I'm going to buy a new laptop after I get paid this coming Friday. I want it for Morrowind only. I don't care about playing any other game because I don't play any other game. And I'm not buying a PC; just a laptop. With that said, do I just need a super fast single core processor machine? Because I'm working on Pelagiad Expanded and my current laptop runs it very slowly.

Well I would advise getting Windows XP if the sole purpose is for Morrowind becasue Vista and 7 tend to have lots of crashes and other problems with Morrowind.
As for the specs, I'm not a computer expert but nowadays any average laptop can easily play morrowind on max settings so you should be good with most options, if its just for Morrowind you can probably save money and buy a cheaper one becasue you won't need a state of the art laptop for it.

getting a single core cpu is probably not very wise. There are already games which require at least a dual core ( Civ5). Nor do i think single cores are still made. Also there is multitasking involved, all this MGE, MWSE stuff. But yeah a quadcore is overkill

I had a quadcore laptop last year which ran Oblivion fine but I could barely walk through Histaag Forest in Solstheim; my fps was about 5 or 6. If I get a Windows XP then won't the computer be out of date with all the programs I use like Blender, NifSkope, Wyre Mash, Python, etc...?

Well lemme ask this, should I get a dual core or a quad core? Which is better for running Morrowind with mods/MGE?

And which brand should I buy? I was looking at Fry's Electronics and they have Sony, Toshiba, Gateway, Lenovo

http://www.frys.com/template/notebook

I've ran it on single core when it first came out (granted it did not run well), quad core may be over kill (but it depends on what else you plan to run on your laptop, if it is just Morrowind dual core should be more than enough). If you are strictly going to play Morrowind I would advise XP but if you think you will want newer games or programs then you might want to get vista or 7 (I would advise 7).

What about brands? Does it matter which brand or are they pretty much all the same?

I have a pretty poor understanding of what computer specs actually mean, but I will say this: if you want to use the newest visual mods and programs on their best settings, get a decent graphics card. I have a pretty new laptop with a solid processor and a lot of ram but a crappy intel integrated graphics card. The game itself runs fine, but I can't touch MGE distant land with a thirty-nine-and-a-half-foot pole.

Here's the thing, I'm not worried about playing Morrowind with MGE. I'm not going to install MGE until I have a good computer, which won't be for a minimum of another 3 years.... so approximately 2014 or 2015 is when I'll be using MGE. For this year and next year, I just need a laptop that can render lots of objects in the construction set at the same time. I want my laptop to be able to render the forests in Solstheim without slowing down or stuttering at high visual distance (the distance meter set high in the construction set, or whatever that little meter thing under File>Preferences is called). That's what I'm wanting my laptop to do. And you're saying dual core Windows 7 is the best route? Because I'll be using the latest programs to help me mod. So Windows XP wouldn't be a good choice. And I hate vista. Dual core over quad core, right?




Then home come on my friend's $1500 quad-core computer he bought last year, he can run all his other games smoothly but Morrowind still stutters framerate-wise in high density places? I mean, exactly what kind of a computer do you need to be able to play Morrowind in high-density exterior places (Solstheim, Pelagiad/Balmora Expanded mods) without killing the framerate? I'm thinking a dual core that has both processors running at 4 Ghz each, although there aren't laptops like that yet. I suppose there might be 3.5 Ghz dual cores. But is that even what I need?

I'm not sure. I am by no means a comp expert. But I would guess that it may be due to Vista or 7 errors (I assume he has one of the 2 and Morrowind does not work great with them). I tend to have more problems on my newer comp than my old ones becasue of compatibility issues. That is why if you are getting it just for Morrowind I would strongly advise getting XP. Graphics cards are important for graphics intense mods, but for regular Morrowind you can probably get away with most. And 3.5 Ghz dual should be more than enough.

High real GHz CPU, High TMU GPU. The industry stopped making these two a priority in the early 2000's. Think Pentium IV and Geforce Ti 4600. Gamebryo is just a bad engine. The main performance drop comes from the engine rendering everyfreakingthing. Whether it can be seen or not. With increasing scene complexity the amount of work grows rapidly with no visual difference. Say you have 10 houses in a row. Some engines have to render only the forward wall. A couple of textures. Morrowind renders all 10 houses completely full. And all brute force. And thats what youll need. But not on a notebook. It will overheat.

edit: here is a little table

ATI cards
5870: 80 TMU
4870: 40 TMU
3870: 16 TMU
2900: 16 TMU
1950: 16 TMU
x850: 12 TMU
9800: 8 TMU (morrowind made)

See the picture. Up until very recently it barely changed at all. And youll need an absolute top of the line card of any gen, because TMUs are the first thing which gets cut off in cheaper models.

There isn't any picture in your post, fyi. And I'm buying a laptop, not a PC.



I went to Fry's Electronics today and found these models. The guys at Fry's were telling me that you don't measure the computer's performance by how fast the processor is, as in how many Ghz it runs. But I thought that's how you always measured how much a computer can render in a video game. There were a couple dual cores but mostly quad cores. They had an 8-core processor laptop but since Morrowind only uses 1 processor to operate, the other 7 processors would just sit there and waste space.
And from looking at these models, it seems that 2.53 Ghz is about as fast as I'm going to be able to get with a laptop. Should I try on amazon or ebay and get an XP? I'm just concerned that if I get an XP computer, it won't be able to run modern day programs very well like Blender and NifSkope and Python and Adobe. Or will it?
Any ways, can someone tell me which one out of the list below would be the best laptop for playing Morrowind only? Or should I look somewhere else? Thanks.



Sony EB37FX/C i5-460M
Intel® Core™ i5 CPU @ 2.53Ghz
64-bit





$999
Sony VPCF13UFX/B Core i7
C I7-740QM, 4GB, 500GB
16.4", GF310M 512MB, BT
W7 HP, 802.11bgn
1.73 Ghz





$1549
Sony F13SFX/B C i7-740QM
16.4", 6GB, 500GB HD
GT425M 1 GB, Blu-Ray
W7 HP, Signature Series
1.73 Ghz






$499
Lenovo G560 PDC P6200
15.6", 4GB, 320GB HD
802.11bgn, DVDRW
W7 HP64 bit, Webcam
Intel® Pentium ® CPU
P6200 @ 2.13 Ghz
4.00 GB RAM
64-bit





$1999
Asus NX90JQ-B2 C i7-740Q
18.4", 4GB DDR3, 1TB
NV 335 1GB DDR3, BD
W7 HP, Bang & Olefsun

You asked what exactly kind of computer is needed, i told ya. Youll need to trim the reqs for laptops accordingly. You should avoid buying any notebook with an unlisted GPU, which means they have an intel GPU they are too slow. Only few out of the list have a gpu listed, and all nvidia, they are ok, but generally should be avoided too since they generate too much heat for unit of performance. Same reason there is no higher cloaked CPUs on the list or we dont have a 20GHz cpus, too hot. And rendering morrowind is a heavy task.

there is no notebook on the list which meets your wishes, they either have an unlisted GPU, or a lowclocked CPU. Check the 2.53 Ghz choices for more information. The guys at the whatever shop you were, were wrong, higher hertz results in more performance, the problem is every different line of CPUs does different amount of work for each hz, so it isnt possible to compare performance of random CPUs by just looking at Hz, say amd and intel. But there is only intel on you list.

Well I'm uncertain now on what to google search or type in amazon. I don't want Intel GPU and I don't want Nvidia, right? So with those two out of the equation, what should I be looking for? Windows XP laptop?
And I thought Morrowind was CPU intensive, not GPU intensive?


I stumbled upon this webpage while googling "fastest laptop processor"
http://www.intel.com/performance/mobile/extreme/perf_config_spec.htm




What about Lenovo? Are they a good company?
I found this one that has a Pentium IV 3.33 Ghz processor.
http://www0.epinions.com/specs/pr-IBM_Thinkpad_G41_288679U_Pentium_IV_548_3_33GHz_TFT_15_0inch_80_0G_512_2048MB_RAM_DVD_Multiburner


I also found these laptops here:
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/category/notebook/

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/spec/getntbkspec.aspx?id=X7200 from the link above looks like it may run Morrowind when heavily modded in Solstheim. It has overclocking features.
Intel? Core? i7-975 Processor
(45nm,3.33GHz, FSB 1066/800MHz, Total Cache 8MB, TDP:130W)

What do you think? Then again, I'm not sure I want to pay almost $4000 for a laptop right now. $2000 is fine but I'm kinda iffy on $4000.

Lenovo is former part of IBM, sold to the chinese. Pretty good id say. Buying a P-IV today is not however. Its GPU is really bad too. A gf5200m. It svcked even at the release day. (2 TMU). Thats just some 10yo stuff someone wants to get rid of, by dumping it on some prey. This is exactly the case where Hz are lying. Its probably outperformed by today's netbooks.


Same goes for the $4000 TDP130W thing. Thats just crazy. An Ati card consumes about 25W under load, an nvidia card about 100W, but that "notebook" monster wont last 20min on battery if under load. Can just as well go for a stationary solution in this case. And much cheaper.


As for nvidia vs ati, it depends, check TMUs. Generally, nvidia cards are better at doing brute force stuff. But Nvidia cards also like to downclock themselves if running too hot, which will be the case in a notebook. Hell they do that even on desktops. Morrowind is geometry heavy, but this doesnt take the heat off the GPU, since all these years GPU makers spent time to improve shaders and stuff and we are not talking about top of the line(aka trimmed), and some mobile card too(aka again trimmed)


Like said there is here no way to have the cake and eat it too. Check Civ4 for benchmarks too if interested, while googling, you probably know, it uses the same engine as Morrowind, and has exactly the same problem, there is no PC which runs it fluidly in later stage. If staying in sane ranges the problem can only be minimized by going for higher Hz and TMU capabilities.


What i would do is pick a regular laptop and accept the speed. The game is just too old. The best choice would be to go for a core2duo CPU (they are faster than i3-9, slower at multitasking, but thats irrelevant here) and try to catch an adequate GPU (not something like gf5200). I cant say which one without looking, there are just too many differently named models.

I went to Fry's Electronics today and bought an Acer laptop for $600.

What do you think of this sytem, Dvsdv? I was stunned to see a 3.00 GHz processor just sitting there. It wasn't there the other day when I walked in. Matter of fact, when I asked the employees what the fastest laptop was, they directed me to the 4 core 1.8 GHz laptops. And I was like "one point eight?" But I walked down the aisle and saw this 3.00 GHz one on display. I guess most people today think more processors means more speed.

http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/6757/71897015.jpg
http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/6826/34232515.jpg

I can run through Hirstaag Forest with visual distance set to full and it doesn't stutter. Pelagiad Expanded still does but until computers have 5 or 6.00 GHz processors we'll just have to be stuck with that. But hey, I can remember back when I was in elementary school, processors were measured in megahertz. Before we know it, processors will be measured in terahertz. I remember even in middle school, we couldn't install the huge installation of TESII Daggerfall because we didn't have enough storage on our hard drive, which it requires 512 MB. lol

I have a lot of these Microsoft Visual C++ programs. Are those obsolete even though this machine has Direct X 11?
http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/1162/31098751.jpg

Thanks.

Gratz on new stuff. CPU is okay, GPU is a generic one for a laptop, integrated too. Its about as good as regular GPUs were at the time Morrowind was made(4 TMU). And might be too weak to play in 1600x900 full details. (as would nothing but the $4k one out of the above list do)

that Visual C++ stuff are just libraries, never obsolete as long as any program uses them. There is no harm in having them, they dont do anything by themselves.

Im sorry i didnt quite get it, are you a girl? if so Sims3 will run fine, hehe. If not, then Crysis definitely will not run adequately. Depending on other features, like size, weight, heat, battery life, not a bad choice at all.


In short, if your aiming for Morrowind and mobility, there not much more to get for money. If planning for less mobility and wanting to touch xbox360 level games id look for something in the $1200 range from the above shop link. ( Xplorer X5-7900 looks nice)

Where are you reading this TMU (Texture Mapping Units) information at? Where do you see the GPU at? And how is GPU different from CPU and which is more important? Someone told me that Oblivion is GPU intensive while MW is CPU intensive. I'm guessing the trend is making modern games GPU intensive. I am playing Morrowind in 1152x864 resolution but there is also the 1024x768 resolution option in the Morrowind Launcher. I just pick the highest one since I'm assuming that's offering the best visual performance. I could try a lower resolution; maybe I'll get better fps. No, I'm male. My avatar is misleading. I kinda want to play Dragon Age 2 when it comes out. My friend says DAO is worlds ahead of Bethesda in story telling and quest writing as far as choices you can make. So I'm eager to try it out. Not into sims. Kinda want to try Fable 4 and Uncharted 3 too. In a few years when I switch jobs I won't have to be on the road so much and I'll be able to buy an actual PC. And by then, CPUs will be so fast that Pelagiad Expanded and Vurt's modded Solstheim forest will be able to run at 150 frames per second. At least I would think it would be able to. Computers are getting faster and faster each year. Thanks for your input.

Laptops are always a compromise... It will not generate enjoyable framerates for DA2, DAO, or Oblivion, an integrated GPU is just too slow for xbox360 level games. By itself that laptop is very well capable, just not with an integrated GPU. Info comes from screens you provided, HD4250series is the GPU. Screen resolution is 1600x900. If true, then its a widescreen display, and the MGE mod should enable widescreen resolutions in Morrowind too. Here are a couple of pages with info which might be interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_AMD_graphics_processing_units, http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Radeon-HD-4250.29664.0.html, and perhaps this one, lol. http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri/

DAO is a pretty good game, cant deny it but its not Morrowind. Story telling is better?, now thats a good joke. DAO is a bloodfilled hack and slash corridors pseudo RPG, diablo2 in 3d. hehe. And cut scenes. I take it DA2 will be no different.


I cant make the choice for ya, bcause i generally think laptops for gaming is not a grand idea, needs a mouse and a keyboard first, and there goes mobility already. You can just ask these guys at Frys for a laptop with a discrete GPU ( aka not integrated), and a high Hz, current gen CPU (aka not Pentium4), in an adequate price range. They arent dumb after all. That will play xbox360 and similar. Although they certainly will try to convince you that you need directX 223423, and also 8 cores. lol. (and probably will try to sell some low-end gpu too, which ist barely faster than an integrated one )

I don't understand what that stuff means in those links. But it's all good for now. The laptop I have is sufficient. I'm not modding Morrowind with graphic overhauls or even texture replacers. I'm just working on Pelagiad Expanded. It's just the exterior cells have 108 houses and it slows down the frame rate. But like you said, there's sacrifice when using a laptop.

Well, he meant that the choices you have when in dialogue mode in DAO. He says there are a lot more options in DAO than in TES games. But I'll just have to see for myself. Can you think of other role play games that have great quest writing?

I once compared Morrowind completely moddless with Morrowind with texture replacements. No fps difference at all, still stable 60fps interior and still 20fps in Seyda Neen. The games.. BG2, or Planescape Torment if ya really into in-depth dialogs and story. I dont understand exactly what ya mean by quest writing. Choices in TES games are made through player actions and not per forced dialogs, so naturally they are different types of game. DAO is great, but so is Crysis. In any case have fun with new stuff.