oh ok, good to know, well thanks for all your help guys, to everyone who posted, i'll make my final choice tommorow but for my needs this laptop is looking strong for me.

yes but its about 30 average on ultra, which is PLENTY enough for me, like i said im not comparing it to a desktop.

Yes, it is *now*, but if you're buying something to last you don't buy just enough for now. That mindset, ironically, works fine in a desktop, where you can upgrade, but if you use that card you *will* have to upgrade to play newer games within a few years.

Thats fair enough, but i cant find another laptop with a better gpu thats under a ￡1000

The amount of VRAM on a graphics card does NOT mean it'll produce better frames-per-second for your games. It's the clock speed that you should be looking at. 3GB of VRAM doesn't mean you can start overloading your Oblivion with graphics mods and expect it to not hiccup.

As for the 445M GPU... for todays' games it should be okay if you don't crank all of the graphics settings to max. You definitely shouldn't expect to crank Skyrim to maximum settings with the 445M though. It's just not powerful enough.

Judging from the early screenshots, I'm not even sure if you'll have satisfactory FPS on medium settings for Skyrim. I realize it's too early to say, though... but the screenshots look pretty heavy.

As for actual useful advice for your situation... I wish I could suggest something better for you but you are on a budget. I can testify that ASUS gaming laptops are easier on the wallet though. =P

You could probably build a desktop PC, that will be pretty good for gaming for a while (and very upgradeable), and buy some kind of basic portable thing (e.g., cheap netbook, or even some kind of tablet or whatever - depends what you truly need to be available everywhere/anywhere*) for around the same total $ (or pounds, as it so happens). And you'd be so much better off, for gaming - well, that's quite the understatement... :/


* This is what it all comes down to - what do you need to be accessible wherever you might be? I mean, do you truly need to be able to play PC games on the run, on the road, at school, at work, or what have you? Really? :shrug: Perhaps I just don't get it. Because, yeah, I would never bother with a "gaming laptop" :facepalm: - especially seeing that it would be thousands of dollars, AND not upgradeable. And that last bit has to be one of the best features of [desktop] PCs: you can just keep upgrading, replacing, adding, or whatever. With a good case, and power supply, and a few other things, most of it should last a long time. :happy:

But hey, it's your call, of course. And your money! It's just... if there's any chance I can dissuade you, I'll try my best.

The 445M is more powerful then an 8800GT which could max out the game and still get ~40 FPS

Lets stop this misinformation, shall we?

Also the OP said many times he doesn't want a desktop, so stop saying hes better off getting one. He knows, and doesn't want a desktop.


You should be looking at stream processors mostly, though everything is important, from VRAM to core speeds to memory speeds.

Core speed isnt much of an indicator on its own because my GTX260 has a slower clock speed then my old 8800GT, but i would take the 260 over the 8800 due to it having almost 2x the stream processors and 1.5x the VRAM.


You don't know Skyrim's requirements. Statement is invalid.




@OP: The XPS 17 is more the able to play oblivion with even QTP 3 lite. Mods like Better cities though will puncture your FPS like a needle on a balloon though.

Thank you for this advice, i may use a small texture mod but not that bothered tbh. I do understand that desktops will be cheaper and are upgradeble, but at this moment in time i do not want one, probably in the future but for now a laptop will have to suffice.
I have heard many things about the 445m and read a lot of reviews and for ME, for now, this will be ample for my gaming experience. But i do appreciate everyones comments.

ITS OFFICIAL lol, just put my order in at ￡929, chose the optional bluetooth as i can then use wireless controllers, and other accessories, thought it'll be a waste of money for a blu-ray drive, so left that out, and left tv tuner out too, as i will have no use for it.

But thanks again for all of everyones help and advice, fast responses too its appreciated and i now cant wait for it to come so i can get back into oblivion

Something to point out there is that it has USB 3.0 ports, which can provide enough bandwidth to allow an external blu-ray reader to read at full speed, at least in theory, so if blu-ray ever does become popular enough to be worth having you'll be pretty much covered with an external reader. Other than that, enjoy your new laptop

yeah i saw that it had usb 3.0, and good idea, not that i prob will need one but i could if i want, but thank you, and thanks for all your help

Btw, have to wait for it to be built and shipped, which could take atleast a week oh well will have to be patient

Ah, I know that feeling all too well. When I ordered the parts for this PC, it took over a week and the case came a few days before the rest of it

Ahh, atleast you could get the case ready i suppose, just got a expected date of the 17th feb

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-445M.35835.0.html that has benchmarks of performance of the various chipsets and what they get in several games that might be useful

thanks for that, i cam across that site quite a bit actually, ive ordered now tho

Heh, when I did my last build, I wanted a specific case. It was a Lian Li and it had to be special ordered from Taiwan - it took 3 months!!! I had all the other components just sitting there and had to wait 3 months for the case... THAT was torture! Nice case though - the best I've ever owned...

was it really worth the 3 months wait ?

Yeah, but unless there was some desperate rush to get a laptop now, the point was that you should wait until the 485M or Mobility 6970 were much more common in laptops. Skyrim is still 9 months away for instance. I don't know what you were necessarily aiming for by getting a laptop now.

But it's too late I suppose, to get you to stall for a while.

Yup It was my husband's machine and he doesn't use his home machine all that much anymore. He also had an old machine. The new case has a lot of really nice features - including aluminum wheels! Makes it really easy to pull it out from under the desk!

Back to the OP, in a desperate bid to un-hijack this thread: even if you did wait for the new GPU's to be more readily available, they are probably going to be expensive for a while. Since it is a dedicated video card, you might be able to upgrade it later. It's not impossible to upgrade a laptop, it's just not as easy as a desktop. So by the time Skyrim comes out, you can see what's available and possibly upgrade.

Yeah maybe, thanks again guys/gals

Actually if you look at the review link i posted, it shows how accesible components are and says "there is nothing in the way of a upgrade"

Uhh... the ￡ sign means GBP, as in Great Britain Pounds. As in, not dollar. As in, not America.

Anyway, I haven't read the whole thread, but Asus is quite nice. I don't know about availability in the UK.

Oh, I wouldn't consider an upgrade from Dell. You can get mobile versions of video cards from other vendors. So if the 485m becomes available for a reasonable price, you could pick one up and install it yourself. It's not actually all that hard, and if you search hard enough, you might even be able to find the maintenance (or service) manual for your new laptop and it will tell you how to do it. I say search hard enough, because the maintenance manuals are tricky to find. They are just pdf files though. I have an ancient Dell laptop kicking around and I was able to find the manual for it. I was considering upgrading the processor in it, but decided it wasn't worth it.

Edit: Yup, they still have them. Go to Dell.com and search for the specific model number of your computer and "service manual". So if it's the XPS 1730, search for XPS 1730 service manual. That is one thing that's good about Dell!

Wow, thanks for your help will consider this in the future.

Hmm...looks like I'm late to this party. I certainly hope you got the model with the GT 445M. The models in the link that you gave in your original post don't have that GT 445M option...just the 435M. There's a HUGE difference between the two. You better double-check that if you are not sure.

And there were other alternatives that fit your price range:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/156-msi-gx660r-i5-460m-253gh-6gb-ddr3-1tb-hdd-r0-ati-r5870-1gb-supermult-wifi-n-bt-wcam-9c-w7 (pre-order)
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/laptop/range/i5pro.html



...oh well.

Yes i did get the one with the 445m, that link has kind of expired as it was on offer with the 445m up untill the 9th so now it shows the models with the 435m. But thanks anyway