Laptops and RTS games

[jorge_medion]

Hi,

Is a good idea to use a laptop to play rts games? I found some performance issues with some rts games, but also some people with desktop experience the same. I was never able to play decently Attila Total War and now The Great War: Western Front using laptops no matter the money I spent. My current laptop has this specs:

MSI GE75 2020
CPU: Intel Core i7 10750H
RAM: 32 GB DDR4 @ 2933 MHz
Hard Drives: 512 GB SSD NVMe + 1 TB @ 5400 rpm
GPU: Nvidia RTX 2070 Super mobile 8 GB DDR6
OS: Windows 10 64 bits

I suspect the CPU Intel Core i7 10750H is a bit weak, however, it seems is doing very well in some Total War games, not so good with others, but mainly Attila Total War. Honestly is the only hardware I found is weak, the GPU is enough for what I want to play mostly.

Anyway I am saving money for a better laptop but I am worried laptops in general are weak as for single core CPU performance? Are the new CPUs 12th and 13th generation intel solving this single core performance issue?

 

[Lutfij]

You might want to mention all the RTS titles that you're taxing the laptop with in order for us to gain context of what you're stating. Please include where you've sourced the installers for the games as well. To also add, at what sort of settings are you gaming on the laptop. The last thing that comes to mind is what sort of laptop did you have prior? Make and model as well as an SKU to the older laptop would help two fold.

What have you done thus far to help alleviate the issue stated above?

 

[jorge_medion]

List of RTS games:

• The Great War: Western Front. Max settings. Installer: Steam. 30-50 fps
• Total War: Attila. Mix of quality-max quality settings, units: large. Installer: Steam. 65 fps, big battles as low as 10 fps
• Total War: Empire. Max settings. Installer: Steam. Usually above 80 fps with drops to 40 fps big battles
• Total War: Napoleon. Max settings. Installer: Steam. Usually above 80 fps with drops to 35 fps big battles
• Total War: Rome II. Mix. Ultra-extreme settings. Installer: Steam. Avg. 75 fps with drops to 40 fps big battles
• A Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia. Ultra settings. Installer: Steam. Avg. 72 fps with drops to 50 fps big battles
• Total War Shogun 2: Max settings. Installer: Steam. Avg. 120 fps with drops to 30 fps in big battles
• Ultimate General: Civil War. Max settings. Installer: Steam. Above 90 fps always
• Ultimate General: Gettysburg. Max settings. Installer: Steam. Above 90 fps always
• Clad in Iron: Philippines: Max settings. Installer: Steam. 80-100 fps always
• Ultimate Admiral: Age of Sail. Max settings. Installer: Steam. 50-70 fps
• Ultimate Admiral Dreadnoughts: Max settings. Installer: Steam. Avg. 60 fps with drops to 25 fps big battles
• Distant Guns: max settings. Installer: StormPowered. Above 80 fps always
• Jutland: max settings. Installer: StormPowered. Above 80 fps always

Previous laptop:
Alienware 17M 2015
CPU: Intel Core i7 6700HQ
RAM: 16 GB DDR4
Hard Drive: 1 TB 7200 rpm
GPU: Nvidia GTX 970M 3 GB DDR5

With this previous laptop I remember Attila ran with a mix of performance-quality settings, no antialias at avg. 42 fps with big battles as low as 5 fps. Rome 2 Total War at high settings at avg. 50 fps with drops to 25 fps in big battles.

In my current laptop the games with worst performance are Attila Total War and The Great War: Western Front. I am planning to low the settings, but I tried with Attila Total War and even in the lowest settings I still have 10 fps in big battles with cooler boost enabled and CPU at 70 degrees. I think the CPU while good is not good enough for some games I am playing.