Gaming laptop < $600 with decent GPU

[vegasane]

1. What is your budget?
$600 max

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
15.6" or smaller

3. What screen resolution do you want?
As long as it makes gaming graphics look decent, I'm happy.

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Portable

5. How much battery life do you need?
>3 hours? I'll probably have it plugged in 80% of the time.

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
Games I'm currently playing: Batman: Arkham city, skyrim, GTA IV, Far Cry
Preferably medium-high.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
Nada. Pretty much just looking for a gaming laptop. I'm not looking to invest in a desktop gaming rig at this point in my life, so I'm just looking for something portable to game with.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
Preferably 500GB

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
no preference

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
At least 3 years.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
DVD would be nice.

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
Whatever's reliable with good customer service

13. What country do you live in?
USA

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
Essentially, I'm just looking for a laptop to be used specifically for gaming. I don't want to spend more than $600 on it, but I want to be able to play a game like GTA4 or Batman and enjoy the graphics (I get a nice view of pixel land with my current laptop) with minimal lag. I've done a lot of research on this site and others and found a pretty wide mix of recommendations from Acer to Asus to Lenovo to HP, and I'd like to hear some more conclusive recommendations. Thanks for the help!

 

[burdenbound]

For your budget you will be playing games in the low to medium category. If you want a half decent gaming laptop you are going to want to double your budget.

For games like GTA4 you want a strong CPU so the i5 or i7 is going to be your best bet. Look for something that has one of those and the best mobile gpu that they come with in your budget.

If you have to have the best thing for $600 than the AMD laptops with their APU might be your best bet. Check out http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314181 and use notebookcheck.net to look at benchmarks for what ever laptop your looking at.

 

[ram1009]

1. What is your budget?
$600 max

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
15.6" or smaller

3. What screen resolution do you want?
As long as it makes gaming graphics look decent, I'm happy.

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Portable

5. How much battery life do you need?
>3 hours? I'll probably have it plugged in 80% of the time.

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
Games I'm currently playing: Batman: Arkham city, skyrim, GTA IV, Far Cry
Preferably medium-high.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
Nada. Pretty much just looking for a gaming laptop. I'm not looking to invest in a desktop gaming rig at this point in my life, so I'm just looking for something portable to game with.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
Preferably 500GB

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
no preference

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
At least 3 years.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
DVD would be nice.

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
Whatever's reliable with good customer service

13. What country do you live in?
USA

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
Essentially, I'm just looking for a laptop to be used specifically for gaming. I don't want to spend more than $600 on it, but I want to be able to play a game like GTA4 or Batman and enjoy the graphics (I get a nice view of pixel land with my current laptop) with minimal lag. I've done a lot of research on this site and others and found a pretty wide mix of recommendations from Acer to Asus to Lenovo to HP, and I'd like to hear some more conclusive recommendations. Thanks for the help!

I answer this question at least once a day. I wonder how many people pay any attention. IMHO, you are wasting your money. Any portable you play games on will over heat especially a "budget" model. You can get much more bang for your buck with a desktop. Good luck.

 

[IInuyasha74]

Don't listen to what ram1009 says. You can get a good light gaming laptop for that price.

My laptop which only has an Nvidia GT 620M inside of it lets me play games good, and on Bioshock Infinity I get close to medium settings.

That being said, the best laptop for you is the one advised by burdenbound. I have done a lot of research on that model so I know it is able to play games pretty well.

The graphics in it are 62% higher than my graphics card, based off 3DMark. If Medium settings are just a hair out of reach of my system, I think high settings will be just a hair out of reach for yours.

I think one thing they are not considering is that the resolution you will be locked at is 1366x768, which personally is fine for me and I can enjoy all my games with that screen size. On a 1080p screen, my GPU would crawl at lowest settings, and yours would be more where mine is and fighting to do medium settings. At 1366x768 though you don't need as much power, and you can probably play all the games you mentioned on medium settings, and maybe a few settings on high for some of them like Skyrim.

Here is a link to the GPU to help.
http/www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-8750M.87147.0.html

 

[vegasane]

For your budget you will be playing games in the low to medium category. If you want a half decent gaming laptop you are going to want to double your budget.

For games like GTA4 you want a strong CPU so the i5 or i7 is going to be your best bet. Look for something that has one of those and the best mobile gpu that they come with in your budget.

If you have to have the best thing for $600 than the AMD laptops with their APU might be your best bet. Check out http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314181 and use notebookcheck.net to look at benchmarks for what ever laptop your looking at.

Thank you for the help and the information! I figured I wouldn't be able to get high graphics on a budget (most of the "good" laptops I saw were for $1,200 or more), but I want something a little better than the macbook I'm using right now. I'll take another look at laptops with those specs in mind.

 

[vegasane]

Don't listen to what ram1009 says. You can get a good light gaming laptop for that price.

My laptop which only has an Nvidia GT 620M inside of it lets me play games good, and on Bioshock Infinity I get close to medium settings.

That being said, the best laptop for you is the one advised by burdenbound. I have done a lot of research on that model so I know it is able to play games pretty well.

The graphics in it are 62% higher than my graphics card, based off 3DMark. If Medium settings are just a hair out of reach of my system, I think high settings will be just a hair out of reach for yours.

I think one thing they are not considering is that the resolution you will be locked at is 1366x768, which personally is fine for me and I can enjoy all my games with that screen size. On a 1080p screen, my GPU would crawl at lowest settings, and yours would be more where mine is and fighting to do medium settings. At 1366x768 though you don't need as much power, and you can probably play all the games you mentioned on medium settings, and maybe a few settings on high for some of them like Skyrim.

Here is a link to the GPU to help.
http/www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-8750M.87147.0.html

I appreciate your words of affirmation! And the whole resolution thing is something I've thought about as well. I'm not crazy enough to think I'd get 1080p and good enough FPS for just $600, haha. Anyway, thanks for the advice!

 

[IInuyasha74]

Yea I am more than a little biased against Macs, but still you should be able to do pretty good.
I use a 7850 in my desktop, and so the performance drop between desktop and laptop is quite noticeable, its still not so bad that you cannot live with it. I haven't found anything I cannot play yet, and like I said my laptop has a good bit weaker graphics than you, so you should be pretty good if you end up with the Acer.

If you find any others you should post here before buying to make sure its the best system for you. More eyes will make sure you don't over look something bad about the system.