are the 950m or 960m too tired for these games?

[ExoMale]

Fortnite
Anno 2205
The Division
RB6S
Sim City 2013
No Mans Sky
Fallout4
Hitman Absolution
City skyline
Ghost Recon wildlands

or even the older 800m range?

 

[willhub]

Not cities skylines that's CPU bound. I could almost play this on a Intel HD520

 

[pastymuncher]

Anno 2205 seems to hit the whole system hard as that is the game that has given me by far the highest power draw. That made my pc draw 272w from the wall compared to the other games I play being anywhere between 110-225w.

It is going to depend on the res and details setting as well. I suppose it will come down to how low you are prepared to go on the settings.

 

[ExoMale]

thanks for replies.

i dont own cities yet, but i was looking to get it as its like under £10 on cdkeys or some other digital game site, i used to be too in to sim city 13 to justify skylines before, but i love these game types.

Anno 2205 - Pc spec runs 55-60fps on ultra high @ 1366x768, so very smooth
The Division - Pc spec runs it 40-55fps with the odd dips below 40 on its highest preset @ 1366x768, so very playable, if the scenery isnt always in detail till closer at times(but boring as im low on stuff to do under level 28 so this game isnt a concern)
Sim City 2013 - i used to get over 50fps with this game even at 1920x1080, need to pay for my origin pass to play it again
RB6S - Before i used to get 45-55fps on high @ 1366x768, lower the count a bit for 1920x1080, having issues installing the game again right now
NMS - before i used to get a playable to me 18-25fps on medium/high maybe even low @ i think 1080 back when it was full of stutters and poor optimization
FO4 - used to get 50-60fps on high @ 1366x768 maybe slight below 50. used to get up to 25fps @ 1080 with a weaker card prior with minor stutters
HA - never played it on pc before, but ran it the other day to make a video and i was getting a smooth 60fps maybe down to 55 a very rare time @ 1366x768 on highest setting, this was only at the first mission
GR:W - currently installing it for the free weekend and having only ever played on xbox one, i dont know what to expect.

given my tv cant go higher than 1366x768 for pc use and regardless of going highest settings in the games, i am more than happy to turn a 1080 screen down to it if it means consistent smooth over 45fps gameplay for the more demanding games like these at no lower than medium settings, i wont drop res any lower to game thats for sure, other than trying to get crysis to run on a 754 sempron and gt 210 before, i have only ever done it 2 other times, trying to get Farming simulator 17 to run on a e300 + 6310 APU(intel 4400 plays on high smoothly) and lowering the res enough with hd4400 without as low as 800x600 or whatever on lowest settings to run Titanfall which played really well, but looked like a 360 game lol.


ive got a lot of free time now, but not going to spend it all on gaming, so i havent decided yet if im going to replace my pc or have it along side it rather than spending like £200 on an i5 2310m + gt 645m ive found for example which would be used to play the city building games only, so i am only looking £300-400 price range by the end of the month, reason for this pricing because of amount of use and the fact i saw a Rog with an i7 + 950m for £320, just happens to be over 2hrs away lol

 

[Andrew_McP]

I've been very impressed by my Lenovo Y700 with 960m running games at 1080p. So much so I rarely use my desktop any more (unless I need a VR fix). I just let games run with whatever settings they default to usually, and I don't feel I'm missing much, including frame rate, which I've never had cause to measure.

I'm currently playing Far Cry 4 and have played Fallout 4 without issues... hang on, I tell a lie. The optional hi res texture pack produced crashes which went away as soon as I went back to vanilla. Diablo 3 runs prettily, Just Cause 3 looked lovely (and was more fun than I expected). I've even loaded sims like Assetto Corsa on it without complaint (apart from the fact sims are daft on a laptop!)

This laptop has a 6700HQ CPU and plenty of RAM, which may ensure the 9600m is working as fast as it can all the time. Either way, I've fewer complaints than I expected when settling for less than the 970m I wanted. My main complaint with this laptop is that it routinely forgets I have a GPU (especially after going to sleep) requiring a reboot and -- more often than I'd like -- reinstalling drivers to get the chipset recognised again. It's not the end of the world though, and my experience over the last year or so has made me seriously doubt I'll ever upgrade my desktop motherboard/CPU unless it breaks. I'm more likely to put the money towards another laptop in a few years.

FWIW I'm also very impressed at how quiet this laptop is under load. A 'lower power' GPU has its advantages.

 

[ExoMale]

I've been very impressed by my Lenovo Y700 with 960m running games at 1080p. So much so I rarely use my desktop any more (unless I need a VR fix). I just let games run with whatever settings they default to usually, and I don't feel I'm missing much, including frame rate, which I've never had cause to measure.

I'm currently playing Far Cry 4 and have played Fallout 4 without issues... hang on, I tell a lie. The optional hi res texture pack produced crashes which went away as soon as I went back to vanilla. Diablo 3 runs prettily, Just Cause 3 looked lovely (and was more fun than I expected). I've even loaded sims like Assetto Corsa on it without complaint (apart from the fact sims are daft on a laptop!)

This laptop has a 6700HQ CPU and plenty of RAM, which may ensure the 9600m is working as fast as it can all the time. Either way, I've fewer complaints than I expected when settling for less than the 970m I wanted. My main complaint with this laptop is that it routinely forgets I have a GPU (especially after going to sleep) requiring a reboot and -- more often than I'd like -- reinstalling drivers to get the chipset recognised again. It's not the end of the world though, and my experience over the last year or so has made me seriously doubt I'll ever upgrade my desktop motherboard/CPU unless it breaks. I'm more likely to put the money towards another laptop in a few years.

FWIW I'm also very impressed at how quiet this laptop is under load. A 'lower power' GPU has its advantages.

sounds good, i have always questioned the ability of these branded laptops as they not like Dell with their alienware department and they certainly not like the brands like msi, gigabyte, acer, asus and so on most common under the gaming laptop genre. mean i like lenovo, have had couple desktops and those thinkpads before, but when i think gaming, i dont associate HP/Lenovo/dell regardless of the HP Omen branding, they seem more consumer and any i have seen thats had a dedicated gpu has something from the 600/700/800m or an nvs, im talking the more modern types not those that have dx10 graphics, hell, i had an acer 5740g with dedicated and would love another, but how much they still selling for, they not worth it as the mobility 5470 i had wont cut it nowadays nor the i5 430m and that was a quality laptop, lasted for a few years and was silent.

sound is one thing i never thought about, but then my old basic advent can be loud and other cheap models ive had from other brands the same, so its not too bad of a thing, but it would suck to replace my near silent cube pc with a jet engine sounding laptop lol.


see having never had a proper gaming laptop i dont know what is best to have or what to expect other than laptop hardware is lower rated than desktop, so technically my 1050ti should be much better than the old 950m as ive read its miles better than the 960m, but obviously laptops are configured to use that hardware to the best it can, so while ive seen a Rog with an i7 + 950m i have also seen i5 models with 950 or 960 if not 940, think ive seen a 970m mated to an i5, im not after better than my desktop, i just dont want to waste £300 plus or even from 250 on a gaming laptop that will struggle with those games hence trying not to look for a 600/700m series laptop.

 

[varkanoid]

Son's got a MSI 17" Laptop with i7 6700k and 960m and I've yet to find a game that really struggles with 1080p. He plays Star Wars Battlefront I/II, Fortnite, FIFA 18, World of Warships if you stick to High settings and dip to medium if necessary on some of the lesser settings eg I always put motion off its fine. Can sound like a hair dryer though.

Other son got an Acer Predator 17" for Xmas, its only got an i5 7300 but a full fat 1050ti and it seems a lot smoother and can handle the aforementioned games maxed out.

 

[ExoMale]

Son's got a MSI 17" Laptop with i7 6700k and 960m and I've yet to find a game that really struggles with 1080p. He plays Star Wars Battlefront I/II, Fortnite, FIFA 18, World of Warships if you stick to High settings and dip to medium if necessary on some of the lesser settings eg I always put motion off its fine. Can sound like a hair dryer though.

Other son got an Acer Predator 17" for Xmas, its only got an i5 7300 but a full fat 1050ti and it seems a lot smoother and can handle the aforementioned games maxed out.

thanks for that.

ive noticed for ghost recon a 970m is going to be required as a minimum to get over 40fps on medium/high, but as its been established the i3 i have is bottlenecking my 1050ti aswell as having 8gb ram, in essence all id need is a comparable spec from a laptop, just with more ram and cpu grunt.

mean recon is not the main game, but i would like to buy it now i got to play a bit, so really if the mobile graphics can handle that game then they should handle the rest, dont know what im deciding to do yet, but those specs and background is good enough to convince me if i turn to mobile gaming, pay the extra for the 960m at least and not the 950.

 

[varkanoid]

Have you thought about checking if you can update the CPU in your laptop ? I've never done it with a gaming machine it might not be a socket but the laptops I bought fom my sons when they were younger and my wife I always obtain the service manual to see what is the highest CPU they can use and also whether its soldered or a socket. It can be a right task to disassemble a laptop and finding a guide on the internet with pictures is often possible.

For instance my sons MSI I have had the bottom case off and I could access all the necessary components including the CPU cooler. A quick look on the 2nd hand market for the CPU and you can get one for £125-£180 approx. Adding RAM to a laptop is very easy too so a viable option could be just upgrade your existing laptop ?

 

[ExoMale]

Have you thought about checking if you can update the CPU in your laptop ? I've never done it with a gaming machine it might not be a socket but the laptops I bought fom my sons when they were younger and my wife I always obtain the service manual to see what is the highest CPU they can use and also whether its soldered or a socket. It can be a right task to disassemble a laptop and finding a guide on the internet with pictures is often possible.

For instance my sons MSI I have had the bottom case off and I could access all the necessary components including the CPU cooler. A quick look on the 2nd hand market for the CPU and you can get one for £125-£180 approx. Adding RAM to a laptop is very easy too so a viable option could be just upgrade your existing laptop ?

theres been some confusion, i dont own a gaming laptop, i own whats in my sig plus a 1st gen intel build im trying to get working.

i have been wanting a gaming laptop for awhile as i like to be able to sit on the sofa or somewhere other than bedroom to game or generally use and because both my processors are bottlenecks i was thinking of taking the opportunity to sell and get a laptop over another desktop, but im not looking at brand new as even £400 is out my reach 2nd hand and so around the 280-350 mark i have seen proper i5/i7 laptops but mainly with a 950m, there has been laptops with i5/i7 + low-mid 800m series and the odd 940mx in that price bracket too, but if i was to get a low range 800m i might as well save a lot of money and get something with a 620-640m, but i dont know how well these are for certain games.

i know for wildlands a 2gb gpu will only get me a maximum 'medium' setting which is fine if its mated to a quad cpu and runs smooth, the division im not so bothered about, i did i test video for my intel desktop and have no real interest to pursue and after doing a test video with my amd part in rb6s then im not interested in that either, i play it on xbox with missus and friends and progressed much further, fortnite i will want to still play just to be different as i play more pubg on xbox than fortnite and that wont really take much to run well, sim city wont take much to run either nor will the sims if i play then again, but i have a sudden interest in playing Hitman Absolution.

generally i just need the gpu to handle these games smoothly even if it has to be on medium settings for most.

 

[AthlonXP1800]

theres been some confusion, i dont own a gaming laptop, i own whats in my sig plus a 1st gen intel build im trying to get working.

i have been wanting a gaming laptop for awhile as i like to be able to sit on the sofa or somewhere other than bedroom to game or generally use and because both my processors are bottlenecks i was thinking of taking the opportunity to sell and get a laptop over another desktop, but im not looking at brand new as even £400 is out my reach 2nd hand and so around the 280-350 mark i have seen proper i5/i7 laptops but mainly with a 950m, there has been laptops with i5/i7 + low-mid 800m series and the odd 940mx in that price bracket too, but if i was to get a low range 800m i might as well save a lot of money and get something with a 620-640m, but i dont know how well these are for certain games.

i know for wildlands a 2gb gpu will only get me a maximum 'medium' setting which is fine if its mated to a quad cpu and runs smooth, the division im not so bothered about, i did i test video for my intel desktop and have no real interest to pursue and after doing a test video with my amd part in rb6s then im not interested in that either, i play it on xbox with missus and friends and progressed much further, fortnite i will want to still play just to be different as i play more pubg on xbox than fortnite and that wont really take much to run well, sim city wont take much to run either nor will the sims if i play then again, but i have a sudden interest in playing Hitman Absolution.

generally i just need the gpu to handle these games smoothly even if it has to be on medium settings for most.

I don't know why you not bought Lenovo IdeaPad Z50-70 laptop with Core i5 4200U Haswell CPU and Geforce 840M for £150 I told you about it 2 weeks ago, Geforce 840M can handle these games smoothly at medium/high settings.

Intel launched new Coffee Lake H laptops 3 weeks ago, ASUS TUF Gaming Laptop FX504 with Coffee Lake H 4C/8T i5 8300H CPU, 8GB RAM and GTX 1050 2GB is the cheapest model at $699 MSRP which is £599 included VAT. This should see price of second hands laptops prices fall further down.

 

[ExoMale]

I don't know why you not bought Lenovo IdeaPad Z50-70 laptop with Core i5 4200U Haswell CPU and Geforce 840M for £150 I told you about it 2 weeks ago, Geforce 840M can handle these games smoothly at medium/high settings.

Intel launched new Coffee Lake H laptops 3 weeks ago, ASUS TUF Gaming Laptop FX504 with Coffee Lake H 4C/8T i5 8300H CPU, 8GB RAM and GTX 1050 2GB is the cheapest model at $699 MSRP which is £599 included VAT. This should see price of second hands laptops prices fall further down.

because i didnt look outside my suitable radius(50 mile), i cant buy things off the bay unless its collection only, had issues with transactions before, so i have a new account to just look and ask about nor did i have 150 at the time, i cant afford a 150-200 quid laptop and keep my desktop(well only the am1), so need to make sure i buy right first time which is why i havent done so. i was also replying to the other persons reply .

i will have a look for that lenovo though as i found one on facebook over bristol way with same spec, but for 250 lol.

speaking of which, if your saying the 840m will do what im asking, then what about the older 645m? okay its 200 quid, but someone is selling a MSI CX61 with i5 3230m + gt 645m, that one probably costing too much, but isnt the 800 just a 600 in new generation terms or is the the 800 series quite more advanced?

 

[varkanoid]

theres been some confusion, i dont own a gaming laptop, i own whats in my sig plus a 1st gen intel build im trying to get working.

Yeah a little but what I said still applies if you had bought the Z50-70 dont think you cant update the CPU on it to get better performance. Personally I think an 840m is still a bit weak for a gaming GPU as thats what we had in an All In One and settings on the games my son was playing needed to be low-medium, quite often we would need to even lower the screen res. Dont forget the resolution also plays a part. The Z50 is a 1080p laptop (1920x1080) so you are looking at low-medium on games like Fortnite and Fallout4.

In my opinion you need a minimum 950m at a push or equivalent but then thats my personal preference. I would probably never go below 960m.

 

[ExoMale]

Yeah a little but what I said still applies if you had bought the Z50-70 dont think you cant update the CPU on it to get better performance. Personally I think an 840m is still a bit weak for a gaming GPU as thats what we had in an All In One and settings on the games my son was playing needed to be low-medium, quite often we would need to even lower the screen res. Dont forget the resolution also plays a part. The Z50 is a 1080p laptop (1920x1080) so you are looking at low-medium on games like Fortnite and Fallout4.

In my opinion you need a minimum 950m at a push or equivalent but then thats my personal preference. I would probably never go below 960m.

thats why i havent got one yet ha, as a laptop along side my desktop then be good as i would only be playing the city building games and hitman, but then if i rule out hitman even a gt 520m id have thought be able to run the city building games fine and they can be had for less than £100 in some cases.

while im sure pc gaming at 1080p be nice again, now im used to a 1366x768 i dont care anymore, so long as i can play and dont look like something from the 360 or older days then all good.

 

[AthlonXP1800]

because i didnt look outside my suitable radius(50 mile), i cant buy things off the bay unless its collection only, had issues with transactions before, so i have a new account to just look and ask about nor did i have 150 at the time, i cant afford a 150-200 quid laptop and keep my desktop(well only the am1), so need to make sure i buy right first time which is why i havent done so. i was also replying to the other persons reply .

i will have a look for that lenovo though as i found one on facebook over bristol way with same spec, but for 250 lol.

speaking of which, if your saying the 840m will do what im asking, then what about the older 645m? okay its 200 quid, but someone is selling a MSI CX61 with i5 3230m + gt 645m, that one probably costing too much, but isnt the 800 just a 600 in new generation terms or is the the 800 series quite more advanced?

it really shame you had issues with transactions, you will need to contact either ebay, paypal or your bank to sort out issues with your transactions first before you can buy items on ebay that will deliver items to you for first time. I never had issues with transactions from either ebay or paypal.

Yes GT 645M cost far too much at £200 that is slower than Geforce 840M, it all depend on performance. GT 645M has Fire Strike score of 1177 while Geforce 840M get 1573.

You may need to keep on eye for more powerful Geforce 860M which has 128 bit memory bus and 2GB GDDR5 has 2,108 GFLOPS and Fire Strike score of 3904 had been sold at £168-260 range, if you get laptop with GTX 860M will mean you can run all games smoothly. GTX 860M is much faster than GTX 950M's 1,439 GFLOPS and Fire Strike score of 3200.

 

[ExoMale]

the issues was from a year plus ago and issues with paypal, so i dont have that anymore, i was victim of someone getting a refund before i could even send it and was og higher value items, wasnt the first time from a buyer either and my financial situation was far worse at that time that it is now, so with all the scams and crap i cant be bothered with online transactions through that site, that is my only reason for not finding those deals.

just a little findings update, i tend to use Game-Debate to see how they rate the performance of a spec and this is what the results were. by default of 1920x1080 as im not logged in.

i5 3230, 8gb, gt 645m:

Anno 2205 - Low
The Division - Low
Fortnite - Medium
RB6S - Low
Sim City 13 - Medium or High
Hitman Absolution - Medium or High
FO4 - Fail
NMS - Fail
City Skylines - Medium
GRW - Low

so for most of the games id want to play(obviously not anno doh) if this was along side my computer then its good as medium - high is a nice option, obviously no pc replacement.

i5 4200U, 8gb, 840m 2gb:

Sim City 13 - Medium or High
city skyline - Medium or High
Hitman Absolution - High
FO4 - Fail
Fornite - Low(weak cpu)
Anno 2205 - Low
RB6S - Low
NMS - Fail
The Division - Low
GRW - Low

so again only suitable for a 2nd device which for the prices is not something i particularly want to spend if i dont have to, so in essence that newer latop improves a little, but the cpu is too weak at 1.6ghz.

decided to use this site to test the 950m laptop i saw for the games that resulted low or failed as its obvious for the others.

i7 4720hq, 8gb, 950m(2gb?)

FO4 - Medium
Fornite - Medium or High
Anno 2205 - Medium or High
RB6S - Medium or High
NMS - Low(even with 4gb version)
The Division - Medium
GRW - Low(weak gpu)


so that settles it then, to play my games excluding No mans sky and wildlands i am going to need the 950m, maybe get away with an i5 if its a quad lol and to include NMW & GRW at medium or high im going to need a 970m.

basically i need to find one of these cheaper lol

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x ASUS Gaming Nvidia GTX 1050 2GB, 15.6" FHD, I5-7300HQ Laptop (FX503VD-DM080T)= £699.95

Total: £710.45 (includes shipping: £10.50)​

​

didnt go through all the games again, but NMS & wildlands get the same result as the 970m with an i7 which were the 2 stronger games, so this one will do it all, probably find one cheaper than a 970m model as well lol

 

[AthlonXP1800]

the issues was from a year plus ago and issues with paypal, so i dont have that anymore, i was victim of someone getting a refund before i could even send it and was og higher value items, wasnt the first time from a buyer either and my financial situation was far worse at that time that it is now, so with all the scams and crap i cant be bothered with online transactions through that site, that is my only reason for not finding those deals.

just a little findings update, i tend to use Game-Debate to see how they rate the performance of a spec and this is what the results were. by default of 1920x1080 as im not logged in.

i5 3230, 8gb, gt 645m:

Anno 2205 - Low
The Division - Low
Fortnite - Medium
RB6S - Low
Sim City 13 - Medium or High
Hitman Absolution - Medium or High
FO4 - Fail
NMS - Fail
City Skylines - Medium
GRW - Low

so for most of the games id want to play(obviously not anno doh) if this was along side my computer then its good as medium - high is a nice option, obviously no pc replacement.

i5 4200U, 8gb, 840m 2gb:

Sim City 13 - Medium or High
city skyline - Medium or High
Hitman Absolution - High
FO4 - Fail
Fornite - Low(weak cpu)
Anno 2205 - Low
RB6S - Low
NMS - Fail
The Division - Low
GRW - Low

so again only suitable for a 2nd device which for the prices is not something i particularly want to spend if i dont have to, so in essence that newer latop improves a little, but the cpu is too weak at 1.6ghz.

decided to use this site to test the 950m laptop i saw for the games that resulted low or failed as its obvious for the others.

i7 4720hq, 8gb, 950m(2gb?)

FO4 - Medium
Fornite - Medium or High
Anno 2205 - Medium or High
RB6S - Medium or High
NMS - Low(even with 4gb version)
The Division - Medium
GRW - Low(weak gpu)


so that settles it then, to play my games excluding No mans sky and wildlands i am going to need the 950m, maybe get away with an i5 if its a quad lol and to include NMW & GRW at medium or high im going to need a 970m.

basically i need to find one of these cheaper lol

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x ASUS Gaming Nvidia GTX 1050 2GB, 15.6" FHD, I5-7300HQ Laptop (FX503VD-DM080T)= £699.95

Total: £710.45 (includes shipping: £10.50)
​

didnt go through all the games again, but NMS & wildlands get the same result as the 970m with an i7 which were the 2 stronger games, so this one will do it all, probably find one cheaper than a 970m model as well lol

I think you should take Game Debate with a grain of salt.

Sim City 13 medium or high and Fallout 4 failed on 840M? LOL nonsense, Sim City 13 ran fine on Ultra, Fallout 4 and Far Cry 4 ran fine on High on 840M.

i5 4200U is not a weak CPU at 1.6GHz, I have i7 4500U at 1.8GHz.

If I were you, I would not buy that ASUS Gaming laptop with old Kaby Lake 4C/4T i5 7300HQ for less than £699.95, I would definitely wait a bit to buy new ASUS Gaming laptop with Coffee Lake 4C/8T i5 8300H for less than £599. If it have similar ebay Dell outlet then I would had it at nice discount for £499 like I did with my Dell Inspiron 17 7377 bought from ebay Dell outlet at nice big discount few months after launch.

 

[ExoMale]

im not gospel to game-debate, i find it more reliable than systemrequirementlab which site used to cause me issues, but my systems have proved those sites wrong and the odd times they have been correct with my shortcomings, but i use it for an idea only, the fact my sempron 3850 can run fortnite and rb6s even with stutters from the bottleneck proves that game-debate should i have looked it up, wouldve been false to an extent.

i know the i5 has turbo, but from game-debate it failed it and greened the rest which is why i said weak, other than my sempron, i havent used much below 2ghz for awhile, so i wouldnt actually know how good it performs... i dont like far cry, but seemed to run well, however that FO4 video was annoying to watch, unless it was the recording, that stuttered worse than 4130 + 560 sc, whether thats also down to being a laptop and i used to play at 18-25fps at 1080 and the stutter wasnt that bad considering. but im not in any position to buy that asus laptop or seen ones below anyways, but i wouldnt feel comfortable buying a laptop with a 840m as a pc replacement as some of those seem to cost well over 200 which is probably more than what id be able to get for my pc to fund the laptop.

i know i would want an i7, i would kick myself if i spent 300-600 for a proper gaming laptop and it had a poxy 4c4t processor, i would feel i missed the opportunity.