Looking for a gaming laptop, budget $1000

[hk144]

looking to buy a gaming laptop for a friend, size doesn't really matter

looking for a minimum of 6gb ram

looking to run crysis 3 on high settings at ~45fps

budget of $1000

 

[azathoth]

Lenovo Y580 $870
http/shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/catalog.workflow:category.details?current-catalog-id=12F0696583E04D86B9B79B0FEC01C087&current-category-id=AC523278A4F13F27A84F5F5622D1AC7A

For quite some time now it has been the best laptop in it's price range, only feature that is missing is a higher resolution screen. But that is still standard at this price range.
Sometimes the 1920x1080 one gets a good sale going on, and brings it within $100 of the standard version. You may wish to wait for this. It also has a Blu-Ray reader for the upgraded version.

I7-3630QM
GTX 660M

--Quite capable for gaming.
http/www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-660M.71859.0.html
*Expected FPS for games on the 660M

 

[Flyingears]

I have one for sale. Im on overclock.net and hardforum and have heatware. All under flyingears

It has a quad core i7 820qm
8gb of ddr3 ram
gtx 470m
1920x1080 15.6" screen

Willing to work out a price looking for somewhere around $800 shipped. Depending on what drive/ssd you want in it.

 

[azathoth]

The Y580's processor is significantly faster, as well as more power efficient.
Clock Speed i7-3630QM
2.4 GHz
Max Turbo Frequency
3.4 GHz


Versus
Clock Speed I7 820QM
1.73 GHz
Max Turbo Frequency
3.06 GHz

As well as about 22% in clock for clock speed improvements.


The GTX 660m is also about 15% faster or so according to Notebookcheck.com

 

[edit1754]

First, if you are looking at buying the Lenovo IdeaPad Y580, you need to make sure that the model you are buying comes with the 1920x1080 display and not the 1366x768 display.

1366x768 resolution in a 15.6 inch display make things onscreen large, and 15.6 inch displays that have 1366x768 resolution tend to be low-grade LCD panels with very poor image quality due to low contrast. You should make a point to avoid displays like this when it is reasonable to do so, unless you require the larger text for eyesight related reasons. 15.6" 1920x1080 displays are generally great, but the reason you need to be looking at laptops that come with 15.6" 1920x1080 displays instead of 15.6" 1366x768 displays isn't just because of how good the 1920x1080 displays are, it's also because of how bad the 1366x768 displays are.

This is more of an issue than the other differences between various models of the Y580 as well as other laptops. A GT 650M (as opposed to the Y580's GTX 660M) is not a terrible GPU, an i5-3210M (as opposed to the Y580's i7-3630QM) is not a terrible processor, but a 15.6" 1366x768 display is a terrible display. You should be concerned with improving a display that's pretty bad before you start trying to improve upon performance that's already pretty good. If a 1920x1080-model Y580 fits in your budget, then great. But if it doesn't, then a 1366x768-model Y580 is not an alternative nor a good choice; look at other laptops.

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Here's a general-case up-to-date purchase guide for the Y580:

Lenovo IdeaPad Y580 (NVIDIA GTX 660M, 15.6" 1920x1080 glossy display) - $899 + tax
- Sign up and sign in here: http/shoplenovo.i2.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/na/StdAffinityPortal/en_US/Lenovo:EnterStdAffinity?affinity=barnesnoblegold (Barnes and Noble Gold discount page)
- http/shoplenovo.i2.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/barnesnoblegold/StdAffinityPortal/en_US/config.workflow:ConfigureMtmAsItem?mtm-item=:000001C9:0000972B: (1TB 5400RPM + 16GB SSD) - $899 + tax
- http/shoplenovo.i2.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/barnesnoblegold/StdAffinityPortal/en_US/config.workflow:ConfigureMtmAsItem?mtm-item=:000001C9:0000972C: (1TB 5400RPM) - $1099 + tax (Much less of a deal than the above model. I'm only listing it in case the prices change and this ends up being cheaper)
- Click the green "Activate eCoupon" button in the cart (Or apply coupon code LASTMINDEALS)
- Avoid any models that come with the 1366x768 display and not the 1920x1080 display.

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Alternatively, you might want to throw some consideration towards these models:

Sager NP6165 (NVIDIA GT 650M, 15.6" 1920x1080 glossy display) - $899 no tax
- http/www.xoticpc.com/sager-np6165-clevo-w150er-p-4344.html?wconfigure=yes
- Select Windows under Operating System if you cannot acquire your own copy for cheaper.
- 17.3" version: http/www.xoticpc.com/sager-np6175-clevo-w170er-p-4345.html?wconfigure=yes

Sager NP6350 (NVIDIA GTX 660M, 15.6" 1920x1080 glossy display) - $999 no tax
- http/www.xoticpc.com/sager-np6350-clevo-w350etq-ships-midseptember-p-4897.html?wconfigure=yes
- Select Windows under Operating System if you cannot acquire your own copy for cheaper.
- Recommended: Matte display upgrade.
- 17.3" version: http/www.xoticpc.com/sager-np6370-clevo-w370et-p-4796.html?wconfigure=yes