New Laptop for a bit of gaming - CPU, RAM, Graphics - whats important?

balders118

balders118

balders118

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Hey, first post here...

I'm getting a new laptop as this one has given up. Not a big budget (£500) but I've found a few good offers which i've linked to later in the post.

I do all the usual stuff as well as playing a few games, currently play BF2 on a much lower spec laptop than the following, would be nice if I could run BF3 on the next one...

My question is what do I need to focus on: Graphics card? Processor? or RAM?

I'm looking at two laptops

The Sony has AMD Phenom 2 triple core p840, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5145 Graphics with 512mb, and 6BG RAM

The Toshiba has Intel i3 350, nVIDIA GeForce G310 graphics card with 512MB, and 4GB RAM.



The grahics and RAM is better on Sony, but the Processor is better on the Toshiba. Both the same price, but the Sony is heavily discounted so started off at £930, where as the toshiba was £650 but they look similar to me, am I missing something?

Thanks in Advance
 
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graphics card would be the biggest focus, with the processor very close behind.

as for ram, as long as its 4GB your gonna be fine. anything higher wont be needed for gaming
 
So which would you go for with the option of those two? The sony having the better graphics with toshiba with the better processor. I'm not sure if one is significantly better than the other, I used passmark but don't totally understand the ratings.

Any reason why the sony was so much more to start with?

Someone elsewhere told me neither will run BF3, any idea on truth behind that?
 
to be honest im not entirely sure myself. as you say they are both very similar, especially in the graphics department


also, there are no minimum specs for the game as of yet, so i cant say if those laptops will be able to run that game or not.


can anyone else help out here?
 
Look out for the Toshiba Satellite Pro L650. I bought one for around £570ish and it has an i3-350 (2.27GHz) and a Radeon Mobility 5650 (with 1GB DEDICATED GDDR3) which is incredibly similar to the desktop counterpart (same core). I can play new games EASILY on it. Everything I've thrown at it runs great. GTA IV, Just Cause 2 and all source games run with ease to name a few (and medium to high :O). Only thing you do need to do is buy some RAM for it as Toshiba stupidly spec it 2GB standard which is no good for gaming really (too much caching) but a cheap 1 or 2GB DDR3 1066 stick does the trick nicely; I picked up a gig for £6!!

Eeven though I probably am biased cause I own one but these are seriously powerful laptops for the price. I was originally going to get a laptop with at least an i5 but the thing is all i3,5 and 7 chips are essentially the same chips but with varying speeds and a cache bump. The only quad chip is the higher end i7s as far as I know.

When I got this I did a ton of research and it was the best laptop with a decent graphics card for the cheapest price and I'm sure it is now. My exact model is the L650-1CJ which is the 2.27GHz model, although the slightly cheaper one is 2.16 I think.

Final edit, honest! : Even though it is £70 more than you wanted to pay I would save the extra as the 5650 is in another class compared to those graphics cards. It's definitely worth paying the little extra for a ton more graphics power :)
 
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Hi and welcome to the forums. :)

I would remove those links or your time with us will be short. They are classed as competitors and competitors are not allowed to be named, let alone linked to on these forums. Have a read of the forums FAQ's.


The graphics on both of those laptops are dire and not really aimed at gaming.

Richb93 seems to have found a much better one. Like he says, a 5650 is leagues ahead of the ones you linked to.
 
pastymuncher said:
Hi and welcome to the forums. :)

I would remove those links or your time with us will be short. They are classed as competitors and competitors are not allowed to be named, let alone linked to on these forums. Have a read of the forums FAQ's.


The graphics on both of those laptops are dire and not really aimed at gaming.

Richb93 seems to have found a much better one. Like he says, a 5650 is leagues ahead of the ones you linked to.
Click to expand...

I've taken the links down, sorry.. didn't know he rules!
 
richb93 said:
Look out for the Toshiba Satellite Pro L650. I bought one for around £570ish and it has an i3-350 (2.27GHz) and a Radeon Mobility 5650 (with 1GB DEDICATED GDDR3) which is incredibly similar to the desktop counterpart (same core). I can play new games EASILY on it. Everything I've thrown at it runs great. GTA IV, Just Cause 2 and all source games run with ease to name a few (and medium to high :O). Only thing you do need to do is buy some RAM for it as Toshiba stupidly spec it 2GB standard which is no good for gaming really (too much caching) but a cheap 1 or 2GB DDR3 1066 stick does the trick nicely; I picked up a gig for £6!!

Eeven though I probably am biased cause I own one but these are seriously powerful laptops for the price. I was originally going to get a laptop with at least an i5 but the thing is all i3,5 and 7 chips are essentially the same chips but with varying speeds and a cache bump. The only quad chip is the higher end i7s as far as I know.

When I got this I did a ton of research and it was the best laptop with a decent graphics card for the cheapest price and I'm sure it is now. My exact model is the L650-1CJ which is the 2.27GHz model, although the slightly cheaper one is 2.16 I think.

Final edit, honest! : Even though it is £70 more than you wanted to pay I would save the extra as the 5650 is in another class compared to those graphics cards. It's definitely worth paying the little extra for a ton more graphics power :)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the good advice mate. I'll have a browse and see what I can find.
 
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