Searching for a laptop with a dedicated graphics card ( Q & A )

[F4SHAD0]

1) What is your budget?
< $1000

2) What size notebook would you prefer?
>= 15"

3) Any brands that I prefer?
Toshiba, Sony ( willing to accept others )

4) What tasks will you be performing with the notebook?
Video editing, Audio editing, Game design, Gaming, College work

5) Will you be taking the notebook with you to different places or leaving it on your desk?
Taking it to different places

6) Will you be playing games on it; if so, which games?
Yes. Self-designed Games, C&C Red Alert 3, CoD type games

7) How many hours of battery life do you need?
At idle, 3 hours

8) What OS do you prefer?
Windows 7 Home Premium

9) Would you prefer Standard or Widescreen?
Widescreen

10) What screen resolutions would you prefer?
>= 1152 x 856

11) Are the notebook's looks and stylishness important to you?
No.

12) How much hard drive space do you want?
>= 500GB

13) Do you need an optical drive? If yes, a DVD, Blu-Ray or HD-DVD drive?
If already installed, no. If, not, then all of the above supported.

 

[zigzag3143]

1) What is your budget?
< $1000 under 1000 for a video editing gaming laptop isnt much

2) What size notebook would you prefer?
>= 15"

3) Any brands that I prefer?
Toshiba, Sony ( willing to accept others )

4) What tasks will you be performing with the notebook?
Video editing, Audio editing, Game design, Gaming, College work (means video card not chipset so increased cost)

5) Will you be taking the notebook with you to different places or leaving it on your desk?
Taking it to different places

6) Will you be playing games on it; if so, which games?
Yes. Self-designed Games, C&C Red Alert 3, CoD type games

7) How many hours of battery life do you need?
At idle, 3 hours

8) What OS do you prefer?
Windows 7 Home Premium

9) Would you prefer Standard or Widescreen?
Widescreen

10) What screen resolutions would you prefer?
>= 1152 x 856

11) Are the notebook's looks and stylishness important to you?
No.

12) How much hard drive space do you want?
>= 500GB

13) Do you need an optical drive? If yes, a DVD, Blu-Ray or HD-DVD drive?
If already installed, no. If, not, then all of the above supported.

Laptops arent the best platform for gaming or video editing. to get the same results as a desktop the costs skyrocket. $1000 for a desktop can be done, for a laptop more like $1500.


Good Luck

Ken J

 

[F4SHAD0]

I know, but I'm willing to sacrifice a few things. I say a dedicated graphics card so I could upgrade it if need be without buying a whole new computer all together.

 

[ryan9939]

Your best bet would be an Asus laptop. They always put decent GPU's in their machines. I'm too lazy to find one specifically for you, but that will put you in the right direction.

 

[F4SHAD0]

Thanks guys. You we're a real help.

 

[Darician]

The closest match I found considering $1000 as a budget with a vertical resolution higher than 856 is Newegg.com - HP Pavilion dv7-4180us NoteBook Intel Core i5 460M(2.53GHz) 17.3" 4GB Memory 640GB HDD 5400rpm BD Combo ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650. Anything with a better video card and/or higher resolution that I searched would be over $1000. Sometimes, you may get lucky and get a great deal under $1k but you have to keep an eye on Newegg (or other retailers) for these special promotions.

 

[Fuzz Ball]

When you say dedicated graphics card, are you wanting a higher-end card or lower end? Because the integrated (chipsets?) are getting pretty close to some of the lowest end dedicated cards...

1)
9) Would you prefer Standard or Widescreen?
Widescreen

10) What screen resolutions would you prefer?
>= 1152 x 856

16:10 widescreen (old widescreen)? Or 16:9 (HD, Full HD etc)?

Oh and why the odd resolution?

Imho, your best two companies if you're wanting a cheaper laptop with a reasonable card are msi and ASUS. I do believe you'll get slightly better value for money under msi as well.

Oh and a comparison on graphics cards to batteries.
A standard 6-cell battery with a ATi 5450 (lowest end dedicated card of the newer range) will last about 3.5 hours depending on whatever else you're running (estimate based on personal experience).
9-cell with 5870 card (highest end card of the newer series), around 2 hours.

Hope that helps

 

[F4SHAD0]

Again, thanks for the response guys.
@Fuzzball - I didn't know it was an odd resolution, I'm used to using a widescreen laptop at 1280 x 800 pixel resolution. I would like a high-end graphics card, but willing to accept a low-end chipset. That way, you guys won't feel like you're doing all the work for me ( sorry it you feel that way ) and I can decide what I need. Like my grandma used to say, "No blessing has been granted without the individual first putting forth the effort."

P.S. My current laptop uses 16:10 widescreen.

 

[Fuzz Ball]

The most common laptop resolution nowadays is 1366x768 (16:9). The bigger 16:9 is 1920x1080, which is Full HD, normally only coming on more expensive laptops.
The only common 16:10 is 1680x1050. Occasionally theres a 1440x900, but it's more rare now.

The problem with a high-end graphics card is the heat it creates and battery that it uses. Most laptops with a high end card you can't put on your lap or something like that (because it gets too warm and it needs air flow). High GPUs as I just said, use up a LOT of battery, so you'd have to reduce your 3 hour battery time if you wanted the best.
But for what you want, I'd recommend something between a ATi 5650 and 5770 (or a nVidia 330), which shouldn't use up TOO much battery.

I'll do a quick hunt around on a couple sites to see what I can find

 

[EvilOzzmess]

I think you will be making a mistake, and I speak from experience. I spent $800 on my mobile gaming rig (would have cost me well over $1,000 to get the same specs elsewhere, believe me I looked)... while it has served me well, it does have its limitations and drawbacks. For instance, my hardware CAN handle games in High and/or Ultra (the ones I play, TES IV: Oblivion, DAOrigins/Awakening etc.)... but what it cannot handle, as with 99% of mobile PC's, is the HEAT! It's the CPU... that's the problem. There's just not enough room in these things to fit the system with an adequate heat sink and this results in the CPU frequently reaching TJunction Max and shutting itself down, hard.

If you don't care about actually getting your money's worth before it fries out (if you force it to do what it simply cannot), then by all means go for it. But I'm telling you, for that price, you can build a Desktop rig with SIGNIFICANTLY better specifications and hardware and which can actually put out what you've put in.

Don't get me wrong... love my Notebook and its served me very well for the price paid, but its just a real shame that I can't squeeze ALL of the potential performance out of it that I paid for because of the inadequate heat dissipation issue. And don't think more $$$$ is going to help with that problem because ALL mobile gaming rigs suffer from it (I don't care if its a $500 or $3,000 system, they ALL are packed in like sardines and that's the core problem).


Up to you, but I'm telling you you'll regret it and end up dropping the same or more amount of money on a proper rig for gaming once you experience all of the problems with gaming on a mobile PC. Good luck in whatever you decide.

Also, if you are adamant about the mobile gaming rig... do yourself a favor and check into Acer. They charge way less than the competition for a lot more hardware/performance quality. Mine hasn't had an issue yet, other than the heat (and again, which ALL mobile PC's suffer from).

 

[Fuzz Ball]

I've gotta say from experience (so far), my laptop hasn't had any problems. And it's cooling system isn't the best.
The CPU hasn't got above 70 degrees celcius and the GPU above 75. So its going fine.

And the new ASUS G73 laptops have a very good cooling in them (I believe). They have a good flowing system. Sure it's never going to be as good as a PCs one, but they can still get good.

Anyway, assuming you don't want a high end graphics card (mid range), then heres a list from newegg of laptops between $800 and $1100. They all have: at least a 500GB harddrive, Blu ray drive combo, and a mid range graphics card:
Newegg.com - ASUS N53JF-XE1 Notebook Intel Core i5 460M(2.53GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory DDR3 1066 500GB HDD 7200rpm BD Combo NVIDIA GeForce GT 425M
Newegg.com - MSI FX700-024US Notebook Intel Core i5 480M(2.66GHz) 17.3" 4GB Memory 500GB HDD BD Combo NVIDIA GeForce GT 425M
Newegg.com - HP Pavilion dv7-4180us NoteBook Intel Core i5 460M(2.53GHz) 17.3" 4GB Memory 640GB HDD 5400rpm BD Combo ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650
Newegg.com - SAMSUNG RF710-S02 NoteBook Intel Core i7 720QM(1.60GHz) 17.3" 4GB Memory 640GB HDD 5400rpm Blu-Ray Drive NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M
Newegg.com - Acer Aspire AS7745G-9823 NoteBook Intel Core i7 740QM(1.73GHz) 17.3" 4GB Memory DDR3 1066 500GB HDD 5400rpm BD Combo ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650
Newegg.com - HP Pavilion DV7-4070US NoteBook Intel Core i5 450M(2.40GHz) 17.3" 4GB Memory 640GB HDD 5400rpm BD Combo ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650

I don't really have a personal recommendation from them (because I haven't used any of them ), but the first one is the only one with a 15.6" screen if you're wanting portability.

 

[F4SHAD0]

@EvilOzmess: Don't worry, I got the heating problem under control ( maybe ). I have a USB cooling fan that sits underneath the laptop. A friend of mine has a laptop that overheats in like 30 minutes of heavy cpu load. He solved his problem by buying the same thing. What it does is, the USB cooling fan sits his laptop approximately a half-inch from any surface and uses 2 fans to cool the entire underside of the laptop. I plan on experimenting with this before making any purchase.

@Fuzz Ball: Thanks for the resolution specs. I've done some research and found that 16:10 isn't really used on the newer brand laptops ( or notebooks, I use them interchangeably ), but do like using a widescreen display. Something about making the gaming experience much better for what little time I have to kick back and relax. lol

 

[F4SHAD0]

I have been browsing Newegg as well ( can't believe I haven't heard of it before ) and found some pretty decent stuff there. I may start browsing there more often instead of searching all over google ( don't get me wrong, google provides some pretty interesting results).

 

[whs]

I just got this one for Christmas. Configured it with the high resolution screen which gives you the 1GB GPU and also took the backlit keyboard which is neat. I also replaced the HDD with an OCZ Vertex2 SSD. Works very well, but I do no games.
VPCF1390X | VAIO® F1390X Configure-to-Order | Sony | Sony Style USA

 

[Fuzz Ball]

@Fuzz Ball: Thanks for the resolution specs. I've done some research and found that 16:10 isn't really used on the newer brand laptops ( or notebooks, I use them interchangeably ), but do like using a widescreen display. Something about making the gaming experience much better for what little time I have to kick back and relax. lol

16:10 is still used in several laptops, but only as a 1680x1050 option. Like my brand new laptop from msi is 1680x1050. All smaller res laptops with only use 1366x768 now though.
3 most used resolutions:
1366x768 (16:9)
1680x1050 (16:10)
1920x1080 (16:9) (Full HD)

 

[EvilOzzmess]

@EvilOzmess: Don't worry, I got the heating problem under control ( maybe ). I have a USB cooling fan that sits underneath the laptop. A friend of mine has a laptop that overheats in like 30 minutes of heavy cpu load. He solved his problem by buying the same thing. What it does is, the USB cooling fan sits his laptop approximately a half-inch from any surface and uses 2 fans to cool the entire underside of the laptop. I plan on experimenting with this before making any purchase.

I got one for X-mas, and it does a decent job... but doesn't solve the problem in the long-term for intensive gaming.

I can only manage to squeeze about an hour, maybe two hours out of this thing on High GFX settings before it reaches the TJunction Max on the CPU. It doesn't matter what I try to do to cool it down, I've even put ice packs below the system (not touching it of course) to lower the ambient temps around the intake air and it still can't handle the heat. That was even with a gigantic room fan pointing directly on the front of the system, to force even more air into the front intake vent.

However, Medium GFX work just fine and for hours and hours (longest game session so far was 12 straight hours without a problem) any longer than that and the system starts lagging and I have to close out and run CCleaner or Restart. But that's to be expected, I think... too many little temp files stack up. Pretty decent.


Maybe you'll get lucky with a system that can handle the heat, just wanted to warn you... I didn't know about this little problem before I settled on a mobile gaming rig, wish I had. But again, mine's decent... High GFX would have been nice, but Med isn't so bad. Still stunning quality on my HDTV.