The gaming laptop guide
Don't be fooled by the title. This is not an article which gives info only on high end gaming laptops. It is an article meant to guide users, right from the ones aiming for entry-level/casual gaming on their laptops all the way upto heavy gamers, all levels of gaming included.
It is meant to create awareness about the various specifications and factors you should consider while buying a laptop if you are going to play games on the laptop, the importance of each, and how not to get fooled by cunning salesmen.
In the end, i will also cover some finer details like what to look for apart from the spec-sheet. I will include the latest components (like processors, GPUs etc...) in the comparison, and also components which are one generation old, since they are still present in some laptops on sale(like first generation Core 'i' processors, previous generation GPUs).
Firstly, it is important to understand that a laptop will not perform to the same level as a similar budget desktop PC in games. And, it is nearly impossible to change the processor or GPU(which are the 2 most important components in gaming), once you have purchased a laptop. So before buying, make sure that you want a laptop, and not a desktop, because you cannot afford to change your decision once the purchase is done. Also make sure that you do a good amount of research before making the purchase (reading this article will be a step towards this), and purchase a laptop perfectly suited to your needs and providing the best in your budget.
Finally, also note that a particular laptop GPU does not perform anywhere near as well as a desktop GPU having the same model no.
So let us start looking at what you should look for in a gaming laptop, what affects gaming performance and what does not.
1) GPU (graphics)
The graphics processing unit (GPU) is the most important component when you are playing games on your laptop.
This is generally referred to as 'Graphics card' or 'Video card'. (The general term GPU or just 'graphics' for short, is more appropriate as it can be used to dedicated as well as integrated type)
Generally, it is very hard to find a laptop with a good GPU but a poor CPU or lesser RAM. If the GPU is good, in most cases, the CPU and RAM are automatically good too.
There are two main types of graphics:
1.Dedicated
2.Integrated
Dedicated GPUs are made by NVIDIA and ATI(now AMD). They have their own dedicated graphics memory.
Integrated graphics are made primarily by Intel and ATI(AMD), and they do not have memory dedicated to the GPU. Instead, they use some of the laptop's RAM as 'shared memory'.
Dedicated GPUs are in general, much more powerful than integrated GPUs. They are obviously more expensive too, and hence are not used in very cheap laptops.
The equation between GPU and gaming performance is pretty simple. Better GPU = Better gaming performance. There is no exception to this rule, unless the GPU's clock speed has been altered (Underclocked or overclocked).
While playing games in laptops, the GPU is generally the 'bottleneck' (the component which prevents the full utilisation of other components due to its own weakness), except at extremely low settings (if the GPU is strong and CPU is weak), but this case can be safely ignored. Forget i even mentioned it.
(I mentioned it just because techies should not say i havent mentioned this case
).
Consider two cases:
1. Intel Core i3-370m + 3 GB RAM + mid-high end GPU
2. Intel Core i7-920m + 8 GB RAM + mid-low end GPU.
Game running at max possible settings.
Which laptop will have better gaming performance?
The answer is simple: 1.
This shows how important the GPU is to gaming.
Now let us make a list of GPUs in India for comparison, which will be useful for practical purposes to buyers:
GPUs in each section are listed in increasing order of performance.
1. Entry-level/low end GPUs
Intel Graphics media accelerator(GMA)(all versions)
ATI radeon HD 4200 ~ 4250
ATI radeon HD 6310
Intel HD Graphics(first gen Core 'i' series)
Intel HD 2000
Intel HD 3000
ATI mobility radeon 5470, 6370
(All except last are integrated)
These GPUs can run older, less demanding games such as NFS most wanted, CS 1.6 easily at max setting.
They can run moderately demanding games such as FIFA 11, Left 4 Dead etc... at medium setting.
The first few cannot run demanding games such as Crysis, Metro 2033 while the later few can just run at low setting.
2. Low-Mid range GPUs
ATI mobility radeon 6470
ATI mobility radeon 6490
NVIDIA GT 520M
ATI HD 550v
NVIDIA GT 420M
These GPUs can run older and moderately demanding games at max setting.
They can run demanding games at medium setting.
3. Mid-range GPUs
NVIDIA GT 525M
ATI mobility radeon 5650, 6550
NVIDIA GT 435M ~ ATI mobility radeon 6630
ATI mobility radeon 5730, 6570
NVIDIA GT 540M
These GPUs can run older and moderately demanding games at maxed out setting.
They can run demanding games at mid-high setting smoothly and at high end(not ultra) settings with a bit of lag.(considering resolution to be 1366 x 768).
4.Mid-high end GPUs
NVIDIA GT 550M
ATI mobility radeon 6750
These GPUs can run older and moderately demanding games at maxed out setting.
They can run demanding games slightly better than mid-range GPUs at high settings, but still not very smoothly.(considering resolution to be 1366 x 768).
5. High-end GPUs
NVIDIA GT 445M
ATI mobility radeon 6770
NVIDIA GT 555M
Thes GPUs can run older and moderately demanding at maxed out settings.
Demanding games run at high settings smoothly but not at ultra(maxed out) setting. (considering resolution to be 1366 x 768).
6. Enthusiast GPUs
ATI mobility radeon 5870
NVIDIA GTX 460M
ATI mobility radeon 6970
NVIDIA GTX 580M
They can run all games at maxed out settings, with a few exceptions such as Metro 2033 at ultra settings.
(~ = very similar performance, Two GPUs separated by comma indicates that one of them is simply a renamed version of the other)
As you can observe, the second digit in the model number can give you a rough idea of how capable a GPU is. Like Model no. x4xx of ATI is an entry level GPU, x6x of NVIDIA is an enthusiast GPU etc...
Now one last important thing about GPUs.
It is advisable to go through this list to locate and judge the GPU in the laptop, but in case you find that the model no. of the GPU in a laptop is not mentioned in the ad or in the shop, make sure that you ask or find out the model no. of the GPU before making the purchase.
In many (actually most) cases, it just says '1 GB graphics'
or '1 GB premium graphics' or '1 GB ATI/NVIDIA graphic card'.
Do not fall for this trick. If the shop advertises it as 1 GB graphics, it may even be an intergrated graphics or the weakest dedicated one. Make sure you find out the model no. and look up the chart before buying. Finally, if you have the above chart before you and the model no. of the GPU, do not need to find out or bother if the GPU has 1 GB or 2 GB or even 3 GB of video memory, or if the memory is GDDR3 or GDDR5. Just forget these confusing factors and make your decision based on the chart above.
Note: Sony underclocks GPUs in some of its laptops for stability purposes.
2) CPU (processor)
CPU is second to GPU in importance in gaming laptops.
Any i3, i5 or i7 CPU (whethere first or second-generation), will be strong enough not to be a bottleneck for laptop GPUs. Apart from a few lower-end, now phased out CPUs such as i3-330M, i3-350M (These may knock off a few FPS), your game will not be affected much by which CPU you have.
3) RAM
Even low-mid end laptops come with 3 GB RAM or more nowadays.
Most games can run well even with 2 GB RAM, and more than 4 GB RAM is not necessary. So, RAM is not an issue since the 3 or 4 GB of RAM the laptop can easily handle all games. The upgrade from 3 to 4 GB might give a very slight performance boost while upgrade from 4 GB to even 8 GB will hardly boost gaming performance.
4) Screen
If you want your laptop to act as a desktop replacement, a screen size of 17″ or higher is ideal, but if you are going to carry your laptop around often, a 15-16″ inch laptop generally is easier to carry and generally weighs lesser. Even 14" laptops come with decent GPUs nowadays.
The standard native resolution for a regular sized laptop is
1366 x 768. But, screen quality is not the same in all laptops.
For example, the Dell XPS 15 has a better quality screen than a Lenovo Ideapad Y560, though the dimensions and resolutions of the two screens are the same. This factor is not something you will realise by looking at the spec-sheet of the laptop, but by practically looking at the product or asking for opinions in the forum or go through reviews.
5) Battery
If you are playing high-end games on a laptop, you cannot expect a very good battery life. An hour and a half to a couple of hours of gaming is the usual battery life expected from a 6-cell battery. You can upgrade to a 9-cell battery if you want to game for more time on battery(without having to carry the AC adapter around). But, this may increase the weight of the laptop as much as charger itself, so keep this in mind. But it will be more useful if it is simply not possible to connect to a power source at that time.
6) Keyboard, Touchpad, Speakers
Keyboard, touchpad and speaker quality vary from one manufacturer to another, and their quality depends more on the manufacturer and laptop series. Some manufacturers provide numpad in keyboard, while some do not. Speaker quality is good in some models like Dell XPS, while it is not that good in some others. The best way to judge how good these components are in a particular laptop is either to go through reviews, asking in forums or having a hands-on experience with the laptop.
7) Some other minor factors
Factors such as weight, build quality do not affect gaming experience, but affect the portability, look and feel of the laptop. An Acer 5742G with a sandy-bridge i5 and a 540M may give identical performance to a Dell XPS 15 with same specs, but costs around 37k, while the Dell costs around 53k. This is because of better build quality, screen quality, touchpad quality, speaker quality etc...
While none of these may affect performance, it may improve user experience while using the laptop. Brand value, while having no effect on performance or looks, does effect how a user feels while showing off/carrying the laptop among friends.
General brand value(out of 5)(Higher value = More envious friends
)
Note: This is only my personal opinion, and your opinion may differ regarding this.
1. HCL
2. Toshiba, Acer
3. HP, Dell, MSI
4. Asus, Sony
5. Apple, Alienware
(May differ from person to person)
If you plan to connect your laptop to a HDTV for gaming at full HD resolution (1920x1080) , the performance will not be as good. You may have to pick a lower setting, especially for demanding games.
Read all the above points and choose wisely.
This is like a self-study material for buyers and other users, and if you feel you need more details for comparison or other specific questions, post in the laptop buying section.
Constructive suggestions will be appreciated.
Thank you .
Don't be fooled by the title. This is not an article which gives info only on high end gaming laptops. It is an article meant to guide users, right from the ones aiming for entry-level/casual gaming on their laptops all the way upto heavy gamers, all levels of gaming included.
It is meant to create awareness about the various specifications and factors you should consider while buying a laptop if you are going to play games on the laptop, the importance of each, and how not to get fooled by cunning salesmen.
In the end, i will also cover some finer details like what to look for apart from the spec-sheet. I will include the latest components (like processors, GPUs etc...) in the comparison, and also components which are one generation old, since they are still present in some laptops on sale(like first generation Core 'i' processors, previous generation GPUs).
Firstly, it is important to understand that a laptop will not perform to the same level as a similar budget desktop PC in games. And, it is nearly impossible to change the processor or GPU(which are the 2 most important components in gaming), once you have purchased a laptop. So before buying, make sure that you want a laptop, and not a desktop, because you cannot afford to change your decision once the purchase is done. Also make sure that you do a good amount of research before making the purchase (reading this article will be a step towards this), and purchase a laptop perfectly suited to your needs and providing the best in your budget.
Finally, also note that a particular laptop GPU does not perform anywhere near as well as a desktop GPU having the same model no.
So let us start looking at what you should look for in a gaming laptop, what affects gaming performance and what does not.
1) GPU (graphics)
The graphics processing unit (GPU) is the most important component when you are playing games on your laptop.
This is generally referred to as 'Graphics card' or 'Video card'. (The general term GPU or just 'graphics' for short, is more appropriate as it can be used to dedicated as well as integrated type)
Generally, it is very hard to find a laptop with a good GPU but a poor CPU or lesser RAM. If the GPU is good, in most cases, the CPU and RAM are automatically good too.
There are two main types of graphics:
1.Dedicated
2.Integrated
Dedicated GPUs are made by NVIDIA and ATI(now AMD). They have their own dedicated graphics memory.
Integrated graphics are made primarily by Intel and ATI(AMD), and they do not have memory dedicated to the GPU. Instead, they use some of the laptop's RAM as 'shared memory'.
Dedicated GPUs are in general, much more powerful than integrated GPUs. They are obviously more expensive too, and hence are not used in very cheap laptops.
The equation between GPU and gaming performance is pretty simple. Better GPU = Better gaming performance. There is no exception to this rule, unless the GPU's clock speed has been altered (Underclocked or overclocked).
While playing games in laptops, the GPU is generally the 'bottleneck' (the component which prevents the full utilisation of other components due to its own weakness), except at extremely low settings (if the GPU is strong and CPU is weak), but this case can be safely ignored. Forget i even mentioned it.
(I mentioned it just because techies should not say i havent mentioned this case
).Consider two cases:
1. Intel Core i3-370m + 3 GB RAM + mid-high end GPU
2. Intel Core i7-920m + 8 GB RAM + mid-low end GPU.
Game running at max possible settings.
Which laptop will have better gaming performance?
The answer is simple: 1.
This shows how important the GPU is to gaming.
Now let us make a list of GPUs in India for comparison, which will be useful for practical purposes to buyers:
GPUs in each section are listed in increasing order of performance.
1. Entry-level/low end GPUs
Intel Graphics media accelerator(GMA)(all versions)
ATI radeon HD 4200 ~ 4250
ATI radeon HD 6310
Intel HD Graphics(first gen Core 'i' series)
Intel HD 2000
Intel HD 3000
ATI mobility radeon 5470, 6370
(All except last are integrated)
These GPUs can run older, less demanding games such as NFS most wanted, CS 1.6 easily at max setting.
They can run moderately demanding games such as FIFA 11, Left 4 Dead etc... at medium setting.
The first few cannot run demanding games such as Crysis, Metro 2033 while the later few can just run at low setting.
2. Low-Mid range GPUs
ATI mobility radeon 6470
ATI mobility radeon 6490
NVIDIA GT 520M
ATI HD 550v
NVIDIA GT 420M
These GPUs can run older and moderately demanding games at max setting.
They can run demanding games at medium setting.
3. Mid-range GPUs
NVIDIA GT 525M
ATI mobility radeon 5650, 6550
NVIDIA GT 435M ~ ATI mobility radeon 6630
ATI mobility radeon 5730, 6570
NVIDIA GT 540M
These GPUs can run older and moderately demanding games at maxed out setting.
They can run demanding games at mid-high setting smoothly and at high end(not ultra) settings with a bit of lag.(considering resolution to be 1366 x 768).
4.Mid-high end GPUs
NVIDIA GT 550M
ATI mobility radeon 6750
These GPUs can run older and moderately demanding games at maxed out setting.
They can run demanding games slightly better than mid-range GPUs at high settings, but still not very smoothly.(considering resolution to be 1366 x 768).
5. High-end GPUs
NVIDIA GT 445M
ATI mobility radeon 6770
NVIDIA GT 555M
Thes GPUs can run older and moderately demanding at maxed out settings.
Demanding games run at high settings smoothly but not at ultra(maxed out) setting. (considering resolution to be 1366 x 768).
6. Enthusiast GPUs
ATI mobility radeon 5870
NVIDIA GTX 460M
ATI mobility radeon 6970
NVIDIA GTX 580M
They can run all games at maxed out settings, with a few exceptions such as Metro 2033 at ultra settings.
(~ = very similar performance, Two GPUs separated by comma indicates that one of them is simply a renamed version of the other)
As you can observe, the second digit in the model number can give you a rough idea of how capable a GPU is. Like Model no. x4xx of ATI is an entry level GPU, x6x of NVIDIA is an enthusiast GPU etc...
Now one last important thing about GPUs.
It is advisable to go through this list to locate and judge the GPU in the laptop, but in case you find that the model no. of the GPU in a laptop is not mentioned in the ad or in the shop, make sure that you ask or find out the model no. of the GPU before making the purchase.
In many (actually most) cases, it just says '1 GB graphics'
or '1 GB premium graphics' or '1 GB ATI/NVIDIA graphic card'.
Do not fall for this trick. If the shop advertises it as 1 GB graphics, it may even be an intergrated graphics or the weakest dedicated one. Make sure you find out the model no. and look up the chart before buying. Finally, if you have the above chart before you and the model no. of the GPU, do not need to find out or bother if the GPU has 1 GB or 2 GB or even 3 GB of video memory, or if the memory is GDDR3 or GDDR5. Just forget these confusing factors and make your decision based on the chart above.
Note: Sony underclocks GPUs in some of its laptops for stability purposes.
2) CPU (processor)
CPU is second to GPU in importance in gaming laptops.
Any i3, i5 or i7 CPU (whethere first or second-generation), will be strong enough not to be a bottleneck for laptop GPUs. Apart from a few lower-end, now phased out CPUs such as i3-330M, i3-350M (These may knock off a few FPS), your game will not be affected much by which CPU you have.
3) RAM
Even low-mid end laptops come with 3 GB RAM or more nowadays.
Most games can run well even with 2 GB RAM, and more than 4 GB RAM is not necessary. So, RAM is not an issue since the 3 or 4 GB of RAM the laptop can easily handle all games. The upgrade from 3 to 4 GB might give a very slight performance boost while upgrade from 4 GB to even 8 GB will hardly boost gaming performance.
4) Screen
If you want your laptop to act as a desktop replacement, a screen size of 17″ or higher is ideal, but if you are going to carry your laptop around often, a 15-16″ inch laptop generally is easier to carry and generally weighs lesser. Even 14" laptops come with decent GPUs nowadays.
The standard native resolution for a regular sized laptop is
1366 x 768. But, screen quality is not the same in all laptops.
For example, the Dell XPS 15 has a better quality screen than a Lenovo Ideapad Y560, though the dimensions and resolutions of the two screens are the same. This factor is not something you will realise by looking at the spec-sheet of the laptop, but by practically looking at the product or asking for opinions in the forum or go through reviews.
5) Battery
If you are playing high-end games on a laptop, you cannot expect a very good battery life. An hour and a half to a couple of hours of gaming is the usual battery life expected from a 6-cell battery. You can upgrade to a 9-cell battery if you want to game for more time on battery(without having to carry the AC adapter around). But, this may increase the weight of the laptop as much as charger itself, so keep this in mind. But it will be more useful if it is simply not possible to connect to a power source at that time.
6) Keyboard, Touchpad, Speakers
Keyboard, touchpad and speaker quality vary from one manufacturer to another, and their quality depends more on the manufacturer and laptop series. Some manufacturers provide numpad in keyboard, while some do not. Speaker quality is good in some models like Dell XPS, while it is not that good in some others. The best way to judge how good these components are in a particular laptop is either to go through reviews, asking in forums or having a hands-on experience with the laptop.
7) Some other minor factors
Factors such as weight, build quality do not affect gaming experience, but affect the portability, look and feel of the laptop. An Acer 5742G with a sandy-bridge i5 and a 540M may give identical performance to a Dell XPS 15 with same specs, but costs around 37k, while the Dell costs around 53k. This is because of better build quality, screen quality, touchpad quality, speaker quality etc...
While none of these may affect performance, it may improve user experience while using the laptop. Brand value, while having no effect on performance or looks, does effect how a user feels while showing off/carrying the laptop among friends.
General brand value(out of 5)(Higher value = More envious friends
)Note: This is only my personal opinion, and your opinion may differ regarding this.
1. HCL
2. Toshiba, Acer
3. HP, Dell, MSI
4. Asus, Sony
5. Apple, Alienware
(May differ from person to person)
If you plan to connect your laptop to a HDTV for gaming at full HD resolution (1920x1080) , the performance will not be as good. You may have to pick a lower setting, especially for demanding games.
Read all the above points and choose wisely.
This is like a self-study material for buyers and other users, and if you feel you need more details for comparison or other specific questions, post in the laptop buying section.
Constructive suggestions will be appreciated.
Thank you
.
