How long will my laptop last for?

[RitchieTheMerc]

OK, so to start off, first I'd like to apologise for posting this on the Nexus, and not on a PC gaming forums, I just liked the community here and knew that I'd get a quick and friendly response :thumbsup: .

 

Anyway, now onto my question; how long will my gaming laptop last me for? By this I mean how long will it be before I have to upgrade?

 

Here are my specs-

 

Video card - nVidia GT555M 2GB

CPU - Intel Core i5 2430M @2.4GHz (2.9 if run with TurboBoost)

RAM - 6GB.

 

Now, I'm thinking that my CPU might be the bottleneck here when it comes to playing games in the future. But, saying this, I can run Splinter Cell: Conviction, Skyrim, and loads of other games on High settings.

 

I know I'm sounding a bit stupid here, but what do you guys think? How long until I will have to upgrade?

 

Thanks, Ritchie.

[LuDux]

Given those specs, I'd suggest at least 3 years.

 

To clarify - my own setup is a 2.8Ghz i7, with dual GTX 460 in SLI and 12GB of RAM that I put together a year or two ago, and I don't foresee having to upgrade anything at all for at least 3-5 years, except maybe the graphics card in two or three years.

Edited January 14, 2012 by LuDux

[Rennn]

You're right; your cpu will be the bottleneck for sure.

But hopefully not for at least a few years. :thumbsup:

It's a solid graphics card though, especially considering that it's a mobility version.

 

It sounds like it's definitely a 'modern' laptop, but I can't say for sure how it'll age. The problem with laptops is it's so hard to replace the weakest link, whatever that may happen to be. For you, it's the cpu. The good news is if you can run Skyrim on high on that cpu, it probably won't hold you back on many other games, even a couple years down the road. Skyrim is one of the most cpu-demanding games to ever release, from what I hear.

Edited January 14, 2012 by Rennn

[RitchieTheMerc]

Given those specs, I'd suggest at least 3 years.

 

To clarify - my own setup is a 2.8Ghz i7, with dual GTX 460 in SLI and 12GB of RAM that I put together a year or two ago, and I don't foresee having to upgrade anything at all for at least 3-5 years, except maybe the graphics card in two or three years.

 

Thanks for the quick reply dude, just wondering, would you say your graphics card is better/equal/worse than mine? I know that they're probably better because you've got two and your running them in SLI, but on the whole, which would you say was better? Thanks.

[RitchieTheMerc]

You're right; your cpu will be the bottleneck for sure.

But hopefully not for at least a few years. :thumbsup:

It's a solid graphics card though, especially considering that it's a mobility version.

 

It sounds like it's definitely a 'modern' laptop, but I can't say for sure how it'll age. The problem with laptops is it's so hard to replace the weakest link, whatever that may happen to be. For you, it's the cpu. The good news is if you can run Skyrim on high on that cpu, it probably won't hold you back on many other games, even a couple years down the road. Skyrim is one of the most cpu-demanding games to ever release, from what I hear.

 

Thanks for the reply too. I think that the CPU can Turbo Boost up to 2.9, so really it shouldn't be too much of a problem (I'm hoping). Because really, who can predict where the gaming technology of tomorrow is going to go?

[Rennn]

2.9 is much better, since many programs are supposed to run on roughly 3.0Ghz processors, and yours basically fills that requirement. (It's 0.1Ghz away, but I honestly doubt 0.1Ghz is going to be a big problem, lol)

 

I'd guess that games won't advance much in graphics next year. The PS3 and 360 have pretty much maxed what they can handle, and PCs are getting lower-graphics games as a result. I don't mind, since my pc is far from an ultra setup on the newest games anyway, but once the new consoles come out I think both our cards will start to go obsolete. That's probably a ways off, luckily.

Edited January 14, 2012 by Rennn

[RitualBlack]

People on the nexus are always happy to discuss hardware you don't have to apologies for anything RitchieTheMerc. For future posts there are sub-forums for Hardware/software and PC gaming on the nexus. It would probably be a better place to post it because people don't go in the Skyrim discussion to talk about laptops :laugh: . You can't accurately tell when you will need to replace it. It will be fine until there is a game you wish to play and are unable to do so.

[RitchieTheMerc]

People on the nexus are always happy to discuss hardware. You don't have to apologies for anything. For future posts there are sub-forums for Hardware/software and PC gaming on the nexus. It would probably be a better place to post it because people don't go in the Skyrim discussion to talk about laptops :laugh: . You can't accurately tell when you will need to replace it. It will be fine until there is a game you wish to play and are unable to do so.

 

OK, I'll do that next time. Sorry :biggrin:

[RitchieTheMerc]

2.9 is much better, since many programs are supposed to run on roughly 3.0Ghz processors, and yours basically fills that requirement. (It's 0.1Ghz away, but I honestly doubt 0.1Ghz is going to be a big problem, lol)

 

I'd guess that games won't advance much in graphics next year. The PS3 and 360 have pretty much maxed what they can handle, and PCs are getting lower-graphics games as a result. I don't mind, since my pc is far from an ultra setup on the newest games anyway, but once the new consoles come out I think both our cards will start to go obsolete. That's probably a ways off, luckily.

 

Yeah, but even when the new consoles are released, I honestly don't see it advancing too much from the standard it is at now. I mean, OK, there'll be new shaders, new filters, little things like that. But nothing HUGE. And I mean San-Andreas-to-GTA-4-huge. I really don't see it happening.

[RitualBlack]

2.9 is much better, since many programs are supposed to run on roughly 3.0Ghz processors, and yours basically fills that requirement. (It's 0.1Ghz away, but I honestly doubt 0.1Ghz is going to be a big problem, lol)

 

I'd guess that games won't advance much in graphics next year. The PS3 and 360 have pretty much maxed what they can handle, and PCs are getting lower-graphics games as a result. I don't mind, since my pc is far from an ultra setup on the newest games anyway, but once the new consoles come out I think both our cards will start to go obsolete. That's probably a ways off, luckily.

 

Yeah, but even when the new consoles are released, I honestly don't see it advancing too much from the standard it is at now. I mean, OK, there'll be new shaders, new filters, little things like that. But nothing HUGE. And I mean San-Andreas-to-GTA-4-huge. I really don't see it happening.

 

There are always fun little openGL based games that can cripple most computers if put into higher resolutions. I feel that I have a pretty good laptop. It has Crossfire 2GB 6970m (4gb video ram), 2.9ghz turbo i7 2630, 8gb ram and a solid state hybrid drive (I know its not as good as a full SSD, but I didn't want two hard drives :laugh: ). A game like Cortex Command which is a 2d sprite based game can sometimes cause me to lag up a bit on two player (mind you sending down a canisters with a hundred FREE crabs in it doesn't help :laugh: ). The next generation of consoles will be 'out of date' upon release because they make them an affordable gaming platform. Where a computer may cost several thousand a console may cost under $200. There are always fun and innovative games that are PC exclusive, but they are normally indie games in alpha development and I love em'. Games like Overgrowth, Cortex Command, and Tiny and Big :biggrin: . GTA SA wasn't graphically amazing when it was released which is why there was such a jump between the two. The later games on the PS2 and Xbox were capable of achieving similar graphics to early games on the 360 There were even some games which looked nicer than some recent released games. I believe the ps2 silent hill, a game called Ghosthunter and Odd world are all good examples of this.