Laptop integrated or discrete?

[doits]

So I have a beefy desktop that runs whatever game fine. I'm looking for a laptop for school/traveling home with decent battery life(6ish hours), a minimum of 1080p display, able to play league of legends at around 40fps on medium and for around 800ish us greenbacks. This is what I'm leaning towards: http://www.amazon.com/Zenbook-13-Inch-Touchscreen-i5-5200U-Windows/dp/B00YI83REG/ref=cm_cr_pr_bdcrb_top?ie=UTF8Would this laptop play lol and most steam games on low to medium with around 30fps? The best one I could find for a little more is the lenovo: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/y-series/y70-touch/?sb=:000001C9:00015732:#tab-customize or amd mgpu: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/y-series/y40-80/ Should I go i5 or i7 integrated gpu(does i7 destroy battery life?), amd apu, or just spend the 900+ on something with a discrete gpu? Thanks in advance senors.

[AnnoyedShelf]

So I have a beefy desktop that runs whatever game fine. I'm looking for a laptop for school/traveling home with decent battery life(6ish hours), a minimum of 1080p display, able to play league of legends at around 40fps on medium and for around 800ish us greenbacks. This is what I'm leaning towards: Would this laptop play lol and most steam games on low to medium with around 30fps? Should I go i5 or i7 integrated gpu, amd apu, or just spend the 1k on something with a discrete gpu? Thanks in advance senors.

a Y40-80 from lenovo will push LoL at around 100fps for about $750 Canadian.

[exercutor5]

So I have a beefy desktop that runs whatever game fine. I'm looking for a laptop for school/traveling home with decent battery life(6ish hours), a minimum of 1080p display, able to play league of legends at around 40fps on medium and for around 800ish us greenbacks. This is what I'm leaning towards: Would this laptop play lol and most steam games on low to medium with around 30fps? Should I go i5 or i7 integrated gpu, amd apu, or just spend the 1k on something with a discrete gpu? Thanks in advance senors.

 

If you are in the US, you can get something with a discrete GPU for that budget. Discrete GPUs give you more gaming performance, but when you are on battery, to save power the GPU limits itself. Most gaming laptops won't give you a 6-hour battery life.

[ThE_MarD]

Heyyo,

On Newegg I see an Asus notebook with an i5 and a GTX 950M for under $800 USD.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834232576

[SPAS-ID]

ofcourse discrete is better than Intergrated

[doits]

Ok let me clarify, I understand discrete is the best for gaming,(I asked if integrated is adequate) but if say just browsing or taking notes will the, say y40-80, just use integrated graphics so I can still get like 6hours of battery? Also it seems the asus zenbook doesn't have enough power for light gaming. So the y40-80 or this one previously linked:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834232576

Which has a gen newer mgpu and an ssd. Thanks for info it seems I want a discrete gpu, but just need to know if it will gib my battery even in low power settings just taking notes/browsing. These are the two best I've been directed to or found, but any other idea are appreciated.

[ThE_MarD]

Heyyo,

NVIDIA Optimus. What it does? It uses the Intel Intergrated graphics for power savings and then when it detects a program that is setup with an NVIDIA Control Panel profile to use the NVIDIA GPU? It switches to the NVIDIA GPU.

Battery savings on the go and gaming grunt when ya need it!

http://www.nvidia.ca/object/optimus_technology.html

My ol' Alienware M14X used the Intel HD 4000 series GMA when I was browsing the net and stuff and would use my GTX 650M when gaming. Pretty darn neat.

Here's a write-up that shows how to even set it up on programs that don't have an NVIDIA Control Panel profile to use the NVIDIA GPU when it's running:

http://www.studio1productions.com/Articles/Nvidia.htm

Before you maybe ask? YES! NVIDIA Optimus did in fact have a setup like that on certain motherboards and chipsets long ago for desktop PCs... but apparently there was some issues on there that oddly weren't an issue on notebooks so hardware vendors stopped working together....

I forget what it was called on desktop PCs... just tried Googling and I think they just called it "hybird graphics"

I think Lucid VirtuMVP does it as well with the Intel iGPU and the dGPU on desktops... but I dunno, I've never tried it... I run an SLI setup and Lucid VirtuMVP is not compatible with SLI or AMD's Crossfire.

[doits]

Heyyo,

NVIDIA Optimus. What it does? It uses the Intel Intergrated graphics for power savings and then when it detects a program that is setup with an NVIDIA Control Panel profile to use the NVIDIA GPU? It switches to the NVIDIA GPU.

Battery savings on the go and gaming grunt when ya need it!

http://www.nvidia.ca/object/optimus_technology.html

My ol' Alienware M14X used the Intel HD 4000 series GMA when I was browsing the net and stuff and would use my GTX 650M when gaming. Pretty darn neat.

Here's a write-up that shows how to even set it up on programs that don't have an NVIDIA Control Panel profile to use the NVIDIA GPU when it's running:

http://www.studio1productions.com/Articles/Nvidia.htm

Before you maybe ask? YES! NVIDIA Optimus did in fact have a setup like that on certain motherboards and chipsets long ago for desktop PCs... but apparently there was some issues on there that oddly weren't an issue on notebooks so hardware vendors stopped working together....

I forget what it was called on desktop PCs... just tried Googling and I think they just called it "hybird graphics"

I think Lucid VirtuMVP does it as well with the Intel iGPU and the dGPU on desktops... but I dunno, I've never tried it... I run an SLI setup and Lucid VirtuMVP is not compatible with SLI or AMD's Crossfire.

Appreciate the well written post, I'll save that link for setting up games with no profile. After some quick research between the r9 m275(y40-80 laptop) and 950m(asus laptop) the gap is huge on performance, I'm going with the asus laptop you linkedhttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834232576. Is the i7 for an extra 30bucks, bigger ssd, and .2ghz higher cpu clock but no 1tb hdd worth it? Or does i7 lose some of the i5 battery life? (I have no need for 1tb hdd)Thanks for the help.

[PaulKolby]

So I have a beefy desktop that runs whatever game fine. I'm looking for a laptop for school/traveling home with decent battery life(6ish hours), a minimum of 1080p display, able to play league of legends at around 40fps on medium and for around 800ish us greenbacks. This is what I'm leaning towards: http://www.amazon.com/Zenbook-13-Inch-Touchscreen-i5-5200U-Windows/dp/B00YI83REG/ref=cm_cr_pr_bdcrb_top?ie=UTF8Would this laptop play lol and most steam games on low to medium with around 30fps? The best one I could find for a little more is the lenovo: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/y-series/y70-touch/?sb=:000001C9:00015732:#tab-customize or amd mgpu: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/y-series/y40-80/ Should I go i5 or i7 integrated gpu(does i7 destroy battery life?), amd apu, or just spend the 900+ on something with a discrete gpu? Thanks in advance senors.

you should get a y50 or the y40

[doits]

you should get a y50 or the y40

I would but it's 980dollars, about 180 more than the asus, and the y40 series has the AMD Radeon R9 M275 4GB which I looked for benchmarks and it does poorly compared to 950m. I'm just stuck on getting i5 or i7 asus, I'll probably just pony up 30bucks since it doesn't seem to hurt battery life vs i5.

[linuxfan66]

If

 

So I have a beefy desktop that runs whatever game fine. I'm looking for a laptop for school/traveling home with decent battery life(6ish hours), a minimum of 1080p display, able to play league of legends at around 40fps on medium and for around 800ish us greenbacks. This is what I'm leaning towards: http://www.amazon.com/Zenbook-13-Inch-Touchscreen-i5-5200U-Windows/dp/B00YI83REG/ref=cm_cr_pr_bdcrb_top?ie=UTF8Would this laptop play lol and most steam games on low to medium with around 30fps? The best one I could find for a little more is the lenovo: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/y-series/y70-touch/?sb=:000001C9:00015732:#tab-customize or amd mgpu: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/y-series/y40-80/ Should I go i5 or i7 integrated gpu(does i7 destroy battery life?), amd apu, or just spend the 900+ on something with a discrete gpu? Thanks in advance senors.

i know this is a general statement but...if you are are going to play is lol on medium a broadwell/skylake intel integrated graphics should be enough. feel free to shoot me down if im wrong.

[doits]

If

 

i know this is a general statement but...if you are are going to play is lol on medium a broadwell/skylake intel integrated graphics should be enough. feel free to shoot me down if im wrong.

You're probably right, but people convinced me that for more intensive steam games I would need a discrete gpu and with 900m series it uses the integrated graphics for browsing so it seem to be the best of both worlds.

[ThE_MarD]

HEyyo,

 

I would but it's 980dollars, about 180 more than the asus, and the y40 series has the AMD Radeon R9 M275 4GB which I looked for benchmarks and it does poorly compared to 950m. I'm just stuck on getting i5 or i7 asus, I'll probably just pony up 30bucks since it doesn't seem to hurt battery life vs i5.

Yeah, AMD really do need to step up their mobile GPU game. I remember back in the day? the AMD Mobility Radeon 5650 was awesome in my Gateway NV5905H notebook for $700 CAD could play Mass Effect 2 very nicely... but ever since then? I haven't seen a lot of good performers unless you go for an APU... but nowadays for an $800 notebook? APUs get outclassed by the GTX 950M.

I bought my mom a Lenovo notebook with an A6 APU for around $500 CAD and it's badass though... but that's the thing, for $500. Spend a couple more hundred bucks like the OP wants to? Discrete GPU is the way to go.

 

Appreciate the well written post, I'll save that link for setting up games with no profile. After some quick research between the r9 m275(y40-80 laptop) and 950m(asus laptop) the gap is huge on performance, I'm going with the asus laptop you linkedhttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834232576. Is the i7 for an extra 30bucks, bigger ssd, and .2ghz higher cpu clock but no 1tb hdd worth it? Or does i7 lose some of the i5 battery life? (I have no need for 1tb hdd)Thanks for the help.

If you don't need that 1TB HDD? It'll game better for the i7 version but not by a crapton though.

One thing I dislike about how manufacturer's do model numbers on notebooks? They're nowhere near the same product as PC.

The i5-5500U here on Intel's spec website:

http://ark.intel.com/products/85212/Intel-Core-i5-5200U-Processor-3M-Cache-up-to-2_70-GHz

The i7-5500U here on Intel's spec website:

http://ark.intel.com/products/85214/Intel-Core-i7-5500U-Processor-4M-Cache-up-to-3_00-GHz

As you can see, both are dual cores with hyper threading. The main differences is the L2 cache and clock speeds. 300MHz will help a bit sure, but that bigger SSD might benefit you more with a more responsive notebook. It'll also have better power savings than an HDD and less heat due to no moving parts.

Another prime example of misleading models between notebooks and desktops? AMD's R9 290... the AMD R9 M290X... it's slower than a desktop's AMD R9 270X.

http://hothardware.com/reviews/alienware-17-amds-r9-m290x-goes-mobile?page=6

So yeah, it isn't a lot more expensive for the higher-end Asus notebook for a bigger SSD and slightly faster CPU... so if you got the spare cash? Heck yeah I say go for it.

[Guest]

It's not the 950m era anymore where integrated graphics are super worthless you know? I'll just throw out that while my X240 is a gen or two old, it can play League pretty okay and I can squeeze a good 17 hours of battery life with the 6 cell on a good day. You can buy these things new for like $500. The new X250 is about $850 without coupons if you're looking for a rugged ultrabook in that price. Alternatively, something like the Y40 offers pretty awesome performance for a similar price if horsepower is more valuable to you. The market is super competitive right now so there's a lot of options.