15 vs 17 Inch Laptop Screen for (Mostly) Gaming

[Everest Witman]

I'm currently thinking about buying a high-end gaming laptop from MSI. I have two options: the GT60 which has a 15 inch screen or the GT70 which is 17 inches. Both are exactly the same price and have the same specs and resolution. The weight difference is about a pound.

I'm a college student and would also be using this laptop heavily for school and software development (I'm majoring in computer science). Do you guys think the bigger screen is worth the decrease in portability?

 

[coastie65]

I'm currently thinking about buying a high-end gaming laptop from MSI. I have two options: the GT60 which has a 15 inch screen or the GT70 which is 17 inches. Both are exactly the same price and have the same specs and resolution. The weight difference is about a pound.

I'm a college student and would also be using this laptop heavily for school and software development (I'm majoring in computer science). Do you guys think the bigger screen is worth the decrease in portability?

Hi. I guess that is dependent on the individual. If you are comfortable with carrying a 17' around, then fine. It would be better suited for gaming.

 

[dasulman]

the majority of messenger bags and satchels are smaller than the 17", think about your bag, and remember the weight.

 

[coastie65]

I ahve a 15.6" and a 17" both in bags. I think the 17" is a Swiss Army bag. Not a bad bag. I inherited that from my Brother-in-Law. It is a Nice HP, but the Graphics chipdet went out and need to replace the Motherboard, which I have.

 

[Everest Witman]

I would say go for the GT60.

Not only is it smaller and easier to move around, but it's a better bang for the buck. You can get an MSI GT60 Dominator-424 with a GTX 870M for $1299.


I'm also not a huge fan of 17.3" laptops, even though I own one. Unfortunately ASUS doesn't make 15.6" ROG laptops anymore, so when I got mine I was kinda stuck with the 17.3" option.

The thing about the $1300 GT60 is that it has an i7 4700MQ as apposed to the 4800MQ. The difference is about 0.3 GHz. Is this at all significant? I've also found models of the GT60 that come with 16 GBs of RAM and the 4800MQ for $1400. How much would the extra RAM help performance?

 

[dasulman]

I would say go for the GT60.

Not only is it smaller and easier to move around, but it's a better bang for the buck. You can get an MSI GT60 Dominator-424 with a GTX 870M for $1299.


I'm also not a huge fan of 17.3" laptops, even though I own one. Unfortunately ASUS doesn't make 15.6" ROG laptops anymore, so when I got mine I was kinda stuck with the 17.3" option.

The thing about the $1300 GT60 is that it has an i7 4700MQ as apposed to the 4800MQ. The difference is about 0.3 GHz. Is this at all significant? I've also found models of the GT60 that come with 16 GBs of RAM and the 4800MQ for $1400. How much would the extra RAM help performance?

minimally, 16GB is just overkill, I highly doubt it would even affect your framerate, same for the CPU. Unless you're doing some really hard core video rendering you wouldn't notice it at all