Help! Laptop for gaming and long term usage...

[TheGman_GL]

What's more important or more vital for a gaming laptop, a great CPU or a great GPU?

I can buy a laptop with an nVidia GeForce GTX 260M 1GB GDDR3 up to 3GB with shared memory but it has a 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo P7450 and while it is a 5 star Intel processor, it's based on the older architecture. The other options are:

2- i5 430M 2.53GHz
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4670 graphics 1GB VRAM

3- i5 520M 2.93GHz
nVidia GeForce GT 330M 512MB dedicated video memory and 2263MB total available

What's the best combo for a future proof gaming console?

The GTX 260M is a high end graphics card while the other ones are mid-class

 

[Maziar]

In terms of gaming,GTX 260M performs way better than both HD 4670 and GT 330M,and since most games are GPU limited then the first option would perform the best in gaming

 

[shubham1401]

Yes the first one will perform better for gaming.

But don't expect laptops to be very good for gaming.

 

[TheGman_GL]

And strangely, that's the cheaper of the three. What I was saying was that the other two have the new i5 processor that it's like a pseudo-quad. It appears that future games will require quads so I don't know wich one should be better...

 

[Maziar]

i5 is a dual core CPU with 4 threads also as i said most games benefit from a better GPU and since GTX 260M is significantly faster than both other ones then it will be better for gaming.

 

[Maziar]

Btw,since you filled the FAQ in this thread:
http/www.tomshardware.com/forum/56563-35-best-gaming-laptop-1000-screen-smaller
Then follow the discussion there.