Can This Laptop Game?

[WelshZen]

Hi, im looking for a decent gaming laptop nothing over the top just something for decent/medium gaming, ive found a laptop with these specs..is it any good?

Intel® Core™ i3-2367M Dual Core Processor (1.4Ghz)
Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64-bit
4GB DDR3 RAM
Dedicated GT 640M Graphics
500GB HDD + 20GB SSD

 

[wanderer11]

It won't be great, but what is the screen res and what games do you want to play?

 

[WelshZen]

15.6" (Acer CineCrystal, 1366x768 HD, High Brightness, LED Backlit) < and Definatley Football Manager 13 mostly and maybe Empire Total War

 

[yialanliu]

I am concerned not with the spec but the model. I have heard of ultrathins with a 640m failing not because the graphics card stinks but because it can't dissipate the heat well enough and becomes throttled making a game easily playable at 720p medium unplayable.

EDIT: Saw that you added the 15.6 inch version which is much better. I know the timelinex 3830 for instalce was horrible due to throttling but was mitigated by the 15.6 inch version since it was bigger and could dissipate heat more effectively.

Acer CineCrystal isn't a model number, just the type of display so if you give the model number, it'd be easier to verify if the laptop has throttling issues from revies.

Next, Football Manager is not very taxing at all on the graphics system so you should be fine. It's actually a large CPU bound game if you play with a lot of regions on doing simultaneous simulations. If you only do like 5 countries, you should be fine. IF you do more, you should consider spending mroe on a processor and forego the graphics card. I play FM2013 on a desktop and I wish I had a beefier processor than my current i3 2120 which is about twice as fast as your ultralow volt part.

 

[WelshZen]

Okay thanks.... here is the model name > Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3-581TG

 

[yialanliu]

On notebookcheck which reviews laptops, here's a quote:

The internal temperatures reached extremely critical values under our load test. The Geforce leveled off at around 93 °C on the Furmark benchmark whilst the processor cores ranged between 90 and 97 °C under concurrent Prime95 load. The considerable oscillation is explained by continual core throttling to 800 MHz. We also observed thermal throttling in HWInfo32 at times. With only Prime95 active, the cores remained at 81 °C since the entire thermal budget could be exploited. In Battlefield 3, the graphics card leveled out at a moderate temperature of 84 °C while the CPU cores reached 91 °C at 2.1 - 2.2 GHz without throttling. There's not much leeway in terms of thermal budget for both the CPU and GPU, but both processing units handle the available energy budget between them in a safe manner.

Coincidentally, we also reached the limits of the cooling system during out stress test. When simultaneously running Prime95, Furmark and Battlefield 3 over a long period of time, the system crashed completely. Just prior to the crash, we observed more frequent throttling of the CPU.

http/www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Acer-Aspire-Timeline-Ultra-M3-581TG-Ultrabook.72194.0.html

This is a situation where it could happen to you as well where the parts themselves are good parts but with such a small chasis, it reaches the limits of the cooling system and throttles your performance.

I want to say this is a laptop to be careful about, for instance get a laptop cooling fan and then it might be great.

 

[WelshZen]

It there anyway i could help prevent this and if not what is the likely hood of this happening?

 

[yialanliu]

It there anyway i could help prevent this and if not what is the likely hood of this happening?

I just edited my reply and said you should get a laptop cooling fan. With that, it should dissipate enough heat so you don't get throttled. Lastly, FM2013 isn't a huge graphics power hog so it might be cooler on the graphics front leading to acceptable performance with a cooling fan to help dissipate the heat.

 

[WelshZen]

Okay thanks for all you're help.

 

[dextermat]

+1 yialanliu

I recommend an Asus instead

 

[WelshZen]

Any specific models or websites? the laptop i mentioned is currentley £450 with all that but with 10Gb of Ram instead of 4Gb

 

[aramisathei]

Make sure you pick up something with a stronger processor if you're looking at the Total War games (if you can fit it in your budget).

Personally I wouldn't start with anything less than 2ghz for decent games.

 

[yialanliu]

Try this:
http/www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Aspire-V3-551-15-6-inch-Laptop/dp/B009RNFC0Y/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1352754656&sr=8-4

It's also an Acer but it's going to be heavier but the processor is a quad core which will be much better than the ULV intel.

Although I have to say the M3 for 450 pounds is a really good deal, just not the best for the games you play.