2016+ Gaming Laptop Thread: Embracing Pascal's Wafer (Please Read OP)
- Thread starter K.Jack
- Start date
I'm looking around for a new laptop for the missus. And it seems like even the most basic laptops recommended here are either way too pricy or unavailable here in northern europe.
She's got a Radeon HD4200 right now and that's more than fine, but she's having issues playing WoW in MoP, so i'm looking for something that'll let her play it smoothly.
I've found some ASUS machines with NVIDIA Geforce GT 840M in it - will this be sufficient to play WoW at 1366x768 at a rather good framerate (40-60fps)?
Found this one for starters.
She's got a Radeon HD4200 right now and that's more than fine, but she's having issues playing WoW in MoP, so i'm looking for something that'll let her play it smoothly.
I've found some ASUS machines with NVIDIA Geforce GT 840M in it - will this be sufficient to play WoW at 1366x768 at a rather good framerate (40-60fps)?
Found this one for starters.
I believe the 840M is good for playing current generation (or "last gen", if you prefer) titles at medium to high settings according to online benchmarks. I say it would be something to consider.
I was set on the Y50 until I saw it showcased at a local Micro Center. The screen looked pretty sub-par in comparison to an ASUS that was $200 cheaper, and I'm not sure that I should invest $1k in a laptop that might become dated when I could buy a PS4 for games and a significantly cheaper laptop for everything else. Additionally, unless I can disable the Nvidia GPU to save battery life, 4 hours won't cut it for me.
How is the quality of a similarly priced Sager?
I was set on the Y50 until I saw it showcased at a local Micro Center. The screen looked pretty sub-par in comparison to an ASUS that was $200 cheaper, and I'm not sure that I should invest $1k in a laptop that might become dated when I could buy a PS4 for games and a significantly cheaper laptop for everything else. Additionally, unless I can disable the Nvidia GPU to save battery life, 4 hours won't cut it for me.
How is the quality of a similarly priced Sager?
840m should be more than enough for WoW.
I don't really have a better recommendation than that.
There are a lot of people who love them. Look here for the owner's lounges. Lot's of impressions.
Nope.
The speakers aren't great, but they're fine other than that.
Spiderjericho
Member
Returned my Y50. I don't think I'll ever buy a Lenovo again. Their return policy is terrible compared to the other vendors.
Going to go for the Clevo 15.6 with the 870M. Does anyone know if the extra cooper cooling helps lower the temps from George Foreman grill to mild hearing pad?
Going to go for the Clevo 15.6 with the 870M. Does anyone know if the extra cooper cooling helps lower the temps from George Foreman grill to mild hearing pad?
Will they ever bring back the 17 inch macbooks?
I really want a MacBook but 15 is too small for me.
They're racing to get smaller, so I doubt you'll see a 17" MBP again.
NO! Please, I beg you, don't pay them $79 for something that doesn't help a bit. Even if it did help, you can buy a pack of copper shims off eBay for $5 and DIY.
I have personally tested my own gaming laptops with these, and you see 2C at most. Sager/Alienware/MSI don't even need that help.
Spiderjericho
Member
Cool. I looked up the result of using the "enhanced" copper cooling on forums and there's no concrete data to show the benefit. Money saved I say.
Bringer Of Bacon
Member
Guys, discrete graphics card is not necessary for playing things like wow, sc2, counter strike, etc. just bought a Lenovo g50-70 with a i5-4210U with Intel HD 4400 integrated... Plays all of the above smoothly. Plays Diablo 3 at medium with no lag.
Discreet cards are over kill and cost twice as much as a basic laptop. Don't waste your money unless you want to play Crysis 3 at ultra or run simulations of world war 3
. My two cents
Discreet cards are over kill and cost twice as much as a basic laptop. Don't waste your money unless you want to play Crysis 3 at ultra or run simulations of world war 3
. My two centsYes. The HD series (99% of Intel GPUs) is pretty terrible and will not run last gen FPSs, etc. smoothly at native resolution. Even the vanishingly rare Iris graphics are not very good, though they are better than the HDs.
Spiderjericho
Member
Well, went with the Clevo 15.6, Sager NP8268-S with 870M, 4800, etc.
Guess I'll buy four 8GB sticks and Evo840 to throw in there.
The Y50...seems like the performance is great but they cut corners on the screen, keyboard, etc.
Guess I'll buy four 8GB sticks and Evo840 to throw in there.
The Y50...seems like the performance is great but they cut corners on the screen, keyboard, etc.
Discreet cards are over kill and cost twice as much as a basic laptop. Don't waste your money unless you want to play Crysis 3 at ultra or run simulations of world war 3
Terrible advice. Please stop.
I need a replacement for my old ACER Aspire 5742 from 2010. I am doing Computer Science so I want something with a nice processor, mainly. Also, hitting 60FPS on Dark Souls 2 and other recent games would be nice.
Country: UK
Maximum budget: ~£700
Max size: 15.6"
Planned usage: Programming, fairly recent games at acceptable framerate on Medium/High settings (720p acceptable)
I would like it not to sound like a jet engine (my current laptop annoys me with this as the fan is constantly making loud noise)
A slight whirring of the fan is completely acceptable, though.
Also, I would like a Backlit Keyboard for late night programming sessions.
From doing a little shopping around, on my budget, I found an ASUS G56JR with these specs:
i7 4700HQ @ 2.4GHz
GTX 760M
15.6" 1080p screen
8GB 1600MHz Ram
750GB 7200Rpm Hard Drive
Windows 8.1
Cost: £700
Anything better out there?
Country: UK
Maximum budget: ~£700
Max size: 15.6"
Planned usage: Programming, fairly recent games at acceptable framerate on Medium/High settings (720p acceptable)
I would like it not to sound like a jet engine (my current laptop annoys me with this as the fan is constantly making loud noise)
A slight whirring of the fan is completely acceptable, though.
Also, I would like a Backlit Keyboard for late night programming sessions.
From doing a little shopping around, on my budget, I found an ASUS G56JR with these specs:
i7 4700HQ @ 2.4GHz
GTX 760M
15.6" 1080p screen
8GB 1600MHz Ram
750GB 7200Rpm Hard Drive
Windows 8.1
Cost: £700
Anything better out there?
I picked up the same thing a few weeks ago and I thinks it's a good laptop. My only complaint is that the standard lcd display kind of sucks. It's not very vibrant and was overly blue. Some adjustments via the Intel software makes it tolerable but I'm certainly going to buy a better lcd down the road. I'm at work and don't have time to find it so I'll have to edit and link it later but there is a page out there that tells you how you can lower your temps if they're too high by simply applying a small amount of pressure on the copper plate that covers the CPU or GPU. It worked for me as I was seeing 80c+ temps but now they're down to mid 60 and maxing at low 70s. Something about the way they attach the heat pipes makes the plate warp.
EDIT: Here's the link. I think you need an account to see all the images but the ones at the very bottom of the OP should show up.
Xion_Stellar
People should stop referencing data that makes me feel uncomfortable because games get ported to platforms I don't like
So I'm thinking about replacing my Laptop in late November or early December and my budget will be $1500 so I have to ask is the GT60 Dominator still the best choice for that budget? Has their been any announcement that something better is coming out by December? My only concern is having a Quad Core CPU and having a GTX 770M,GTX 860M,GTX 870M GPU or higher and anything else such as Screen size, battery life, hard drive type/size etc is secondary to me.
Honestly, I'm really happy with my decision to go with the Y50. I bought the UHD display on accident, but the 48hz really isn't bothering me. The Wolf Among Us looks really excellent, and plays quite smoothly. The screen looks great while displaying HD movies. I admit, the contrast ratio is lower than I'd like, and sometimes with really dark areas, it doesn't look too great. Overall, I'm happy with the Y50.
neogaffer1
Banned
FYI:
(Pics are clickable)
(Pics are clickable)
Spiderjericho
Member
I'm disappointed to hear the LCD report. I saw similar reports on notebookreview.
You can build the perfect desktop but it doesn't seem like these manufacturers can't do the same on the notebook end.
neogaffer1
Banned
You'll probably be waiting a long time, I remember I was looking forward to the Asus Zenbook UX301 as soon as it was announced, it took a year to even get to market, and even then it was way out of my price range (a good $400 more than I had hoped for). I've heard that Asus does this with a lot of its products, announce them way ahead of an actual release (2014 Transformer Pad and Padfone come to mind).
I think that's the best you'll do for £700.
It's hard to say what will be out in 4 to 5 months. If nothing changes the $1,399 GT60 w/ 870M is indeed what I'd go for then.
I'd buy a Clevo, before I settled with a DDR3 graphic card.
Want to give a huge thank you to K.Jack for all the advise in this thread. Before finding this thread I'd never heard of Clevo and PCSpecialist. Just by using PCSpecialist he's saved me a good lump of money.
Here's what I ended up with:
Chassis & Display
Vortex Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Corei7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4710MQ (2.50GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
4GB KINGSTON SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 870M - 6.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
1st Hard Disk
750GB WD SCORPIO BLUE WD7500BPVX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 8MB CACHE (5400 rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
2nd/3rd HDD HARD DRIVE OPTICAL BAY CADDY
I've also sourced a decently priced 250GB Samsung 840EVO for my primary drive and the included hdd will be my secondary drive.
Its getting delivered tomorrow and cant wait to take it for a whirl.
Last question though! Is the 4GB ram enough? And if not, what would you advise?
Here's what I ended up with:
Chassis & Display
Vortex Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Corei7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4710MQ (2.50GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
4GB KINGSTON SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 870M - 6.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
1st Hard Disk
750GB WD SCORPIO BLUE WD7500BPVX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 8MB CACHE (5400 rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
2nd/3rd HDD HARD DRIVE OPTICAL BAY CADDY
I've also sourced a decently priced 250GB Samsung 840EVO for my primary drive and the included hdd will be my secondary drive.
Its getting delivered tomorrow and cant wait to take it for a whirl.
Last question though! Is the 4GB ram enough? And if not, what would you advise?
User 73706
Banned
Hey, guys. I got help from PC-GAF building a silent, music-focused desktop PC not too long ago and I'm loving it so far. I was wondering if you guys could help me find a few laptop options? Honestly, it doesn't have to be anything super hardware intensive, but my boyfriend's looking to get a new one and I mainly want to make sure he's getting enough bang for his buck. Major concerns are it being a Windows OS, fairly small form factor, and the capacity for some light gaming and media streaming. I'm not planning on pimping it out or replacing anything in it, I just didn't know what the laptop market was like these days.
It's going to be purchased in the United States.
Maximum budget is $1500, but just in case he doesn't want to go all-out, I was hoping for a few other options around $800 and $1000 price points.
I'm not totally sure on max size, but he's looking for something with a fairly small form figure, and on my end I wouldn't want him getting a laptop with a huge screen just because of pixel density reasons.
Planned usage isn't anything crazy, but he's military and wants a laptop because there's always the possibility he'll be moving around. It's mostly a modernizing purchase, and his old laptop's from the mid-2000s. For the most part, it's working in Audacity (he's a hobby vocalist), iTunes, web browsing, media streaming, maybe some light gaming but nothing too crazy.
Some miscellaneous stuff being that I want it to be a 1080p laptop, which is pretty much the standard these days. Not necessarily for 1080p gaming, though. It's very much a comfort and style over hardware fidelity purchase, but he's also trying to get a Windows OS computer, otherwise I would have gone the MacBook route. A touch screen would be nice, but not necessary.
I went over some of the potential options in the OP and second post, and those laptops are just about the opposite of what he's looking for, lol. Decent speakers, keyboard, sleek form factor and overall feel take precedence over bootstrapping five i7s and cold-fusion liquid cooling in this case.
It's going to be purchased in the United States.
Maximum budget is $1500, but just in case he doesn't want to go all-out, I was hoping for a few other options around $800 and $1000 price points.
I'm not totally sure on max size, but he's looking for something with a fairly small form figure, and on my end I wouldn't want him getting a laptop with a huge screen just because of pixel density reasons.
Planned usage isn't anything crazy, but he's military and wants a laptop because there's always the possibility he'll be moving around. It's mostly a modernizing purchase, and his old laptop's from the mid-2000s. For the most part, it's working in Audacity (he's a hobby vocalist), iTunes, web browsing, media streaming, maybe some light gaming but nothing too crazy.
Some miscellaneous stuff being that I want it to be a 1080p laptop, which is pretty much the standard these days. Not necessarily for 1080p gaming, though. It's very much a comfort and style over hardware fidelity purchase, but he's also trying to get a Windows OS computer, otherwise I would have gone the MacBook route. A touch screen would be nice, but not necessary.
I went over some of the potential options in the OP and second post, and those laptops are just about the opposite of what he's looking for, lol. Decent speakers, keyboard, sleek form factor and overall feel take precedence over bootstrapping five i7s and cold-fusion liquid cooling in this case.
Are the Clevo's bulky/heavy laptops? For reference, I've seen Alienware laptops and I do not want anything like that. xD
My current laptop is now obsolete and it's time to replace the thing. I'm looking to future proof my set-up.
Country where it will be purchased: United States
Maximum budget: $2250
Max size: 15.6
Planned usage (what kind of games or specific games it must run, if heavily gaming at all): Mainly used for programming, Photoshop, video editing, school work, and browsing
Whatever else you find relevant, misc. things such as desired battery life, screen resolution, fan noise: I'm looking for an 4th gen i7, an SSD, and Windows 8.1. I've considered going with a Surface Pro 3, but I'm not sure if that would be ideal for typing and programming. I'm not even sure if I have to spend this much on a laptop that I wouldn't be gaming on, but I would like to know what you guys think would be best in this price range. Thanks in advance
Country where it will be purchased: United States
Maximum budget: $2250
Max size: 15.6
Planned usage (what kind of games or specific games it must run, if heavily gaming at all): Mainly used for programming, Photoshop, video editing, school work, and browsing
Whatever else you find relevant, misc. things such as desired battery life, screen resolution, fan noise: I'm looking for an 4th gen i7, an SSD, and Windows 8.1. I've considered going with a Surface Pro 3, but I'm not sure if that would be ideal for typing and programming. I'm not even sure if I have to spend this much on a laptop that I wouldn't be gaming on, but I would like to know what you guys think would be best in this price range. Thanks in advance
You need 6 to 8GB of RAM these days.
You aren't going to get what you're looking for, at $1k or less. I'd go with a Y50 Touch.
My current laptop is now obsolete and it's time to replace the thing. I'm looking to future proof my set-up.
Country where it will be purchased: United States
Maximum budget: $2250
Max size: 15.6
Planned usage (what kind of games or specific games it must run, if heavily gaming at all): Mainly used for programming, Photoshop, video editing, school work, and browsing
Whatever else you find relevant, misc. things such as desired battery life, screen resolution, fan noise: I'm looking for an 4th gen i7, an SSD, and Windows 8.1. I've considered going with a Surface Pro 3, but I'm not sure if that would be ideal for typing and programming. I'm not even sure if I have to spend this much on a laptop that I wouldn't be gaming on, but I would like to know what you guys think would be best in this price range. Thanks in advance
With that budget, I'd wait for news of the new GPUs.
When would that information be available? I'm looking to make a purchase before September.
Honestly don't know on the Nvidia end, but by September we will know whether they're coming this year.
I do know AMD has an M295X coming soon, this year, based off of their new architecture.
Give it at least a month. Nothing sucks wore than dropping $2k, only to have something 50% faster drop a couple month later.
Oh for real? =/
Damn, I'm actually making a purchase within the week and I'd have loved to have something new from team red.
I guess I could give it a month and maybe save a bit more, but in that price range what would I be looking at spec wise?
Would this ram be ok?
8GB Kit (4GBx2), Ballistix 204-pin SODIMM, DDR3 PC3-12800, 1600MHz memory module
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ballistix-204-pin-SODIMM-PC3-12800-1600MHz/dp/B00H6PFEX0/ref=pd_sim_sbs_computers_5?ie=UTF8&refRID=149Z0VAB0VDSXB2MX386
8GB Kit (4GBx2), Ballistix 204-pin SODIMM, DDR3 PC3-12800, 1600MHz memory module
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ballistix-204-pin-SODIMM-PC3-12800-1600MHz/dp/B00H6PFEX0/ref=pd_sim_sbs_computers_5?ie=UTF8&refRID=149Z0VAB0VDSXB2MX386
neogaffer1
Banned
This case is one of the few cases that I would get a Macbook Pro for.
The 13" MacBook Pro Retina is a thin and light laptop, and the 13" screen isn't too big especially when compared to 15" laptops. It starts at $1300 with the middle model being $1500 (bigger SSD, I would get that one if possible). The Iris graphics aren't anything amazing but for very light gaming at 720p it's doable (the gfx are basically a stronger Intel HD 4000, which I've used to play stuff like Bioshock: Infinite and the Metro games at 720p/768p between 30 and 60 fps). The reason I'd argue for a Mac is his potential usage--I've always held that media creation (audio, video, etc.) is one of the few things Macs are objectively better at than Windows PCs. He'll be able to Bootcamp Windows as well, so all his needs are met.
But if he really doesn't want a Mac, this will fit his needs as long as he's fine with gaming on the level I mentioned above.
My current laptop is now obsolete and it's time to replace the thing. I'm looking to future proof my set-up.
Country where it will be purchased: United States
Maximum budget: $2250
Max size: 15.6
Planned usage (what kind of games or specific games it must run, if heavily gaming at all): Mainly used for programming, Photoshop, video editing, school work, and browsing
Whatever else you find relevant, misc. things such as desired battery life, screen resolution, fan noise: I'm looking for an 4th gen i7, an SSD, and Windows 8.1. I've considered going with a Surface Pro 3, but I'm not sure if that would be ideal for typing and programming. I'm not even sure if I have to spend this much on a laptop that I wouldn't be gaming on, but I would like to know what you guys think would be best in this price range. Thanks in advance
If you aren't going to game you don't need to spend anywhere near that amount nor will new GPUs affect you much. That being said, if I had that much money I'd blow it all on this even if it's pretty damn overpriced.
User 73706
Banned
He's not a huge PC gamer, so I'll discuss these options with him. Thanks for the help!
That is a nice laptop, but wouldn't the GPU be good for light video editing and HD video playback in general? If not than a laptop without a good GPU would be fine. I just want a better preforming laptop that can last me 4-5 years if I need it to.
neogaffer1
Banned
Intel's integrated graphics have gotten to the point where they can usually handle any light video editing and really any video playback short of high-bitrate 4K. That being said, if you're expecting to have to edit high bitrate FHD videos or the like you might want to aim for something like this, which has a low end GPU that'll handle that type of work better than integrated graphics.
I do like that, but I really want an SSD. I really like the msi ghost pro 3k. I wish there was an option without the high end gpu.
So I finally decided to wait a bit and get my laptop after I move to the UK, from PCSpecialist. I am between getting the Optimus V 13.3 vs the Optimus V 15.6.
As far as components are concerned I'm settled on these:
i7 4710MQ
860M
1x8GB
Cheapest HDD possible
I am strongly leaning to the 15.6 (Clevo w350st) for these reasons:
1) A 2nd HDD slot where I'll put my desktop SSD, and
they do, I just asked them.
2) Bigger screen for movies
3) SPDIF out (might come handy, i'm kind of a good sound guy)
4) Better temps because bigger? No?
But the 13.3 Optimus V (Clevo Clevo w230st):
1) Better mobility
2) An IPS screen (even the regular 1920x1080 one is stated to be IPS). From what I can tell the 15.6 doesn't have one. From what I gather this is a better image quality and viewing angles, but more latency? Is there a big difference?
3) Cheaper
4) They let you put a Kingston HyperX Impact RAM instead of normal Kingston, don't know if they are faster or just lower temps.
It all comes down to the cases themselves. I don't mind paying the extra quid for the bigger screen, but if it is worse looking it is going to be a bummer. Is there anyone here with some experience with either of the two?
P.S. I asked again, but do you guys think the better than the cheapest wi-fi are worth it? What is the difference between the various Intel cards offered apart from the bigger bandwidth? Will they have better signal reception?
As far as components are concerned I'm settled on these:
i7 4710MQ
860M
1x8GB
Cheapest HDD possible
I am strongly leaning to the 15.6 (Clevo w350st) for these reasons:
1) A 2nd HDD slot where I'll put my desktop SSD, and
PCspecialist doesn't let you NOT buy an HDD with your machine.
2) Bigger screen for movies
3) SPDIF out (might come handy, i'm kind of a good sound guy)
4) Better temps because bigger? No?
But the 13.3 Optimus V (Clevo Clevo w230st):
1) Better mobility
2) An IPS screen (even the regular 1920x1080 one is stated to be IPS). From what I can tell the 15.6 doesn't have one. From what I gather this is a better image quality and viewing angles, but more latency? Is there a big difference?
3) Cheaper
4) They let you put a Kingston HyperX Impact RAM instead of normal Kingston, don't know if they are faster or just lower temps.
It all comes down to the cases themselves. I don't mind paying the extra quid for the bigger screen, but if it is worse looking it is going to be a bummer. Is there anyone here with some experience with either of the two?
P.S. I asked again, but do you guys think the better than the cheapest wi-fi are worth it? What is the difference between the various Intel cards offered apart from the bigger bandwidth? Will they have better signal reception?
Nerdkiller
Membeur
Well guy, I think my gaming laptop just broke...a mere 2 months after receiving it. Any help in this, folks?
manufacture warranty?
It doesn't allow it in the configurator page, but I contacted them, a rep in live chat told me that you can do it, just order the minimum hdd, and after the order has gone through, you contact them to tell them not to put it in, and they return the money.
Has anyone ever had any experience with these guys http://www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk/
They seem to have a bit better prices (on a second look not really, pretty much identical) than PC Specialist, and they upgrade the i7 4700 to an i7 4810 with no extra cost (just noticed this is part of a summer deals promotion, not sure how long it will last)
neogaffer1
Banned
Where did you buy it, how'd it break, who made it, etc.
The 15.6" actually comes with a pretty nice screen. Also, so pay extra for exotic RAM. It makes no difference for gaming.
I would upgrade to an Intel card. You never know how well cheap OEM cards will perform.
What does "broke" mean?
Huh I didn't know Cyberpower was in the UK. They're pretty reliable. I'm not a fan of the logo though.
Spiderjericho
Member
So K Jack, what do you think of the 15.6 Clevo versus MSI GT 60 or G60 Ghost?
Thanks valouris. How much did that knock off the price?
Also, remember to enter CS76P on the voucher section when ordering to get £15 off
Assuming all with GTX 870M?
I'd take the GT60. The Clevos don't have great speakers or headphone jack performance, while the GT60 is great there, as well as having the best keyboard.
The GS60 gets too hot for my liking. It sure does look nice though.