Laptop Gaming Computers

Laptop gaming computers are in high demand. The best gaming notebooks or gaming laptops aren't really great for gaming, but if you have enough money, you can get by.

It depends on what level of use you call "gaming", too. If you play WoW (Worlds of Warcraft) or Sims (1,2, or 3), you are gaming, but it isn't the same as if you are playing CoD4 (Call of Duty 4) or Left 4 Dead, which isn't the same as if you are playing Crysis or GTA 4 (Grand Theft Auto) or Anno 1404.

You need different levels of hardware to play these different levels of games.

WoW is an old game, even though it is still very popular. It was written to run on systems worse than the average new laptop. Sims 3 or 2 are not graphics intensive games. These games require lower hardware levels than most other games.

CoD4 and Left 4 Dead require better hardware than WoW, but aren't the most demanding games. You need to upgrade new standard hardware to play them well,though.

Crysis is considered the most demanding game and GTA 4 and Anno 1404 are pretty demanding also. You will need to upgrade to the best to play them at high settings. Some people say you can't play Crysis at the high settings at all on a laptop.

This brings up the question of what you consider as being able to play a game. Some people are purists and consider any stuttering or imperfection as not being able to play a game. Other people consider being able to progress through the game without significant interruption as being able to play the game.

There are three things in a laptop that really affect your ability to play a game. They are memory, processor, and graphics card. Here are suggestions for equipment levels for laptop gaming computers.

Laptop Memory

I'm not much of a gamer myself, but I know people who play less demanding games like WoW with laptops having 2 GB and a video card just a bit better than the Intel GMA 3100 that was the standard when their laptop was new. I would recommend 4 GB as a minimum though. I think I would want 8 GB of DDR3 if the motherboard will support it to play the most demanding games. The link will give you some information about memory.

Laptop Processor

Right now, if I wanted to game, I would avoid any of the single core or ULV or CULV processors. The general entry level processors you see, the Intel Pentium Dual Core T4200 or core 2 Duo T6400 are plenty fast for the less demanding games. The new dual core AMD mobile chips (e.g. Turion X2 Ultra) and Intel Celeron chips are ok also. This link will give you some information about processor labeling.

For more demanding games, I would want an Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 or faster. This is the area where the Extreme and Quad core processors shine The fastest you can afford is best. These chips are the ones people review and write about most so its pretty easy to get information about them. I'm not a real gamer so I think it gets excessively pricey for little gain, I wouldn't really go beyond a P9700.

Laptop video Cards

The most important part of the laptop gaming equation is your graphics card. This is such a critical thing, that it has a separate page to help you select the best graphics card or cards for your laptop gaming computers.

When you have made decisions about the processor and video card for your gaming laptop computers you will be able to select the best gaming notebook.

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