I got a new laptop for my birthday which was a few days ago. I don't remember the specs off the top of my head but it's got 6gb of ram, which is way more than my old one. It's running windows 8 which is really strange. I was surprised that you could still go into desktop mode and actually have to do so quite a lot. I thought the whole interface was the metro thing. I like the way metro looks but it feels redundant. It feels like it was desinged by someone who's paid to assume we all need to know everything that's happening on news and social media sites at all times. I know they've been around for ages but I really like the fingerprint scanner. It's the simple things in life right? Bottom line is it's lighter, faster, more powerful, better looking, has a battery that works (my old one was fucked up) and can handle GTAIV on high settings with no issues. I scanned Steam for some games but really didn't know what to go for. Most of the big games on there I've already got on console and most of the others I'd never heard of. I might get Skyrim since the guys on the Elder Scrolls Off The Record podcast all said they couldn't believe how much better it was on pc, plus people keep banging on about mods like they're something special, I could get into mods. Any recommendations on good pc games?
I'd like to know what kind of GPU your laptop has before recommending anything - only to have you claim all games on PC run like shit because you bought a laptop with Intel integrated graphics. Granted, Intel Integrated graphics is getting better and better, it's good enough to play modern games on low settings. For the future... well, I doubt it will hold up so well. On the desktop, right click on the bottom left corner (where the start menu used to be) and select device manager. Once open, click the small arrow next to display adapters to expand the list of GPU(s) you have. If you have a discreet model(desirable), two should be listed.
Civilization V Age of Empires War Craft III Plants vs Zombies Red Alert 2 Guild Wars 2 Counter Strike Source Half-Life 2 Left 4 Dead Star Craft II
I've heard of most of those. Some I've even played like half life 2 plants vs zombies. Games like civilisation don't really appeal to me that much but I'll give the new ones a look. I never played left 4 dead, I'll probably get that at some point. Where's all the massive pc exclusives that make console people jealous? Eh?
The days of amazing PC exclusives are over. PCs still have RTS and Steam exclusives and of course many games will look better on the PC if you have the right hardware.
Until we know what video card you have, it's impossible for us to recommend anything. If you have Intel integrated, you won't be playing much other than older games. Run this and tell us what it says: http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/
I think that's the problem. So many people complain about the new interface without actually having any knowledge and dismiss it without actually putting time into windows 8 which makes people that never have tried windows 8 assume many things. The modern UI is there, but you never have to touch it. Boot up your pc. It goes into the modern UI, go to desktop. Done. You never ever have to deal with it again unless you power off/reboot your pc and then just repeat the process. Windows 8 is basically win7 with optional modern UI if you want to use it.. and then of course it supports all of intel's new system features that we'll see in intel's new ultra convertibles later this year.
Surely if it can run GTAIV on high settings it should be good enough for most PC games? How much did you pay Arma? I wish my laptop could handle graphics more so I may have to buy one with a dedicated graphics once I have got my use out of this laptop.
It may surprise you to know that I paid nothing it being a birthday present of course. I know it cost around £500.
That's a pretty weak GPU by today's standards, and you got the weaker version that has 128-bit GDDR3. According to passmark, that card is roughly on par with a desktop Geforce 8800GT, which was a performance midrange card from 2007. Basically you'll be stuck playing older games, or newer games on low or maybe medium settings. It's not bad by laptop standards, but compared to desktop video cards, it's quite dated. If you were expecting to play high-end PC games like Crysis 3, FarCry 3, or Bioshock Infinite on higher settings, you will be disappointed. http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/video_lookup.php?gpu=Radeon+HD+7660G+%2B+7670M+Dual Edited to remove PC fanboy douchey-ness.
Yet my laptop can just about run the Last Remnant with most of the settings down low. Even then it lags like a bitch in battles.
That laptop will run just about any RTS which is would be a good PC experience. Starcraft, Starcraft II, War Craft III. You should also check out Marvel Heroes which is free to play. I did the beta and it's pretty good if you don't mind grinding. Release date is June 4th but you can probably still do the beta.
I think he said he's not into RTSs. It runs Skyrim fine on medium according to notebookcheck, so he should be able to try out some Skyrim mods.
I think he has enough Skyrim without adding hundeds of mods for it. @ Arma: You will be able to a PS2 emu on that laptop so play some old RPGs you missed out on before?
I'm not too sure if I'll bother with a PS2 emulator at this stage. I've realised some games are best left to memory.
Nice system considering it was free. It will play most games at medium settings. The one thing I don't like about it is that it relies on crossfire (dual GPU) to get the most of the hardware. This has never been a good idea for a casual user and just complicates things for mid-low range hardware. All I can say it make sure the drivers and and the CAP profiles are up to date (from AMD.com) if you want to play any new-ish games, that is, if the vendor hasn't locked it down to using their own custom drivers, which sucks hard.