Am I gonna need a graphics card to play this?

Discussion in 'Clockwork Empires General' started by Bohandas, Jan 3, 2013.

  1. Createx

    Createx Member

    Right now, I think I'll go for a laptop with a 630M Nvidia card, which I hope is enough to play CE coupled with a third gen i3 processor... Anything else is just too expensive :/
     
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  2. Daynab

    Daynab Community Moderator Staff Member

    That will probably be fine. We're not Crysis here, folks.
     
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  3. Createx

    Createx Member

    I'll hold you responsible if it won't run on my laptop! Honestly, CE is one of the games I'm most anticipating this year, so it is definitely influencing my choice of laptop :)
     
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  4. Createx

    Createx Member

    I hope I found the holy laptop grail for me now, I just ordered an ASUS 14 inch with a 2nd generation i5 and a NVIDIA 540M. I hope the cogs have mercy on that configuration.
    If not, I now own an E-Reader and I scouring the net for freebies already :D
     
  5. Kazeto

    Kazeto Member

    From what I know after reading this thread, it should be enough.

    Though a 14-inch laptop is, in my opinion, a puny scrap and not a laptop. But I just have problems accepting anything smaller than the 17-inch ones so it's not an opinion you ought to take to yourself.
     
  6. Createx

    Createx Member

    17 is a bit too big to comfortably lug around, and I wouldn't get any advantage from it, since the resolution stays the same in my price range. Coupled with less battery life and more weight, I like my 14. It also has an optical drive, which is awesome.
     
  7. Kamisma

    Kamisma Member

    Then again you like lugging huge multi-tons behemoth just for fun :p

    What is the model of your laptop Createx ? I am deeply in love with 14" format, but often the screen is lackluster.
     
  8. Createx

    Createx Member

    Yeah, the screen is really lackluster. On my desktop I'm running a 22' at 1680x1050, so I didn't think the 1366x768 at 14 would be that bad. But I can't help noticing the column of pixels, never noticed it on my desktop :/ Probably because I'm sitting farther away from the screen...
    It's an ASUS U46S with the i52410m. Not the best model around, but I got it for the very cheapies :)
    The problem is that you rarely get decent screens in my price range, and if you do they are either the very old used ones with 80GB HDD and no graphics or some business machines with crappy IGPs as well. But again, I was surprised at how much I'm noticing the low-res screen.
    I shudder to think how this resolution would look on a 17' model...
     
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  9. Kazeto

    Kazeto Member

    With 17' (well, 17,3', though the display itself is 17'; albeit I'm fairly certain you already know that) laptops you are likely to get 1600x900 which, while not exactly the same as the 1680x1050 you get on a 22' monitor (9:16 stuff instead of "10:16" [it's within quotes because it ought to be "5:8" instead]), is fairly good too and after just some time it's easy to get used to the proportions the same way you can get used to the "10:16" ones.

    But yeah, that's about it when it comes to carrying larger laptops "just for fun" - the small ones do have annoying displays, in my opinion (though it is not my main reason for having a larger laptop).
     
  10. Kamisma

    Kamisma Member

    My 14" has 1400x900 and it's quite good. The main issue is the luminosity that got dangerously low with time (it wasn't really high to begin with). However nowadays 13" have top notch display.
     
  11. Mikael

    Mikael Member

    How about MacBook Air?
    CPU: 1.3GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 (Turbo Boost up to 2.6GHz) with 3MB shared L3 cache
    RAM: 4Gb
    GPU: Intel HD Graphics 5000

    Will it run at least in some medium specs on that hw, or only in "slow and crappy" mode?
     
  12. astaldaran

    astaldaran Member

    Well the asus mentioned above has the discrete NVIDIA Geforce GT 620M; but I think the integrated Intel 4000 "cards" in similar ultra books (like samsung) are as good if not better. I guess the biggest advantage would be the separate ram. I would assume an i5 or i7 with the intel 4000 graphics would run the game fine..so for you ultra book fans. At least I'm hoping that is the case; my wife is looking at getting a pretty good ultrabook and i'd think we'd enjoy playing this game togethor. ( I use a desktop..a much cheaper way of having a gaming computer).

    I found this: http://www.game-debate.com/gpu/inde...el-hd-graphics-4000-mobile-vs-geforce-gt-620m

    though work has it blocked so i'm not sure what's conclusion is.
     
  13. OmniaNigrum

    OmniaNigrum Member

    I think I read somewhere that the once loathed Intel Integrated GPUs finally have full shader support.

    It took them ages to get right, and they are still many miles behind even cheap add-on GPUs made by Nvidia and ADM. But they are finally able to start buffing it up into a real workhorse without getting sued into an early grave by those two other companies that had copyrights and patents and all manner of legal trickery keeping them from developing their own GPU for many years.

    In a side note, it was obvious to anyone who bothered to read up on the technical specifications that Intel wanted to start making GPUs too way back when they launched the very first Pentium CPU. (In 1997.) The very first Pentium CPUs had MMX which made it obvious they would start a slow evolution towards GPU internals.

    The current model of Intel Integrated GPUs is called "Intel HD Graphics". It is looking as good as those cheap low-profile GPUs that can barely play modern games on low settings. But it will grow with time. And from what I hear, it is quite efficient on most systems.

    With a 4000 or 5000 you can probably play on low or even medium settings just fine if you do not mind turning off antialiasing and vsync.
     
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  14. Kazeto

    Kazeto Member

    Pretty much that. Myself, I am of the opinion that as of yet "if you have a desktop, take Nvidia; if you have a laptop, take ATI".

    But if the rest of the whole thing is up to the par, even a slightly–sub-par video card will suffice; I know because I abused my previous laptop to play games its video card shouldn't be good enough for and it worked because the CPU helped with it (well, GPU is sort of like an additional CPU but for graphics ... ).
     
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  15. Mikael

    Mikael Member

    Well, the big question is also a driver quality plus many extra factors. So I'm just hoping that somebody in GaslampGames tried it on MacBook Air and have smth to say :)