Thinkpads Forum

i am going to buy a t60 or t61. i am trying to decide between the t60 and t61, what are the pros and cons? i am also trying to decide what gpu to get. i will use this mainly for casual wed surfacing, movie watching. and i want to be able to play decent games. I want good battery life to. can the intel gpu in t61 run games like f.e.a.r. and unreal tournament 2004? how much does having a discrete gpu hurt battery? does the bigger or smaller gpus affect the battery more or less? thanks

If you want to play games, stay away from the integrated Intel graphics. There's a reason you don't see integrated graphics in gaming machines!

For FEAR or UR 2004 you´ll most definitely need some decent gaming performance (depending on your settings), so integrated graphics is not really an option for you. Also, I don´t really believe that you are going to be happy just with a T61 (with 128 MB NVS 140) unless you are willing to overclock your machine, which is highly not recommended on laptops. If you also need decent battery life, I would suggest you to look for something with switchable graphics.

Marin

what is switchable graphics? do i understand this right as having a discrete and integrated and i can switch? i have a desktop for gaming. i just the laptop to handle occasional stuff on lower settings. my t40 runs ut2004 fine.

sniper695 wrote:what is switchable graphics? do i understand this right as having a discrete and integrated and i can switch?

Basically, Yes. Take a look into T400/T500 forum. T400 has better graphics than a T61 (non-p) and offers this kind of switchable graphics so when you occasionally don´t game and are on the road, it will provide longer battery life. A new T400 can be had for about 1000 bucks from Lenovo (in this case I would suggest to set things like RAM and HD to the lowest specs, you can get better/more far cheaper than the offering from Lenovo, and there is no problem upgrading these nor the upgrade would void your warranty. However, choosing LED backlit may save you some additional battery life without sacrificing much brightness, ...) Sorry if I sound like Lenovo Ad, this is not really my intention My point is only that depending on your budget you might be able to get a better machine for your purposes...

sniper695 wrote:i just the laptop to handle occasional stuff on lower settings. my t40 runs ut2004 fine.

I believe FEAR is the one that could be somewhat problematic, if you go for a T61 with NVS 140, you will most probably have to run it in lower settings, but that depends really on how serious you intend to game on your laptop as you already have a gaming desktop.

Marin

what is the battery difference from intergrated to 128mb discrete to 256mb discrete

sniper695 wrote:what is the battery difference from intergrated to 128mb discrete to 256mb discrete

Well, it doesn´t depend only on the amount of dedicated graphics memory, but also on the gpu. I believe some forum member who have the opportunity to possess both kinds of laptops (including those with switchable graphics) would be better able to give some details as to this difference.

Marin

Intel is no go for video games. Maybe you can play some games that are older than 10 years. Even the Nvidia NVS 140 has problem playing F.E.A.R. I could only play it well if I overclock the graphic processor. Doom 3 plays well in normal mode. You will probably be playing in 800x600 resolution with Nvidia NVS 140. The next card Nvidia 570 FX (I don't remember if it is 570 or some other number) that comes with the 15 inch thinkpad should play these games well. I heard some could play bioshock. Even when NVS 140 is overclocked, it can barely play bioshock at the lowest setting.

does the 128 mb vs 256mb have any battery life differnce

would a t60 with a decent card work just as well? the t61p are a little to pricey.

You can't have both, very long battery life and really high performance GPU. If you are so concerned with battery life, then just get a couple of spare batteries.

You may find this chart interesting...

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Gra ... 844.0.html

I chose a t61p over the t60 because of the better specs. Man, if I can take it back though, I would buy a t60p with a standard screen and put an IPS flexview screen on it. Standard screens are better for CAD and basically most anything except for watching movies.