Feed: Tutorial: How to tweak your laptop for gaming performance - AggScore: 9.5
Summary: Tutorial: How to tweak your laptop for gaming performance
With laptop sales continuing to rise – up by 43.3 per cent in the first quarter of this year alone, according to Gartner – it would appear that more and more of us are riding the technology wave. Keeping up to date with the latest advances in laptop computing enables us to work longer, faster [...]
Tutorial: How to tweak your laptop for gaming performance
img srchttpcdn.mos.techradar.comReview20imagesPC20PlusPCP20302PCP302.feat1gaming.laptopblue200200.jpgpWith laptop sales continuing to rise up by 43.3 per cent in the first quarter of this year alone, according to Gartner it would appear that more and more of us are riding the technology wave. pppKeeping up to date with the latest advances in laptop computing enables us to work longer, faster and, generally, for less. The good news for gaming is that this relentless march of technology means its no longer necessary to own a dedicated gaming laptop to enjoy the odd game now and again. ppOf course, PC gamers who are serious about their entertainment will still benefit from pricey GPU technology particularly if theyre going to be playing cuttingedge games but these days even netbooks are capable of keeping you amused. ppThere are several factors that have helped increase the gaming potential of even the cheapest laptops, and the improvements made to processors are leading the way. With the likes of the Core 2 Duo trickling down to budget machines, and the wonderful Atom coming in dualcore spins, there are cores aplenty to keep modern multithreaded games going at a healthy pace. ppNot only that, but memory capacities have continued to increase as well, with a previously unimaginable 1GB now available as standard in many laptops, and its generally easy to upgrade your machines offering to 2GB or more yourself. ppstrongIntegrated graphics strongppThe biggest advances in gaming PCs, however, have come through improvements to integrated graphics engines. Even Intels oftmaligned Graphics Media Accelerator has come on in leaps and bounds, and with a little care and attention can be cajoled into playing games that would once have required a desktop PC costing many thousands of pounds.pp You may need to pick lower quality settings to get some games working at reasonable speeds, but thats not too great a sacrifice. The only potential problem comes from the handful of games that demand DX10 hardware, but even this isnt quite as limiting as it sounds, because Intel offers support for the DX10 API with the GMA X3100, 4500 and HD ranges. ppBesides, most games still offer a DX9 codepath for compatibility reasons, and all of Intels chips support that revision of Microsofts gaming API. ppDont worry about DX11 yet either its been available for a while, but there are no DX11only titles out there right now and few are in development. ppAs with desktop gaming, your display is the biggest barrier to smooth frame rates. The higher the resolution, the lower your framerate. In fact, apart from antialiasing, which improves the look of games significantly, screen resolution is the one factor that affects performance more than any other. ppDrop the resolution down as low as it will go maintaining the aspect ratio where possible and you should be able to hit the allimportant minimum of 30fps. If you manage to reach the heady heights of 60fps, you can try increasing the detail level or resolution to improve the games fidelity. ppEither way, experimenting with games settings is essential and can be fruitful. Getting your game running smoothly is an important factor if you want to enjoy some serious gaming on the move, but dont underestimate how important the input side of the equation is. ppA mouse of any description will improve most games notably, with the likes of the Logitech G9 being the preference for many. Dont forget to disable the touchpad to stop unwanted movement at vital moments you can usually do this via a shortcut on your laptop, such as FnF3. ppA USB keyboard isnt quite so essential, but can help if you have a smaller laptop with cramped keys. ppstrongSerious mobile gaming strongppIf youre looking for a serious mobile gaming experience, youll need a machine with plenty of RAM, an SSD or fast hard drive and a recent GPU, such as Nvidias GeForce GT 460M engine or AMDs Mobility Radeon HD 5850. These options come at a price, and despite the big names, they lag behind desktop components by quite a margin. ppFortunately theyre still capable of driving the latest and most demanding games at reasonable settings and resolutions. If you have a powerful desktop computer as well as a laptop or netbook, then theres another option for playing games on the go in the form of game streaming services. ppStreamMyGame runs the game on your desktop and streams it over your local network to your laptop or netbook. The freetouse client limits the resolution of the stream, but upgrading the service is affordable and the inherent lag isnt anywhere near as bad as you might expect.pp If nothing else, this experience will give you a taste of what it might be like playing games hosted on the cloud something that many experts predict will be the future of gaming. ppThere are plenty of ways to use your laptop or even a humble netbook to punctuate your working day with a little entertainment. Its worth taking a look at the likes of Good Old Games, which has taken a selection of classic PC games and rereleased them to work on modern versions of Windows. The system requirements are generally quite modest, and there are some stunning games to be had for only a few pounds.ppimg width1 height1 srchttprss.feedsportal.comc669f415081s112dd829mf.gif border0div classmfrelatedpRelated StoriespulliIs the future of Xbox and PlayStation tablet basedliliMore kids want iPads than consoles this XmasliliOnLive to offer iPad app and moviesliuldivdiv classmfviraltable border0trtd valignmiddleimg srchttpres3.feedsportal.comimagesemailthis2.gif border0 tdtd valignmiddleimg srchttpres3.feedsportal.comimagesbookmark.gif border0 tdtrtabledivbrbrimg srchttpda.feedsportal.comr90662295277u49f415081c669s112dd829kg254043456568143168170a2.img border0img srchttpfeeds.feedburner.comrtechradarmobilecomputingnews4FInhersTRlI height1 width1a targetblank relnofollow hrefhttpfeedproxy.google.comrtechradarmobilecomputingnews3FInhersTRlIstory01.htmTechRadar Mobile computing newsa
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