Firstly, im not sure if this thread should be here or in technical (its not really a tech problem) so sorry if it should be


Im a regular lfs player playing on my desktop but i'm getting a laptop soon and would love to play on that as well. anyone else play lfs on a laptop that didnt cost too much and runs the game smooth?

I cant find any real spec for this game, my desktop runs it more than perfectly but i'd like to know any laptop suggestions that would handle the game at a reasonable price. I was thinking of the dell inspiron 1525:

http://configure.euro.dell.com ... mp;rbc=N0252507&s=dhs

anyone know if it's a good choice or recommend please?

cheers

I am running LFS at approx 50 fps at my Dell Latitude D820 at 1680x1050..
When using max resolution 1920x1200, I am only getting 20-ish FPS.

I have been playing LFS on Laptops for quite some years, and its working "OK". Dont expect running lots of AA and high resolution, and you will be fine :-)

CPU:Intel Core2 2,16 Ghz
GFX: NVIDIA Quadro NVS110M
Vista X64
4GB Ram

Depends
There are new laptops that comes with SLI and duel core now, they could be kicking butt if you put some money in it

I just bought a Samsung R700 and it runs LFS at 100fps on default settings with a resolution of 1440x900.

The thing to be wary of with laptops and isnt usually on the advertised specification is whether the graphics card shares RAM with the processor. When laptops do this they run at about 60% speed when playing games, because only one thing can access the RAM at once.

They call this "shared graphics RAM", for a gaming laptop you want "dedicated graphics RAM".

Thanks a lot for the fast replies

so im looking for
possible dual core - if i can afford it
dedicated graphics RAM - can i replace this with just loads of ram? like 4 GB or something if the laptop doesnt offer dedicated?

another thing = are these fps you've given online or offline playing? and if offline are they with AI ? sounds like a silly question you're all probably online all the time, but i know a few people with s2 that tend to prefer offline with AI, hotlapping or autocrossing and i prefer online.

because just playing around with a friends acer laptop the other day, offline runs fine unless there are AI's, and online is not good. processor size is not dual core and is around 1.6 i think + 2Gb RAM, its a new laptop (bog standard from pc world or something)

The FPS people refer to got to be multiplayer, I hope. In single player with full field of AI`s is a killer. Even the most expensive machines can`t manage to run more than 40-60FPS with a full AI grid on SO tracks.

Quote :

dedicated graphics RAM - can i replace this with just loads of ram? like 4 GB or something if the laptop doesnt offer dedicated?

No, size is irrelevent to the 'cost cutting'. If the processor has to wait to access the RAM because the graphics card is doing it, then it's got to wait, and all that money you spent on your fancy processor/graphics is wasted... Score 1 victory for paper specification and low cost to get the sale.

Quote :

are these fps you've given online or offline playing?

I only purchaseds my laptop the other day and cant drive atm, so the fps are viewing online races. I noticed just now I get less in cockpit (down to 60fps or so).

Quote from Becky Rose :

because only one thing can access the RAM at once.

more importantly system ram is intentinally slow since cpus make heavy use of caching whereas gpus dont have any noteworthy amount of cache and rely solely on fast ram (~6 times faster than system ram)


anyway this is a side discussion
if youre looking for a laptop and already have a pc that plays lfs reasonably well you should ask yourself whether you really need a laptop that runs lfs quick or would rather buy one that can do 6+ hours on battery (dedicated graphics cards in laptops sap tons of power)

Or, don`t buy a laptop
You get much more for the money if you build a stationary one
But again, laptop is handy.

ah ok thanks. Dedicated it must be.
again, does anyone know if there is an actual recomended spec for lfs like you get on the back of a game you buy in the shops? the standard spec and recomended are normally found at the bottom of the case on the back... know wat i mean?


Yes i love my desktop (stationary one(!)) and its running perfect (... touch wood....) but wen i get my laptop i really wouldnt mind playing lfs at a friends house for example us both racing online = great fun

Quote :

Even the most expensive machines can`t manage to run more than 40-60FPS with a full AI grid on SO tracks.

Lets see, testing now with a full field of 20 AI cars on SO Classic. Viewing in cockpit from the car on the front of the grid at the line, 30fps.

Viewing from the car at the back of the grid it's not so hot, just 10fps off the line, 15fps going into T1.

The car at the back clocked 10-15fps through the first lap. With similar figures for a midfield car on lap 2. The leader, with some cars behind, clocked 30fps on the 3rd lap.

Wheels view seemed to boost start fps to around 12fps, but the car I watched crashed on the way to T1 and I figured that was enough.

I'd say that default settings would need lowering a little, or the resolution (1440x900) to give playable offline racing with a full field of FB02 on my laptop.

What's your budget? I'll find you the best laptop within your budget...

on the old patch to get around the game lagging offline with AI i used to just start at the back, wati untill all the cars got around the first corner, then catch them all up and weave through the clumsy pack to the front =) My PC tended to settle down after the first corner with a full grid, not perfectly but very drivable. But of course with patch Y the AI's are very good so this is not possible...

My FPS, are mostly based Offline with 5-8 AI's.
Got myself a G25 this January, and need some practice before entering Online game-play again :-)... Never bothered with hooking up my old wheel at my laptop, and my old Gaming PC was moved to a room without internet cable, so it has been switched off for the past years.

Quote from Jakg :

What's your budget? I'll find you the best laptop within your budget...

Hi

at first i wanted a real cheap machine for around 400 but now that i want to run lfs it would prob. increase to about 500. is this still to little for a suitable laptop? thanks mate

Quote from The Very End :

Depends
There are new laptops that comes with SLI and duel core now, they could be kicking butt if you put some money in it

Well ist nice to have a dualcore/SLI laptop but it doesnt help the framerate in LFS any bit. Since LFS is written as a single thread the second core doesnt do anything. Also SLI doesnt help a bit. I run a dual core with SLI and both dont do anything to get some extra framerates. I do suggest a dualcore laptop as a invesment in the future. And several other programms that are supporting a dualcore but getting a SLI laptop for just LFS isnt worth it.

I doubt if they ever gonna change the threads programming in LFS bcus ist a lot of work. They propably have to start from scratch again.

£500 will leave you purely in "dedicated graphics" area. The laptop i'm on right now was £600 (if a little overpriced), has a 2 GHz Core 2 Duo, 2 GB of RAM and an onboard Intel GMA950 graphics card and lets just say that it will pull about 30 FPS in LFS on low online with a few cars around.

I've just had a quick look and the best deal on a laptop I can find is this - http://www.hotukdeals.com/item ... -1700-c2d-2ghz-3gb-ram-1/

Sorry for linking to a deal website but sometimes there are things you need to know about how to get a particular price.

That laptop (worringly!) far exceeds the spec of this, and while an 8400GS is... rubbish, it's better than nothing. It' a 17" laptop, so it's a bit bigger than most, but it's a fairly nice spec (2 GHz Core 2 Duo/3 GB (?!) RAM/8400GS)

Frankly i wouldn't bother. Cheap out on a laptop with a good battery and save the rest for your PC.

BTW - Do you want a "normal" sized 15.4" laptop, or something smaller/larger?

EDIT - Scawen guesstimated LFS would take a month to become Multi-Threaded, but imo i'd like him to do it. SLi DOES help in LFS (as tested by me back in the days i had SLi), but usually LFS is CPU or vSync limited.

Ohh 1 month thats nice. Certainly you have a advantage over using SLI. But it doesnt give the spectacular performance boost you wanna buy a SLI laptop. I use Vsync but its struggles on a full grid on line. Just until T1 after that its oke. But i have every eyecandy turned on. Thats just the profit I got from SLI and considering framerates it didnt do that much extra to me.

Quote from Jakg :

I've just had a quick look and the best deal on a laptop I can find is this - http://www.hotukdeals.com/item ... -1700-c2d-2ghz-3gb-ram-1/

Sorry for linking to a deal website but sometimes there are things you need to know about how to get a particular price.

.

thanks for the help but i dont think that that deal is on anymore after reading thru some threads the deal ended on the 30/01/08 but expires on the 6/02/08. That would have been a great deal, i'll keep looking for something like that kind of spec, or like you said i'll give up and just play lfs on my pc.. probably the best option unless i spend loads on it

Well mine cost just a smidge over £500 with a half decent mouse and a blue and white striped packed headset, bought from Tesco. OK I do have a bit of a special discount there but I cant imagine its going to cost more than £550 normally, so its not much out of your price bracket and this is a 17", i'm sure you'll get a regular 15" laptop within your price range.

Sorry for going off topic, but would be nice to see that dual core support as you mentioned Jakg. It`s not like I have a problem running LFS on my 1000£ machine, but twice the performance would be good :P From wheel way I can get 300FPS with 16AA and 16AF, and max resolution in LFS.

Sorry

Quote from The Very End :

Sorry for going off topic, but would be nice to see that dual core support as you mentioned Jakg. It`s not like I have a problem running LFS on my 1000£ machine, but twice the performance would be good :P From wheel way I can get 300FPS with 16AA and 16AF, and max resolution in LFS.

Sorry

Woudn't net double the FPS, esp not if LFS was GPU limited but on a Quad Core like mine i'd see almost 100% improvement at the starts (as a geusstimate).

Well... I think I'm in the minority group, I use a laptop full time to play LFS ( no desktop ), I have had no problems playing the game, with always 45+ fps with full grid, mostly around 70+ fps.

Always online play, and also connect my g25 to this, looks kinda funny, but good setup.

Laptop Details:

Acer Aspire 5103wlmi Vista
AMD Turion 64 X2 Mobile
1.6 GHz
2048 MB RAM
160.0 GB HD
15.4" 1024 x 768
ATI Mobility Radeon X1300 128mb, shared up to 768mb
Heaps of other extra's including bulit-in webcam.

I paid £499!

Hope that helps

Quote from Jakg :

Woudn't net double the FPS, esp not if LFS was GPU limited but on a Quad Core like mine i'd see almost 100% improvement at the starts (as a geusstimate).

Ahh kk I whent for a dual core, tho I should maybe bought a quad core, well, the computer works, so can`t complain
Better than old days with 9FPS at back of grid