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All the same, this got the team at TrustedReviews thinking. We’ve talked about notebooks as a vehicle for occasional gaming on the move, but would it now be possible to use a notebook as your primary PC gaming platform?

Obviously, not any notebook will do. True, it’s now easy to get an affordable laptop with a decent Core 2 Duo or Turion X2 CPU. Meanwhile, 1GB of DDR2 RAM is rapidly becoming standard (though we would recommend an upgrade to 2GB if you can possibly afford it). An 80GB, 5400RPM SATA drive is now entry-level stuff. However, there are still three things that need some careful consideration: screen size, physical format and – most importantly for gaming – the GPU.

To make things easy, think of notebooks in terms of four basic categories:

Bargain basement: If you’re planning to play modern games on a £399 special with a Celeron or Sempron processor and chipset graphics (e.g Intel GMA900 or GMA950 UMA integrated graphics), forget it. You may be able to play older games or some newer titles at a lower resolution with everything turned to minimum, but it’s basically a waste of time. And while a low-end discrete solution like the GeForce Go 6100 will give you a slightly better experience, you’ll still be stuck with low-end games at low resolutions and low-end detail levels. It’s just not worth your while.

Not so cheap, not so cheerful: Mid-range ‘entertainment’ notebooks and some ultra-portable notebooks will include dual-core processors, 1GB plus of DDR2 RAM and a fairly low-end GPU like the ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 or the nVidia GeForce Go 7400. You’re getting warmer here, but you’ll still be restricted in your choice of games and you’ll have to make some severe compromises on how they look. That’s fine if you just fancy the occasional game of Tomb Raider: Legends, but you’re in for a nasty shock if you want to play Bioshock.

Mainstream systems and mobile units: Now we’re talking. For around £799 upwards you can get a laptop with a mid-range dual-core CPU (say a Core 2 Duo T7200 ot Turion 64 X2 TL-50), a mid-range GPU like a GeForce Go 7600 or Mobility Radeon X1700, a decent-sized hard disk and 1GB of RAM. With screen sizes standardising on a 15.4in 1,280 x 800 widescreen format, you get a usable screen in a sub 3kg laptop you can still just about carry around on a regular basis.

High-end desktop replacements: For real 3D power, this is where you need to come. CPUs range up to the fastest mobile offerings from Intel and AMD, while Mobility Radeon X1800, X1900 and GeForce 7800 and 7950 GPUs become available – in dual SLI configurations for the real enthusiast. Screen sizes rocket up to 17in or even 20.1in, 2GB of RAM is a realistic configuration, and 120GB hard drives are standard. The only downside is that power consumption and sheer bulk – some of these guys are in excess of 4kg – make mobile use extremely unrealistic. As a result, the fastest gaming notebooks fit two main markets: those wanting a mobile powerhouse for LAN Parties or competitive gaming purposes, and those wanting a high-end gaming system in a format you can still pack away in a drawer at the end of the day. As both markets are relatively small and component costs are relatively high, prices stretch anywhere from £1,399 up to £2,500 and higher. In other words, you may get a great experience, but you have to be pretty serious about your gaming to justify the outlay.


Obviously, the latter two categories are the only ones worth looking into if you want a notebook that can play the year’s big upcoming PC games. But, if you’re used to a desktop, how does actually playing games on a notebook feel? Can you get the same frame rates, the same audio/visual overload? Are you really getting the full PC gaming experience? I borrowed two models from gaming notebook specialists Rock to find out.

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