How to improve gaming experience on Dell Inspiron 17R?

[MigoWin]

Hello! I'm a little new to PC's/Laptops, but I think I know enough to be able to ask this question with knowledge of what I'm needing answered. Recently I just bought myself a Dell Inspiron 17R with 8gb DDR3 RAM and an intel core i7 processor. I'm not too sure about what I have as a graphics card, which I'm almost positive that I need to know that bit of info in order to upgrade if needed.

In short, I'm running Minecraft on my laptop and I'm needing (sorry about my elementary level needs) spoon-fed help on what I can do to improve my gaming experience. While I play, I run Camtasia Studio 8 to record my gaming, and as I record the audio/video becomes un-synced thanks to a lack of resources going to Camtasia. My gaming experience without Camtasia running is still a bit laggy. Can anyone recommend any fixes to help improve gaming? I'd like my video settings to be set at Medium-High. Thanks for anyone who can help this amateur out! God Bless!

 

[MigoWin]

EDIT: I also believe I have this type of graphics card: Intel Media Accelerator HD Graphics 3000

 

[pauls3743]

You need a better graphics card. The bad news is that yours is built into the cpu and can neither be replaced nor upgraded.

Although, it has got to be said, the intel cards are getting better they still have a long way to catch up with AMD and NVidia.

 

[HEXiT]

all you can do is sell that lappy to get a desktop. hd 3000 are pretty poor for gaming and will choke on any high end offerings. yes you can play sims but wouldnt you rather play battlefield...
who ever sold you that i hope they didnt say it was gaming grade because if they did they ripped you off.
its a media center lappy, good for photoshop, web surfing and video, thats it...

 

[MigoWin]

You need a better graphics card. The bad news is that yours is built into the cpu and can neither be replaced nor upgraded.

Although, it has got to be said, the intel cards are getting better they still have a long way to catch up with AMD and NVidia.

Thanks a million for your reply! Any suggestions on what I should get laptop wise for gaming under 800?

 

[MigoWin]

all you can do is sell that lappy to get a desktop. hd 3000 are pretty poor for gaming and will choke on any high end offerings. yes you can play sims but wouldnt you rather play battlefield...
who ever sold you that i hope they didnt say it was gaming grade because if they did they ripped you off.
its a media center lappy, good for photoshop, web surfing and video, thats it...

They actually did sell it to me as a good gaming desktop because of the 8GB of RAM and the i7 processor...is there any way I can still buy a laptop with enough "oomf" to get me by minecraft? And I've actually never played battlefield. Lol. <--noob

 

[kingm16]

I all you can do is buy you a AMD video card and remove the old card thats installed in the laptop. you have to sadder in the new video card in.

 

[kingm16]

I all you can do is buy you a AMD video card and remove the old card thats installed in the laptop. you have to sadder in the new video card in.

 

[KMdrums]

Actually the graphics card is a nVidia Geforce GT 650m which is the second best graphics card in the 600m series, and should run any game fine

 

[CHERRYxMUSTANG]

Just like KMdrums said the 650m should run any game just fine I have the 17r se and every game that I have played (BF3, Fallout: NV, Skyrim, Minecraft, Civ 5, and Arma 2/DAYZ) has been no trouble whatsoever at High/Ultra settings. I also upgraded my 8gb ddr3 800mhz RAM to 16gb ddr3 1600mhz plus a 128gb ssd that holds my OS and all my games with my 1Tb hdd acting as storage. Ultimately what I am trying say is with the right investments this laptop is so very superbeast!!! Next I am going to try and upgrade the graphics card to one with 4gb gddr5 instead of just 2!!! (wait my bad I have the 17r se (special edition) nt the 2012 one so yeah nevermind kmdrums and I are wrong there isnt a 650m in yours, i would try selling yours as the new 17r is only $799 at least thats what I payed.)

 

[iplikator3333]

all you can do is sell that lappy to get a desktop. hd 3000 are pretty poor for gaming and will choke on any high end offerings. yes you can play sims but wouldnt you rather play battlefield...
who ever sold you that i hope they didnt say it was gaming grade because if they did they ripped you off.
its a media center lappy, good for photoshop, web surfing and video, thats it...

They actually did sell it to me as a good gaming desktop because of the 8GB of RAM and the i7 processor...is there any way I can still buy a laptop with enough "oomf" to get me by minecraft? And I've actually never played battlefield. Lol. <--noob

lol You're not a n00b for never playing Battlefield, He is just an FPS fanboy

 

[Steeldemonuk]

Just like KMdrums said the 650m should run any game just fine I have the 17r se and every game that I have played (BF3, Fallout: NV, Skyrim, Minecraft, Civ 5, and Arma 2/DAYZ) has been no trouble whatsoever at High/Ultra settings. I also upgraded my 8gb ddr3 800mhz RAM to 16gb ddr3 1600mhz plus a 128gb ssd that holds my OS and all my games with my 1Tb hdd acting as storage. Ultimately what I am trying say is with the right investments this laptop is so very superbeast!!! Next I am going to try and upgrade the graphics card to one with 4gb gddr5 instead of just 2!!! (wait my bad I have the 17r se (special edition) nt the 2012 one so yeah nevermind kmdrums and I are wrong there isnt a 650m in yours, i would try selling yours as the new 17r is only $799 at least thats what I payed.)

Hi Cherry.... I have recently picked up a 17R SE... and whilst it is a damn good laptop, like you i wish to improve things a little. Mine came with win 8 (which I'm hating) and I'm wondering if it's viable to get 128ssd, put win7 on and sink it into my primary slot (moving the 1TB into secondary). Question is do I have to delete the win 8 install off the big drive if i'm using the ssd as primary boot? Sorry for the bombardment of questions but I'm on a buying spree. Dell have confirmed they 'forgot' to include my 32gb mSata for caching purposes, but I'm assuming if I use a sata 3 ssd for primary boot the mSata is practically redundant?

 

[voiidwulf]

Just like KMdrums said the 650m should run any game just fine I have the 17r se and every game that I have played (BF3, Fallout: NV, Skyrim, Minecraft, Civ 5, and Arma 2/DAYZ) has been no trouble whatsoever at High/Ultra settings. I also upgraded my 8gb ddr3 800mhz RAM to 16gb ddr3 1600mhz plus a 128gb ssd that holds my OS and all my games with my 1Tb hdd acting as storage. Ultimately what I am trying say is with the right investments this laptop is so very superbeast!!! Next I am going to try and upgrade the graphics card to one with 4gb gddr5 instead of just 2!!! (wait my bad I have the 17r se (special edition) nt the 2012 one so yeah nevermind kmdrums and I are wrong there isnt a 650m in yours, i would try selling yours as the new 17r is only $799 at least thats what I payed.)

Yes, there are multiple variations of the 17R. Yours may have the GT 650M, but the OP's is just the HD 3000 built into his i7.

As HEXiT said, that laptop is designed for media tasks such as photo and video editing. There is no way to upgrade the graphics card. As far as a different laptop for under $800 goes, you aren't going to be able to get anything much better than what you currently have in that price range.

If you could splurge a little and spend an extra $100, something like this would be excellent. It has 2 GT 650Ms. It will play any game on the market at medium-high settings. Minecraft will run flawlessly. It also has a 1080P screen which will look very crisp since it is a 15.6 inch laptop.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834312438

 

[Shadow0599]

Well, I am looking at getting a Dell Inspirion 17r with Intel i7 Processor, NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M graphics chip (I believe), 8GB of DDR3 RAM, and 2.4GHz (with Turbo Boost up to 3.4GHz) processing speed. I want to play games like Minecraft, WOW, or GTA San Andreas, but I also want to use this computer for much more (video making, word processing, etc.). I just want to make sure this computer is right, for what I want.

 

[voiidwulf]

Well, I am looking at getting a Dell Inspirion 17r with Intel i7 Processor, NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M graphics chip (I believe), 8GB of DDR3 RAM, and 2.4GHz (with Turbo Boost up to 3.4GHz) processing speed. I want to play games like Minecraft, WOW, or GTA San Andreas, but I also want to use this computer for much more (video making, word processing, etc.). I just want to make sure this computer is right, for what I want.

That would be fine for less demanding games like WoW, GTA and Minecraft.

 

[alexsanders1994]

You need a better graphics card. The bad news is that yours is built into the cpu and can neither be replaced nor upgraded.

Although, it has got to be said, the intel cards are getting better they still have a long way to catch up with AMD and NVidia.

Thanks a million for your reply! Any suggestions on what I should get laptop wise for gaming under 800?

If i were you I'd buy the newer Dell Inspiron 17r SE for about £850 from the dell website. have the quad core i7 processor, 2bg dedicated graphics and 8gb ddr3 ram supplied with a hge 1tb hdd and 64gb sata drive for quick start up and running of programs.