Help me pick a ultrabook best for sc4

[sachizm 65]

Hi

i'm getting an ultrabook through a work salary sacrafice scheme tommorw, I've narrowed my selection to a group of referbished asus zenbooks and am wondering which specs would be best.

http://www.graysoutlet.com.au/search?q=Zenbook

Primarily between the $1099 i5 with higher speced graphics card or

The $1219 i7. Would a stronger processor be $200 better then a better graphics card?

Any help by tomorrow will be greatly appreciated.

Sach

[Cyclone Boom 16,875]

This is a tricky one. It really depends what you intend to use it for. The thing is, both would be adequate to run SC4. But if you're looking to run more modern games, I suggest you look at a laptop with a dedicated graphics card.

Generally, although highly portable and versatile, ultrabooks are not designed for serious gaming. If you just want to run SC4, and older generation games, then you can't go wrong with the $1,099 i5 core one. The difference between an i5 and i7 wouldn't make a noticeable difference for SC4. The same can be said between the Intel HD 3000 and 4000 series. Otherwise I recommend you take a look at these similar priced ASUS laptops, with dedicated graphics cards:

[Link]

All the best, and hopefully this helps you to make your choice.

[sachizm 65]

Thanks for the reply. I dont really play other games. Civ4 & 5 occasionally. The other main use would be music making in cubase but only as a mobile sketch pad. i'm starting to think the $850 will do

what i want. i'm after an ultrabook as i bike to work and my laptop is a pain in the ass... Well back actually

[anytownUSA 32]

Here's a Dell I've been looking at for $699

3rd gen i7 processor with 8GB of ram

I'm planning on buying something this year and so far this is the best deal I've found.

http://www.dell.com/us/p/laptops.aspx?ref=usen-lt-tile#!facets=226291~0~14720665&p=1

[T Wrecks 10,209]

You realise that graphics card is a non-factor for SimCity 4, right? My PC at home runs the game with a Geforce 4 Ti4200 (value gfx card from 2002/2003), and it runs just fine. The determining factors for SC4 are RAM, CPU power, and - not to forget! - HD speed. No wonder: The graphics are 99% pre-rendered 2D projections, no fancy 3D effects. However, all those building and terrain textures need to be loaded, and all those simulations need to be processed, and that's where RAM and CPU become important.

It's good that you'll have an SSD in there - this should boost performance considerably. Otherwise, I'd go for the larger display and the bigger CPU.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

And if SC4 is the goal, remember it is a 32-bit game so any memory of at least 4GB is sufficient. However, I have a personal rule of thumb of 2GB per core if you are going to multi-process anything and lots of swap space. A static drive is great as a swap device.

[smf_16 1,835]

Definitely pick one with a dedicated graphics card. My previous laptop had an i5 processor with intel HD integrated graphics and it was AWFUL. The rendering was incredibly slow, even with the waves, shadows etc. all turned off.

Now I have a Dell XPS 15 with an 2GB nVidia GeForce GT 640M and the game runs very smoothly on resolution 1920x1080 with waves but with the shadows turned off.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Is the Intel chipset really that much more crappy than a 10 year old mid-range gfx card? Wow. I wouldn't have thought that. What about lower resolutions? I mean, 1920x1080 is pretty large compared to the resolutions SimCity was made for. Then again, I don't know how well notebook displays interpolate...

[Cyclone Boom 16,875]

Thanks for the reply. I dont really play other games. Civ4 & 5 occasionally. The other main use would be music making in cubase but only as a mobile sketch pad. i'm starting to think the $850 will do what i want. i'm after an ultrabook as i bike to work and my laptop is a pain in the ass... Well back actually

With an ultrabook, SC4 will be playable, but don't expect to gain superior performance from the Intel HD graphics. There may be the occasional lag, and the display settings will have to be adjusted to optimize performance. As you require a very light and portable PC, an ultrabook would be a suitable option. But it's important to remember that portability does come at a cost. Dedicated graphics are only included on much higher priced ultrabook models.

Of the two $849 ultrabooks, this one [Link] seem like a better option. It has a slightly newer processor and a higher screen resolution (1600x900), compared to the other one [Link].

However, I did have another look and found this model [Link]. The advantages of this one are:

• It features an i7 processor, a dedicated NVIDIA GeForce GT 520M graphics card, as well as the Intel HD 3000. This allows you to switch graphics if you require a performance boost.
  
• It's very portable, weighing at just over 1.4kg and is only 19mm wide.
  
• Also it's $100 less at $749.
  

The only notable downsides are it doesn't feature a SSD (solid state drive) like the ultrabook. The screen resolution is also smaller at 1366x768. So I guess drive performance would have to be sacrificed for superior graphics and processing power.

Based on your requirements, this would be my personal choice. But to be honest, you couldn't go wrong either way.

[sachizm 65]

Thanks heaps for all your responses. I didn't decide today. I think I'm going to spend a few more days deciding. i'd love an 11 inch for carrying everyday like an ipad but dont like what i see. What i really want. The asus ux21a is not available in australia. That grays site has the ux21e but i've read the screen is pretty average.

[The Wrench 24]

Is the Intel chipset really that much more crappy than a 10 year old mid-range gfx card? Wow. I wouldn't have thought that. What about lower resolutions? I mean, 1920x1080 is pretty large compared to the resolutions SimCity was made for. Then again, I don't know how well notebook displays interpolate...

I am currently playing SC4 on a laptop with a first-gen Core i3, and the gameplay could be choppy in large cities with the detail at high with 1600x900,especially with large amounts of cars, but one can manage.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Crappy is in the eye of the beholder. If the game is playable, and you don't get too frustrated, then any performance is OK with the player. With this legacy game, most of the improvements since the final release in 2003 are just useless overhead. A really big, simple fix would be to recompile it for 64-bit addressing so it could then use a lot more memory. If all the plugins that most of us use were to be present in all images within in-core (virtual) tables I am sure the game would run better. Wouldn't be much of a change to do this.