Gaming on a laptop,is it a bad idea ?

[shadyx]

I'm getting a laptop soon to replace my old desktop.My budget is around 700$.I found some cool lenovo and toshiba laptops with nvidia 540M or 630M GPUs which are capable of playing most games at medium/high settings but I heard that gaming on a laptop is bad because laptops overheat when playing games which reduces the lifespan and can also lead to hardware failures.I'm not really a hardcore gamer,I will be gaming on it maybe an hour a day at max(that's if I actually played games everyday which is highly unlikely) so what do you think ? Should I get a laptop with a dedicated GPU or with integrated graphics and just save money and not bother trying to play heavy games on a laptop ? I'm most likely getting the lenovo ideapad z570(available with and without a dedicated GPU).By the way,I'm not really interested in cooling pads.I need portability(that's why I'm getting a laptop duh)

 

[SNA3]

Your information is wrong . 630M cant play most games as you said. you will need at least GTX660/750 for this.

If you want a good gaming machine from Lenovo , pick up the Y510P , it has 750M GPU and has an option to add another 750M in SLI.

anything lower than 750M is not recommneded for laptop gaming at all.

 

[shadyx]

Your information is wrong . 630M cant play most games as you said. you will need at least GTX660/750 for this.

If you want a good gaming machine from Lenovo , pick up the Y510P , it has 750M GPU and has an option to add another 750M in SLI.

anything lower than 750M is not recommneded for laptop gaming at all.

My information is based on benchmarks from notebookcheck,yes not all games are playable but the games I care about are(it can run bf3 on low,good enough for me).Anyways,this wasn't really my question.I'm deciding if I should get a laptop for gaming or not.

 

[SNA3]

Your information is wrong . 630M cant play most games as you said. you will need at least GTX660/750 for this.

If you want a good gaming machine from Lenovo , pick up the Y510P , it has 750M GPU and has an option to add another 750M in SLI.

anything lower than 750M is not recommneded for laptop gaming at all.

My information is based on benchmarks from notebookcheck,yes not all games are playable but the games I care about are(it can run bf3 on low,good enough for me).Anyways,this wasn't really my question.I'm deciding if I should get a laptop for gaming or not.

for a low notebook like that , the answer is no. unless you cant live without portable pc .

and I did answer your question when I said you need at least GTX660m/750m

if you dont go for that or better the answer is NO. get desktop .

 

[jaguarskx]

Laptops have lots of restrictions; mainly their limited upgrade options. Therefore, it is not an ideal solution to play games if that is going to be the only gaming device you will have. If you are going to buy a laptop for games, then I recommend spending a little more than you want to spend because that means you can postpone buying another laptop. Say for example, a laptop with a GT 650m instead of a GT 630m costs $150 more. Spending that extra $150 now can mean that instead of buying another laptop in 2015 when the GT 630m may no longer cut it for low graphic settings, the GT 650m may last you until 2017 when it may no longer be powerful enough to play games at low settings to make it enjoyable.

With regards to overheating, yes, laptops can overheat when playing games. For example, I bought a 14" Lenovo Y470 back in Sept 2011 which has a Sandy Bridge Core i5-2410m and GT 550m with a 1366x768 resolution screen. I wasn't specifically looking for a laptop to play games on, but since it was within my budget I decided to buy it. I have played some games on it and it does run hot. The CPU typically hits 90C - 92 when I play games like Mass Effect 3, Fallout 3, and Crysis 2. Pretty hot, but GTA 4 pushed the CPU to 99C and it started to throttle after maybe 1.5 - 2 hours of playing the game. The GT 550m wasn't so bad; 65C - 68C.

A cooling pad did not help lower internal temps at all; at least for the IdeaPad series. Lenovo calls the underside of the IdeaPad "thermal panels" and with good reason. I can put the overheated Y470 on my bare lap and it only felt pretty warm (not uncomfortably warm) so the chassis is definitely not designed to conduct heat. The only open vents were for the intake fans and you cannot force intake fans to draw in more air by using another fan to try and push in air.

Generally speaking, if gaming on a laptop is not a big priority, then yeah, a GT 630m should suffice to fix your need to play games if your expectations are low. I'm looking to replace the Lenovo Y470, not because the GPU is weak, but because I find that the 1366x768 resolution screen is too restrictive for my needs. Looking to replace it with a laptop that has a resolution of 1600x900 or 1920x1080 so that I can see more information on the screen at a single time w/o having to scroll around. Not sure if I'll get laptop with a dedicated GPU since playing games on it is not really a priority; I have my desktop for that.

 

[shadyx]

Laptops have lots of restrictions; mainly their limited upgrade options. Therefore, it is not an ideal solution to play games if that is going to be the only gaming device you will have. If you are going to buy a laptop for games, then I recommend spending a little more than you want to spend because that means you can postpone buying another laptop. Say for example, a laptop with a GT 650m instead of a GT 630m costs $150 more. Spending that extra $150 now can mean that instead of buying another laptop in 2015 when the GT 630m may no longer cut it for low graphic settings, the GT 650m may last you until 2017 when it may no longer be powerful enough to play games at low settings to make it enjoyable.

With regards to overheating, yes, laptops can overheat when playing games. For example, I bought a 14" Lenovo Y470 back in Sept 2011 which has a Sandy Bridge Core i5-2410m and GT 550m with a 1366x768 resolution screen. I wasn't specifically looking for a laptop to play games on, but since it was within my budget I decided to buy it. I have played some games on it and it does run hot. The CPU typically hits 90C - 92 when I play games like Mass Effect 3, Fallout 3, and Crysis 2. Pretty hot, but GTA 4 pushed the CPU to 99C and it started to throttle after maybe 1.5 - 2 hours of playing the game. The GT 550m wasn't so bad; 65C - 68C.

A cooling pad did not help lower internal temps at all; at least for the IdeaPad series. Lenovo calls the underside of the IdeaPad "thermal panels" and with good reason. I can put the overheated Y470 on my bare lap and it only felt pretty warm (not uncomfortably warm) so the chassis is definitely not designed to conduct heat. The only open vents were for the intake fans and you cannot force intake fans to draw in more air by using another fan to try and push in air.

Generally speaking, if gaming on a laptop is not a big priority, then yeah, a GT 630m should suffice to fix your need to play games if your expectations are low. I'm looking to replace the Lenovo Y470, not because the GPU is weak, but because I find that the 1366x768 resolution screen is too restrictive for my needs. Looking to replace it with a laptop that has a resolution of 1600x900 or 1920x1080 so that I can see more information on the screen at a single time w/o having to scroll around. Not sure if I'll get laptop with a dedicated GPU since playing games on it is not really a priority; I have my desktop for that.

Hmm,so all laptops will overheat when gaming.It won't really bother me as I won't place the laptop on my lap anyways if I'm gaming but how does it affect the laptop and its lifespan assuming that I will be gaming an hour a day maybe ? And yes I'm not really expecting much from the 630M,gaming won't be my main use for the laptop but that doesn't mean I won't play games at all.