Changing from desktop gaming to laptop gaming

Regy53

Regy53

Regy53

Soldato
Joined
11 Jun 2011
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Northampton
Howdy all,

I did post before but really could use some advise, I am moving home and need to ditch my dining room being a gaming room.

What are the best gaming laptops out there today, i see some being mentioned of with a kind of mobile graphics card.... ?

I have a good budget of around 1500- 2k inc vat, I need to order something shortly and am very clueless in this area.

What sort of thing should i be aiming for? is Alienware a load of toot?

cheers
 
Alienware in my opinion is just bells and whistles.

My question is, I understand moving but laptop gaming will never compare to desktop so why not build a new desktop?

I've heard some good reviews on the Origin EON15-X
 
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Sauced Apples said:
Alienware in my opinion is just bells and whistles.

My question is, I understand moving but laptop gaming will never compare to desktop so why not build a new desktop?

I've heard some good reviews on the Origin EON15-X
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Hi Sauced Apples. Not necessarily true that gaming laptops will never compare. A few years back I would agree with you. When you compare like for like on say Nvidia 4 Series Desktop and the equivelant mobile model, the difference was huge. Upwards of 60%.

If you now compare say GTX 970M to Desktop GTX 970, the difference in benchmarks and performance is around 10%.

Agreed this is still a difference but a 10% difference at the higher end, what does that equate to in real world performance ?
 
I can agree.

But 10‰ is a lot to start with as overtime a laptops inability to efficiently cool like a desktop will increase that percentage.

Plus laptops don't have the power performance either either.

But this all depends on your gaming habits.
 
Well sadly my desktop is around 5 months old,

Z97X mboard
I7 4790 chip
GTX 970 4gb graphics
16 gb ram Kington Hypex PC3 2400mhz
250gb evo 840 ssd
Corsair Hydro 105 water cooled



lots of other bits, but the new house just hasn't the space for my "setup" and tbh i would rather a laptop, fresh start and all, i spend to much time sat in front of this desk... So I thought sell up and put the cash towards a laptop, i dont evne play games often but i do sometimes so will just plug into the TV for a screen and I think that will suit me and may actually prompt me into games more
 
You're going to need to sit at a desk or table with a gaming laptop anyway, so unless you need the ability to pick up and move your system easily they don't make much sense to me. They're too bulky to be a decent mobile laptop, cooling them is hard and often noisey, battery life sucks and you still need a mouse and desk to play games.
 
hmmm, i have a surface pro 3 i7 8gb ram etc.. maybe that would have to suffice while i look at options.. or maybe il just buy a regular laptop for a while,

my thoughts were, laptop at tv if needs be, can sit at dining room table if and when required so laptop ok.... and if i feel a bit of me time i can still have an amp and speakers in the dining room for me to connect to and mess about with when needed
 
Sauced Apples said:
If you have the MS Surface Pro 3, that is a laptop effectively (assuming you have the keyboard cover), so would cover all laptop needs, no?

Then use a desktop for gaming...
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I do have the keyboard cover but its not "quite" a laptop to touch and its a bit frustrating at times but i suppose i could live with it.....

we move in a few weeks and the idea is to have the dining rooms as a proper dining room and my gaming pc etc will have no home.... i may just park it all for a few weeks and see how we get on.
 
Well I guess if you have absolutely no space then yeah, have to get a laptop.

If that's the case, the Surface and laptop are equally as portable even if the laptop is a little more cumbersome.

Perhaps sell the Surface to add to the laptop budget, get the best for your buck or even have one custom made and get an older generation iPad or android tab to fill the "laying in bed" gap?
 
If I might add my two pennies...

I have a MSI GT72 with the I7 4870HQ and 980m. Personally, I bought this due to travelling frequently for work, staying in hotels multiple nights a week for 6-9 months of the year.

As Loki said above, performance is a lot closer to desktops these days. Temps on these laptops are also significantly better. Most of the time, I game at around 50C on more modern titles, it's only GTA V and pCars that I have seen higher and even then it's been about 60C, with very high settings running vsynced at 60fps. Although both do dip in certain scenarios but rarely much below 50 and at worst I can't recall dipping to 40. I could actually stop this by dropping some AA or another intensive setting but I'm liking the eye candy. Older titles like Burnout Paradise and Saints Row run around 40C.

I do sit at a desk at times, particularly when playing driving games as I have a G27 but my main reason for posting is to share what I use for comfortable lap play time. Here is a google image search for "Bean Bag Tea Tray". Honestly, well worth a purchase. I do also tend to stick something like PP3 batteries under the rubber feet for additional space when doing any "serious" gaming but I also have a USB keyboard and mouse plugged in too. When relaxing I generally use a 360 pad.

Obviously, if you spend a similar amount of money on a desktop you'll get better performance but I can't put my desktop (which has now been superseded) in my rucksack and take it away for a week. I also have an inverter so I can game when it's not my turn to drive if the journey is sufficiently long enough and I don't need to catch up on my sleep ;)

Ultimately, if it suits you and you can afford it, these high spec laptops are good machines and these days anyone coming up with the age old adages of "you can't game on laptops" or "laptops run hot" simply is not up to speed on how the technology has improved.
 
Neil King said:
Whats the noise level like on your MSI GT72 when gaming Manwith Noname?
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It varies from game to game. Older titles that don't push the temps up and the fans seem to stay at idle speeds. Anything more modern and I think will be demanding I tend to push the fan boost button and have them run full tilt but I generally play with some closed back headphones or nearfield monitors that will block or drown it out.

When I forget to put the fans in overdrive I have noticed they don't really spin up and get noisier until about 50C and generally can be drowned out by the actual laptop speakers.

The only real measure I have as a comparison, a friend of mine has a desktop with a r9 290. His case does not do him any favours but even with my fans full tilt it's quieter than that.

Ok, I just measured the fans running flat out with an app on my phone, so, not amazingly accurate but the reading was 48dB. Idle level measured 33dB. This is A-weighted.

As someone who is regularly subject to SPL's in the 100's, this is quiet.

Edit: Heh, I just noticed where you listed as your location Regy....Howdy neighbour o/
 
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These days laptop CPUs are fairly decent performance wise - my laptop (3610QM) still beats most AMD desktop CPUs (at stock) and hangs in there with the i7 2600K - not hideously slower than the latest i7s when not overclocked.

The main problem gaming wise really is that the GPUs tend to become obsolete a bit quickly while all the rest of the laptop spec is still capable with often a complicated or non-existent upgrade path - my GTX675m never thermal throttles, only gets moderately warm and isn't excessively noisey but even running overclocked your talking desktop GTX560ti (not ti-448) performance - was fairly decent at the time.

EDIT: The laptop is also quieter even fully spun up compared to my desktop :( though that is partly due to the AIO which is pretty poor with quite a bit of pump noise - really need to get around to ditching it.
 
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