alright he just got back to me. he says they already did the refresh and that was with the core i series processors.

hmmmm

these are the video card options they have available in descending order in terms of price:

- 1GB GDDR3 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260M

- 1GB GDDR5 ATI Radeon™ Mobility HD 5850

- 1GB DDR3 ATI Radeon™ Mobility HD 5730

honestly, you're right i'd expect a more powerful graphics card option too. hmmm that is something to think about. i already asked to see if he can find out anything. so i'm waiting to hear back from him now.

check and see if you have a bios update available for your system. that may help. i remember on my old desktop i had the same kind of problem (back then i was running xp). it would blue screen or crash or radomly restart on a lot of the games i played or half way through a game. it pissed me the hell off. one day i decided to switch out the RAM for faster and better RAM that was a different brand and voila the problem was gone.

now here's the kicker...i randomly checked for a bios update and it turns out the bios version i had was a version or two below the most recent one. i checked the revision history on what all it fixes, and it fixed a problem with a specific memory module, and guess what? i just so happened to have that very same brand and type of RAM (right down to the model number/serial number or whatever). i was shocked! i did the bios update, stuck the old RAM in for the hell of it and again no more issues.

having said all that, if you don't have a bios update available or are running the most recent version, it's definitely got to do with video card drivers. try upgrading to a more recent version, or possibly even downgrading to a previous version. newer isn't always better when it comes to video drivers.

hope this helps you out man. i know how frustrating it is when all you want to do is play a game in peace and enjoy it but you have bs like vista or something or the other messing up your thing. i guess this is why people like 'us' end up getting a console and play games on them. weird how the world works sometimes.

it's a combination of everything you have: RAM, CPU speed, video card (and video card RAM), hard drive speed, the time of day, air quality in the room...

ok the last two are not to be taken seriously there...but the things that affect fps in a game the most or directly is definitely the video card and the amount of RAM on it.

that's not to say that when you run into a room full of zombies or what not (or a 100 tanks on the screen shooting at each other in an RTS), then that's all CPU right there. raw processing power.

if it's a springy kind of curving action going on under the palm, then that would be kind of neat. the whole thing looks a bit...odd?

hey guys, i've got a hypothetical to discuss with everyone here. feel free to give your opinions and feedback served cold on a plate. a buddy of mine is about to resign from dell and asked me if i wanted anything with his employee discount. i've been eyeing the alienware m15x for some time. at first i was checking out the m11x but decided not to go for it because i'd end up keeping my current laptop (dell xps m1530) and that...whereas if i get another 15 inch laptop i get to sell my dell for whatever price i get and i'd be okay with that.

so indulge with me here for a moment. i'm just posting for the sake of discussion. let's pretend that we're not going to talk about any other laptop brands out there (asus, msi mainly). i've priced out the m15x with an i5 cpu and an i7...there's a pretty decent price difference. since i wanted the high end graphics option, which is the nvidia gtx 260m i figured i could survive without the i7. what do you all think? everything else is secondary...i'm more concerned about cpu/gpu. they have other gpu choices but they're both ATI and lower in terms of performance (and price).

i tried researching online with people that have configured the alienware m15x with an i5 instead of an i7. sometimes i think it would be crazy NOT to get the i7.

so yeah...basically do you think i should be more than okay with an i5 cpu and nvidia gtx 260m gpu? the rest of the specs would be something along the lines of 4-6gb of RAM, 7200 rpm hard drives (doesn't matter what size, i'm just going to switch it out with an SSD that i have), and what else...that about covers it. i've got my own OS and apps so it's strictly hardware that i'm curious about here.

let's see what you guys have to say...here goes...

(ps - i know it's hard not to blast alienware here but let's just say i've made and heard those comments before haha. now that i've cleared that up we can now proceed)

nevermind your post is from 2008 haha.

hey nobody replied to this? anyway it's not that portable when it comes to carrying around in school. unless you use a backpack with sturdy straps because forget using a single strap over the shoulder laptop bag...it'll break your shoulder over time. if you want portability with gaming performance AND a long battery life...go with the m11x.