ED on a Laptop - I've Got Questions!

krylite

krylite
If you can Duck, I'd suggest to go for the more powered laptop with built-in Nvidia card. They can also do well with regular pc work when not running ED..

1) My almost five year old laptop is a gaming laptop on win8 /w gtx 860m nvidia. It was more costly but I also use it for everything as a desktop replacement as I don't have a recent desktop. My old desktop is about ten years old. (runs ED slowly on lowest settings) I can still easily have ED running idle in a window while doing other things on my laptop.
2) I have relatives with store bought generic laptops. I tried installing ED on them and it works fine, better with Nvidia over Intel-integrated.
3) 8GB is better of course if running ED or also having something else on the desktop. But 2-4GB still works.
4) medium shadows = no elephant hind leather!, haha. Textures set on high doesn't seem to have as high a fr drop as other settings. I'd noticed settings like bloom, blur, ambient slowed things down more.
5) I'd noticed about an hour or less when unplugged and on battery. I usually have my laptop AC plugged in and don't have ED running usually, if occasionally not plugged in.
6) It usually gets pretty hot. I have the laptop on a cooling fan base. I occasionally use a can dust blower to air out the dust from the laptop fans, and occasionally opened it up clean it overall.
7) HDMI works very well with my laptop. It can do 2048x1152 smoothly , but I often have ED in a 1980x1080|1680X1050|1400X900 window on screen or on my hdmi connected monitor.
With many laptops now having USB3.0 ports, it's easy and fast to run ED from a secondary external HD. The 3.5" drives in laptops can of course be upgraded by replacing them with SSDs where everything loads faster.
Have fun deciding and hope you enjoy the pc-ED verse! o7
 
Last edited:

Nerix

Nerix
Don't leave us Duck, the PS4 community is already too small - how about a ps4 pro to get rid of your Elephant Butt Leather interior? (or waiting for 3.3, which certainly will solve most of your bugs) ;-)
 

Rob At Work

R
Same as everyone else has said its all about the heat. I have both, a laptop and a desktop & I don't like to use my laptop for games as it gets very, very hot (more Graphics = hotter and hotter - restricted space within the case is the main reason, this applies for all laptops). I prefer to use my laptop for running EDDB, Inara, Excel, Sky Go. etc..whilst playing ED.. Sorry, probably not very helpful.
 

Old Duck

Old Duck
Nerix said:
Don't leave us Duck, the PS4 community is already too small - how about a ps4 pro to get rid of your Elephant Butt Leather interior? (or waiting for 3.3, which certainly will solve most of your bugs) ;-)
Click to expand...

While the graphical bugs on PS4 is one of the driving forces, there are other things that ED on PC offers that I find enticing. Funny thing is, the PS4 would still be my primary gaming machine for other games. I'm definitely not buying a dedicated gaming PC just for ED, but if I end up getting a new laptop anyway, it might be worth it to spend a little extra to run ED. The verdict is still very much in the air.

Rob At Work said:
Same as everyone else has said its all about the heat. I have both, a laptop and a desktop & I don't like to use my laptop for games as it gets very, very hot (more Graphics = hotter and hotter - restricted space within the case is the main reason, this applies for all laptops). I prefer to use my laptop for running EDDB, Inara, Excel, Sky Go. etc..whilst playing ED.. Sorry, probably not very helpful.
Click to expand...

Actually, it is helpful. If enough people give reasons that a gaming laptop isn't all it is cracked up to be, then I'll probably just stick to my PS4 and suffer though the graphics bugs until Frontier fixes them. I don't need a gaming laptop for the vast majority of the things I use a laptop for.
 

Mole HD

Mole HD
Old Duck said:
While the graphical bugs on PS4 is one of the driving forces, there are other things that ED on PC offers that I find enticing. Funny thing is, the PS4 would still be my primary gaming machine for other games. I'm definitely not buying a dedicated gaming PC just for ED, but if I end up getting a new laptop anyway, it might be worth it to spend a little extra to run ED. The verdict is still very much in the air.



Actually, it is helpful. If enough people give reasons that a gaming laptop isn't all it is cracked up to be, then I'll probably just stick to my PS4 and suffer though the graphics bugs until Frontier fixes them. I don't need a gaming laptop for the vast majority of the things I use a laptop for.
Click to expand...

You know you want to [yesnod]

5FD3Gly.jpg

I tried using a fairly decent laptop for occasional PC gaming when I was using the Xbox as my main gaming platform...you can see from the pic above exactly how that worked out.

I didn't fork out for that in one lump, just a few bucks every month or so getting the bits I wanted...kinda a hobby build.
 
Last edited:

Old Duck

Old Duck
Mole HD said:
You know you want to [yesnod]

...

I tried using a fairly decent laptop for occasional PC gaming when I was on the Xbox...you can see from the pic above exactly how that worked out...
Click to expand...

If money grew on trees and power came from the grid, I'd own that in a heartbeat :D

However....
 

babelfisch

babelfisch
Old Duck said:
Actually, it is helpful. If enough people give reasons that a gaming laptop isn't all it is cracked up to be, then I'll probably just stick to my PS4 and suffer though the graphics bugs until Frontier fixes them. I don't need a gaming laptop for the vast majority of the things I use a laptop for.
Click to expand...

This is what I would do. Keep playing ED on your laptop PS4 and invest your money in a professional business notebook rather than something that has nice specs but poor quality.
 
Last edited:

MrFailfactory

MrFailfactory
Mole HD said:
You know you want to [yesnod]



I tried using a fairly decent laptop for occasional PC gaming when I was using the Xbox as my main gaming platform...you can see from the pic above exactly how that worked out.

I didn't fork out for that in one lump, just a few bucks every month or so getting the bits I wanted...kinda a hobby build.
Click to expand...

Higher performance.

HOTAS for the ship.

Steering wheel and pedals for the SRV.

V.R.

The siren calls, Duck...

Riôt
 

Flin

F
Old Duck,

If you can wait a bit, watch out for AMD Ryzen 7 2800U or 2800H laptops with Vega 10 or 11 iGPUs.

They should be energy and heat efficient and have enough juice to play ED with some fancy GFX.
 

Morbad

Morbad
Old Duck said:
So here's a new question - when I'm out exploring in deep space, can I run ED using the integrated graphics controller (Intel) at lower settings and still get decent framerate? If so, I'm assuming this would greatly decrease power consumption.
Click to expand...

Yes you can and yes it would, though you may have to restart the game to switch between the IGP and the discrete GPU.
 

cheesenbiscuits

cheesenbiscuits
I’d suggest getting the biggest bang for your buck you can. Luckily Elite is so well optimised and pc tech isn’t out of date within 12 months. I’ve been running Elite on a laptop since launch and it still does a fine job even though it’s not very well spec’d.
 

Rob At Work

R
Old Duck said:
Out of curiosity, what about something like this Gaming NUC?
Click to expand...

I quite like that.

However, given it's size and the amount of ventilation (not much) I suspect heat generation will still be the issue. Might be worth checking out the PC Hardware Review channels see what they say.

Mind you it has a flat top, so you could always pop a frying pan on it and cook your bacon Mmmmmm.....doubles up as camping stove - lol
 

DeathStroke

Banned
D
Old Duck said:
give reasons that a gaming laptop isn't all it is cracked up to be
Click to expand...

1. Heat. They get hot. There's nothing you can do. Those 'cooling' mats don't work. Hooking the shopvac to the exhaust port does, but that's really noisy.
2. They're expensive. They cost more than same spec-ed desktops.
3. They're underclocked. The manufacturer sends them out underclocked so they don't deplete the battery as fast, you can reset the clock (most of the time), but then your battery goes faster.
4. The battery life sucks. If you game on battery, you won't be gaming for long.
5. The keyboards suck. They usually have the cheapest keyboards known to man.
6. The touch mouse is evil. Seriously, I hate those things. If you don't get carpal tunnel, you'll get cramps.
7. The sound is crap. Teeny tiny speakers that usually get over driven just so you can hear them 3 feet away. Bass? What is this 'Bass' you speak of?
8. You WILL drop it. It's just a matter of time.
9. You cant upgrade it. Maybe, if you're lucky, you can add a little more ram, or swap the hard drive. Don't even think about a new cpu/gpu.
10. Wifi sucks. High latency and high power consumption.
11. Those power bricks really hurt if you step on them or stub your toe on them.
 

Tifu

Tifu
Lestat said:
You should look at https://www.lenovo.com laptops. There a 17-inch laptop i7 8 gen 8750 with an NVIDIA 1050. It $1099.00
Click to expand...

https://www.lenovo.com/ph/en/laptops/ideapad/ideapad-y700-series/Ideapad-Y700-15/p/88IPY700618

The Y700 series is great for gaming. I have an older generation and it runs pretty cool and weighs less than most gaming laptops. This generation has a much better display than mine and sound quality has been good ever since.

A USB fan is still recommended for intense gaming sessions - that or a cooling pad.
 

Aashenfox

Aashenfox
DeathStroke said:
1. Heat. They get hot. There's nothing you can do. Those 'cooling' mats don't work. Hooking the shopvac to the exhaust port does, but that's really noisy.
2. They're expensive. They cost more than same spec-ed desktops.
3. They're underclocked. The manufacturer sends them out underclocked so they don't deplete the battery as fast, you can reset the clock (most of the time), but then your battery goes faster.
4. The battery life sucks. If you game on battery, you won't be gaming for long.
5. The keyboards suck. They usually have the cheapest keyboards known to man.
6. The touch mouse is evil. Seriously, I hate those things. If you don't get carpal tunnel, you'll get cramps.
7. The sound is crap. Teeny tiny speakers that usually get over driven just so you can hear them 3 feet away. Bass? What is this 'Bass' you speak of?
8. You WILL drop it. It's just a matter of time.
9. You cant upgrade it. Maybe, if you're lucky, you can add a little more ram, or swap the hard drive. Don't even think about a new cpu/gpu.
10. Wifi sucks. High latency and high power consumption.
11. Those power bricks really hurt if you step on them or stub your toe on them.
Click to expand...

My MSI Apache does Elite in VR comfortably, and does ok for your points, plus it was pretty cheap for spec at $1200 a year ago...

1) The heat is acceptable, but undertray with fan is indeed recommended and helps a lot.
2) OK, but that's necessary for the convenience of carrying them around. Miniaturising stuff with as few compromises as possible requires exotic materials, etc.
3) Theyr'e underclocked only when you're on battery. Full power with power attached. But on a modern laptop, this is a non-point, nobody expects to be able to game on battery, the battery would be damaged for a start.
4) See above. It's an impossible proposition. FWIW, if you don't game, they last ok. Standard use, web browsing, etc.
5) Can't agree, I generally like laptop keyboards. Certainly the MSI one is good quality for a 1200$ laptop
6) OK I completely agree. But if I could come up with something better, I'd be very rich indeed.
7) Laptops are portable, they're for playing at the gate when waiting for a plane, you'll be using headphones whenever it matters. ;) But you are correct, speaker sound is rubbish.
8) Never dropped or in fact physically damaged a laptop in my life (had my first in 1990), but I can see that your point is valid at least for some. My wife's sister seems to go through laptops at a silly rate due to physical accidents.
9) True, they are a two year proposition, sell second hand and buy a new model, you can usually get 50% off the new one this way in my experience. Depreciation is a . lol
10) MSI has really good wifi, but I know your complaint is valid of a lot of machines.
11) This one isn't too massive, honestly! They must have improved something, cos I confess, my last gaming laptop had an actual house brick as a PSU, I swear!
 

Morbad

Morbad
If a laptop model/chassis has a version that is speced for a higher-end part, the ones with lower end CPUs/GPUs will generally run very cool for a laptop, since the same cooling is normally used.

Wifi latency generally isn't bad unless the NIC in question has buggy drivers.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom