How good does a laptop need to be to game well for say... 5years?

[Dicepshon]

Hi Folks,

I've been messing around with pricing out laptops (and desktops for that matter) with the thought in mind that I want to be able to play games coming out now and in about 5 years on pretty high settings. They don't need to be ultra crazy, in fact I've always preferred high settings to ultra in general.

The games I play are mostly MMO's so think Wildstar, Elder Scrolls Online, BF4, etc. I used to do a lot of CAD and rendering work, but not as much anymore so while it would be nice to get good performance on that end as well, as long as it's decent I'll be happy.

My problem is that everything I'm pricing out is coming out around $1600usd for a desktop and around $2k for a laptop while I'm sure I can do just as well with something a good $300-400 less at least (?). I think I'm worried about getting left in the dust or with something that I feel I didn't get my moneys worth out of.

So, how good does a laptop need to be to game competitively on high settings for about 5 years? I know upgradability will come into play eventually (maybe not?) and I'm nervous about the transition to z97 chipsets, broadwell procs (and whatever comes next) making a new laptop bought this year non-upgradeable and vastly inferior in a years time.

Thank you for reading and being patient while I wrote all that out. My thanks for your opinions.

 

[ScrewySqrl]

"playable in 5 years time" depends on your definition of playable.

Almost anything you buy will be obsolete in 5 years

 

[g-unit1111]

"playable in 5 years time" depends on your definition of playable.

Almost anything you buy will be obsolete in 5 years

Yeah especially since laptops can't be upgraded and depreciate in value much quicker than desktops do. And the higher in value you spend on a laptop, the faster it depreciates. A $2500 laptop today will be worth about $500 - $600 by the time you go to sell it. So keep that in mind.

The other thing - and this is especially true about touch screen laptops and ultrabooks - is that they are made for low power consumption. Which means that they won't perform about 1/2 as good as the equivalent desktop hardware. In five years a top of the line laptop won't perform nearly as well as the same desktop.

 

[ScrewySqrl]

"playable in 5 years time" depends on your definition of playable.

Almost anything you buy will be obsolete in 5 years

Yeah especially since laptops can't be upgraded and depreciate in value much quicker than desktops do. And the higher in value you spend on a laptop, the faster it depreciates. A $2500 laptop today will be worth about $500 - $600 by the time you go to sell it. So keep that in mind.

The other thing - and this is especially true about touch screen laptops and ultrabooks - is that they are made for low power consumption. Which means that they won't perform about 1/2 as good as the equivalent desktop hardware. In five years a top of the line laptop won't perform nearly as well as the same desktop.

I like to describe systems this way: Its like if you built a car that loses about 10mph off its top speed every year. So if it could do 100 MPH when you bought it, after 5 years, its like it could only do 50 MPH

 

[Dicepshon]

Thanks for your input so far folks although I was hoping for maybe some examples of what I could expect from a machine in terms of longevity. I know this is also very general, but I've just not the experience to know which is why I'm asking.

5 years is a stretch, I agree but I guess I just want something that will last me more than 2 years before I have to replace it.

Playable to me means decent graphics, 30-40fps. Decent graphics to me means smooth and not choppy, with a good amount of detail. I don't need to see the way each blade of grass shines or the grooves on the feathers of the birds but I do want to see the detail on armor and weapons, have near max clipping distance, and not get huge lag spikes from my computer when I encounter huge groups of players or monsters.

Am I asking for too much? should I just go with a desktop? I'd hate to lose the portability but I'm just not in the market for a 2k+ laptop right now.

 

[dasulman]

Thanks for your input so far folks although I was hoping for maybe some examples of what I could expect from a machine in terms of longevity. I know this is also very general, but I've just not the experience to know which is why I'm asking.

5 years is a stretch, I agree but I guess I just want something that will last me more than 2 years before I have to replace it.

Playable to me means decent graphics, 30-40fps. Decent graphics to me means smooth and not choppy, with a good amount of detail. I don't need to see the way each blade of grass shines or the grooves on the feathers of the birds but I do want to see the detail on armor and weapons, have near max clipping distance, and not get huge lag spikes from my computer when I encounter huge groups of players or monsters.

Am I asking for too much? should I just go with a desktop? I'd hate to lose the portability but I'm just not in the market for a 2k+ laptop right now.

Yeah i'm gonna have to disagree with a lot of what the other 2 were saying.
It's certainly possible to have a 5 year old machine that'll run the next games, they may play in lower settings etc. But they'll still definitely be playable.
At the moment, we're down to 14nm production process - it won't be long before we physically reach our limits as to how small, compact, efficient and powerful we can make this current style of technology. Eventually we'll have to move on to something else to reach the next level (quantum computing, yay - very much looking forward to that)
this thing's bulky, but it'll do the job: http/www.xoticpc.com/msi-gt70-dominatorpro890-p-6944.html?wconfigure=yes

 

[ScrewySqrl]

Thanks for your input so far folks although I was hoping for maybe some examples of what I could expect from a machine in terms of longevity. I know this is also very general, but I've just not the experience to know which is why I'm asking.

5 years is a stretch, I agree but I guess I just want something that will last me more than 2 years before I have to replace it.

Playable to me means decent graphics, 30-40fps. Decent graphics to me means smooth and not choppy, with a good amount of detail. I don't need to see the way each blade of grass shines or the grooves on the feathers of the birds but I do want to see the detail on armor and weapons, have near max clipping distance, and not get huge lag spikes from my computer when I encounter huge groups of players or monsters.

Am I asking for too much? should I just go with a desktop? I'd hate to lose the portability but I'm just not in the market for a 2k+ laptop right now.

Yeah i'm gonna have to disagree with a lot of what the other 2 were saying.
It's certainly possible to have a 5 year old machine that'll run the next games, they may play in lower settings etc. But they'll still definitely be playable.
At the moment, we're down to 14nm production process - it won't be long before we physically reach our limits as to how small, compact, efficient and powerful we can make this current style of technology. Eventually we'll have to move on to something else to reach the next level (quantum computing, yay - very much looking forward to that)
this thing's bulky, but it'll do the job: http/www.xoticpc.com/msi-gt70-dominatorpro890-p-6944.html?wconfigure=yes

Intel has a road map to 1 nm process chips by the late 2020s, so at least another 10-15 years of die shrinking is planned.

and yes, if you buy a $2000 laptop, it might still play some new games in 5 years, barely. But it'll still be horribly obsolete before then.

 

[g-unit1111]

Intel has a road map to 1 nm process chips by the late 2020s, so at least another 10-15 years of die shrinking is planned.

and yes, if you buy a $2000 laptop, it might still play some new games in 5 years, barely. But it'll still be horribly obsolete before then.

Yeah for high end gaming the laptop is never the way to go. There are gaming laptops out there and some good ones like the MSI GS60 and Lenovo Y510P (which I have) but for the most part if you want to play any serious games like Bioshock: Infinite, Borderlands, Battlefield 4, Wolfenstein, etc - you're better off getting a desktop. Plus there's also that value thing - laptops depreciate much quicker in value due to their lack of upgradability than desktops do. If you look at it from an accounting standpoint, your return on investment on a laptop the higher up you go, is almost slim to none.

 

[hang-the-9]

A $1,500 laptop will still be able to play games in 5 years, although on lower settings. A $1,800 a lot more so.

Keep in mind that the laptop may not even last 5 years. Gaming systems are pretty temperamental due to the stress the system takes from heat and cramming a ton of fast parts into a small chases. You could spend $2,000 on a system and have it die in 2-3 years forcing a motherboard replacement or something.

Computer hardware is tough to get a good time/price/value balance with due to how fast things advance and drop in price on the secondary market. I would not spend over $1,000 on anything new myself, it will run things more than just good enough at that price, even in a laptop, and you are not taking a $1,500 bath if you try to resell a $2,000 system in 5 years.

That being said, the best thing to do for gaming, unless you have a clear need to be portable, a tower system is the way to go, if only for the fact you can upgrade the CPU and video card easily as well as having a large enough case for good cooling to maximize life of the system.

 

[Dicepshon]

Thanks so much for your input everyone. I've thought hard on how portable I need the system to be and the honest answer is not much. I don't travel a lot with my laptop or game in places where I need to bring one; so, I've decided that I'm going to actually build a mid-tower desktop.

Thank you again for all your inputs, you've helped quite a lot!