Which ThinkPad does serious gaming?

Ive been looking at the W530 Mobile Workstation as they're cheap on the Barnes and Noble website and Ive only been hearing good things about them. I don't like the colorful Ideapads, I like the rock solid reliability and design of a thinkpad.

Serious gaming being capable of running all current games (Battlefield 3, Sleeping Dogs, etc)

 

Get any Thinkpad with expresscard and use egpu. Next year you'll get Thunderbolt egpu in all models, Edge S430 has Thunderbolt now.

 

I dont think you'd want a thinkpad for serious gaming.

expresscard egpu = lots of trouble for not so much bigger performance.

 

If you really wants a Thinkpad and are okay with W530's price and form factor, then it should be just fine in terms of gaming. The Nvidia Quadro K2000M is a pretty good at gaming even though it's primarily a business card. As a new generation Kepler chip it's probably between the performance of a GT640M and GT650M.

 

Well it's cheaper then my X230T.

$1309 vs $1494 for my X330T. Obviously would buy a SSD and upgrade the RAM separately.

 

You'll find that a properly-set-up eGPU will net you quite a bit of increased performance (in many cases, enough to play some modern games at max settings at native resolution), even on an X-series ultraportable.

For gaming, the W530 with the upgraded video card would probably be your best bet.

 

So a eGPU would be sufficient instead of returning X230T for W530?

 

It's more cost effective, if you don't plan gaming on the tiny laptop screen. eGPU itself does not cost much, and if you find fps inadequate for the games/resolution you want, your next step is building a proper desktop and reusing the purchased videocard ($300 desktop videocard is in different league performance-wise from any mobile discrete video, simply because it can dissipate 150W+ if it needs to).

If you do want to play on the laptop itself, w/o external monitor, Y580 with GTX660M is quite a bit faster.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M - Notebookcheck.net Tech
NVIDIA Quadro K2000M - Notebookcheck.net Tech

 

ThinkPad's are really not meant to be gamed with, in terms of popular 3D games. It'll handle casual gaming, but that's about it. Quadro series cards are optimized for CAD and have completely different drivers than GeForce. Even with a W530, you'd have to turn settings down to run games like BF3. DIY eGPU also requires you use an external monitor..

 

I agree with others. If you are looking for "SERIOUS GAMING!!1" you may want an Alienware or some other boat anchor.

Lenovos are aimed at business users. They will function with gaming, but you will always be left wanting more specs and speed.

 

No Thinkpad will do serious gaming, no matter what you do. They are not made for that.

 

If you want similar understated looks you can look at Clevo laptops.

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

 

If it has Optimus, you can use the internal screen of your laptop. External GPUs is honestly the way to go if you have a little bit of technical skill and want to improve ANY laptop to play with a decent desktop level GPU (which can match the top notebook GPUs for a fraction of the price).

 

Yep, with the latest-generation T-series and W-series Thinkpads equipped with Optimus, you can use an eGPU system to game on the internal screen. Not a bad solution at all, if you do want to game at high/max settings. It's certainly pretty interesting to see an X230 play Battlefield 3 at near-max settings...

Just be prepared to do your own research and reading on what parts you'll need and how to get it working. The eGPU subforum is a good resource.

 

Interesting. I may do a eGPU instead and keep my beloved touchscreen

 

That's what I'm going to do also, Lenovo is working the release of a bios fix for the tablet to get the full usage from the expresscard slot.

X230 expresscard adressing (eGPU) - Lenovo Community

 

Just be aware that an eGPU will require an expresscard to pci-e adapter that will run about $90, so you have to factor that cost on top of the actual GPU itself. I was bummed out to see that price because I was looking at ~$50 for an HD 6670. The extra cost of the adapter plus an external monitor means I'm re-thinking the eGPU option myself.

 

While I'm not saying it's a cheap solution, if you do any gaming, it's a heck of a lot cheaper for the performance you get than investing in another notebook or another solution.

 

I have the W530 with the K1000M, and I find it fine for any gaming I want to do. I can get Skyrim going on Very High settings, 1080p. It's fairly choppy, mind you, but playable. I've been playing Assassins Creed on max, Source engine games(Half Life 2, Portal 2, TF2) on max, and I can play Just Cause 2 at modest settings with good FPS. I haven't tried BF3 yet, but anything I throw at this seems to work fine. And yes, on a K1000M. initially figured I'd do an eGPU down the road, but I'm overjoyed with the power of this machine, and no longer see the need.

 

Computer Games on Laptop Graphic Cards - Notebookcheck.net Tech

K2000M is a pretty good card. But unsure if I really want to drop me having a tablet and touchscreen for a large brick W530. Ima keep this and do a eGPU.