Good but small gaming laptop to carry for work and class.

IGetKillsFTW

Commendable
Aug 30, 2016
4
0
1,510
So I am interested in getting a gaming laptop that would be cheap, portable (easy to carry in a backpack with binders) but also I want to be able to play something like Half Life or whatever when I have down time at school or whenever. My max budget would probably be like $600. I know this isn't enough for something to run like BF1 but it's just to play some singleplayer games while on the move on a budget. I was thinking a system with a gtx 1050ti would be good but I don't really know about laptops as much as I do with desktop budgets.
 
Solution
Old Valve games use the Source Engine which is known for being very friendly on "low end" hardware. Therefore, something like the Intel UHD 620 will have no problems running the game. It is even good enough to play Skyrim (not the newer remastered version) at 1366x768 resolution with default settings. However, if you plan on playing something like the Witcher 3, then you definitely want a decently powerful GPU like a GTX 1050 Ti if you want decent performance at 1080p resolution and medium quality graphics.

Gaming laptops with 13" or 14" screens are pretty limited. The ones that are available with a dedicated GPU are mostly over $1,000. One exception that I am aware of is the 14" Acer Swift 3 with the i5-8250u and nVidia mx150 for...

4745454b

Distinguished
Moderator
Apr 29, 2006
605
0
19,210
MERGED QUESTION
Question from IGetKillsFTW : "Good but small gaming laptop to carry for work and class."



 
With a budget of $600 your options are pretty limited; especially if you are looking for a 14" or smaller laptop.

The best laptop in your budget for game performance is the following 15.6" Acer laptop with a quad core (but low power consumption) i5-8250u CPU, 1080p screen and nVidia mx150 (roughly between the GTX 950m and GTX 960m) for $599. The mx150 is basically the mobile version of the desktop GT 1030 which places it some where in between the GTX 750 and GTX 750 Ti.

https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-i5-8250U-GeForce-E5-576G-5762/dp/B075FLBJV7/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1516139096&sr=8-1&keywords=acer+mx150


There are 14" laptops in your price range, but they rely on Intel integrated graphics. The following Lenovo Flex 5 14-Inch 2-in-1 for $599 is an example. It has an 8th gen (current) quad core i5-8250u CPU with the Intel UHD 620 graphics core. Being a 2-in-1 laptop it has a 1080p touchscreen. However, it only has a 128GB SSD.


https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-14-Inch-i5-8250U-Windows-81C90009US/dp/B0752V44VD/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1516140846&sr=1-2&keywords=14%22+i5-8250u
 

IGetKillsFTW

Commendable
Aug 30, 2016
4
0
1,510
Thank you all for your answers. Seeing as how you all mostly said the budget isn't that suited to my needs I can try up it to somewhere like 900 or 1000. I mostly will play stuff like Gmod, old Valve games, small games in my library that I haven't touched. Like I said I am not good with Laptops but I basically just want to get 60fps or higher on medium or above on games that I can comfortably play on the go.
 
Old Valve games use the Source Engine which is known for being very friendly on "low end" hardware. Therefore, something like the Intel UHD 620 will have no problems running the game. It is even good enough to play Skyrim (not the newer remastered version) at 1366x768 resolution with default settings. However, if you plan on playing something like the Witcher 3, then you definitely want a decently powerful GPU like a GTX 1050 Ti if you want decent performance at 1080p resolution and medium quality graphics.

Gaming laptops with 13" or 14" screens are pretty limited. The ones that are available with a dedicated GPU are mostly over $1,000. One exception that I am aware of is the 14" Acer Swift 3 with the i5-8250u and nVidia mx150 for $800. It weighs in at 3.75lbs.

https://www.amazon.com/Acer-i5-8250U-NVIDIA-GeForce-SF314-52G-55WQ/dp/B0746P25QX/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1516200764&sr=1-2&keywords=14%22+laptop+mx150


The smallest laptop with the GTX 1050 Ti is lowest end 13.3" Alienware 13 for $1,099. However, it is pretty heavy at 5.8lbs presumably because of the cooling system built for such a small laptop.

http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-laptops/alienware-13/spd/alienware-13-laptop/dkcwkble1s
 
Solution