Laptop gaming, opinions desired...

[JTDSR]

I am currently in the market for a gaming laptop. I am likely permanently making the change from desktop to a laptop for gaming. While I understand that I will not get the performance per dollar I have been accustomed to in the last 20-25 years of PC gaming, my life situation is much different than when I was 24. Add to the fact that I now have been promoted to a position where I have spurts of 1-2 hour slowdowns where I would likely even be able to game at work, hence my thoughts of going mobile.

No longer do I have the hours to spend MMO raiding ( haven't really since 2010ish ). I played pretty much every MMO under the sun from Everquest on, and am not enthralled with the whole instanced raid models any longer. That leaves my FPS fetish. In recent years I went from MW2, to Black Ops, to Bad Company 2 and haven't looked back to CoD, personally. I spent the last 4 years in BF3 and BF4, and now I play Battlefront. Oddly enough, I have ever played mostly with low-medium settings, regardless of my rig being able to handle high/ultra settings. For some reason, I seem to do a TON better when I play on lower settings, perhaps it is simply placebo effect, who knows. I also have spent a decent amount of time in Path of Exile, D3, and Grim Dawn, as I enjoy the scratch off lottery feeling of loot in those type of games.

I apologize for the wall of text, but I feel I needed to give some of my gaming background in asking my question. Also, I play 0 single player games, not my cup of tea. Everything to some degree is multiplayer for me, preferably 12-24 man type server stuff.

I have been looking at the GTX 970M and 980M. Naturally, I am leaning towards the 980M simply because it is at the top of what is available out there. But considering I only really have the time to play one title at any given time ( maybe 2 if I am entrenched in the aforementioned types of aRPG's ), and the fact that I usually play on low/medium settings, wouldn't the 970M suit my needs? I have seen Youtube videos of the 970M in action, and it seems that it might be quite suitable for my needs for quite some time. Anyone out there using the 970M that is quite happy with it? Keep in mind, I won't be playing any upcoming demanding games, possibly I may try Overwatch when it comes out.

Thank you for reading, and any thoughts...

 

[JTDSR]

No one? Seriously? lol

 

[cbrunny]

I don't really understand why anyone would want a gaming laptop vs. a gaming desktop. But, given that's the question you've posed, I'd consider setting a budget first, deciding how long you want to keep this particular laptop for and expect it to game, and then figure out what chips fall in. If money is no object, a) why are you getting a laptop? b) if you still want to get a laptop, get one of those ones that has a full 980 in it. I think I saw there was one that is coming that has two full 980s in SLI config in a laptop. Beefy, probably. Expensive, definitely. Powerhog, for sure. But hey, money is no object.

You might not be playing anything demanding by todays standards, but in three years a mediocre game may not run well on a 970M or a 980M even. As I said I don't know really know anything about gaming laptops or their chips.

If you play only online games and you think you play better in low settings, presumably this is a latency thing. Do you expect to have good latency in a heavily networked work environment? I am betting my internet connection goes through more than a few switches before getting "outside" my organization, and thats not counting any kind of encryption that may or may not happen, and on a wired connection.

 

[ZGR]

There is a couple big problems with gaming notebooks.

- You need a machine that can handle CPU turboboost + GPU 3d clocks for sustained loads. This means you need a slightly buffed power supply (120w+) and a good cooling system.

- There is also barely any competition from AMD for mobile beyond mid-range GPU's. This means you can only get Intel + NVIDIA at a small to severe price premium depending on the hardware.

I suggest going for mid range hardware like the GTX 860M or GTX 960M. Both these GPU's top out to around 60W of power. This means you can retain a relatively slim profile with a good battery life with NVIDIA's Optimus. You won't be able to run every game at max settings. AMD's mGPU's compete well performance wise in this area, but are not as efficient which is very important for mobile gaming. Each new generation has great improvements in efficiency.

Gaming Notebooks age horribly, depreciate incredibly fast, and some are a nightmare to repair. Go for a gaming notebook that allows for RAM and HDD replacement (upgrade the RAM, get a 512gb SSD after). Make sure to read reviews.

Not terrible: http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-Y50-La...=UTF8&qid=1448559176&sr=1-1&keywords=960m+4gb

Only has a 90W PSU which could be a big problem for games like GTA V, ARMA 3, that will stress the GPU + CPU heavily. Can easily take out and upgrade the RAM, replace HDD for 512 GB SSD.

See how there is a lot of factors at play? Each 'Gaming' Notebook cheap out in some area no matter how expensive.

Here is a better one: http://www.amazon.com/G501JW-DS71-1...r=1-2&keywords=960m+4gb&refinements=p_89:Asus

120W PSU, Good cooling, Already Upgraded, 4k (too slow for 4k gaming; 1080p will look fine for that). Notice how gaming notebooks get unreasonably expensive really fast? This isn't even the DDR4 version that Amazon has. That 960M will also look pretty slow in a couple years compared to the rest of the notebook.

It is a really tough decision. Now we have DDR4 being rolled out, NVIDIA's Pascal on the horizon... Do your research regarding what YOU need and what you don't. There is no right answer necessarily.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

Have fun; Keep your eyes open for discounts. My buddy got $500 off from a near-last-gen Lenovo Y50 that definitely made it worth it.

The 970M and 980M are quite fast, but have a severe price premium. If you can get a good deal, definitely go for the faster GPU. Just be aware of the corners many OEM's cut to make that 970M fit inside a certain price bracket.

Once you own the notebook get to know its thermal limitations by monitoring temps and download ThrottleStop to keep the CPU from eating up all the precious TDP during gaming sessions. You don't need ~3.5 GHz all the time.

 

[Blue_Max]

Do you actually NEED portability? And how much? If it's between ONLY two locations, a portable ITX cube case and permanent monitors/keyboards at those two locations would be half the price, twice the performance and a much better experience overall.

 

[saratoga172]

I've got an Alienware R2 17 inch with a gtx970m. Everything runs great on the laptop when I run it. It's not my primary gaming machine though so I haven't really done extended sessions (longer than an hour or two). When I'm working I can get about 5 hours of battery life which to me is phenomenal for the machine it is. Sometimes more.

The laptop is about 8 pounds (I think) so it's not light but I don't notice any issues carrying it around. The ac adapter is a 180w one (also got the 240 upgrade). I put the specs in my dig if you want to check it out. It's not cheap but it's nice being able to game when I'm mobile. I expect to have to turn down settings for games at the end of next year.

 

[Raduque]

I don't really understand why anyone would want a gaming laptop vs. a gaming desktop.

I don't want a gaming desktop due to noise, heat and power usage. It's also doubled up considering I run a second desktop as a file server 24/7 in the same room.

I also like being able to take my gaming on the road with me. I travel several times a year, and I'm gone 3-5 days at a time, and it's nice to be able to pick up where I left off without need a desk, a monitor, a chair, multiple power plugs and an ethernet cable. My Y50 also weighed about 5lb - way less than even the smallest SFF gaming PC.

As for the OPs question a 970M is more than adequate for 1080p gaming. Especially since you're used to lower settings, you can start low and turn things up as you play to get the balance between 60fps and eye candy.

I'm dealing with the same research right now, and I've narrowed my choices down to pretty much two, but nobody has bothered to put any input in on my topic either, desoite 100+ people having looked at it. My two choices are the Gigabyte P55W(possible cooling issues) and Asus ROG G751JT(huge, bulky "GAMER!" styling). I realize they're two separate classes of machine, but both have good i7 quads and the 970m GPU pushing a fhd 1080p screen.

I had a Lenovo Y50 with an 860M (16gb ram, 256gb SSD) for a little over a year, and I was gaming just fine on it. I played most games at 1080p and settings at high. FO4 is the first game so far I had to turn settings down on (shadows, god rays) to get 50 fps. It would have probably been good for another 6-8 months before I would've needed a new machine

 

[DigDog]

edit: derp. looks like i got here late. edit below.

what ZGR said.

gaming and laptops do not mix. you could instead have a desktop at home, and a tablet for portability; of course this depends on, as said before, your portability needs, but if you only need to look at a couple spreadsheets, then get a tablet, do your day of work, go home, sync the table to the desktop, and you are done.

also consider remote desktop functionality on said tablet.

desktop does the heavy work, tablet is easy to carry; and gives you less battery troubles. and costs less. and your games will be better on desktop.

sorry if nobody replied to you, it's just that we've seen these desktop vs gaming laptop threads so many times, people got fed up.

edit: most people here simply do not recommend gaming laptops. even if you are travelling (i commute 10 hours by train every week, and i dont have a laptop) we still don't think it's sufficient motivation to spend that kind of money, for a badly balanced product. games eat away your battery in no time, too.

therefore, i do not know which laptop to recommend. sorry.

 

[Raduque]

I think that if you can't come up with an actual answer to the question, IOW a laptop model to recommend, you shouldn't post.

People have their reasons. I've stated my reasons for wanting a gaming laptop. I would absolutely not appreciate if somebody just came in going "LOL GET A DESKTOP NOOB". I bet the OP doesn't either.

 

[cbrunny]

I apologize if my opinions on the differences between laptops and desktops that relate to gaming performance have personally offended you and/or hurt your feelings.

 

[Raduque]

Your opinions do not answer the question given. Waste of everybody involved's time. I personally think the OPs mistake is not playing single player games, and instead only playing multiplayer, but it's an opinion, like yours, that's not relevant to the question.

 

[Blue_Max]

Now I wish I'd clarified a bit more that gaming laptops have their place... I have mine and wish it were faster but can't justify the price tag. It only goes from home to my workspace during my days on. I'd do the ITX cube and leave a monitor there except I'm not the only one who uses the space so I can't leave anything lying around after I leave.

There are some ITX solutions I could come up with but it quickly ventures into "pain in the rear" territory of having to set up then tear down every x days, or even daily. If someone came up with an affordable "luggable" with a fold-up 19" monitor, desktop CPU, standard ITX/mATX and desktop video card mounted sideways they'd have a pretty hot seller, IMHO.

If you can afford it, great. Models based on the 960M are quite good and MUCH cheaper than those based on the 970M. Of course there's a performance boost, but the price increase is HUGE.

 

[cbrunny]

Your opinions do not answer the question given. Waste of everybody involved's time. I personally think the OPs mistake is not playing single player games, and instead only playing multiplayer, but it's an opinion, like yours, that's not relevant to the question.

noted.

 

[pontifex]

didn't see a price limit so check sager laptops. i got one from xoticpc.com about 5 years ago and it's still running the latest games today. it cost me over $1600 bucks but I think I have got my money's worth!

 

[JamesV]

I don't really understand why anyone would want a gaming laptop vs. a gaming desktop.

I read this thread because I'm seriously considering going full time RV life, and I couldn't possibly run my PC for any decent length of time in a RV unless I'm also constantly running the generator.

Plus, my last build, bought in 2011 is now officially below minimum specs for new games like Just Cause 3. That 2600k/8GB/580 system was worth every penny (compared to other builds that after two years I replaced).

I'm thinking of picking up a black Friday deal on a 960-70, and I'm sure I'd be able to play all the new games, but it's like throwing money away if I'll soon not be able to power my PC.

 

[Zodiark1593]

I read this thread because I'm seriously considering going full time RV life, and I couldn't possibly run my PC for any decent length of time in a RV unless I'm also constantly running the generator.

Plus, my last build, bought in 2011 is now officially below minimum specs for new games like Just Cause 3. That 2600k/8GB/580 system was worth every penny (compared to other builds that after two years I replaced).

I'm thinking of picking up a black Friday deal on a 960-70, and I'm sure I'd be able to play all the new games, but it's like throwing money away if I'll soon not be able to power my PC.

Sorry to say, but gaming laptops do not last long on battery running full tilt. Certainly, battery life while light browsing or other similar life nets pretty respectable battery life in these behemoths nowadays, but heavy gaming off the generator ensures much lessened performance and an even crappier run time.

 

[ImpulsE69]

I took my gaming desktop with me for years when working elsewhere

Now, if you anticipate playing lots of indie or old games, a laptop is probably going to be fine, but if you want to play the latest and greatest AAA titles, you are going to have to spend a buttload for mediocre performance.

 

[pontifex]

Not true. When i got my sager i was able to run evrything on max with good performance.

 

[JTDSR]

I thank you, everyone for the responses. Ultimately, my budget is about $1400-1700, and that is with selling my desktop parts and adding the difference. I would not keep both setups. The reasoning behind this choice, is that at work, I have several hours of downtime daily. I do not want to have to lug a machine and monitor in and set up every day, so a laptop would be a prime choice. As well, while I am in charge of my department ( IT, and I am not as learned as many of you out there in this field, I just got lucky ) at my facility, the last thing I want is the CIO coming in and seeing a full gaming rig on one of my desks. I do have two ports open that are not behind our firewall/security and latency should not be an issue. I travel twice a month for meetings, and stay overnight. I feel the portability would come in handy for that as well. In the spring/summer, it might be nice to go out on the porch/deck and play some outside.

As far as single player games, it has never been my thing. I get a rush off competitive gaming versus other players. Computer AI has never really done it for me personally, although some of those titles look really good. When it comes to aRPG's the thrill of the hunt for "loot" is what spurs me on, even though I may not encounter a soul in my travels while farming a spawn area or so. I do enjoy bartering/trading in global however, and that is likely more of what I would be doing at work.

As one poster had mentioned, my question was not a desktop versus laptop inquiry. I have pretty much made up my mind to shift to mobile computing entirely. At night after work, I *might* game an hour or two, if that. If you read to the bottom of my initial post, my question was if those with 980M,'s and 970M's were enjoying the performance they were getting out of their machines. I meant it to be more of a GPU choice issue than anything else.

The videos on Youtube of those particular mobile GPU's in the titles I play look promising, but I don't know whether to trust those ultimately. I would like be hooking up to a monitor when used at home, and everywhere I used it, it would be plugged in, so battery life is not of issue to me. My commute to work is 8 minutes, so obviously I would not be using it on a train, etc. I don't do much on my PC besides game, and browse Reddit/ESPN or watch a show on Netflix once in awhile. One day, and likely in the next few years, I can see myself moving away from FPS entirely, and switching to aRPG's solely, if a good enough title comes out. Something like D3 but without the nerfed ability to trade amongst the entire playerbase, as opposed to only being able to trade within a party.

Thank you again, I appreciate your time.

 

[VenBaja]

OP, this is what you want. http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np8657-clevo-p650re3-p-8677.html

Configure it with Windows 10 and a decent size SSD in the m.2 slot. I would go for 500gb and add external storage as needed. That configuration will only run about $1,500-$1,600.

If you're comfortable on medium settings you can easily play any modern game at well over 60fps with this laptop.

To all you naysayers and non-understanders out there commenting, gaming laptops are perfectly capable of playing demanding modern games. Many people prefer the portability of a gaming laptop, and have the disposable income to spend on them without any sacrifice.

EDIT: Here is some video of a similarly configured MSI laptop playing BF4 64-player, and getting 90-115fps at 1080p/High settings. That's comparable to my 4770k/7950 setup for reference. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsQgpBDOW1Q

 

[JTDSR]

OP, this is what you want. http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np8657-clevo-p650re3-p-8677.html

Configure it with Windows 10 and a decent size SSD in the m.2 slot. I would go for 500gb and add external storage as needed. That configuration will only run about $1,500-$1,600.

If you're comfortable on medium settings you can easily play any modern game at well over 60fps with this laptop.

To all you naysayers and non-understanders out there commenting, gaming laptops are perfectly capable of playing demanding modern games. Many people prefer the portability of a gaming laptop, and have the disposable income to spend on them without any sacrifice.

EDIT: Here is some video of a similarly configured MSI laptop playing BF4 64-player, and getting 90-115fps at 1080p/High settings. That's comparable to my 4770k/7950 setup for reference. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsQgpBDOW1Q

Excellent, thank you for your response. Still hemming and hawing over the 970 or 980 myself, lol. Although I have been watching a few more videos of the 970M in action and it may just be enough. I am more concerned with using it with my monitor when at home, and the performance hit I may take, although from what I have been reading, it seems it may only be a few FPS.

 

[Blue_Max]

Why settle for that 15 incher? I was going to suggest the largest 18.5" size but they all seem to be over $2000... a definite 17" matte display is a must! For you, size and weight is no concern so go big!

That said, it's a $500 price jump from the $1200 970m to the $1700 980m models. I don't think that $500 is worth it in my books...

Check out your favorite shops for units with a 17.3" screen and 970m - you'll be plenty happy unless you want ultimate-max detail on everything.

 

[JTDSR]

Sounds good, thank you.

 

[sweenish]

Your opinions do not answer the question given. Waste of everybody involved's time. I personally think the OPs mistake is not playing single player games, and instead only playing multiplayer, but it's an opinion, like yours, that's not relevant to the question.

Maybe just let OP speak for themselves.

All of your reasons for preferring a laptop can be addressed by a desktop, to boot.

Noise is easily addressed with proper dampening and mounts
Heat and power usage go hand in hand. Given the power of a gaming laptop, a gaming desktop of equivalent power would run cooler and quieter than a laptop.

And OP wants a gaming laptop to game at work. That's going to go over well.

 

[JTDSR]

Maybe just let OP speak for themselves.

All of your reasons for preferring a laptop can be addressed by a desktop, to boot.

Noise is easily addressed with proper dampening and mounts
Heat and power usage go hand in hand. Given the power of a gaming laptop, a gaming desktop of equivalent power would run cooler and quieter than a laptop.

And OP wants a gaming laptop to game at work. That's going to go over well.

It is not JUST for work, thanks. I run the department, with no one to answer to but the CIO, who comes to our facility 3 times a year. Good job on the assumption though. Laugh.