Laptop for Gaming $1200

[jtrainx]

I am looking to purchase a laptop that can be used for general purpose, gaming, editing, etc. If someone could help me out with this then I would appreciate it.

1. What is your budget?

-$1200

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?

-15"

3. What screen resolution do you want?

-1920 x 1080 or best possible.

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?

-Portable and replacement, but not a clunky laptop

5. How much battery life do you need?

-As much as possible.

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?

-I would prefer to play games on high if possible, SC2, WoW, Battlefield, Dead Space, and such.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)

-Photo and video editing, school work

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?

-At least 750gb

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.

-Amazon, Newegg, TigerDirect

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?

-As long as possible.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?

-Bluray, but if not then that is ok.

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.

-Brand is not a big issue, but I would have to say that I do not like Toshiba(Have had issues in the past with them). I like Asus because I know that they build good quality products(I have some stuff from them already).

13. What country do you live in?

-USA

 

[Guest]

You are right at the threshold for a descent gaming laptop. Alienware M14x, Asus G46 or Samsung 7 series would be my top choices that come to mind with that budget.

 

[seriousgamer]

Best bang for the buck

MSI GX60 With 7970m $1120

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MSI-GX60-1AC-021US-15-6-AMD-A10-4600M-AMD-HD-7970-VGA-Windows-8-Gaming-Laptop-/181057932424?pt=Laptops_Nov05&hash=item2a27e4cc88


ASUS G73 $1250 W/ GTX 670MX

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus---17.3%22-Laptop---8GB-Memory---1TB-Hard-Drive---Black/7674057.p;tab=reviews?id=1218858193064&skuId=7674057#tab=specifications&AID=10597222&PID=5672651&URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bestbuy.com%2Fsite%2FAsus---17.3%2522-Laptop---8GB-Memory---1TB-Hard-Drive---Black%2F7674057.p%3Btab%3Dreviews%3Fid%3D1218858193064%26skuId%3D7674057%23tab%3Dspecifications&ref=39&CJPID=5672651&loc=01


Theres this for about $1337 with shipping- comes with GTX 675MX - Backlit Blue Keyboard AMAZING DynAudio Speakers and $150 free in games.
USE COUPON SPRING0410
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Fangbook_X7-100/
It was about $100 cheaper a week ago but this is the price now

 

[J_E_D_70]

This Sager is right at your limit but has a free upgrade to 670mx gpu:
http://www.sagernotebook.com/index.php?page=product_customed&model_name=NP9130

The 6350 looks capable and is $200 cheaper.

 

[seriousgamer]

You are right at the threshold for a descent gaming laptop. Alienware M14x, Asus G46 or Samsung 7 series would be my top choices that come to mind with that budget.

I believe all the laptops that you listed do not meet his resolution or GPU requirements as well as size. Both G46 and M14X are 14". The Samsung 7 Series does is nowhere powerful enough to play the games he mentioned on high. Now if you meant Samsung Series 7 Gamer then that is a great laptop (I even prefer it over the MSI GT70) But the Series 7 Gamer runs close to $1800

 

[whyso]

Stay away from gx60. If you are doing editing, stay away from amd mobile chips. (a10 is comparable to an i5 sandy which is less than 1/2 the performance of an i7 ivy bridge.

The a10 also bottlenecks quite a bit on cpu heavy games making games such as gw2, hitaman unplayable.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-MSI-GX60-Notebook.86283.0.html

 

[jtrainx]

Thanks for the replies but it seems that all of these with the exception of the sager and the msi are over 15". Also, I would prefer to stay away from the AMD chipset due to the fact that I have had issues with them in the past. I want to get a couple of more suggestions that I can look into. Thanks

 

[JefferyD90]

If you have the MSI GX60 with a clean install of windows, with up to date drivers, it will run any game on the market just fine. Its a piledriver CPU without the L3 cache. don't be fooled, its very powerful...

On a side note, can you believe MSI took out paint from windows? if that is not the stupidest **** they ever did...

 

[whyso]

If you have the MSI GX60 with a clean install of windows, with up to date drivers, it will run any game on the market just fine. Its a piledriver CPU without the L3 cache. don't be fooled, its very powerful...

On a side note, can you believe MSI took out paint from windows? if that is not the stupidest **** they ever did...

No its very very weak (look at the intel to AMD power consumption to performance ratio and then stick that in a laptop, the decrease the amd cpu power by another 30% because it only has 35 watts vs 45 watts of the i7) and will bottleneck the 7970m pretty bad

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5831/amd-trinity-review-a10-4600m-a-new-hope/5

The a10 is weaker than the i5-2410m (which will bottleneck the 7970m pretty bad). It would be about on average equal with a ULV sandy i5/i7 and weaker than any i5 ULV ivy.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/a10-4600m-trinity-piledriver,3202-13.html
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5831/amd-trinity-review-a10-4600m-a-new-hope/5

Look at the productivity benchmarks (pure cpu stuff because obviously the igp will not matter to you)
http://media.bestofmicro.com/A/O/337344/original/Photoshop.png
Its significantly weaker than an i5 sandy at content creation. An i7 ivy will be more than twice the speed of the i5 sandy. An i7 mobile is more than three times as powerful as an a10 in multithreaded applications (photo-video editing).

From Anandtech

Against Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge, though? AMD’s Trinity doesn’t stand a chance: i5-2410M is 50% faster in single-threaded Cinebench, 27% faster in multi-threaded, and 5-10% faster in x264. It’s a good thing 99.99% of laptop users never actually run applications like Cinebench for “real work”, but if you want to do video encoding a 10% increase can be very noticeable.

What would happen if you paired an i5-3427U (1.8 ghz turbo to 2.8 ghz) with a 7970m? Would you have a cpu bottleneck? Because thats essentially what an a10 + 7970m is.

 

[JefferyD90]

did you read the quote? "Its a good thing 99.99% of laptop users never actually run applications like Cinebench..." Basically saying that Intel's just throw up numbers, but in the real world, it amounts to very little difference, if any at all. And how much is a notebook with a i7 and a 7970? Not in their price range... AND if you want to get all up about it, the A10 APU is running Piledriver, which means it performs RIGHT on par with most of Intels offerings, ESPECIALLY in the price range. The A10's are meant to compete with high end i3's and low end i5's. Not a i7, but for whatever reason, you are comparing them. That shows what they are really capable of.

 

[J_E_D_70]

Just get the Sager and close the thread...

 

[whyso]

did you read the quote? "Its a good thing 99.99% of laptop users never actually run applications like Cinebench..." Basically saying that Intel's just throw up numbers, but in the real world, it amounts to very little difference, if any at all. And how much is a notebook with a i7 and a 7970? Not in their price range... AND if you want to get all up about it, the A10 APU is running Piledriver, which means it performs RIGHT on par with most of Intels offerings, ESPECIALLY in the price range. The A10's are meant to compete with high end i3's and low end i5's. Not a i7, but for whatever reason, you are comparing them. That shows what they are really capable of.

He wants to do photo and video editing. Therefore a strong cpu is required. a10 is weak. I gave the comparison because he wants to do editing which will use all available cores and shows a strong relationship between cinebench and stuff done on photoshop, after effects, etc.

Did you not see my post about power consumption? (the a10 also does not have l3 cache which will affect it somewhat but will also reduce performance). Laptops are thermally constrained. Forget about absolute piledriver performance and focus on performance per watt. How is amd doing there? Horribly. And the tdp of the amd processor is lower so it has even less headroom (35 watts vs 45 watts).

Yes, the a10 is meant to compete with high end i3 and low end i5 which means it is completely out of place with a 7970m (how many notebooks do you see with an i5/i3 and a 7970m or a 680m? Not many if any). Why? Because the cpu will hold it back. Will it work? Yes. Will it perform optimally? NO. That computer is simply unbalanced. I'm comparing them because at $1200 we should be talking better performance than high level i3. Not to mention that most of the a10 power comes from the four cores and not IPC (unfortunately most games need a few high powered cores not four weak ones) further exacerbating this problem (yes future games make fix this but it won't make current games any better). Multiplayer bf3 and other cpu heavy games will by horribly cpu bottlenecked (It'll run but not well and you may have to turn down settings to lower the load on the cpu causing the gpu to run at 50% and begging the question why you got a laptop with a 7970m in it in the first place.

If you wanted a desktop for gaming and editing I wouldn't recommend a pentium and a 7850 because it would be unbalanced (which is essentially what this build is, 7970m = between 7850 and 7870 a10 desktop version hangs with a desktop i3, mobile version runs lower clock speeds and is about 2/3 the power).

"Not a i7, but for whatever reason, you are comparing them. That shows what they are really capable of."

Got a nice chuckle out of that. I'm saying that the i7 will be three times faster in multithreaded productivity apps (ie the a10 sucks).
So obviously when I say "A i7 3770k is 4 times more powerful than a pentium g620 at photoshop" I must be making a comparison that makes the pentium look really good?

http://media.bestofmicro.com/A/O/337344/original/Photoshop.png

Missed this. I think an i7 mobile would be around twice as fast as the i5 sandy (probably more because 2 vs 4 cores, better ICP, higher clock speeds). So for photoshop the a10 would take 4 minutes to apply the filter, the i5 sandy about 3 and the i7 ivy less than 1.5. Absolutely no difference <end sarcasm>. OP your editing tasks will

(Conversely the i7 gets about 3 times the cinebench score the a10 gets. See why I used it?)

It’s a good thing 99.99% of laptop users never actually run applications like Cinebench for “real work”, BUT IF YOU WANT TO DO VIDEO ENCODING A 10% INCREASE CAN BE VERY NOTICEABLE.

hmmm. How about 300%.

The thing about a gpu bottleneck is that you can always turn down the settings and make the game run better. A cpu bottleneck? Nope, no way, its here to stay (no overclocking mobile chips).

http://www.xoticpc.com/forcemsi-16f3-36053-675mx-msi-gt60-barebones-preorder-p-5566.html?wconfigure=yes

Around the same price 675mx. Upgrade to 3610m. More rounded system that should all in all provide a better gaming experience.
Or the fangbook serious gamer recommended (better system IMO).

Jeffry read the notebookcheck review and what they said about the cpu.

 

[JefferyD90]

Have you ever actually put the two side by side and did your own reviews? Anyone that does, cant justify the cost difference. Not to include, the AMD APUs offer a MUCH better all around performance. I just cant see paying anything more for a notebook because, $ to Performance, the GX60 is the best notebook on the market.

 

[whyso]

Have you ever actually put the two side by side and did your own reviews? Anyone that does, cant justify the cost difference. Not to include, the AMD APUs offer a MUCH better all around performance. I just cant see paying anything more for a notebook because, $ to Performance, the GX60 is the best notebook on the market.

The fangbook is a similar price and includes a 675mx which is only slightly slower than the 7970m. No enduro issues (which is a big problem on non alienware notebooks with the 7970m). Its a win.

I will agree with you that amd certiantly has a place in the laptop market. However, they are good for the $300-700 range (and only if you are looking at gpu power as well). Once you get past $900 they start becoming pointless.

No I have not put the two side by side and looked at them. If you have then I will welcome your advice. Because I haven't then I will use external third party reviews.

Note that the op will also be doing productivity work. a10 is pretty much useless for this compared to an i7.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-MSI-GX60-Notebook.86283.0.html
From notebookcheck

When looking at the gaming results, we wonder whether MSI tested the hardware combination thoroughly in advance.

Although the GX60 could sometimes outperform Intel devices equipped with a GeForce GTX 670MX or GTX 675MX, in extreme conditions (1920 x1080, maximum details), the Radeon HD 7970M often dropped to the level of the weaker GeForce GT 650M or GTX 660M in medium settings (1366 x 768, high details). In the worst case, the refresh rate was only just above the processor-integrated Radeon HD 7660G chip.

CPU-heavy tracks, such as Guild Wars 2, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Hitman Absolution and Assassin's Creed III can only be played with restrictions if at all. It is surprising to what extent the slow Trinity CPU affects the Radeon HD 7970M performance. The GX60 would likely score much higher with a low-end dual-core processor from Intel's Core i3 or Core i5 range. The HD 7970M is normally comparable with a GeForce GTX 680M.

After extensively studying the benchmarks, the retail price no longer seems particularly attractive. Less expensive laptops, such as Schenker's XMG A522 often accomplish a comparable gaming performance. MSI should have invested its budget in a faster CPU. The Radeon HD 7970M can only rarely exploit its true potential. A detailed benchmark list can be found below this article.

Graphics card / Processor Overall Performance
GeForce GTX 660M & Intel-Quad-Core -5 %
Radeon HD 7970M & A10-4600M base (average of 14 games)
GeForce GTX 670MX & Intel-Quad-Core +20 %
GeForce GTX 675MX & Intel-Quad-Core +40 %
GeForce GTX 680M & Intel-Quad-Core +60 %
Radeon HD 7970M & Intel-Quad-Core +60 %

We are not much better than a 660m on average and much worse than a 675mx. Note to mention that when the cpu bottlenecks its much worse than gpu bottlenecks because you can turn down the settings which you can't do for the gpu.

Lets look at far cry 3

Far Cry 3
1366x768 DX11 High Preset (SSAO, Standard Alpha To Coverage) AA:2x MS
Radeon HD 7970M / A10-4600M
MSI GX60
31.7 fps
Radeon HD 7970M / Core i7-3610QM
Schenker XMG P502
58.5 fps
GeForce GTX 680M / Core i7-3610QM
Schenker XMG P502
68.4 fps
GeForce GTX 675MX / Core i7-3610QM
Schenker XMG P502
55.1 fps
GeForce GTX 670MX / Core i7-3630QM
Deviltech HellMachine
44.2 fps
GeForce GTX 660M / Core i7-3610QM
Schenker XMG P502
35.5 fps

Wow, severe cpu bottleneck here. Worse than the 660m. 32 fps is barely playable (minimums will be much lower). Why didn't I just buy a i7+ 670mx? If we played at high 1080p the i7+ 7970m would still be substantially better.

At 1080p extreme

1920x1080 DX11 Ultra Preset (HDAO, Enhanced Alpha To Coverage) AA:4x MS
Radeon HD 7970M / A10-4600M
MSI GX60
21.8 fps
Radeon HD 7970M / Core i7-3610QM
Schenker XMG P502
25.4 fps
GeForce GTX 680M / Core i7-3610QM
Schenker XMG P502
23.6 fps
GeForce GTX 675MX / Core i7-3610QM
Schenker XMG P502
17.5 fps
GeForce GTX 670MX / Core i7-3630QM
Deviltech HellMachine
13.7 fps
GeForce GTX 660M / Core i7-3610QM
Schenker XMG P502
10.6 fps

We can pretty much throw away this result even though the 7970m does much better compared to the notebooks with i7s in them because none of the notebooks are playable at these settings.

 

[JefferyD90]

I have a GX60 (actually its my significant others) and I purchased a i7 with a 660 from Lenovo (Microsoft told us to)... And to be honest, the price difference is about $600 and I get MUCH better FPS in WoW (only game I tested on the Lenovo) on the GX60. Now the GX60 had a clean install of Windows, as well as the updated drivers... the Lenovo was out of the box. I also understand the 660 is not near the same as a 7970, but it was close enough for a comparison... I just might do a video review, soon...

 

[whyso]

I have a GX60 (actually its my significant others) and I purchased a i7 with a 660 from Lenovo (Microsoft told us to)... And to be honest, the price difference is about $600 and I get MUCH better FPS in WoW (only game I tested on the Lenovo) on the GX60. Now the GX60 had a clean install of Windows, as well as the updated drivers... the Lenovo was out of the box. I also understand the 660 is not near the same as a 7970, but it was close enough for a comparison... I just might do a video review, soon...

Hmm suprising. I though wow was very cpu heavy (especially for 25 man raids).

 

[JefferyD90]

The VAST majority of the problem with the APUs and people experience, is #1 outdated drivers. This is a new technology and each driver update is leaps and bounds above the previous. And because its a APU the drivers will affect CPU performance as well. What people don't understand too, is when you get you machine from (this case MSI) the manufacture they have their own version of the Catalyst drivers installed, so it DOES NOT update when AMD launches a new version. It updates when MSI gets around to making a new one for that model.

I have said it a million times over, drivers will make, and break, a machines performance.

And to answer your question, wow is a CPU based game, hell the graphics haven't really been updated since WotLK. But with that said this is a QUAD CORE CPU, that will clock up to 3.2Ghz, more than any video game will ever call for. Even if it was on the STARS design, and this is a much more efficient Piledriver design.