What's new

Laptop good for n64

XxCrashxX

New member
Im gettin ready to go to college in a year and I was curious
would a laptop have enough power to emulate n64 at a good speed
It will probly be pretty close to the the top of the line at the time I buy it so say its like a 2.4 or 3 ghz

and Im not sure what kind of graphics card they come with
and im pretty sure you cant just go out and buy one for it
so would that like seriously limit it emulation wise
 

nephalim

Psychic Vampire
Absolutely, the only thing you need to be careful about is the graphics card. Any processor they sell will be sufficient, however if it's shared/onboard graphics it most likely will not be. The 2 choices you have, both will be sufficient, in order of power: the Radeon Mobility 9000 (M9), & the Geforce 4go (G4G.) I recommend the M9. You MIGHT have better compatibility with certain graphics plugins on the G4G, but it's not really a Geforce 4, it's a Geforce 4 MX, which is basically an overclocked Geforce 2, which = crap. The M9 is an excellent card, and it's equivilent to the desktop Radeon 9000 card, with it's speed somewhere inbetween the regular 9000 and 9000 pro. It's also got pixel/vertex shaders and full DirectX 8.1 support, unlike the G4G. Those are basically the only two options you will find, other than onboard intel. The Geforce 2go would be a sufficient but very low-end for N64 emulation, however I don't think they sell it with new machines anymore, it would make a good "value" card for laptops, but they use the onboard intels for that.

I have a P3, 900mhz, with an M9 and get 100% speed most of the time and at least 75% speed the rest of the time with N64 emulation, and breathtaking & perfect graphics with most plugins (some plugins have problems with Radeon cards due to the garbage drivers they produce for them, but it's gotten alot better lately.)

(The plugins supporting Radeons has gotten better not the drivers themselves, although I do think they have gotten marginally better, although I suspect things will change soon on that front.)
 

jollyrancher

New member
You'd get better value and full speed in games if you get a 1.8ghz rather than this 2.4-3.0 ghz and use the savings on a top-of-the-line video card.
 
OP
X

XxCrashxX

New member
thanx alot guys
I want sure they mad gfx for laptops that you could put in your self
this helps me a lot
I owe you one
 

nephalim

Psychic Vampire
You technically can't put in a laptop graphics card yourself. You need to completely understand that what you buy is what you get - don't expect to be able to upgrade any of it. A top of the line graphics card, for a laptop, is the M9. The M10 will be out soon if you wait a little while. Both will be more than enough for N64 emulation. I already went in depth about that, I just wanted to clarify you need to get it configured WITH your as-is laptop because you can NOT upgrade it! (rare upgrades may be possible but don't count on it.)
 

jack

New member
nephalim said:
Absolutely, the only thing you need to be careful about is the graphics card. Any processor they sell will be sufficient, however if it's shared/onboard graphics it most likely will not be. The 2 choices you have, both will be sufficient, in order of power: the Radeon Mobility 9000 (M9), & the Geforce 4go (G4G.) I recommend the M9. You MIGHT have better compatibility with certain graphics plugins on the G4G, but it's not really a Geforce 4, it's a Geforce 4 MX, which is basically an overclocked Geforce 2, which = crap. The M9 is an excellent card, and it's equivilent to the desktop Radeon 9000 card, with it's speed somewhere inbetween the regular 9000 and 9000 pro. It's also got pixel/vertex shaders and full DirectX 8.1 support, unlike the G4G. Those are basically the only two options you will find, other than onboard intel. The Geforce 2go would be a sufficient but very low-end for N64 emulation, however I don't think they sell it with new machines anymore, it would make a good "value" card for laptops, but they use the onboard intels for that.

I have a P3, 900mhz, with an M9 and get 100% speed most of the time and at least 75% speed the rest of the time with N64 emulation, and breathtaking & perfect graphics with most plugins (some plugins have problems with Radeon cards due to the garbage drivers they produce for them, but it's gotten alot better lately.)

(The plugins supporting Radeons has gotten better not the drivers themselves, although I do think they have gotten marginally better, although I suspect things will change soon on that front.)

No offense, but there are newer mobile vid cards than the ones you mentioned.

If top of the line is what he's looking for, then go for one of those new nvidia gffx5600go.
 

nephalim

Psychic Vampire
jack said:
No offense, but there are newer mobile vid cards than the ones you mentioned.

If top of the line is what he's looking for, then go for one of those new nvidia gffx5600go.

Well, yeah, brand new. The M10 should be out soon too, if it's not yet. As of about a month ago, however, the M9 was the best you could get. On top of that, I don't think that the gffx5600go is even being sold mainstream yet.
 
OP
X

XxCrashxX

New member
Once again thanx alot guys
this helps me out a crapload



:spam:
:stupid:
:stupid:
:stupid:
:stupid:
:stupid:
 

Top