Hi guys,

I've been playing both Fallout 3 and New Vegas for a while now on my Xbox 360, but I'm thinking of getting it for my PC due to the rich modding community and stuff. Problem is, although it's only a few months old, it only has a 512MB graphics card (I'm a student and I couldn't afford a full-on gaming laptop at the time) and I want to ask for some decent advice before I consider.

The specs of my laptop are:
Windows 7 Home Premium
AMD Athlon II P360 Dual Core
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250 (512MB)
4GB RAM

So, here's my question: Do you reckon I can run Fallout: New Vegas on my current laptop? Is anyone else running the game on a low-spec computer? Would it be better if I just stuck with the boring, old, vanilla Xbox 360 version?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
GrimHippy666.

What little I can find on laptop GPU specs, it looks pretty grim for the Radeon 4250. The video memory amount (of 512 MB) would be acceptable if it wasn't shared, but video memory means very little compared to the actual processing power of the video card. What I'm reading says that video card only handles Source engine games at low settings and resolutions, and Source engine games are both fairly low requirement, and heaps better performance than New Vegas' engine.

Queue

Thanks for your advice!

I figured that if I did buy it for this laptop, I would have to turn the graphics down quite a bit. Unfortunately, I never intended to play games on it. I think I will stick to the console for now, but maybe soon I will buy a better PC for gaming... Hopefully!

GrimHippy666

If you do, consider going for a desktop and not the joke that is a ''gaming laptop.'' You'll save a buttload of money, and can potentially upgrade it (generally for $100-$200) a couple years down the line to extend its life. While hardware has out-paced software over the past few years, laptops still gouge dearly for a video card that actually has capability, and you're at their mercy because it's a rare laptop where you can actually change out parts on it. You could get a svcktastic $300 prebuilt desktop and slap a $50 power supply and $150 video card in it, and you'd have a reasonable computer for modern games.

Queue

you could run it beautifully if not with all the bells and whistles my tablet (Gateway M285-E) runs them both 800X600 actor item object all distance sliders up all way shadow and grass off because i never use them 30 with low textures and never below 15 with medium core duo 1.83ghz Ati mobility X1400 (256mb vram) 1gb ram

Would this laptop be any better.

i7-2630QM Quad Core 2.00 Ghz
4GB RAM 1333Mhz
2GB GeForce GT 540M
500GB Hybrid HDD
Windows 7 - 64bit

Screen resolution - 1920x1080

Thanks.

Considerably better. Please understand that the amount of VRAM isn't the most important factor. A video card/chip has many more specifications to take into consideration....VRAM is a very little part of it. Don't ever buy a video card/chip based on just VRAM amount. With that said, the GT 540M is a respectable mid-range video chip....should be able to manage some medium-high settings in this game at that resolution. I hope you're not paying too much for this notebook though.

I've already started looking for a desktop, it's going to be considerably cheaper seeing as I don't need a monitor or any other accessories. I've found a Dell XPS tower which I would get if I had the money right now, it will cost about ￡550 (about $800, to my estimate). Here's the specs:
Windows 7 Home Premium
Intel i5 2.8GHz Processor
AMD Radeon HD 6670
6GB RAM
1.5TB Hard Drive

Although, looking on the options today, they've added a few more graphics cards, namely the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560, AMD Radeon HD 6870 and the AMD Radeon HD 6950. Problem being, they both add ￡100+ to the price, and in the 6950's case, ￡300, which I certainly won't be able to afford. I've seen a demo of the HD 6670, and I think it'll be good enough for my purposes, it's been shown to run Portal 2 with no hitches whatsoever. And, as you say, I can upgrade at any time, so I'll probably get it with the 6670.

Then again, this whole purchase will be happening in the near future, so there might be a better deal nearer the time! xD

Thanks for the advice guys, I want to return to PC gaming after a long hiatus, and I need all the advice I can get!

GrimHippy666

Usually to find out if a game will run on my crap laptop I use the site http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri/ to find out. It mostly has newer games to check though but Fallout 3 and NV are both on the list.

So in other words, you're going for a pre-built PC? Can you build one yourself? Get better value that way.

If it must be prebuilt, give Chillblast a look, or specifically this customizable model:
http://www.chillblast.com/pconf.php?productid=19821

Changes:
- CASE to Cooler Master Elite 370 Case
- Processor to Core i5 2500K
- Video card to GTX 460
- PSU to OCZ 600W StealthXtreme
- none on monitor and speakers

Total Price inc.VAT: ￡710.02