Hey sorry if this is annoying but I have been trying to figure this out and i'm not getting any answers anywhere.

I have an Asus G73jh series with an Intel® Core™ i7 CPU Q 740 @ 1.73GHz 1.73 GHz Processor

A Mobility Radeon 5870 Graphics card

6.00 GB RAM with a 64-bit operating System


Will this be able to play Skyrim on high settings? I know the game isn't out yet but what do you think?

Don't expect high settings with AA... But it shouldn't have to be tuned down to much

No one knows yet. I have the same graphics card in my laptop (assuming you have the gddr5 version) and it runs many games at full settings 1920x1200, but some games I have to turn down to 1680x1050 or 1280x800 to get a good framerate on max settings. That said I get headaches when a game doesn't run at a smooth 50+ fps, which is why I don't play my consoles very often.

Hopefully they get multicore support right this time, otherwise your processor will be a limiting factor. I have the i5 520m which is a dual core chip but clocked at 2.4ghz, and it limits my fps in FO3.

Games on a laptop? You're doing it wrong.

But to answer your question, we have no way of knowing right now. I'd assume you could at least do medium settings, though.

possibly
we dont know the specs yet

[quote]Games on a laptop? You're doing it wrong.

But to answer your question, we have no way of knowing right now. I'd assume you could at least do medium settings, thoug [quote]

well your obvisoly never heard of alien ware

I love my m17x (won it in a contest, I wouldn't actually buy a gaming laptop), but it's nowhere near as good as an equivalently priced desktop. The mobility 5870 was the best mobile graphics card when I got it, but it's really just a desktop 5770 (a low-medium tier $130 card) with lower clocks.

Plus it has very limited upgradeability. I could replace the processor with a QS 920xm chip... for $360.... Or I could upgrade to XF mobility 5870s... for something like $400... It's ridiculous. For $760 I could build a desktop that would easily match or beat this laptop WITH the 920xm and XF 5870s.

So there is most likely no way my laptop will be able to play it on high settings? I hope i can! haha i'm not talking about like max settings or anything. Also if not how much is it for a decent gaming desktop that could play it on high??

I bet you'll be able to do high settings at 1280x800, maybe even with some AA. But if you don't mind ~30fps you could probably go higher. It's all speculation right now but we'll see. Some examples: I can run Oblivion and L4D2 at max settings 1920x1200, hardly ever dipping below 50fps. Fallout 3 seems to max at around 40-45 because of my processor, which has a higher clock than yours. The Witcher loves to drop down to 30ish if I run it at 1920x1200 and look off into the distance, but plays with 70+ fps at 1280x800.

If you get a gaming desktop you would definitely want to build it yourself. You could build something really nice for $800. $1200 would be about the max I would spend.

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/af150/The_FalconO6/CurrentLogicalPCBuyingGuide/Guide.png is a decent reference, but just to use as a general guide. Don't buy anything until later in the year, because new hardware will come out and prices will drop.

I have the same laptop, only with 8GB of RAM.

Yes, you will absolutely be able to run Skyrim on high settings. Only problems i've had with this laptop so far are some overheating issues, but that was easily solved by replacing the thermal paste. It can handle most games on the highest setting.

Thank you you've been a lot of help haha. I just want Skyrim to look nice when I play it, which i'm sure it will even if i don't play on max settings.

I bet you'll be fine. If you can tolerate 30-40fps you'll probably be able to do high settings at at least 1680x1050, if not 1920x1200. I just personally get headaches if I don't get a nice smooth 50-60fps. That said the consoles will probably run the game at 30fps or lower, and at 1280x720.

I know I love the laptop and it can play every game I have to far on max with no problem at all. I might get an extra 2GB like yours. Anyway is replacing the thermal paste easy? how much does it cost? Sorry for asking stupid questions haha. Thank you.

It wouldn't cost much for new thermal paste but the process is not for the faint of heart. There's probably a good chance that your computer doesn't have an overheating problem. I don't know about the asus computer (maybe they all have poorly applied thermal paste), but with my alienware the only heating problem I had was solved by taking out the graphics card and cleaning out the heatsink once when it got clogged with dust.

Thermal paste is quite cheap - only about ￡5. Definitely worth it in my opinion, as I had a lot of problems with overheating when playing demanding games. Apparently it's quite a common issue for Asus users.

It's fairly easy to apply, and there are plenty of guides available online that show you exactly what to do. If you're nervous about doing it though, you could always just take the laptop into a PC repair shop and ask them to do it.

Thank you, one more question though, i know it's not really related to Skyrim but how many hours at a time should you game on a laptop? If it's a gaming laptop can you play for more hours than a non-gaming laptop?

Thank you, I will check it out

If it can handle Oblivion chances are it can handle Skyrim

I've played on my laptop for... ahem... uhh... about 12 hours straight before... You know... mainly just afk... yeah that's right...

But seriously it all depends on the cooling. My alienware seems to have great cooling and can run games for a very long time. Even when my gpu's heatsink was clogged it wouldn't overheat, just slow down and get choppy occasionally. If you have a second monitor you could run a program like gpu-z and watch the temps. The gpu should never go above 90C (if it does there's a cooling problem), but at full load a mobility 5870 might get up to 85C.

Ok thank you! that's all I need to know, you have been a big help.