My PC is the Toshiba Satellite X205-SLi1 can easily be googled "Toshiba X205-SLi1 specs" for details as I can't post a link because I'm new to the boards.

note: I now have 4GB of RAM as opposed to the 2G it came with.

My issue / question:

Should you have your desktop resolution match up with the resoultion you have the game you are playing?

For any1 that plays World of Warcraft I'm having FPS issues within the game...basically any of the new content (Wrath lighting affects etc) all the old contect in BC and prior works fine. I hold roughly a 50FPS but I have all my settings on as low as possible at 1440x900.

Should I lower my res? should my desktop match what I lower my res too? Can I be having any issues outside of driver updates ( all my drivers are up to date) Is this a possible Vista thing?

another side note: I make sure all my additional programs arent on while I play including any other sorta of media players/internet browsers.

Granted it is a laptop its a beasty laptop and I feel like I "should" be able to play games at a much higher looknig quality..

last note: My SLI is already enabled.

Thanks in advanced for any and all Help.

Michael

Yes it has 8600m cards in sli, but you need to remember one thing, the big "M" behind those 8600 cards, standing for mobile, they are low powered scaled down versions of the original in sli. What you're getting from this thing is completely normal. You cant expect a laptop of any size to aquire 90 fps in a game with full detail and high resolutions. Unless you want to buy those gtx 260m sli laptops, then maybe.


1440×900 is the highest resolution on that thing from all the different review sites I see. If you wanted a higher resolution you should have went with the "sli4" version of the line.

Like with all 'gaming' laptops I think it's simply a case of yours being outdated. Wrath has a lot more intensive graphics than older WoW content and your machine simply can't keep up with it. I'm sure it was a nice beast when you got it but right now it's not actually any better than any of the 15' mid-range notebooks that have some form of discrete GPU and sell for approximately $1.2k on newegg.

Next time when you consider getting a 'gaming' laptop take a look at the fresh offerings for mid-range 15' notebooks with discrete GPUs. You'll be paying half the price and (in my opinion) getting at least as much playtime out of the machine. In any case, even paying for yearly replacements will run you less money than getting a top of the line 'gaming' laptop. If you want an example, I have a friend that plays WoW and gets 60FPS with native (1680x1050) resolution and max settings out of a relatively new Asus M50SA that cost a measly $900 because of a Christmas-time sale. Just food for though.

2 x 8600M GTs should be decent for most games and especially a laptop.

What hurts the 8600M more than anything is bandwidth, at least compared to the latest gen cards. Lowering your resolution and turning anti-aliasing off should make the hugest improvements (if your video cards are to blame). To tell whether or not your video card is to blame, you can turn down/off all non-CPU dependent settings (lower texture detail, turn off AA, lower resolution to the minimum) and see what happens. IF the performance improves dramatically, you know your card is the limiting factor. If that's the case, then another driver update might come along to improve it.

Lighting effects are also processed by the CPU. I've only played the original WoW, but if the latest version of WoW has been updated significantly, you can bet that a 2Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo mobile isn't going to tear it apart. I'd try turning down any items that may affect CPU usage (lighting, geometry detail, object complexity).

In the mean, you can try uninstalling your current drivers install a beta driver from www.laptopvideo2go.com . It's possible that the newest drivers or last few revisions may just have poor performance with WotLK... A beta driver might solve that.

Thanks for all of the responses and suggetions. I think I'm going to just custom build (well buy everything and have some1 else put it together) a good gaming desktop. As I just spent a little bit fixing a burned out VGA on my laptop I can't really afford more than $1,000 to $1,500 to spend on parts.

Any website suggestions or recommendations for a list/place I can buy all the parts needed for a beasty gamer pc?

Again! thanks for all the help!

We could recommend parts here if you want, im sure you'll get more responses.

Sounds good. I guess the 2 big things I'm trying to figure out right now is AMD vs Intel and Radeon vs. Nvidia for gaming. I know the "BFG" video cards are suppose to be all kinds of high speed but the price is well...pricey!

Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128374 $259.99

VGA
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102830 $199.99

CPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115202 $279.99

RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145224 $159.99 x2

Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136284 $ 99.99

Power Supply Unit
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817153038 $ 149.99

CD/DVD drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827118030 $ 31.99

Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129043 $ 172.99

Didnt include monitor, keyboard, mouse etc, because its clear you already have those.

Grand total 1339.94 before shipping but does not include the $~70 dollars in rebates.



~I suggested this build for someone else here, you dont need a hard drive as big per say or a video card as good, you could also go with a smaller case and only 6 gigs of ram instead of the 12 above, that would save you around 350+ usd or so.

Is there a way I can save this post so I can look at it on a later date? Thanks for all the in depth information and breakdown site by site as well

note* I just tried to click on the links and none of them are working o.O

Hah, nice.

Techspot releases buying guides which are a good representation of what's out there and what to buy. You can always come back and check for those.. They are updated every few months.