Eager to buy a laptop for gaming on low-medium settings (500-600$)

[Kovalskis]

Hello.Recently my pc died on me completely. The poor thing met its end after 5 years of use. Sure enough, I came up with an idea to get a laptop - mostly for college and gaming. But now I'm in a pickle because I don't know much about decent laptops.Would like some advice and/or specific recommendations on a 500-600$ laptop (mostly to run games like cs:go, league of legends, maybe some of the 3xA games). I've heard from some close friends that Asus and Acer are best in performance but I'm not sure. Thanks for taking your time to read this.

[shadowbyte]

This might be a good option

http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-15-6-Inch-i5-5200U-Windows/dp/B016PY3SLC/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1455612315&sr=1-1&keywords=laptop&refinements=p_36%3A-60000%2Cp_n_feature_seven_browse-bin%3A3012497011

dual core w/hyperthreading

GTX 940m. Better than integrated graphics, good for light gaming.

 

[Kovalskis]

11 minutes ago, shadowbyte said:

This might be a good option

http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-15-6-Inch-i5-5200U-Windows/dp/B016PY3SLC/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1455612315&sr=1-1&keywords=laptop&refinements=p_36%3A-60000%2Cp_n_feature_seven_browse-bin%3A3012497011

dual core w/hyperthreading

GTX 940m. Better than integrated graphics, good for light gaming.

 

That was fast :D. Thanks. That seems to be a HUGE discount for a laptop, will be taking into consideration.

[shadowbyte]

Just now, Kovalskis said:

That was fast :D. Thanks. That seems to be a HUGE discount for a laptop, will be taking into consideration.

i could be sleeping, but no, at 4 AM, here I am. Browsing the forums.

[Andrew Sh]

28 minutes ago, Kovalskis said:

Hello.Recently my pc died on me completely. The poor thing met its end after 5 years of use. Sure enough, I came up with an idea to get a laptop - mostly for college and gaming. But now I'm in a pickle because I don't know much about decent laptops.Would like some advice and/or specific recommendations on a 500-600$ laptop (mostly to run games like cs:go, league of legends, maybe some of the 3xA games). I've heard from some close friends that Asus and Acer are best in performance but I'm not sure. Thanks for taking your time to read this.

Have a look around for anything with a gt840m/gt940m (difference is next gen = same performance but slightly more power efficient)
May find something nice.

[Kovalskis]

8 minutes ago, Andrew Sh said:

Have a look around for anything with a gt840m/gt940m (difference is next gen = same performance but slightly more power efficient)
May find something nice.

That's useful info. Will do! Thanks. 

[don_svetlio]

3 hours ago, Andrew Sh said:

Have a look around for anything with a gt840m/gt940m (difference is next gen = same performance but slightly more power efficient)
May find something nice.

That's not correct. A 940M is 20% above a 840M. A 850M is 25% above a 940M and so on.

3 hours ago, Kovalskis said:

That's useful info. Will do! Thanks. 

Look for a 940M as minimum or an 850M if you want solid performance. Avoid Acer, HP and Asus in this price range

[djdelarosa25]

20 minutes ago, don_svetlio said:

Avoid Acer, HP and Asus in this price range

Why avoid Acer? They're the only ones to deliver solid specs at this price range. Or at least in my country. (They compete with 1366x768, Core i3s with 820M or 920Ms here while they have i5s, 940Ms and FHD screens). There was this ASUS for the same price and they had identical specs, but the ASUS had a 768p display.

[don_svetlio]

1 minute ago, djdelarosa25 said:

Why avoid Acer? They're the only ones to deliver solid specs at this price range. Or at least in my country. (They compete with 1366x768, Core i3s with 820M or 920Ms here).

Because their laptops are all specs and no quality.

There are numerous people complaining about heat issues, they never use actual metal and only plastic in their machines, the customer support is just as bad as Asus and so on

[djdelarosa25]

2 minutes ago, don_svetlio said:

Because their laptops are all specs and no quality.

There are numerous people complaining about heat issues, they never use actual metal and only plastic in their machines, the customer support is just as bad as Asus and so on

 

What brands do you recommend at that price point (600-700 USD)?

[don_svetlio]

Just now, djdelarosa25 said:

 

What brands do you recommend at that price point (600-700 USD)?

Dell Inspiron 7559 is just a bit above at 749-799
Lenovo Y50 can be had for 849
Lenovo Z-series are also okay for the task, less power than the Acer but a much better machine.
HP Elitebook/Probook are good
Lenovo ThinkPad
Dell Latitude
MSI can also be had for 800~ish

[Andrew Sh]

On 2/16/2016 at 0:39 PM, don_svetlio said:

That's not correct. A 940M is 20% above a 840M. A 850M is 25% above a 940M and so on.

Look for a 940M as minimum or an 850M if you want solid performance. Avoid Acer, HP and Asus in this price range

You seem to think next gen = much better performance. You seem to think wrong.
There's a marginal difference. 5%-ish.

It's quite similar to the 860m vs 960m. Very small performance boost.

http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-940M-vs-GeForce-840M

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-940M.138027.0.html
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-840M.105681.0.html

When chosing between the 2 have to just keep in mind that if the laptop with a 940m is more than 10% more expensive, it's probably not worth it.
 

[don_svetlio]

13 minutes ago, Andrew Sh said:

You seem to think next gen = much better performance. You seem to think wrong.
There's a marginal difference. 5%-ish.

It's quite similar to the 860m vs 960m. Very small performance boost.

http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-940M-vs-GeForce-840M

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-940M.138027.0.html
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-840M.105681.0.html

When chosing between the 2 have to just keep in mind that if the laptop with a 940m is more than 10% more expensive, it's probably not worth it.
 

You seem to think I'm ignorant. You seem to forget the 850M, 860M, 950M and 960M are all rebrands of the 750 Ti

You seem to forget the 940M is significantly more powerful than the 840M.

[infamoustrey]

Ladies and Gentlemen let's be civil. 

 

Back on topic, the 940m does offer a 5-10fps difference  over the 840m. It is more powerful however the difference is marginal and in real world gaming it seems to be more up to the processor than the whether the laptop has either of these two GPU's, at least at this price point.

 

So ultimately the decision is going to come down to whether or the price gap is worth it to you. If fps matters and you feel like dishing out the extra money you may just want to wait and save for a higher end laptop.