I really don't see how that combo wouldn't give flawless playback. I mean the i7 is well around 3.5Ghz per core and the 980M is likely as fast as a desktop GTX 780.
I might pick up Xenoblade myself.
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2016+ Gaming Laptop Thread: Embracing Pascal's Wafer (Please Read OP)
- Thread starter K.Jack
- Start date
I really don't see how that combo wouldn't give flawless playback. I mean the i7 is well around 3.5Ghz per core and the 980M is likely as fast as a desktop GTX 780.
I might pick up Xenoblade myself.
For emulation, CPU is everything. I have a laptop with a i7-4700MQ (2.4GHz, turbo to 3.2-3.3GHz) and a GT755M, and it is an emulation beast. While I haven't played Xenoblade or Twilight Princess and can't make specific judgments on how either game would perform, I have no doubt that any laptop with better specs than what I have will run Dolphin and PCSX2 like a dream.
Ghost_Messiah
Member
Wow. Cool thread. You guys want to rate my gaming laptop I purchased last year? I have to preface this by stating that I don't have much money so I couldn't really afford a high-spec monster. I had about £300 to £350 to spend so tried to purchase the highest end gaming laptop I could afford within that price range.
AMD A6-4400M APU with Radeon HD Graphics (Dual Core) 2.7 GHz
6GB RAM (3GB dedicated to the Radeon)
AMD Radeon 7520G
I know it sounds modest but it can run Rage at a blazing fast 60fps along with Return to Castle Wolfenstein which is quite a graphically intensive recent release. I've installed hundreds of games on here and everything runs blisteringly smooth. The only games it choked on was the Tomb Raider reboot along with test builds of Unreal Tournament 4 that Epic keep uploading.
I'm getting a new job soon so I'll probably go for an absolute beast when my first paycheck comes in. I'll update this thread when I do.
AMD A6-4400M APU with Radeon HD Graphics (Dual Core) 2.7 GHz
6GB RAM (3GB dedicated to the Radeon)
AMD Radeon 7520G
I know it sounds modest but it can run Rage at a blazing fast 60fps along with Return to Castle Wolfenstein which is quite a graphically intensive recent release. I've installed hundreds of games on here and everything runs blisteringly smooth. The only games it choked on was the Tomb Raider reboot along with test builds of Unreal Tournament 4 that Epic keep uploading.
I'm getting a new job soon so I'll probably go for an absolute beast when my first paycheck comes in. I'll update this thread when I do.
I was searching for more info on the product is there a difference between v.4 v.5 and v.7. I only see that most of the v.4 are glossy, and the v.7 are matte and cheaper then the v.5 in some places.
The V.4 is a high 90% gamut glossy screen, the best glossy 17" in the world. I had it in my old Clevo and it's really beautiful.
The V.5 is a 72% gamut matte, best matte available.
The V.7 is an unknown. No one has been able to find the specs on this one.
I haven't heard anything bad, which is a good thing.
R9 M275 is the fastest chip in the price range, so I have no issues there either
That's a 2/10, to be honest.
I had overnight shipping added to by price, so I'm not 100% certain of what Xotic was asking, but I'm pretty sure it was $150-$170.
Just ask HID to confirm that they are selling EXACT screens. You have to use that terminology when buying a specific model.
hunchback
Member
I want to thank K Jack for this great thread. After reading the info here, I was able to get a nice MSI Apache.
I have a quick question about video card temps. What is a safe temperature for your laptop video card? I'm noticing that when I run the UE4 engine the temp spikes all the way up to 135. I'm even using a laptop cooling mat. Is that too hot for my card or am I worrying too much? Thanks for any info. I absolutely love this laptop. It just chews everything up like it's nothing.
I have a quick question about video card temps. What is a safe temperature for your laptop video card? I'm noticing that when I run the UE4 engine the temp spikes all the way up to 135. I'm even using a laptop cooling mat. Is that too hot for my card or am I worrying too much? Thanks for any info. I absolutely love this laptop. It just chews everything up like it's nothing.
ipitydatfu
Member
are the lenovo t440's good for light gaming?
Please tell me you're talking about 135° Farenheit .
You don't want your GPU over 90°C, or 194°F. That isn't a dangerous temp, just an uncomfortable one.
Without a dedicated GPU, you'll be looking at very light gaming, mainly indies and PS3 era multiplatform titles.
I am feeling so much for buying a new laptop and upgrading from my old one.
Too bad I really need to put all in on a new car instead...
But hopefully, in the spring, I will see possibilities rise!
You'll have some great choices by Spring of 2015.
More_Badass
Member
I have a friend who's looking for a new Mac laptop for gaming. He's not a member here so I'm posting for him. He's not very tech savvy so he couldn't list any desired specs.
Country: USA
Maximum budget: I'm not putting one, since I want to see how high the best laptop can go
Maximum Size: I have a 13inch MacBook now, which I like the size of. I would be shooting for that size again, but if a larger size laptop can offer better performance, I'd entertain it
Planned Usage: The newest games, the highest specs, the best resolution. Again, I don't want to put limits on any of that, since I want to see what is the best offered for gaming on a Mac laptop and then work my way down.
Country: USA
Maximum budget: I'm not putting one, since I want to see how high the best laptop can go
Maximum Size: I have a 13inch MacBook now, which I like the size of. I would be shooting for that size again, but if a larger size laptop can offer better performance, I'd entertain it
Planned Usage: The newest games, the highest specs, the best resolution. Again, I don't want to put limits on any of that, since I want to see what is the best offered for gaming on a Mac laptop and then work my way down.
ipitydatfu
Member
y50 it is then (butthe batterylife on t440 are so nice)
More_Badass
Member
Not exactly the thread to ask, but he wants to know if getting a Mac desktop would be better
If by "Mac Desktop" you mean "iMac", then kind of. iMacs use laptop GPUs, the most powerful of which is the GT 775M. That iMac model costs $1999.
The gaming desktop thread lists a desktop with slightly better specs than that iMac for only $1070.
However, if your friend is willing to spend $4,599 on a Mac Pro, he/she will be able to run most games at max settings - assuming the custom workstation GPUs are recognized properly. Just be aware that the same $4,599 could go towards a gaming PC capable of blowing a Mac Pro out of the water.
Oooh a Mac desktop, now what he said makes sense.
I'd tell him to wait until Apple updates the iMac with a 900M GPU. The danger in that is that I have no idea when that will happen.
As was said above, a standard gaming PC blows the Macs away in power per dollar.
Apple seems to be moving away from putting GPUs in their laptops, so don't expect any options on that front.
Yeah. This is what I hope too. I have been putting away money, but my old car just broke down so I have to use some of that stashed money. Will hopefully be back on laptop-track by May.
Looking forward to see the gaming line up by then. Will probably go for an MSI laptop.Just wanted to post an update they did not have AUO B173HW01 V.5 and did not know when they will get more in stock, but they had the newer AUO B173HW02 V.1. The representative said they had the same specifications I was looking for, a google search confirmed they are the same, so I went ahead with the order change.
I got it yesterday and installed it and yeah this is the best screen I ever used in my life.
Thanks again for the help K.Jack.
Parallax Scroll
Banned
According to a thread on notebookreview Oct 7-11 is when 900m series laptops will start being sold. I need a new laptop myself so I'll be watching what Sager has for sale at that time.
I'm hearing Sager on the 7th, MSI on the 11th, and Asus on the 20th.
The one strange thing is that Nvidia hasn't officially announced these cards yet. Every thing we have has been a leak, which is strange for cards that are supposedly going to be in laptops in 2-3 weeks.
Remain skeptical, is my advice.
Thanks for the info. I compared the datasheets and yup, they have the same exact specs.
It's a great screen, yeah?
The one strange thing is that Nvidia hasn't officially announced these cards yet. Every thing we have has been a leak, which is strange for cards that are supposedly going to be in laptops in 2-3 weeks.
Remain skeptical, is my advice.
Thanks for the info. I compared the datasheets and yup, they have the same exact specs.
It's a great screen, yeah?
yeah its great.
I don't have much HD devices to compare it too. I'm still rocking an SD tv so when comparing the visuals its night and day, but even comparing it to my old Asus gaming laptop, and my desktop hd monitor the difference in quality is clear
My sister who is not even that into gaming saw my screen was impressed enough to ask if I could replace her laptop screen.
My 2010 MBP Screen went wonky so I am just done with it instead of dealing with repairs since its a shitty defective model that apple should be ashamed of.
Looking at a HP ENVY - 15t Slim Quad
$799
Hard drive is slow and ill deal with that and I can always put more ram in as I go but otherwise it seems like a really good deal all considering in its price range. Quad core and a reasonable gpu. Seems like most quad cores get stuck with only the intel graphics.
Looking at a HP ENVY - 15t Slim Quad
$799
Hard drive is slow and ill deal with that and I can always put more ram in as I go but otherwise it seems like a really good deal all considering in its price range. Quad core and a reasonable gpu. Seems like most quad cores get stuck with only the intel graphics.
I'm pretty sure that 850M is GDDR3, which means you should avoid it.
Got the Lenovo Y50 with UHD screen. The colors are off when the screen is dimmed, but im not bothered by that, looks a tiny bit like f.lux in that way. Loving the machine and especially the build, frame feels and looks awesome.
Problem now though... a laughable 2 hours and 10 minutes battery life. notebookcheck has 4h10mins on the wifi test. I've set my max proc usage to 10% and it still doesn't change anything. Something is draining the battery, or something must be wrong. Anyone any idea what the problem could be? Im on a clean install here, but I've installed all the drivers from the lenovo support page.
Hmm.. seems that the windows battery indicator was a bit too much on the safe side. Installed batterymon and it's giving me 5 hours with the conservative settings. Gonna charge the lappy now and check with batterymon.
Problem now though... a laughable 2 hours and 10 minutes battery life. notebookcheck has 4h10mins on the wifi test. I've set my max proc usage to 10% and it still doesn't change anything. Something is draining the battery, or something must be wrong. Anyone any idea what the problem could be? Im on a clean install here, but I've installed all the drivers from the lenovo support page.
Hmm.. seems that the windows battery indicator was a bit too much on the safe side. Installed batterymon and it's giving me 5 hours with the conservative settings. Gonna charge the lappy now and check with batterymon.
darkside31337
Tomodachi wa Mahou
Country - USA
Maximum Budget - $700. Willing to go up to $1000 but the cheaper the better and to go over $700 it has to really be worth it.
Max Size - 17 inch is preferred but willing to go down to 15
Planned usage - Mainly regular use but I'd like to start trying PC gaming so something that can run modern games at okay settings (obviously do not expect crazy performance on a relatively cheap gaming laptop)
Battery life isn't a huge deal. Screen resolution definitely is though, has to be at least 1600x900, would prefer something with 1080. Also something that doesn't sound obnoxiously loud or actually look obnoxious either. Some of those MSi ones I've looked at are super, super ugly. Also would like something with a relatively nice screen, I've seen some bad stuff about Lenovo just reading the last few pages?
Really need to get this as soon as possible, like ordering it within the next 48 hours, can't really wait for whatever new updates are happening soon.
Maximum Budget - $700. Willing to go up to $1000 but the cheaper the better and to go over $700 it has to really be worth it.
Max Size - 17 inch is preferred but willing to go down to 15
Planned usage - Mainly regular use but I'd like to start trying PC gaming so something that can run modern games at okay settings (obviously do not expect crazy performance on a relatively cheap gaming laptop)
Battery life isn't a huge deal. Screen resolution definitely is though, has to be at least 1600x900, would prefer something with 1080. Also something that doesn't sound obnoxiously loud or actually look obnoxious either. Some of those MSi ones I've looked at are super, super ugly. Also would like something with a relatively nice screen, I've seen some bad stuff about Lenovo just reading the last few pages?
Really need to get this as soon as possible, like ordering it within the next 48 hours, can't really wait for whatever new updates are happening soon.
Good deal.
It's a good deal because quad core + 1080p + 850M DDR3 is unheard of at $799.
Well nothing at $700 will game worth a dang, so going over is "really worth it"
Honestly, you should spend that $1000 for your first gaming laptop. I'd go with this. If that's too much, go with the HP Envy mentioned above. Note that the 850M in that one is DDR3 instead of GDDR5.
darkside31337
Tomodachi wa Mahou
Cool thanks for the help. That $999 one looks appealing. Only 256 GB of storage but didn't even think a SSD was possibly at that price range so I guess its worth it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152602
This one is $1099 too after rebate. But it looks pretty ugly and is somehow 8 pounds? That seems really heavy for a laptop, the Acer one looks pretty decent and isn't a total behemoth even as a 17 incher. Think I'm going to go with that but I'll do some more reading tomorrow
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152602
This one is $1099 too after rebate. But it looks pretty ugly and is somehow 8 pounds? That seems really heavy for a laptop, the Acer one looks pretty decent and isn't a total behemoth even as a 17 incher. Think I'm going to go with that but I'll do some more reading tomorrow
More_Badass
Member
Okay, my friend would like to know if a Macbook Pro would be able to run games like this well (Hotline Miami, Rayman Origins, Super Meat Boy, Sine Mora, GTA IV, Tomb Raider) or other Mac laptops that would be able to handle games like that
Well yeah the GT70 is a full-sized notebook. I'd say go with the GT70, if it wasn't the gaudy 'Dragon Edition'. Ugh all that red.
The 15" yeah for sure, the 13" I'm not sure if it could play Tomb Raider well.
Thanks yeah going between sites the particular envy stood out because spec wise it seems almost obscene for the price range. It would have been nice to get a GDDR5 model but it seems pretty rare or in a much pricier models from other companies.
I have a dedicated gaming desktop so the laptops more of just a luxury item seeing as my MBP only had a 330M in it lol. Whatever was wrong with it I came out ahead since I sold it for almost 500 bucks.
3 hours is really the max i can get out of it. Battery capacity drain is between 18-20k mWh at all times. This is really too high I'm thinking, lowiering the brightness of the screen to the lowest setting only gets it down to 17k mWh, but it's unworkable in anything other than a completely dark environment (which is actually cool to have though, always found most screens lowest setting too bright in the dark).
Battery itself seems to be fine. I'm just trying to think of what could be draining the battery so much constantly. Or are these normal figures?
edit: Think I found a small culprit. Lenovo Touchpad driver, apparently using the animated tray icon uses up a good 1-2k mWh. If I start using the touchpad instead of the mouse it also uses around 1k mWh extra. Seems like it's a (relative) battery eater. Still not good enough, but at least I'm on a reliable 16-17k mWh now. ~3h15/30mins with light surfing.
edit2: By completely disabling the touchpad I gain a bit more batterylife. discharge rate drops by about 1k mW, now the estimated battery life is ~3h25m. So all in all the touchpad alone makes for half an hour difference, crazy (bad). Hopefully I can find some more battery drainers so I can inch toward the 4h mark.
Oh you have a desktop? Well then yeah no need to spend much. The Envy will be fine.\
Weird. PC Mag says they got 4:33, while Laptop Mag says 4:46.
Indeed, I'm really curious where the difference could come from. I'm guessing the UHD screen plays a part in it. I've got the SSD equipped one too, so that should save some energy consumption as well. Perhaps it's because I'm using Firefox to test internet surfing - it seems to use a bit of battery. But I must be missing something somewhere else. Sucks that the reviews never go into detail on the way they test battery drain - would help to see average mW discharge by usage, instead of comparing by end result.
I have a Lenovo Y510P w/ a 72 Whr battery, and I get 5-6 hours of battery with normal use, but only 3 hours when I accidentally leave a program using the GPU running in the background (e.g. Steam).
Open NVIDIA Control Panel. In the menu bar at the top of the window, click Desktop > Display GPU Activity Icon in Notification Area. Click the icon to determine if any programs are using the GPU or not.
That is indeed good advice. I have it in the tray, making sure not to use the dedicated GPU.
Maybe I should uninstall the Lenovo Synaptics touchpad driver. Whenever I use the touchpad ~3% of the CPU is used.
What's your driver version? I've installed the latest driver (17.0.14.81) from the Y50 drivers page, and my touchpad only uses 1.5% CPU.
Have you measured how long it takes to fully drain your laptop under normal internet use, or even when completely idle?
Tbh I wouldn't expect too much. My Y510P with a 72Whr battery gets 5-6 hours on an everyday basis (moderate internet use, some idle time). The Y50 has 54Whr, or 75% the capacity of my battery, resulting in an expected battery life of 3.75-4.5 hours.
Edit: PC Mag details their battery test here (play a video, half screen brightness, disable all wireless), while Laptop Mag seems to simply surf the internet at max screen brightness.
I've got the same (downloaded it the day before yesterday). 1.5% is still alot for just touchpad stuff. It shaves of a clean 30 minutes!
Did my first real-world 'test' today at school. It managed to get through a 3,5 hour class with 25% left. That's with minor wifi usage (browsing in firefox, 20% of the time more or less), had a 150mb PDF open and a a lot of idle time. Not the best, but at least I can manage with that.
Saw that as well after I posted. The pcmag test seems non-applicable to real usage, and the laptopmag doesn't really have a clean definition. It's a bummer that there are no discharge rates posted per usage, since that might be an easier comparison.
HEAVY BREATHING INTENSIFIES..............
Based on the calculations I made in my previous post and from my own experience, those numbers sound normal. Not much else that I can suggest, sorry.
Edit: Actually, have you tried Throttlestop? It's a program that can force your CPU to stick to a certain clock speed. I use it to force my CPU to its maximum 3.2GHz for emulation, but you can also force it to stick to the minimum clock frequency for minimum power.
SatoAilDarko
Member
This may not be the best place but I'm looking for advice and I do plan to run Fallout band some early 200's PC games on a laptop.
I'm looking at two laptops.
One is a Dell XPS 13 with a third generation Intel Core i5 3337U at 1.8 GHz for $600.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00IPQXZ62?cache=e0859c90e57c5aff9e537f241e69277d&pi=SY200_QL40&qid=1412141739&sr=8-1#ref=mp_s_a_1_1
The other is a HP Spectre X2 with a 4th generation Intel Core i5-4202Y 1.60 GHz with Turbo Boost Technology up to 2.00 GHz for $700.
http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/HP-Spectre-13-x2-h211nr-Signature-Edition-2-in-1-PC/productID.289653400
The HP is from a newer generation but apparently the processor is low-power for use in tablets. Which would you say is the better processor between the two?
Thanks for any help.
I'm looking at two laptops.
One is a Dell XPS 13 with a third generation Intel Core i5 3337U at 1.8 GHz for $600.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00IPQXZ62?cache=e0859c90e57c5aff9e537f241e69277d&pi=SY200_QL40&qid=1412141739&sr=8-1#ref=mp_s_a_1_1
The other is a HP Spectre X2 with a 4th generation Intel Core i5-4202Y 1.60 GHz with Turbo Boost Technology up to 2.00 GHz for $700.
http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/HP-Spectre-13-x2-h211nr-Signature-Edition-2-in-1-PC/productID.289653400
The HP is from a newer generation but apparently the processor is low-power for use in tablets. Which would you say is the better processor between the two?
Thanks for any help.
garginator850
Banned
USA
500
13.3
Civ, League, CS:GO
No fan noise, decent screen, num pad pls
500
13.3
Civ, League, CS:GO
No fan noise, decent screen, num pad pls
Hey that's a good idea. Haven't tried that yet, will check it out today/tomorrow, thanks!