Bit of system advice

[zxr400123]

Hey guys, sorry for the new thread but I was wondering if I could get some advice please? I used to play PR BF2 all the time until my PC went bang. Im going to get a gaming laptop mainly because I want to play PR Arma II. Could you let me know if I will be able to play on the top settings with this system:-

Dell XPS 15 3.1 i7 FULL HD, 3.1 I7, 8GB, 750GB, 2GB nVidia, GAMING LAPTOP, NEW | eBay

I reckon it will but I always reckon its best to ask the experts and I have never had this game on my system before. Any advice would be really useful. Thanks in advance!

[emsurgent]

should be just fine

[ontaiwolf]

Too weak GPU for full HD. So no to top settings.

[zxr400123]

You mean the graphics card doesn't have enough memory?! What do I need for top settings?

[ontaiwolf]

Memory size is not the problem, it is more the GPU itself, it has for example DDR3 as VRAM what makes games really slow. I have the same GPU and I have bad performance with Arma at 1366x768 with medium settings although it's still playable. So I would say you can forget FullHD. For top setting you need a pc from the feature. For high settings you can buy a nice desktop for the same price with I5-2500K and a GPU like 560Ti from Nvidia or even better. With that configuration you could double the performance, again, for the same price.

[zxr400123]

Yeah but it needs to be a laptop I'm afraid. I have an iMac as well and the missis won't have two big pc's in the house! What would you recommend for about ?1K laptop wise?

[ontaiwolf]

Well, same laptop with a better GPU, 555m from Nvidia or better and maybe not FullHD. You won't get a good performance with FullHD and Arma on a laptop. You can check some hardware on this site: Notebook / Laptop Reviews and News - Notebookcheck.net

[MaSSive]

Move to tech support > hardware and custom builds

[MaSSive]

Any particular reason why you decided to get notebook and not desktop PC?

For about 800 you can build a decent PC that will be able to run ARMA o medium to high settings.

It has GT 540m 2gb graphic card but considering its mobile chipset you will get double less performance with it, which takes us to level of GT200 series desktop GPUs.

I strongly recommend purchasing desktop PC for this.

[LITOralis.nMd]

Your budget is 1000 Pounds?

You can get better than that, I suggest doing more research,
Your pricerange optimal gpu is a GeForce GTX 460M WITH 192 cores.
. Preferably the 1.5GB DDR5 VRAM model.
You might find a GTX 470m with 288 shader cores , if you're lucky.

The GeForce GTX 560M with 128 cores is less powerful than the 460M with 192 cores. Also a good third option.


There are 5 versions of the 460M, 3 of which are gimped ******* children of the Nvidia marketing and promotions department. All of the available GeForce GTX 560M are also gimped ********.

You should be looking for something equivalent to this:
Asus G53SX-XR1 (GeForce GTX 560M , which is second/third best GPU in your price range)
There are also Asus G5 laptops with GeForce GTX 460M 192 core gpus, I can't remember the model numbers atm.
HP Envy 17-2101ea (I dislike HP, but that has a ATI Radeon 6850M GPU)
MSI GT683-694UK (Dabs.com has in stock, this has the gimped 560M )

[mangeface]

There are also Asus G5 laptops with GeForce GTX 460M 192 core gpus, I can't remember the model numbers atm.

G53JW and G53SW. I used to have the G53SX and a friend of mine had the G53SW and his seemed a little better than mine with graphics handling. I wondered why...and now I know. The only thing that I didn't like about the G53 is that it's extremely large and heavy. But the cooling on it is great. If you get one adding RAM or another hard drive is a pain. I did so on mine and ended up breaking the cover getting it off. But as is it's great and I ran ArmA 2 on high graphics with little problems.

[zxr400123]

Awesome advice chaps thanks - one of the great things about PR - the community

[zxr400123]

You know what --- still too much choice! Someone needs to just tell me "buy this one" lol!!!!

[Mad-Mike]

Maybe abit out of your budget but Ive heard some good reviews on this and I think there is a few people on here with this laptop:
MSI GT780DX-603UK 17.3" WLED TFT Intel I5-2430M, 8GB DDR3, 750GB HDD, NVIDIA GTX 570M 1.5GB GDDR5 Graphics, Win7 Home Premium 64-Bit - Back/Red [GT780DX-603UK]

[mangeface]

Here's also another good look.

ASUS N55SF-EH71 Notebook PC - Intel Core i7-2670QM 2.2GHz, 8GB DDR3, 750GB HDD, DVDRW, 2GB Nvidia GT 555M, 15.6 Display, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, Black, 1-YR Warranty/1-YR Accidental Damage at TigerDirect.com

Tiger Direct also ships internationally via placing orders by phone. Details here.

International Ordering at TigerDirect.com

It's also much cheaper, around 720 pounds.

[zxr400123]

Thanks for all the advice chaps. I went with the MSI GT683 DXR with the GTX750M - 1.g with DDR5 Ram. Picked it up yesterday and am just patching Arma II so I can install PR. It seems to be running Arma II pretty well so far. Just need to learn how to play now!

[LITOralis.nMd]

GT683DXR-479UK , that's a beast of a machine.