How good is this laptop by today's standards?

[Guest]

Hey everyone.

I'm just wondering how good of a deal this used laptop is by today's standards.

Here are my questions:
- How good is this used laptop by today's standards?
- Is this laptop worth $500 even today?
- Will this laptop still be able to play modern games at medium/high settings @ 1366 x 768 (or even 1600 x 900)?

Link to the laptop and its hardware specs: http/www.cnet.com/laptops/asus-g72gx-rbbx05-17/4507-3121_7-33938009.html

Thanks.

 

[kawininjazx]

It should be able to game all right, at least at medium settings.

 

[americanbrian]

hmmm,

It is power hungry with the GPU, but it is respectable in terms of performance.

It is an upper "class 2" (1 is best) on notebookcheck.

It should play games @1366x768 with medium details fluently.

http/www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-260M.14559.0.html

LOTS of benchmarks at that link.

The CPU is pretty good, but modern SB and IB cpus will be better.

For $500 US Dollars it is a fair deal.

 

[Guest]

hmmm,

It is power hungry with the GPU, but it is respectable in terms of performance.

It is an upper "class 2" (1 is best) on notebookcheck.

It should play games @1366x768 with medium details fluently.

http/www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-260M.14559.0.html

LOTS of benchmarks at that link.

The CPU is pretty good, but modern SB and IB cpus will be better.

For $500 US Dollars it is a fair deal.

Yeah, the laptop I'm using right now has the same Core 2 Duo P8700, but with just an Intel GMA 4500MHD IGP and 2.87GB of DDR2 RAM, so playing games on my current laptop is a terrible experience at best.

I'm wondering if the Core 2 Duo P8700 will pull the rest of the hardware down, or is it still a decent CPU (even by today's standards?) Like I said, playing games on my laptop with that CPU is a terrible experience, but that's probably got to do with the crappy Intel GMA IGP, so I wouldn't really know what the Core 2 Duo P8700 would be capable of in terms of gaming, especially when paired with a dedicated GPU.

I know ASUS make fantastic gaming laptops, and I've been trying to look for a budget gaming laptop for quite some time now, and the best thing I can find for around the same price as this ASUS laptop would be a laptop with a Sandy Bridge CPU and the Intel HD 3000 IGP. For about $350 more I can get a laptop with an Intel Core i7-3520M (dual-core w/hyperthreading at 2.9GHz - 3.6GHZ turbo) and a GT 630 2GB dedicated GPU with 6GB of RAM, but like I said, that's $350 more than this ASUS used laptop.

 

[Guest]

It should be able to game all right, at least at medium settings.

How close in performance do you think this laptop and this desktop are?


Desktop Specs:
- Intel Pentium D 805 @ 2.66GHz
- 2GB DDR2 RAM
- Sapphire Radeon HD 3870 X2 (Dual-GPU, 1GB GDDR3)
- 160GB 5400RPM HDD

 

[kawininjazx]

Well the GPU on the desktop will beat out the mobile 260 quite a bit, but the Pentium D CPUs are pretty poor for any modern game. Personally, $500 is the highest reasonable amount I would pay for the laptop, especially because it doesn't have a warranty anymore.

 

[americanbrian]

The GTX 260m is better than a modern day 6850m....

The CPU is a good balance for the GPU. It is decent. Not WOW, but still very capable.

 

[hitesh12]

If this is available near you , get it

http/h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&docname=c03325481

 

[Guest]

If this is available near you , get it

http/h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&docname=c03325481

Yeah, I can't find that exact model anywhere at the moment. However, I found laptops that had the same or similar hardware inside for between $700-$850. Is it worth an extra $200-$350 to get a laptop with that kind of hardware inside as opposed to spending $500 on the ASUS laptop? I don't know...

 

[hitesh12]

Link for those laptops ?

 

[americanbrian]

^^ That linked laptop is in many ways INFERIOR to the ASUS. Especially when it comes to game performance.

 

[Guest]

^^ That linked laptop is in many ways INFERIOR to the ASUS. Especially when it comes to game performance.

I can get a Samsung laptop for $699.99 + tax that has an A10-4600M, 6GB 1600MHz RAM, 1GB AMD Dual Graphics (7660G + 7670M) and a 750GB 7200RPM HDD. Is it worth the extra almost $300 to go with this?

 

[americanbrian]

it depends on what you are using it for... The CPU would offer a little more in heavily threaded applications as it is quad core, but in terms of single threaded speed they are much similar.

The more modern graphics card would enable better performance in heavily TESSELATED games. But in general would be inferior as it doesn't have as much raw performance.

Battery life is probably going to be significantly better for the newer option, but you won't be gaming on batteries for any length of time anyway, so for gaming thats neither here nor there.

Ultimately you have to decide what is more useful to you. $300 saving (possibly to upgrade or build a future desktop) or a little bit better (for a few things) laptop.

There are other options I would suggest. For example an i5 or i7 SB platform with Nvidia Graphics could come in at around the same price as the asus... depending if you are looking at a refurb option.

Like this:

http/outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineSales/Online/SecondaryInventorySearch.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dfh&cs=22&puid=127e074d

That Geforce 525m is a lower 2nd class card (i have it in mine and it is fine for 720p gaming)

It overclocks to match the performance of the 550m without a hitch for me. There is a large community that OC this particular GPU.

For $489 plus shipping I think it is a very good system....

 

[cia24]

Had a m15x at one time with a gtx 260m in it. It has a hard time with high settings playing farcry 2 lol..... way to outdated to be 500$

 

[americanbrian]

^^ and yet the laptops that have been suggested from the modern lineup are no better. Even on far cry 2. High settings in a game is unrealistic without dropping some serious cash.

The HIGH settings are for desktop play. With a powerful CPU and GPU. Laptops are never going to be as powerful as desktops, or priced similarly.

 

[americanbrian]

the 17r is a good compromise at the same price. modern, reasonable performance for not a lot of money.

 

[Surgeking]

If i were to spend 500 for a laptop i would try something like this. there is also an amd version with an A6-3320m cpu and 7670m gpu for 530.

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834215552

 

[americanbrian]

^^ that is a great suggestion.

It looks out of stock for now but i would totally recommend that too.