twinturbo2
butthurt Heat fan
I may have convinced my parents to get the Dell Inspiron 15R Special Edition. I hope it'll be enough. That Radeon should be on par with the GeForce 640M, no?
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Gamer-approved laptop recommendation thread
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FalsettoVibe
Member
I have the same laptop ordered and on the way from Dell. Supposedly the 7730M is just slightly below a 640M but still very capable.
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
Got my sager, play with it more this evening. Pictures really don't do it justice, it is a slick looking laptop.
Since price matters most, can't you get this $899 Acer from Newegg?
Not only is it cheaper than the Dell, it has the much faster GT 650M.
Which one again?
FalsettoVibe
Member
Supposedly the screen is much better on the dell. 1080p
twinturbo2
butthurt Heat fan
Yeah, the screen is 1080p. It'll do for a few years until I can afford the next generation of tech. If it can run Battlefield 3 at high settings with a good framerate I'll live.
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
6185 with the intro level i7 and 650m. Love the matte screen too.
I don't understand. I just got my laptop, booted it up and downloaded the Kingdoms of Amalaur demo and it runs like shit. This was the Sager NP150 with the 7970 graphics card and there is literally a two second delay with horrible framerate.
This is my first gaming "PC" so please tell me what I might be doing wrong.
This is my first gaming "PC" so please tell me what I might be doing wrong.
twinturbo2
butthurt Heat fan
I wasn't planning on running games in 1080p. I just want to run Battlefield 3 in high with a good framerate (what's the difference between high and ultra, anyways?), like I said earlier.
Placing the order tomorrow.
I just read Destructoids experience with the Origin EON 11-S, it seems to be really good both for work and gaming while also being highly portable. Any others with experience using it?
http://www.destructoid.com/review-origin-eon-11-s-230210.phtml
http://www.destructoid.com/review-origin-eon-11-s-230210.phtml
Way overpriced.
I'm one to jump on overpriced prebuilts, but to my understanding nothing exists like this on the market.
After upgrading the CPU a bump and putting in 8GB of memory, you are looking at $1,175 and that's with a 1 year warranty.
Beast Legacy
Member
For reference what should I go with in terms of Ram parity with the 7970 for stability? I'd like to be able to run Firefox, Steam and a game + a bunch of normal chat stuff like Skype and possibly a stream or two (watching more fighting game streams lately) without any choking. I've read that 8 gigs 1333mhz is the way to go for stability as AMD cards work better with two sticks. Would I still be able to do most of that stuff reliably if I downgrade from my 12 gigs 1600mhz?
I ask as I'm not going to stick with this particular machine because of the defective pixel so I'm exchanging it regardless, but I will be getting another 9170 with the 7970 basically exchanging this one and just paying the difference in whatever changes I make. I was thinking of the change in Ram to 8g 1333mhz along with a bump in the warranty and no dead pixel policy. Any suggestions?
But that's for a mid tier i5 on a 11.6" screen at 1366 x 768 and a 650 M with DDR3. At that point you're just paying for the form factor but losing out on performance.
Was linked to this recently:
HP Pavilion dv6t-7000 Quad Edition Entertainment Notebook PC | HP® Official Store
Starts at $899, comes with a 1 TB HD at 5200 rpm and a Blu-ray drive.
Windows 7 64 Home Premium - Included in price
3rd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3610QM Processor (2.3 GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) - Included in price
NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GT 650M Graphics with 1GB GDDR5 memory [HDMI, VGA] + $75.00
8 GB DDR3 - Included in price
15.6-inch diagonal HD BrightView LED-backlit Display (1366x768) - Included in price. (Upgrade to anti-glare 1920 x 1080 for + $150)
Unknown Soldier
Member
The HP Pavilion is HP's Best Buy-class consumer line. I would be very wary of buying a Pavilion notebook computer, there's a reason they are the cheapest of the various HP notebook lines. The Envy is at least their premium consumer line, it's a higher quality product all around.
The 1366x768 screens used on most bargain-basement laptops are junk. The resolution is terrible too.
The 1366x768 screens used on most bargain-basement laptops are junk. The resolution is terrible too.
CheesecakeRecipe
Stormy Grey
This is true, I just invested in a Pavillion Dv6, it had decent innards (wasn't planning on high end gaming) i5 2.4 Sandy Bridge, 7690M XT. I foolishly decided to jump on it before I had the funds to upgrade the screen to the 1080p monitor which is used on the better HP notebooks.
The 1366x768 default screen is absolutely atrocious. Terrible ghosting issues, awful blacks (more like blues), pale saturation and tone. Just everything that is possible to be wrong with a laptop screen is wrong with it. If you order anything HP, please for the love of god upgrade the screen. As it is now i'm going to have to wait until I have another ~$130 to upgrade the screen and pull the damn thing apart myself.
I don't understand. I just got my laptop, booted it up and downloaded the Kingdoms of Amalaur demo and it runs like shit. This was the Sager NP150 with the 7970 graphics card and there is literally a two second delay with horrible framerate.
This is my first gaming "PC" so please tell me what I might be doing wrong.
Alright I have to get the "dumb" questions out of the way first.
1. Is it plugged in? No modern gaming laptop can power the CPU +GPU at full strength on battery.
2. Is it set to Power Saver?
1. The 3720QM is a waste of money. Actually do the math on how much faster it is; not much, and definitely not worth $160.
2. I dunno. From a technical standpoint, The AUO B173HW01 V.4 (90% screen) is objectively (I'm talking about comparing the pdf datasheets) the best non-IPS 17" LCD available, as far as color reproduction. It also has superb viewing angles.
But the default screens are no longer abject crap.
I have the 90% screen, and it's the best expenditure I made with this laptop (outside if the 6970M). But will you feel the same way? I dunno, and that's a lot of money to drop on a screen.
Just get the Sager NP6110. It's the same exact machine.
I haven't heard anything that suggest RAM configuration matters with the 7970M.
Yep, the screen's quality will be TERRIBLE. There isn't one decent 768p LCD on the market.
how good/bad is the 650M as a video card? I don't play a lot of dudebro shooters- most of the games I play are indie or they are processor intensive like Fallen Enchantress/Paradox type games, looking at the Sager 6175 with an SSD- are those good for heat resistance? (my big worry with laptops is overheating)- I got a beastly quad-core pavillion dv7 2 years ago with SSD/quad-core/good graphics card but it overheats on some games for around $1100-$1200.
Learned my lesson- I'll take less power for more reliability.
Learned my lesson- I'll take less power for more reliability.
I don't understand. I just got my laptop, booted it up and downloaded the Kingdoms of Amalaur demo and it runs like shit. This was the Sager NP150 with the 7970 graphics card and there is literally a two second delay with horrible framerate.
This is my first gaming "PC" so please tell me what I might be doing wrong.
The demo is probably running from the Intel HD processor graphics, did you update your 7970 drivers?
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
6185 has a really loud fan, and all I was doing was installing steam.
twinturbo2
butthurt Heat fan
Pulled the trigger and ordered the 15R SE just a few minutes ago. Should be here next week.
Congrats.
FalsettoVibe
Member
Mine should be here today. I got the i5 instead of the i7 though. i5 should be ok for gaming right?
LOL. Yeah I'm pretty sure it was set to power saver. I haven't retried Amlaur yet (uninstalled it) but the Space Marine demo works amazing.
The i5 will usually not bottleneck the 7730M, except in CPU bound games like Skyrim or strategies. But dual-cores are dinosaurs today, and you should always always take the quad, unless you are literally that tight on the budget.
I know the feeling. It gets easier each time....
I will be going with whatever Nvidia drops after the GTX 680M.
No worries, I've done that more than once, which is why I know to ask that first.
twinturbo2
butthurt Heat fan
Thanks. If Battlefield 3 isn't a CPU bottleneck, I'm in. Otherwise, well, my Steam backlog is huge...
That's the same one I bought! Mine won't be here until sometime next week. :/
It takes them so damn long.
Here are the results for BF3 on the version with the 768p screen:
http://www.thinkdigit.com/forum/1677963-post255.html
Had this typed up in a separate tab, sorry....
The GT 650M GDDR5 is between the GTX 560M and 570M. Does that mean anything to you? It's 1080p gaming, with some settings, in all of today's releases.
The one person I know with a 6175 gets 80s on the CPU, 70s on the GPU.
What GPU did that DV7 have?
The GT 650M GDDR5 is between the GTX 560M and 570M. Does that mean anything to you? It's 1080p gaming, with some settings, in all of today's releases.
The one person I know with a 6175 gets 80s on the CPU, 70s on the GPU.
What GPU did that DV7 have?
BamYouHaveAids
Member
I'm looking for a laptop to emulate my ps2 games and maybe run dolphin, I'm otherwise uninterested in pc gaming. What would be a good laptop to invest in?
Unknown Soldier
Member
Emulators tend to be much heavier on the CPU than GPU because of what they are doing. The graphics of your average PS2, GC, or Wii game won't even make a decent PC or laptop videocard breathe hard. Dolphin and PCSX2 should run pretty well even on Intel HD Graphics 4000 as long as the CPU is up to snuff, I would really suggest an i7 quad-core for emulation.
I've looked for a 17" IPS screen and unless I feel like dropping >$3k on a Dell Precision or HP EliteBook, there isn't one. Honestly I would have preferred a 17" over a 15.5" screen at the 1080p resolution, without a font size increase text is kinda small on a 15.5" screen in 1920x1080 resolution. I don't know how the owners of those 13.3" laptops with 1080p screens manage, you either need to increase the font size a lot (and Windows scales text and UI elements UGLY) or use a microscope to read the text on your screen.
twinturbo2
butthurt Heat fan
FalsettoVibe
Member
i5 should do fine for games today and near future right. I was under the impression that not many games used 4 cores.
bigmit3737
Member
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834215410
Is there something with similar settings as above link with a better screen for about a $1000?
Is there something with similar settings as above link with a better screen for about a $1000?
Depends on what you're playing. strategy games are rapidly becoming multithreaded/multicored to help with AI. (I can clearly see a difference in Fallen Enchantress between dual-core and quad-core machine)
Older games and indie games not so much.
Decided against that laptop due to fan noise+ mediocre reviews.
Have a Radeon 6500M on this laptop.
FalsettoVibe
Member
Ok....so I got my Dell Inspiron SE. Anyone know how to disable integrated graphics. Skyrim keeps picking up the Intel hd 4000 graphics instead of the 7730m.
twinturbo2
butthurt Heat fan
I just got the word, it shipped today.
I'm thinking about getting Tribes Ascend and try it. It's free to play, so I have nothing to lose. Is it any good?
Also, I want to wipe my hard drive of my hentai collection before I ship it for recycling. What do you guys recommend to wipe it and prevent some creep from accessing anything? I have everything backed up and ready to go.
I'm thinking about getting Tribes Ascend and try it. It's free to play, so I have nothing to lose. Is it any good?
Also, I want to wipe my hard drive of my hentai collection before I ship it for recycling. What do you guys recommend to wipe it and prevent some creep from accessing anything? I have everything backed up and ready to go.
Unknown Soldier
Member
Well, I think I did okay in the end. This won't ever be mistaken for a hardcore gaming laptop, but I have a perfectly adequate gaming PC for that anyways.
$1,241 + free PS3
- $250 (already have a buyer for the PS3)
- $140 in Sony Rewards points I've had laying around
+ $110 tax
= $961
I'm going to add another 4GB of RAM in the open slot and replace the basic hard drive with a Samsung 256GB SSD. Hooray for IPS screens and leftover Sony Rewards points.
$1,241 + free PS3
- $250 (already have a buyer for the PS3)
- $140 in Sony Rewards points I've had laying around
+ $110 tax
= $961
I'm going to add another 4GB of RAM in the open slot and replace the basic hard drive with a Samsung 256GB SSD. Hooray for IPS screens and leftover Sony Rewards points.
medicalmidget
Banned
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834158073&Tpk=hp%20pavilion%20dv6
I'm running this for my PC gaming right now until I save up for a decent PC rig. Seems to do the job just fine for me. Can run Metro on high settings with only some issues in frame rate, but otherwise it's good to go.
I'm running this for my PC gaming right now until I save up for a decent PC rig. Seems to do the job just fine for me. Can run Metro on high settings with only some issues in frame rate, but otherwise it's good to go.
andthebeatgoeson
Junior Member
No a laptop specific question: if I want to use my 360 controller for a game, I just have to plug it in and d/l some drivers? I'm not sure I had a cord.
FalsettoVibe
Member
I think u need a corded 360 controller. The wireless ones with the cord do not work since the cord does not transfer data. Anyone correct me if I'm wrong.
So, I'm looking into getting a laptop since I'll be studying in Japan for at least a year, possibly longer than that.
Problem is that I've got a gaming PC right now that I'm getting rid of ( no use having an unused PC collecting dust ) and I can't decide whether I should be getting a gaming laptop or something in between.
Performance/price-wise, the Sager 9170 seems like the best choice, but I'm a bit concerned about portability and warranty.
So, I'd appreciate it if anyone could recommend some alternatives to the Sager 9170 with a maximum pricetag of €1600.
Problem is that I've got a gaming PC right now that I'm getting rid of ( no use having an unused PC collecting dust ) and I can't decide whether I should be getting a gaming laptop or something in between.
Performance/price-wise, the Sager 9170 seems like the best choice, but I'm a bit concerned about portability and warranty.
So, I'd appreciate it if anyone could recommend some alternatives to the Sager 9170 with a maximum pricetag of €1600.
Only thing comparable is the Sager NP6165.
Hmm well most single fan notebooks will blow pretty hard under load, but I'll take the noise if it means my parts don't overheat.
I think you have to go into the GPU control panel, to set up a profile for the game to only use the dedicated GPU.
But are they still using the mediocre screen which can't display reds? Look into that.
I believe there's a 3rd party wireless dongle out there, somewhere.
All of today's (meaning at least Ivy Bridge) laptops are gaming laptops, so your budget depends on what level of gaming you're looking to do, and for how long.
In what country are you presently?
Well, I usually play the latest games; Battlefield 3, Skyrim and Max Payne 3 for example, as well as some emulated games through Dolphin. Usually in 2-3 hour sessions at most.
I currently live in Sweden, so I guess importing from Germany or the UK is a possibility.
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