Gaming Laptop Opinion

Hello There!
I am about to purchase a Gaming Laptop and i need your help on what i should get
I want to play games like GTA IV BF4 and even GTA V when it comes out on high specs
***I want to play GTA IV with a lot of mods***
What I see as my option right now is the Lenovo y50 Gaming Laptop
(GTX 860m 2GB Maxwell!)
Intel i7-4700MQ 2.4GHz
8GB ram
1TB HDD
I like the laptop because its not heavy and its pretty thin for a gaming laptop
Can someone please inform me if i can run games like gta v when they come out near high settings with mods because i am very confused
*****How long do you think this laptop will last specs-wise and wear and tear(build quality-wise)?
Thanks Everyone
P.S. budget is around $1000 for other laptops in mind thanks again!

 

Since you're new here: What Notebook Should I Buy? - A Laptop Buyers Guide

 

Okay, I'm going to have to dash your hopes a bit, and as I see how this is your first post on the forums, I'm going to give you some basic truths in bullet point form.

1 - $1000 is not enough to get you a laptop (or desktop containing each piece of hardware that a laptop brings, such as keyboard/pointing device/screen/speakers/possibly OS/etc) that is capable of running any of those games on max. You might be able to OC the listed 860M to get decent performance out of BF4 on high with the listed i7-4700MQ, but it's not going to be anything ground-breaking.

2 - The more you pay for laptops is generally the better returns you get, excepting the highest-end i7 mobile CPU. Desktops are a little different, because they usually allow for better performance if you get multiple mid-range GPUs and a midrange CPU for less money than a high end CPU and high end GPU with comparable performance. Laptops have a BIG jump in power between midrange, medium-high end and the high end video cards, especially with overclocking potential.

3 - GTA 4 (and until it comes out and is proven otherwise, expect GTA 5 to do the same) is a TERRIBLY optimized game. Awful. Disgusting. It causes problems for even people with the highest-end machines to use. People HAVE tweaked it and modded it and made it work somehow, but remember: videos only show 30fps on youtube and it's often difficult to tell the in-game graphic settings too. For all you know those people doing real-life-like videos/screenshots were getting 30-40 fps and the game was running on medium-high XD.

4 - I don't know about the Lenovo Y50 laptop's build quality. I know Lenovo are pretty popular and usually last quite a while, but if it's your primary machine obviously its lifespan will be shortened due to constant usage (especially with a lot of gaming), so expect maybe 2-3 years of solid use (with proper care) without any issues. DX 12 might help the longevity of the 860M some more too, but otherwise expect about a year or so of high graphics at 1080p for new games. The i7 won't be obsolete anytime soon though.

5 - Thin and Light are NOT synonymous with power.
- If you tend toward thin/light, you move away from cooling and power.
- If you want both thin/light and power, you have to pack on the price, and you still move away from cooling.
- If you tend away from price, you tend away from power and cooling.
- You CANNOT get three "good" states. You must always compromise two opposing states and pick two non-opposing states. For example, you can get a cheap machine that's thin/light, but it ain't gonna be able to game like crazy. You can pick a thin/light machine with decent gaming capabilities, but it isn't going to be the coolest kid on the block AND it'll likely cost you a decent bit. Or you can get a machine with good cooling and a good price, but don't expect it to be too thin or too strong. If you take good cooling and good power, you sacrifice thin/light and price. It's all about paying for what you get, really.

Now that that's over with, I'm not accusing you of wanting light/thin machines that run games, or saying that you would try to get the best of all worlds so to speak, I was just listen how things really are in general, as again you seem to be quite new to this.

In short, don't expect anything for $1000 to run such high-profile games on high/ultra/max/etc at 1080p (or maybe even 900p) without any drawbacks. For example, you may get battlefield to run 1080p high with the machine, but you're likely not going to get 60+fps in all instances, or you're going to see your CPU heat the hell up (which battlefield LOVES doing to CPUs).
Will that machine do you well for $1000? Hell yes. Will that machine be faithful to you? Most likely. Will you be able to mostly max your games for the next few years? Not even close. Will you be able to smoothly run games without intense graphical mods or with settings turned down a bit at 1080p for the next few years? Definitely so. Will you be able to overclock the GPU to get more juice? Definitely so, though it depends on heat/stability/how much you fear losing a warranty/etc. Will you be able to run GTA 4/5 with ICE enhancer mod and make it look photorealistic pretty? Nope. Will you be able to use the mod to make GTA 4/5 look better than normal? Probably so.

 

gta 4 is terrible ported but it will be alright on 860m..I play on 760M overclocked all max at 25+fps..mostly between 30-40fps and at night 40-55..so expect around 30+fps all maxed...ice enhancer works pretty slow..he told you right..no single laptop gpu can hadnle that mod.

 

d2 ultima, good write up. Yea laptops require much more money to be gaming worthy. You can easily build a high end gameing pc for under 1k, but you will be lucky to match its power in laptops under 2k.

The nvidia M chips are the standard line of GPUs, the performance GPUs you seek do not have M at the end of it.

GTA4 is pretty badly optimised and mods just make it so much worse. You need obscene i7 rigs to run the real pretty mods.

Btw I belive GTA5 will be in a much better position. GTA4 sucked on pc performance wise because it sucked on consoles performance wise. GTA5 seems to be on a much better version of the engine that handles a dynamic LOD on the fly so much better and has zero frame rate issues, it should handle much better then 4 did.

 

The "M" series aren't the standard line of GPUs... the "M" series are the mobile lineup for laptops. My 780Ms are quite potent for gaming, though I have an M in the name. A lack of an "M" means it's a desktop card is all.

As for the high end gaming PC under 1K, that is also not possible... IF you buy everything the laptop offers. This means a (usually) 1080p screen, a decent keyboard, a mouse of some kind, speakers, a wireless card if your desktop board doesn't automatically include one, etc. Those things alone usually add up to $300+, which leaves only $700 for the rest of the system. This is, however, why laptops need more money to be worth it for gaming initially. You can't buy a laptop missing a screen/speakers/etc because you have your own at home; that defeats the purpose of it being a laptop. That's why good gaming machines in laptop land with decent cooling etc usually don't come below $1300 or so, because they already include all the other stuff. But when you get to high end, you get more value for your money, as if you spend $1900 on a gaming laptop you could get a 780M/880M and an i7 with 16GB RAM and an SSD etc. It's not too shabby a deal, and if you built a desktop with a 770 + 16GB of RAM + i7 (the mobile i7s *ARE* stronger than the flagship desktop i5s) + all the other stuff, you may find your laptop is within a $300-400 price difference versus the desktop hardware. Which is a very good thing for you, considering it'll be mobile with all the benefits that come with that. But a $1000 has to pack more things into the price point, which means the unnecessary parts' qualities would suffer (aka strength of GPU/CPU/RAM/etc)

 

Hmm my bad, I thought I read they kept the performance line of mobile processors without the M. Obviously they wernt talking about the desktop gpu because the desktop and gpu line are not in synch model number wise.

I do understand what you mean if you were thinking about the desktop display and sound as well. On the other hand unlike any laptop, your displays and sound is future proof for as long as it remains functional too. It is pretty easy to build a 4770k + 770 rig for just 1k,

 

Well yeah, it is easy to build a 4770k/770 rig for just 1k with good hard drives/ram/etc, but once you add the accessories it becomes way too hard or even impossible.

 

Need to get my eyes checked. I read the title as Gaming Laptop Onion...

$1k is a good budget for a powerful gaming desktop. But the fact that you can get a gaming laptop with an 860m now well equipped for < $1300, it's a good option if you want/need the mobility.

 

htwing, we were simply bringing in line what to expect from a laptop versus a desktop of the same price range. A gaming desktop under 1k is no big deal, but for a laptop only a hand full of medium gaming (secondary gpu and good cpu) laptops start at that point. And because mobile gpus are weaker overall it really takes an sli laptop to match a high end gaming desktop. Also making sure the laptop has good construction for a good cooling solution helps in keeping hardware failures low.

 

QUOTE=HTWingNut;9647565]Need to get my eyes checked. I read the title as Gaming Laptop Onion...

$1k is a good budget for a powerful gaming desktop. But the fact that you can get a gaming laptop with an 860m now well equipped for < $1300, it's a good option if you want/need the mobility.[/QUOTE]
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You were right either way, as cutting into an Onion or Gaming laptop Onion will both bring tears
and make a mess all at the same time..... :laugh:

 

Short answer: No.

You will need dual solutions to deal with unoptimized games along with a powerful i7. Now to speculate if your games will run smoothly years down the road...definitely not. However you can run at a mix of "pretty high" settings if you invest in a good computer up front. 1K is not going to be enough. Sorry.