"Gaming" laptop, Tight Budget

[Slickster0]

Hey everyone,
I've decided that I need to upgrade my laptop for Black Friday, but I'm on a slight budget and I need a little help. I'm leaning towards anything $600 and under, and I need something I can "game" on. My laptop now is an ASUS K53E, and it's pretty outdated, especially with the B950 proc and Intel HD 2000 graphics. I do enjoy having 6GB of RAM, but I’ve also heard that 4GB is plenty for what I do.

I say "gaming" because I am far from a hardcore gamer. You won't find me trying to play things like Crysis 2, BF3, or CoD. I tend to stick to F2P games because they're simply time killers. Some examples of games I play now are: Combat Arms, Soldier Front 2, Blacklight: Retribution, Ghost Recon Online, TF2, and occasionally Minecraft. My laptop tends to lag constantly anymore. I'm fairly OCD about cleaning it inside and out, using programs like Advanced System Care and even dismantling it to blow out dust.

I'm approaching the community because I'm totally lost on what I need to run these mid-level games. I've heard good AND bad things about Intel HD 4000, and even read some articles about quad-core 1.8GHz laptops that will run Crysis. What would be better, a 2.6 GHZ Dual core or that 1.8 Quad? I'm open to both AMD or Intel because I simply am not experienced enough to know unbiased, true differences. I’d to know the true differences between the graphics.

I'm researching some $400-$700 laptops on newegg, assuming their prices will drop for Black Friday/Cyber Monday. The reason I’m not saving up to build my own desktop is because I’ll probably be leaving for college next year. Here’s the computer I was considering: http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834231228
Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[jaguarskx]

Check out something like the Lenovo IdeaPad S405 http/amzn.to/18ouyNu AMD APU's are usually pretty nice for onboard graphics and this laptop model is quite portable.

I would not bother with that laptop. The Radeon HD 7500g is actually ranked lower than the Intel HD 4000. Here is a link to some info and benchmarks of that iGPU. In the middle column is a list of mobile GPUs and a few desktop GPUs (black fonts). Both are ranked near the bottom of "Class 3" with the Intel HD 4000 ranked higher.

http/www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-7500G.74861.0.html

The dual core AMD A6-4455M @ 2.1GHz is also a much weaker CPU than Intel Core i5 3230M @ 2.6GHz in the Asus laptop the OP linked to. At the same clock speed, The Core i5 would be around 30% more powerful than the AMD APU.


Instead, I would go with the following Lenovo G505s for $530 which has a dedicated Radeon HD 8750m and is basically considered equivalent to a nVidia GT 735m . It is ranked in the lower end of "Class 2" mobile GPUs.

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834312830

http/www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-8750M.87147.0.html

The quad core AMD A8-5550M @ 2.1GHz is still weak compared to the dual core i5, with a graphics chip that is much more powerful than either the Radeon HD 7500g / Intel HD 4000, this laptop would offer the best gaming performance.

 

[jaguarskx]

Forgot to mention...

Laptops with only 4GB of RAM typically means that it only has a single stick of 4GB of RAM. This can reduce performance a little bit because the RAM will be running in single channel mode vs. dual channel more. That means only half of the available bandwidth will be used. This can lower performance a bit especially when relying on an integrated GPU like the Radeon HD 7500g / Intel HD 4000. I would say for games there will probably be about a 10% - 15% performance penalty, and maybe a bit more with integrated GPUs. Adding another stick of RAM is fairly inexpensive and easy and can be done at a later date.