Can you bench test a laptop VS PS3 (to see what you have)?

[Mobsta]

GF's son has a laptop, which we really cant remember how much it cost. Probably £400 ish. Not sure.

I havent checked the specs, but even if I did, I wouldnt know how to compare it to a PS3.

Is there a way of benchmarking the machine by downloading/running something, which would give an indication of how powerful it is, say in comparison to a PS3.

He is very keen to buy Skyrim when it comes out, for the laptop, not his PS3. My words to him were look into it first, as laptops are usually somewhat inferior to desktops, and £400 ish for a desktop machine even one year ago, wouldnt have bought much in the way of gaming power.

Can one benchmark to find out, or would anyone hazard a guess as to what a one year old laptop of roughly that budget might be like for 3D, in comparison to the PS3, when running a FPS 3D game?

[bonkbonk]

Unless you got the laptop at half price it will be unplayable. Benchmarking it against a PS3 is going to be tricky, particularly given that the PC and PS3 versions of the game will be different in terms of implementation. What you can do is investigate the laptop's spec against online benchmarks to see how the setup would fare playing similar games.

[freecar]

Give up with the idea of comparing it to a PS3.

A PS3 will play it regardless.

A PC will have to meet minimum specification to be able to play it. Find these specs and compare to those of the laptop.

If you don't know the spec of the laptop google the model number or post the model here and we'll go looking.

As the previous poster said, unless the laptop was half price it wont be able to run it, most laptops don't have a seperate graphics card and it'll definitely need one to play skyrim.

[Mobsta]

Thanks chaps.

The model number is: Compaq CQ61-427SA

I found a data sheet and confirmed the data sheet matched the same memory/processor info which I found by right clicking my computer.

The datasheet is here:
http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetPDF.aspx/c01971819...

I found the skyrim min sys requirements. Not sure if they are accurate/official, but here is what I found:
http://www.systemrequirements.in/system-requiremen...

What do you lot reckon? Year old laptop and a yet-to-be-released 3D game?

Will the game even run? If so, how well... at a struggle? Its been a while since I bought games for the PC (many years!) but I seem to remember needing to double the "recommended spec" to get decent frame rates and resolutions, and the "minimum spec" was a joke.

Thanks for the help!

[bonkbonk]

Not a chance, the laptop has integrated graphics, it will be completely unplayable.

[Mobsta]

bonkbonk said:

Not a chance, the laptop has integrated graphics, it will be completely unplayable.

Thanks for the replies.
Are you saying that because the laptop doesn't have a dedicated graphics card, the game simply will not run, at all?

I always assumed if the CPU and memory were adequate, any game would run, just very poorly if the graphics processing ability was not up to scratch... not so?

How would integrated graphics prevent a game from running? (Not debating the issue, just curious how this works )

[bonkbonk]

It will run, it won't be much fun to play.

[The Nur]

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Lenovo_IdeaPad_G770...


Would the above run it?

[Mobsta]

bonkbonk said:

It will run, it won't be much fun to play.

I know he plays java (??) or similar type 3D games, like 4Story and er... I forget the other one... through a web browser. Anything played through a browser will be naff but he seems happy playing that type of stuff, usually alongside various friends/neighbours, with their laptops. Its more about being with others than getting 60fps at high resolutions.

That seems to be his view or choice when playing games.
I personally am the opposite. FPS matters, so does resolution.

That said, when you say it wont be much fun, can you make a ROUGH guestimate as to how bad the experience might be? 5, 15, 25 fps?

He will undoubtedly buy the game for his laptop, although im totally unable (and unwilling) to push him not to, as I genuinely have no clue what modern (or any) laptop hardware is like, having not bought any PC games in years and never played any on a laptop.

[onlynik]

Try going here on teh laptop.

http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri/

But I'm guessing it won't run.

[Bullett]

If it even runs, shared memory integrated graphics and a CPU that scrapes in to minimum spec will make it virtually unplayable I would say. FPS = Slideshow.

[Mobsta]

The last two posts are very helpful, thanks!
Looks like he'll have to buy it for his PS3.
Cheers!

[The_Jackal]

See if you can borrow a recentish PC game from someone and see if it runs good enough for him to play (slim to none chance).
Skyrim is a highly anticipated game that will have all the bells and whistles. These days some games even require a lot of cpu power to deal with AI and other stuff.
Unless you show him how bad his laptop will be for playing modern games, he is going to waste money on buying it for the PC.
At least on the PS3 the speed and quality will be the same for everyone playing it, no questions.

[voyds9]

sandra from sisoft
http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/
will benchmark the PC should still be free

[fwaggie]

The processors in modern middle to top end graphics cards have more power than all but the top end CPUs, and it's this computing power that the game needs to run.

With an embedded graphics chip I'd guess the game won't be able to use any power of the GPU at all, so will have to do software emulation (i.e. everything that would normally run on the GPU will have to run on the CPU), which needs a hell of a CPU to even get 5~10 fps.

With a CPU that only meets the minimum spec it'd be playable IF you had a top end GPU, as it is, forget it. Buy it for the PS3 and enjoy the eye candy