Apologies if this is a redundant post, but I didn't find much on laptops.
I'm pretty technologically illiterate so I was just looking for some clarification from those more knowledgeable than me on a good laptop that will allow for playing recent games (Dragon Age Inquisition, Far Cry 4 etc) at decent levels without problems with frame rate. I dont really care about a touch screen/microphone/webcam/streaming etc.
I've been perusing the internet looking for an affordable laptop (not looking to spend more than $1,500, and if possible around $1,000) and will provide some information on the computers I found below. I tried to steer clear of the gaming-specific computers as they were much more expensive.
Lastly, I've read that NVIDIA/AMD Graphics cards are superior to Intel. Is it worth dropping the extra money to get one of these brands over an Intel? If so, which is the best?
HP 15z Laptop (15.6in) - $528.99 Processor: AMD Quad-Core A8-6410 Processor Memory: 8GB DDR3L System Memory (1Dimm) Hard Drive: 750GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive Video Card:AMD Radeon(TM) R5 Graphics (No link for this one, sorry)
Do you absolutely need one right away? Nvidia is going to release their mid-range line of mobile GPUs very soon (950Ms and 960Ms) which should have improved performance and battery life than the ones in the laptops you've chosen. Intel might also release mobile Broadwell CPUs very soon as well (they've already released a few for ultrabooks but these are typically low performance chips designed to conserve battery life).
Nvidia/AMD cards are better because they are discrete GPUs whereas Intel has integrated GPUs in the CPU. The best integrated GPUs are pretty much as powerful as a low-mid range discrete GPU of the same generation. Some computers don't use discrete GPUs because they are either cheap or need to conserve power, like macbooks and ultrabooks.
If you do absolutely need one, going from your list I would go with the Lenovo Y50. Really good specs for its price. But again, if you were to wait a few more months, I'm betting the Y50 will be much better (the 9xxM series GPU is a huge jump from the 8xxM series, at least higher range wise).
If I were you, I'd probably go with something like an MSi GS60. Decent specs plus it has an SSD for faster boot times.
I've got no rush, I was just doing a bit of research on it now. Is MSi your go-to brand for Laptops? Also, you mentioned the solid-state drive has faster boot times, would you say the difference is worth the price?
Sorry if these questions are really stupid, like I said, I'm quite illiterate when it comes to technology.
On December 28 2014 13:19 Premier wrote: Thanks for the quick response.
I've got no rush, I was just doing a bit of research on it now. Is MSi your go-to brand for Laptops? Also, you mentioned the solid-state drive has faster boot times, would you say the difference is worth the price?
Sorry if these questions are really stupid, like I said, I'm quite illiterate when it comes to technology.
Thanks again.
Yeah having used SSDs for a while now, there's a noticeable difference when I go back to my old notebooks to retrieve files. The boot-time is nice. It essentially allows you to open multiple programs about 8 seconds later from pressing the ON button.
MSi is a solid brand with reasonably priced products considering their specifications. Asus ROG laptop series are pretty much equivalent. There are other brands such as Sager and Clevo that tend to be a bit cheaper but people have complained about their build quality. Alienware builds are very high quality but are much more expensive.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ is a good website to ask questions or browse comments about a specific model of laptop. They are extremely active and usually can give you a good idea of what to expect problem-wise on a particular laptop. Various notebook retailers are also on the forum and they will help you with any question very quickly.
Unfortunately playing AAA title games at 1080p on high settings using a notebook is still somewhat of a luxury. $1000-$1500 can build you an extremely powerful gaming desktop including monitors, speakers, keyboard, mouse etc. However, when it comes to laptops, you're going to be looking at around $1500+ to get a decent experience.
If you're curious, this is the laptop I use at home:
My brother has one, and cooling the i7 alone is stupidly loud. Oh my god it's loud! Then you have a discrete GPU, which needs cooling as well and for some reason they all use HDDs, which are loud and heavy as well.
So you're looking at a giant, bulky computer that costs an arm and a leg, which you can't play without headphones. Add to that a mouse, a humongous power brick (which alone weighs more than a Macbook Air) and you're looking at five + kilos, maybe an hour of battery life, an ear-tearing cooling system and sub par input devices.
All told, a gaming laptop is neither portable nor powerful enough for a modern games. Do yourself a favour and either wait half a year for Broadwell and a 960m GPU, or get a desktop and a Macbook Air.
On January 06 2015 06:28 SixStrings wrote: Don't get a gaming laptop, seriously.
My brother has one, and cooling the i7 alone is stupidly loud. Oh my god it's loud! Then you have a discrete GPU, which needs cooling as well and for some reason they all use HDDs, which are loud and heavy as well.
So you're looking at a giant, bulky computer that costs an arm and a leg, which you can't play without headphones. Add to that a mouse, a humongous power brick (which alone weighs more than a Macbook Air) and you're looking at five + kilos, maybe an hour of battery life, an ear-tearing cooling system and sub par input devices.
All told, a gaming laptop is neither portable nor powerful enough for a modern games. Do yourself a favour and either wait half a year for Broadwell and a 960m GPU, or get a desktop and a Macbook Air.
This post is the equilvalent of someone asking for advice on Terran strategy and you telling them to stop playing video games and learn how to program instead.
On January 06 2015 06:28 SixStrings wrote: Don't get a gaming laptop, seriously.
My brother has one, and cooling the i7 alone is stupidly loud. Oh my god it's loud! Then you have a discrete GPU, which needs cooling as well and for some reason they all use HDDs, which are loud and heavy as well.
So you're looking at a giant, bulky computer that costs an arm and a leg, which you can't play without headphones. Add to that a mouse, a humongous power brick (which alone weighs more than a Macbook Air) and you're looking at five + kilos, maybe an hour of battery life, an ear-tearing cooling system and sub par input devices.
All told, a gaming laptop is neither portable nor powerful enough for a modern games. Do yourself a favour and either wait half a year for Broadwell and a 960m GPU, or get a desktop and a Macbook Air.
This post is the equilvalent of someone asking for advice on Terran strategy and you telling them to stop playing video games and learn how to program instead.
How so? Mayhap he just hasn't considered all the downsides and doesn't know yet how big of a compromise a gaming laptop actually is.
On January 06 2015 06:28 SixStrings wrote: Don't get a gaming laptop, seriously.
My brother has one, and cooling the i7 alone is stupidly loud. Oh my god it's loud! Then you have a discrete GPU, which needs cooling as well and for some reason they all use HDDs, which are loud and heavy as well.
So you're looking at a giant, bulky computer that costs an arm and a leg, which you can't play without headphones. Add to that a mouse, a humongous power brick (which alone weighs more than a Macbook Air) and you're looking at five + kilos, maybe an hour of battery life, an ear-tearing cooling system and sub par input devices.
All told, a gaming laptop is neither portable nor powerful enough for a modern games. Do yourself a favour and either wait half a year for Broadwell and a 960m GPU, or get a desktop and a Macbook Air.
This post is the equilvalent of someone asking for advice on Terran strategy and you telling them to stop playing video games and learn how to program instead.
But neither does it hurt to suggest buying a desktop instead of a laptop either. Laptops are more expensive on a price to performance ratio compared to desktops. However he's simply trying to warn him of the potential consequences of buying a gaming laptop since it's clear that the OP is not proficient in this field.
Speaking as someone who's went down the gaming laptop route for college 3 years ago, I also made a TL thread asking for a gaming laptop just like the OP. I ended up buying one for $850 but eventually regretted the decision after several issues due to the laptop 'crapping' out from gaming over just a single year. Also if you're dead-set on buying a gaming laptop, I'd avoid buying anything over 15 inches. I didn't really think of this when I bought mines and bringing it to class wasn't always fun since the desks/tables were sometimes smaller than it.
I built a desktop last summer for even less than what I spent on my laptop and I haven't regretted the decision since. Cheaper, upgradeable, and better performance. If I could go back in time I should've taken one person's advice on buying a cheap laptop and building a gaming desktop with my budget so I'd have a laptop to bring to class and a desktop for gaming at my apartment. Anyways...every individual's living situation is different so it's up to the OP to decide whether he really wants to spend more money on a decent gaming laptop or not. I just want to give my experience on the matter since I went down this route already.
Also your classmates will throw a fit if you bring your loud, 17" gaming machine to uni.
For the money you spend on a gaming laptop, you could easily get a powerful desktop and an entry level Macbook Air, which lasts all day, weighs less than a schoolbook and is completely silent while using it in class.
On January 06 2015 06:28 SixStrings wrote: Don't get a gaming laptop, seriously.
My brother has one, and cooling the i7 alone is stupidly loud. Oh my god it's loud! Then you have a discrete GPU, which needs cooling as well and for some reason they all use HDDs, which are loud and heavy as well.
So you're looking at a giant, bulky computer that costs an arm and a leg, which you can't play without headphones. Add to that a mouse, a humongous power brick (which alone weighs more than a Macbook Air) and you're looking at five + kilos, maybe an hour of battery life, an ear-tearing cooling system and sub par input devices.
All told, a gaming laptop is neither portable nor powerful enough for a modern games. Do yourself a favour and either wait half a year for Broadwell and a 960m GPU, or get a desktop and a Macbook Air.
This post is the equilvalent of someone asking for advice on Terran strategy and you telling them to stop playing video games and learn how to program instead.
How so? Mayhap he just hasn't considered all the downsides and doesn't know yet how big of a compromise a gaming laptop actually is.
Nothing wrong with suggesting a desktop over a gaming laptop just like there's nothing wrong with telling a video game obessed kid to get a job. Both are great healthy bits of advice.
Also your classmates will throw a fit if you bring your loud, 17" gaming machine to uni.
For the money you spend on a gaming laptop, you could easily get a powerful desktop and an entry level Macbook Air, which lasts all day, weighs less than a schoolbook and is completely silent while using it in class.
When I was in university, I actually made a Starcraft BW/SC2 team to compete in the CSL back when it was extremely popular. We would reserve a classroom with a projector and watch professionals play and analyze tactics to use in our matches. Unfortunately we couldn't get much practice done because back then nobody had high performance laptops. At the most we would have a few Alienware laptops that could run SC2 smoothly past a 20 minute macro game. Everyone had desktop computers at home of course and that's where we did most of our practices and scrims but it would've been a lot nicer to have been able to play more games like 3v3 or 4v4 had we had gaming laptops at the time. Talking and eating pizza together in a room with a group of extremely friendly people while playing SC2 is a lot better than talking with a few friends on skype and playing 1v1 games at home.
Nobody is going to deny that desktops are more powerful than their laptop counterparts. All that extra money goes into the convenience of having a high performance machine, a FHD monitor, and a keyboard inside your backpack. As for noise, you can always tune the fans down on a notebook if you find the default settings too loud. Nvidia's Optimus automatically switches to the integrated graphics card when you're not gaming so in my GS60, the GPU fan doesn't even turn on. Battery life is something that can't be avoided though. A charger is a must if you attend more than one class. Of course, at the time I was in University with a macbook pro, I had to carry a charger around with me all the time anyways as did my friends.
On January 06 2015 06:28 SixStrings wrote: Don't get a gaming laptop, seriously.
My brother has one, and cooling the i7 alone is stupidly loud. Oh my god it's loud! Then you have a discrete GPU, which needs cooling as well and for some reason they all use HDDs, which are loud and heavy as well.
So you're looking at a giant, bulky computer that costs an arm and a leg, which you can't play without headphones. Add to that a mouse, a humongous power brick (which alone weighs more than a Macbook Air) and you're looking at five + kilos, maybe an hour of battery life, an ear-tearing cooling system and sub par input devices.
All told, a gaming laptop is neither portable nor powerful enough for a modern games. Do yourself a favour and either wait half a year for Broadwell and a 960m GPU, or get a desktop and a Macbook Air.
I'm guessing your brother has a really old gaming laptop as almost all of them have M.2 SSDs these days. My MSi GS60 has a GTX 870M (in the latest model it has been updated to a 970M) which plays almost everything at a decent frame-rate on the 60Hz built-in screen.
I do use noise-cancelling headphones though because my pair of bose headphones sound better than the default speakers on the notebook.
The fan noise isn't loud but definitely noticeable in a whisper quiet library. I never play games in the library anyways but at least I have the option to. Not sure why anyone would want to play games there.
If you go to LAN tournaments a lot or would like to participate in a gaming club on campus, I think a gaming laptop would be less likely to destroy your back than to haul a desktop PC, a monitor, and a keyboard plus all the cables there and back...on the bus. My GS60 + charger weighs less than 6lbs. Not sure if you would consider that a giant bulky unportable computer or not.
The ONLY thing I dislike about my laptop is the stupid geeky looking MSi Gaming G series logo with a dragon on it. Doesn't bother me too much since I was no longer in class when I bought it and nobody at LANs bothered me about it but it is something to consider if you ever plan on losing your virginity at college.
Do you really need a big bulky computer to be a gaming laptop? Because I have this little 13' notebook and it is still powerful enough to play pretty much whatever.
Though I'd agree with the rest of the thread, and wait for a suitable laptop with a 900M series GPU.
Because I have this little 13' notebook and it is still powerful enough to play pretty much whatever.
Sure, but that's still pretty much a gtx750-750ti which you could use in a ~$300-450 PC. If you're happy with that level of performance you can play anything
Personally I wouldn't throw more than probably 650$ at a laptop. You can't justify price/performance past that point.
Bought an Acer about a year and a half back I saw being offered on Tiger Direct and Newegg. Ended up paying near a little over 400 after rebates. Wanted something to run sc2 and other games if I wanted.
On the lower end - Lenovo Y40 - probably the best perf you're going to get for 700 bucks On the higher end - GS60 - the only 15.6 gaming laptop that you can actually move around or Gigabyte P34GV2 - A gaming laptop that doesn't look like a gaming laptop
But ideally you'd wait a couple of months to either get the last versions for quite a bit cheaper or wait for the Broadwell + 960/965 iterations of those form factors
I love how every time someone considers a gaming laptop some other people are completely sure they understand the other's life situation so well that a desktop is clearly better. Some people have friends. Some people travel. Some people just have big houses.
Personally I wouldn't throw more than probably 650$ at a laptop. You can't justify price/performance past that point.
Well no matter if you take your 400 after rebate system or some 1k or 1.6k system, they'll be of vastly different capabilities and yet still similarly outclassed by desktops of their price point
On January 14 2015 00:45 Agh wrote: Personally I wouldn't throw more than probably 650$ at a laptop. You can't justify price/performance past that point.
Laptops are not price/performance machines, laptops take mobility into the equation which desktops conveniently don't. Personally I find you can get the best laptops fit for ''gaming'' around the ~800-900 mark, because its allows you to not skimp on the CPU. That's what I looked at in the near past anyway
I'm in the market for a good gaming/development laptop soon, but other than that I can't imagine spending money that big on a laptop myself. I don't like laptop gaming and I'd rather not, maybe rather get an NVIDIA shield or something like it. But that's very personal. A lot of people swear by laptops. Hell, you can soon get one with Cherry MX switches.
Since people are discussing laptops here...any idea when I could expect to sell dell xps 15 laptops with broadwell processors? There's the XPS 13 that's out now so I don't know if I can just wait a month or two?
Never owned a 13inch laptop, can't decide if I'd hate it or not.
edit: seems I'll have to wait till like April...man to xps 13 or not...
On January 14 2015 00:45 Agh wrote: Personally I wouldn't throw more than probably 650$ at a laptop. You can't justify price/performance past that point.
Hell, you can soon get one with Cherry MX switches.
Yeah MSI's GT80 Titan will have mechanical keys, but it's way too expensive for most people and way too bulky.
My school is going to buy me a $2k laptop on a grant. I know nothing about laptops though. What are the considerations? It will be for programming and gaming, and hopefully for programming games when I'm a bit better at coding.
It has to last me through school, so longevity/durability is important. I think overclocking wouldn't make sense. If people even overclock laptops. No idea.
The main question you want to ask yourself is which class the laptop falls into Presumably it will be used to a certain degree for gaming so you'll probably be looking for models with at least a 860m but probably a 970m
Then you probably want to consider the weight class there are a few that are "ultrabook" form factors (<2 kg, 13-14 inches, actually useable as an on the go laptop) or the standard "media center" types (~2.5 kg, 15.6 inches), these tend to be your average gaming notebooks, they are movable but not particularly portable but have less heat problems and generally better specs and the "desktop replacement" types (3kg, 17inch+) which are huge things that you'll basically not lug around but are more powerful and good items to have on your desk.
Figuring those out will probably get us a better idea of what you're looking for
I think I want at least 16GB of ram to run some VMs, multicore and some sort of SSD. I think I want an IPS screen, which I think just means it doesn't discolor from angles? 1080p is fine, 60fps is fine, nonmechanical keyboard is fine but fullsize would really be nice. Do they come with that w/o being massive? I don't care about num pad.
It needs to be portable enough that I'll bring it around to school to work at the library. I think 13-15.6 inches is fine, but I hate cramped laptop keyboards. For any gaming I'd plug in a separate kb, mouse and screen at home. I doubt I'd use it for any gaming outside the house except for LANs.
I would really prefer windows 7 if possible...
I'm looking at these two at the moment, but I have no idea if they're what I'm looking for or not yet.
w. gaming dock I think the dock one is overpriced, but the idea of it is interesting.
x60 is around mid tier of that generation (like 660-660ti vs 680, 760 vs 780, 960 vs 980) but laptop parts are far weaker.
An 860m is Maxwell and has 640 cores at ~1020mhz base. It's basically an underclocked 750ti.
960 and 980 are the same tech (so core count, mhz are directly comparable) and have 1024 and 2048 cores at around 1200-1550mhz depending on the card you buy and if you OC or not, but you can always hit the upper end of that if you want to.
A 960 with a little OCing would be about 2 - 2.5x faster than 860m, and a 980 about 4-5x faster, i think. It's still very usable for gaming but it's not really midrange from a wider point of view (desktop performance). And that standard isn't standing still either.
For hard hitting games like DA:I and Far Cry 4 it's a bit concerning; a weaker GPU than the ps4, when that console is only targeting 1080p@30fps on med-high settings?
On February 25 2015 13:24 HewTheTitan wrote: I think I want at least 16GB of ram to run some VMs, multicore and some sort of SSD. I think I want an IPS screen, which I think just means it doesn't discolor from angles? 1080p is fine, 60fps is fine, nonmechanical keyboard is fine but fullsize would really be nice. Do they come with that w/o being massive? I don't care about num pad.
It needs to be portable enough that I'll bring it around to school to work at the library. I think 13-15.6 inches is fine, but I hate cramped laptop keyboards. For any gaming I'd plug in a separate kb, mouse and screen at home. I doubt I'd use it for any gaming outside the house except for LANs.
I would really prefer windows 7 if possible...
I'm looking at these two at the moment, but I have no idea if they're what I'm looking for or not yet.
w. gaming dock I think the dock one is overpriced, but the idea of it is interesting.
It seems like nobody who knows about computers is into the gaming dock thing. That makes me a bit sad, but I guess later models of it will be better for the cash.
On February 26 2015 13:55 HewTheTitan wrote: Okay.
It seems like nobody who knows about computers is into the gaming dock thing. That makes me a bit sad, but I guess later models of it will be better for the cash.
Actually I've thought about that and the whole GS30 docking scheme is really good for what my situation is. I have a really small desk so fitting a notebook with a monitor is impossible. I'm currently using a 15.6 inch notebook and playing CSGO is pretty hard sometimes because of the screen size. I could buy a desktop computer but it's a lot nicer to just have one system and this is where the GS30 would be perfect.
I heard the GS30 is really loud though even on it's own while doing normal tasks. The other downside is the stupid logo that MSi puts on their notebooks that says Gaming G Series which I consider unprofessional especially if you have to bring it to lectures or labs. I loved their old logo which was just MSi in italics.
Actually, it seems like the consensus is that the gs60 pro gets extremely hot. I find that pretty concerning. I guess the ASUS ROG line is far better for that? I need this thing to last me.
Also... if I'm using this for programming, I'm going to be using it a ton. The 17 inch option might make sense in that case. I'm not sure. A good screen + keyboard combo might be worth the extra weight and size. I wouldn't use it in class anyway, it would be for libraries and coffee shops mostly...
That combo also lets me get a gtx 980m, which seems pretty beastly.
Thoughts?
I heard the GS30 is really loud
There are youtube videos where you can listen to it, it does get quite loud, but people also say that you can decrease the fan setting slightly and make a huge difference.
The other downside is the stupid logo that MSi puts on their notebooks
Yeah, that and the LEDs everywhere you can't turn off.
On February 26 2015 13:55 HewTheTitan wrote: Okay.
It seems like nobody who knows about computers is into the gaming dock thing. That makes me a bit sad, but I guess later models of it will be better for the cash.
Actually I've thought about that and the whole GS30 docking scheme is really good for what my situation is. I have a really small desk so fitting a notebook with a monitor is impossible. I'm currently using a 15.6 inch notebook and playing CSGO is pretty hard sometimes because of the screen size. I could buy a desktop computer but it's a lot nicer to just have one system and this is where the GS30 would be perfect.
I heard the GS30 is really loud though even on it's own while doing normal tasks. The other downside is the stupid logo that MSi puts on their notebooks that says Gaming G Series which I consider unprofessional especially if you have to bring it to lectures or labs. I loved their old logo which was just MSi in italics.
Would that dock really help in a situation like yours? I thought this dock here is used by buying a desktop graphics card and installing it in there, so you then need a monitor on your desk to use that graphics card. This means the overall setup isn't any smaller than having a compact desktop PC, and probably isn't any cheaper. It has basically the same issue as the Thunderbolt connected external cases for PCI-E stuff you can use on Apple's laptops, where the external case ends up strangely expensive for what you get.
I've seen some people use a laptop dock to basically just use the system away most of the time, but have a desk with a mouse, keyboard and screen connected to dock so it's easy to just close the laptop, connect it in a few seconds and use the laptop internals with the desk hardware
Would that dock really help in a situation like yours? I thought this dock here is used by buying a desktop graphics card and installing it in there, so you then need a monitor on your desk to use that graphics card. This means the overall setup isn't any smaller than having a compact desktop PC, and probably isn't any cheaper. It has basically the same issue as the Thunderbolt connected external cases for PCI-E stuff you can use on Apple's laptops, where the external case ends up strangely expensive for what you get.
My idea would be to have the weaker mobile laptop for working away from home, and then when I come home and want to play games I have a beast of a computer. It also means that if I need extra power for my programming, I have access to it at one location.
It would go where my current desktop setup is, replacing my desktop with the hub.
Would that dock really help in a situation like yours? I thought this dock here is used by buying a desktop graphics card and installing it in there, so you then need a monitor on your desk to use that graphics card. This means the overall setup isn't any smaller than having a compact desktop PC, and probably isn't any cheaper. It has basically the same issue as the Thunderbolt connected external cases for PCI-E stuff you can use on Apple's laptops, where the external case ends up strangely expensive for what you get.
My idea would be to have the weaker mobile laptop for working away from home, and then when I come home and want to play games I have a beast of a computer. It also means that if I need extra power for my programming, I have access to it at one location.
It would go where my current desktop setup is, replacing my desktop with the hub.
The dock gives you zero extra power for your programming. The only thing it does is, it allows you to use a normal graphics card. You will still be using the CPU and RAM etc. that's in the laptop.
You also have to buy that graphics card for the dock yourself. The way you buy this package, the dock comes without a graphics card.
On February 26 2015 13:55 HewTheTitan wrote: Okay.
It seems like nobody who knows about computers is into the gaming dock thing. That makes me a bit sad, but I guess later models of it will be better for the cash.
Actually I've thought about that and the whole GS30 docking scheme is really good for what my situation is. I have a really small desk so fitting a notebook with a monitor is impossible. I'm currently using a 15.6 inch notebook and playing CSGO is pretty hard sometimes because of the screen size. I could buy a desktop computer but it's a lot nicer to just have one system and this is where the GS30 would be perfect.
I heard the GS30 is really loud though even on it's own while doing normal tasks. The other downside is the stupid logo that MSi puts on their notebooks that says Gaming G Series which I consider unprofessional especially if you have to bring it to lectures or labs. I loved their old logo which was just MSi in italics.
Would that dock really help in a situation like yours? I thought this dock here is used by buying a desktop graphics card and installing it in there, so you then need a monitor on your desk to use that graphics card. This means the overall setup isn't any smaller than having a compact desktop PC, and probably isn't any cheaper. It has basically the same issue as the Thunderbolt connected external cases for PCI-E stuff you can use on Apple's laptops, where the external case ends up strangely expensive for what you get.
It is the same as having compact mini PC with a monitor yes, but it's nice to have just one system instead of two. It's definitely costlier yes which is why I'm sticking to my GS60 lol. I could also just buy a larger desk and a monitor which would still be cheaper but just putting it out there that if I had the money, the GS30 would definitely be very convenient in my situation.
On February 27 2015 01:57 HewTheTitan wrote: Actually, it seems like the consensus is that the gs60 pro gets extremely hot. I find that pretty concerning. I guess the ASUS ROG line is far better for that? I need this thing to last me.
Also... if I'm using this for programming, I'm going to be using it a ton. The 17 inch option might make sense in that case. I'm not sure. A good screen + keyboard combo might be worth the extra weight and size. I wouldn't use it in class anyway, it would be for libraries and coffee shops mostly...
That combo also lets me get a gtx 980m, which seems pretty beastly.
There are youtube videos where you can listen to it, it does get quite loud, but people also say that you can decrease the fan setting slightly and make a huge difference.
The other downside is the stupid logo that MSi puts on their notebooks
Yeah, that and the LEDs everywhere you can't turn off.
I've got a friend who has an MSi GT72 with the 980M. It's definitely a beast with far better cooling than my GS60. I think he maxed out at like 45 degrees on his GPU and 65 on his CPU while playing CSGO capped at 60FPS. Doesn't mean much but it's the game we play together the most. From the reviews, it looks like the GT72 has slightly better cooling than the Asus G751 too.
That said, I would not recommend moving it to coffee shops or libraries lol. I lifted his backpack with it and that thing is going to hurt your back. Definitely meant for something like a college dorm.
very low load on a 980m :D tbh you need to compare temps at 100% load and max clocks
even with a 60hz screen, you're supposed to cap csgo at like 121fps because of the tick rate iirc. Even so, tf2+csgo are some very undemanding games on gpu
very low load on a 980m :D tbh you need to compare temps at 100% load and max clocks
even with a 60hz screen, you're supposed to cap csgo at like 121fps because of the tick rate iirc. Even so, tf2+csgo are some very undemanding games on gpu
Yup, it's a very low stress on his system but I'm sure it's by far the most played game (according to his Steam account anyways).
We just play on 64 tick servers so it doesn't affect us. No ESEA or CEVO for us xD.
Having two polling rates that don't quite match up is quite bad for responsiveness, but 65-66fps cap is a lot better than 60-63 with a 64hz tick rate. Doesn't really matter to most people i guess though
On February 27 2015 14:47 Cyro wrote: ^then ~65-66fps cap :D
Having two polling rates that don't quite match up is quite bad for responsiveness, but 65-66fps cap is a lot better than 60-63 with a 64hz tick rate. Doesn't really matter to most people i guess though
Haha okay, I'll take your advice. This better rank me up to Global Elite from my current Silver 3 though.
Not to hijack this thread or anything and making a new thread seems debatable when I made a blog about it but since it's also similar to what I'm questioning but at a very low budget gaming laptop or entry level laptops to game with for travels.
On February 28 2015 09:24 QuickStriker wrote: Not to hijack this thread or anything and making a new thread seems debatable when I made a blog about it but since it's also similar to what I'm questioning but at a very low budget gaming laptop or entry level laptops to game with for travels.
Is it better to make a new thread on tech support?
Or perhaps mods can move this blog thread to tech support thread if possible? Thanks.
IDK why you bought new laptop, taking a huge downgrade on GPU and buying new RAM + HDD that you wasn't going to use with it. Buying a laptop at $400 is already questionable, buying one at $220 is questionable for a lot of uses but doing both is kinda silly. You can't make a good upgrade going from a $400 system to a $220 system even if it's 2.5 years apart, of that $220 a huge amount of it goes to the price of the laptop casing, heatsinks, keyboard, touchpad, screen etc. You can't even get proper performance with the hd5500 because it's an ultra low wattage cpu+igpu that'll just throttle if you load the integrated graphics
On the plus side you have a touch screen, probably way better idle battery life if your current laptop has the same battery capacity as the other one (it might not), probably better performance in extremely graphically light cpu bound games like osu! but for general gaming i'd say new one is unusable and old one is very bad
On February 28 2015 09:24 QuickStriker wrote: Not to hijack this thread or anything and making a new thread seems debatable when I made a blog about it but since it's also similar to what I'm questioning but at a very low budget gaming laptop or entry level laptops to game with for travels.
Is it better to make a new thread on tech support?
Or perhaps mods can move this blog thread to tech support thread if possible? Thanks.
IDK why you bought new laptop, taking a huge downgrade on GPU and buying new RAM + HDD that you wasn't going to use with it. Buying a laptop at $400 is already questionable, buying one at $220 is questionable for a lot of uses but doing both is kinda silly. You can't make a good upgrade going from a $400 system to a $220 system even if it's 2.5 years apart, of that $220 a huge amount of it goes to the price of the laptop casing, heatsinks, keyboard, touchpad, screen etc. You can't even get proper performance with the hd5500 because it's an ultra low wattage cpu+igpu that'll just throttle if you load the integrated graphics
On the plus side you have a touch screen, probably way better idle battery life if your current laptop has the same battery capacity as the other one (it might not), probably better performance in extremely graphically light cpu bound games like osu! but for general gaming i'd say new one is unusable and old one is very bad
Well look, honestly, I'm not going to spend $1000 or more on a gaming laptop at this moment. The OP and this thread discuss about high budget (or mid budget in the view of other people pockets) laptops but I'm asking in terms of a low budget gaming laptops which I know what low level gaming it's capable of.
I don't expect either laptops play PLANETSIDE 2 or even Total War series.
That being said, $400 happened in 2012 when it was considered a good deal at that time, check the internet, reviews, forums and certainly the deal sites. Even this $200 laptop is an extremely good deal for its price as a budget laptop which I base all deals and opinions mainly come from slickdeals first and foremost.
A on-the-go ready travel laptop is necessary for me when I go out to trips and overseas which I don't plan to play hardcore gaming half-way around the world obviously. In fact, I rarely game but I like to keep my options open.
So bottom line, I know what little is to expect from a sub-$400 laptop. If I want a gaming laptop, I'll obviously have to invest at least $700 (which is mostly lenovo Y40/Y50 range) and $1000+ for a decent one.
At the end of the day, either of these laptop will be my "placeholder" laptop until Intel 6th Generation core series come out late 2015/early 2016 which I'll buy an actual laptop then. I just can't keep both right now so I'll keep one and sell one (not RETURN, I know I can make at least $100-$200 just selling the new laptop still sealed in box). But my original question remains, old laptop or new laptop?
On topic to OP, after reading your OP, I suggest you research the best gaming laptop prices you can get at this site/link:
Old i think if you actually want to run games, like, at all. With both, there's a bunch of games that you already don't meet min spec for though. 6'th gen won't be much better than 5'th for laptops, and it's due in ~5-6 months for desktop at least.
The new is good as a lightweight $220 thing for taking notes, web browsing etc but you'll have a hard time doing much more on. The old one's CPU is probably a fair amount weaker - but not only does it have way better integrated graphics, it has dedicated graphics, and the new laptop won't be able to operate properly when using its only graphics because of the highly restrictive power limit that's shared between CPU and GPU.
Not really. Price/performance between the 960 vs 970 is the same (at $200 vs $330). A lot of AMD's cards maintain rough price/performance all the way from low end stuff up to the 290 (their flagship)
For CPU's, 4690k and some stuff below it is good, but after that there's a price bump - then 4790k and 5820k are ~1.5x performance apart, but maybe even less than 1.5x cost.
Depending on your uses, price/performance could be not quite linear but surprisingly close from ~$400 all the way to ~$1k - 1.5k. Nothing like that curve, at least.
For laptops it's hard to measure because more expensive laptops are typically better built with better screens etc which is a huge part of the cost
EPT
