Horizons on a Laptop

[Xydair]

I need to purchase a Laptop but don't have the budget for a gaming laptop. My question is has anyone managed to run the game on a laptop like this Acer Aspire ES1-571 Laptop - Intel Core i3-5005U - 4GB RAM - 500GB HDD I would upgrade the memeory to 8GB but it does have a Intel HD Graphics 5500 so that would be a huge bottleneck. Obviously I'm not trying to run on ultra, I'm happy to run on low settings but is this even possible with a spec such as this?

TIA

 

[Muzz UK]

The game plays poorly when played on onboard graphics... it's fine until you go near a planet surface, enter a system with NPC's or go anywhere populated like a trade route or community goal.

I have a work PC which is an Intel i7, 8gb RAM and SSD I get 30-50fps around stations all low settings in windowed mode but it drops into the 20s a lot once you start adding players, npc's or doing missions its horrible to play. I can log onto do a bit of outfitting and maybe do a single jump mission or trade but anything involving combat is out of the question.

If you can put up with a lot of fps drops you might be ok but personally I would never try combat or long on this setup I prefer my AMD/GTX 1080 at home I can experience Elite the way it should be played.

Others might have a different experience but I doubt it!

There are laptops that will play the game nicely but on that i3 spec I imagine you'd be crashing a lot and getting frustrated.

So my answer is don't bother save up for a gaming laptop or better PC.

 

[MuckyPup]

I play on a laptop (I live in a small flat), i7, 6GB Ram, Nvidia 650MGT. I get around 60fps in open space, but approaching stations, or NPC populated areas it drops to about 40.

It also overheats like a son of a ! I've got heat rash on my left leg from playing ED during the heatwave!

 

[Lightspeed]

I am running it just fine on a HP Omen. That is a 'gaming' laptop, which I bought as a refurbished computer, but was like new when I received it. Consider a second hand one? It would run the game well enough. It has good heat control, too.

 

[Shadowdancer]

The game plays poorly when played on onboard graphics...

The safe assumption is that it will not run at all and crash during start-up. Intel graphics are officially below minimum spec, and most of the time people trying to make it work will either have it refuse to start outright, crash, or suffer graphics corruption. Any positive experience with such a setup is purely incidental.

 

[Rakaposhi]

It is a push to get decent graphics out of an onboard GPU. Cooling will definitely be an issue, so I'd recommend an external fan. On my laptop I use one that the back of the laptop rests on, and it pulls air in the top and pushes it under the laptop. It really helps a lot.

 

[ZeroAi]

I need to purchase a Laptop but don't have the budget for a gaming laptop. My question is has anyone managed to run the game on a laptop like this Acer Aspire ES1-571 Laptop - Intel Core i3-5005U - 4GB RAM - 500GB HDD I would upgrade the memeory to 8GB but it does have a Intel HD Graphics 5500 so that would be a huge bottleneck. Obviously I'm not trying to run on ultra, I'm happy to run on low settings but is this even possible with a spec such as this?

TIA

I play a lot on my Lenovo G50 with i3, Intel graphics, 250GB SSD, and 6GB ram.

On this very low powered machine the game takes about 2 minutes to start, after which it plays fine (give it another 60 seconds before opening either of the maps)

The graphics aren't as good as my XBOX One (no where close to my i7/1070 rig) but it's still not bad and a lot of fun.

That said - I DON'T recommend Intel integrated graphics for this game.

Here's what I would recommend which you can find around $500:

Processor - i3 minimum, i5 very good
Graphics - AMD or nVidia graphics - stay away form Intel Integrated graphics to avoid the 2 minute game boot I have
Resolution - FHD / 1920x1080

Link to Amazon: http://amzn.to/2sVHeAt

Popular Acer budget gaming laptop (I have not tested) http://amzn.to/2sVsMbJ

My laptop also came with a very slow HDD so I put in an SDD for $70 and solved that issue.

Hope this helps!!!

Grey

 

[DragonIV]

Those Intel cards don't really do 3D at all, which is why they're not listed as compatible with the game. That's really your major bottleneck--if you found a laptop with mobile Nvidia graphics and 8GB ram you could definitely play it at lower settings and poor frame rates, but with that Intel graphics adapter I think you'd be extremely disappointed in the results.

 

[shadragon]

Get the extra 4GB of RAM and see if you can replace the HDD with an SSD. If you are going to do more than browse the Internet, I'd look at an i5 CPU. Your experience (not just Elite) will be much better.

It will play on what you spec'd out, but you'll have to make some compromises on the graphics side.

 

[4gui4]

http://www.toshiba.co.uk/discontinued-products/qosmio-x70-b-10t/

use more than one year playng Elite now,

before was a Usus k55vm-sx045v got old and overheat (use today as support is perfect)

Heat is the biggest problem in this kind of machine and I use une of those http://www.toptenreviews.com/computers/peripherals/best-laptop-coolers/

to buy a new one a look for best processor, memory and video card package that I can find without ridiculously expensive releases prices , never pay sticker

price, ever and I can't.

 

[Sierra31]

I've actually managed to play Horizons a few times on my i7 Surface Pro 3.
Whilst it's playable it's not exactly a great experience, works ok for grinding rep on missions if you're stuck in a hotel though.

 

[LKx]

I need to purchase a Laptop but don't have the budget for a gaming laptop. My question is has anyone managed to run the game on a laptop like this Acer Aspire ES1-571 Laptop - Intel Core i3-5005U - 4GB RAM - 500GB HDD I would upgrade the memeory to 8GB but it does have a Intel HD Graphics 5500 so that would be a huge bottleneck. Obviously I'm not trying to run on ultra, I'm happy to run on low settings but is this even possible with a spec such as this?

TIA

My old low-budget laptop (asus x52jt-sx642v) had a Radeon HD 6370 (low end card), which was barely able to handle Horizons at 720p (or even less, i don't remember) with <10 FPS.
It was just playable in space.
So i don't think you could go anywere with an integrated card.

 

[sb413197]

I play on an HP omen gaming laptop - not expensive. Works fine except for on planets while in VR. Otherwise does well

 

[Sentenza]

Those Intel cards don't really do 3D at all, which is why they're not listed as compatible with the game. That's really your major bottleneck--if you found a laptop with mobile Nvidia graphics and 8GB ram you could definitely play it at lower settings and poor frame rates, but with that Intel graphics adapter I think you'd be extremely disappointed in the results.

Yes the problem is with the crappy Intel card. I also play with my old (2012) laptop with decent results at medium settings, but it has a Radeon HD card. The Intel card is just garbage.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

Yes the problem is with the crappy Intel card. I also play with my old (2012) laptop with decent results at medium settings, but it has a Radeon HD card. The Intel card is just garbage.

I also use an very old ATI 5650 512mb on my crappy laptop. It can barely cope with horizons, but is actually pretty good for normal Elite.

Ideally you need something with a half decent dedicated graphics card built in.
Maybe an nvidia 940M, 950M, or 1050M..?

 

[Cmdr Delmonte[VR]]

I have a full on machine now, but ran on this quite well at Medium settings http://www8.hp.com/us/en/campaigns/HP_Star_Wars_laptop/overview.html

 

[MickyG1982]

I need to purchase a Laptop but don't have the budget for a gaming laptop. My question is has anyone managed to run the game on a laptop like this Acer Aspire ES1-571 Laptop - Intel Core i3-5005U - 4GB RAM - 500GB HDD I would upgrade the memeory to 8GB but it does have a Intel HD Graphics 5500 so that would be a huge bottleneck. Obviously I'm not trying to run on ultra, I'm happy to run on low settings but is this even possible with a spec such as this?

TIA

It really depends on just what your budget is (& a link to the laptop you have in mind would be beneficial).

I think you would be better off going for an AMD APU based laptop as the graphics on the higher tier processors are both significantly better & significantly cheaper than their Intel counterparts. That said, AMD processors (even their top tier ones) only just compete with i3's in processing performance. But combined with the graphics side of the APU should make a better "budget" gaming laptop overall.

 

[Stinja]

If you're happy with 30fps, and sub 30fps around stations, with low on everything, then ED scales down fairly well, as I played for some months on a 2014 11" MacBook Air (specs = https://support.apple.com/kb/sp699?locale=en_GB)

1.4GHz core i5
HD5000 (integrated graphics)
128GB SSD

This was however the base-game, and not Horizons. It did run acceptably, better Solo (less loading stuff), and highly portable (for work / holiday, just add DualShock4 for portable control option).

If you can stretch then something with a proper graphics card is significantly better. For mobile ED I now use a 14" Razor Blade, i7 16GB RAM, GTX 1060 6GB, which runs at 60fps high-ultra, and even VR in low. Still small enough to carry everywhere, not blatantly a gaming laptop when used in work meetings etc.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

It really depends on just what your budget is (& a link to the laptop you have in mind would be beneficial).

I think you would be better off going for an AMD APU based laptop as the graphics on the higher tier processors are both significantly better & significantly cheaper than their Intel counterparts. That said, AMD processors (even their top tier ones) only just compete with i3's in processing performance. But combined with the graphics side of the APU should make a better "budget" gaming laptop overall.

I read somewhere that AMDs mobile APUs are just terrible all round, worse than intel HD.
Desktop APUs are fine though.

I don't remember the source, and it is not my opinion. I'd love to know if anyone is playing ED:H on an AMD mobile APU, and what performance they're getting.

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

If you're happy with 30fps, and sub 30fps around stations, with low on everything, then ED scales down fairly well, as I played for some months on a 2014 11" MacBook Air (specs = https://support.apple.com/kb/sp699?locale=en_GB)

1.4GHz core i5
HD5000 (integrated graphics)
128GB SSD

This was however the base-game, and not Horizons. It did run acceptably, better Solo (less loading stuff), and highly portable (for work / holiday, just add DualShock4 for portable control option).

If you can stretch then something with a proper graphics card is significantly better. For mobile ED I now use a 14" Razor Blade, i7 16GB RAM, GTX 1060 6GB, which runs at 60fps high-ultra, and even VR in low. Still small enough to carry everywhere, not blatantly a gaming laptop when used in work meetings etc.

Apple products can not run horizons for some odd reason.

Aren't those razor blade laptops like £2500~?

 

[Stinja]

IApple products can not run horizons for some odd reason.

Yes for "some reason"... but if just grinding missions, doing RES etc (and to be fair most of Horizons is pretty optional) then the little Air was decent enough. Portability was the key though, you can't realistically lug a gaming desktop around the world

Aren't those razor blade laptops like £2500~?

I think mine was only £1800, again I opted for the cheaper, more portable option.