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Latest Generation laptop processors,video cards and CMSF?


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Hi,

Apologies for asking what many others will have asked but long experience has taught me to “always” ask here before buying a new PC ;) .

What is the view of how the Intel Core 2 Duo Processors and nVidia Go 8000 series graphics cards run CMX2?

I fully understand that there are no guarantees… but what is the general view.

There are now so many different kinds of processor that I am nervous of ending up with a laptop that struggles with CMX2.

I have in the past got great advise from here on new laptops and CM hence am back to ask again smile.gif .

Thanks,

All the best,

Kip.

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Any 2Ghz C2D or faster, with a 8600M or higher should run the game well. I played CM on a older notebook, 2.16Ghz C2D, with a ATI X1600 and it played okay, on moderate settings. Just keep this in mind, 8400 or lower is low end, 8600GT is mid-range, 8800s are higher end. Try to get a card with at least 256MB VRAM, although 128MB will be okay, at least with the games out right now. Unless the manufacturer underclocks the video card, it should perform at about the same level as the equivalent desktop models.

[ May 30, 2008, 11:57 PM: Message edited by: Pzman ]

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Pzman hi,

Thanks for the hints…

It is the Dells with the nVidia Go 8600Ms that I am thinking about…

When it comes to the main processors I do not really know how to rate them relative to the old P4, single processor chips. In terms of their real useable speeds, processing power.

Thanks again…

All the best,

Kip.

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In terms of raw power, the Core architecture blows the P4 out of the water. The current generation of Core 2 CPUs provides more processing power per clock than a P4. For example, a 2.4ghz Conroe (second generation C2D) is equivalent to a 4.8Ghz P4. The current generation C2D (third generation) is slightly faster yet.

[ June 01, 2008, 11:11 PM: Message edited by: Pzman ]

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Pzman,

Thanks…

That was exactly the information I was after. I knew that the old M series mobile chips had a clock speed about 2/3 that of the P4s for the same useable processing power when running something like CM.

It is indeed a 2.4 GHz C2D powered dell laptop I have my eye on.. now I have a way of comparing it to my current 3.4 GHz P4 desktop.

Thanks again…

All the best,

Kip.

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Hi,

“But unlike most modern games CMSF doesn’t use both cores, so you will not get 4.8Ghz from your 2.4 C2D....you will only get 2.4Ghz.”

Now this is getting complicated.. ;)

I do fully understand that C2D chips have the two processors and are designed to work with threaded programs which CMSF is not.

However.. my question is… running non-threaded programs such as CMSF how fast are the modern C2D chips when compared to the older P4 chips. Even running CMSF and future versions of CMX2 I thought the C2D chips were faster than the older P4 chips in the same way the old M series Intel chips were faster than the P4s for any given clock speed.

I thought that was what Pzman meant in his answer?

Is a C2D processor at 2.4 GHz like to run CMFS faster than a 3.4 GHz P4… from what I have read I would guess yes… even though CMX2 is not threaded…

What is the consensus view ;) .

All the best,

Kip.

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Originally posted by kipanderson:

Dima, hi,

Thanks for your recommendation….

The Precision range looks very good. I had one some years ago and it did the job very nicely with CMX1.

Thanks…

All the best,

Kip.

Kip, I understand you want laptop specifically? Precision is very good for CMSF but it is expensive. If you do go with it, get the one with FX 3600M 512MB card, it is better than even what I have. Also, whatever laptop you buy, make sure it has at least 17" screen. Smaller screen you can't really enjoy CMSF.

Also, a word of advice if you are buying Dell laptop, don't just order it online. Instead configure it online then call them and bargain! They will knock the price down and/or give you some upgrades for free. On a $3800 laptop they lowered it to $3500 plus free 5 year warranty plus free shipping.

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i think you have to draw a line at a point and have to define it as " runing sweet". depending on your hardware and your "likeings" you can push this line up and down in context of the game.

now i have a intel CoreDuoE6400, 2 gig ram and a Gecube/ATI HD3870 graphics card.

so basicly that rather powerfull beside its more than a year old(the graphics card not), i can run the eye candy games, no problem.

now when it comes to CMSF i wouldnt say it runs "sweet", i have AA/multisample on, shadows permanently off, 1024x768, textures improoved/vehicles improoved.

i can play "any" standard scenario without problems, and i can play armour attacks and the like too, but there it starts to slow down.

however, i consider this map size not as too large, thats the size wich should be used for modern type units and vehicles. am i the only one who thinks other maps are generally "tiny"!?

where the problem is!? dont know for sure, the game calculates much but also only uses 50% of my total available processor power(there was a thread about it here, other people reported it too for their multicores, you can see it in the taskmanager). wich leaves me with the question, could it perform nearly twice as good!?

also i rarely saw the RAM usage of the game at more than some hundred MB, while i could store pretty everything in the 2GB i have, win XP uses about 100-150mb of the 2GB so there is plenty left.

in the end i dont know, CMSF got some problems with too "new" hardware i feel, but if you "overpower" it you are fine. means if you play the average scenarios on smal maps you are fine becouse you got raw power overshadowing the problems.

if you go to biger maps, theres where problems start also with the more powerfull machines.

thats my take on that,...

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Dima, hi,

Thanks for the hints… I too have heard that with dell, here in the UK too… the thing to do is configure it online then give them a call and bargain.. ;) thanks…

Pandur, hi,

Yup… I have come across the same sort of thing on the current dell desktop. The bigger maps do challenge systems a lot. I stick to 2.5km by 2.5km as my maximum size.

A good thing we have the options of huge 4km by 4km maps as systems will over time become more powerful but few can currently cope.

Thanks…

All the best,

Kip.

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  • 7 months later...

Computers have changed a lot during the intervening time of the last post.

I am looking at purchasing a laptop and was wondering if CMx2 (and CMx1 if possible) is playable on any of the laptops that use integrated graphics.

The 2 that I am looking for have either

Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X3100

or

Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500M

Usually with a Intel Pentium Dual-Core T3200 2.0GHz, and about 3G RAM but they all come with Vista.

Since I know next to nothing about laptops and integrated graphics are any of these playable for CM?

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For what it's worth, my mom got a new Dell laptop(forget the exact model) for x-mas with Vista Premium and 4GB of RAM that uses integrated graphics. I decided to install the CMx1 games to see for myself the problems I heard people have with Vista. But there were none, it ran fine. Although I couldn't use anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering.

But again, this is CMAK/CMBB and not CMSF.

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Out of preference I'd personally stay away from integrated graphics; if you've got the budget go with a separate graphics card.

I'm using a HP Pavillion c/w Intel centrino Duo, 2Gb RAM and Vista Home Premium with Nvidia GEForce 8400M GS; never had any problems with CMSF.

Good luck on your quest.

This is key. Unless you have one of the highest end laptops on the market you have to have separate video card. I don't get it either. I have a fairly high-end desktop and I get all kind of funky graphic glitches. It isn't optimized very well graphically. It seems to run equally bad on low end as high end computers, mid range or high video cards, 1 gb of ram or 4 gb ram. There is no rhyme or reason to why there are so many issues with this game. I still love it though.

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Well I have a Dell Studio 1735 and it has an intergrated card. The game plays just fine for me and I run Best/Best settings most of the time. Sound isnt as good as pricier laptops but fine for me. For $700 I think I got a good deal. The 1737 (I think) has a faster duo-core2, 1 more gig of RAM, 20gb bigger HD, and a 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650, and thats a bit over $1000.

But I am happy for now with it and will never go back to desktop's anyway.

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