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I'm in the market for a new laptop and I'm looking for something that can run some of the new games fairly well(like DoW 2 or Starcraft 2 graphics on medium) and was wondering if the following would be able to cut it;

1.8 GHz AMD Phenom II P820 triple-core processor
4 GB DDR3 RAM
ATI Radeon HD 4250

I'm not looking for something that's going to run the games at the highest settings quickly because that's too expensive for me right now. I just want to be able to play some of the newer games at a decent FPS and graphic level, preferably for under $700.

Any advice is appreciated.

I have:
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T5750 @ 2.00GHz
4GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

I can run Mass Effect 2 fine, but that's really the only new game I play on PC. Anything better than what I have should be fine.

You should get an Asus laptop, best bang for your buck laptop and generally blows other brands away in pure specs and customer service.

Gaming laptops are ridiculously expensive for what you get. Get a desktop. A lot more cost effective.

Yeah, I agree with wolfun, unless your loaded, a gaming laptop is almost never worth it.

I can't really go with a desk top because I really need the mobility, I would prefer a desk top because they're easier to upgrade but unfortunately I can't.Thanks though.

My brother has an Asus and it runs fantastically.

Now as far as GHz and the video cards are concerned how good is 2.0GHz and what's the difference between a Radeon and an GeForce?

2.0GHZ of what?
AMD? Phenom? ahtlon?
Intel? Core2 duo? i5? i3? i7?

Radeon and Geforce is a different brand of graphic card
Geforce power rating goes like this

the higher the number the better it is until it stops at 9800
then start back at 1xx, upto 3xx(newer stuff)

I don't understand how Ati power rating goes

I've got an Asus, and I run DoWII on highest settings just fine.
Intel Core Duo 2 2.53GHz processors
nVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 260M 1GB standalone video card
6 GB of RAM

Year and a half old, still running newer games just fine. However, it did exceed your budget quite a bit...

2.0 GHz of processing power, I don't know which chip sets are the better ones.

I guess that phenom's are newer so they may be better, but that's what I'm wondering. Which processor is the better of them all?

I have....
2.2 GHz dual core processor
4GB of ram
some ATI card w/ 1GB of dedicated memory.
I can run SC2 on highest settings.
You should be fine.

get an alien ware m11x from only £875 or £750 depending on which youtube adverts you see

but seriously in most cases ati are better than geforce in most cases and usualy on thm the higher the number the better
if you can get a core2 quad runs very nice

Okay then, taking the advice I went out and found the following:

Brand: Asus
Processor: 2.13GHz Intel Pentium P6200 mobile
500GB Hard Drive
4GB Ram
15.6" screen.

Then there's the upgrade which includes;
Processor: Intel Core i3-380M
640GB Hard Drive.
Same Ram, scree, and brand.


The first one is on sale for $449.99 and the upgrade is $549.99, would the upgrade be worth it based on the processor?

What video card? You can have uber-awesome processors and a metric ton of RAM, but without a decent video card (or any video card for that matter) you won't be gaming on it.

I can't really tell from the website and the in store display had no info, but here's a link to the computer.

It says UMA w/OMB but I'm not sure what that means.

laptop

Pretty sure you could get a gaming desktop for cheaper than that, shop around. try websites that let you build a computer/laptop(if you have the know how about computers) as pre-built comps always sell you out in one aspect or another IE good processor but crap graphics card or ram.

Wait a few months for sandybridge to launch standard across platforms, if you go in now you're going to be outdated more heavily then you would typically within a short span of time.

could you clarify what your talking about shuma

This is a pretty good asus laptop
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220749

Tophawtdog4411 wrote:could you clarify what your talking about shuma

This is a pretty good asus laptop
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220749

Sandybridge is the next iteration of intels CPU line. About a 30% bump in performance minimum across the line. About the size of difference between a core i5 and i7.

I'm interested in this 'sandybridge' you speak of, do you have an idea of when they may be starting to implement them?

It also seems that there is a rather large preference for Asus computers, that makes me feel better about my own preferences then. My brother has an Asus and we were both running Lord of the Rings Online on the same graphics level, his ran smoothly and mine lagged. As far as building one goes I'm largely incompetent, I can tell you what certain things do but I can't tell you which brand is the best.

Soon, I think. Wouldn't be surprised if they debuted in february.

I both thank you and hate you Shuma. I wanted to get a lap top within the week, but with this new information it would be stupid if I did.

the laptop you said about if an upgrade is a I3 then it can't be to brilliant
with the new line of procesors I3 is like the lowest one they do

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Bridge

I guess it's already out in some platforms.

Intel Processors have better performance in their highest end line, the i7 Extreme. They also cost more at every interval. You will always get better bang for your buck with AMD processors. The key to getting a good gaming laptop is to get one with a video card that has it's own memory, even if it is a small amount, like 128Mbs, 256, or something like that. The reason being, whatever you are doing that the video card cant handle with the RAM it has on it's own chip, it has to send out to the system RAM to get processed. System RAM is slow, but you have alot of it...but it is very slow, the slowest in your system to be exact, and your video card will have to wait for the packets to be sent to the RAM, and then back to the video card. Now, if your video card does not have it's own onboard memory, then it has to send EVERYTHING out to the system memory, which will eat your system alive if you play games. If you have a small amount of video card memory, then your video card will be able to handle all the small operations that go on quickly, and it will improve performance substantially, like it is in a whole new class of computing.

Also, my buddy has an MSI laptop that performs very well and it only cost him 600$ (on black friday). It has 256mbs of sideport video card RAM, 4gigs of system RAM, and a 2.4Ghz intel i5. MSI is well known on the high high high performance scene for having the world record of the highest OverClocking motherboards (they achieved nearly 6Ghz stable with an i7). Their specialty is Motherboards and video cards however, so their selection is fairly sparse.

Okay, the video card makes sense because I was seeing someone talking about a Toshiba with a shared memory for its video card even though it was 125mb-some number.

Is there a specific phrase that will tell me if the video card doesn't share memory?

85% of laptops do not have dedicated video card memory, so you want to look for the phrases that tell you that the machine has the memory, not phrases that tell that it doesnt. What you want to look for are terms like; "Sideport Memory", "dedicated Video card/graphics Memory" or things like that. They usually appear adjacent to the name/model of the video card present in the system.

Here is a laptop that actually has a field under the "Details" tab beneath the video card specs labeled Video Memory

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152215

I would suggest shopping on Newegg.com as they have the best pricing and the best selection that I have been able to find. From their homepage select the "PC/laptops" tab from the gold bar towards the top of the screen. Then select "laptops/notebooks". From there, select "Advanced Options" from the search options on the left side, then navigate to the drop down menu with the heading: "Graphic Type:". Select "Dedicated video card" from that drop down menu, and Newegg will show you a list of laptops that only have dedicated video cards with their own Memory. All the laptops with integrated cards will be ruled out. From that list (around 200 or so) you should be able to find what you need.

That laptop I linked is similar to the one my friend purchased, but his had the i5, which would be the minimum CPU that I would purchase, or a triple core AMD Phenom II. Either would be fine.

Too bad you are looking for one now, you can save hundreds on black friday. If I were you, I would wait until then to purchase a laptop, the savings are just incredible.

On a side note: I work for a certain brown shipping company and we have a plane dedicated to a Newegg distribution center in New Jersey. Around christmas/blackfriday, that plane arrives full, leaves, and comes back full before my shift ends. We handle Thousands of boxes from Newegg in a 4 hour period and we easily handle over 12,000 of their boxes during our busy season.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, you want to avoid laptops that use this kind of RAM:

4GB Memory DDR3 1066

Large companies like HP/dell etc etc etc like to say that their computers use DDR3 because it is the newest thing to come out. However, DDR3 1066 is very slow, and it will bog your system pretty bad. It is the slowest DDR3 you can get. They have DDR3 that is up around 2166 now, I believe. Look for around DDR3 1600.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
If you cannot find a system with DDR3 1600 or more then try and get a system with DDR2 1066, it will perform MUCH faster than the DDR3.

Wow, that has to be the most detailed listing for a laptop I've seen from anybody. You've definitely turned me on to Newegg so I'll stick with them for awhile and see what comes up around black friday.

I want to thank all of you who helped guide this consumer in the right direction and I think I know what I'm looking for now.

At minimum an i5 or a AMD Triple core Phenom II(or best when newer ones come out), a dedicated graphics card(or sideport), wait for the new processors to come out so I can pick one up close to black friday, and look at Asus or MSI.

Again, I want to thank everyone who helped me out with this.