Arkham Asylum/City lag

[RedRobin]

It also matters whether you're happy with what you have right now. My laptop has an Nvidia GT 435M and I play Arkham Asylum with no PhysX and Ultra-High textures. I could try to squeeze a bit more out of it but if it overheats I'm borked, so I tend to play it safe. Besides, not many can claim to being able to play the Arkham series in boarding school.

Didn't you mention that you got the game on Steam to play at Uni? Will that be for a laptop or this PC of yours?

[KarmaCharger]

It also matters whether you're happy with what you have right now. My laptop has an Nvidia GT 435M and I play Arkham Asylum with no PhysX and Ultra-High textures. I could try to squeeze a bit more out of it but if it overheats I'm borked, so I tend to play it safe. Besides, not many can claim to being able to play the Arkham series in boarding school.

Didn't you mention that you got the game on Steam to play at Uni? Will that be for a laptop or this PC of yours?

I should clarify, my Dad just got this PC and so I was very eager to test it out whilst I am at home (meant to be revising for my exams lol, also for the summer holidays). I did get a new laptop a few months ago, got it second hand which I am happy with, but I think its video card is ATI Radeon 5450HD, which I thought would be enough to play AA and AC while I am at uni, but by the sounds of things I'm going to have to fiddle around with the settings etc...

EDIT: just googled my laptop:

type : ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5650 supporting HyperMemory™ technology
memory : 1,024 MB dedicated VRAM (total available graphics memory using HyperMemory™ technology can be up to 4,083 MB with a 64-bit operating system and 8 GB system memory)
memory type : DDR3 Video RAM (resp. Video RAM and system memory combined)
connected bus : PCI Express®

Is that better than the PC here?
My friend sold it to me because he wanted to buy an iMac (he doesn't go to university.)

[EbonHawk]

That's a hard choice: NVIDIA or AMD (ATI)... it's a long-standing debate.

I had such a bad experience with an ATI card many years ago, I just haven't really looked back to them since then. My kids swear by them (I can't recall the model #s at the moment), but they say they're great. Several times (recently) NVIDIA claimed they were going to drop the video card market, stop providing driver updates, etc, because they wanted to focus exclusively on other things (mobile apps/devices?).

I've still been mostly satisfied with NVIDIA (have a GTX 470 atm) and except for running quite hot (91 deg C) in Arkham City and Skyrim, I don't have any problems with it. I also like NVIDIA's control panel and driver support, so I lean toward NVIDIA. I have nothing (recent) bad to say about AMD though. Sorry I can't offer more definitive advice, but I think both are great products and if you look around and do your homework, I think you'll be satisfied with either choice.

I've also heard that PhysX works just fine on AMD cards, but I don't have any experience in that department. Something about the CPU handling PhysX processing, as long as your CPU is up to the task. Wish I knew more on that subject. Seems to me like you'd want an NVIDIA product to be able to handle an NVIDIA-exclusive function like PhysX.

[KarmaCharger]

That's a hard choice: NVIDIA or AMD (ATI)... it's a long-standing debate.

I had such a bad experience with an ATI card many years ago, I just haven't really looked back to them since then. My kids swear by them (I can't recall the model #s at the moment), but they say they're great. Several times (recently) NVIDIA claimed they were going to drop the video card market, stop providing driver updates, etc, because they wanted to focus exclusively on other things (mobile apps/devices?).

I've still been mostly satisfied with NVIDIA (have a GTX 470 atm) and except for running quite hot (91 deg C) in Arkham City and Skyrim, I don't have any problems with it. I also like NVIDIA's control panel and driver support, so I lean toward NVIDIA. I have nothing (recent) bad to say about AMD though. Sorry I can't offer more definitive advice, but I think both are great products and if you look around and do your homework, I think you'll be satisfied with either choice.

I've also heard that PhysX works just fine on AMD cards, but I don't have any experience in that department. Something about the CPU handling PhysX processing, as long as your CPU is up to the task. Wish I knew more on that subject. Seems to me like you'd want an NVIDIA product to be able to handle an NVIDIA-exclusive function like PhysX.

Sorry for my ignorance, can I use the same card in a desktop or a laptop? Or do they come in different sizes?

[EbonHawk]

I don't think so. They're different types (sizes) and I've never heard of anyone being able to use one in the other. I have zero experience upgrading laptops, and except for reattaching a faulty hard drive and CD tray in one, that's about all the experience I've had with the inside of one. From what I've read, each takes its own type card: usually the laptop versions have a letter at the end of the model number. M is a common label, where you'll see 480M or as in your case, an A. The "mobile" cards have a much slimmer design, sacrificing GPU power and/or memory to fit into a laptop's much smaller case requirements. Although I have seen some pretty powerful cards in laptops getting more and more common, they're still generally smaller (and less powerful) than an equivalent price range and performance level for a desktop version.

First, you'd have to decide what price you wanted to spend. Then, you'd have to find out which type graphics card slot your laptop has, and what the system (CPU and Windows/MAC? OS) can support. Upgrading a laptop's graphics card can be done, but it won't be easy, even for someone with computer upgrading/repair skills. I recommend caution. Or paying someone to install it for you. It can be tricky, I hear. And this is coming from someone who has built from scratch about 6 desktops, rearranged and installed a dozen or so components, and built from scratch a complete PC in about 3 hours on Christmas Eve, under pressure from my wife to get finished. I would be hesitant to fool around with a laptop, but obviously it can be done.

[RedRobin]

Sorry for my ignorance, can I use the same card in a desktop or a laptop? Or do they come in different sizes?

No, laptops have mobile versions of the cards installed. As a general rule, a mobile card packs half the power of its full sized desktop counterpart. There are also other issues, such as possible overheating.

For everyone's information and comparison, my laptop:

Intel Core i7-740QM (1.73 GHz)

RAM: 8 GB DDR2

Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 435M

I run Asylum on ultra High Textures and PhysX turned off, and City on Medium Textures and PhysX on Low.

Note that the M denotes a mobile version of a part.

[RedRobin]

Sorry for my ignorance, can I use the same card in a desktop or a laptop? Or do they come in different sizes?

To add to EbonHawk's statement, laptops are typically harder to upgrade than desktops. Laptops designed to be upgraded have removable panels that can be unscrewed to remove to provide relatively easy access to innards.

Laptops that aren't designed to be upgraded are much harder. I have an old Vaio SZ from a few years ago that had 1 GB RAM. Upgrading that involved removing the panel around the keyboard, removing the keyboard and accessing the parts beneath it. In the end I didn't bother and now use it as a backup. Taking it apart is easy, putting it back together is the real problem.

[KarmaCharger]

I don't think so. They're different types (sizes) and I've never heard of anyone being able to use one in the other. I have zero experience upgrading laptops, and except for reattaching a faulty hard drive and CD tray in one, that's about all the experience I've had with the inside of one. From what I've read, each takes its own type card: usually the laptop versions have a letter at the end of the model number. M is a common label, where you'll see 480M or as in your case, an A. The "mobile" cards have a much slimmer design, sacrificing GPU power and/or memory to fit into a laptop's much smaller case requirements. Although I have seen some pretty powerful cards in laptops getting more and more common, they're still generally smaller (and less powerful) than an equivalent price range and performance level for a desktop version.

First, you'd have to decide what price you wanted to spend. Then, you'd have to find out which type graphics card slot your laptop has, and what the system (CPU and Windows/MAC? OS) can support. Upgrading a laptop's graphics card can be done, but it won't be easy, even for someone with computer upgrading/repair skills. I recommend caution. Or paying someone to install it for you. It can be tricky, I hear. And this is coming from someone who has built from scratch about 6 desktops, rearranged and installed a dozen or so components, and built from scratch a complete PC in about 3 hours on Christmas Eve, under pressure from my wife to get finished. I would be hesitant to fool around with a laptop, but obviously it can be done.

I see. Can someone explain how ATI number their cards in terms of strength? From what I've gathered, the first number is the series/generation and the higher the last 3 numbers, the better the card? 7450 is pretty **** then. I'm absolutely gutted, I just saw the number 7 and HD and assumed it to be amazing. I would have recommended a different PC then to my dad. I was genuinely looking forward to seeing Arkham City/Asylum in glorious detail.

No, laptops have mobile versions of the cards installed. As a general rule, a mobile card packs half the power of its full sized desktop counterpart. There are also other issues, such as possible overheating.

For everyone's information and comparison, my laptop:

Intel Core i7-740QM (1.73 GHz)

RAM: 8 GB DDR2

Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 435M

I run Asylum on ultra High Textures and PhysX turned off, and City on Medium Textures and PhysX on Low.

Note that the M denotes a mobile version of a part.

No way, that's an amazing laptop! How much did it cost? Which model is it? I'm assuming it's on 'Very High' settings?

[RedRobin]

I see. Can someone explain how ATI number their cards in terms of strength? From what I've gathered, the first number is the series/generation and the higher the last 3 numbers, the better the card? 7450 is pretty **** then. I'm absolutely gutted, I just saw the number 7 and HD and assumed it to be amazing. I would have recommended a different PC then to my dad. I was genuinely looking forward to seeing Arkham City/Asylum in glorious detail.




No way, that's an amazing laptop! How much did it cost? Which model is it? I'm assuming it's on 'Very High' settings?

Dell XPS 15 L501X. The build quality's not bad, the cooling system still works great after over a year and the gaming quality is pretty decent for a non-gaming laptop. I got it for a little under 10000 HKD (I'm from Hong Kong) when they dropped prices just before they announced the updated version fitted with Intel Sandy Bridge processors. The DVD drive is currently busted though...

Overall, it's not really a gaming laptop, but it gets pretty close. I've listed the settings I play on in my previous post.

Also, now's not really the time to buy a laptop because Intel's about to release their Ivy Bridge processors, which should give even better performance for a marginally higher price at launch.

As a general rule, I find that graphics cards with 4 digits in their model number tend to be the older ones.