Running TSE on laptop
by Gonzo T. Clown · in Torque Game Engine Advanced · 12/16/2004 (4:05 am) · 1 replies
I'm wanting to get myself a new laptop for development purposes and have been spending days and days trying to determine what would be a good development combo for TSE. The main problem is the shaders and what cards support them well and what doesn't. There is just way to much crap to compare to make any kind of rational judgement when you have no experience in mobile solutions. For instance, a Radeon Mobility 9700 would appear to offer plenty of compatibility to run TSE, but the 9800 version is just flat out twice as powerful as the 9700, and then the X800 seems to be twice as powerful as the 9800 and so on...
So I guess my question is, should I go for the "Throw all the money you can at it" approach, or does someone have a good solution they feel is plenty adequate to get started? I just want to make sure I can move from TGE to TSE on the same laptop without having the unit grind to a halt or not being shader compatible at all or something like that.
Any and all comments are welcome here, not just links to good laptops or good prices, but information I may not be considering or anything else someone thinks I should know will be just as welcome.
TIA
So I guess my question is, should I go for the "Throw all the money you can at it" approach, or does someone have a good solution they feel is plenty adequate to get started? I just want to make sure I can move from TGE to TSE on the same laptop without having the unit grind to a halt or not being shader compatible at all or something like that.
Any and all comments are welcome here, not just links to good laptops or good prices, but information I may not be considering or anything else someone thinks I should know will be just as welcome.
TIA
About the author
Torque Owner Zik Saleeba
I'm using a Dell Inspiron 9100 with a Radeon 9700. I specced it specifically for Torque development. It's pretty darn good for a laptop but the machine is definitely a desktop replacement - it's big and heavy. For the ultimate in laptop 3d performance get an inspiron 9100 with the newer radeon 9800. I understand that the radeon 9800 is only available on the inspiron 9100 at the moment.
For a slimmer, lighter machine I'd recommend the inspiron 8600 which has the radeon 9700 available as an option. Some of my friends have these and are very happy with them.