Rfactor on a Laptop - what spec?

[wilsonf1]

hi - im looking to buy a laptop that can run rfactor as well as possible.

Looked at the 'runs best with spec' on the rfactor website - but arent the graphics cards external ones? Can anyone point me in the right direction to a laptop that could run the game smoothly?


Runs Best With Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 processor
Windows XP
2048 MB RAM
Geforce 7900 GT or Radeon X1900 GT
256 MB video RAM
DirectX 9.0c
2.0 GB of hard drive space for installation
Internet connection required for one-time activation

[Razor]

Best bet is to go for an Asus F5 Entertainment. That's my current pc and it can handle rFactor pretty well

[wilsonf1]

the price range is no more than £600

are any in the acer range worth it?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_...sprefix=aspire

we were just in comet and i swear they were selling a 6590G with 1gig gfx memory and 4gig of ram

[Félix]

I'd say go for an Intel CPU... they dominate the laptop market, and they're at least gonna give you decent battery life. 4 GB of RAM is not essential... RFactor plays great with 2. The GFX is the hard part since it's very confusing to understand which is which with all the renaming going on. You won't feel the effect of 1 GB of video memory unless you play at 1920x1200 and over (do you plan to connect your laptop on a 30 inch display?). Generally, you should look for a card, nVidia or ATI, with a number like x6xx or over (8600-9600-3650+) if you don't want this part to be the limiting factor. The ATI 3670 is competing well with full blown (8800-9800-3850) laptop GPUs I've been told. The more recent ones (ATI 4650-nVidia GTS-GTX whatever) are certainly great, but too expensive at this time. But they'll be clearing out the olders ones for them, so that's where deals are.

Keep me updated, I'm interested to find out what you'll choose and how it runs.

[Hepatic]

one word of caution. nvidia graphics chips have been dying at an alarming rate for the last year due to composition issues. i know of 4 people (myself inc) that have all had nv cards die on us lately. i swapped to ATI a while ago and haven't had an issue since

[wilsonf1]

Excuse me guys! rather urgent - on the brink of buying this laptop tomorrow but i need to know if theres any issues why rfactor wouldnt run on it?

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-...k.13876.0.html

it has HDMI out and i have a 37inch lcd i'd like to ideally play rfactor on - any issues people can think of?

i know this laptop isnt going to run it like it would on a balls out PC but can you tell me if theres anything that stands out why it shouldnt run ok?

cheers!

[wilsonf1]

can some one please comment on this part of the review please?:

The Acer Aspire 6930G comes with a slightly unusual screen, a 16-inch panel with a native resolution of 1366x768 pixel (WXGA). The non-standard 16:9 aspect ratio is not supported by some of the games. So, there will be either black bars on the sides or the picture will be stretched.


in relation to rfactor of course, and my widescreen :P

[Spudgun]

[Disclaimer]
Please note this is just opinion!
[/Disclaimer]

Well it doesn't look too bad, the 9600 GT is a good graphics card. I have a 9600 GS in my laptop which is a lower spec and that runs things pretty good, but then I don't play the latest games. I've only used Rfactor on it once but it seemed fine to me with a good frame rate.

The 1366 x 768 resolution is funnily enough the same native resolution for VGA as my 32" LCD TV so if you're thinking of hooking up to your TV then it should be fine. I notice it also has a HDMI port that makes things easier. I've just checked the Rfactor config on my machine and there is option to run 1280 x 768 so it does run widescreen though not to the same resolution, but not very far off. I can't remember if it stretches or produces black bars though.

[wilsonf1]

thanks mate

on my current pc the rfactor config comes up with a resolution of 1280 x 720 32bit which i believe equates to 16:9 - my gfx chip is 7800gt - i guess this will be the same on the new laptop

good news cheers!

anyone else with input?

[Félix]

Very nice laptop - it'll do the job. Depending on whether you LCD is full HD or the same resolution as the laptop's screen, you might have to turn down some features, but it's going to run very well.

Hell, I'm jealous! Tell us how it compares to your (I'd guess) 2-3 year old box with a 7800...

[bjohnsonsmith]

I can run rFactor v1.255 on my IBM ThinkPad, which has 3GB RAM, 2.6GHz Dual Core CPU and an ATI FireGL 5200, a 512MB, 128 bit graphics card. However, the FPS can slow down causing frame skipping sometimes, when amongst other cars. The card and the laptop get a bit hot too, so I don't play too much on but it can be done. I use the CD-ROM version, which might also be part of the problem with the FPS. I use the laptop for convenience and primarily for skin painting, otherwise I race with an IBM e-server; a beast of a machine.