- Feb 13, 2015
- 4
- 0
- 18,510
Hi! I'm about to buy a new laptop. My budget is up to $700 (tax and shipping included) and I'm looking for recent hardware, most likely from AMD - either A8 or A10, as it performs quite well in my personal experience and is much cheaper than Intel.
My problem is: I'm a casual gamer. I can't buy a gaming desktop right now, and I don't have time to play AAA titles. These are the games I played/in my pile of shame (Steam/GOG combined):
Banner Saga, Mount and Blade, Wasteland 2, Alan Wake, FTL, Vampire the Masquerade Redemption, The Witcher (1st), Beyond Good and Evil, Dear Esther, Defense Grid, Game Dev Tycoon, Gone Home, Hotline Miami, Lone Survivor, Mark of the Ninja...
So you can see I'm more into old classics/recent indie games. I'd like to be able to run them smoothly at a minimum of mid level quality settings.
From my research, in the mid to low end, you either get an AMD R7 or it doesn't matter. But I found that by analysing newer, more powerful games, like Alien Isolation or Crysis. Nobody would bother to benchmark a graphic card for Banner Saga.
Does anyone have any idea of the lowest AMD integrated solution that could satisfy my eye-candy needs?
Thanks for reading.
1. What is your budget?
700 Canadian dollars (tax and shipping included).
2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
More than 14", less than 17".
3. What screen resolution do you want?
Not important (everything at this price range seems to be stuck in 1366 x 768).
4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Desktop replacement.
5. How much battery life do you need?
Less than 2h is enough.
6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
Yes, not the bigg AAA titles, but smart indies or good oldies.
Banner Saga, Mount and Blade, Wasteland 2, Alan Wake, FTL, Vampire the Masquerade Redemption, The Witcher (1st), Beyond Good and Evil, Dear Esther, Defense Grid, Game Dev Tycoon, Gone Home, Hotline Miami, Lone Survivor, Mark of the Ninja...
At least Medium.
7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
Internet (my chrome usually has some thirty tabs open), Microsoft Office.
8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
I'd love to have a 250GB SSD - I already have an external 500GB HD. But I know it's unrealistic.
9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
newegg.ca, futureshop.ca, bestbuy.ca, tigerdirect.ca
10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
At least two years.
11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Blu-ray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
Not important. In fact, I'd have none if possible.
12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
I'm currently open to HP, Lenovo, Dell, Asus, Acer, Sony, MSI, Toshiba.
13. What country do you live in?
Canada.
14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
I'd like my laptop to have a touchscreen.
My problem is: I'm a casual gamer. I can't buy a gaming desktop right now, and I don't have time to play AAA titles. These are the games I played/in my pile of shame (Steam/GOG combined):
Banner Saga, Mount and Blade, Wasteland 2, Alan Wake, FTL, Vampire the Masquerade Redemption, The Witcher (1st), Beyond Good and Evil, Dear Esther, Defense Grid, Game Dev Tycoon, Gone Home, Hotline Miami, Lone Survivor, Mark of the Ninja...
So you can see I'm more into old classics/recent indie games. I'd like to be able to run them smoothly at a minimum of mid level quality settings.
From my research, in the mid to low end, you either get an AMD R7 or it doesn't matter. But I found that by analysing newer, more powerful games, like Alien Isolation or Crysis. Nobody would bother to benchmark a graphic card for Banner Saga.
Does anyone have any idea of the lowest AMD integrated solution that could satisfy my eye-candy needs?
Thanks for reading.
1. What is your budget?
700 Canadian dollars (tax and shipping included).
2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
More than 14", less than 17".
3. What screen resolution do you want?
Not important (everything at this price range seems to be stuck in 1366 x 768).
4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Desktop replacement.
5. How much battery life do you need?
Less than 2h is enough.
6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
Yes, not the bigg AAA titles, but smart indies or good oldies.
Banner Saga, Mount and Blade, Wasteland 2, Alan Wake, FTL, Vampire the Masquerade Redemption, The Witcher (1st), Beyond Good and Evil, Dear Esther, Defense Grid, Game Dev Tycoon, Gone Home, Hotline Miami, Lone Survivor, Mark of the Ninja...
At least Medium.
7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
Internet (my chrome usually has some thirty tabs open), Microsoft Office.
8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
I'd love to have a 250GB SSD - I already have an external 500GB HD. But I know it's unrealistic.
9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
newegg.ca, futureshop.ca, bestbuy.ca, tigerdirect.ca
10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
At least two years.
11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Blu-ray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
Not important. In fact, I'd have none if possible.
12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
I'm currently open to HP, Lenovo, Dell, Asus, Acer, Sony, MSI, Toshiba.
13. What country do you live in?
Canada.
14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
I'd like my laptop to have a touchscreen.
/www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-4400.91979.0.html) and Intel processors are generally faster than AMD. 
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