Gaming Laptop for 1,200EUR?

BArra

Friend of mine looking for a gaming laptop upto 1200EUR ish, use would be gaming of course and video editing

If it were a pc i might be of better use to him to spec a build..

Appreciate any tips or options, best ive sourced so far is from pcspecialist

https://www.pcspecialist.ie/notebooks/elimina-17/

Coyler

Laptops are a minefield due to several competing factors. Reading the specs off a website doesn't give you any idea how it will perform as you've no idea how it manages heat. If they run hot, the CPU and GPU throttle down and it's not unknown to pay for expensive parts but get budget performance. I'd be very sure you can either get hands on with a laptop before you buy or get a good recommendation.

Dell (G5 brand) and HP (Omen brand) make very good laptops and it's worth waiting until the 3060 is actually released and see what you can get. No harm to let stocks build back up again as well.

AnthonyB

Still looking BArra?

I'm in the same boat. Best I found was the Asus Tuf Dash F15 which has i7 11370H CPU and NVidia RTX 3060 graphics which is over at Laptops Direct for €1172 and which seems like a great price (miserly 8GB RAM though).

https://www.laptopsdirect.ie/asus-tuf-dash-f15-gaming-core-i7-11370h-8gb-512gb-ssd-15.6-inch-fhd-144hz-g-fx516pm-hn002t/version.asp

Only thing is it takes four weeks before it ships.

stefanovich

Why not a proper desktop?

ancapailldorcha

I bought one in the late 00's and I counsel against it. Mine nearly two thousand euro and it lasted less than a year. I bought one in 2012 for less than 400 pounds in the UK that ran most games I put on it though it didn't have a 1080 display.

I think the desktop would be best for both unless he's a student and if he's a student he won't have portability if the thing is over 17-inches. Would a Macbook be an option if it's for video editing? It's not something I know about but anyone I've know who did that always went Mac.

stefanovich

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

I bought one in the late 00's and I counsel against it. Mine nearly two thousand euro and it lasted less than a year. I bought one in 2012 for less than 400 pounds in the UK that ran most games I put on it though it didn't have a 1080 display.

I think the desktop would be best for both unless he's a student and if he's a student he won't have portability if the thing is over 17-inches. Would a Macbook be an option if it's for video editing? It's not something I know about but anyone I've know who did that always went Mac.

A Macbook pro is a fantastic laptop. You can easily dual or triple boot them to linux or windows if you want also.

ancapailldorcha

stefanovich wrote: »

A Macbook pro is a fantastic laptop. You can easily dual or triple boot them to linux or windows if you want also.

My cousin had one. Very nice machine but don't know if 1,200 is enough for one.

stefanovich

What about Razer? I've heard great things about their laptops. A bit over budget though.

https://www.razer.com/eu-en/gaming-laptops/razer-blade

AnthonyB

stefanovich wrote: »

A Macbook pro is a fantastic laptop. You can easily dual or triple boot them to linux or windows if you want also.

I'm not sure about them for gaming though. Video / editing sure. Do Macs have dedicated graphics? I didn't think they did, but I could be corrected. I have an MBP for work, and it's fine, though it slows quite a bit with age (3yo now)

stefanovich wrote: »

What about Razer? I've heard great things about their laptops. A bit over budget though.

https://www.razer.com/eu-en/gaming-laptops/razer-blade

I love Razer. I think I'm going to stump for one. Fantastic design - but you're right about the budget. You might get an early 2020 one for €1500 if you shop around.

ancapailldorcha

AnthonyB wrote: »

I'm not sure about them for gaming though. Video / editing sure. Do Macs have dedicated graphics? I didn't think they did, but I could be corrected. I have an MBP for work, and it's fine, though it slows quite a bit with age (3yo now)

Last time I checked, the Pro version did.

stefanovich

I suppose it depends on what the priority is. For video edited mac software is better. For gaming you are going to get more bang for your buck with the Razer.

ShadowHearth

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

I bought one in the late 00's and I counsel against it. Mine nearly two thousand euro and it lasted less than a year. I bought one in 2012 for less than 400 pounds in the UK that ran most games I put on it though it didn't have a 1080 display.

I think the desktop would be best for both unless he's a student and if he's a student he won't have portability if the thing is over 17-inches. Would a Macbook be an option if it's for video editing? It's not something I know about but anyone I've know who did that always went Mac.

To be honest, comparing laptops of that era to current ones ( even up to two year old ones ), is a bit... wrong. Price/performance ratio became way better and gaming Laptops can be definitely a viable option, for those who need it. Then again, it's a pc building forum, and it will be a bit more leaning towards desktops.

I personally never went for laptops as they were not good value, but I finally decided to get one in 2019 November. 9750h 16gb ram 1tb m.2 ssd rtx 2060 144hz ips panel for 1500eu. Its way over a year old and I would say that no one here could label this laptop as useless already, it definitely still has a good bit life in it and even more, if you are not the one who expects to play all newest games maxed out.

The new mobile Ryzen cpus and rtx 30series gpus are even better then ever. Laptop gaming really went far.

I still want to update my desktop, but the way things going with pc part market, brexit and covid, chances are it won't be any time soon.

Aodhan5000

Really really really wouldnt recommend MAC for gaming. Most lack dedicated GPUs and have much more limited game support than windows devices. The new M1 chip is designed on an ARM big.little architecture which is even worse for supporting applications and games as most are specced for traditional x86. MAC is big no no overall for gaming.

Other options are highly limited with Covid, bitcoin etc. If you can give more specific use case of games, applications etc I can attempt to give a recommendation but I'm guessing OP is not concerned about laptop anymore as he's been quiet

Homelander

Yeah I paid a grand for my gaming laptop, i7-9750 and GTX1660Ti, fairly solid laptop for games, though heat and noise are an issue on the "budget" options that offer the best paper spec for the money.

Make sure you thoroughly research whatever model you are looking at, don't just buy what seems the best spec for the price, because that can be very misleading and led to frustrating issues.

For example my own laptop gets way too hot, sometimes the CPU throttles badly, and is very noisy. It's a Dell G3. It's still solid for games in general, but the chassis and cooling are pretty bad. Unless I'm playing something CPU intensive I usually disable turbo-boost and leave it at the base 2.5Ghz, but it's fairly crap that you cannot simply leave it at stock and get the "proper" performance.

I would recommend AMD processor, they run way cooler than Intel. Something like the 4600 or 4800 would be ideal and shouldn't have any thermal issues.

ShadowHearth

Homelander wrote: »

Yeah I paid a grand for my gaming laptop, i7-9750 and GTX1660Ti, fairly solid laptop for games, though heat and noise are an issue on the "budget" options that offer the best paper spec for the money.

Make sure you thoroughly research whatever model you are looking at, don't just buy what seems the best spec for the price, because that can be very misleading and led to frustrating issues.

For example my own laptop gets way too hot, sometimes the CPU throttles badly, and is very noisy. It's a Dell G3. It's still solid for games in general, but the chassis and cooling are pretty bad. Unless I'm playing something CPU intensive I usually disable turbo-boost and leave it at the base 2.5Ghz, but it's fairly crap that you cannot simply leave it at stock and get the "proper" performance.

I would recommend AMD processor, they run way cooler than Intel. Something like the 4600 or 4800 would be ideal and shouldn't have any thermal issues.

Yup, as always, you need to know what you getting in to when buying laptops. The noise can be a deal breaker for a lot of people.
Thing is, I do same thing as you, power limit to 98% to disable boost. It makes laptop so much quieter and still has enough punch for most games. New ryzen cpus should be even better as their base clock is higher then 2.5ghz.

Thing is, people forget most desktops are noisy too, unless you are building on purpose to be silent.

Aodhan5000

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Yup, as always, you need to know what you getting in to when buying laptops. The noise can be a deal breaker for a lot of people.
Thing is, I do same thing as you, power limit to 98% to disable boost. It makes laptop so much quieter and still has enough punch for most games. New ryzen cpus should be even better as their base clock is higher then 2.5ghz.

Thing is, people forget most desktops are noisy too, unless you are building on purpose to be silent.

I wouldn't say desktops are all that noisy tbh but it definitely does help that they tend to be further away from you when you're playing. As a generality, a 30 quid cooler on your CPU will keep you pretty quiet and GPUs are usually grand as long as they aren't blower coolers. At that point it's just insuring your case isn"t sh*te for airflow

K.O.Kiki

Aodhan5000 wrote: »

Really really really wouldnt recommend MAC for gaming. Most lack dedicated GPUs and have much more limited game support than windows devices. The new M1 chip is designed on an ARM big.little architecture which is even worse for supporting applications and games as most are specced for traditional x86. MAC is big no no overall for gaming.

Other options are highly limited with Covid, bitcoin etc. If you can give more specific use case of games, applications etc I can attempt to give a recommendation but I'm guessing OP is not concerned about laptop anymore as he's been quiet

Apple M1 MacBook can run these games:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1er-NivvuIheDmIKBVRu3S_BzA_lZT5z3Z-CxQZ-uPVs/htmlview

stefanovich

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Apple M1 MacBook can run these games:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1er-NivvuIheDmIKBVRu3S_BzA_lZT5z3Z-CxQZ-uPVs/htmlview

Or you can install Linux and play a whole load more with steam.

Homelander

People really just need to stop with the Macbook recommendations.

When someone has a budget of €1,200 and their express want is a gaming laptop, it's honestly a completely stupid suggestion.

You can't play a ton of games, a) due to major compatiability issues and b) the card isn't even strong enough to run most new games anyway even at lowest settings. It's a great chip for what it is, but in the context of having a budget of €1,200 specifically for a "gaming laptop" it's awful.

You can buy RTX3060 laptops from €1,200 that would be 4x as powerful in games, even putting aside the compatiability problems.

The 13" Macbook is a fine machine no doubt but it has zero place in a thread where someone specifically wants a gaming laptop.

stefanovich

Homelander wrote: »

People really just need to stop with the Macbook recommendations.

When someone has a budget of €1,200 and their express want is a gaming laptop, it's honestly a completely stupid suggestion.

You can't play a ton of games, a) due to major compatiability issues and b) the card isn't even strong enough to run most new games anyway even at lowest settings. It's a great chip for what it is, but in the context of having a budget of €1,200 specifically for a "gaming laptop" it's awful.

You can buy RTX3060 laptops from €1,200 that would be 4x as powerful in games, even putting aside the compatiability problems.

The 13" Macbook is a fine machine no doubt but it has zero place in a thread where someone specifically wants a gaming laptop.

He said he wants to do video editing and gaming.

OSX has better software for video editing, can run Linux and at least used to be able to run windows natively. Don't confuse the hardware for the OS.

I play games on a Mac that run just fine. I also play games on Linux. Haven't bothered booting to windows now for a long time because there is such good linux support in steam now. (you can enable even more games if you tweak a few settings)

My suggestion was a Razer if games are the priority anyway.

beauf

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Apple M1 MacBook can run these games:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1er-NivvuIheDmIKBVRu3S_BzA_lZT5z3Z-CxQZ-uPVs/htmlview

A lot in that list either don't work, need their settings turned way down, and get dysmal frame rates. Games are increasing looking for more than 16gb.

stefanovich

beauf wrote: »

A lot in that list either don't work, need their settings turned way down, and get dysmal frame rates. Games are increasing looking for more than 16gb.

Looking at the current macbook pro you'd need the 16 inch with the i9 and AMD Radeon Pro 5500M for more than double OPs budget...

beauf

stefanovich wrote: »

Looking at the current macbook pro you'd need the 16 inch with the i9 and AMD Radeon Pro 5500M for more than double OPs budget...

A Ryzen with a 2060 or 3060 will out perform the M1 in most things including video editing and rendering.

https://youtu.be/y_jw38QD5qY

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Apple-M1-MacBook-vs-PC-Desktop-Workstation-for-Adobe-Creative-Cloud-1975/#AfterEffectsPerformanceAnalysis

The M1 is brilliant, no doubt. If I wanted a laptop with the best battery life in 13" for traveling and my apps were supported, I'd pick the mac. But as a general all rounder Id want the gaming machine. More bang for buck. One thing I was looking for was lots of USB 3.x ports. Our gaming laptop has 5.

I'm tempted to get M1 just to play with. But I wouldn't get it for gaming. You need a dedicated GPU.

AnthonyB

beauf wrote: »

A Ryzen with a 2060 or 3060 will out perform the M1 in most things including video editing and rendering.

https://youtu.be/y_jw38QD5qY

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Apple-M1-MacBook-vs-PC-Desktop-Workstation-for-Adobe-Creative-Cloud-1975/#AfterEffectsPerformanceAnalysis

The M1 is brilliant, no doubt. If I wanted a laptop with the best battery life in 13" for traveling and my apps were supported, I'd pick the mac. But as a general all rounder Id want the gaming machine. More bang for buck. One thing I was looking for was lots of USB 3.x ports. Our gaming laptop has 5.

I'm tempted to get M1 just to play with. But I wouldn't get it for gaming. You need a dedicated GPU.

I'm looking at a Ryzen Blade 15 with an i7 10750H CPU and RTX2060, but a little concerned I'm overpaying for the brand. It's going to cost somewhere in the region of €1400. Am I mad?

These are the three options I have (Prices in dollars, buying from the US, long story, I know the customs bit):

Razer Blade 15 Base Gaming Laptop 2020: Intel Core i7-10750H 6-Core, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060, 15.6" FHD 1080p 144Hz, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, CNC Aluminum, Chroma RGB Lighting, Thunderbolt 3, Black - $1484

MSI GS66 10SE VR-Ready Stealth 15.6" FHD 144HZ Laptop, i7-10750H, WiFi 6, RGB Backlit Keyboard, Webcam, USB C, HDMI, Thunderbolt 3, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060, Win 10 (16GB RAM | 512GB PCIe SSD) $1399

ROG Zephyrus G15 Ultra Slim Gaming Laptop, 15.6” 240Hz Pantone Validated FHD Display, GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q, AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS, 16GB DDR4, 1TB PCIe SSD, Gig+ Wi-Fi 6, Windows 10 Home, GA502IV-PH96 $1299

beauf

For gaming laptop stay away from Intel they run too hot.

You want a Ryzen 6 core with minimum 2060 and at this point a 3060 would be worth waiting for. They are 20-30% faster than the 2060 etc. There are lot of versions.

https://youtu.be/qhQzCayvfZ8
https://youtu.be/TQdRipT1L28
https://youtu.be/16ayIgVCb5c

stefanovich

AnthonyB wrote: »

I'm looking at a Ryzen Blade 15 with an i7 10750H CPU and RTX2060, but a little concerned I'm overpaying for the brand. It's going to cost somewhere in the region of €1400. Am I mad?

These are the three options I have (Prices in dollars, buying from the US, long story, I know the customs bit):

Razer Blade 15 Base Gaming Laptop 2020: Intel Core i7-10750H 6-Core, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060, 15.6" FHD 1080p 144Hz, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, CNC Aluminum, Chroma RGB Lighting, Thunderbolt 3, Black - $1484

MSI GS66 10SE VR-Ready Stealth 15.6" FHD 144HZ Laptop, i7-10750H, WiFi 6, RGB Backlit Keyboard, Webcam, USB C, HDMI, Thunderbolt 3, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060, Win 10 (16GB RAM | 512GB PCIe SSD) $1399

ROG Zephyrus G15 Ultra Slim Gaming Laptop, 15.6” 240Hz Pantone Validated FHD Display, GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q, AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS, 16GB DDR4, 1TB PCIe SSD, Gig+ Wi-Fi 6, Windows 10 Home, GA502IV-PH96 $1299

1400 sounds reasonable for a decent laptop. I'd personally go with the Razer based on all the stellar reviews.

stefanovich

beauf wrote: »

For gaming laptop stay away from Intel they run too hot.

You want a Ryzen 6 core with minimum 2060 and at this point a 3060 would be worth waiting for. They are 20-30% faster than the 2060 etc. There are lot of versions.

https://youtu.be/qhQzCayvfZ8
https://youtu.be/TQdRipT1L28
https://youtu.be/16ayIgVCb5c

In fairness that's just one man's opinion. The Razer posted above was very well received.

Cuddlesworth

Just going to throw this out there.

Unless gaming and travel are a must, get a laptop with thunderbolt + no graphics card and a GPU dock with a graphics card.

AnthonyB

stefanovich wrote: »

1400 sounds reasonable for a decent laptop. I'd personally go with the Razer based on all the stellar reviews.

Would you not think the AMD chip in the ASUS is better - the GPU looks better too - for $200 less?

stefanovich

AnthonyB wrote: »

Would you not think the AMD chip in the ASUS is better - the GPU looks better too - for $200 less?

Things usually cost less for a reason.

Aodhan5000

I thought GPU docks were reckless expensive. Last time I checked they were in and around 300 quid and then combine that with reckless GPU prices and a 3060 laptop is probably more viable.

AnthonyB

stefanovich wrote: »

Things usually cost less for a reason.

Which brings me back to my earlier question - these are all good machines, I'm just worried I'm overpaying for Razer. It does look awesome though - I guess that's worth something!

stefanovich

AnthonyB wrote: »

Would you not think the AMD chip in the ASUS is better - the GPU looks better too - for $200 less?

https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/razer-blade-vs-asus-rog-zephyrus

stefanovich

Realised that's quite an old comparison... I'm sure they are both great.

You need to really look at what gpu version is in a laptop and how it runs.

Eg a 60w max-q version of the same card name is not going to run anywhere near the 115w tdp version

It's often not stated what version of the card and what wattage it's running at so need a good review

Then you need to read reviews re thermals and fan noise also

Probably worth waiting for the 3060 based laptops but again check the reviews...

A high tdp 3060 based laptop won't be far off the power of the newest consoles so games should run well on it for at least 5 years

Cuddlesworth

Aodhan5000 wrote: »

I thought GPU docks were reckless expensive. Last time I checked they were in and around 300 quid and then combine that with reckless GPU prices and a 3060 laptop is probably more viable.

You can upgrade and sell the GPU in the docks and they will last a lot longer then the 3060 in the laptop. A thunderbolt 4 laptop will probably last a bit longer too.

Also a laptop 3060 is not equal to a desktop 3060.

For AMD cpu machines, the caveat right now is that stock is damm hard to come by. I just cancelled a order for a Lenovo P14s, since the order was pushed out till mid June. Getting a XPS 13 with a Intel chip simply because Dell have stock in the specs I want.

stefanovich

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

You can upgrade and sell the GPU in the docks and they will last a lot longer then the 3060 in the laptop. A thunderbolt 4 laptop will probably last a bit longer too.

Also a laptop 3060 is not equal to a desktop 3060.

For AMD cpu machines, the caveat right now is that stock is damm hard to come by. I just cancelled a order for a Lenovo P14s, since the order was pushed out till mid June. Getting a XPS 13 with a Intel chip simply because Dell have stock in the specs I want.

The problem might be getting your hands on a discrete GPU at the minute....

AnthonyB

stefanovich wrote: »

Realised that's quite an old comparison... I'm sure they are both great.

Caught that...led me to a more up to date review though.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ZephyrusG14/comments/iqdaqz/asus_rog_zephyrus_g14_vs_razer_blade_15_base/

I think it comes down to build quality, from what I can see. Different workloads (games, video, file manipulation etc.) have different results on each, and I'm looking for general purpose with some gaming and video work.

The Lenovo legion 5 had very good build quality for the price

Also if you're doing video work you should check the colour accuracy of the screen (sRGB rating of near 100%)

AnthonyB

glasso wrote: »

The Lenovo legion 5 had very good build quality for the price

Also if you're doing video work you should check the colour accuracy of the screen (sRGB rating of near 100%)

I've seen a lot of good comments about the Legion 5. Something about its design though - it's a bit too 'gamery' or something. We're getting into really subjective territory now though :-)

Thanks for the re-up though, I'll go watch a vid or two before committing.

stefanovich

AnthonyB wrote: »

Caught that...led me to a more up to date review though.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ZephyrusG14/comments/iqdaqz/asus_rog_zephyrus_g14_vs_razer_blade_15_base/

I think it comes down to build quality, from what I can see. Different workloads (games, video, file manipulation etc.) have different results on each, and I'm looking for general purpose with some gaming and video work.

Does the G14 have the lower wattage GPU that glasso warned about?

AnthonyB

stefanovich wrote: »

Does the G14 have the lower wattage GPU that glasso warned about?

Did you mean the G15? The one I'm looking at has this: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q 6GB GDDR6 with ROG Boost (Base: 982MHz, Boost: 1198MHz, TDP: 60W)

So...yeah, I guess. Lower wattage.

I think that the legion 5 is pretty conservative in design

Could be worth waiting for the 3060 card now though

Even when a gpu is not labelled max q you need to do some research

Eg 2060 cards were running at 75/80w to 115w in laptops with it not stated

beauf

stefanovich wrote: »

The problem might be getting your hands on a discrete GPU at the minute....

That's one of the reasons I went for gaming laptop. Though I wanted to be able to move the gaming rig around the house easier also.

AnthonyB

glasso wrote: »

I think that the legion 5 is pretty conservative in design

Could be worth waiting for the 3060 card now though

Even when a gpu is not labelled max q you need to do some research

Eg 2060 cards were running at 75/80w to 115w in laptops with it not stated

You're right, it's more conservative - I was thinking of the Legion Y545, which is more gamery. Research never ends...sigh!

beauf

AnthonyB wrote: »

I've seen a lot of good comments about the Legion 5. Something about its design though - it's a bit too 'gamery' or something. We're getting into really subjective territory now though :-)

Thanks for the re-up though, I'll go watch a vid or two before committing.

I have one. One of the reasons I picked that was because it mostly looks like a regular laptop. I didn't want to burn my eyes with lurid green or blind red, RGB lighting.

I'll be buying another, and I might get the razer. I prefer a brighter screen, and a keypad with out the numpad. That said I was very impressed with the Legion 5. Very hard to get the right spec in stock though. So I had to compromise at bit.

beauf

stefanovich wrote: »

In fairness that's just one man's opinion. The Razer posted above was very well received.

Intel temps are well known and are measurable. Not sure how thats opinion.

Also Dave2Ds main machine is a Razer, hes had a bunch of them. He like the screen better and they used to be able to be undervolted to bring the fan noise down etc. I just like Daves review they aren't just about the numbers but the general feel of the machine.

Look at the reviews with regard to support. Some laptop makes are better than others. Razer has mixed reviews in this regard. Wouldn't put me off but it if its your only machine it might be more important to you.

One think I like about the Lenovo and Razer is the square power connector. Seems more robust than the round one you get on Dells etc. (at least the ones I've had).

beauf

Lenovo have a Legion Pro and Legion Slim coming out soon. Theres a ton of great looking machines dues this year with new Ryzens and 3060s.

even the laptops are being snapped up now

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Nvidia-GeForce-RTX-3060-laptops-from-Hasee-snapped-up-by-the-hundreds-for-a-single-crypto-mining-farm-in-China-as-business-booms.519605.0.html

beauf

Mad.

Apple should make a version of it's M1 just for those guys.

AnthonyB

beauf wrote: »

Mad.

Apple should make a version of it's M1 just for those guys.

This is from 2013. I bet this kid is so rich right now...
https://www.theverge.com/2013/2/1/3941768/new-chips-mine-bitcoins-50-times-faster