Yes..., I have recently purchased a new laptop computer. An ASUS X54H to be exact. I was thinking about purchasing Skyrim or Portal 2 for my computer. Would I need to equip my laptop with anything to run a video game? I have heard about graphics cards. What do those do exactly?
Asked about 1 year ago in Hardware & Accessories
Games: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PC)
Tags: computer gaming, portal 2, skyrim
The graphics card is what displays and renders the graphics you see on screen. If you have a laptop chances are you will unable to upgrade or even change your graphics card. That is unless you purchased a high end gaming laptop.
If I'm looking at the right specs it looks like you have a Celeron processor and Intel integrated graphics. You may be hard pressed to play many modern games, especially with any GPU intensive features turned on.
Generally desktops provide a much better gaming experience as upgrading can be done easily. Not that you can't game on a laptop, but you will find the lifespan of playable games and games that will play well is considerably lessened. That is due to the fact most laptops do not have anywhere near as powerful of GPUs and they generally are not upgradable. You will also find you can put together a very sound desktop gaming rig for much much less than a comparable laptop would cost.
DigitalGuy
Level: Bronze
Well, I'd ask you what hardware your computer has, but usually if you buy a computer from a big box store (Walmart, Best Buy, etc.) it's not going to be optimal for gaming. On top of that, laptops usually aren't great for gaming unless it's a specifically built gaming laptop (which generally run $3000 or more). So I'd at least estimate that Skyrim may not run at all, and Portal 2 might run at minimum, maybe up to mid settings (since it's essentially based on an updated version of an engine from 2004), but like I said that's just a guess.
To answer your other question, the graphics card (or graphics processing unit or GPU) is the main component of the PC that renders the graphics. Your game performance is most affected by your GPU, though having too little RAM or too slow a processor can also affect your performance. Though most laptops have an integrated GPU, so changing that probably won't be easy/cheap anyway.
Transience8985
Level: Silver
There is no way that you will be able to play those 2 games with the setup you have now.I would not recommed messing with your graphics card if you are not 100% sure you know what you are doing.I have never been a big fan of pc gaming because of the cost involved and the time involved.video
cards can get very expensive. I have an alienware cpu that is 2 years old
and I need to upgrade,I think In the end consoles are a better opition-The games are cheaper on pc but in the end its more work than I wanna do.
mayhemlikeme
Level: Bronze
i just wanted to say that is a awesome computer !!!! i have a asus to but never gamed on it yet !!!
cherrykissez
Level: Bronze
if you have to ask if its a gaming laptop its not a gaming laptop. Most laptops today aren't built to be power houses. In fact unless you go into the laptop market knowing what you really want you will often over pay for an under performer.
If you want a Laptop that will play games this is really what you want and keep in mind if you get these items in it your battery life won't be great.
Intel core I7 Processor (the faster the better)
6GB DDR3 RAM or more (make sure the O/S is 64bit or you won't see the memory)
Dedicated graphics card (or dual graphics capabilities)
Some PC's have an Intel integrated graphics processor for running the O/S with the ability to switch to a dedicated graphics card for high end needs, this is perfectly fine too.
Graphics Cards are the core of what games need to run properly. In simple terms they draw the images you see on screen and HD gaming has a high demand to draw the images properly.
Good gaming laptops must be core purchases and never an after thought.
Teppoudo
Level: Bronze
I am not even going to bother reading the other comments because they are long and there are too many, however, you are going to have problems upgrading the graphics card for your laptop because its a laptop.
wlanedbz
Level: Bronze
