Best graphic card for laptop

[creativeg]

Ok I am a architecture student and I am currently looking for a new laptop. I have done my research and found out that I need a gaming laptop. The laptop should have a hard drive with 7200+ rpm and a graphics card of like nvidia 7600 I think but my problem is I don't really understand any other graphics card other than that when looking for laptops can somebody please break down what is a higher/ lower grade graphics card than that

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

7200+ RPM isn't always fastest, you need to make sure it's the right size so that the arial density and speed translate into speed, some 5400RPM drives are faster than some 7200 for that reason. And really hard drive should be the least of your concerns, they are 5 mins swaps, things like CPUs and GPUs essentially you buy as the focus of the laptop with HDD and Memory easily upgradable.

As for graphics, the 7600 is a very old chip and won't be found in a current laptop.

Essentially for the task at hand something equal to or higher than a Geforce 9600M / GTS250M or ATi Mobile HD3850 / 4650 or higher.

You could use less, but it should be easy to find laptops that combine graphics like that with either a fast dual core or quad core CPU (core i7 being best).

 

[jay2tall]

Yeah you will want to watch the CPU and GPU of a laptop as they can't be upgraded.... the CPU can be sometimes, but is a pain.

For gaming a fast Core2Duo would be a good idea. Unless you are willing to dish out TON of cash for a quad or i7.

As far as GPU's, they area 250M/260M GPU's as well as an ATI 4650 and 4870. THe 4870's tend to be REALLY pricy.

You will also want to pay attention to screen size and resolution. You can get some huge 17" screens but it depends on how mobile you want to be as these are large notebooks. Laptop GPU's will add significantly to the cost. I actually just helped my mom order a new laptop from HP, Pavilion dv6t series. I threw in a 4650 for an additional cost of $200. I did have a $400 off coupon if the cost was over $1099. Which it was and ended up running her $718 for a nice machine. She doesn't game or anything, but I threw that in there (with her permission), as I go to my parents frequently when I have my son and when we stay over I can play some BF2142 and COD4.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Well I'd say for resolution it's not so much size as pixels he should worry about, 17" LCDs come in a bunch of resolutions, and 1920x1200 would be better than 1440x900 for something looking to be used in architectural pursuits.

And between 15 and 17" at that res I'd want the extra real-estate. Having carried 17" laptops and 15" laptops, the difference is not sigificant enough to give up the realestate and keyboard for me.

 

[jay2tall]

I was referring more toward the physical screen size that you want to game on and the size of the laptop to lug around. The res is separate of course and the higher the res, the more load it will put on the GPU but have much smoother detail.