Unlocked CPU’s for laptops!

posted by Nick Knupffer on July 16, 2007

Intel just launched an Extreme Edition version of it’s Core 2 Duo line of mobile dual core processors. This coupled with the recent SLI notebook announcement from Alienware shows just how serious Intel is about upping mobile performance. Next year will also see battery friendly quad core CPU’s for notebooks, this news should excite Photoshopers everywhere.

As we become more and more mobile, ‘good enough’ performance no longer is – sure, you may not need an extreme edition chip to power your email client (but it does run Outlook ever so well) but gamers demand more and more. Anecdotal evidence (ie: me asking my friends) shows that the shift to laptops is lagging among gamers in comparison to the average computer user. Up until only a year or two ago, mobile gaming was as scarce as a big technology IPO in 2002. This is because 50ms worth of lag at the wrong moment, or a sudden drop in frame rates can be the difference between winning or losing a game, and in pro-gaming circles this could cost you tens of thousands of dollars. Nowadays even pro-gamers like the 4Kings regularly use laptops to practice and compete. Some members of the team don’t even have desktops now.

Add this to the new unlocked Extreme Edition chips + quad core next year and there will be no more reasons to stick to desktops!

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6 Responses to Unlocked CPU’s for laptops!

  1. Henry says:
    July 17, 2007 at 7:32 am

    Yeah go go mobile quads!

  2. JMiller says:
    July 19, 2007 at 9:43 am

    I was using a laptop for gaming (World of Warcraft, to be precise) for the past couple of years until the Radeon x700 cooked itself to death because it was on the far, far end of the otherwise pretty clever heat pipe cooling solution that, well, wasn’t designed for that many hours of farming, 5-manning and BWL raiding. Point being that if you’re buying a gaming laptop — particularly one with brand new performance parts — do yourself a favor and seriously consider picking up an extended warranty with it as the stress tests that get run in the labs may not account for a couple of years of dust (and cat hair) in the cooling system.

  3. Blend says:
    July 28, 2007 at 7:41 am

    This great news for gamer.

  4. John Wright says:
    July 30, 2007 at 3:56 pm

    Finaly. Laptops are catching up and surpasing in some instances desktops. I have been waiting for a real gaming laptop. By the way,
    hwo do you get to beta one of those laptops? Willing to change groups and Travel.

  5. Brandon Clinger says:
    August 23, 2007 at 12:07 pm

    *sigh* As soon as I buy a laptop it is outdated. I’m happy with my T7300, but I always want more…especially in engineering school, where does the want stop! Is there an Intel testing program, I’d test those babies out…

  6. Tracy Esau says:
    February 24, 2008 at 10:13 pm

    SALUTE TO INTEL!!!!!
    I always wanted a laptop which could completely replace my desktop and work even better cauz sky is the limit…. and yes the dream is finally coming true….. YEA MAN :D