Help optimizing my laptop for gaming

jacobyte

Honorable
Feb 1, 2013
1
0
10,510
Hi, im looking for suggestions on the posibility of upgrading my lenovo idea pad Z580 for gaming it runs modern games fine in normal settings but im looking for more would it be worth upgrading or just buying a new laptop.
specs are:

Time of this report: 1/25/2013, 10:30:05
Machine name: HERMAN
Operating System: Windows 8 64-bit (6.2, Build 9200) (9200.win8_gdr.121119-1606)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: LENOVO
System Model: IdeaPad Z580
BIOS: 5FCN91WW
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3210M CPU @ 2.50GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.5GHz
Memory: 6144MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 6004MB RAM
Page File: 3160MB used, 21276MB available
Windows Dir: C:\windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.02.9200.16384 64bit Unicode

graphics wise it has Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000 and also Nvidia Geforce GT 635M
 
There is nothing to really upgrade that will improve gaming performance.

Possibly the CPU, but only up to the fastest that Lenovo offers for that particular notebook. Just go to Lenovo's site to configure a Z580 to find out what is the fastest CPU which can be installed. However, most games are limited by the GPU not the CPU. Therefore, depending on the game there can be no performance increase whatsoever, to something that is a modest increase.

The best option of course would be to simply buy a new laptop, but whatever you buy, the performance increase must be high enough to justify spending more money. If I was in your situation, I would probably look at something with at least a nVidia GT 650m at the minimum. But I would likely opt for at least the nVidia GT 660m because I don't think going from the GT 635 to the GT 650 is really worth bothering.

Of course the cheapest way to improve overall performance is to lower graphics quality, play at lower resolution and playing in DX9 mode rather than DX11 which is more graphic intensive.... Assuming the game can be played in DX9 mode. For example, Battlefield 3 is not compatible with DX9 so it will not run in that mode.