A Laptop to ESO with?

kadar · May 2016

Hey all,

Was wondering if you techy folks out there could help me out. I have a job with a lot of downtime, so I occasionally play ESO at work. My previous laptop is a piece of Guar dung for gaming, and since Thieves Guild DLC it can't run ESO because of the DX11 thing.
Whatever I get it needs to:

Run ESO around Medium settings at decent framerates
NOT look like a gaming laptop (I haaaaate the outer-space machinery look)
Decent Battery life
Decent portability (I'm thinking 14inch)
Quality construction
SSD
A "slim" style gaming laptop is in the right vein (less than 1 inch)

I've been lusting after the 2015 Razor Blade 14" Full HD Non-Touch, but it's Retail of 2,000 USD is enough to make me feel faint. But dayummm that thing is sexy. I just think it may be overkill for my needs.
http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-systems/razer-blade-2015
What do you guys think? Any feedback you've got for me would be much appreciated.

NewBlacksmurf · May 2016

Now you'll have to update a bit. Make sure the vid card is compatible. I use to run it on a Asus G72 but that doesn't have direct X11

Check the website but it will need a video card to run smooth on medium or high (not very high)
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-rog-15-6-laptop-intel-core-i7-16gb-memory-1tb-hard-drive-metallic/4637109.p?id=1219785906403&skuId=4637109

WalkingLegacy · May 2016

If a laptop is a must, nothing less than a 970m preferably. if you're willing to spend 2000, at least a 980m. (Anything that has this GPU will already have a good CPU)

8-16gb of RAM.
256-1TB SSD.

And as always with the tech world, the new GPUs should be right around corner. I know last rumor I read says maybe a holiday release this year now. Pascal will be a pretty good jump in GPU power if you can wait.

hamgatan · May 2016

i use this baby as my mobile ESO station

http://www.asus.com/ROG-Republic-Of-Gamers/ROG-G551JX/

its a beauty. should only be around $1300-$1400 USD as well.

i7, GTX950M, 8GB RAM, + 256GB SSD. Does about 70-80fps most of the time in ESO (although i've hit higher numbers)

kadar · May 2016

If a laptop is a must, nothing less than a 970m preferably. if you're willing to spend 2000, at least a 980m. (Anything that has this GPU will already have a good CPU)

A laptop is a must. This will be a secondary machine to my desktop at home, so I don't need to be floating around Cryodiil with 60fps.

Now you'll have to update a bit. Make sure the vid card is compatible. I use to run it on a Asus G72 but that doesn't have direct X11

What's the best way to make sure a Vid card is compatible with direct X11?

That's for the responses so far, guys.

Vangy · May 2016

Im running ESO on a custom made laptop. General breakdown;

-->Intel® Core™ i7-6700HQ Processor
-->NVIDIA Geforce GTX 980m 8GB GDDR5 (graphics card)
-->15.6" FHD (1920X1080) IPS Matte Display with Wide color Gamut and NVIDIA GSYNC Support (screen)
-->32GB DDR4 2133MHZ (16GB x 2) (RAM)
-->512GB SAMSUNG SM951 M.2 PCIE SSD & 1TB 7200RPM HGST HDD & 500GB Samsung 850 Evo SSD (hard drives) x3
-->Windows 10 Home 64 Bit
-->Thermal compound + Tri-fan cooling for cpu/gpu... This laptop gets realll hot without these fans.

With the above specs, my laptop weighs about 3kg flat and is a little noisier than most laptops due to the tri-fan system. On the flipside, it runs pretty much anything on highest quality settings. Although I typically like to set games to one setting below max just to avoid any lag etc. Eso runs smoothly for the most part, even during the intense zergs I average about 30-40 fps. Considering I have friends who just crash out, I'd say its doing pretty well.

IcyDeadPeople · May 2016

The_Outsider wrote: »

Hey all,

Was wondering if you techy folks out there could help me out. I have a job with a lot of downtime, so I occasionally play ESO at work. My previous laptop is a piece of Guar dung for gaming, and since Thieves Guild DLC it can't run ESO because of the DX11 thing.
Whatever I get it needs to:
Run ESO around Medium settings at decent framerates

NOT look like a gaming laptop (I haaaaate the outer-space machinery look)

Decent Battery life

Decent portability (I'm thinking 14inch)

Quality construction

SSD

A "slim" style gaming laptop is in the right vein (less than 1 inch)

I've been lusting after the 2015 Razor Blade 14" Full HD Non-Touch, but it's Retail of 2,000 USD is enough to make me feel faint. But dayummm that thing is sexy. I just think it may be overkill for my needs.
http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-systems/razer-blade-2015
What do you guys think? Any feedback you've got for me would be much appreciated.

Will you be participating in large PVP battles? If so, keep in mind this activity is significantly more demanding on the client hardware compared to most PVE areas. Even high end monster desktops cannot maintain steady 60fps @ 1080p max settings in this situation, so mid-range laptop will need to dial down some settings for Cyrodiil.

I would be careful to avoid any laptop with dual core ULV low voltage CPU (i7-6600U, i5-6200U, m7-6Y75, etc), and instead get at a bare minimum full quad core CPU (i7-6700HQ, i7-6820HK, i5-6300HQ, etc), 965M and 8GB RAM. There are quite a few of these starting around $900 or so.

If you want to go with more portable 14", the best deal is probably Clevo P640RE with i7-6700HQ + 970M for ~$1169

If you can go with larger 15", your price goes down a lot, Clevo N155RF with i7-6700HQ and 965M is $969, and there are a few even cheaper deals out there on Newegg and Amazon with quad core CPU and 965M. Even several 15" options with 980M around $1500, which is night and day compared to 970M (30-40% faster).

If you can afford to spend more and you need something extremely portable and small form factor, only other options with 970M are 13" Aorus X3 Plus ( around $2000) and Razer Blade.

Ultimately, if you are spending around 1500 or more, unless it is an emergency purchase for work purposes, I would wait a few more months for Pascal and Polaris laptops. At least one of these new mobile graphics cards is expected to perform close to the level of desktop 980Ti, and we should see at least a few new laptops with these cards under 2k.

henrycupcakerwb17_ESO · May 2016

I strongly recommend you buy a MacBook Pro . Nicely sleek design . Great performance . And zenimax has done a great job on the OS X client

NewBlacksmurf · May 2016

henrycupcakerwb17_ESO wrote: »

I strongly recommend you buy a MacBook Pro . Nicely sleek design . Great performance . And zenimax has done a great job on the OS X client

I sense sarcasm here

WalkingLegacy · May 2016

The_Outsider wrote: »

If a laptop is a must, nothing less than a 970m preferably. if you're willing to spend 2000, at least a 980m. (Anything that has this GPU will already have a good CPU)

A laptop is a must. This will be a secondary machine to my desktop at home, so I don't need to be floating around Cryodiil with 60fps.

Now you'll have to update a bit. Make sure the vid card is compatible. I use to run it on a Asus G72 but that doesn't have direct X11

What's the best way to make sure a Vid card is compatible with direct X11?

That's for the responses so far, guys.

Then don't get anything less than a 970M.

A 970M doesn't perform like a desktop 970 so you'll want the extra power to last longer.

Any Nvidia card from the GTX400 series and up is DX11 capable.

Any Radeon card from the 5000 series up to the R9 series is DX11 capable.

GTX400 and HD5000 series cards came out in 2009.

kadar · May 2016

Vangy wrote: »

Im running ESO on a custom made laptop. General breakdown;

-->Intel® Core™ i7-6700HQ Processor
-->NVIDIA Geforce GTX 980m 8GB GDDR5 (graphics card)
-->15.6" FHD (1920X1080) IPS Matte Display with Wide color Gamut and NVIDIA GSYNC Support (screen)
-->32GB DDR4 2133MHZ (16GB x 2) (RAM)
-->512GB SAMSUNG SM951 M.2 PCIE SSD & 1TB 7200RPM HGST HDD & 500GB Samsung 850 Evo SSD (hard drives) x3
-->Windows 10 Home 64 Bit
-->Thermal compound + Tri-fan cooling for cpu/gpu... This laptop gets realll hot without these fans.

With the above specs, my laptop weighs about 3kg flat and is a little noisier than most laptops due to the tri-fan system. On the flipside, it runs pretty much anything on highest quality settings. Although I typically like to set games to one setting below max just to avoid any lag etc. Eso runs smoothly for the most part, even during the intense zergs I average about 30-40 fps. Considering I have friends who just crash out, I'd say its doing pretty well.

Damn, that RAM, tho. Future proof much?

kadar · May 2016

@IcyDeadPeople

Will you be participating in large PVP battles? If so, keep in mind this activity is significantly more demanding on the client hardware compared to most PVE areas. Even high end monster desktops cannot maintain steady 60fps @ 1080p max settings in this situation, so mid-range laptop will need to dial down some settings for Cyrodiil.

Probably not. This will be a secondary machine to my desktop which has no trouble in Cyrodiil at all (as much as can be controlled by me lol).

If you want to go with more portable 14", the best deal is probably Clevo P640RE with i7-6700HQ, 970M ~$1169

If you can go with larger 15", your price goes down a lot, Clevo N155RF with i7-6700HQ and 965M is $969, and there are a few even cheaper deals out there on Newegg and Amazon with quad core CPU and 965M. Even several 15" options with 980M around $1500, which is night and day compared to 970M (30-40% faster).

Interesting about Clevo. I've heard that it's a bargain brand, but they turn out some pretty okay quality laptops too?

If you can afford to spend more and you need something extremely portable and small form factor, only other options with 970M are 13" Aorus X3 Plus ( around $2000) and Razer Blade.

^And this is what my heart wants. My wallet, on the other hand, protests... I mostly don't like the look of the larger power-house Desktop-esque laptops. I was attracted to the simple, sleek, high-quality feel that the Razor Blade has.

I would wait a few more months for Pascal and Polaris laptops.

Someone else mentioned these, but I haven't heard of them. Are they new mobile graphics cards?

kadar · May 2016

Double post.

hamgatan · May 2016

WalkingLegacy wrote: »

Then don't get anything less than a 970M.

that is crap. as i posted earlier the setup i'm running with the 950M works almost flawlessly in both PvE (70fps'ish) and PvP (55-60fps.. 40fps in a zergfest) currently @ 1080P on highest settings.

i'll post a video when i get home tonight to prove the framerate as well..

there's a bunch of crap the devs have said about framerate being a ONLY a consumer hardware end issue and everyone's taking it as gospel. it's not the case.. yes its part of the issue but it's intrinsically linked to server end latency and procs as defining factors as well.. there is more than just one issue at hand.

In a perfect world where data flow is constant then its easier to measure. but data doesn't work like that.. its burst traffic. think of it this way;

Client sends SYN packet. Server receives and sends ACK back. Ping latency 200ms. Next Data SYN goes back but 50 other people have all sent SYN requests consecutively. The pipe size hasnt increased, nor has the Servers ability to process those packet responses in CPU threads. Ping on ACK comes in at 230ms. Now imagine 100,000 people suddenly SYN Flood the server (and i'm not even counting DDoS attacks here..) legitimately the ping ballons. Suddenly theres a backlog of ACK requests to handle and this is where burst traffic (lag) comes into it.

Thats what causes your in game stutter and lag. But remember even with that sudden burst of data that you've just received.. (flood of ACK packets) your own system now has to process that in one big hit.. whilst still sending response packets. So yes... it's intrinsically linked hand in hand with the lag factor..

The GPU is only a small part of the bigger picture.

IcyDeadPeople · May 2016

The_Outsider wrote: »

@IcyDeadPeople

Will you be participating in large PVP battles? If so, keep in mind this activity is significantly more demanding on the client hardware compared to most PVE areas. Even high end monster desktops cannot maintain steady 60fps @ 1080p max settings in this situation, so mid-range laptop will need to dial down some settings for Cyrodiil.

Probably not. This will be a secondary machine to my desktop which has no trouble in Cyrodiil at all (as much as can be controlled by me lol).

If you want to go with more portable 14", the best deal is probably Clevo P640RE with i7-6700HQ, 970M ~$1169

If you can go with larger 15", your price goes down a lot, Clevo N155RF with i7-6700HQ and 965M is $969, and there are a few even cheaper deals out there on Newegg and Amazon with quad core CPU and 965M. Even several 15" options with 980M around $1500, which is night and day compared to 970M (30-40% faster).

Interesting about Clevo. I've heard that it's a bargain brand, but they turn out some pretty okay quality laptops too?

Clevo build quality is much higher than most consumer laptop brands in terms of durability, cooling, performance, upgradeability, etc. Cosmetic appearance-wise obviously they are not as sexy as Razer or Aorus, and they don't spend much on advertising. They do have several new thin form factor models (around 1" or thinner chassis) with 980M or 970M like the P640RE, P650RG, etc

The_Outsider wrote: »

If you can afford to spend more and you need something extremely portable and small form factor, only other options with 970M are 13" Aorus X3 Plus ( around $2000) and Razer Blade.

^And this is what my heart wants. My wallet, on the other hand, protests... I mostly don't like the look of the larger power-house Desktop-esque laptops. I was attracted to the simple, sleek, high-quality feel that the Razor Blade has.

I would wait a few more months for Pascal and Polaris laptops.

Someone else mentioned these, but I haven't heard of them. Are they new mobile graphics cards?

Yes, new graphics architecture, so should be significant bump compared to current gen cards, at least for the top tier cards like 1080M, 1070M and Polaris10. Lower end cards will be mostly rebrands of the existing generation. I would hold off buying any gaming laptop for the next few months if possible.

Rohamad_Ali · May 2016

I love my republic of gamers Asus laptop . They have a full line and a lot of bang for your budget .

WalkingLegacy · May 2016

hamgatan wrote: »

WalkingLegacy wrote: »

Then don't get anything less than a 970M.

that is crap. as i posted earlier the setup i'm running with the 950M works almost flawlessly in both PvE (70fps'ish) and PvP (55-60fps.. 40fps in a zergfest) currently @ 1080P on highest settings.

i'll post a video when i get home tonight to prove the framerate as well..

there's a bunch of crap the devs have said about framerate being a ONLY a consumer hardware end issue and everyone's taking it as gospel. it's not the case.. yes its part of the issue but it's intrinsically linked to server end latency and procs as defining factors as well.. there is more than just one issue at hand.

In a perfect world where data flow is constant then its easier to measure. but data doesn't work like that.. its burst traffic. think of it this way;

Client sends SYN packet. Server receives and sends ACK back. Ping latency 200ms. Next Data SYN goes back but 50 other people have all sent SYN requests consecutively. The pipe size hasnt increased, nor has the Servers ability to process those packet responses in CPU threads. Ping on ACK comes in at 230ms. Now imagine 100,000 people suddenly SYN Flood the server (and i'm not even counting DDoS attacks here..) legitimately the ping ballons. Suddenly theres a backlog of ACK requests to handle and this is where burst traffic (lag) comes into it.

Thats what causes your in game stutter and lag. But remember even with that sudden burst of data that you've just received.. (flood of ACK packets) your own system now has to process that in one big hit.. whilst still sending response packets. So yes... it's intrinsically linked hand in hand with the lag factor..

The GPU is only a small part of the bigger picture.

Your 950M does not out perform my 970 desktop card.

You do not run Cyrodiil max or high settings with a 950m.

hamgatan · May 2016

WalkingLegacy wrote: »

Your 950M does not out perform my 970 desktop card.

You do not run Cyrodiil max or high settings with a 950m.

that's not my argument. I'm well aware that a desktop 970 will trump it.. my argument is that you're saying its not playable with anything less than a 970M and i'm telling you it is.

anyway.. just wait till I post the video. you'll see.

Roehamad_Ali wrote: »

I love my republic of gamers Asus laptop . They have a full line and a lot of bang for your budget .

the other thing here that people are forgetting is it doesn't matter what card you run... if you have a restrictive 60Hz limited flat panel in your laptop.. you are not getting more than 60fps. That's that. Off memory the RoG laptops have 100hz screens.. hence why I get such high framerates.

WalkingLegacy · May 2016

hamgatan wrote: »

WalkingLegacy wrote: »

Your 950M does not out perform my 970 desktop card.

You do not run Cyrodiil max or high settings with a 950m.

that's not my argument. I'm well aware that a desktop 970 will trump it.. my argument is that you're saying its not playable with anything less than a 970M and i'm telling you it is.

anyway.. just wait till I post the video. you'll see.

Roehamad_Ali wrote: »

I love my republic of gamers Asus laptop . They have a full line and a lot of bang for your budget .

the other thing here that people are forgetting is it doesn't matter what card you run... if you have a restrictive 60Hz limited flat panel in your laptop.. you are not getting more than 60fps. That's that. Off memory the RoG laptops have 100hz screens.. hence why I get such high framerates.

Where did I say that? I said future proof. Meaning don't get the lowest fracking thing you can, else you'll be buying another 1500 dollar laptop in 1.5 years.

If you're gonna drop 1200-2000 dollars on a laptop - you get at least a 970m. It's that simple.

hamgatan · May 2016

WalkingLegacy wrote: »

Where did I say that? I said future proof. Meaning don't get the lowest fracking thing you can, else you'll be buying another 1500 dollar laptop in 1.5 years.

If you're gonna drop 1200-2000 dollars on a laptop - you get at least a 970m. It's that simple.

future proof.... laptops?!?! BWAHAHAH.

I had that same viewpoint 20 years ago. two decades of experience has taught me otherwise.

in that timeframe, the average accepted replacement timeframe has dropped from 4 years, to three, and down to two years in large commercial enterprise.

they're pretty much disposable tax write offs these days. even a MacBook doesn't have the longevity crown it once had.

Vangy · May 2016

The_Outsider wrote: »

Vangy wrote: »

Im running ESO on a custom made laptop. General breakdown;

-->Intel® Core™ i7-6700HQ Processor
-->NVIDIA Geforce GTX 980m 8GB GDDR5 (graphics card)
-->15.6" FHD (1920X1080) IPS Matte Display with Wide color Gamut and NVIDIA GSYNC Support (screen)
-->32GB DDR4 2133MHZ (16GB x 2) (RAM)
-->512GB SAMSUNG SM951 M.2 PCIE SSD & 1TB 7200RPM HGST HDD & 500GB Samsung 850 Evo SSD (hard drives) x3
-->Windows 10 Home 64 Bit
-->Thermal compound + Tri-fan cooling for cpu/gpu... This laptop gets realll hot without these fans.

With the above specs, my laptop weighs about 3kg flat and is a little noisier than most laptops due to the tri-fan system. On the flipside, it runs pretty much anything on highest quality settings. Although I typically like to set games to one setting below max just to avoid any lag etc. Eso runs smoothly for the most part, even during the intense zergs I average about 30-40 fps. Considering I have friends who just crash out, I'd say its doing pretty well.

Damn, that RAM, tho. Future proof much?

Haha... Yeah.... Doubt we would ever need so much RAM but the cost difference was negligible compared to the cost of the whole set up so I was like.. Why the heck not lol..

greylox · May 2016

i5 6300hq
8gb ram
Gtx 960m

Runs the game great.

ninjaguyman · May 2016

My laptop-
Acer v nitro:
i7 4720hq
16 gb ram
gtx 960m
256gb ssd, 1TB hdd
easily runs high graphics in instanced dungeons and open world outside of main cities. Should probably go to medium graphics in cyrodiil.

~it was like 1400 usd when I got it(for the 17 in screen), probably less by now.

Shoot for something with a gtx 950/960m, u know... right before the 970+ cards that make a laptop cost near 2k.

Not super fancy looking, which is what u are looking for it seems(its also about an inch thick). Shouldn't be ashamed to pull this out in a classroom or work environment... But if u can shell out enough money for a gtx 970m/980m... Well, theres nothing wrong with getting something more expensive if youd really like it. I mean people already get brand new phones worth hundreds of $$ just for an extra tenth of an inch of screen space when their current phone is perfectly fine. But while that extra 1/10in of screen can slightly improve their experience in candy crush, you'd see a decent jump in performance with a better graphics card.

HuawaSepp · May 2016

You have to adjust the graphic settings to get better fps.
Even with two 980ti.
But 8gb ram and a i5 > 3xxx should be enough

greylox · May 2016

Yeah I run everything on high, everything on and draw distance to 64. 1080p. It's all smooth, over 25 fps (at the worst) 60fps best. Dungeons sit at 45-60 until spell effects bring the fps down to the 30's. Turn off shadows for pvp.

IcyDeadPeople · May 2016

greylox wrote: »

Yeah I run everything on high, everything on and draw distance to 64. 1080p. It's all smooth, over 25 fps (at the worst) 60fps best. Turn off shadows for pvp.

You are getting..at least 25fps in large pvp battles at 1080p max settings with 960M?

greylox · May 2016

IcyDeadPeople wrote: »

greylox wrote: »

Yeah I run everything on high, everything on and draw distance to 64. 1080p. It's all smooth, over 25 fps (at the worst) 60fps best. Turn off shadows for pvp.

You are getting..at least 25fps in large pvp battles at 1080p max settings with 960M?

I mainly pvp in imperial city but with shadows off it's fine. I don't look all the time but never noticed it below that and it never felt like it went below even in large fights with pve mobs in the mix. Huge zergs in cyrodiil I very much doubt it'll stay above 25 fps when it all balls up and goes off, I've participated in a few and it never got to a slideshow but haven't done that in a while, not my idea of fun even on my desktop. Not max either, lower draw distance and shadows on high(pve) off (pvp) (not ultra)

Was just giving an idea and saying that this card would be suitable for laptop play. Also the 960m comes in thinner, normal looking cases as opposed to the 970m which tends to be put in 'gaming' laptops. Really impressed with the 6 series i5. got mine from here https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/ They've actually got a 14" with a gtx 965m for a good price, that's a fairly nice step up.

WalkingLegacy · May 2016

hamgatan wrote: »

WalkingLegacy wrote: »

Where did I say that? I said future proof. Meaning don't get the lowest fracking thing you can, else you'll be buying another 1500 dollar laptop in 1.5 years.

If you're gonna drop 1200-2000 dollars on a laptop - you get at least a 970m. It's that simple.

future proof.... laptops?!?! BWAHAHAH.

I had that same viewpoint 20 years ago. two decades of experience has taught me otherwise.

in that timeframe, the average accepted replacement timeframe has dropped from 4 years, to three, and down to two years in large commercial enterprise.

they're pretty much disposable tax write offs these days. even a MacBook doesn't have the longevity crown it once had.

You're reading into "future proof" too much in this case.

Obviously, by now most of us techies know that as soon as you buy a PC component, it is outdated 6 months later. This is besides the point.

If you drop that much cash on a laptop, you might as well as get at least 970m so you can actually enjoy games for longer than 1 year. Unless of course you're in the habit of a new laptop every year.

IcyDeadPeople · May 2016

Mileage will vary with ESO, especially in Cyrodiil, but here are some recent benchmarks of the various laptop gaming graphics cards currently available

If you can wait a few more months, you will probably see something like 30-40% improvement for laptops with 1080M or 1070M (compared to 980M/970M) and hopefully Polaris 10 will end up somewhere around 1080M performance or better.

GoodOlPinkly · May 2016

A Lenovo Y50 is pretty slim, I game and record going videos on it and it's around $800 I think

henrycupcakerwb17_ESO · May 2016

The_Outsider wrote: »

Hey all,

Was wondering if you techy folks out there could help me out. I have a job with a lot of downtime, so I occasionally play ESO at work. My previous laptop is a piece of Guar dung for gaming, and since Thieves Guild DLC it can't run ESO because of the DX11 thing.
Whatever I get it needs to:
Run ESO around Medium settings at decent framerates

NOT look like a gaming laptop (I haaaaate the outer-space machinery look)

Decent Battery life

Decent portability (I'm thinking 14inch)

Quality construction

SSD

A "slim" style gaming laptop is in the right vein (less than 1 inch)

I've been lusting after the 2015 Razor Blade 14" Full HD Non-Touch, but it's Retail of 2,000 USD is enough to make me feel faint. But dayummm that thing is sexy. I just think it may be overkill for my needs.
http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-systems/razer-blade-2015
What do you guys think? Any feedback you've got for me would be much appreciated.

seriously ..while macbook pro is the superior choice among all those crap people were recommending to you you chose to ignore my comment?

Run ESO around Medium settings at decent framerates check NOT look like a gaming laptop, check, Decent Battery life
[*] Decent portability (I'm thinking 14inch)
[*] Quality construction
[*] SSD
[*] A "slim" style gaming laptop is in the right vein (less than 1 inch) all checked