Laptops good for gaming

[Sam17]

I've recently decided to purchase a laptop, and I'd like said laptop to be able to run games at a reasonable level,I won't be installing Crysis on it anytime soon but I'll list a few games I'm currently playing to give you some idea below

So far I've narrowed my search down to these three:

lenovo Ideapad G570
http://www.ebuyer.com/345802-lenovo-ideapad-g570-laptop-m51bpuk

HP Probook 4535s
http://www.ebuyer.com/340577-hp-probook-4535s-laptop-ly427ea-abu

Acer Travelmate 7750g
http://www.ebuyer.com/349217-acer-travelmate-7750g-laptop-nx-v5fek-001

I'm no computer expert, so I'm stumped as to what would be the best out of the three, do you have any advice? What to avoid etc?

Heres a list of some of the games I'm playing at the moment to give you some idea

CS:GO
Alan Wake
Deus Ex:HR
Skyrim
Orcs Must Die 2
Minecraft
Fallout 3
Left 4 Dead 2

I'd go into more detail but I only have the use of my left arm atm so evertyhing takes a long time to write and I am sleepy

Any help is appreciated! Thanks buddies!

captcha: mumbo jumbo

 

[Supernova1138]

They all aren't that great for gaming. The HP has integrated graphics, the Lenovo and the Acer have discrete graphics cards that are at best marginally better than the integrated graphics solutions currently available.

The Acer is the best out of all of them. CS:GO, Orcs Must Die 2, Minecraft, Fallout 3, and L4D2 should be playable on that, though you are probably looking at lowest possible settings. Alan Wake is probably a no go, same with Skyrim. Deus Ex HR is going to be borderline at best.

Laptops are still way behind the curve when it comes to GPU performance, so most of them are crap at gaming. The one's that are okay at gaming tend to start at around $1000USD, not sure what that is in British pounds. I would recommend saving more money if you are dead set on buying a laptop for gaming. Laptops are generally not upgradeable, so you are stuck with what you buy. You really do need to expand your budget if you want to play all those titles on that list. Alan Wake and Skyrim are too demanding for a budget laptop, at best you will get a slideshow if you try to play those.

 

[Hazy992]

None of these are particularly good for gaming, although the Acer is best. I'm guessing based on these prices your budget is under £600, so these may be slightly better:

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_5755G_Core_i7_Laptop_in_Black_NX.RV4EK.002/version.asp

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_5755_Core_i7_Laptop_LX.RV402.018/version.asp

According to Notebook Check they benchmarked the GPU of those at around 60 FPS on high for CS:GO and around 45 FPS for Skyrim on low. Not brilliant but it's an improvement http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-630M.63761.0.html

Granted, I'm not too knowledgeable so somebody may find something better for a similar price.

 

[ThePuzzldPirate]

Out of those, The Acer is your best bet(yay broken record!). I would take a look around though and see what else is available.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

The Acer is the best out of all of them. CS:GO, Orcs Must Die 2, Minecraft, Fallout 3, and L4D2 should be playable on that, though you are probably looking at lowest possible settings. Alan Wake is probably a no go, same with Skyrim.

I dunno, the Source engine isn't really demanding at all, so L4D and CS:GO should be fine. I have a friend who has a laptop with virtually identical specs and runs L4D2 pretty much maxed out. Plays Alan Wake, too, at the lowest settings and Skyrim on medium with some stuff turned to low. No AA or AF on any of these games though, and his resolution is quite low.

But I agree that none of these are great for gaming. I can almost guarantee that there are better laptops around for similar prices.

Does it absolutely have to be a laptop? A desktop would be cheaper AND more powerful.

 

[sanquin]

If you want a laptop that can play skyrim, only 550ish pounds just isn't going to cut it. I think you'll have to lay down at least 700~800 to be able to get a laptop that can run a game like that. And even then on low settings at best. Skyrim is pretty demanding, and laptops will always perform worse than pc's. An intel i5 cpu in a laptop will run very differently than an intel i5 in a desktop pc. Same with RAM and video cards.

In other words, you can play the simpler games you listed on those laptops. But if you want to play heavy duty games, be ready to pay a good 200 pounds more at least.

http://www.ebuyer.com/342262-acer-aspire-5710g-laptop-nx-rznek-001

That one could probably play skyrim, for one.

 

[Prime_Hunter_H01]

Try an ASUS in the G50 or G70 line. I know you gave a list, but if you want a good gaming laptop for the games listed. I can speak from personal experience that you get your money's worth. The G50 has less hard disk space other wise they are the same. I have G74sx myself. The G74 is about $1700 USD. I think the dollar to pound conversion is half the dollar to get the pound price so like sanquin said about 800 pounds for a good one.

Here is a newegg offering. So you can search.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230408

 

[SomeLameStuff]

Out of those three, the Acer is the best one spec-wise, but personally, I wouldn't touch an Acer computer with a ten-foot pole.

I'd try to get a hold of an ASUS laptop. They're pretty good and quite sturdy.

 

[Guffe]

why this of course
http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-systems/razer-blade
Other than that, not sure laptops are too good for gaming yet. They also tend to die faster "normal" PCs.

 

[endtherapture]

I've got an Acer 5750G and it runs The Witcher 2 on full settings so I suppose it's good.

 

[TIMESWORDSMAN]

Spoiler: slightly irrelevant

My Alienware M15X is almost three years old, and it still runs many current games on high settings.

It's also a decent PC altogether. If your willing to spend the extra hundred or so they go for used, I think it would be worth your while.

Considering your provided examples, I wouldn't go with the Acer. In my experience they have shoddy workmanship. Otherwise the HP provides more hardware in the sound department, but the Lenovo has a much bigger hard drive, and that can really make a difference when you use a laptop for gaming.

The Lenovo's graphics card is also slightly better.

 

[The Ubermensch]

Asus G74SX, I has one, its sexy

... It is expensive though and heavy but I'm playing skyrim at work

 

[Amaror]

Does it really have to be a laptop?
Because when you want a gaming laptop, those things are expensive as hell, if you want to run most things.
I would advise you to just buy a laptop for work stuff, that's what they're mostly for, and just buy/upgrade a normal pc.

 

[not_you]

All things considered, with the price you're looking at most of those games are going to be playable... but as someone mentioned earlier playing Deus ex/Skyrim/Alan wake would be a push... But on the other hand, the screen resolution has a lot to do with that...

Take this for example:

My laptop is from '09

AMD 5730 1Gb
I7 720 (1.6/2.8 Ghz)
4Gb RAM


Now, it doesn't sound like much, but it can still handle playing Skyrim (with custom HD texture pack) on high settings purely because of the limitations of the screen...

1366x768 isn't that great, but for lower-end GPUs it's a godsend... So, all things considered, I'd go for the Lenovo for the extra 2Gb of RAM... Intel processors are undoubtedly better than AMD's when it comes to core-to-core comparisons, and the GPU plugged into it is the best of the lot...

On personal opinion, I would never buy the Acer... Have had wayyy too many bad experiences with them, yet, it's all down to luck... My asus has never skipped a beat...

 

[Daveman]

Well I'd avoid playing Alan Wake because apparently it has ridiculous RAM requirements for a game that on the whole doesn't appear to be incredible graphically.

Out of the laptops I really don't know. Though HP are generally quite good you've got a very low spec one there which is just too low to really be worth it. It may run the games but probably not remotely well. The Acer would be cool because from personal preference the bigger the screen the better but I had a really bad experience with an Acer where it just was shit when I got it (tonnes of crashes due to some hardware fault which I didn't have time to get fixed because I needed it for uni) and after 2 and a half years it become totally unusable. So I guess I'd have to go with the Lenovo, though frankly I'm certain there are better laptops out there so I'd really recommend just waiting a little while and searching.

I started gaming on my laptop when I went to uni and it is awesome. It's just so much easier than faffing about with PCs because it's marginally cheaper to get a PC but if you're paying for a decent monitor to play it on anyway then it gets a bit stupid, especially given the obvious portability benefits. So yeah, I got a beastly alienware one for my 21st birthday. Mine runs everything I have on the highest settings... oh, and in 3D.

If you want a laptop that can play skyrim, only 550ish pounds just isn't going to cut it. I think you'll have to lay down at least 700~800 to be able to get a laptop that can run a game like that. And even then on low settings at best. Skyrim is pretty demanding, and laptops will always perform worse than pc's. An intel i5 cpu in a laptop will run very differently than an intel i5 in a desktop pc. Same with RAM and video cards.

In other words, you can play the simpler games you listed on those laptops. But if you want to play heavy duty games, be ready to pay a good 200 pounds more at least.

http://www.ebuyer.com/342262-acer-aspire-5710g-laptop-nx-rznek-001

That one could probably play skyrim, for one.

Skyrim is actually really easy to play on fairly shit laptops (apparently it's just really well optimised, whatever that means). I mean you'll never get it on the ultra high settings but if you set it to low it will run reasonably well on a really bottom end laptop assuming you have the minimum specs. My old laptop which cost about £600 new about 3 years ago played it pretty damn well.

Frankly the laptop you suggest, with 2GB graphics, an i7 and 8GB of RAM it's virtually overkill for Skyrim. That's specs for ultra high right there.

 

[Sam17]

Probably should have clarified, but I have a good desktop PC already, and I'm not looking for a laptop that will run games on ultra, rather one that'll run them on at least medium

Thanks for the help so far though, keep it comin'

 

[loc978]

Look for something with a good cooling system on it, then put it on a cooling pad. The biggest reason laptops are shitty for gaming is that desktop hardware produces a lot of heat, and that takes airspace to dissipate... yet gaming laptops still try to be as light and low-profile as any other laptop. Completely ridiculous clash of philosophies, that.

Of the three you listed... I'd say just keep looking.

One of these days I've got to get around to making a low-power desktop hardware-based custom rig with a laptop screen and power supply... How to power it all at around 120W, though..?

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Look for something with a good cooling system on it, then put it on a cooling pad. The biggest reason laptops are shitty for gaming is that desktop hardware produces a lot of heat, and that takes airspace to dissipate... yet gaming laptops still try to be as light and low-profile as any other laptop. Completely ridiculous clash of philosophies, that.

Of the three you listed... I'd say just keep looking.

One of these days I've got to get around to making a low-power desktop hardware-based custom rig with a laptop screen and power supply... How to power it all at around 120W, though..?

This, I managed to burn out a laptops graphics card because due to overheating.

 

[GundamSentinel]

I'd say look around a bit more. For less than 500 pounds you can get a lot better specs than that. I bought mine (Asus K53TK-SX023V) for ?500 (400 pounds) and it plays Skyrim (and everything else I throw at it for that matter) like a champ on high settings. And Asus laptops look sexy as sin.

 

[ohnoitsabear]

why this of course
http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-systems/razer-blade
Other than that, not sure laptops are too good for gaming yet. They also tend to die faster "normal" PCs.

No. I have a laptop that costs half that much that has much, much better specs.

On-Topic: Have you looked at Sager laptops? I have good experience with them, although I don't know what you'd be able to get for your price range.