Dual core vs SLI in gaming laptop

[brother2angel]

Hey Guys;

Im looking at buying a new gaming laptop and im trying to decide if the alienware m9700 with its sli 1g total video ram or the dell m1710 with its dual core but only 512 video ram would be a better buy for high end. What does everyone think and what would be the noticeable differences between the two.. thanks

 

[Nitestick]

i'm wondering if i can persuade you against buying a high end gaming laptop. for the price you'll pay you could probably buy a better desktop and a laptop.

 

[Ronnie]

so does the alienware have sli or just 1 gig of ram?
because those are two way different things

 

[Sora]

Not just that...do you NEED laptop for school or something and your trying to kill two needs at once?

In that case dont limit yourself to companies like that.

Asus makes CRAZY gaming laptops for the price. However if you don't NEED it and just want a gaming laptop and not a desktop...I would agree and say get the desktop as it would be MUCH more powerful for the money.

1GB Video ram sounds like your confusing regular ram with GPU ram. However laptops have the option to allocate regular ram to video as well so this is where you would get that idea.

 

[brother2angel]

Hey guys thanks for the posts... first off i have built my share of sick gaming desktops and am very computer savy ive just recently joined the coast guard and need to be able to play my games on a laptop.. ive got one for school processing and want a good gaming laptop.

 

[jakebrick]

The Alienware actually has 1GB of video memory, and is quite possibly the best laptop I have ever seen, it will not disappoint. I don't know if I would drop that much on a laptop though.

 

[GrogLikesBeer]

I have that computer, and I love it. It plays everything I've tried so far. The game with the lowest frame rate was Neverwinter Nights 2 (still runs at 20-30 fps @ 1920x1200 with everything maxed), and I think that is because that is a CPU intensive vs. GPU intensive game (so I've read on the NWN2 forums). I had to download newer nVidia drivers and make sure I turned on the SLI, but once I did that it worked great. I bought it last Sept., so I would assume you would get the latest drivers now, but I'd still check if you go that route. Expect to use it plugged in most of the time though, as the battery only lasts about 1-1.5 hours depending on what you're doing.

I'm looking into building my own desktop now, but I do still love my laptop.