Gaming Laptop

Pickpocket

I sought advice on here recently about buying/building my first gaming PC (thanks for your advice) but I've decided to change direction and go with a gaming laptop.

I've been playing through the Half Life series on my Macbook and I've completely fallen for the idea of having something portable. Also, changing circumstances at home mean that I'm increasingly reliant on my daily commute to squeeze in some game time. I was playing HL2 on the train this morning and the 60 minutes flew by. I'm actually looking forward to getting on the train this evening, something I didn't think was possible after all these years commuting. Plus, I'm a console boy at heart so I still have my PS4 for the odd session at home.

Anyway, are there any obvious do's and don'ts that I should know about? I realise that laptops can't be modified or upgraded but is there anything I should look for to make it as future proof as possible (I realise how ridiculous that sounds in the context)?

Many thanks.

K.O.Kiki

Gaming laptops are not futureproof.

End of.
I should know

Wait a bit for widespread availability of GTX 10xx series GPUs.

Pickpocket

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Gaming laptops are not futureproof.

End of.
I should know

Wait a bit for widespread availability of GTX 10xx series GPUs.

Yeah, future-proof wasn't the right choice of words.

However you followed up with exactly the type of info that I'm looking for. Cheers.

So what happened with your laptop? Any regrets?

ShadowHearth

Laptop GPUs went far these days, Something like 1060 in laptop has almost same grunt as desktop version. So a 1080p laptop with 1060 would be a sweet spot. Price though is not a sweet spot. Yes, you can build pc cheaper, but such power laptop is freaking amazing.

So yeah, just to wait out and see more laptops with 1060, then buy it.

K.O.Kiki

Pickpocket wrote: »

So what happened with your laptop? Any regrets?

Core i7-5500U processor was a mistake; it's a low-power, dual-core nightmare.
Lots of games had problems running at decent speed, and it frequently has problems during browsing with too many tabs open.

Also, accidentally bought a 13" with a TN panel, 1366x768 screen.
Forgot to pick the IPS panel, 1920x1080.

TerrorFirmer

I think you're looking at around 1.4k for a decent desktop i5-6400, GTX1060 based laptop.

Next step down is the GTX970 for around 1.1K, but it's a huge step down despite the 970M being a very good mobile card.

I'd aim for the GTX1060 if you have the money as it will outlast the older high end cards GTX970 and 980M by a huge margin and play all the latest games well for years to come.

Pickpocket

Thanks guys. Yeah my budget is €1500 so all of that sounds perfect (i.e. I don't understand a word of it ).

I initially only wanted a PC for various indie-games and odd little things that aren't available on Mac. However Half-Life 2 has knocked me for six. I can't describe the satisfaction I'm getting from using a mouse and keyboard to fire a weapon. And of course there's no aim-assist either which makes it feel earned. It reminds me of when I first switched to manual control in FIFA/Pro Evo. It was like a lightbulb switching on in my head.

Digital Solitude

A i5 GTX1060 based machine will play pretty much everything at 1080p for a little while, you don't need a gaming laptop for Indies and stuff imo

TerrorFirmer

The GTX1060 would really be for the latest 2016 AAA titles at ultra settings, not for indie games.

I'd say with a budget like that, aim for a 14" portable ultrabook with decent graphics performance (Nvidia GT940M +). Light, thin, and plenty of power for older games and indies titles.

Serephucus

As someone who was in a similar-ish situation two weeks ago, I'd wait.

Right now, you're either spending €1,500 so that you can get the new generation of cards (1060), or you're spending €1,000 to get vastly inferior performance for your money.

While you don't necessarily need all this performance, it makes more sense to wait from a bang/buck standpoint, as well as from a battery life/heat standpoint.

It's looking like the 1050 will be along within the month, and you'll probably start seeing multimedia-type laptops with it soon after. This looks like it'll be about half the power of a 1060, which would be a very good spot for what you're after. It won't even break a sweat with indie games, and it'll handle AAA titles at medium-ish settings if you feel like it.

Your other option is just to look at something with integrated graphics. This should play most indie games at decent settings, but it doesn't leave you much room in the future if you decide to play more intense games.

(for reference, this is what I ended up getting. Basically the cheapest 1060-equipped machine. Would have loved something closer to €1,200 or something)

Pickpocket

Digital Solitude wrote: »

you don't need a gaming laptop for Indies and stuff imo

I'm on Mac so a good number of indies aren't compatible with my system. The 'main' ones are but I regularly see interesting little sketches of things on Steam that are PC only. And then there's the PC/Xbox exclusivity of titles like We Happy Few and Cuphead.

That's what initially steered me toward a PC/laptop. However I can't justify buying a 'regular' laptop as there's already two MacBooks in the house. So I may as well spend more and buy a laptop that distinguishes by accommodating more demanding games, as it's inevitable that some of the PC AAA games will turn my head as soon as I have a way of playing them.

SterlingArcher

Helped a friend spec a laptop from pc specialist. It broke a month after warranty ran out. Bad luck on a pc yes. Being a laptop made it **** out of luck.

Get an awesome case small form case pc. Put your own pickpocket flare colour stamp on it. That budget with some smart shopping will get you a good pc and 1440p 144hz monitor. You'll be in heaven when some new half life esc game catches your eye.

Digital Solitude

I'd say the standardised MSI and Lenovo kinda stuff is better no?

justsomebloke

Serephucus wrote: »

It's looking like the 1050 will be along within the month, and you'll probably start seeing multimedia-type laptops with it soon after. This looks like it'll be about half the power of a 1060, which would be a very good spot for what you're after. It won't even break a sweat with indie games, and it'll handle AAA titles at medium-ish settings if you feel like it.

The problem is it will still be tied to laptop processors which are made battery life as oppose to performance, so even the 1050 laptops will probably be very underwhelming

Serephucus

Not really. 6700K is around 11K Passmark, 6700HQ is around 8K, and that's 4GHz vs. 2.6GHz (Turbo notwithstanding). CPUs have been where GPUs are starting to go now: They're basically the same.

JoyPad

Saw some scores on PCSpecialist forums, posted by someone who bought a laptop with i7-6700K and GTX1080. After he needed to re-paste the CPU (PCS quality control seems to be crap these days), his numbers were very close to my Define X1 numbers (similar spec desktop). Then he adjusted the overclocking and got even better numbers in FireStrike and TimeSpy.

justsomebloke

Serephucus wrote: »

Not really. 6700K is around 11K Passmark, 6700HQ is around 8K, and that's 4GHz vs. 2.6GHz (Turbo notwithstanding). CPUs have been where GPUs are starting to go now: They're basically the same.

I was more going for the fact that you probably won't see HQ processors combined with the 1050, only i7U/i5U laptops

TerrorFirmer

Yes there will be some ultra-form laptops that will use ULV processors which do hamstring performance parts but I think you'll have both options available - ultrabook types, and bulkier media types. Most ULV processors aren't that bad with the latest refreshes so I don't think it's going to be a massive issue with a GTX1050. They were way worse in the earlier generations when some of the i5's were just 1.5Ghz clockspeed.

The worst pairing I've ever experienced was an AMD A10-5745 with an R9 290M. In some games, the bottle necking was so bad the GPU was only working 40%. I had very naively assumed it would be 'grand'. Why they would even make such a laptop I don't know - it was an MSI Destroyer series gaming laptop and not cheap.

Avacad0

Laptops are upgradable to an extent. You can upgrade the internal storage type/capacity and add or replace RAM quite easily. You can also switch out the graphics card for a new one as long as it would fit. If you just want to buy something outright that is stacked with specs, Alienware/Dell is the best imo. It’s better than a Macbook and also cheaper.

Denny_Crane

Dell have some 1060 based budget laptops on the way. No doubt we'll be paying tax and markup on the $899 price point but still, handy number.