►Toshiba laptops◄ What kind of performance should I expect?

B

bLiSS

Veteran X
I am already aware many of you wouldn't approve of a gaming and performance notebook because of their price and average proficiency in games, but please bear with me a few minutes and then answer my inquiries.

Let's set something straight first. Dell is out of the question because I live in Canada. The prices Dell Canada offers are completely outrageous compared to the ones found in the US. IBM and Sony are significantly more expensive and the general opinion says Sony Vaio's are not worth the money. Then, I have been told to steer clear of HP, Compaq and Acer. That leaves me with Toshiba which offers a reasonable quality to price ratio. Feel free to recommend me other retailers in Canada.

Now, as the thread title says, what kind of performance should I expect from notebooks with integrated video with shared memory? I have seen a wide variety of claims, which all seem conflicting. I have heard people say they could play CS 1.6, World of Warcraft, various RPG and RTS games while others say the onboard wasn't worth shit and wasn't a viable gaming platform.

Granted performance will vary with the processor, memory and HDD speed. What should I expect to see with the Toshiba Satellite M40-JM8 and the M70-SR3. Don't let the model number fool you, the specifications are quite similar. Both are Centrino type notebooks.

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Here are the details for both of them:
  • 1,499 $CAD or 1,275 $USD, before taxes; BOTH
  • 15.4" WXGA, widescreen obviously; BOTH
  • Pentium M 740 at 1.73 GHz; BOTH
  • 512 MB DDR for M40, DDR2 for M70;
  • 100 GB 4200 RPM for M40, 5200 RPM SATA for M70;
  • M40's graphics controller: Intel Extreme Graphics 2 With 128MB DDR Shared Video Memory;
  • M70's graphics controller: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 900 With 128 MB DDR Shared Video Memory;
  • I am guessing under 3 hours of use on the supplied 6 cell battery. BOTH

I don't know if there's an actual difference between the two's graphics controller. But for the same price, the M70 is obviously the better choice what with the faster HDD and memory.

With that said, please tell me your gaming performance based on your own experience if you have a similar laptop. Obviously, I am not trying to run Doom 3 or Half-Life 2 on it. It's a mobile desktop replacement on which I hope to be able to do some very mild gaming. I have C&C Generals, The Sims 2 or some other RTS or RPG in mind.

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My alternate option is getting a notebook with a dedicated video card. Here is the Toshiba Satellite M40-SF3. It has somewhat better specifications than the previous M40 model.

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Here are the details:

  • 1,745 $CAD or 1,485 $USD, before taxes;
  • 15.4" WXGA, widescreen obviously;
  • Pentium M 750 at 1.86 GHz;
  • 512 MB DDR;
  • 100 GB 4200 RPM;
  • nVIDIA GeForce Go 6600 128 MB.

I am guessing the M40 with the dedicated video card will perform more than adequate in fairly recent games. And I just realized after writing all of this that it costs only 245$ more, which is negligible since I'm paying in monthly payments.

In any case, opinions, other recommendations, insults. Open fire now.
 
My Toshiba's screen shit the bed after 3.5 years. At about 1 yr I had washed out pixels on it. Now it just flickers like there is no tomorrow.

Needless to say, my Dell is on the way.
 
I'm also curious, my dad is looking for a pretty plain jane laptop. Currently he uses an AMD K6-450, 8 gig HDD, 128 SDRAM desktop and is content with that =P

I don't know much about laptops, as far as price for value. I do know that my dad keeps asking Best Buy and Futureshop twat's for advice, and I keep telling him not to.

Basically, what is the best quality, low performance laptop an old man can buy that has a decent screen for his old eyes and long battery life.

His PC usage includes web browsing, and uhhh... excel.
 
I'm doing a lot of stuff with my connection right now so I can hardly browse the forums.

Which series and model number is it? Is that one of them Qosmio notebooks or something?
 
the power connection thing on the toshiba breaks easily
my mom's has been replaced twice and her laptop sits on a desk all day and doesn't move.
 
take a look at the acer 81xx line. IMO they are better laptops. they also dont have that craptacular intel graphics chip. they use ati x700 chips.
 
MaD_ReBeL said:
take a look at the acer 81xx line. IMO they are better laptops. they also dont have that craptacular intel graphics chip. they use ati x700 chips.
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Hmm, the ones I see are over 2,000 $CAD listed from the Acer Canada website. I will take a look at them if I can even find them in stores.

The only Acer I was considering was the Ferrari 4002 WLMi and is more expensive than the Toshiba M40-SF3 for similar performance. Where I gain in the processor, I lose in the HDD. Although the Ferrari Acer line has undeniable style.
 
the ferrari comes stock w/ a 100gb HD i thought? both the ferrari and 8x01 lines use the ati x700 with dedicated 128mb memory.

*edit* look at the travelmate 8103 ... its a few hundred more than your price range but its a helluva laptop.
 
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MaD_ReBeL said:
the ferrari comes stock w/ a 100gb HD i thought? both the ferrari and 8x01 lines use the ati x700 with dedicated 128mb memory.
Click to expand...
No, maybe 4005WLMi. The 4002WLMi is a Turion at 1.6 GHz, 80 GB I am guessing 4200 RPM drive, 512 MB DDR and the X700 128 MB. Priced at 1,800 $CAD, a bit more expensive than the Toshiba I've mentioned.

The Toshiba Satellite M40-SF3 has the P-M 750 at 1.86 GHz, 100 GB 4200 RPM HDD, 512 MB DDR and a GeForce Go 6600 128 MB. At 1,745 $CAD.
 
Forensic said:
with those laptops you mentioned your performance is going to suck

those are business machines not gaming machines

get a dell if you really need a gaming laptop
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for the toshiba's yeah. not the acers though they're way more laptop than the XPS line. the only thing the XPS has is the go6800 video which is a bit better than the x700.
 
Forensic said:
with those laptops you mentioned your performance is going to suck

those are business machines not gaming machines

get a dell if you really need a gaming laptop
Click to expand...
Really? I was more thinking about the sum of its parts made it a gaming laptop. I wasn't aware it was for business since Toshiba lists the Satellite line as performance laptops. ;-)

In any case, I already stated Dell Canada's prices weren't adequate.

The 9300 is completely out of the question because it's a 17" and that's just no good for me. So, we'll work with the 6000. An Inspiron 6000d with the following specifications costs 1,849 $CAD, and after a 200$ coupon, 1,649$.

  • P-M 740 at 1.73 GHz, which is somewhat slower than the M40-SF3;
  • 15.4" WXGA, nothing to say there;
  • 512 MB DDR2, faster RAM than the M40;
  • 100 GB 5400 RPM HDD, faster than the M40.
  • Radeon X300 128 MB, which is slower than a X700 or the GeForce 6600.
So, bottom line, it has faster RAM and HDD which might boost its performance, but has a weaker video card. The processor's speed difference is minimal.

Now, if you're telling me this is actually going to perform better because it is closer to a gaming laptop even though it's slightly inferior, I will take Dell back into consideration.
 
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