Sorry, another laptop question. Would this spec of laptop play certain games?

NIMAN

Posted in the Computers & Technology thread, thought I might get a quicker answer in here.

Would this spec of laptop play the latest Total War games at top quality settings?

i5-6200u
16gb RAM
GeForce 930M graphics
256gb SSD

Thanks

mordeith

notebookcheck.net reports the card as returning 36.1 fps at low settings with a resolution of 1280x720

ShadowHearth

That thing will barely play in lowest of the lowest settings of pretty much any game. 930m is low spec gpu and few generations old too.

NIMAN

Thanks for that folks, it was only a potential 2nd hand buy but good to know not worth wasting money on.

I see the gtx1050 card listed a lot, would that be a better one for Total War?
I'd like to play the game at best settings if possible.

Or what processor/gpu would you advise on a laptop if I wanted to play it at high settings?

ShadowHearth

It all depends on your budget. If you have 2-3k to spend, then you will be able to play it on best possible settings.
If you have around 1.2-1.5k, you can buy something that will play it really well.

You new to pc gaming? If yes, then it's not always about being able to play on max settings.
On another note, building PC, to play higher settings is better idea as you will get more performance, per euro.

you can get an entry level gaming pc for about 720 euro -

with a 4-core cpu and an nvidia 1650 card (newer version of 1050 basically). that will run all current games well.

930m is a pathetic excuse of discrete graphics - not even really classed as one really.

1650 is the real entry level gpu basically.

here is a list - I'd avoid the older 1050 cards and especially the 2gb versions. disregard mx150/250 also.

there are ok options from 650 sterling. no real value to be had in Ireland.

https://www.box.co.uk/gaming-laptops/sort/1

NIMAN

Thanks for all the info folks.
It appears one suitable is outside of what I want to spend right now.

It's a shame so many laptops are advertised as 'gaming' machines when they aren't.

what is your budget?

you'd find a desktop on adverts that would work for about 300 but need a monitor / space etc for 300.

people are usually looking for too much money for 2nd hand gaming laptops - high delusion level

this is listed at 450 - maybe could get for 400? that wouldn't be bad

1050ti (better version of 1050) and 4-core cpu

https://www.adverts.ie/laptops/gaming-laptop/19302085

would do the job.

ShadowHearth

NIMAN wrote: »

Thanks for all the info folks.
It appears one suitable is outside of what I want to spend right now.

It's a shame so many laptops are advertised as 'gaming' machines when they aren't.

To be devil's advocate: laptops got very far in what they offer for price. Specially in low and mod tier. And just because it's called low tier, it does not mean it's trash and can't play anything. There is big difference between 930m low tier gpu you posted and something like 1050 or 1650 gpus you get these days.
As mentioned above, 700-800eu can buy you a laptop that can actually play games and not just say "gaming laptop".
I think you need to work on your perception of pc gaming a bit. Playing on maxed out settings is not what you chase in PC gaming. In most cases these max settings tax system very dramatically, but improve very little noticable visual improvements. Playing something on mix between med and high is normal in 99% of cases.

NIMAN

Again, thanks for the info.

Story is, my son has a PS4, but has been watching a lot of Total War videos for the last 6 months or more. He seems to be growing out of Fortnite! Since these type of games aren't available on the PS, I was looking into what spec would be needed in a 2nd hand laptop to run them. That way, I would also make use of the laptop for general use, so thats why I wasn't looking for a used desktop.

But obviously I don't want to be spending any sort of big money. When I started searching used laptops, I saw a lot described as 'gaming' for £300+, and perhaps stupidly thought these would run Total War. And maybe I was being stupid thinking Total War is less graphic intensive than the likes of COD, Grand Theft Auto etc?

Would it be a given that you'd get better value in a desktop than a laptop for the same money?

Anyway, there's plenty of knowledge for me in this thread. Young lad may just have to be doing with the PS4 for now! Or else we could start building our own PC gradually over the coming year?

ShadowHearth

ShadowHearth wrote: »

To be devil's advocate: laptops got very far in what they offer for price. Specially in low and mod tier. And just because it's called low tier, it does not mean it's trash and can't play anything. There is big difference between 930m low tier gpu you posted and something like 1050 or 1650 gpus you get these days.
As mentioned above, 700-800eu can buy you a laptop that can actually play games and not just say "gaming laptop".
I think you need to work on your perception of pc gaming a bit. Playing on maxed out settings is not what you chase in PC gaming. In most cases these max settings tax system very dramatically, but improve very little noticable visual improvements. Playing something on mix between med and high is normal in 99% of cases.

but for actual basic gaming 1050 or now the 1650 is entry level. i.e. to be able to run all the games you want to run.

then you have all the way up to 2070, 2080 cards at the high and top end.

the ones below that should at best be called - "very basic level gaming laptops"
and that I would apply to the mx150 / mx250 cards. anything else is rubbish or for old games (4yrs + ago).

integrated graphics are improving but for only running really old or non-graphical games really or the odd very well optimised esports game but not at competitive fps rates

particularly in the 2nd-hand mkt a desktop would be cheaper. then again you need to buy a monitor and maybe a keyboard also.

and it takes up much more space than a laptop.

NIMAN

This video of a Total War game with a 950M graphics card doesn't look as terrible as predicted, does it?

a 950m isn't great but it's a lot lot better than a 930m which was mentioned earlier.

a 950m back in the day was about the same as a 1050

NIMAN

Dell Inspiron 15-5577
Intel I5 7300HQ
Nvidia GTX 1050 4GB
16GB DDR4
256GB M.2 SSD

Better spec?
At £300 would it be a decent buy?

cherryghost

At 300 pound I would say its a good buy, as long as its in good nick

not a bad deal considering 16gb ram.

if you get if for £300 I'd go for it.

NIMAN

Thanks

Can I ask how much the RAM helps in gaming compared to the GPU?

For example, if you got that Dell, and expanded the RAM from 16gb --> 32gb, would you see much improvement in performance, or is the GPU your bottleneck?

no benefit really of going to 32 gb for 99% of games. 16gb is plenty.

ShadowHearth

For 300 it's a very good buy. I presume it's second hand, just make sure it's not dead. If its second hand, I would not expect much from battery life, just keep that in mind.

ShadowHearth

ShadowHearth wrote: »

For 300 it's a very good buy. I presume it's second hand, just make sure it's not dead. If its second hand, I would not expect much from battery life, just keep that in mind.

gaming laptops are pretty much required to be plugged in for gaming use tbh so would not be a big issue imo.

and as such the battery may not have actually have gone through many charge cycles.

NIMAN

Have another quick question.

If one laptop has an i5 8th gen CPU, 8gb ram and 1050 GPU, and a 2nd laptop has the same, but is branded and 'looks' more like a gaming laptop, is there any other hardware that might make the latter a better machine at gaming?

Or will the 2 machines be exactly the same?

ShadowHearth

NIMAN wrote: »

Have another quick question.

If one laptop has an i5 8th gen CPU, 8gb ram and 1050 GPU, and a 2nd laptop has the same, but is branded and 'looks' more like a gaming laptop, is there any other hardware that might make the latter a better machine at gaming?

Or will the 2 machines be exactly the same?

Laptops biggest enemy is heat. The design of it makes or brakes it. Both laptops can have same spec, but one will be faster, less noisy and more stable, because it can cool down hardware more efficient.

NIMAN

I'm beginning to think that maybe a pc rather than a laptop might be a better option to get something at a reasonable price.

Some 2nd hand prices in the north that I've seen in the last couple of hours.

1) i7 2600, 16gb RAM, gtx 1050ti 4gb for £230

2) i5 4460, 8gb RAM, rx580 8gb for £300

3) i5 4570, 8gb RAM, gtx 1060 6gb for £340

NIMAN

Wonder could I ask for a final bit of advice before deciding to pull the trigger on one of these?

Got 3 laptops in mind, all are secondhand and look mint.

The prices are delivered to me.

Would any of these be a decent deal? Its the best prices I can get after several weeks of looking.

1)Dell Inspiron 7567
i5-7300HQ
256gb SSD + 1tb HDD
16gb RAM
GTX 1050 4gb

£410



2) MSI GF62 8RC
i5-8300H
1tb HDD
8gb RAM
GTX 1050

£380



3) Asus TUF Gaming FX504GD
i5-8300H
1tb HDD
8gb RAM
GTX 1050 2gb

£390

ShadowHearth

From those 3, I would go with first one. It has older cpu, but over all it's just better. SSD, more ram and 4gb version of 1050.
Not sure if it's good price or not though. It's about 500eu? I presume you could get something modern new by just adding another 200-250eu ish?

NIMAN

ShadowHearth wrote: »

From those 3, I would go with first one. It has older cpu, but over all it's just better. SSD, more ram and 4gb version of 1050.
Not sure if it's good price or not though. It's about 500eu? I presume you could get something modern new by just adding another 200-250eu ish?

Thanks for your feedback. Great help again.