Seeking Suggestions on Laptop

[Khadawaru]

I use a laptop with an ATI mobility radeon HD 5470 and with windows aero switched off it runs FFXIV on normal settings fine, however with windows aero switched on I would lag alot, perhaps you should try that, right click the FFXIV icon, properties, go to the compatibility tab and check disable desktop composition which will switch aero off while the game is running and not hogging your graphics resources.

To be honest, I'm very surprised that worked, but it did... For both games! Thanks for the suggestion. Now to decide if a 3D laptop is really that important or just a 3D monitor for my desktop.

[Issac]

Obligatory reasonable argument: Laptops are not for gaming.

Unless you have liquid cooling within the laptop. And the liquid is nitrogren. That you refill every 6 hours.

Seriously, overheating is the #1 enemy of electronics. Laptops have too little space to effectively keep a video card cool with current technology. Wait a couple decades.

[AmyRae]

There are laptop video cards that can play FFXIV, but the 1.0 client literally cooks them. This has happened to a couple of friends, already, and it's particularly painful because you usually can't replace the video card on a laptop. You're better off sticking with a desktop or waiting for the kinder 2.0 version to come out. Otherwise, you're putting a lot of money at risk.

[Deli]

I had a Lenovo I5 sandy bridge, Nvidia 550M before. Play this game is very smooth while setting is set to the 5-6 drawing quality and 2 background. The card temperature is around 70 degrees C with laptop cooler. However, I can't play in windows mode even I already switch ff14 to graphic card only. I blame the Nvidia Optimus. when ever I switch window, then I will get error message "can't find direct X device"

Then I switch to ASUS G53sw with Nvidia 460M. this one ASUS didn't put in the optimus thing and can can play in windows mode with no problem.

I also have a hp laptop i7 sandy bridge with 5770M I think borrowed from Costco. It runs in windows mode smoothly with setting around 6-7 started to get lags. So it's similar lv card with 550m, but it can run in windows mode.

[Radiator]

I just bought a HP laptop because I could get this for a little over 1K shipped:

dv7t Quad Ed
• dark umber
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• 2nd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2670QM (2.2 GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 3.1 GHz
• 1GB Radeon(TM) HD 6770M GDDR5 Graphics [HDMI, VGA]
• FREE UPGRADE to 8GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• 750GB 7200 rpm Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
• No Additional Office Software
• No additional security software
• 30% OFF 9 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
• 17.3" Full HD BrightView Infinity LED(1920x1080)
• Free UPGRADE to Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner
• HP TrueVision HD Webcam with Integrated Digital Microphone and HP SimplePass Fingerprint Reader
• Intel 802.11b/g/n WLAN
• Standard Keyboard with numeric keypad
• 2 year limited warranty included
• HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

Not super stoked about it being an HP and wish it had a SSD but cant really beat the price. Make sure you pay attention to the hard drive, 7200RPM is def preferable.

Also for the record you can play on many laptops with the setting turned way down , depends on what you want to do (and change the system setting to 30FPS in game). If you are looking do actively do combat however you will need i7ish core and good GPU.

I even bought (and returned it because i could get more for my money), but it did play FF just fine on medium-low setting with no dedicated graphics:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Toshiba+...&skuId=3438847

Also this site is good for graphic card comparison:

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu_list.php

W/e you get, keeping it cool is the challenge. While im waiting on the new laptop i play on ultra low everything on a 3 year old HP that was $550 from walmart. works just fine for crafting and getting around (does hav dedicated graphics). The game is still a resource hog but they HAVE optimized it quite a bit.

[Dhalmel]

To be honest, I'm very surprised that worked, but it did... For both games! Thanks for the suggestion. Now to decide if a 3D laptop is really that important or just a 3D monitor for my desktop.

I'll say it again, DONT WASTE YOUR TIME WITH 3D LAPTOPS!.

Buy a 120Hz monitor, a nvidia 3D glasses kit and use it on your desktop.
Laptops are very hit and miss and they need to be in the proper position or angle to get the best effect, and most don't have a way to control the dept of the 3D effect. Too much dept will give you a headache quickly and too little will give you nothing. Most of the laptops also only use passive 3D which will result with image quality reduction.

P.S.
Another thing with 3D and FFXIV is that it's not impressive at all unless you're viewing the cutscenes of the game or in the ifrit battle or any future area with great effects. If you're buying 3D solely only for FF14 you might become disappointed.

[Kiote]

Is it M cards or just ATI cards? My ATI card runs very poorly, but I've seen on forums that generally ATI ranks lower in FFXIV as a whole compared to nVidia. I've seen a few posts where people are using laptops that run FFXIV full screen at normal resolution and even found a few images and videos that reaffirmed that as well. I just don't know how much of a difference the 10 digits really make. I made the same cut when picking my desktop's card and haven't noticed any performance issues.

My HP Laptop has an ATI 5770 in it and it runs the game at almost max settings, minus Ambient Oclussion, without any problems. DCO9 something something

[Andrien]

I play on a HP laptop. HP HDX 16 with a 130M card.

I can play on standard setting just fine but loading npc takes a few more seconds. On low settings it seats around at 85C-90C degrees. It is not the best but it is playable. I highly suggest a desktop.

However 2.0 might be a godsend for Laptops. I'm excited for it.

[Seif]

No matter what anyone says on this thread the OP should know that nobody, probably even SE knows what the tech specs are going to be. They've only said they're aiming for more scalability, but as everyone knows within a year graphics card market will be totally different and these specs won't be at the forefront of PC-gaming.

[viion]

I use a laptop with an ATI mobility radeon HD 5470 and with windows aero switched off it runs FFXIV on normal settings fine..

I have identical card in my Laptop and run XIV on medium just fine. I have to do the 30 fps in game though, to jaggy at 60.

Exact settings:
1360x768
2x AA
8 Drawing
3 Background
Shadow lowest
Both texture, standard
DOF/AO off

Though my laptop fans go nuts so i dont prefer it. PC all the way!