First, I do IT work for a living. I'm hands on with both hardware and software all day, every day. Second I'm also an avid gamer and have been for a very long time, so I'm not just talking out of my rear, here. Please don't take this the wrong way:
I highly doubt you're going to find a machine that will run this acceptably in your price range. I know alot of the other posters above are trying to let you down easy, but the simple blunt fact is that unless your idea of "runs a game fine" is 20-30 FPS on low-mid graphics settings, you're SOL on this.
To give you some perspective, my wife is in the SW:TOR beta (yes my wife games with me, currently we're both playing Rift), and has a faster machine than you will find in a 1k laptop (faster than you'll find in a 1500+ laptop), and SW:TOR pushes it fairly hard, a bit harder than Rift, though I'd call it a fair comparison (both use the Gamebryo engine afaik).
I've not installed it on my laptop yet(i7 w/5870m) to see how well it runs, but I can tell you her desktop is faster than my laptop, and my laptop cost nearly twice your price range two months ago.
I highly doubt you're going to find a machine that will run this acceptably in your price range. I know alot of the other posters above are trying to let you down easy, but the simple blunt fact is that unless your idea of "runs a game fine" is 20-30 FPS on low-mid graphics settings, you're SOL on this.
To give you some perspective, my wife is in the SW:TOR beta (yes my wife games with me, currently we're both playing Rift), and has a faster machine than you will find in a 1k laptop (faster than you'll find in a 1500+ laptop), and SW:TOR pushes it fairly hard, a bit harder than Rift, though I'd call it a fair comparison (both use the Gamebryo engine afaik).
I've not installed it on my laptop yet(i7 w/5870m) to see how well it runs, but I can tell you her desktop is faster than my laptop, and my laptop cost nearly twice your price range two months ago.
I'm in the market for a decent gaming laptop...
- 25/04/2011 12:28:24 PM
607 Views
First, will you explain why you want a gaming laptop?
- 25/04/2011 10:17:22 PM
482 Views
some of us just don't want a desktop
- 26/04/2011 07:33:05 AM
491 Views
Which is fair enough, I just think it's an unusual viewpoint.
- 26/04/2011 06:14:58 PM
464 Views
I'm special. I effectively tank with a touch pad.
- 26/04/2011 11:24:17 PM
458 Views
Ah, you're one of THOSE tanks. On behalf of WoW players everywhere, I hate you.
- 26/04/2011 11:34:06 PM
456 Views
I don't key-turn!
Pretty sure that consistent touch pad use would give me carpal tunnel. *NM*
- 27/04/2011 02:19:09 PM
213 Views
much appreciated...
- 26/04/2011 10:36:22 AM
496 Views
Sounds good. Keep in mind that buying a low-end laptop doesn't mean you can't game on the go.
- 26/04/2011 05:41:07 PM
601 Views
A few words based on experience.
- 26/04/2011 06:19:53 PM
559 Views
Forgot to mention
- 26/04/2011 07:17:58 PM
454 Views
Definitely worth mentioning, but there's always something better just a couple months down the road. *NM*
- 26/04/2011 07:39:33 PM
233 Views