Samsung NP355V5C-S05IN - - Is it a good gaming laptop (Dota 2, GTA 4, CoDs, PS2 emulator, Sports games )?

[Saga123]

OSpecifications
AMD APU A8 4500M
1.9 GHz Quad core (Turbo to 2.8 GHz) (4
MB L2 cache)
AMD A70M chipset motherboard
6 GB of DDR3 RAM
15.6 inch (1366 x 768) Anti Reflective
Display
512 MB AMD Radeon HD 7640G
(Integrated)
1 GB GDDR3 AMD Radeon HD 7670M
Dual Graphics (Dedicated)
1.3 MP Web Camera
1 TB Hard Disk Drive
6 cell battery, Upto 6 hours Battery
Backup
2.33 KG weight
Microsoft Windows 8 64-bit

I just don't like the AMD processor . everything else is pretty attractive. Price around 33K Rs ( 660 Dollars) .

 

[photonboy]

The APU is a combined CPU and GPU.

What matters to you is about getting the best gaming performance in your budget. Some of the newer APU's are quite impressive in that respect.

Is it a "good" gaming laptop?
NO.

It fails completely because it uses Dual Graphics. Read this for why:
http/www.tomshardware.com/reviews/dual-graphics-crossfire-benchmark,3583.html

SKIP to the last page if you want. It basically says "don't buy this".

For gaming, you need to concentrate on getting the best GPU in the laptop more than anything else. Probably the best value "gaming" laptop is the best APU you can afford (with no second GPU for Dual Graphics). "Dual Graphics" is basically the same as Crossfire but has even more problems currently.

Other:
GTA 4 is a very poorly ported game. It runs crappy even on my high-end gaming machine.

 

[photonboy]

Example (U.S. Bestbuy):
http/www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+ENVY+TouchSmart+Sleekbook+Touch-Screen+15.6%26%2334%3B+Laptop+-+8GB+Memory+-+1TB+Hard+Drive+-+Modern+Silver/9268057.p?id=1219007786803&skuId=9268057

This laptop has an A10 APU, but it's mainly the GPU that is important. In the "8610G" it's the SECOND number that's the most important.

The "8" means it's a new GPU (or rebadge of 7000 series) and the "6" is the relative performance in that group. In general.

*So look for an A8/A10 APU with the best GPU performance. I'm not recommending a different discrete CPU and GPU because I don't think you'll do better than that in that price range.

I also recommend HP, Asus, or Lenovo.
I do NOT recommend Acer.

Most other specifications are fairly similar. Screen resolution varies a lot so if you can get higher than 1366x768 do so.

You can also output to a monitor or HDTV via the HDMI connection (and get sound if it's supported). Add an XBOX 360 controller for supported games and it's basically a gaming console. If you use STEAM (recommended) to add games you can even navigate with the controller by changing Steam to "Big Picture" mode. The above laptop would run SKYRIM for example very well though for ALL GAMES you should always tweak the settings to attempt to maintain 60FPS VSYNC if possible.

Finally, Windows 8 has a new interface. I absolutely DO recommend it, but my advice is to avoid it for now by using START8 ($5) from Stardock. It will add back your Start Menu, but you should change the SETTINGS inside Start8 to avoid the Charms Bar in the desktop, boot to desktop directly or whatever else you want.