(Urgent!!) Diablo III Laptop Build — Any beta testers on laptops?? o

[SanjaV]

The GTX675M is really just the GTX580M, given a new name. You can hardly in other words, get a bigger GPU for your laptop. I think it performs on par with a desktop AMD HD 6850/GTX 460, which should have no problems playing Diablo III. Whether you'd always get 60 FPS I don't know, but any serious dips in FPS would be an error on Blizzards side.

SLI in laptops is not a good idea, and this is even moreso with the topend cards. Now if Blizzard has done it's job, SLI scaling will be pretty good and it will make the machine quite abit stronger (giving it a score somewhere in the neighbourhood of the GTX 480 desktop card). But asides the usual gripes about SLI such as micro-stuttering, you may have to face a laptop with a short longevity, or griefing you in other ways, because it just can't deal with the heat.

Personally I'd accept the current limitations of laptops and go with a single GTX675M. It will play Diablo III for you.

If you really are set on spending that much money, I would not leave out an SSD drive. It's quiter, faster, cooler and use less battery.

Okay, thanks for that. I didn't realise desktop video cards eclipsed notebook ones but such a margin. I always assumed that would be the case, but not by as much as it appears to be on the link you provided. Does the fact that my proposed laptop has a desktop-grade i7 processor in it mean much in the grand scheme of things?

While I'm at it, what exactly does resolution mean? Irrespective of which one you choose, the game fills up the entire screen and it looks identical—at least I got that impression when experimenting with it. So what does tinkering with it actually do? And would reducing that, while keeping the other graphic settings on their highest, make a difference to fps?

[Felix]

The resolution is the amount of pixels (small colored dots) that the screen uses to "paint the picture". 1900 pixels sideways and 1080 pixels upwards is whats called full HD. A screen always has a native resolution, and should preferably be run in that resolution.

You can lower the resolution and games become easier for the graphicscard to handle, and yes FPS will increase. But it really isn't the correct approach to take. It will not look as good, but be blurry. You also get a lesser view of whats going on. It's better to lower the graphical settings.

[SanjaV]

Well, I went ahead and made my order, I decided to save a bit of money and get a laptop with an i7-2760qm instead of an i7-3820k—I'm informed it will handle Diablo III without a hitch. Otherwise, the specs are identical to those I originally posts, and I was even able to spring for a 90% gamut glossy screen and still save money. That original configuration was expensive.

Thanks for the feedback. Irrespective of whether or not the Mac version will be considerably smoother than the Beta implied, I needed a portable gaming rig. Now I have one en route.

[gruenel]

Well, I went ahead and made my order, I decided to save a bit of money and get a laptop with an i7-2760qm instead of an i7-3820k

Much better choice, I don't even want to imagine how hot the i7-3820 gets in a laptop.
The i7-2760QM only draws 1/3 the power and yes, it will run D3 perfectly.

[SanjaV]

Thanks. I'm quite happy with my purchase too. The money's been paid and I'm very excited. They'll build, optimise, and test it for a few days, then ship it off to me ready to roar.