What will be a better choice?

[NAMAZEE]

Well the thing is i am joining college from this year. My dad says that he will buy me a laptop only in 2nd year as i will not have much need for a lappy in the first year and has told me to use my pc as i will be comming home from hostel on sats and sundays . I had talked with him for a good graphic card this year but as far as i know him if i get a good graphic card this year he will not buy me a a decent gameable laptop on the pretext that i already have a gaming system. So my question to you guys is what would be a better option for a college student- a good gaming laptop next year and not buying the gpu this year or getting the gpu and buying a basic laptop next year ?

 

[Hlias Anton]

W8 1 year to take you a gaming laptop to be able to play during the week also! Weekend isnt enough for gaming

 

[Dblkk]

I agree, first year just do what you can, next year get a gaming laptop. Plus first year of college is normally just a recap of all 'core' classes like math and such. Which might not sound like a whole lot, but it was by far my busiest year. During the seoncd/third year are the classes aimed at what your interested in, making them easier and more enjoyable. I'd say stick to studies, go to gym, join a club, learn campus life first year. then second year lock yourself in your room for gaming.

 

[ssddx]

gaming laptops do not have the performance of towers.

how good is the hardware in your current tower system? if its good i would move it to your dormitory at school and get a graphics card now. then when you get a laptop just go with something "good enough" for school.

in this way you can game at any time you want during the week while still having a laptop to take to class. on the weekends you would be spending time with the family so you dont want to play games then likely.

if you get a mid-ranged laptop (around $700-800usd) which has a mid-level video card in it you could even play games at lower settings when you come home on the weekend with the laptop but play at higher framerates and with better settings when you are at school.

 

[Dblkk]

gaming laptops do not have the performance of towers.

how good is the hardware in your current tower system? if its good i would move it to your dormitory at school and get a graphics card now. then when you get a laptop just go with something "good enough" for school.

in this way you can game at any time you want during the week while still having a laptop to take to class. on the weekends you would be spending time with the family so you dont want to play games then likely.

if you get a mid-ranged laptop (around $700-800usd) which has a mid-level video card in it you could even play games at lower settings when you come home on the weekend with the laptop but play at higher framerates and with better settings when you are at school.

While very true, laptops have come a very long way. Only thing now a pc has over a $1500 laptop is the ability to game on 4k or 3way monitors. Otherwise my laptop plays any game on ultra on its 1080p screen. How much better can you get than that? Plus laptop can be a pc, plug it into tv, and just grab it and go. Use it in class for notes and such, then go home and game. Dont see a pc being as good as a lappy anymore. For straight gaming. Workstation wise my laptop is awesome, but my pc is just well golden.

Example. For $1400 you can get an msi with i7 4800 and gtx 870m which will play ultra anything. or asus with 4700 and 860m which does the same and in my opinion the better laptop. You spend $2000 on laptop you get same i7 and a 880m with 8gb graphics, 2x 1tb msata ssd cards and 1x 1tb ssd card, 32gb ram, all with light/medium duty 4-6 hours battery,

 

[ssddx]

while i agree that gaming laptops have a place, i'm not sure if the op is going to have budget for what you list. laptop hardware for what you get is expensive. a $800 pc in many cases is more than capable of trampling a $1500 laptop.

if you compare desktop and laptop parts of the same model the laptop models are inferior in performance. this is because they are designed for energy efficiency and heat efficiency.

lets take the gtx780 vs the gtx780m at BF4 @ ultra 1920x1080p
laptop: 40fps desktop: 67fps. also keep in mind that for the price you bought that laptop at you might be able to afford a 780ti for 81fps.
sources http://www.notebookcheck.net/Battlefield-4-Benchmarked.105583.0.html http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1036?vs=1072

in this case the laptop is better suited for "high" not ultra while the desktop can play on "ultra" without issue. also due to the difference in performance the desktop will handle higher graphics settings for a longer period of time.

now, whether or not the desktop upgrade is a valid solution depends on two things: current hardware (is it even worth upgrading) and their own personal preferences (do they want to lug it to college and leave it there during the weekends).

--

on a side note... ssd for the most part do not increase gaming performance, 32gb of ram is almost useless (normally 8 is fine) and 4-6 hours of use is not the battery life you would get during gaming sessions but during average non-gaming usage.

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i'm not saying that your idea for the op to get a gaming laptop is bad. i'm just listing a few points to consider which they might want to think about before going that route.

 

[Dblkk]

while i agree that gaming laptops have a place, i'm not sure if the op is going to have budget for what you list. laptop hardware for what you get is expensive. a $800 pc in many cases is more than capable of trampling a $1500 laptop.

if you compare desktop and laptop parts of the same model the laptop models are inferior in performance. this is because they are designed for energy efficiency and heat efficiency.

lets take the gtx780 vs the gtx780m at BF4 @ ultra 1920x1080p
laptop: 40fps desktop: 67fps. also keep in mind that for the price you bought that laptop at you might be able to afford a 780ti for 81fps.
sources http://www.notebookcheck.net/Battlefield-4-Benchmarked.105583.0.html http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1036?vs=1072

in this case the laptop is better suited for "high" not ultra while the desktop can play on "ultra" without issue. also due to the difference in performance the desktop will handle higher graphics settings for a longer period of time.

now, whether or not the desktop upgrade is a valid solution depends on two things: current hardware (is it even worth upgrading) and their own personal preferences (do they want to lug it to college and leave it there during the weekends).

--

on a side note... ssd for the most part do not increase gaming performance, 32gb of ram is almost useless (normally 8 is fine) and 4-6 hours of use is not the battery life you would get during gaming sessions but during average non-gaming usage.

--

i'm not saying that your idea for the op to get a gaming laptop is bad. i'm just listing a few points to consider which they might want to think about before going that route.

I agree with most of which you said. I did state that battery life was for light/medium duty. You wouldnt want to game on battery anyway. But gaming laptop or not, you still need a good battery for laptop when your not gaming. As for components, your comparing the same label number to another. Not the way to do it. I can tell you that the 870m compares to a 760, or a 880m compares to a 770. Both of those are very capable cards. As for ssd, not for gaming no. Load times will decrease, but otherwise dont need it for gaming. But as for laptop in general, a ssd is by far the best thing you can do. I'd take a i3 or i5 with a ssd over i7 with a mechanical. Superb boot times, quick response, fast transfer speeds, well worth the $100. And im not saying to get a $1500 laptop. I'd recomend the $1300 asus g750 jm to anyone. The 860m is a very very capable gaming card, and pure maxwell. If you went $800 gaming pc, youd stil need a $500 laptop for school. So same money spent. Yet $1300 laptop route you get it all on one machine, and all your files in same place, plus grab your charger and game wherever, way easier than luging a pc around. Plus dorm rooms are small, much easier to game on a 17" laptop than a pc and monitor.

 

[ssddx]

comparing same number card vs card isnt exactly fair, however it gets the point across.

gtx880m gets 48fps in bf4 @ ultra while a gtx770 gets about 54fps. its hard to say if they are equal or if the 770 is better due to the margin of error but yes in general your point is very true.

yes, they are very capable cards for a laptop.

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i've used both a ssd and a hdd in my laptop and i agree... a ssd is a great addition. my boot times are down to about 8 seconds from about 45 and performance is snappy. HOWEVER, for gaming it really is not necessary (though i do agree at least a 7200.1 drive is warranted since 5200's are really slow!). its also possible to get along in windows without one. i would agree completely that they are nice however they are completely optional.

its cheaper to install the ssd yourself sometimes and reinstall windows (provided the op is somewhat technically inclined) as to buy it as part of the package is expensive.

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please note i didnt say anything about buying a $800 gaming pc. i pushed out a few numbers showing reasonable equivalencies between laptops and pc. what i meant by this is that if the op already has a decent computer (mid level or better) then adding a video card might be very good performance for the money spent. however, i also noted that if they didnt have a good computer then it might be worth waiting for the gaming computer.

what would work out best depends on a few factors and we need the op to verify a few things or make their thoughts known.

so in reality, it could be less money spent in case the budget isnt as large. since they arent buying it for themselves and were worried about costs (in a roundabout sort of way) i mentioned it as an option.

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the g750 is a pretty nice computer. my brother owns a g75 which is the previous generation and except for the fact that its windows8 and a few minor gripes like that the keyboard isnt all that nice its top notch and worth getting. overheating also isnt a problem. asus really did a nice job with the cooling system. so far its handled games as expected.

if the op looks at a few of the points here and figures that buying a gaming laptop fits their needs better than its a great choice for a reasonable price ($1000-1100 normally for the non-ssd versions)

for serious gaming though you need to use a mouse and keyboard (laptop keyboard and trackpad really arent great for that) so dont forget that needs to be lugged around (at least a mouse does) if you plan on gaming. also a 17" laptop is huge and some people might find it unwieldy.

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the op really needs to step in and speak up with their thoughts as what they need/want/prefer is what matters.

lets just agree to disagree i say. (meaning there really is no point to continue any counterpoints here)

you seem to be pushing hard for a gaming laptop and i see your point however whether or not that is the best option is yet to be seen. also its really not our decision but the thread creators so it doesnt really matter what we think in the end.

 

[Dblkk]

comparing same number card vs card isnt exactly fair, however it gets the point across.

gtx880m gets 48fps in bf4 @ ultra while a gtx770 gets about 54fps. its hard to say if they are equal or if the 770 is better due to the margin of error but yes in general your point is very true.

yes, they are very capable cards for a laptop.

--

i've used both a ssd and a hdd in my laptop and i agree... a ssd is a great addition. my boot times are down to about 8 seconds from about 45 and performance is snappy. HOWEVER, for gaming it really is not necessary (though i do agree at least a 7200.1 drive is warranted since 5200's are really slow!). its also possible to get along in windows without one. i would agree completely that they are nice however they are completely optional.

its cheaper to install the ssd yourself sometimes and reinstall windows (provided the op is somewhat technically inclined) as to buy it as part of the package is expensive.

--

please note i didnt say anything about buying a $800 gaming pc. i pushed out a few numbers showing reasonable equivalencies between laptops and pc. what i meant by this is that if the op already has a decent computer (mid level or better) then adding a video card might be very good performance for the money spent. however, i also noted that if they didnt have a good computer then it might be worth waiting for the gaming computer.

what would work out best depends on a few factors and we need the op to verify a few things or make their thoughts known.

so in reality, it could be less money spent in case the budget isnt as large. since they arent buying it for themselves and were worried about costs (in a roundabout sort of way) i mentioned it as an option.

--

the g750 is a pretty nice computer. my brother owns a g75 which is the previous generation and except for the fact that its windows8 and a few minor gripes like that the keyboard isnt all that nice its top notch and worth getting. overheating also isnt a problem. asus really did a nice job with the cooling system. so far its handled games as expected.

if the op looks at a few of the points here and figures that buying a gaming laptop fits their needs better than its a great choice for a reasonable price ($1000-1100 normally for the non-ssd versions)

for serious gaming though you need to use a mouse and keyboard (laptop keyboard and trackpad really arent great for that) so dont forget that needs to be lugged around (at least a mouse does) if you plan on gaming. also a 17" laptop is huge and some people might find it unwieldy.

--

the op really needs to step in and speak up with their thoughts as what they need/want/prefer is what matters.

lets just agree to disagree i say. (meaning there really is no point to continue any counterpoints here)

you seem to be pushing hard for a gaming laptop and i see your point however whether or not that is the best option is yet to be seen. also its really not our decision but the thread creators so it doesnt really matter what we think in the end.

While again I agree for most part. OP didn't offer budget, just question of gpu this year or gaming laptop next year. In which im sure by next year his budget would be larger. But without a actual budget I guess we are all in the dark, as well as what the rest of the components in OP's build are. But for college I would push gaming laptop to almost anyone. I used your numbers thrown for example, $800, as just as example as well. And as far as gaming on laptop or pc via keyboards and mouse, its almost a given to me that you use an external mouse with a laptop. But I cant game with mouse keyboard, I use xbox controller. So gameplay is identical on my laptop vs my desktop. And while my desktop is bigger and way better, for whatever reason I still prefer to game on my laptop even if its sitting right next to the computer. No idea and that's all personal preference.

Im only pushing laptop as for college I feel it to be better than a pc. While in college the dorms are small, and youll need a laptop for classes and while your in study hall, park, sitting waiting for class to open up, ect. So even if you had a pc you would need a, while not gaming, laptop anyways. I had pc and laptop entire time I was at college and never touched my pc for schoolwork. It was nice to just have all my files and setup on one computer.

But yes, if OP build is good, a $300 GPU would offer the same if not better pure 'gaming' experience as a $1300 laptop. and yes you can do $300 gpu and a $300-500 laptop and still pocket the difference. But without budget, current system specs, its really hard to make any assumptions or specific examples of what to do. But as for OP's thread question, with as broad as it was, I still stand by wait a year and buy a laptop vs desktop. but fill in budget and other needed information, and we can all probably come to an easy agreement with whats best. Budget says all. If he has a $1300 next year then id say laptop. But if his budget is $200 this year and anything less than $1000 next year, well gpu all the way. I wouldn't recommend any laptop under a asus g750 jm for $1300 or even the msi gt70 for $1400. Anything less (Lenovo) can game but cons of laptop itself are just not worth it. And even that's $800-900. So depending on budget...