# Looking to buy a new laptop. GPU related question.



## Deleted member 41019 (Jan 5, 2014)

Ok it's been years since I last looked into buying a laptop and the time has come to buy something nice.

I'm looking for a laptop that will play primarily World of Warcraft with a good amount of detail and FPS nothing super high as I know we are dealing with power saving cheapo cards here. This is not a desktop replacement as I have a 3 month old system running some nice hardware that was built for the job but it would be nice when stuck visiting family or whatever that I can take a system with me that will do the job nicely.

Again I am not silly enough to expect this to be as good as my desktop, I just need help in getting the best bang for my buck so to speak. RAM is not important as I have already got 8GB of 1866Mhz Corsair Vengance memory that has yet to be taken out the packet. I would like a large hard drive and I care not for SSD's so don't worry.

Budget is up to £400 (around $650 so says almighty Google atm) as that is all I can scrape together. Any more and the other half is going to chop something off....

Here is the list so far:

Quite like this - http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/LENOVO-G505-59386031_1492692.html
http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/LENOVO-G505-59386031_1492692.html
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/lapto...6-touchscreen-laptop-silver-21414700-pdt.html
http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/LENOVO-U410-59399417_1492693.html
http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/LENOVO-U410-59399417_1492693.html

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/lapto...e-te69kb-15-6-laptop-silver-21704909-pdt.html

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/laptops-netbooks/laptops/laptops/lenovo-g505s-15-6-laptop-21707558-pdt.html

Those are all I have found as of now.

Please keep in mind I am in the UK so UK prices and stock would be great if you want to link me something back. No point in me trying to buy something from the U.S as they may not ship it to me. So UK stock only please.


If this has been posted in the wrong section then please feel free to move it. I thought it would be best here as this is a video card related issue.


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## Deleted member 41019 (Jan 6, 2014)

Anyone?


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## Snipe343 (Jan 6, 2014)

I had tried out a G505 about a month ago. The case is kinda flimsy and made cracking noises when you opened it. Also Lenovo put a lot of unnecessary software that was annoying to take off. It ran WoW around 30fps on medium(dipped to low 20s a lot), I installed BF4 on it for fun to see what it could do, about 10fps on low. I personally recommend against that laptop just because of the build quality, but if you're really careful with things then it might be okay.


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## Deleted member 41019 (Jan 6, 2014)

Snipe343 said:


> I had tried out a G505 about a month ago. The case is kinda flimsy and made cracking noises when you opened it. Also Lenovo put a lot of unnecessary software that was annoying to take off. It ran WoW around 30fps on medium(dipped to low 20s a lot), I installed BF4 on it for fun to see what it could do, about 10fps on low. I personally recommend against that laptop just because of the build quality, but if you're really careful with things then it might be okay.




I'll leave it then as 30 FPS is not quite enough and if it's that flimsy then just that alone is enough for me to walk away.


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## RCoon (Jan 6, 2014)

Mind going refurbished? It's a lot easier to get a good i5 (WoW uses lots of processor) refurbed.
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/lapto...furbished-15-5-laptop-white-21302170-pdt.html


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## Kaynar (Jan 6, 2014)

aven000 said:


> I'll leave it then as 30 FPS is not quite enough and if it's that flimsy then just that alone is enough for me to walk away.



If you are looking to run WOW on low settings with more than 20-25fps you will have to look at least at a HD4000 integrated chip performance with a dual core at around 2.5Ghz.. in other words I couldn't find you something costing less than 500GBP for what you want.

if you are willing to save up abit you could buy something from pcspecialist http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/laptop-computers/ which offer top quality Clevo laptops with custom stuff. Since you can save on the RAM and you have the option of not buying windows (you might have an extra copy around..!) you can manage 500GBP I think.

EDIT: I am stupid I had prices in Euro

you can have for 440GBP including DPD delivery in the UK a http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/ultraNoteII-15/ with 2.8Ghz i5 (decrease to reduce cost), leave ram at 2GB and replace it with yours, HD4600 integrated GPU will handle WoW at 1300x700 res, 500GB slow HDD and no windows. I have this laptop with a i7 quad core and it goes to 93c on prime95, so with 2 less cores you should be ok.

EDIT2: or even 430GBP 17" http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/cosmosII-17/ same principles.


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## Deleted member 41019 (Jan 6, 2014)

RCoon said:


> Mind going refurbished? It's a lot easier to get a good i5 (WoW uses lots of processor) refurbed.
> http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/lapto...furbished-15-5-laptop-white-21302170-pdt.html



That looks good but what's the HD4000 going to be like? And a refurb is fine as long as it's still got a warranty on it.


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## Deleted member 41019 (Jan 6, 2014)

Kaynar said:


> If you are looking to run WOW on low settings with more than 20-25fps you will have to look at least at a HD4000 integrated chip performance with a dual core at around 2.5Ghz.. in other words I couldn't find you something costing less than 500GBP for what you want.
> 
> if you are willing to save up abit you could buy something from pcspecialist http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/laptop-computers/ which offer top quality Clevo laptops with custom stuff. Since you can save on the RAM and you have the option of not buying windows (you might have an extra copy around..!) you can manage 500GBP I think.
> 
> ...



Not bad options there at all but again we are talking Intel integrated video. I knew WoW was more CPU heavy (has been since day one really for a number of reasons) hence I was looking at the AMD A6-8 series of CPU's as they seem to have a little more power over their Intel counterparts. To be honest I am very much an Intel and Nvidia man but I was thinking for the price range the AMD APU may be the way forward.

Thinking about it I could add another £50 onto the budget but £400 is about the mark I want to be at.


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## Snipe343 (Jan 6, 2014)

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-4000.69168.0.html

Down the page there are some benchmarks


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## Deleted member 41019 (Jan 6, 2014)

This is a screen shot of my mom's video card from GPUZ. This on medium settings get around 40 fps on WoW as we tested it today. The laptop she has is a Samsung NP355V5C-A06UK.

Link to the laptop here.


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## Deleted member 41019 (Jan 6, 2014)

Snipe343 said:


> http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-4000.69168.0.html
> 
> Down the page there are some benchmarks




Thank you for the link bud. I'm amazed! Last Intel GPU I used was a GMA 950 and I think we all know that was built for basic tasks. Yes you could play some games on them and overclocking them was fun with a little tool you can find on the web but it was limited to playing titles from 1998-2004.


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## Kaynar (Jan 6, 2014)

The intel HD4600 for sure can handle WOW on low res screen such as 1300x700. I've tried LoL, WoW and PoE with my HD4000 which run quite fine (only PoE didnt go over 20fps)


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## silentbogo (Jan 6, 2014)

With that lenovo the downfall is a CPU. You'll be better off buying something i5 or i7-based. Refurbished is probably a good idea.
My ASUS k55vm is refurbished and works just fine 10-12 hours a day for the past 5 months. Got it for around $600 @ newegg.


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## Deleted member 41019 (Jan 6, 2014)

What do you guys reckon to this?

http://shop.amd.com/uk/All/Detail/Notebook/ecx-PC -UK-21707558#Details

I am thinking about putting this in that system


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## Deleted member 41019 (Jan 7, 2014)

Just brought myself this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/331102353422?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649 as I am not going for the Lenovo G505s.

Can't argue with the price and with a hyperthreaded Ivy bridge I3 it should be fast enough for WoW. Looking up the Intel HD 4000 it seems to be a really good mobile card with people saying that they are getting between 60-85fps.

Review here for the CPU's:

http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i3-3110M-vs-AMD-A8-4500M

Video cards:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-7640G.69836.0.html

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-4000.69168.0.html

Big thanks to all who have commented!


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## brandonwh64 (Jan 7, 2014)

I would have honestly bought something like this cause that HD4000 is a turd especially in the mobile platform. 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834231455


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## Deleted member 41019 (Jan 7, 2014)

brandonwh64 said:


> I would have honestly bought something like this cause that HD4000 is a turd especially in the mobile platform.
> 
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834231455



See I was told the NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M was under performing hard and should be avoided 

Quite disappointed with the range of laptops in the UK atm. Seems all the good deals and bigger range are over in the US


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## RCoon (Jan 7, 2014)

aven000 said:


> See I was told the NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M was under performing hard and should be avoided
> 
> Quite disappointed with the range of laptops in the UK atm. Seems all the good deals and bigger range are over in the US


 
In fairness gaming laptops at the £400 mark are literally non-existant, it's simply impossible to get a solid gaming platform for that cost in a laptop form factor. The last gaming laptop I had was a PB LJ-90 with a dedicated 5870m and an i5, and that was £750 as a refurb.


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## Deleted member 41019 (Jan 7, 2014)

RCoon said:


> In fairness gaming laptops at the £400 mark are literally non-existant, it's simply impossible to get a solid gaming platform for that cost in a laptop form factor. The last gaming laptop I had was a PB LJ-90 with a dedicated 5870m and an i5, and that was £750 as a refurb.



To be honest all I want to do on WoW is do my auctions, level up low level toons and maybe do the odd instance. When it comes to raiding and such I'll use my new desktop. I needed a laptop regardless of the gaming aspect but it would be nice to sit at the kitchen table and be able to play a little warcraft. 

Just going to have too see how it performs with the HD 4000 and 8GB's of Corsair Vengeance.


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## RCoon (Jan 7, 2014)

aven000 said:


> To be honest all I want to do on WoW is do my auctions, level up low level toons and maybe do the odd instance. When it comes to raiding and such I'll use my new desktop. I needed a laptop regardless of the gaming aspect but it would be nice to sit at the kitchen table and be able to play a little warcraft.
> 
> Just going to have too see how it performs with the HD 4000 and 8GB's of Corsair Vengeance.


 
It should be OK, WoW is more CPU bound than GPU, just turn particle effects and shadows off, as well as SSAO and it will run perfectly fine. It's an old game and an old engine, not particularly demanding. I still managed to play WoW on medium settings on the laptop I had back when I was in 6th form, and that was an AMD Turion X2 with some terrible 128mb mobile GPU.


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## THE_EGG (Jan 7, 2014)

Wow I must have scored well on my refurb G53 Asus which I got 2.5 years ago. Probably helped that it was a refurb AND previous model AND base model. i7-740QM, GTX 460M etc. Got it for a bargain at $770AUD which is crazy cheap especially considering 'Australia' tax. Keep your eye out for these sorts of laptops - ie refurb and previous gen hardware.

A HD4000 should be able to run WoW I would think though. But I would try and get something with a dedicated card. The Asus that Brandon put up seems like a good deal.


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## Deleted member 41019 (Jan 7, 2014)

THE_EGG said:


> Wow I must have scored well on my refurb G53 Asus which I got 2.5 years ago. Probably helped that it was a refurb AND previous model AND base model. i7-740QM, GTX 460M etc. Got it for a bargain at $770AUD which is crazy cheap especially considering 'Australia' tax. Keep your eye out for these sorts of laptops - ie refurb and previous gen hardware.
> 
> A HD4000 should be able to run WoW I would think though. But I would try and get something with a dedicated card. The Asus that Brandon put up seems like a good deal.



Yeah It's a lovely deal but you can't get it over here by the look of it. Been googleing quite a bit and only a cupple of places had it but it's out of stock.


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## Deleted member 41019 (Jan 7, 2014)

RCoon said:


> It should be OK, WoW is more CPU bound than GPU, just turn particle effects and shadows off, as well as SSAO and it will run perfectly fine. It's an old game and an old engine, not particularly demanding. I still managed to play WoW on medium settings on the laptop I had back when I was in 6th form, and that was an AMD Turion X2 with some terrible 128mb mobile GPU.



I have an Acer Aspire 3050 here that I stripped apart and upgraded from a 1.8Ghz Sempron to a Turion X2 TL-60 @ 2.0Ghz, Also banged in 4GB of DDR2 PC6400 it's also running the ATI radeon xpress 200m and it plays more games than I ever thought it would. Again it's one of those that's 'alright' for what it is much like the Intel HD4000 will be in the future. 

I will ofc turn off anything that's going to drop the fps so as you said shadows etc will be turned off. I'll have too sit and tweek the WoW client and do my usual Windows performance tweeks. If it turns out to be all out rubbish then I'll send it back.


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## THE_EGG (Jan 7, 2014)

Did a search on amazon.co.uk and found this
http://www.amazon.co_uk/dp/B00FC5KP9O/?tag=tec053-21

About as good as I could find for around £400. Not bad specs I think for the price but I have no idea how good a laptop it is.

Similar laptop reviewed here with same specs;
http://www.cnet.com/laptops/hp-pavilion-touchsmart-15z/4505-3121_7-35616239-2.html


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## Arjai (Jan 7, 2014)

My personal preference, of the ones you found? This one:
*LENOVO U410*

The reasons are, Intel CPU's run a lot cooler in laptops. The i3 and the dedicated GT610 will DEFINITELY do the job, nicely for you. I have toyed with WoW on my HD4000, just to see if it could do it. It could, not great but, it could.

I have an i5 3317U and it constantly surprises me with how well it does with only 17W max. This one is a 17W that runs at 1.9, mine is 1.7 w a turbo up to 2.4-2.6GHz. Yours does not look to have Turbo but it does have Hyper Threading for 4 logical cores, as does mine.

All in all, I would buy this, in your situation. My 2 cents.


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## silentbogo (Jan 7, 2014)

Mobile graphics went a long way comparing even to where it was about 4-5 years ago. If you are looking truly for a low-budget laptop, get Intel with HD4000 or higher. Instead of spending extra money on that ram - you'll be better off getting similar machine with GeForce GT620M or  even better.
As *brandonwh64* said earlier,  ASUS X550LB is the best investment there is. If my GT630M can handle Crysis 2 @ High with reasonably playable FPS, GeForce GT740M will provide enough power to run almost any game with no lags(Including WoW, or even BF4)


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## Constantine Yevseyev (Jan 8, 2014)

Guys, guys, let the laptop veteran speak up!

So, the situation is:

Absolutely avoid: NVIDIA GeForce 610M, GT 620M, GT 625M, 710M, GT 720M; AMD Radeon HD 8530M, 8550M, 8570M, 8650M, 8670M. The reason is, these cards are only 10 to 25 percent faster (or even slower in some tasks) compared to current mainstream Intel HD Graphics 4400/4600, and therefore they just don't cost their buck. You can't expect them to run any modern title (like Battlefield 4, Call of Duty: Ghosts or Assasins's Creed 4: Black Flag) even at low to middle setting.

OK but outdated: NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M, GT 635M; AMD Radeon HD 7650M, 7670M. These are like absolute classic. You can easily find something cheap like Dell Inspiron 3521, Lenovo G770A and such - it'll cost you about 275 to 325 GBP and give you a comfort FPS at middle settings and native resolution. Remember that it's just a fail safe trick: never buy anything outdated when choosing a laptop, at least if you haven't find anything better for your needs/cash.

Current generation cards you should look for: NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M, GT 645M, GT 650M, GT 730M, GT 735M, GT 740M, GT 745M, GT 750M, GT 755M; AMD Radeon HD 7730M, HD 8730M, HD 8750M, HD 8770M. It's a standard choice for now. You can find some MSI, Dell, Lenovo and SONY machines equipped with these thingies. They do their job.
Should try to find some of these: AMD Radeon HD 8850M, AMD Radeon HD 8870M. You might get lucky and find something from Lenovo or Dell caring these GPUs aboard. That would be best.


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## Deleted member 41019 (Jan 8, 2014)

Constantine Yevseyev said:


> Guys, guys, let the laptop veteran speak up!
> 
> So, the situation is:
> 
> ...



Great reply, nice and clear 

I have purchased the Toshiba with the Core I3-3110M and the Intel HD4000 as it seems that the Intel card while it is not the best does seem to have enough power at my price point and will do the job for the light gaming I wanted it to do.

Full spec's of the laptop here

literally the only game that will be installed on the system will be World of Warcraft for a bit of messing about so if the HD4000 has the 67-75FPS range on medium settings like notebookcheck.net claim then I should be able to squeeze a few more by installing the 8GB of 1600Mhz Corsair Vengeance that I have purchased today. I know a LOT of ways to get every last drop of performance out of Windows 7. Playing with older hardware gives you, I suppose a small advantage in that you learn to make the best of what you have. The hyperthreaded I3-3110M destroyed the AMD A8 4500M I was looking at and as we know and have also established on this thread WoW is more CPU intensive than GPU. Sure the I3 is only a dual core but 2.4Ghz and TurboBoost support for both the CPU and Video card along with the Hyperthreading are a real bonus.

For £280 I am well under budget and I think I got a nice little system for the money.


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## Constantine Yevseyev (Jan 8, 2014)

280 sounds about right. There are only two thing you can afford for that price tag: Intel Pentium 2020M + NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M and Intel Pentium 2020M + AMD Radeon HD 8570M, both by Lenovo. I've seen some Dell's 3521 powered by i3-3227U + AMD Radeon HD 7670M on price of 255, but, again, I'm not familiar with English computer stores. I'm not even sure these are currently available in UK.

BTW, what ways of getting "every last drop of performance" are you talking about? I personally wouldn't change any of system settings on hardware like this, cause it won't make any difference. It's not 2004 anymore.


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## Deleted member 41019 (Jan 11, 2014)

Constantine Yevseyev said:


> 280 sounds about right. There are only two thing you can afford for that price tag: Intel Pentium 2020M + NVIDIA GeForce GT 720M and Intel Pentium 2020M + AMD Radeon HD 8570M, both by Lenovo. I've seen some Dell's 3521 powered by i3-3227U + AMD Radeon HD 7670M on price of 255, but, again, I'm not familiar with English computer stores. I'm not even sure these are currently available in UK.
> 
> BTW, what ways of getting "every last drop of performance" are you talking about? I personally wouldn't change any of system settings on hardware like this, cause it won't make any difference. It's not 2004 anymore.



Well there are many ways of making the system less bloated. For one the indexing service on the main drive gets turned off as does a lot of windows software such as Windows DVD maker, windows gadgets, XPS and tablet PC components etc. Other things to do are turn off unneeded services via services.msc and remove all start up items apart from those that are required for security and to actually boot the system. CCleaner is great for cleaning up the registry and removing unwanted crap from the system and being a big Firefox user my browser has a few tweeks done in the about:config section to speed it up as well as having addons like adblock and self destructing cookies.

There are other things that I do to up performance but it's long winded and I don't fancy typing it all out. The things I have done have made a huge difference and just the things I have mentioned above are things I strongly suggest people do to make things run that little bit smoother. These tweeks and a bit more are things I have been doing since at least 2004 and it has always been helpful so I must disagree with you when you say it makes no difference especially on this hardware, on this hardware it makes the most amount of noticeable difference.

Without the Corsair Vengeance memory the system ran WoW on medium settings with one or two set to high at upto 100fps in none populated areas and no less than 40 in populated areas and it turns out the 4GB of stock memory is indeed DDR3 but it's 800Mhz....

My new memory turned up halfway through writing this so i am eager to see how it does with double the capacity and double the speed.



EDIT: I forgot to add the system was supposed to come with the I3 3110M but was delivered with the I3 3120M! Result I reckon


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## Deleted member 41019 (Jan 11, 2014)

Here is two screenshots I have taken from the system. The first (lower score) was using the 800Mhz memory. The second (higher score) is using the new memory. I never expected a high score but the difference is huge and to be honest if WoW was playable before then with this new memory it should be more than just playable. Quite happy with my choice of budget laptop and I would like to express my thanks to all those who have offered their advice.

Thanks all!


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## THE_EGG (Jan 11, 2014)

aven000 said:


> Here is two screenshots I have taken from the system. The first (lower score) was using the 800Mhz memory. The second (higher score) is using the new memory. I never expected a high score but the difference is huge and to be honest if WoW was playable before then with this new memory it should be more than just playable. Quite happy with my choice of budget laptop and I would like to express my thanks to all those who have offered their advice.
> 
> Thanks all!


Holy crap! That is a big difference. I knew that faster RAM helped out the iGPU but that by that much. Nice result man!


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## Deleted member 41019 (Jan 11, 2014)

THE_EGG said:


> Holy crap! That is a big difference. I knew that faster RAM helped out the iGPU but that by that much. Nice result man!



Cheers bud. I knew Firestrike would be crap but an increase is still an increase.

All tests were carried out 3 times on both config's to make sure the results were consistent.


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