Steam – Config file location for Civlization V on Linux

My desktop runs a 1GiB 9800GT, and the WEI score is given as 6.8 (for what it's worth) for gaming & normal graphics. HDD is 5.9, while the others are all above the gfx rating.

I'm running Civ5 at 1920x1080, 2xMSAA and everything on High - the frame rate is generally acceptable (although remember that "acceptable" here is highly subjective), although it does take the AI players quite a while to all turn as you move towards then end of a game on a huge map.

Note that the recommended spec also includes a quad core CPU and 4GB RAM, which should also be taken in to consideration if you do purchase a new laptop.

In response to comments on badp's answer:
When you tried the demo on your laptop, did you do so with the AC connected / power options appropriated configured? Sorry if this is obvious to you, but some people forget that when not on mains most of the system is tuned down quite a lot to converse battery.

From my understanding of it, the Source engine on Linux and Mac environments still thinks it's making DirectX calls -- Valve have made a library that sits in the middle and translates these to OpenGL.

Because the -dxlevel setting changes what features/whatever of DirectX are used, and the system still thinks it's using DirectX, then it still pays attention to this setting and the calls being made to the library in the middle are different as a result, which may result in changes to perceived performance.

In a blog comment the Valve Linux team said something which promotes this.

We use a modified abstraction layer (based on the original Mac OS X work) that translates Direct3D calls to the proper OpenGL calls. This layer has received the most work but changes have also been made above this layer that resulted in improved performance.