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TheEvilAlex: Now I never had a Laptop before and I was always against the idea but now it seems I can't avoid it any further.
The budget is around 700$.
I would like it to be able to play all the current GOG games, including The Witcher 2.
I think Witcher 2 is still considered quite heavy game graphically, so I'm unsure how doable it is with a $700 (gaming) laptop, unless you are ready to run it with very reduced details. To get some idea how the laptop could possibly run Witcher 2, check its graphics chipset from this list:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/The-Witcher-2.65498.0.html

I'm still in the process of buying my next gaming laptop (ASUS G75, now that the retailers here are finally getting new ones, it seems to sell good as they constantly run out of them), it should run Witcher 2 quite fluently in high detail settings. But it costs 1400€ here, well over twice your budget. And it is said to run surprisingly cool and silent even in high load for a gaming laptop, but it is big and heavy with poor battery duration, not something you necessarily want for your studies to take to library etc.
Post edited August 05, 2012 by timppu
I have raised my budget to 800$. This is my max tho.
Here are the suggestions from my local shops.

Dell Inspiron N5520:
Core I7 Mobile 3612QM
DDR6GB
AMD Radeon HD 7670M 1GB

ASUS PRO5MSM:
Core I5 Mobile 2450M
DDR4GB
GeForce GT 630M 2GB

I don't really know what model is this, says something like B6 H96AE but I can't find it oh well...here's the specs
?????:
AMD Quad Core A10-4600M APU
AMD Radeon HD 7660G+7670M Dual
Chipset AMD A70M FCH
8GB DDR3(2x4GB)

So are these good choices??
If you can suggest better for a similar price then please.
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TheEvilAlex: I have raised my budget to 800$. This is my max tho.
Here are the suggestions from my local shops.

Dell Inspiron N5520:
Core I7 Mobile 3612QM
DDR6GB
AMD Radeon HD 7670M 1GB

ASUS PRO5MSM:
Core I5 Mobile 2450M
DDR4GB
GeForce GT 630M 2GB

I don't really know what model is this, says something like B6 H96AE but I can't find it oh well...here's the specs
?????:
AMD Quad Core A10-4600M APU
AMD Radeon HD 7660G+7670M Dual
Chipset AMD A70M FCH
8GB DDR3(2x4GB)

So are these good choices??
If you can suggest better for a similar price then please.
I'd recommend the first one, or maybe the last one. The GPU on the second is pretty weak (Edit: Looking things over, it seems the 630M is pretty comparable to the 4670M, but I'd still say go for the first or last, 4GB of memory is going to be far more of a bottleneck than the 1 vs 2 GB of VRAM at the resolutions you'll be playing at). The first has less memory, but that's pretty easy to upgrade, and shouldn't be a problem in the short term, anyway. Overall, I'd say go for the i7.
Post edited August 06, 2012 by Tallin
Just a suggestion:

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=lenovo+y570&hl=en&prmd=imvns&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&biw=1441&bih=696&wrapid=tlif134436742236710&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=6253348383884250679&sa=X&ei=SGshUOLcCpHPsgbW-YC4Bw&ved=0CJYBEPMCMAI
Stay away from video cards that have Optimus. I have a Nvidia Geforce GT540M 2GB with Optimus in my laptop and it causes a lot of strange problems.

Try to get one that has a single discrete video card.
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TheEvilAlex: I have raised my budget to 800$. This is my max tho.
Here are the suggestions from my local shops.

Dell Inspiron N5520:
Core I7 Mobile 3612QM
DDR6GB
AMD Radeon HD 7670M 1GB

ASUS PRO5MSM:
Core I5 Mobile 2450M
DDR4GB
GeForce GT 630M 2GB

I don't really know what model is this, says something like B6 H96AE but I can't find it oh well...here's the specs
?????:
AMD Quad Core A10-4600M APU
AMD Radeon HD 7660G+7670M Dual
Chipset AMD A70M FCH
8GB DDR3(2x4GB)

So are these good choices??
If you can suggest better for a similar price then please.
avatar
Tallin: I'd recommend the first one, or maybe the last one. The GPU on the second is pretty weak (Edit: Looking things over, it seems the 630M is pretty comparable to the 4670M, but I'd still say go for the first or last, 4GB of memory is going to be far more of a bottleneck than the 1 vs 2 GB of VRAM at the resolutions you'll be playing at). The first has less memory, but that's pretty easy to upgrade, and shouldn't be a problem in the short term, anyway. Overall, I'd say go for the i7.
How is I7 compared to A10 CPU's, is I7 better??

And how is 630M compared to HD 7670M??
As I understand HD 7670M is still better even when 603M has 2 Gb of vram.

Is it better then the ones I suggested??
This seems to have a weak GPU.

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Ravenvolf: Stay away from video cards that have Optimus. I have a Nvidia Geforce GT540M 2GB with Optimus in my laptop and it causes a lot of strange problems.

Try to get one that has a single discrete video card.
You mean like the third one I suggested, where there's 2 GPU's??
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Tallin: I'd recommend the first one, or maybe the last one. The GPU on the second is pretty weak (Edit: Looking things over, it seems the 630M is pretty comparable to the 4670M, but I'd still say go for the first or last, 4GB of memory is going to be far more of a bottleneck than the 1 vs 2 GB of VRAM at the resolutions you'll be playing at). The first has less memory, but that's pretty easy to upgrade, and shouldn't be a problem in the short term, anyway. Overall, I'd say go for the i7.
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TheEvilAlex: How is I7 compared to A10 CPU's, is I7 better??
i7s and Intel chips in general tend to have better performance than AMD chips even at lower clock rates, currently. Whether that is due to them actually being worse chips or that software is just not designed to take advantage of AMD architecture, the fact remains that I have never seen a game that did not perform somewhat better on Intel chips. Then again, the new A10 Piledriver chips are supposed to be doing better than the previous Bulldozer chips. Plus they have the dual (Crossfired) graphics with the integrated GPU which will give a bit of a boost there. Whichever one you choose, I'm sure you'll be happy with it for some time.
And how is 630M compared to HD 7670M??
As I understand HD 7670M is still better even when 603M has 2 Gb of vram.
They seem to be pretty comparable, going back and forth on all the benchmarks I could find. Also, it's not so much that it's still better as that 2GB of VRAM is going to do nothing for you at the resolution the laptop runs at with those graphics. The extra GB is superfluous. Unless you are plugging it into a higher resolution monitor, it's pointless to get 2GB. Well, this seems to be American only prices, from what I see. But the 555M that comes with these systems isn't bad.
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Ravenvolf: Stay away from video cards that have Optimus. I have a Nvidia Geforce GT540M 2GB with Optimus in my laptop and it causes a lot of strange problems.

Try to get one that has a single discrete video card.
You mean like the third one I suggested, where there's 2 GPU's??
No, since Optimus is an nVidia. I'm not sure how well AMD works in this case, but you can actually Crossfire the integrated and discrete graphics, which would make them more powerful than either card for certain games, though Witcher 2 seems to have some trouble with it, so it probably wouldn't offer any improvement there...
Post edited August 08, 2012 by Tallin
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Ravenvolf: Stay away from video cards that have Optimus. I have a Nvidia Geforce GT540M 2GB with Optimus in my laptop and it causes a lot of strange problems.

Try to get one that has a single discrete video card.
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TheEvilAlex: You mean like the third one I suggested, where there's 2 GPU's??
I'm not sure how AMD handles the dual card thing, but the Nvidia version is a bit troublesome. It uses the i7's integrated Intel HD3000 card for some things, however, some games dont detect the Nvidia card and a select few games don't like fullscreen.

I have some workarounds for most games but it is more trouble than it is worth. If I could get my money back and buy a laptop with just the nvidia card and not the dual setup, I would do so in a heartbeat.
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Ravenvolf: Stay away from video cards that have Optimus. I have a Nvidia Geforce GT540M 2GB with Optimus in my laptop and it causes a lot of strange problems.

Try to get one that has a single discrete video card.
The laptop I recommended has Optimus, FYI.

I agree that it can be strange, but the main thing that was problem for me was some weirdness between that and the power settings of my laptop. I had to change a few settings in Control Panel related to laptop battery use and since then, the thing has worked like a charm. The only trouble I have had other than that is some weird thing with the game Sonic Generations where I had to trick the game for it to realize that I wanted to use my NVidia GPU instead of the integrated Intel graphics.
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Ravenvolf: Stay away from video cards that have Optimus. I have a Nvidia Geforce GT540M 2GB with Optimus in my laptop and it causes a lot of strange problems.

Try to get one that has a single discrete video card.
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jungletoad: The laptop I recommended has Optimus, FYI.

I agree that it can be strange, but the main thing that was problem for me was some weirdness between that and the power settings of my laptop. I had to change a few settings in Control Panel related to laptop battery use and since then, the thing has worked like a charm. The only trouble I have had other than that is some weird thing with the game Sonic Generations where I had to trick the game for it to realize that I wanted to use my NVidia GPU instead of the integrated Intel graphics.
Yeah that is what I mean. For Space Rangers 2 Reboot, you have to trick the computer into thinking you have an external monitor plugged in to play it in fullscreen. Arcanum needs you to force it to the integrated Intel card, otherwise it wont use fullscreen.

You are right though, most of the things can be overcome and if you have a good deal for a laptop, Optimus shouldn't put you off. But if you find a similar deal, go without Optimus if possible.

I like my laptop, just took many hours of research and tinkering to fix some of the funny problems.
Thanks guys, you've been a great help to me so far.

This is the best thing, that is barley in my budget, that I could find.
Dell Inspiron N5520:
Core I7 Mobile 3612QM
DDR3 8GB
AMD Radeon HD 7670M 1GB
1TB HDD

This is practically the same as before but with 8Gb RAM, it didn't cause THAT much to upgrade so I decided to go all out. It has no Optimus and look's like a good machine but I wouldn't know.
It costs $944.00.
Again, if you guys know any better laptop within that price or if there is a reason I should stay away from this laptop then please, let me know. I still got plenty of time to choose, since my salary is at the end of the month.
Thanks again.