Hey, I've been looking at some laptops that I can game on. I'm looking to play stuff like Saints Row 3, Team Fortress 2, GTA IV, Red Orchestra 2. http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Lenovo_Z580_1292735.html I'm looking to spend around £400-£600 although, I would prefer to spend less but I don't want to buy something cheap and regret it. Does the laptop I linked look good enough to run the types of games that I'm looking to play? Does anybody know any websites where I can check out laptops?
As you can see searching "GT 630M review" on google is that the GPU from that laptop is only able to run most of the games on low quality (and not always achieving 60FPS, which is the minimum to play properly), so try searching a powerful one or buy it second hand (not sure if it's correct ^^')
You can get a good idea of how games will run using http://www.notebookcheck.net/ For that GPU, it's not bad but you will be on low settings most of the time. With that budget, you will be struggling to play things like SR3 and GTA4 at medium/high settings.
The GPU is really not great. It's marginally better than Intel GPU. It's a renamed Fermi GPU. They are 2 models of the 630M which OEM wont' tell you which one you have (assume the worst.. always assume the worst model, trust me). The first one is 96 shader cores, and the other is 144 shader core. The 96 shader is the 540M, and the 144 shader is 555M. Why this mess? As usual, OEM demands it, so that they can have a GPU as cheap as possible to sell you, and you think its better than it actually is. Another place where OEMs cut down is memory chip. They sometime use DDR2 or DDR3 memory instead of GDDR5. On average, assuming 30fps is good enough for you: -> Hit Man Absolution gets ~40fps at minimum settings -> FarCry 3 gets 40-60fps at minimum settings -> The Witcher 2, unplayable -> Crysis 2 gets ~35fps at med settings -> Call of Duty Black Ops ~40fps at low settings -> Deus Ex Human Revolution get over 60fps at low settings, and around 30fps at medium Plus, 1366 x 768 at 15inch! 1- This is Windows 8 minimum screen resolution. Microsoft tend to increase this minimum resolution every now and then from versions of Windows 2- This resolution is awful on a 12inch screen, and you have it on 15inch! Good luck reading text. Also, it doesn't have DisplayPort. So already you'll be limited to 1080p on an external monitor. So if you have a higher resolution monitor and want to do dual screen, it won't be fun. Not a good buy.
My laptop (see sig) struggles to get 40fps in most things, at low settings. World of tanks barely manages 30fps at 1366 x 768 at low. The minimum GPU you should be looking at is the gt 640m. I'm not familiar with AMDs stuff, but maybe one of there APUs for laptops would be better, at the loss of CPU power
I ended up ordering this laptop in the end last night. http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_V3-571G_1209284.html It's nearly the same as yours but is i5, 8gb ram and 1tb hdd. There is also 2GB in hte graphics instead of just 1. I got it for £499 and it seems to have gone up £20 now which is good timing I'm not looking for ultra high graphics when playing a game, I just want my games to be playable. I should be able to do it with this, right? This laptop is going to be for me who is used to playing Team Fortress 2 in the worst settings, only getting around 18fps and still being happy so I'm guessing this laptop should please me
OF COURSE! 2GB of Vram makes it much better! Oh wait.... At that resolution, 2GB of RAM will makes zero difference to gaming performance. Think about it, a GTX 580, a way better GPU, has *only* 1.5GB, and can run a 2560x1600 display just fine. Hell, if you can, cancel your order and get something way more decent 2nd hand. That laptop, so far as I'm concerned, is a waste of money.
Count on spending another £500 next year... That laptop has a 1-year warranty which is an alarming sign of rubbish build quality.
It will do exactly what you want, but i wouldn't try any newer titles on it. With everything on low, you should get at least 30fps in most games, but I wouldn't count on it. Its a good quality laptop, considering the price. I only really use mine for college work (Word, Excel, Java coding, Pspice circuit analysis). I rarely play games on it, but when i do, they are mostly older titles, and are certainly playable.
As i have said for a while, if you want gaming on the move the 3ds and psvita are cheap and better alternatives to all of the cheap trash laptops that are out and about. unless you have £1k budget minimum gaming laptops do not exist. Even then they come with comprimises either the battery lasts 45mins or the screen is a cheap piece of crap or the resolution is too small. Gaming laptops as a whole are myth unless your paying top end money in which case you would be better of with a desktop equivelent. There is very few people who can safely say a laptop is there only choice. ( only 1 person on this forum has a high end laptop and he drives a truck for a living so actually requires it) And if you do have top end money stick to a decent brand Alienware is best for build quality alone its a price worth paying.
I don't have a specific model to recommend, but it shouldn't be hard to find what you're looking for. Here offers different range of gaming laptop, medium-setting and high-setting, have a look
