Entertainment Notebooks - are they Game?

Chris Kruger

For several generations of notebook technology you wouldn't have to think too hard about which laptop you would buy if you are a gamer. You simply wouldn't. You bought a notebook for mobility. It would quite happily sit there waiting for you to type up your business documents but it would choke and die on any gaming excepting perhaps solitaire. Gamers where left out in the cold. You went and bought a desktop end of story.

At some point in the evolution some notebook machines were equipped with 3d graphics processors but they woefully let their owners down when it came to pushing high numbers of polygons. The graphics chips built into all but the most high end portable machines where simply far too anaemic.

In the current generation even the cheapest portables have some 3d acceleration, by previous generations standards they're even quite capable. Modern gamers are demanding bunch however, they expect to be able to see a little more than the good old 3d spinning cube screen saver.

In this story you wouldn't be too far wrong to point the finger at Intel. Placed comfortably as the largest the provider of graphics chips for multiple generations of portable machine they have played a large part in deciding what kinds of graphics capabilities will go into your average laptop machine. Looking at the big picture though it's tough to be too hard on them. It is easy to see that in a competitive market like semiconductors, outstanding 3d capabilities in a portable chip where not the first consideration. Cost was factor, power consumption also and lastly demand for 3d was low, or at least, so it appeared. In the end it could be that powerful graphics hardware was withheld from the market due for the basic fear of costing oneself out of that market. Intel were probably right. Most people just wanted a portable word processing machine, perhaps a little bit of email and web browsing and they wanted the notebook to be able to run for hours on it's battery.

So moving on to the current day, the cost of graphics chips is dropping, their features improving, and it seems the market for notebooks as desktop replacements is growing. We're already seeing many notebooks marketed as desktop replacements, we're also seeing other marketed at entertainment notebooks. In the mid-range, going by price, it's probably safe to say these two classes of notebook are converging. It doesn't really make sense to offer one set of features without the other, since you get ninety percent of the other to satisfy your own (so to speak). Whether you call them desktop replacements or entertainment notebooks, what we're seeing is a range of mid-range notebooks with some reasonable graphics hardware. As we all know, that's great if we want to play games. Yay. Manufacturers were keen to introduced these new line-ups to the market when they caught on to the potential demand. These notebooks are getting snapped up quickly with their attractive price and performance capabilities.

Some people would ask why one would bother with a laptop for gaming. Apart from the most obvious reason, portability, there are a few other reasons. Lower power consumption is certainly one reason, as is the more compact size of the machine itself. One other compelling reason is simply the low fuss nature of the notebook. Self contained, few cables and the sleek all in one construction make for an attractive, place it anywhere device. Finally, for some, they're just a fashion item. As the Japanese having been teaching the world for years small and self contained is beautiful right?

So whatever the reason one might desire a notebook over a desktop the technology no longer precludes one from enjoying some games, and the price difference is not longer dire.

Before we go further one should point out a few caveats of this particular category of notebook. Firstly, they're portable (duh) but not particularly so. The class could be generally categorized as having poor battery life. The graphics chips are power hungry, they generally have larger sized screens and often the manufacturers choose not to use the lowest power consuming parts available (in order to keep costs down). Lets say we're looking at two to three hours on a fully charged battery, probably less if you're actually playing games. Secondly, many of them get pretty hot. Most of the power is probably going to generating enormous amounts of heat. Sometimes this means they get too hot to sit on your lap. It also means you've go to be wary that the cooling vents don't get blocked.

Let assume you're convinced by argument you're going to be wondering what kinds of features does one look for in a mid-range notebook, and how much is it going to cost?

The mid-range notebook usually will sell for approximately 600 - 900 in the UK. Within that price range the basic features are set and the higher priced examples within that range usually come with a slightly more powerful main processor or extra storage (memory or disk). A manufacturer will often build their entire mid-range line-up from the same basic chassis and parts, tweaking just a few things to differentiate the models.

Features wise, we will start with what this author believes should be consider the meat in this meal. The graphics chip. It's convincingly almost always the graphics chip. This is what's going to hold you back. The main processor has been overpowered for most uses for some time now. Put another way you're unlikely to find a graphics chip in a notebook which outperforms the main processor. For 3d applications and games the two processors work as a team. You could have a Cray Supercomputer as your main processor but couple that with a pipsqueak of a graphics processor and your 3d application or game is going to be held to that standard.

In mid-range notebooks the kinds of respectable graphics chips include the ATI x1600, x1700, x1800, x2300, HD2300 and NVIDIA 7600, 8400, 8600 series chips. Processing power varies but often you'll get suitable dual core processors such as the AMD X2 or Intel Core Duo. In the current generation Intel generally outperforms AMD chips by a small margin but AMD chips are blessed with more favourable prices. I have to admit a bias for AMD chips having a personality which that compels me to support the underdog (in terms of corporate wealth).

The graphics memory configuration of the notebook often makes an important difference in performance and it's often worth investigating this configuration further to make sure it's optimal. Unfortunately most sales people in technology stores are not always aware of these aspects of their stock so in this respect the Internet is often your best friend. When reading specification sheets on your potential purchase, look for "dedicated video ram/memory" as opposed to "shared video ram/memory". Most machines will have both but the ones with shared only will be unable to make the most of the graphics processor performance wise. In this generation you should probably be looking at a minimum of 128 mb of dedicated video memory. Both NVIDIA and ATI have slyly disguised their graphics chips configurations by giving them marketing names. NVIDIA confusingly calls their shared memory "TurboCache", alluding to the possibly that's is blazingly fast. It may be blazingly fast compared to a geriatric hamster on a wheel but it's not blazingly fast compared to dedicated video memory. Likewise, ATI refer to their shared memory configuration as "HyperMemory". While their implementation details may differ somewhat, and one may be better than the other when plucking a chicken under a black moon, the basic fact remains that it's shared memory. One should not be fooled into thinking otherwise.

With a well chosen mid-range notebook you'll be able to play many great games with reasonable performance. Almost all games fitting into the casual genre are well catered for as well as many games from the more serious gamers library. Certainly most current games on the market will likely run OK on these mid-range laptops but it should be noted that they are likely to be underpowered for the most graphically impressive settings of some big name titles. Recent games like Bioshock, Oblivion and the upcoming title Crysis are unlikely to run well unless their detail settings are turned down. For these kinds of title it seems the desktop PC is still the top platform of choice for hardcore gamers, particularly gamers whose favoured genres include first person shooters which historically are the most demanding genre.

With the ever increasing power of the mid-range laptop and as interest in gaming, particularly casual gaming, continues to grow, this class of notebook is becoming more significant than ever.

Now that you hopefully have some idea of what constitutes a mid-range laptop and why you might want to buy one we can take a look at some specific examples of the class.

HP Pavilion dv9000, dv9500 series (17")

About a year ago Hewlett Packard gave their basic notebook design a significant makeover with some very nice results. These machines are sleek, sexy and current. This particular series is generally equipped with a respectable NVIDIA graphics chip (7600, 8400, 8600) and either and AMD X2 or Intel Core Duo processor. The AMD examples are generally a little more affordable. They come with respectable amounts of dedicated graphics memory (128 - 256 mb). The series sports a comfortable 17" screen size. They also have the usual slew of expected features including S-Video out (important for watching movies on your TV), various memory card readers, a high speed CD/DVD burner/reader, a WIFI adapter and multiple ports (USB, Firewire). Some models include TV tuners and other more esoteric features.

Asus F3JP (15.4")

The Asus F3JP is one of the older models that fit into this category. It unusual in with respect to the fact that most notebooks packing some solid pixel pushing power come with the larger 17" screen size, however this chap comes in a smaller 15.4" size, thus making it a little less bulky at the sacrifice of some screen real estate. It comes equipped with a capable ATI x1700 graphics processor and makes use of a Intel Core Duo processor. While the model has been around for a while ASUS regularly update the main processor with the latest Intel Core Duo chips to maintain parity with competitors. Likewise this systems ships with the usual expected features (S-video, USB, Firewire, CD/DVD Burner, multi-card reader and a PC Express slot).

Fujitsu AMILO Xa 1526 (17")

The AMILO Xa 1526 has a 17" inch screen and a suitable NVIDIA 7600 Go graphics processor with 256 mb of dedicated video ram. This is coupled with a AMD 64 X2 processor. It has an integrated S-Video, USB and Firewire ports, a requisite WIFI adapter as well as your typical CD/DVD burner/reader and multi-card reader.

While there is only a small number of specifically mentioned products here most PC manufacturers are including this category of notebook in their line-up. Updates to model seem almost weekly and at any given time there are great deals to be had as manufacturers compete to attract customers. Gaming on your notebook has never been so accessible.