New to Steam, will my laptop run L4D?

[Retro Pixel]

Hey guys...
New to Steam. Only because I went from console, to pc, back to console, then noticed gaming taking a dump lately lol. So I wanted to revisit some old faves. I miss Left 4 Dead 1 and 2 on the Xbox 360. I've been buying a lot of older pc games lately and playing them again, and L4D crossed my mind.

All that said, I got a new laptop and it isnt a "gaming" laptop or anything, but wondered if the specs of it would run L4D1 and 2? Also, can you use a controller on L4D on Steam? That's what I'm most comfortable with. I tried a controller (ps4) with Half-Life and it didnt go well lol I had to revert to M/KB controls. But I'd like to use a controller very much for L4D.

The laptop has these specs:

- Ryzen 9 8945HS 4ghz 8-core CPU
- 16gb ram
- Radeon 780M integrated gpu
- Windows 10 with latest updates

I assume the laptop would run the game at the highest settings? I dunno. I'm only interested in Steam for older titles and I keep my modern gaming to my PS5 Pro. I'm not a big pc gamer guy now days, just wanted to revisit some old titles I miss. Thank you for helping.

[Zένø™ 👌]

yes l4d is 17 years old, it can run on a potato

[Haruspex]

Left 4 Dead came out over 16 years ago. It's "recommended" system requirements ask for an ATI x1600, which your on-board Radeon 780m absolutely destroys with pure future-tech in comparison. You'll be able to max it out no problem.

[_I_]

Originally posted by Zένø™ 👌:

yes l4d is 17 years old, it can run on a potato

its far from the old source game, its specs have increased greatly since then

but that laptop is new, it will run it fine with the ryzen igpu

[Retro Pixel]

I appreciate all the replies. I've always experienced igpus that were garbage and thought it wouldnt hurt to ask in this case. It'd be fun to play L4D series again and hook the laptop to the tv in big picture mode and play all the content and maybe co op all over again after all these years.

But... does anyone know if it works with modern controllers? Sometimes steam just wont run a game or run it well on a controller.

[_I_]

yes, but bt on windows is kinda wonky, might be better off paring the controller to phone and use remote play from phone, disable audio/video and only enable control in steam link app settings

[gwwak]

The 780M is a decent gaming GPU despite being integrated. In fact, a low power variant is used in handhelds like the Asus ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go. You should be able to play just fine with it.

[Haruspex]

Originally posted by Retro Pixel:

I've always experienced igpus that were garbage and thought it wouldnt hurt to ask in this case.

Historically, iGPUs have been garbage, but more recently they've actually gotten really, really good. Your Radeon 780m is based on RDNA 3, which is brand new. You can even run modern games with a few adjustments to the settings. Here's that GPU running a few demanding, modern titles to compare:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uru_tdxwOjg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5fEIoG7LN0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZUJgXZUwZc

Originally posted by Retro Pixel:

But... does anyone know if it works with modern controllers? Sometimes steam just wont run a game or run it well on a controller.

Left 4 Dead has full controller support, including support for both Xbox and Playstation controllers. It should work perfectly, even displaying the correct glyphs.

[Retro Pixel]

Originally posted by gwwak:

The 780M is a decent gaming GPU despite being integrated. In fact, a low power variant is used in handhelds like the Asus ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go. You should be able to play just fine with it.

I see... the laptop is an Asus by the way. I looked online and saw there's a newer 800 variant even more powerful but of course this is a 2024 new laptop with the 780. I didnt wanna buy games past 2005 if the iGPU was gonna be subpar, I'm used to Intel iGPUs being garbage I guess. So glad to know I can run the game. I remember loving L4D on 360, of course that was 30fps era lol I'm hoping I can snag 60fps, never played it in 60fps. Thanks for the answer.

[Retro Pixel]

Originally posted by Haruspex:

Originally posted by Retro Pixel:

I've always experienced igpus that were garbage and thought it wouldnt hurt to ask in this case.

Historically, iGPUs have been garbage, but more recently they've actually gotten really, really good. Your Radeon 780m is based on RDNA 3, which is brand new. You can even run modern games with a few adjustments to the settings. Here's that GPU running a few demanding, modern titles to compare:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uru_tdxwOjg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5fEIoG7LN0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZUJgXZUwZc

Originally posted by Retro Pixel:

But... does anyone know if it works with modern controllers? Sometimes steam just wont run a game or run it well on a controller.

Left 4 Dead has full controller support, including support for both Xbox and Playstation controllers. It should work perfectly, even displaying the correct glyphs.

Wow, it was running those games? LOL that's amazing. Well that answers the question.. can my laptop run L4D... yes! Probably 120fps, thats the laptop's max hz. I have a PS5 Pro and it runs games at amazing detail and frames, but ya cant get these older gems on newer consoles, well, on Playstation that is. I will buy the L4D bundle then since it comes with both games cheap. It should be great when connected to the big tv. Dunno what RDNA3 is. Sure do appreciate the answers, I figured I had a generic ol iGPU, glad to know I dont!

[The Brown Hornet]

L4D and any Valve title from that time period will run on a swatch watch from 1987

[Retro Pixel]

Originally posted by The Brown Hornet:

L4D and any Valve title from that time period will run on a swatch watch from 1987

Must be a good engine then! I also bought VTMB which I had on pc years back, it ran on this engine if i recall and it was memorable. I just played L4D1 and maxed everything out. 120 frames easy lol. Except when i had MSAA x8 on. It tanked to 30fps, but I turned it off and it was fine. It runs at 3200x2000 res on my laptop and doesnt need AA or MSAA at that point. I didnt expect MSAA to tank the frames that bad though.

[Haruspex]

Originally posted by Retro Pixel:

Dunno what RDNA3 is.

RaDeon New Architecture 3. GPUs have strange names that don't make a lot of sense to those not already in the know, but not as baffling as monitors at least.

RDNA 3 is the most current AMD Radeon graphics platform, powering the RX 7000 series AMD desktop graphics cards. The PS5 Pro also has an APU using RDNA 3 graphics. It supports features like AI upscaling and frame generation via FSR, as well as ray tracing, though your mileage trying to enable ray tracing will be a bit limited on a mobile chip like that one.

[The Brown Hornet]

Originally posted by Retro Pixel:

Originally posted by The Brown Hornet:

L4D and any Valve title from that time period will run on a swatch watch from 1987

Must be a good engine then! I also bought VTMB which I had on pc years back, it ran on this engine if i recall and it was memorable. I just played L4D1 and maxed everything out. 120 frames easy lol. Except when i had MSAA x8 on. It tanked to 30fps, but I turned it off and it was fine. It runs at 3200x2000 res on my laptop and doesnt need AA or MSAA at that point. I didnt expect MSAA to tank the frames that bad though.

The source engine often feels like your floating and skating on ice, it's tolerable in L4D but annoying in a platformer like Half Life

[Retro Pixel]

Originally posted by The Brown Hornet:

Originally posted by Retro Pixel:

Must be a good engine then! I also bought VTMB which I had on pc years back, it ran on this engine if i recall and it was memorable. I just played L4D1 and maxed everything out. 120 frames easy lol. Except when i had MSAA x8 on. It tanked to 30fps, but I turned it off and it was fine. It runs at 3200x2000 res on my laptop and doesnt need AA or MSAA at that point. I didnt expect MSAA to tank the frames that bad though.

The source engine often feels like your floating and skating on ice, it's tolerable in L4D but annoying in a platformer like Half Life

kinda like mega man... he always take that 1 step extra after you stop moving and it feels slippery lol. i noticed that in half life. i just wish i coulda got the ps4 controller to work well with it as it did in L4D series last night.

[Midnight Aurais]

i would recommend playing l4d2 instead of the first game as all the maps of the 1st game are in the second there is no real reason anymore to play the first one

if you want the squeeze everything out the 780m like the one in my desktop pc then you want to get 32 gb instead so you can have 16 for your system itself and 16 for the chipset there is no 12 gb option which for this chipset performance would have made more sense then 16 gb though

default it likely is on the uma mode likely not even on the game mode these rather keep vram low so i just went forcing the ram to be allocated at all time but that is a preference thing for a lot of games you could allocate 4 gb and keep 12 gb for your system as it seems it often allocates atleast for me 2 gb as vram whats the point of that in a 32 gb system lol

why it mathers wel if you run out of vram it starts eating at your page file your page file is on your harddrive or ssd but its slower then ram so you loose performance in games

but i have to say it l4d2 does not require 16 gb vram even 4 gb vram is plenty pretty sure it uses 1-2 gb but i am mentioning it for the global gaming experience

settings for the 780m can be found in the bios and if the bios is anything standard should be in advanced settings