I'm looking to buy a new laptop later this year. Mine is not up to snuff to play stuff like Witcher 3, the new Batman game and all these next gen games. What kind of specs should I be looking at? I'd really rather not buy a gaming laptop, they look way too juvenile and I'm going to use this PC for work too. I don't care about running games at top specs, just being able to play them at an acceptable level.
For reference, my current system (about 30 months old):
i7-4700
8 Gb
Nvidia Geforce 740M
Windows 8.1
What kind of weirdo in our business doesn't have a macbook :P
I know, I'm usually the only PC guy in any team I join :D
In our industry, the hipster thing is using a PC.
The hold up of your current laptop is the video card. Find a laptop with a 970m in an acceptale case.
External graphic card is the way to go, if you want to really be some kind of weirdo among your peers :P
http://hackaday.com/2015/03/26/a-laptop-with-an-external-graphics-card/
Mmm... after a search I think I will postpone the purchase, there's nothing that's particularly impressed me during my search. Seems that if I want to play current-gen games on a laptop I have to put up with bulky "gaming laptops" with juvenile designs and noisy cooling systems.
If I were to purchase a rough equivalent of what I have now (a midrange graphics card of current technology) I would run current games at medium settings at 30 fps-ish (according to benchmark sites I've consulted). Which is acceptable, but it seems to me it would get outdated really quick.
I've read that nVidia are releasing a new GPU generation next year, but that's probably going to be a long wait.
I am looking at getting a gaming laptop, since I am away from home a lot.
The HP Omen 15 seems pretty decent, but fucking HP.
Quote from: celedhring on August 16, 2015, 04:08:32 AM
Mmm... after a search I think I will postpone the purchase, there's nothing that's particularly impressed me during my search. Seems that if I want to play current-gen games on a laptop I have to put up with bulky "gaming laptops" with juvenile designs and noisy cooling systems.
If I were to purchase a rough equivalent of what I have now (a midrange graphics card of current technology) I would run current games at medium settings at 30 fps-ish (according to benchmark sites I've consulted). Which is acceptable, but it seems to me it would get outdated really quick.
I've read that nVidia are releasing a new GPU generation next year, but that's probably going to be a long wait.
:yes: New GPU family, and both AMD and nVidia are starting to take a serious look at the ability to hook a laptop to an external GPU to keep them competitive with desktop systems.
Quote from: Berkut on March 07, 2016, 02:10:43 AM
I am looking at getting a gaming laptop, since I am away from home a lot.
The HP Omen 15 seems pretty decent, but fucking HP.
Avoid HP at all costs.
I've had good luck with Acer in the past.
Look for a decent GPU and 8gb ram at least. Intel is still the better CPU for gaming, and Nvidia vs AMD for GPU, it's up to you.
17" screen is nice to play, but it's also heavier to carry and unpractical if you want it on your knees, so it's a personal choice. I've bought a 17" for my use and mostly for my step mother's use, but I kinda regret it.
There are these two here that don't seem so bad:
http://www.ncixus.com/products/?sku=120441&vpn=NX.Q05AA.002&manufacture=Acer&promoid=1516
http://www.ncixus.com/products/?sku=120443&vpn=NX.Q03AA.001&manufacture=Acer&promoid=1516
Not willing to spend that much, looking for something more in the $1200 or so range.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152944
Lenovo laptops? Anyone know anything about them?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA8S13V68806
Quote from: Berkut on March 07, 2016, 01:45:11 PM
Lenovo laptops? Anyone know anything about them?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA8S13V68806
My mom got a Lenovo laptop 2-3 years ago, it hasn't been particularly error prone and a right masterpiece compared to her last, a HP.
I can get a work discount on Lenovo laptops, so I can get this:
Ideapad Y700 15" Laptop - Black
Part number: 80NV005FUS
Edit configuration |
Remove|
Add to Wishlist
Ships in 1-3 business days
Quantity:
Item Price$1,008.06
• 5.72 lbs( 2.6 kgs)
• Windows 10 Home 64
• No Optical Disk Drive
• ClickPad
• 1.72in( 43.66 mm)
• 4 Cell 60 Watt Hour Li-Polymer
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M 4GB
• Depot or Carry-in
• 6th Generation Intel Core i7-6700HQ Processor (2.60GHz 1600MHz 6MB)
• SODIMM
• 18.99in( 482.4 mm)
• 28.37in( 720.6 mm)
• 16.0GB PC4-17000 DDR4 2133 MHz
• HDMI2 USB 3.0,1 Always On USB 2.0,Audio jack(2 in 1),RJ-45,DC in,4-in-1 Media Card Reader (SD, MMC, SDHC, SDXC)
• Bluetooth Version 4.0
• Intel Wireless-AC 8260
• One year
• EN:English
• 1TB 5400 RPM+128GB SSD
for right at $1000 US, with free shipping to boot. That is with a 15.6" 1080 display. For another $150 I could get the 15.6" 4k display, but that seems unnecessary.
the video card is a little weak for gaming and you have no SSD.
Of course, the price is good for what you have, but it might be slow for some games.
It does have an SSD, just not a very large one.
1TB HD + 128GB SSD
The GPU is decent, but not great. The 970M would certainly be better.
Looking at the performance difference between the 960 and the 970, it is pretty huge. Hmmm.....might need to re-evaluate.
Maybe I should not be so dead set against the HP...
Pulling the trigger on this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA8S13MM7865
Eluktronics PRO15RE3 Premium Gaming Laptop PC -
Intel Core i7-6700HQ Quad Core,
Windows 10 Home,
3GB 970M GTX GDDR5
15.6" IPS screen
512 GB SSD
16GB 2133 RAM
$1300 for that seems like a smoking deal, and the company is getting great reviews for customer service and such.
Quote from: Berkut on March 08, 2016, 05:37:54 PM
Eluktronics
:bleeding:
But aside from a stupid name, looks like a nice rig. :thumbsup:
Quote from: Berkut on March 08, 2016, 05:37:54 PM
Pulling the trigger on this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA8S13MM7865
Eluktronics PRO15RE3 Premium Gaming Laptop PC -
Intel Core i7-6700HQ Quad Core,
Windows 10 Home,
3GB 970M GTX GDDR5
15.6" IPS screen
512 GB SSD
16GB 2133 RAM
$1300 for that seems like a smoking deal, and the company is getting great reviews for customer service and such.
It's a good deal, but mostly for the big SSD and huge heap of RAM- it's still a 15.6", not a 17", and that's about what I'd expect to see in terms of price range for an i7/970 rig (lots of people pricing this out as it's the minimum recommended spec for Oculus Rift usage).
I actually don't want a 17" screen.
I have a laptop with the 15.6 " screen, and just Intel graphics. It's got an i5 4xxx something processor, and it plays "Banished" and "Cities: Skylines" well enough.
My desktop is so overpowered it's silly even at 4k.
I stayed away from AMD's laptop line-ups of processors, but since I mostly write and play a few games on it, I am sort of wondering if the current range wouldn't have been a better choice.
The computer was cheap, though. $400 or something in that range on sale. After a Win 10 upgrade, it's rather fast but tends not to be great for multitasking.
I like HP. :)
Lenovo's Gxx series do look much better though. One of my clients in IT showed me his Lenovo, and it had dual graphics from AMD and a top-notch i7 processor. It was a desktop in all but name.
Quote from: Norgy on March 12, 2016, 07:53:59 AM
I like HP. :)
HP. :x The only think shittier than their computers is their customer service. They were good, once upon a time, but that time can only be measured via carbon-14 dating now.
Yeah, I've been burned twice now by them.
I bought a very nice 17" laptop from them several years ago. I recently upgraded the OS to Windows 10.
Now I can't get the upgraded video card to work. It has a dedicated GPU, and the shitty onboard graphics as well, and it is supposed to switch from one to the other.
Well, since upgrading, it won't ever switch to the good GPU. Turns out that the switching is done via a AMD northbridge, and the GPU is NVidia, and the mainbaord/CPU is Intel. Which doesn't actually work, except that HP customized the BIOS to make it work.
And now it doesn't work anymore, and HP is like "OH WELL YOUR WARRANTY IS UP SO SOLLY HAVE A NICE DAY!"
Fuck them.
Quote from: grumbler on March 12, 2016, 10:58:20 AM
HP. :x The only think shittier than their computers is their customer service. They were good, once upon a time, but that time can only be measured via carbon-14 dating now.
That was back when they made things like those 4200 model printers that are just bulletproof. I have a bunch of them in my department that were bought when they first came out (wiki says 2002) and the things are still truckin along. They're that old equipment yellow color now though heh.
Quote from: grumbler on March 12, 2016, 10:58:20 AM
Quote from: Norgy on March 12, 2016, 07:53:59 AM
I like HP. :)
HP. :x The only think shittier than their computers is their customer service. They were good, once upon a time, but that time can only be measured via carbon-14 dating now.
I'll refrain from the obvious joke about when you and Abraham worked at HP customer service. But just this once.
Quote from: Berkut on March 12, 2016, 12:44:34 PM
Yeah, I've been burned twice now by them.
I bought a very nice 17" laptop from them several years ago. I recently upgraded the OS to Windows 10.
Now I can't get the upgraded video card to work. It has a dedicated GPU, and the shitty onboard graphics as well, and it is supposed to switch from one to the other.
Well, since upgrading, it won't ever switch to the good GPU. Turns out that the switching is done via a AMD northbridge, and the GPU is NVidia, and the mainbaord/CPU is Intel. Which doesn't actually work, except that HP customized the BIOS to make it work.
And now it doesn't work anymore, and HP is like "OH WELL YOUR WARRANTY IS UP SO SOLLY HAVE A NICE DAY!"
Fuck them.
That sounds like the weirdest setup of apples and oranges and AMD northbridges ever.
And one of the reasons I want to build my own desktops.
With a laptop you kind of just get what someone found was a good idea at the time.
Unless you've already pulled the trigger, MSi make some killer gaming laptops nowadays.
Quote from: Berkut on March 12, 2016, 12:44:34 PM
Yeah, I've been burned twice now by them.
I bought a very nice 17" laptop from them several years ago. I recently upgraded the OS to Windows 10.
Now I can't get the upgraded video card to work. It has a dedicated GPU, and the shitty onboard graphics as well, and it is supposed to switch from one to the other.
Well, since upgrading, it won't ever switch to the good GPU. Turns out that the switching is done via a AMD northbridge, and the GPU is NVidia, and the mainbaord/CPU is Intel. Which doesn't actually work, except that HP customized the BIOS to make it work.
And now it doesn't work anymore, and HP is like "OH WELL YOUR WARRANTY IS UP SO SOLLY HAVE A NICE DAY!"
Fuck them.
is there a BIOS update on HP's site for your model? Latest AMD drivers?
EDIT:
I found this thread with a very helpful HP representative :) (that was sarcasm) (http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Video-Display-and-Touch/Switchable-Graphics-Cards-on-Windows-10-8-1-8/td-p/5161345)
Nope, I did a lot of searching, found lots of examples of my problem, and the response, if there every is one, is basically "HAHA YOUR FUCKED! THAT IS WHAT YOU GET FOR UPGRADING!"
Quote from: Berkut on March 14, 2016, 01:42:53 PM
Nope, I did a lot of searching, found lots of examples of my problem, and the response, if there every is one, is basically "HAHA YOUR FUCKED! THAT IS WHAT YOU GET FOR UPGRADING!"
this is what I found for people with your problem, when official drivers won't work:
http://leshcatlabs.net/ (http://leshcatlabs.net/)
The download is here:
http://leshcatlabs.net/downloads_unfil/ (http://leshcatlabs.net/downloads_unfil/)
these are modified AMD drivers designed to work with your type of chipset, among other things.
More explanation here:
http://leshcatlabs.net/forums/showthread.php?tid=1 (http://leshcatlabs.net/forums/showthread.php?tid=1)
And it's supposed to wok on Win10 too:
http://leshcatlabs.net/forums/showthread.php?tid=999
Hey, thanks viper! I will try that out.
Unboxing and setting up the new laptop now. So far it looks mighty nice...
[beeb mode]Shoulda bought a mac[/beeb mode]
Quote from: Berkut on March 14, 2016, 08:23:34 PM
Unboxing and setting up the new laptop now. So far it looks mighty nice...
Pics pls.
SO initial thoughts:
1. The power supply box seems very heavy.
2. The laptop itself seems well constructed and solid. Screen doesn't feel flimsy, and the keyboard is outstanding.
3. No bloatware! Turned it on, got W10 set up, and that is all that was on there!
So far I am very pleased...
Considering the hardware stuffed inside, power supplies tend to be quite heavy these days. Wouldn't want to be stuck with 250 Watts anymore.
You know, I guess I had not really thought about that...but it is a good point.
Quotehave a laptop with the 15.6 " screen, and just Intel graphics. It's got an i5 4xxx something processor, and it plays "Banished" and "Cities: Skylines" well enough.
Surprising. Skylines seems quite demanding on my desktop
Quote from: katmai on March 14, 2016, 09:49:07 PM
[beeb mode]Shoulda bought a mac[/beeb mode]
He specified a "gaming laptop". Graphics cards in Macs are not up to gaming, even if he used Boot Camp to install Win 10.
That's the reason why I ditched the Mac and went PC last year. :(
Perhaps you should now be saying [katmai mode]? :yeahright:
I have this trip to Europe coming up this summer. Compared to 10 years ago practically every place has WiFi these days.
My wife has a MacBook Pro she'll probably bring on the trip, but well it's hers. I remember the "netbook" craze from a few years ago, but it seems to have died out. Is there such a thing as a basically functional tiny laptop for around $200? Just looking for web surfing and a functional keyboard, and maybe, just maybe, to be able to play 10+ year old games or so.
About the only thing I've come up with is:
http://www.dell.com/ca/p/inspiron-11-3162-laptop/pd?ref=PD_Family
11" screen, 2.6 lb, modern celeron processor, 2GB RAM, 32GB HDD.
Is such a device remotely worthwhile?
Quote from: Barrister on March 23, 2016, 11:06:08 AM
I have this trip to Europe coming up this summer. Compared to 10 years ago practically every place has WiFi these days.
My wife has a MacBook Pro she'll probably bring on the trip, but well it's hers. I remember the "netbook" craze from a few years ago, but it seems to have died out. Is there such a thing as a basically functional tiny laptop for around $200? Just looking for web surfing and a functional keyboard, and maybe, just maybe, to be able to play 10+ year old games or so.
About the only thing I've come up with is:
http://www.dell.com/ca/p/inspiron-11-3162-laptop/pd?ref=PD_Family
11" screen, 2.6 lb, modern celeron processor, 2GB RAM, 32GB HDD.
Is such a device remotely worthwhile?
I regularly bring a laptop on my trips. A couple of years ago, I thought I could get away with a cheap laptop, since I didn't do gaming when I was travelling. I just wanted to have access to the internet. So I bought a cheap laptop that was light. One of those decisions that I regret later. Everything was slow as hell. The lesson I learned was that I needed reasonable power just to do basic tasks, and to keep up with the times.
Also, "practically every place has wifi" just isn't true. London, maybe. But as soon as I leave the big cities in Europe/Japan, wifi is inconsistent.
BB have you considered a Chromebook?
or buy any 100$ tablet at Canadian Tire.
Quote from: Monoriu on March 23, 2016, 11:13:00 AM
Quote from: Barrister on March 23, 2016, 11:06:08 AM
I have this trip to Europe coming up this summer. Compared to 10 years ago practically every place has WiFi these days.
My wife has a MacBook Pro she'll probably bring on the trip, but well it's hers. I remember the "netbook" craze from a few years ago, but it seems to have died out. Is there such a thing as a basically functional tiny laptop for around $200? Just looking for web surfing and a functional keyboard, and maybe, just maybe, to be able to play 10+ year old games or so.
About the only thing I've come up with is:
http://www.dell.com/ca/p/inspiron-11-3162-laptop/pd?ref=PD_Family
11" screen, 2.6 lb, modern celeron processor, 2GB RAM, 32GB HDD.
Is such a device remotely worthwhile?
I regularly bring a laptop on my trips. A couple of years ago, I thought I could get away with a cheap laptop, since I didn't do gaming when I was travelling. I just wanted to have access to the internet. So I bought a cheap laptop that was light. One of those decisions that I regret later. Everything was slow as hell. The lesson I learned was that I needed reasonable power just to do basic tasks, and to keep up with the times.
Also, "practically every place has wifi" just isn't true. London, maybe. But as soon as I leave the big cities in Europe/Japan, wifi is inconsistent.
There's no way on earth there's money to buy a fancy ultrabook, although that's ideally what I'd want.
I wonder if that's changed at all though, now with Win 10 (supposedly in partoptimized for lower-power tablets and notebooks), and more modern 14nm processors.
And maybe not every place has WiFi, but the cottage we've rented for a week does.
GF: re: a Chromebook - I guess that's where the thought of "maybe some 10+ year old games" comes in. Something to kill time on the plane or whatever.
Everything I've ever heard about $100 Android tablets is that they should DIAF. One option might be a refurbished iPad Mini I guess - $279 on the Apple site, same as the Dell I linked to.
I'd buy that Dell Inspiron.
Quote from: Grey Fox on March 23, 2016, 12:03:53 PM
I'd buy that Dell Inspiron.
Yeah, that's kind of intriguing, isn't it. HP has something with pretty well identical specs as well.
I'll have to think about it. It's above what I could spend as a pure impulse buy - but not by a lot.
Quote from: Barrister on March 23, 2016, 10:53:36 AM
Quote from: katmai on March 14, 2016, 09:49:07 PM
[beeb mode]Shoulda bought a mac[/beeb mode]
He specified a "gaming laptop". Graphics cards in Macs are not up to gaming, even if he used Boot Camp to install Win 10.
No problem playing games like total war, witcher on my laptop with nvidia gt 750 card :P
So far the new laptop is really, really great. Starts in a flash, runs all the stuff I want it to run great, looks good, no extraneous crap loaded.
The only "negatives" are that it is heavier than I expected, and the fan is pretty noisy when you are pushing the graphics card, both of which are to be expected.
Quote from: Berkut on April 06, 2016, 04:51:09 PM
So far the new laptop is really, really great. Starts in a flash, runs all the stuff I want it to run great, looks good, no extraneous crap loaded.
The only "negatives" are that it is heavier than I expected, and the fan is pretty noisy when you are pushing the graphics card, both of which are to be expected.
How can you expect that the laptop is heavier than you expected? :hmm:
Quote from: Barrister on April 06, 2016, 05:08:54 PM
Quote from: Berkut on April 06, 2016, 04:51:09 PM
So far the new laptop is really, really great. Starts in a flash, runs all the stuff I want it to run great, looks good, no extraneous crap loaded.
The only "negatives" are that it is heavier than I expected, and the fan is pretty noisy when you are pushing the graphics card, both of which are to be expected.
How can you expect that the laptop is heavier than you expected? :hmm:
Because in my head I was thinking "Hey, I am NOT getting the 17" screen, so it should be light!"
And it is lighter than our larger, 17" laptop, but it is still pretty solid. I am sure it weighs exactly what the spec said it would weigh, but my mental "image" if that weight was rather off...
My last two laptops have been ASUS. The one I currently have is over 4 years old now and will probably play a top teir game like Total War Warhammer at only low to low middle graphics, so I'm definitely going to get a new one when I go home next winter.
Definitely keep us updated if you have any issues, I'll probably go with ASUS again since they've been so high quality and reliable, but I'd like to keep an open mind.
Definitely getting a new laptop this summer or fall, once the new generation of graphic cards has made its way to laptops.
I want to play Witcher 3 decently :mad:
Quote from: jimmy olsen on April 07, 2016, 11:00:39 PM
My last two laptops have been ASUS. The one I currently have is over 4 years old now and will probably play a top teir game like Total War Warhammer at only low to low middle graphics, so I'm definitely going to get a new one when I go home next winter.
Definitely keep us updated if you have any issues, I'll probably go with ASUS again since they've been so high quality and reliable, but I'd like to keep an open mind.
Yes, they're well built, though this might only apply to the older models like you and I use.
I'm looking for a gaming laptop in the 1,200-1,500 dollar range. Any suggestions?
Quote from: jimmy olsen on January 15, 2017, 08:45:09 AM
I'm looking for a gaming laptop in the 1,200-1,500 dollar range. Any suggestions?
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B016E80J0M/
Two years later, I'm actually going to do it this time :lol:
I'm about to buy this, since it's -15% throughout September. Are there any red flags? I'm looking for an under €1200 laptop that can play current games at *reasonable* settings, and that doesn't look like Michael Bay designed it. This one seems to fit the bill.
http://store.hp.com/SpainStore/Merch/Product.aspx?id=1VN18EA&opt=ABE&mastersku=1VN18EA&masteropt=ABE&sel=NTB&
My current laptop is dying (the power connector is starting to fail and the keyboard stopped working early in the summer) so I need to buy a new laptop no matter what.
No red flags, it's a good laptop. There is no SSD, but looking at it, for 1200 E, you'll need to reduce the specs elsewhere to fit in the budget. SSD are still very expensive on laptops.
If you can live with it, it's a good machine.
Yeah lack of SSD was the biggest minus, but at that price it seemed a reasonable trade. There's a bay for adding one myself, anyway.
I bought it. It's great but... it's running way too hot. The CPU gets to 60ºC just browsing and doing menial windows stuff, and it gets uncomfortable to type on the keyboard. I'm sure that's not how it's supposed to work. I did some research before buying, and certainly this issue wasn't flagged by reviewers.
I suspect the fans are not working well because you can barely hear them even with 60+ temps.
I'll call support on Monday.
I bought a new HP at christmas. I think a slightly lower level than yours. It's one of those ones where you can flip it around and it becomes a tablet- which is a feature I never actually use too much as it is more stable in laptop configuration.
I like it. I never realised how useful touch screen was before. Now whenever I'm using a standard laptop I want to touch :lol:
It does get pretty hot sometimes I have to say. Especially when plugged in.
So I get the HP support people to diagnose my new laptop, and it decides to suddenly start working properly again, without overheating. I don't believe in stuff magically fixing itself.
I'll see if the problem reappears again.
Quote from: celedhring on September 12, 2017, 10:33:47 AM
So I get the HP support people to diagnose my new laptop, and it decides to suddenly start working properly again, without overheating. I don't believe in stuff magically fixing itself.
I'll see if the problem reappears again.
In a laptop, everything is crammed together in a small package.
It could be the video card overheating, and then pushing the CPU hotter because there's not that good of an airflow inside there, and a new driver fixed a problem with that. A semi-silent Windows update could have done that.
I have narrowed the problem. The laptop actually runs cool on high loads - it never gets past 81C on stress and video tests - it's that the fans seem to act very conservatively outside of that. Net result, the laptop is really silent, but tends to run hotter than usual in "menial" stuff, and the part of the case where the cpu's are gets warm over time.
I'll try to get support on the phone again and see if there's a fix.
On desktop, you can use utilities like these to adjust fan speeds:
https://www.msi.com/page/afterburner
If it works on your laptop, you could adjust the fan curve to be a little more agressive, i.e., increase its speed earlier as temperature raises.
It is also possible that HP provides such a tool, althought I doubt it, you should check with them first, or look at their support website.
I tried good ole' Speedfan but it's never worked in any of my laptops. I'll check this one.
Thanks for the tip.
EDIT: It only allows me to set up the behavior of the GPU fan - which I don't have. I'll see if I find other similar utilities.
Quote from: celedhring on September 14, 2017, 10:54:07 AM
I tried good ole' Speedfan but it's never worked in any of my laptops. I'll check this one.
Thanks for the tip.
EDIT: It only allows me to set up the behavior of the GPU fan - which I don't have. I'll see if I find other similar utilities.
if you use Speedfan, you need to disable fan control in your BIOS, if there any in your HP laptop.
Also, I found this:
Make sure you configure your PWM modes to software controlled, it's the most common error I see when people first set up SpeedFan:
I'll look around these settings. Thanks a lot. :)
I'm playing Witcher 3 with it, and the laptop surface is cooler right now with the fans full on, than what I get with middle loads with the fans barely turning on. If I can tune the fans right, it will be a breeze. At least I know that the underlying hardware is solid.