Dagmar
Defender of the Bunnies of Skyrim
This article is a basic layman's guide to selecting a gaming notebook that will yield decent to high end performance for playing Skyrim and PC games in general. What is a gaming notebook as opposed to a regular notebook? The most distinguishing features of a gaming notebook should be that it runs cool because it's going to be put under a lot of performance stress, and that it has a decent graphics card. With that in mind there are other things to consider when selecting a gaming notebook.
Why a Notebook?
A lot of die hard PC gamers laugh at the notion of a "gaming notebook" because you can build a better, cheaper desktop for PC gaming with a longer lifespan than any notebook you could have built for PC gaming and they're right. While the technology for the components for notebooks has come a long way they have and most likely always be behind compared to desktops, and they are more expensive. While it's not that hard to build what I would consider to be a good desktop gaming rig for around $900, it would can easily cost twice as much to buy a notebook with comparable performance.
Further notebooks are much more limited regarding what can be upgraded. While in theory you could upgrade the processor and graphics card on a notebook, the reality is that they are often soldered to the motherboard and upgrading them takes a considerable amount of skill and know-how from the perspective of your average PC user.
On top of that, it's harder to locate a reliable merchant that sells those components for notebooks (and of course you immediately void any warranty on the notebook if you do this). It's not like getting a graphics card for a desktop where you can walk into any number of retail stores and purchase the latest series of them from Nvidia, AMD and ATI (the leading producers of PC video cards). That leaves RAM as the only thing you easily upgrade on a notebook.
What all that means is that if you want to continue to use a notebook for gaming you will end up having to replace the notebook sooner than a desktop, as each new generation of PC games will require better and better hardware specs for strong performance.
So why on earth would you want to buy a notebook instead of a desktop for PC gaming? The obvious answer is portability. If you only want to own one computer and your life demands that you must move it frequently from location to location it's rather obvious why you would own a notebook, and if you like to play PC games it becomes equally obvious why you would want to own a gaming notebook.
To Buy or To Build?
It is often recommended that you consider building your own gaming desktop because it can be cheaper and you can sometimes come up with builds that may not be available from desktop suppliers.
The opposite can be said for notebooks. Building a notebook is more difficult because it requires more skill, it's harder to find components, and it's more expensive (because notebook manufacturers can get the components for significantly less than you can) so I'm not even going to explore the possibility in this article.
The Hardware
Okay, down to brass tacks. The hardware you should focus on when selecting your gaming notebook should be the graphics card, the central processing unit (CPU), and the system memory (RAM). A secondary consideration for high end gaming notebooks is the hard drive(s).
Graphics Card
This is the single most important consideration in choosing a gaming notebook. The following list breaks down graphics cards into ones that can run Skyrim on high to ultra settings, medium to high settings, and medium settings. These are estimates so you may experience slightly better or worse performance depending on the rest of your setup. There are other notebook graphic cards that will let you run Skyrim but if it can't run Skyrim decently on medium settings, I wouldn't consider it suitable notebook under any circumstances for PC gaming. Graphics cards that are in parentheses are ones where manufacturing has been discontinued and are generally not available on the market.
High to Ultra
Nvidia GeForce GTX 580M SLI
AMD Radeon HD 6990M Crossfire
Nvidia GeForce GTX 485M SLI
AMD Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire
Nvidia GeForce GTX 470M SLI
Nvidia GeForce GTX 480M SLI
Nvidia GeForce GTX 560M SLI
Nvidia GeForce GTX 580M
AMD Radeon HD 6990M
Nvidia GeForce GTX 460M SLI
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 Crossfire
Nvidia GeForce GTX 485M
Nvidia GeForce GTX 285M SLI
AMD Radeon HD 6970M
Nvidia Quadro 5010M
AMD FirePro M8900
Nvidia GeForce GTX 570M
Nvidia GeForce GTX 280M SLI
AMD Radeon HD 6950M
Medium to High
(ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870 X2)
Nvidia Quadro 4400M
Nvidia GeForce GTX 470M
Nvidia GeForce GTX 480M
Nvidia GeForce GTX 560M
Nvidia GeForce GTX 260M SLI
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870
Nvidia Quadro 5000M
ATI FirePro M7820
AMD Radeon HD 6870M
(Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX SLI)
Nvidia GeForce GTX 460M
Nvidia Quadro 3000M
Nvidia Quadro FX 3800M
Nvidia GeForce GTX 285M
(ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870)
Nvidia GeForce GTX 280M
Nvidia Quadro FX 3700M
(Nvidia GeForce 9800M GT SLI)
(Nvidia GeForce 9800M GTS SLI)
ATI FirePro M7740
(ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4850)
Nvidia GeForce GTX 260M
(Nvidia GeForce 9800M GTX)
Nvidia Quadro FX 2800M
Nvidia GeForce GT 635M
Nvidia GeForce GT 555M
AMD Radeon HD 6775G2
AMD Radeon HD 7690M
AMD FirePro M5950
AMD Radeon HD 6770M
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850
AMD Radeon HD 6850M
Nvidia Quadro 2000M
(Nvidia GeForce 9800M GT)
(Nvidia GeForce 8800M GTX)
Medium
Nvidia Quadro FX 3600M
Nvidia GeForce GT 445M
Nvidia GeForce GTS 360M
AMD Radeon HD 6755G2
AMD Radeon HD 6750M
Nvidia GeForce GT 550M
Nvidia GeForce GTS 260M
Nvidia GeForce GTS 160M
Nvidia GeForce 9800M GTS
AMD Radeon HD 6830M
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5830
AMD Radeon HD 6760G2
AMD Radeon HD 6740G2
AMD Radeon HD 6730M
(Nvidia GeForce 9800M GS)
(ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4830)
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5770
AMD Radeon HD 6570M
AMD Radeon HD 7670M
Nvidia GeForce GTS 150M
Nvidia Quadro 1000M
(Nvidia GeForce 8800M GTS)
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5750
AMD Radeon HD 6720G2
Nvidia GeForce GT 630M
Nvidia GeForce GT 540M
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5730
ATI FirePro M5800
AMD Radeon HD 6690G2
AMD Radeon HD 6650M
NVIDIA GeForce GT 435M
AMD Radeon HD 6680G2
AMD Radeon HD 6550M
AMD Radeon HD 7590M
NVIDIA GeForce GTS 350M
NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250M
AMD Radeon HD 7660G
AMD Radeon HD 6630M
AMD Radeon HD 7650M
AMD Radeon HD 7630M
Nvidia Quadro FX 1800M
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650
Central Processing Unit
The 2 things you should consider when looking at CPU's are the clock speed and the number of cores.
Skyrim's published minimum clock speed requirement is 2.0 GHz for an Intel processor and 2.4 GHz is recommended for an AMD processor. Having a higher clock speed may increase FPS. Most mobile CPU's default clock speeds only go up to about 2.5 GHz which can give you about a 2-6 increase in FPS depending on the rest of your notebook specifications.1
There are currently only a few games on the market that benefit significantly from a quad core CPU and Skyrim doesn't appear to be one of them (FPS may increase by about 2-6 depending on the rest of your notebook's specifications). If you need to cut costs this might be one area you might want to consider by getting a dual core instead of a quad core. This could lower the cost of the computer by over a hundred dollars if you choose a dual core over a quad core with the same clock speed. That being said, there are games that do benefit significantly from quad core CPU's (Arkham City gets as much as a 38% increase on the low end of FPS performance on high end desktop gaming rigs) and it's generally a good idea to look with an eye to the future when purchasing a gaming notebook because of the lack of upgrading options.
The other thing you have to consider is whether you are going to be multitasking while playing Skyrim and other PC games. It's not uncommon for a PC gamer to have multiple applications running alongside the game, including a web browser, FRAPs, photoshop, and mod designing related applications, and if you do things like that then you'll still benefit from having a quad core CPU. In addition, many gaming notebook manufacturers/suppliers simply don't provide configurations with dual core CPU's for notebooks anymore.
System Memory
System Memory, more commonly referred to as RAM, comes in various configurations both with regards to amount of memory on each RAM stick (standard notebook's can accept 4 RAM sticks) and the memory speed. I am not going to cover the latter except to note that default RAM speed is 1333MHz for generic RAM sticks and that the higher speed RAM sticks (1600 and up) generally only increase performance marginally (1-3 FPS) so unless you are trying to squeeze out FPS from every possible source on your computer you should just stick to 1333MHz RAM sticks, especially because your CPU and motherboard may not support 1600MHz RAM without overclocking.
What you should pay attention to is the size of the RAM sticks. You should select the larger memory configurations, meaning 4GB of RAM per stick. A 4GB RAM stick will yield higher FPS and faster render times than 2 2GB RAM sticks. You should get at least 4GB of RAM for your notebook as many games now benefit performance wise from the extra RAM. If you can afford it, you may want to get 2 4GB RAM sticks (but this is the one feature you can easily upgrade later). Some suppliers will try to con you into getting cheap 2GB RAM stick configurations with more memory or mixed memory sizes for RAM chips. If they don't give you the option to configure your RAM with 4GB sticks I would look to another manufacturer/reseller.
Suppliers may try to entice you to purchase more than 8GB of RAM, but unless you use other high end applications like video and digital graphics editing programs it really shouldn't be necessary to get more than 8GB of RAM, and if you have to ask if you need more then you probably don't need more.
Hard Drive
This is truly a luxury item but there are now solid state hard drives available for notebooks. Solid state hard drives generally improve the overall performance of any PC because they can access and load the data on the drives faster than traditional hard drives. Your computer will boot up faster, games will load faster etc. They have drawbacks worth serious consideration though as they are much more expensive and have less memory space than traditional RPM hard drives.
Mouse
I recommend that you use a separate USB mouse not only when PC gaming but when using your notebook in general. Fixing a track pad that breaks from wear and tear can be time consuming and expensive if the warranty has expired. I generally only use the track pad when workspace is a consideration which is normally limited to when I use my notebook while traveling on a plane, train, bus or car.
Cooling Pad
A cooling pad is also an important consideration for your notebook setup. If you plan to play for hours on end I would say it's basically necessary. There are several models available. My general preference is for Antek cooling pads because in my experience they are durable and quiet. (I'm currently using the Antek Notebook Cooler 200.)
Notebook Configuration Examples
The following are configurations for gaming notebooks offered by 3 of the leading gaming notebook manufacturers, Asus, MSI and Alienware. One from each is a low end gaming notebook for those on a budget. One is for a gaming notebooks which will yield solid performance at high settings and likely will do so for several years for future game releases. The last is for those who want a very powerful notebook that offers the best each line has to offer. In general in considering a gaming notebook manufacturer you should check reviews of their products with a particular focus on heating issues as that is the one thing that you can't really predict by looking at the published specifications of each manufacturer's notebooks. If there are criticisms about the ability to mitigate/dissipate heat you'll want to avoid that particular model or manufacturer.
Budget Notebooks
Asus G53SX-XR1
Default Retail Price (from AGearNotebooks.com): $1,119.00
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 560M w/2.0GB GDDR5 VRAM
CPU: Intel Core i7-2630QM Processor (2.0GHz~2.8GHz), 6MB Cache
System Memory: 8GB DDR3-1333 SO-DIMM (2x4)
This notebook has a standard 15.6" screen rather than a 17+" screen common to many gaming notebooks. The CPU is a quad core which may come in handy for multitasking and future PC games as more of them begin to take advantage of quad core technology. Like most Asus notebooks it runs very quiet with adequate cooling. The Nvidia GeForce GTX 560M is a solid video card. Unfortunately it is the highest end card that Asus currently offers for notebooks with Nvidia cards (both the SLI version and the 580M are markedly better) because of its pricing negotiations with Nvidia. Hopefully this will change in the future but it is also one of the reasons why Asus can provide the most affordable notebooks out of the three manufacturers.
MSI PowerPro R12:17
Default Retail Price: $1,114.53 (from PowerNotebooks.com)
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 570M w/1.5 GB GDDR5 VRAM
CPU: Intel Core i5-2430M Processor (2.4GHz~3.0GHz), 3MB Cache
System Memory: 4GB DDR3-1333 SO-DIMM (1x4)
MSI arguably makes the best gaming notebooks around but I've only been able to find one reseller that stocks their better models and as far as I can tell you can't purchase directly from MSI. Their fans also tend to be a bit louder than ASUS notebooks but most PC gamers easily get past that. This notebook has a 17.3" display. The processor is only a dual core but it has a higher clock speed than the quad core on the Asus G53SX-XR1 so for many current games that don't take advantage of quad core technology, it may yield better performance. I did find it a bit questionable that PowerNotebooks.com snuck in this CPU as the default CPU when it advertises only the i7 quad core CPU's for this notebook on its webpages, but it seems to have good purchaser reviews for its products. While it only comes with 4GB of system memory, it can be upgraded cheaply to 8GB for $19.
Alienware M11x Ultimate Gaming Laptop
Default Retail Price: $1,099 (direct from Alienware)
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GT 555M w/1.5 GB GDDR5 VRAM
CPU: Intel Core i5-2430M Processor (2.4GHz~3.0GHz), 3MB Cache
System Memory: 4GB DDR3-133 SO-DIMM (2x2)
This may look confusing if you're already aware of Alienware's reputation for being overpriced but if you look more closely at this "Ultimate Gaming Laptop" it becomes apparent that the price is due to a number of shortcomings compared to the other 2 budget notebooks. It has the smallest screen of the three at 14". It has the same dual core processor as the MSI Power Pro R12:17. The system memory is 4GB but more importantly its on two 2GB RAM sticks and Alienware charges an an additional $120 to upgrade to two 4GB RAM sticks (it offers no option to upgrade to just one 4GB RAM stick). Most notably it has an inferior graphics card to the other two budget notebooks, so this notebook will offer the lowest performance of the three and a disproportionate difference in the same for merely saving a measly $15-$20.
Midrange Notebooks
Asus G74SX- DH71
Default Retail Price (from AGearNotebooks.com): $1,739.00
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 560M w/3.0GB GDDR5 VRAM
CPU: Intel Core i7-2670QM Processor (2.2GHz~3.1GHz), 6MB Cache
System Memory: 12GB DDR3-1333 SO-DIMM (3x4)
This model has a better version of the 560M graphics card and a quad core with a faster clock speed as well as an additional 4GB RAM stick. It also has an additional hard drive both of which are larger than the single hard drive on the G53SX-XR1, doubling the total hard drive memory. It also includes a separate laser gaming mouse and padded carrying backpack which would otherwise cost you in the neighborhood of $100+ if you were to buy them separately.
MSI GT780DXR-447
Default Retail Price: $1,699.00 (from PowerNotebooks.com)
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 570M w/3.0GB GDDR5 VRAM
CPU: Intel Core i7-2670QM Processor (2.2GHz~3.1GHz), 6MB Cache
System Memory: 12GB DDR3-1333 SO-DIMM (3x4)
This MSI notebook mirrors the Asus G74SX-DH71 in its key specifications but with a slightly better video card. It does have less memory on each of its two hard drives but that consideration is secondary for gaming purposes and can be updated to match the hard drive configuration of the Asus G74SX-DH71 for an additional $150. Like most MSI notebooks, it runs a bit louder than Asus notebooks.
Alienware M7 x R3 Gaming Laptop
Retail Price: $1,949 (direct from Alienware)
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 560M w/1.5 GB GDDR5 VRAM
CPU: Intel Core i7-2670QM Processor (2.2GHz~3.1GHz), 6MB Cache
System Memory: 8GB DDR3-1333 SO-DIMM (2x4)
The default retail price for this notebook was much lower but the default configuration had all sorts of problematic specifications so I upgraded several aspects of it including the screen resolution, graphics card and system memory. Your paying a few hundred dollars more to get an overall inferior setup to the Asus and MSI. At this point you might ask why I'm even bothering to include Alienware but it is one of the leading retailers and it will offer some perks over the Asus high end model even if they come at significant cost.
High End Notebooks
Asus G74SX- DH73-3D
Retail Price (from AGearNotebooks.com): $3,234.04
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 560M w/3.0GB GDDR5 VRAM
CPU: Intel Core i7-2960XM Processor (2.7GHz~3.7GHz), 8MB Cache
System Memory: 16GB DDR3-1333 SO-DIMM (4x4)
As mentioned before, currently Asus notebooks graphics card cap out with the Nvidia GeForce GTX 560M w/3.0GB. While this isn't a terribly problematic for midrange notebooks it can be for hardcore PC gamers looking for a high end notebook. The only thing that can be done with the current line is to max out the CPU and put in a solid state hard drive which I did with this configuration (one 120GB solid state hard drive and one 750GB RPM hard drive). This model does come with an extra perk which is a 3D ecosystem for 3D gaming, content creation, editing and viewing. 3D gaming is a relatively new concept to PC gaming so it's not clear how important this kind of feature will be to PC gamers but at least it's there for this notebook.
MSI GT780DXR-447
Retail Price: $3,378.51 (from PowerNotebooks.com)
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 580M w/2.0GB GDDR5 VRAM
CPU: Intel Core i7-2960XM Processor (2.7GHz~3.7GHz), 8MB Cache
System Memory: 16GB DDR3-1333 SO-DIMM (4x4)
This MSI notebook mirrors the Asus G74SX-DH73-3D in its key specifications but with 2 distinctions. One is that it doesn't have the 3D ecosystem, but for most PC gamers the second difference is going to be more important and a positive one. This MSI notebook has the Nvidia GeForce GTX 580M which is among the best notebook video cards you can get for PC gaming and generally allows you to run almost every game on the market at high to highest settings. I also included a 125 GB solid state drive and a 750GB RPM drive on this notebook's specifications.
Alienware M18x
Retail Price: $4,999 (direct from Alienware)
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 580M SLI w/2.0GB GDDR5 VRAM
CPU: Intel Core i7-2960XM Processor (2.7GHz~3.7GHz), 8MB Cache
System Memory: 16GB DDR3-1600 SO-DIMM (4x4)
And here we have the one configuration for an Alienware notebook that comes out on top of the three notebooks, all be it at heavy price. This Alienware notebook comes with the Nvidia GeForce GTX 580M SLI which is a step up from the Nvidia GeForce GTX 580M without SLI technology and probably the best Nvidia notebook video card currently on the market. It also comes with a solid state drive but lacks a second RPM drive. It is 3D compatible but not 3D capable, meaning you have to buy additional hardware and hook it up to a 3D display device to get the benefit of 3D gaming, viewing etc. It has faster system memory, but as mentioned before, this generally yields a marginal improvement in performance for PC games. Is this all worth the extra 1,600 plus dollars? I'll let the readers decide but you can probably guess what I would say.
Conclusion
As you can see from the above examples, getting a gaming notebook is clearly a luxury and one that many can't afford even in the budget notebook range. It's more expensive than using a desktop PC not only because of the initial price but the need to replace the entire PC in a shorter period of time than a desktop. Only you can decide whether the portability and smaller footprint makes it worth it to you. Even as I finish this article I'm downloading the Skyrim HD mod from Skyrim Nexus, and an initial test with my new customized Asus 74SX-DH71 (faster CPU and faster RAM than the default version above) with all settings maxed out yields FPS ranging from 30-60 FPS (30 being at that stress test spot at Whiterun). I will be playing Skyrim and other games as well as working with my other graphics intensive applications in 3 different cities over the next month so it's definitely worth it for me. Happy gaming!
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1 You can overclock the CPU to a higher speed to increase the FPS further, but you can damage your CPU if you don't know what you're doing, and overclocking voids any computer warranty. In addition overclocking the CPU on a mobile CPU will stress your notebook and can cause heating issues that may shorten the lifespan not only of your CPU but your entire notebook. While these issues can be significantly mitigated on a desktop, your options are much more limited when using a notebook. For these reasons I generally don't recommend overclocking the CPU for notebooks and I strongly discourage it for those who lack the adequate knowledge and experience to do it correctly, which is pretty much the entire target audience for this article.
Why a Notebook?
A lot of die hard PC gamers laugh at the notion of a "gaming notebook" because you can build a better, cheaper desktop for PC gaming with a longer lifespan than any notebook you could have built for PC gaming and they're right. While the technology for the components for notebooks has come a long way they have and most likely always be behind compared to desktops, and they are more expensive. While it's not that hard to build what I would consider to be a good desktop gaming rig for around $900, it would can easily cost twice as much to buy a notebook with comparable performance.
Further notebooks are much more limited regarding what can be upgraded. While in theory you could upgrade the processor and graphics card on a notebook, the reality is that they are often soldered to the motherboard and upgrading them takes a considerable amount of skill and know-how from the perspective of your average PC user.
On top of that, it's harder to locate a reliable merchant that sells those components for notebooks (and of course you immediately void any warranty on the notebook if you do this). It's not like getting a graphics card for a desktop where you can walk into any number of retail stores and purchase the latest series of them from Nvidia, AMD and ATI (the leading producers of PC video cards). That leaves RAM as the only thing you easily upgrade on a notebook.
What all that means is that if you want to continue to use a notebook for gaming you will end up having to replace the notebook sooner than a desktop, as each new generation of PC games will require better and better hardware specs for strong performance.
So why on earth would you want to buy a notebook instead of a desktop for PC gaming? The obvious answer is portability. If you only want to own one computer and your life demands that you must move it frequently from location to location it's rather obvious why you would own a notebook, and if you like to play PC games it becomes equally obvious why you would want to own a gaming notebook.
To Buy or To Build?
It is often recommended that you consider building your own gaming desktop because it can be cheaper and you can sometimes come up with builds that may not be available from desktop suppliers.
The opposite can be said for notebooks. Building a notebook is more difficult because it requires more skill, it's harder to find components, and it's more expensive (because notebook manufacturers can get the components for significantly less than you can) so I'm not even going to explore the possibility in this article.
The Hardware
Okay, down to brass tacks. The hardware you should focus on when selecting your gaming notebook should be the graphics card, the central processing unit (CPU), and the system memory (RAM). A secondary consideration for high end gaming notebooks is the hard drive(s).
Graphics Card
This is the single most important consideration in choosing a gaming notebook. The following list breaks down graphics cards into ones that can run Skyrim on high to ultra settings, medium to high settings, and medium settings. These are estimates so you may experience slightly better or worse performance depending on the rest of your setup. There are other notebook graphic cards that will let you run Skyrim but if it can't run Skyrim decently on medium settings, I wouldn't consider it suitable notebook under any circumstances for PC gaming. Graphics cards that are in parentheses are ones where manufacturing has been discontinued and are generally not available on the market.
High to Ultra
Nvidia GeForce GTX 580M SLI
AMD Radeon HD 6990M Crossfire
Nvidia GeForce GTX 485M SLI
AMD Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire
Nvidia GeForce GTX 470M SLI
Nvidia GeForce GTX 480M SLI
Nvidia GeForce GTX 560M SLI
Nvidia GeForce GTX 580M
AMD Radeon HD 6990M
Nvidia GeForce GTX 460M SLI
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 Crossfire
Nvidia GeForce GTX 485M
Nvidia GeForce GTX 285M SLI
AMD Radeon HD 6970M
Nvidia Quadro 5010M
AMD FirePro M8900
Nvidia GeForce GTX 570M
Nvidia GeForce GTX 280M SLI
AMD Radeon HD 6950M
Medium to High
(ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870 X2)
Nvidia Quadro 4400M
Nvidia GeForce GTX 470M
Nvidia GeForce GTX 480M
Nvidia GeForce GTX 560M
Nvidia GeForce GTX 260M SLI
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870
Nvidia Quadro 5000M
ATI FirePro M7820
AMD Radeon HD 6870M
(Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX SLI)
Nvidia GeForce GTX 460M
Nvidia Quadro 3000M
Nvidia Quadro FX 3800M
Nvidia GeForce GTX 285M
(ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870)
Nvidia GeForce GTX 280M
Nvidia Quadro FX 3700M
(Nvidia GeForce 9800M GT SLI)
(Nvidia GeForce 9800M GTS SLI)
ATI FirePro M7740
(ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4850)
Nvidia GeForce GTX 260M
(Nvidia GeForce 9800M GTX)
Nvidia Quadro FX 2800M
Nvidia GeForce GT 635M
Nvidia GeForce GT 555M
AMD Radeon HD 6775G2
AMD Radeon HD 7690M
AMD FirePro M5950
AMD Radeon HD 6770M
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850
AMD Radeon HD 6850M
Nvidia Quadro 2000M
(Nvidia GeForce 9800M GT)
(Nvidia GeForce 8800M GTX)
Medium
Nvidia Quadro FX 3600M
Nvidia GeForce GT 445M
Nvidia GeForce GTS 360M
AMD Radeon HD 6755G2
AMD Radeon HD 6750M
Nvidia GeForce GT 550M
Nvidia GeForce GTS 260M
Nvidia GeForce GTS 160M
Nvidia GeForce 9800M GTS
AMD Radeon HD 6830M
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5830
AMD Radeon HD 6760G2
AMD Radeon HD 6740G2
AMD Radeon HD 6730M
(Nvidia GeForce 9800M GS)
(ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4830)
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5770
AMD Radeon HD 6570M
AMD Radeon HD 7670M
Nvidia GeForce GTS 150M
Nvidia Quadro 1000M
(Nvidia GeForce 8800M GTS)
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5750
AMD Radeon HD 6720G2
Nvidia GeForce GT 630M
Nvidia GeForce GT 540M
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5730
ATI FirePro M5800
AMD Radeon HD 6690G2
AMD Radeon HD 6650M
NVIDIA GeForce GT 435M
AMD Radeon HD 6680G2
AMD Radeon HD 6550M
AMD Radeon HD 7590M
NVIDIA GeForce GTS 350M
NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250M
AMD Radeon HD 7660G
AMD Radeon HD 6630M
AMD Radeon HD 7650M
AMD Radeon HD 7630M
Nvidia Quadro FX 1800M
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650
Central Processing Unit
The 2 things you should consider when looking at CPU's are the clock speed and the number of cores.
Skyrim's published minimum clock speed requirement is 2.0 GHz for an Intel processor and 2.4 GHz is recommended for an AMD processor. Having a higher clock speed may increase FPS. Most mobile CPU's default clock speeds only go up to about 2.5 GHz which can give you about a 2-6 increase in FPS depending on the rest of your notebook specifications.1
There are currently only a few games on the market that benefit significantly from a quad core CPU and Skyrim doesn't appear to be one of them (FPS may increase by about 2-6 depending on the rest of your notebook's specifications). If you need to cut costs this might be one area you might want to consider by getting a dual core instead of a quad core. This could lower the cost of the computer by over a hundred dollars if you choose a dual core over a quad core with the same clock speed. That being said, there are games that do benefit significantly from quad core CPU's (Arkham City gets as much as a 38% increase on the low end of FPS performance on high end desktop gaming rigs) and it's generally a good idea to look with an eye to the future when purchasing a gaming notebook because of the lack of upgrading options.
The other thing you have to consider is whether you are going to be multitasking while playing Skyrim and other PC games. It's not uncommon for a PC gamer to have multiple applications running alongside the game, including a web browser, FRAPs, photoshop, and mod designing related applications, and if you do things like that then you'll still benefit from having a quad core CPU. In addition, many gaming notebook manufacturers/suppliers simply don't provide configurations with dual core CPU's for notebooks anymore.
System Memory
System Memory, more commonly referred to as RAM, comes in various configurations both with regards to amount of memory on each RAM stick (standard notebook's can accept 4 RAM sticks) and the memory speed. I am not going to cover the latter except to note that default RAM speed is 1333MHz for generic RAM sticks and that the higher speed RAM sticks (1600 and up) generally only increase performance marginally (1-3 FPS) so unless you are trying to squeeze out FPS from every possible source on your computer you should just stick to 1333MHz RAM sticks, especially because your CPU and motherboard may not support 1600MHz RAM without overclocking.
What you should pay attention to is the size of the RAM sticks. You should select the larger memory configurations, meaning 4GB of RAM per stick. A 4GB RAM stick will yield higher FPS and faster render times than 2 2GB RAM sticks. You should get at least 4GB of RAM for your notebook as many games now benefit performance wise from the extra RAM. If you can afford it, you may want to get 2 4GB RAM sticks (but this is the one feature you can easily upgrade later). Some suppliers will try to con you into getting cheap 2GB RAM stick configurations with more memory or mixed memory sizes for RAM chips. If they don't give you the option to configure your RAM with 4GB sticks I would look to another manufacturer/reseller.
Suppliers may try to entice you to purchase more than 8GB of RAM, but unless you use other high end applications like video and digital graphics editing programs it really shouldn't be necessary to get more than 8GB of RAM, and if you have to ask if you need more then you probably don't need more.
Hard Drive
This is truly a luxury item but there are now solid state hard drives available for notebooks. Solid state hard drives generally improve the overall performance of any PC because they can access and load the data on the drives faster than traditional hard drives. Your computer will boot up faster, games will load faster etc. They have drawbacks worth serious consideration though as they are much more expensive and have less memory space than traditional RPM hard drives.
Mouse
I recommend that you use a separate USB mouse not only when PC gaming but when using your notebook in general. Fixing a track pad that breaks from wear and tear can be time consuming and expensive if the warranty has expired. I generally only use the track pad when workspace is a consideration which is normally limited to when I use my notebook while traveling on a plane, train, bus or car.
Cooling Pad
A cooling pad is also an important consideration for your notebook setup. If you plan to play for hours on end I would say it's basically necessary. There are several models available. My general preference is for Antek cooling pads because in my experience they are durable and quiet. (I'm currently using the Antek Notebook Cooler 200.)
Notebook Configuration Examples
The following are configurations for gaming notebooks offered by 3 of the leading gaming notebook manufacturers, Asus, MSI and Alienware. One from each is a low end gaming notebook for those on a budget. One is for a gaming notebooks which will yield solid performance at high settings and likely will do so for several years for future game releases. The last is for those who want a very powerful notebook that offers the best each line has to offer. In general in considering a gaming notebook manufacturer you should check reviews of their products with a particular focus on heating issues as that is the one thing that you can't really predict by looking at the published specifications of each manufacturer's notebooks. If there are criticisms about the ability to mitigate/dissipate heat you'll want to avoid that particular model or manufacturer.
Budget Notebooks
Asus G53SX-XR1
Default Retail Price (from AGearNotebooks.com): $1,119.00
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 560M w/2.0GB GDDR5 VRAM
CPU: Intel Core i7-2630QM Processor (2.0GHz~2.8GHz), 6MB Cache
System Memory: 8GB DDR3-1333 SO-DIMM (2x4)
This notebook has a standard 15.6" screen rather than a 17+" screen common to many gaming notebooks. The CPU is a quad core which may come in handy for multitasking and future PC games as more of them begin to take advantage of quad core technology. Like most Asus notebooks it runs very quiet with adequate cooling. The Nvidia GeForce GTX 560M is a solid video card. Unfortunately it is the highest end card that Asus currently offers for notebooks with Nvidia cards (both the SLI version and the 580M are markedly better) because of its pricing negotiations with Nvidia. Hopefully this will change in the future but it is also one of the reasons why Asus can provide the most affordable notebooks out of the three manufacturers.
MSI PowerPro R12:17
Default Retail Price: $1,114.53 (from PowerNotebooks.com)
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 570M w/1.5 GB GDDR5 VRAM
CPU: Intel Core i5-2430M Processor (2.4GHz~3.0GHz), 3MB Cache
System Memory: 4GB DDR3-1333 SO-DIMM (1x4)
MSI arguably makes the best gaming notebooks around but I've only been able to find one reseller that stocks their better models and as far as I can tell you can't purchase directly from MSI. Their fans also tend to be a bit louder than ASUS notebooks but most PC gamers easily get past that. This notebook has a 17.3" display. The processor is only a dual core but it has a higher clock speed than the quad core on the Asus G53SX-XR1 so for many current games that don't take advantage of quad core technology, it may yield better performance. I did find it a bit questionable that PowerNotebooks.com snuck in this CPU as the default CPU when it advertises only the i7 quad core CPU's for this notebook on its webpages, but it seems to have good purchaser reviews for its products. While it only comes with 4GB of system memory, it can be upgraded cheaply to 8GB for $19.
Alienware M11x Ultimate Gaming Laptop
Default Retail Price: $1,099 (direct from Alienware)
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GT 555M w/1.5 GB GDDR5 VRAM
CPU: Intel Core i5-2430M Processor (2.4GHz~3.0GHz), 3MB Cache
System Memory: 4GB DDR3-133 SO-DIMM (2x2)
This may look confusing if you're already aware of Alienware's reputation for being overpriced but if you look more closely at this "Ultimate Gaming Laptop" it becomes apparent that the price is due to a number of shortcomings compared to the other 2 budget notebooks. It has the smallest screen of the three at 14". It has the same dual core processor as the MSI Power Pro R12:17. The system memory is 4GB but more importantly its on two 2GB RAM sticks and Alienware charges an an additional $120 to upgrade to two 4GB RAM sticks (it offers no option to upgrade to just one 4GB RAM stick). Most notably it has an inferior graphics card to the other two budget notebooks, so this notebook will offer the lowest performance of the three and a disproportionate difference in the same for merely saving a measly $15-$20.
Midrange Notebooks
Asus G74SX- DH71
Default Retail Price (from AGearNotebooks.com): $1,739.00
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 560M w/3.0GB GDDR5 VRAM
CPU: Intel Core i7-2670QM Processor (2.2GHz~3.1GHz), 6MB Cache
System Memory: 12GB DDR3-1333 SO-DIMM (3x4)
This model has a better version of the 560M graphics card and a quad core with a faster clock speed as well as an additional 4GB RAM stick. It also has an additional hard drive both of which are larger than the single hard drive on the G53SX-XR1, doubling the total hard drive memory. It also includes a separate laser gaming mouse and padded carrying backpack which would otherwise cost you in the neighborhood of $100+ if you were to buy them separately.
MSI GT780DXR-447
Default Retail Price: $1,699.00 (from PowerNotebooks.com)
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 570M w/3.0GB GDDR5 VRAM
CPU: Intel Core i7-2670QM Processor (2.2GHz~3.1GHz), 6MB Cache
System Memory: 12GB DDR3-1333 SO-DIMM (3x4)
This MSI notebook mirrors the Asus G74SX-DH71 in its key specifications but with a slightly better video card. It does have less memory on each of its two hard drives but that consideration is secondary for gaming purposes and can be updated to match the hard drive configuration of the Asus G74SX-DH71 for an additional $150. Like most MSI notebooks, it runs a bit louder than Asus notebooks.
Alienware M7 x R3 Gaming Laptop
Retail Price: $1,949 (direct from Alienware)
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 560M w/1.5 GB GDDR5 VRAM
CPU: Intel Core i7-2670QM Processor (2.2GHz~3.1GHz), 6MB Cache
System Memory: 8GB DDR3-1333 SO-DIMM (2x4)
The default retail price for this notebook was much lower but the default configuration had all sorts of problematic specifications so I upgraded several aspects of it including the screen resolution, graphics card and system memory. Your paying a few hundred dollars more to get an overall inferior setup to the Asus and MSI. At this point you might ask why I'm even bothering to include Alienware but it is one of the leading retailers and it will offer some perks over the Asus high end model even if they come at significant cost.
High End Notebooks
Asus G74SX- DH73-3D
Retail Price (from AGearNotebooks.com): $3,234.04
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 560M w/3.0GB GDDR5 VRAM
CPU: Intel Core i7-2960XM Processor (2.7GHz~3.7GHz), 8MB Cache
System Memory: 16GB DDR3-1333 SO-DIMM (4x4)
As mentioned before, currently Asus notebooks graphics card cap out with the Nvidia GeForce GTX 560M w/3.0GB. While this isn't a terribly problematic for midrange notebooks it can be for hardcore PC gamers looking for a high end notebook. The only thing that can be done with the current line is to max out the CPU and put in a solid state hard drive which I did with this configuration (one 120GB solid state hard drive and one 750GB RPM hard drive). This model does come with an extra perk which is a 3D ecosystem for 3D gaming, content creation, editing and viewing. 3D gaming is a relatively new concept to PC gaming so it's not clear how important this kind of feature will be to PC gamers but at least it's there for this notebook.
MSI GT780DXR-447
Retail Price: $3,378.51 (from PowerNotebooks.com)
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 580M w/2.0GB GDDR5 VRAM
CPU: Intel Core i7-2960XM Processor (2.7GHz~3.7GHz), 8MB Cache
System Memory: 16GB DDR3-1333 SO-DIMM (4x4)
This MSI notebook mirrors the Asus G74SX-DH73-3D in its key specifications but with 2 distinctions. One is that it doesn't have the 3D ecosystem, but for most PC gamers the second difference is going to be more important and a positive one. This MSI notebook has the Nvidia GeForce GTX 580M which is among the best notebook video cards you can get for PC gaming and generally allows you to run almost every game on the market at high to highest settings. I also included a 125 GB solid state drive and a 750GB RPM drive on this notebook's specifications.
Alienware M18x
Retail Price: $4,999 (direct from Alienware)
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 580M SLI w/2.0GB GDDR5 VRAM
CPU: Intel Core i7-2960XM Processor (2.7GHz~3.7GHz), 8MB Cache
System Memory: 16GB DDR3-1600 SO-DIMM (4x4)
And here we have the one configuration for an Alienware notebook that comes out on top of the three notebooks, all be it at heavy price. This Alienware notebook comes with the Nvidia GeForce GTX 580M SLI which is a step up from the Nvidia GeForce GTX 580M without SLI technology and probably the best Nvidia notebook video card currently on the market. It also comes with a solid state drive but lacks a second RPM drive. It is 3D compatible but not 3D capable, meaning you have to buy additional hardware and hook it up to a 3D display device to get the benefit of 3D gaming, viewing etc. It has faster system memory, but as mentioned before, this generally yields a marginal improvement in performance for PC games. Is this all worth the extra 1,600 plus dollars? I'll let the readers decide but you can probably guess what I would say.
Conclusion
As you can see from the above examples, getting a gaming notebook is clearly a luxury and one that many can't afford even in the budget notebook range. It's more expensive than using a desktop PC not only because of the initial price but the need to replace the entire PC in a shorter period of time than a desktop. Only you can decide whether the portability and smaller footprint makes it worth it to you. Even as I finish this article I'm downloading the Skyrim HD mod from Skyrim Nexus, and an initial test with my new customized Asus 74SX-DH71 (faster CPU and faster RAM than the default version above) with all settings maxed out yields FPS ranging from 30-60 FPS (30 being at that stress test spot at Whiterun). I will be playing Skyrim and other games as well as working with my other graphics intensive applications in 3 different cities over the next month so it's definitely worth it for me. Happy gaming!
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1 You can overclock the CPU to a higher speed to increase the FPS further, but you can damage your CPU if you don't know what you're doing, and overclocking voids any computer warranty. In addition overclocking the CPU on a mobile CPU will stress your notebook and can cause heating issues that may shorten the lifespan not only of your CPU but your entire notebook. While these issues can be significantly mitigated on a desktop, your options are much more limited when using a notebook. For these reasons I generally don't recommend overclocking the CPU for notebooks and I strongly discourage it for those who lack the adequate knowledge and experience to do it correctly, which is pretty much the entire target audience for this article.
