Light gaming and the T43 - is it possible?

[hootpie]

I'm going to be picking up a T43, model number 266875U, soon. The specs are:

14.1" SXGA
2.0ghz
512ram
64mb x300
80gb 5400rpm HD

I'm wondering how well this computer will be able to handle CS 1.6. I've tried searching, but I haven't come up with anything absolutely conclusive. Can the T43 with the x300 handle CS 1.6 @ 1024x768?

Now this might be a big stretch, but could I play BF2 @ 640x480 with the graphics dialed down all the way? The sole reason would be to screw around with the jets when I have a break at school

Not being able to do some light gaming wont make or break this purchase for me. This laptop is going to be for school/work, but some gaming capacity would be a nice addition

Edit: I forgot to ask, do you guys have any words of wisdom for a new T4X owner?

Edit #2: If it says estimated ship date is 11/7/05, should I really expect it to ship no sooner than that, or does IBM quote longer?

[NeoteriX]

I've got nearly the same laptop as you, the 2668 T43, although I added another 512 MB to it to bring it up to 1GB. It works fine for decently cutting edge games, I have Half Life 2 and CS:Source on it, and it runs at 40-50 fps at 1024x768 with most of the graphic features on (although i usually turn down the graphics just to stay on the safeside). My friend with a similar setup has also played Doom3 and thats fairly playable too. FYI, first person shooters need a mouse, the touchpad/trackpoint aren't gonna cut it

[GomJabbar]

This laptop is going to be for school/work, but some gaming capacity would be a nice addition

Edit: I forgot to ask, do you guys have any words of wisdom for a new T4X owner?

Don't let it out of your sight - even for a minute!

[hootpie]

This laptop is going to be for school/work, but some gaming capacity would be a nice addition

Edit: I forgot to ask, do you guys have any words of wisdom for a new T4X owner?

Don't let it out of your sight - even for a minute!

Never. I'm a college student still, so I'm not made of money and I can definitely not afford to lose a $2000 laptop due to negligence. I had a 15" Powerbook about 6 months ago that rarely left my sight.

[emorphien]

You should be able to play fine, just not at high res or with the highest settings.

If you want to game get more RAM (and of course the p with the Fire GLV3200 would be better but $$). I'd suggest just upgrading to 1gb of RAM and you should be good.

[dssjon]

I get around 80 fps on cs 1.6 on my t43

[ctgilles]

My FireGL hasn"t got any problems with Half Life 2 and DTM Race Driver 2 at 1280x1024. I'm even running HQ, 2AA 2AF on HL2 but am running the card slightly oc'ed.
I just love this laptop

[kyrotech]

Ive been testing latest Catalyst 5.10 with my T42, and so far its working very well. some numbers:

All tests done with 1024x768x32 noAF noAA, Powerplay disabled and
High Quality Texture and Mipmap, Maximum Peformance laptop settings.
Used Benchemall 2.651 for game testing at high settings.


3DMark 2001 SE Build 330: 10,326

3DMark 2003 Build 360: 2,837

Aquamark 3: 22,459

GL Excess v1.2: 6,524

Steam VST: 49.25 FPS

Half-life 2: 38.53 FPS

Unreal Tournament 2004: 90.87 FPS

Need for Speed Underground 2: 33.93 FPS

Battlefield 2: 29.67 FPS

FarCry: 36.93

Return to Castle Wolfenstein: 103.43 FPS

No overclocking testing yet, still waiting for AS5 to arrive

[hootpie]

^

Which handles games better, the 9600 or the x300?

[hootpie]

I just placed an order for the 266875U. The estimated shipping date was 2-4 weeks (which sucks, because the next lowest model was in stock ) and under order status it shows 11/7/05 as the ship date.

Is it really going to take that long to get it or does IBM like to quote a lot bigger time frame?

[kyrotech]

^

Which handles games better, the 9600 or the x300?

MR 9600 is better than X300

[skystorm]

MR 9600 is better than X300

What makes you think so? As far as I know they are essentially the same, the X300 being a PCI Express version of the 9600...

[GomJabbar]

Here is one comparison.

[cliff320]

I have a family member who works for IBM so I will probably be buying a Thinkpad T43 the next six months, and I was wondering if I should opt for a T43p with a 128MB ATI Mobility FireGL V3200 rather than the normal T43 that comes with a 64mb X300. I am probably going to use this computer for grad school for the next 4-5 years, and I do like to do some casual gaming. I'm not looking to be blown away or anything (which laptops don't really do to start out with), I just want to be able to run games that come out in another three years. Do you think games will require 128 mb soon, and should I opt for the 128 mb video card? Or will it even get outdated even before then?

Also any opinions on 14.1" vs 15" screen besides the weight issues? Thanks so much for all of your help!

This is the T43p model I'm looking at:
ThinkPad T43p (Think Express Program)
2687D5U
$1,949.25*
RAM 1 GB
HD 80 GB (5400 rpm ...better than my current 4200 rpm T23 though!)
Intel® Pentium® M Processor 760 2GHz
15.0"
128MB ATI Mobility FireGL V3200
DVD Recordable
Three years parts and labor (system battery: one year)

It's about $400-600 more for the T43p over a comparable T43, depending on what I little things I choose (there are so many T43 options, but only two T43p's).

[christopher_wolf]

As far as I have had experience, the x300 will hold out for awhile; it already plays HL2, UT2004, FarCry, RtCW, and RtCW: ET Great.

[davidspalding]

I have the T43 in question here ... haven't done any gaming, but have done some video experimentation with my 31" HDTV as a second monitor (via DVI-D, naturally). It all seemed pretty zippy. I'm hoping that doing video editing with Adobe Premier Effects on the LCD and HDTV will be as smooth as you guys say the hot games are.

I had problems setting the HDTV resolution and refresh with the latest ATI drivers, but tonight I'll try the setup with the Omega 2.675a drivers.... Wish me luck, bros.

[Plazsteel]

I've been pleasently suprised by the gaming performance of my T43 (1.86 Ghz, Mobility x300, 512MB RAM). I also play CS:Source and it runs great on 1024x768. It actually runs better and with higher settings than my desktop (hopelessly bottlenecked by a Radeon 9200).

As for the shipping question mine had an estimated ship date of four weeks after I placed the order. It ended up shipping two days before that. That has been the biggest complaint I have about my computer.

[fafaforza]

Quake 4 ran (see other topic) fine on my T42/1.7GHz/64Meg ATI, albeit at 640x480, but the graphics still looked great. Maybe it was the anti-aliasing. I was definitely surprised at the actual resolution, as it looked like any game I ran at 1024x750 on a desktop.

[mybellyisempty]

Q4, Doom3, HL2, BF2, and WOW run fine on the T43.

it's just a matter of your personal expectations.

I leave the gaming to my tower (Dual Opteron 254 w/ 7800GTX)...the T43 I have currently is game free; I'm likely to put GTA:VC on it simply because it's simple to play w/o a mouse, and is good for hours of boredom..

[Esben]

The difference between X300 and MR9600 is the memory interface. It is unfortunately limited to 64-bits on the X300.

I'm very memory limited with my MR9600. The GPU can be overclocked a great deal.