Gaming thinkpad?

Will there ever be a pro grade note book of the thinkpad line specifically made for those that really like to game? I think my next note book will be 65%gaming, 35% business. Will there be such thing in the future?

 

I highly doubt that. Though, the W520 fits the criteria to a certain degree. It has the most powerful CPU options, and its GPU is pretty good for gaming. The 1000M is roughly a GT 540M (slightly faster), and the 2000M is roughly a GT 555M.

 

Probably not. Lenovo's Think line has no roadmap for targeting gamers.

Dell's XPS line is more what you're after.

 

Almost all computers can game to varying degrees. I think the main factors that one needs to consider are:

1. Do you need to play the newest game right away?

2. As the gamer, what is your threshold for graphics?

Speaking from personal experience, I can run Dragon Age 2 on my Thinkpad just fine, albeit at the 2nd worst resolution (16:10 ratio) on an external monitor. But it runs smooth, and I'm perfectly content with that. Personally, I don't need great detail as long as the story and gameplay is fine.

 

No, there won't be. Thinkpads are primarily designed for business users, who, needless to say, shouldn't be gaming anyways. But, more powerful Thinkpads designed for CAD use can run games just fine (ie: W520, W701, etc). My T500 runs pretty much all modern games, on anywhere from low-medium to max settings depending on resolution and the game.

 

Just build an eGPU for gaming.

 

As the others have stated, ThinkPads are workhorse for business, they are not meant to game. The T400/T500 are those rare exceptions that a modern ThinkPad had Radeon graphics instead of FirePro/Quadro graphics.

Quadro/FirePro can game, but their drivers are optimized for CAD use so performance will suffer.

DIY dock (aka external graphics card) can be an option as long as you have an ExpressCard slot.

 

There's a Thinkpad Edge E420 with HD6630 in Korean market at ~$800

??? ThinkPad Edge E420 1141-RY4 ???? :: ????? ?? ! ??? (????) - Danawa.com

 

I echo the others comments. Thinkpads are for business users you will be disappointed if you expect this to be a top notch gaming machine.

 

Even Lenovo's Ideapad line isn't much better when talking about gaming. The y570 with the Nvidia 555M is still a mid-range graphics card and that's about as good as it gets when looking for gaming laptop with Lenovo.

 

I think lenovo might be surprise if they ever came up with a gaming thinkpad...call it a G520

 

The G-moniker is already used for their budget Essentials series

 

They could call it multipad Switcheable graphics (amd and geforce), thinkpad look and build. I think it would sell great. There are people who like to do everything on 1 computer, but would not bring a gaming notebook anywhere near a workplace (like myself).

And they could make it 16,4 and call it m620 (I think it would be a place for 16,4 laptops in business line, lenovo w620, dell m5600, hp 8660w would be a good compromise).

 

I am tired of the inane arguments about what a business or a gaming machine is. The reality of the situation is: computers don't know much if they are running CAD or a game. The shader units don't even care if they are running graphics or folding proteins using OpenCL or cuda for that matter.

Just as many machines that can edit video are exceptional at Photoshop.

Across the board Quadra and Geforce GPUs match, with only minor differences. With that stated, Nvidia claims to enhance their drivers for 2D CAD, but what value is that, if their are never updated?

[I traditionally have run gforce drivers on my Quaddra chip; it's a Gforce 8700m with a little faster memory.]

A competent gaming machine is a powerful machine. If it weren't for computer games, there would be no Aero desktop, no genie effect, no window preview, no fast scrolling text, no composited window drop shadows, and no fermi supercomputers because most of that is handled with the 3D aspects of the GPU, and computer games have driven GPU design for the last decade.

After Silicon Graphics started failing, John Carmac from id software worked to keep OpenGL alive through it's use of a miniport driver bringing OpenGL to the masses, keeping alive the hope of cross-platform 3D graphics.

For directx, Microsoft wanted the shader units all to be similar bringing about the current GPUs we have today.

Saddly, what defines a business machine is: mediocre 3D performance. Is that what people are going to stick up their noses and stand up and fight for?

 

No.

If you can make a machine that's tailored with business users in mind and stick a good GPU in there, great! The T500 was one such machine, actually. It could handle fairly modern games just fine, yet was a fantastically good choice for business users.

What Lenovo doesn't do, and what many of use don't want them to do, is to start compromising business features in an attempt to improve gaming suitability. Things like "oh, well we didn't have enough room to allow for a docking connector since we put that GPU in" or "oh, there's no option for a 4-cell battery since the GPU takes up too much power." Having an ultra-short battery life because of a monster GPU is excusable if you're iBuyPower selling an ODM re-badge made for people to take to LAN parties. It's a lot tougher of a sell if your target market is people who take their machines to meetings where they can't be assured of a power plug (or on an airplane, where there aren't any.)

So yes: if Lenovo is able to a solution where they produce a laptop with a great GPU that have an excessive impact on battery life, and if they don't have to make other compromises at the expense of their business customers, I'm all for it.

 

Compared to the overall laptop market at large, demand for business laptops is relatively small. Likewise, demand for gaming laptops is also relatively small. Taking the intersection of these two sets would be, well, unprofitable to cater to... at least not anywhere in a reasonable price point.

About as accurate as computers not knowing if they're on a platter drive or SSD. No algorithm or model is perfectly suited to all tasks; some are better at business workflows, others at gaming.

Just as a pickup truck can haul a wheelbarrow of sand. (Note the lack of quantitative details.)

What is this I don't even--

 

To reiterate and clarify: the modern "business" desktop has a lot of its technological roots in gaming. The word "gaming" should not be thought of as a stigma, but a qualification.

That is not to say that I want my computer to be designed to be ecstatically pleasing to a 16-year old kid, unless that 16-year old kid has exceptionally good taste.

Lenovo continues to make compromises on the quality of their machines, for the sake of styling. A pet peeve of mine that radii on the machines are too small which allows the rubber/polyurethane coating to rub off quickly. Putting larger radii on machine would make make the plastic a little stiffer. The plastic on my old T61p should have been a little thicker, because to hand someone the machine while it is open, is to break the handrest. Mine is cracked for the second time.

Lenovo makes some of the best computers on the market, when I can afford it, I will replace it with a W520. I will do CAD on it, video editing, Photoshop, writing, and when I am done, I will probably...play a game, because with 192 Shader Pipelines it should have game, and playing 3D games isn't going to make me any slower at CAD.

 

Quite frankly the reason I came to lenovo is because its "gamer free". Thank god. By the same token I have disdain for business. There is absolutely NOTHING about a lenovo that makes it a "business computer".

Renee

 

This doesn't really clarify anything...

Mind explaining this bit? I don't see how changing the radius would matter; the lid is a rectangular flat object. Pot metal is pretty stiff too; maybe Lenovo should use that for your machine.

Gaming cards are optimized for rendering the frame as fast as possible (fill rate) while introducing a bunch of inaccuracy for speed. Workstation cards are more for bandwidth and accuracy, and will provide support for methods and algorithms not seen in games due to their computational complexity.

AMD Radeon HD 6770M
SPECviewperf 11 - Pro/ENGINEER 1920x1080: avg 2FPS
3DMark 11 - Performance GPU 1280x720: avg 1340

NVIDIA Quadro 2000M
SPECviewperf 11 - Pro/ENGINEER 1920x1080: avg 9.5FPS
3DMark 11 - Performance GPU 1280x720: avg 1261

TrackPoint, keyboard, and durability are the features generally demanded by business and academic users. This makes a ThinkPad a business computer, wouldn't it?

 

The Thinkpad Edge with AMD 6650, last time I checked they did not offer the AMD option.

Secondly there the W520, which has 2000m on some models. The performance on those card are pretty decent. NVIDIA Quadro 2000M - Notebookcheck.net Tech

 

good topic. I wish my t520 had something more powerfull than weak nvidia. But for what it is its pretty good. Laptops aren't meant for gaming, we all know that. i don't like gaming on mine, just because its.. not for gaming. its just not that great. there is something missing, everything is a little sluggish.
Alienware laptops aren't laptops because of their battery life if you wanna use it. I wish there was something that could handle a nice performance load and still have some live in it..

 

Hardware-wise? Arguable.

But whether a machine is a "business" machine or a "consumer" machine isn't determined by the hardware -- it's determined by which market the designing company was targeting when they did the design. Hardware engineering is all about trade-offs, and it's what trade-offs were chosen that determines whether a machine is a "business" one or not.

Looking at Lenovo's ThinkPad lineup (and, indeed, at who their major customers are) it's pretty clear that they are designing the machines with corporate customers in mind.

 

I just ordered a T420 with a Quadro NVS 4200M. Gaming is important to me, and the equivalent GT 520M does offer a noticeable performance boost over the stock integrated GPU according to certain websites, so I hope that $217 upgrade pays some dividends in terms of framerate.

Unfortunately, my ship date is on August 11th...

Thinkpads can be gaming machines if you need them to be. But, will they be particularly good gaming machines? It depends on your expectations.

 

I was thinking the same when I chose a T420s with the nvs4200m. Hopefully it allows me a little more gaming capability than the HD 3000 would.

 

I have been using a notebook as desktop replacement for the last 5 years. First I had a pair of asus notebooks. The first was a consumer line with dedicated ati graphics. I used it for 1.5 years (2006-2007), it was ok but could not take the daily abuse (carrying around every day to work and back). The next one was asus v2s (2007-2008). in which I regreted the smaller screen I choose for portability (14,0). Currently I have a hp 8510p (200 , with which I'm quite happy with (a bit too loud) just gets outdated now.

So I'm not looking for alienware graphics muscle. I just need a very sturdy machine I can game with sometimes. And I want to have 1 computer only.

The w520 currently with quadro 2000 is better then anything I had before graphicaly in comparison to the average in his timeline ( sorry for my bad english: I mean the w520 is stronger in his field in 2011, then the 8510p was in 2008).

The only thing holding me back is the m6600 (big screen, doubled graphics power, that would fit my gaming needs for 4-5 years). But I do have concerns about its weight...

 

I've been using my T420 to replace my xbox 360 and former gaming rig (ATI 4870), quite successfully.

Runs any 360 port at 720p great.

 

Yes, current notebooks have taken big steps. If you are ready to turn down effects and resolution great many game will run fine in fairly cheap machines.

I do that too, but the game I play lately has problems even on low in my hp 8510p
(COH Blitzkrieg mod).