Student Looking for sub 700 laptop for gaming

[qzyxya]

Hi guys, this is my first post here on tomshardware, so sorry if I mess anything up. 😛
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I'm looking for a laptop for school that I can also use for gaming and video/photo editing with adobe after effects/premiere pro and photoshop. At the moment, I play TF2 mostly on my desktop along with a bit of battlefield and some assassin's creed and portal.

Budget: under $700 but i can extend it to $8-900 if its worth it

I'll definitely need a dedicated GPU and a moderately fast GPU. The screen size should be 14-15 inches, so that I can fit it in a backpack everyday for school. I also need good build quality (preferably not plastic) since slamming it in a backpack with heavy textbooks is not exactly gentle.

Here are a few different models I've picked out. I'd like some feedback on what you guys think would be good or bad, or for you to suggest another model or something

HP DV6z with A10 or A8 and 7730m

HP DV6z with A8/A10 and 7670m crossfire

Acer V3 571g with 3rd gen i3 and GT630m

Acer V3 561g with 3rd gen i5 and GT630m

Lenovo Y480 with 3rd gen quad i7 and GT640m LE. I've heard a lot of bad about this one. The gpu supposedly is underclocked and has only 96 shaders versus 364 or 398 or whatever. This is supposed to be a cheap reskin of the old gt555m.

Lenovo z585 with A8 and integrated 7660m (supposed to preform moderately well, best of the integrated gpus) very good build quality so i hear. extremely cheap $500 with a10 and 7660m

Lenovo Y580 with 3rd gen i7 and GTx660m - most expensive and i don't know if its worth it. Will it be that much of an upgrade? I might play games like skyrim or other graphics intensive games in the future

Acer M5 ultrabook 3rd gen i5 and gt640m (actual 300+ shader version so i hear)
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Is it worth it to get intel i5 versus i3 in the Acer V3?
Is the 7730 or 7670m crossfire better for general use and gaming (the games i listed earlier)?
Is the A10 worth it over the A8?
How do the GT630m in the acer V3 and the GT640m le in the lenovo y480 and the acer M5 compare?
How far behind does the integrated 7660 by itself trail?
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I'm inclined to get the Y480 since its only 599.99 at newegg right now, but Im discouraged by the negative talk of the GPU. Could someone clarify if its that bad? Like would it be worse than the others in the price range? The i7 i assume will be very good for rendering in after effects and premiere, but if the graphics are worse than say the 630m or the 7670 then I won't get it.

Please just give me a recommendation of whats the best deal with good build quality in my price range.
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EDIT:
I've read a couple other posts about the 7730m vs the 7670m and the a8 vs a10 but I'd like for someone to tell me how these will affect the gameplay (of my games, TF2 and BF3 mostly mayby skyrim) and everyday performance

 

[palladin9479]

I have a 3550MX with DDR3-1333 memory (stupid HP locking the BIOS options and memory bus to 533) that is crossfired with a 7690M that has 2GB of GDDR5 memory. Zero problems, just use the newer Catalyst drivers as HP's own are absolutely horrible.

Between the 7670M and 7730M I'd go with the 7670M as it can crossfire with the Trinity GPU. I do believe the ones HP are using are DDR3, it seems all the manufacturers are going cheap here, kinda sad.

SSD's are nice but they blow him way over budget, especially on laptops as there is no room for a 2nd disk. I ended up putting a 256GB Samsung 830 into mine, but that was only as later upgrade. This is a student with a limited budget, get a 7200 RPM drive ($20 USD more on the HP) and put the extra money towards a better processor / dGPU / screen.

 

[palladin9479]

http/www.amazon.com/Acer-TimelineU-M5-481TG-6814-14-Inch-Ultrabook/dp/B0085H65VS/ref=sr_1_22?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1350049448&sr=1-22&keywords=gddr5+laptop

The 640M LE is a stripped down budget 640M and can only use DDR3. That product info is incorrect, they don't have 1GB of GDDR5 memory as that chip couldn't use it.

Honestly there isn't too many offerings in that range with GDDR5, I got extremely lucky that HP offered the 7690M with the DV6's. They no longer do that and your only choices are the two budget GPU's, one is VLIW4 the other is GCN. The 2GB 7730M is the stronger pure GPU, but it's not capable of linking with the Trinity iGPU. The 7670M on the other hand is perfectly capable of linking with the trinity for boosted performance. With the newer catalyst drivers having built-in support for ACF it's most likely the better choice overall.

 

[qzyxya]

The 640M LE is a stripped down budget 640M and can only use DDR3. That product info is incorrect, they don't have 1GB of GDDR5 memory as that chip couldn't use it.

Honestly there isn't too many offerings in that range with GDDR5, I got extremely lucky that HP offered the 7690M with the DV6's. They no longer do that and your only choices are the two budget GPU's, one is VLIW4 the other is GCN. The 2GB 7730M is the stronger pure GPU, but it's not capable of linking with the Trinity iGPU. The 7670M on the other hand is perfectly capable of linking with the trinity for boosted performance. With the newer catalyst drivers having built-in support for ACF it's most likely the better choice overall.

Okay thanks. With the trinity apus is the a8/a10 worth it over the a6? I think il get one of thsoe witha 7200rpm 750gb hdd and a 7670m. just should i get a6 a8 or a10?

 

[palladin9479]

Okay thanks. With the trinity apus is the a8/a10 worth it over the a6? I think il get one of thsoe witha 7200rpm 750gb hdd and a 7670m. just should i get a6 a8 or a10?

Get an A10 if at all possible. It's two piledriver "modules", basically four "integer" cores and two large FPU's. The big difference is that the iGPU inside the A10 is really nice, the A6 and A8 aren't nearly as nice.

 

[qzyxya]

Get an A10 if at all possible. It's two piledriver "modules", basically four "integer" cores and two large FPU's. The big difference is that the iGPU inside the A10 is really nice, the A6 and A8 aren't nearly as nice.

Alright then I'll get the lenovo z585 with the A10 or the DV6z with the A10 and 7670m. Thanks so much guys.

 

[nbelote]

7730m is about double the performance of the 7670m. You won't get double performance from having a 7670m Crossfired with a 7660g, I am very sorry. You would see some gain, but only in the games specifically optimized for AMD's Hybrid Crossfire laptop solution, and there are not many. Get a laptop with a 7730m and use Leshcat's Unified drivers: http/leshcatlabs.net/

 

[Zingam_Duo]

A student should:
1. study
2. do sports
3. screw chicks

not play crappy games!

 

[nbelote]

A student should:
1. study
2. do sports
3. screw chicks

not play crappy games!

Not necessarily in that order, BTW....

 

[qzyxya]

A student should:
1. study
2. do sports
3. screw chicks

not play crappy games!

lol
why are you on this site then?

Is the 7730 really 2x better than the crossfired 7670m? Also which games support the crossfire?

 

[nbelote]

There's no official list of games, it's run-and-gun, but yes, a 7730m is a much better GPU, it pretty much will thrash that CF solution. In CF mode, the 7670m+7660g may meet the 7730m in some comparisons but not many. The CF solution will also suffer from microstuttering, which may drive you nuts. The dedicated 7730m will not.

The 7700 mobility series is based on the desktop equivalents, just clocked lower, while the 7600 mobility series is based on the old 6XXX mobility and not nearly as good. Here:

http/www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-7660G-HD-7670M-Dual-Graphics.81173.0.html
vs
http/www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-7730M.72678.0.html


Also, does the DV6 have a better resolution screen? If it does, you'll want that for sure. I know most people say that it doesn't matter at that size, but I call BS....

 

[nbelote]

Skyrim 7660g+7670m:

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011)
low:
33 37 43.2 ~ 38 fps Compare
med.:
27 28.2 33.2 ~ 29 fps Compare
high:
19 21 22.9 ~ 21 fps Compare
ultra:
10 10.1 12 ~ 11 fps Compare
» With most tested laptops playable in detail settings low.

Skyrim 7730m:


The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011)
low:
63 fps Compare
med.:
42 fps Compare
ultra:
16 fps Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings med..

Skyrim is a DX9 title, so the performance increase should be the same, roughly, compared to the other DX9 titles you play.

 

[nbelote]

I game on a laptop with an overclocked 6770m, which can push 7730m-like performance. That laptop replaced an older one with a much crappier GPU (GT 540m) and anything less than what I have now would make me sad face 🙁

 

[qzyxya]

There's no official list of games, it's run-and-gun, but yes, a 7730m is a much better GPU, it pretty much will thrash that CF solution. In CF mode, the 7670m+7660g may meet the 7730m in some comparisons but not many. The CF solution will also suffer from microstuttering, which may drive you nuts. The dedicated 7730m will not.

The 7700 mobility series is based on the desktop equivalents, just clocked lower, while the 7600 mobility series is based on the old 6XXX mobility and not nearly as good. Here:

http/www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-7660G-HD-7670M-Dual-Graphics.81173.0.html
vs
http/www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-7730M.72678.0.html


Also, does the DV6 have a better resolution screen? If it does, you'll want that for sure. I know most people say that it doesn't matter at that size, but I call BS....

Hmm the dv6z has a higher res screen, but then its $650 base. Should i then just get the 7670m? That'd be 700. To get a A10 with it would be another $100.

 

[nbelote]

It's your money. You have been provided with real-world performance numbers, now you just need to decide I personally would be happier with a faster GPU with NO microstutter because that crap drives me insane, and the APU+GPU microstutter is slightly worse (to me) than regular Crossfire/SLI. The 7670m alone isn't much worse off than the CF 7670m+7660g, really, but you'd have to live with the microstutter unless you turned off the CF.

At the very least, read over those two links I provided well, so you know what you're getting into. Here's one for the standard 7670m standing alone:

http/www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-7670M.69483.0.html

 

[qzyxya]

It's your money. You have been provided with real-world performance numbers, now you just need to decide I personally would be happier with a faster GPU with NO microstutter because that crap drives me insane, and the APU+GPU microstutter is slightly worse (to me) than regular Crossfire/SLI. The 7670m alone isn't much worse off than the CF 7670m+7660g, really, but you'd have to live with the microstutter unless you turned off the CF.

At the very least, read over those two links I provided well, so you know what you're getting into. Here's one for the standard 7670m standing alone:

http/www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-7670M.69483.0.html

Yeah that site notebookcheck.net is really helpful. I think i'm gonna get the A8 with the 7730m for $625. Though i kind of do want to upgrade to the 1080p sreen and get the 7670m and A6. Will that preform well? I obviously would down the graphics and not go 1080p with the weak a6 and 7670m, but maybe 720p

 

[qzyxya]

Somebody said that the integrated GPU in the A10 is much better than the A8 and A6. Is it better to spend 50 bucks upgrading from a8 to a10 or from 7670m to 7730m?

 

[qzyxya]

Just ordered the Lenovo Z585 for $550 with the A10 and 7660m. Can't wait till it come. Is it really supposed to preform as well as the dedicated GT630m card? That's crazy

 

[qzyxya]

Just got the z585 yesterday. It's amazing. Great build quality, all metal lid and inside. The trackpad is huge and gets in the way of typing a bit but is awesomely big. I can render multiple frames simultaneously in after effects due to the quad core and 6gb ram. I can run TF2 with maxed out settings 16x filtering antiscopic and 8x antialiasing with very high texturing and modeling details. I get an average of 40fps in large servers but it can get as high as like 100fps. Its crazy how this integrated graphics card preforms better than the one on my desktop.

Thank you guys so much for recommending this processor and all the information about it.

 

[qzyxya]

Best answer selected by qzyxya.