As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/
Options
Gaming Laptop - How good is "good enough"?
ArcSyn
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I haven't had a gaming PC in about 5+ years now, ever since my desktop died and I gave up my office for a nursery. As such, I have no desk, so no place to put a desktop.
I want to play some PC games, like Starcraft 2, Borderlands (and 2 when it comes out), and a bunch of indie stuff I've gotten from the HIBs over the past few years. I don't have much money though, and I've been trying to compare laptop graphics cards using notebookcheck.net. I found this laptop on Newegg, and then found it slightly cheaper at Buy.com, and it seems to be the cheapest laptop I've seen with a graphics card that has 2GB of dedicated memory.
Acer Aspire AS7750G-6662
Newegg link $700
Buy.com link $667
Basic specs:
Win7 64bit
17" screen
Core i5-2430M (2.4GHz)
4GB DDR3
AMD Radeon HD 6650M w/ 2GB dedicated
Notebookcheck.net on the graphics card
Notebookcheck.net lists the card as a "class 2" which is middle-grade for dedicated chips, only "class 1" is better. Averages in the 1100s on 3DMark 11. And from the benchmarked games they list, it looks like just about anything from the last year will run well in medium to high graphics, with a few exceptions for poorly optimized or really intense games like Skyrim that doesn't even hit 30fps on low. (I have no interest in Skyrim so that's not a factor)
Will this be "good enough" with 2GB of dedicated memory? It seems like every other laptop I look at is 1GB until you hit $800+ and that's essentially out of my price range. Is it worth getting a laptop this cheap or should I save up some more for something better? For comparison I saw Cyberpower has the Xplorer X6-9200 for $860, but even that only has a nVidia GT540M chip which seems to be on par with the Radeon HD 6650M. The biggest differences are the Xplorer comes with an i7 and 8GB of RAM, but only has a 15" screen.
I want to play some PC games, like Starcraft 2, Borderlands (and 2 when it comes out), and a bunch of indie stuff I've gotten from the HIBs over the past few years. I don't have much money though, and I've been trying to compare laptop graphics cards using notebookcheck.net. I found this laptop on Newegg, and then found it slightly cheaper at Buy.com, and it seems to be the cheapest laptop I've seen with a graphics card that has 2GB of dedicated memory.
Acer Aspire AS7750G-6662
Newegg link $700
Buy.com link $667
Basic specs:
Win7 64bit
17" screen
Core i5-2430M (2.4GHz)
4GB DDR3
AMD Radeon HD 6650M w/ 2GB dedicated
Notebookcheck.net on the graphics card
Notebookcheck.net lists the card as a "class 2" which is middle-grade for dedicated chips, only "class 1" is better. Averages in the 1100s on 3DMark 11. And from the benchmarked games they list, it looks like just about anything from the last year will run well in medium to high graphics, with a few exceptions for poorly optimized or really intense games like Skyrim that doesn't even hit 30fps on low. (I have no interest in Skyrim so that's not a factor)
Will this be "good enough" with 2GB of dedicated memory? It seems like every other laptop I look at is 1GB until you hit $800+ and that's essentially out of my price range. Is it worth getting a laptop this cheap or should I save up some more for something better? For comparison I saw Cyberpower has the Xplorer X6-9200 for $860, but even that only has a nVidia GT540M chip which seems to be on par with the Radeon HD 6650M. The biggest differences are the Xplorer comes with an i7 and 8GB of RAM, but only has a 15" screen.
ArcSyn on
0
Posts
Certainly a 6650M isn't going to be gimped by not having more than 1GB.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
honestly I would not bother getting a high priced laptop for gaming. Laptops are never that great for gaming, the only reason to get one is when you want to game on the go and you travel a lot or are a student with space constraints ect. The 5650 I have has been sufficient for everything on the market currently.
I also own a dedicated gaming desktop PC though as well, but it is nice to have a laptop that can play some games too for when I travel around.