So, I was thinking of a new laptop

[jimmy olsen]

What's a good machine and deal look like these days?

[jimmy olsen]

Good deal?

[Barrister]

What's a good machine and deal look like these days?

Come on Tim - you have to give us more details than that.

What is important to you - what are you looking to do with your laptop?

[jimmy olsen]

What's a good machine and deal look like these days?

Come on Tim - you have to give us more details than that.

What is important to you - what are you looking to do with your laptop?

Get the best bang for the buck. Good graphics. Under $1400

[Barrister]

Nest bang for the buck for what?

You have to give us some kind of criteria goddamit!

[jimmy olsen]

Nest bang for the buck for what?

You have to give us some kind of criteria goddamit!

Gaming. What else do you really need good graphics for?

[Syt]

Hint: stay away from laptops with nVidia's Optimus drivers. Supposedly, this driver will automatically realize when to use onboard gfx and when to use the nVidia card.

However, a good number of games don't work properly with it. Normally you can override it in the nVidia card settings (had to do that for Skyrim), but sometimes even that doesn't help - for Shogun 2 Total War it took months for some user on Creative Assembly's forums to come up with a way of editing the nVidia settings through an external tool so that the game would properly recognize the card (and it still only runs in DX9 [or 10?], not 11).

[jimmy olsen]

What gfx card do you recommend then?

[jimmy olsen]

Seen some shockingly good ASUS laptops for cheap on Best Buy's website. They must get them in bulk or something. 

[Darth Wagtaros]

Get something from Costco or Sams.  They have good warranties.

[Syt]

What gfx card do you recommend then?

Well, not nVidia, which leaves you with ATI. Generally, I like nVidia better (ATI seems to have to odd problem with some games when they're newly released, but I might be wrong). If you can get a good nVidia card on a laptop without Optimus drivers, I'd go for that.

[jimmy olsen]

What gfx card do you recommend then?

Well, not nVidia, which leaves you with ATI. Generally, I like nVidia better (ATI seems to have to odd problem with some games when they're newly released, but I might be wrong). If you can get a good nVidia card on a laptop without Optimus drivers, I'd go for that.

I don't think it's usually specified what drivers are on a laptop in most ads, even the more detailed ones on the web.

I've always like nVidia better, as well. Laptops with the nVidia 560M seem to have the most bang for the buck, so if I have to avoid them it's going to be a bit costly I think.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Comparison-of-Laptop-Graphics-Cards.130.0.html

There's an ASUS laptop on Bestbuy for $1,199 with a TB hard drive, 8GB DDR3, nVidia 560M