end, professional OpenGL card for CAD.)

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  9. Again? by YourExperiment · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Regular slashdot users will remember the site's article from a few weeks ago, which analysed the Best Gaming PCs that Money can Buy.

    Whereas regular Slashdot editors might remember how the last article was panned by readers, and might have ceased spamming us with articles from this site.

    They might also remember to capitalise the name of their own site, but I guess all this is too much to hope for.

  10. I reject these totally by cephyn · · Score: 4, Informative

    A gaming laptop review without reviewing one from Sager?

    Ridiculous. I love my Sager, and the company is great.

    http://www.sagernotebook.com/

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    Moo.
  11. the best one money can buy by nimbius · · Score: 4, Interesting

    will heat up like the center of the sun, whir like a 747, weigh a metric ton and never be moved from the desk upon which it will sit, consume as much power as a low end desktop, and work for about 6 months to 1 year until thermal stress takes hold and it becomes worthless for any use. much like jumbo shrimp, conservative republican, and tactical nuclear weapon, this "gaming laptop" capable of running crysis for all of 20 minutes before thermaling out, is an oxymoron.

    the gaming laptop was contrived as a marketing competition tool to push the limits of the laptop form-factor with complete disregard for longevity and end user functionality.

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  12. Re:From the article... by ivan256 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Vista gaming is now on par with XP.

    Good. Still no need to "upgrade" then...