gaming laptops?

[TheComedown]

are they worth their price?

No, not even close, you pay twice the price for half the power of a desktop, not to mention it only takes a few months before your stuck running games on the lower settings, laptops do not age well not at all. Desktops on the other hand...

Yeah if you want a Computer for gaming, stay way away from laptops.

 

[Fenring]

I've got a Lenovo Y560, and yeah. Kinda. It's a desktop replacement, and if you go places where you can plug it in, you're good. But you can't upgrade, and they have terrible battery life.

Trade offs bro

Mine is stuck in the office, unless you have a place with a plug is as portable as a gaming desktop.

Not very portable as you can see.

Yep. I have an under two hour battery life, but as a machine I can take to LAN parties and just plug in, or take around the house withe me, it works great.

 

[Steppin Razor]

They're generally expensive as all hell compared to a desktop to get one that is pretty good for gaming with, but it all comes down to what you need it for. I needed a machine that was easily portable and gave decent performance, and that's what I got. The price was a little steep, but it does what I want it to and for the next couple years I'll be able to get away with medium graphics settings for the heavily graphics intensive games.

 

[Treblaine]

I'm such a cheapskate, I'd rather invest in a high-power low-cost desktop PC and try to get away with as little as I can on portable gaming/computing.

Key thing on gaming laptop is to just get ANY dedicated graphics card from ATi or Nvidia. Intel chips are just so weird and have such poor driver and patch support.

PC gaming these days needs so little power to match Xbox 360 performance, with as low as an ATi 4350 GPU and decent dual-core CPU you can match or exceed the performance of Modern Warfare 2 on Xbox 360.

 

[Custard_Angel]

Mine was very, very worth it because I needed a powerful laptop to run huge ROCS models for my honors project. On my previous laptop I came really close to using all available RAM in the middle of the run.

It also plays games.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

They generally are NOT worth their price. Laptops are often difficult if not outright impossible to upgrade in any significant way (that is, in a way that improves gaming performance) making it highly likely you would need to later replace the system when an upgrade would do the trick for a fraction of the price. Worse still you find that any particular laptop configuration has a desktop equivalent for 70% (or less) of the cost.

The short take away is simple enough: unless you really need the portability of a laptop, get a desktop instead. You'll get more performance for less money now and in the future.

 

[smithy_2045]

are they worth their price? I'm trying to work out if I'd ever feel the need to game when traveling (honestly,) any travel/gamers out there have any insights?

Gaming laptops are either not powerful enough to actually game, or aren't portable enough to really be considered laptops.

 

[kouriichi]

EWWWWW no!!
I hate laptops for gaming.
Theyer like overpriced, poorly made desktops.
They heat up to quickly, use way to much energy, arnt all that portible, cost way to much,
and tend to be pointless, because half the places you want to use them, they suck at.

Sure, theres free Wi-Fi at starbucks, but theyer internet access is so cheap you can barly connect to it!

I would never buy a laptop for gaming. Ever. Never ever ever. EVER.

N-E-V-E-R. Ever.

Youd be better off carrying your desktop around in a back pack with a moniter strapped to it. ((Thats my design damit! none of you better steal it!!)) It cheaper, and much cooler when you can just plop it onto the table and look like your hacking the air.

 

[acosn]

are they worth their price? I'm trying to work out if I'd ever feel the need to game when traveling (honestly,) any travel/gamers out there have any insights?

Generally, no. If you're willing to dig enough you'll find a decent laptop that happens to come with a graphics card that's of a non-suck variety, but something will always give. My laptop has a good graphics card, but since I'm running it on vista with a weak-ish processor it's bottle necked anyways, but I did only spend 800 bucks on it, which was less than my last computer. It really just comes down to brands- generally the ones you've heard of (Dell, Alienware, gateway, apple, ect) either overcharge you for what you get, or flat off rip you off. The ones you haven't heard of (Asus) tend to be the same, or better values, for much less. I've owned my Asus laptop for 2 years now and I haven't had so much as a single problem with it, which puts it scores ahead of my last (both in the sense that it was the last dell I'll ever buy, and its the last desk top computer I've bought, though I intend to build one once I'm done with college) computer which literally fried it's graphics card within 6 months of purchase.


Conventional wisdom holds that you simply don't use laptops for gaming. It's already kind of accepted that you can theoretically run full blown PCs at temperatures that'll cook your dinner while you game, but shrinking that down to a smaller package just isn't a smart idea. At the end of the day, a computer of any flavor is still just a machine. Like your dad's car, paper shredders, and just about any other machine heat is the largest source of problems. It's why you can literally buy oil cooled computers now.

Normally I'd just say buy a proper computer. Since you insist on having it for travel I'd take an honest look at what you intend to play. If it takes more than one hand to count the number of years its been since the game came out you can probably run it on just about any decent mid-range laptop that even still has an integrated card. If you're looking at more demanding applications like Supcom on non-lowest settings or, say, Crysis, you'll have to get something expensive.

 

[barash]

Wow, so many folks in this thread that are so utterly confused (or are just lying their arse off outright, lol).

Laptops are viable for gaming, and if portability is a requirement then they are a good alternative.

Now quit QQ'ing and have a twinkie

 

[tharglet]

When I game on the go, I usually just dig out an old game.
If you plan on playing older stuff, or more basic types of games then you can negate your need for a gaming machine, and just get a decent enough laptop with a graphics chipset that doesn't suck.

Unless you're travelling a lot, or game in a lot of different locations, it probably isn't worth it. There's plenty of older stuff for me to kill the odd "doing nothing" time I get on holiday.

Most gaming machines are like portable desktops, like others have said - so if you end up in places where you can't get a socket, you're at square one anyway.

 

[Fluse]

Finding a laptop that can run any game at high quality isnt realy a problem these days, and they are not THAT much more expensive... Try and look up a MSI GX660, 2,9ghz core i5, 4gb DDR3 and a Mobility Radeon HD 5870 for arround 1300$.

Two things to remember however, 1) all the specs, while haveing the same names as Desktop hardware are NOT the same! Mobility 5870 cant keep up with its desktop equivilant if its life depended on it. And 2) this thing is portable in the sence that you can haul it between power outlets, so if you have a fantasy of gaming on the bus, train, roadside caffe ect. you can forget it, ive yet to see any capaple gaming laptop last more then 30 mins on battery once the GFX powers up.

 

[Tanis]

Sounds like an oxymoron to me.

Gaming on a laptop is all about making sure you're willing to play games 3 to 5 years old, or older, unless you want to sink in loads of money.

It's smarter to sink that money on a really good desktop, more bang for your back as it were.

 

[HastingsDirect]

Id say they are not worth their price but can still be usefull and fun, Although my Dell XPS studio 16 isnt really a gaming laptop it can still run a fair few games on max details.
Well it used to be able to, it could run left for dead 2 fine with all the settings on max when the laptop was new however now i have to run it with medium/low details after a year or so.
I also use the laptop as a desktop replacement so when i get home i just hook it up to my 22" screen and stick in the mouse and keyboard and it works a treat. It will still run counterstrike perfectly with max settings so that keeps me happy on the go.

 

[inpachi]

In my opinion NO!

Desktops are better simply because you can build one yourself! And they are much cheaper and can do MUCH more!

You cant build a Laptop from parts.. Unless you have the proper tools but those tools are EXTREMELY expensive in there own.. You need to sodder a lot of things.. and bunch of other stuff that i will never be able to do without years of school...

However if you are extremely rich or something and you travel nearly all the time... Then a laptop would be a better choice for you i suppose.

Also Desktops are NOT as bulky as they used to be! Almost all the screens are flat now more portable... The parts for computers have gotten smaller. The cases have gotten lighter. The shapes have gotten more friendly to pack in boxes and stuff.

A desktop computer can go just about anywhere just like a Laptop can.

Also i find Laptops to crap out on you WAY more than desktops do...

They have poor cooling unless you shell out for some super beefy fans... There just not worth it!

 

[Soviet Steve]

I have a hard time imagineing how you'd game comfortably in public, like on a train or at college etc.

Just get a functional laptop with some old games like GTA 2 or puzzle games or breakout. Simple things where the touchpad isn't much of a hinderance, and sink most of your cash into something for home.

 

[Silkyn]

the games I intend to play are games like Ac2, Mass effect2, and just cause2.

I'm just wondering what peoples thoughts are for a two month trip in europe? would you want to game to relax at the end of the day? or give it a break?


thanks

 

[Turbo_Destructor]

I would say they are not, you'd be much better off getting a really good custom-built gaming desktop for hardcore gaming - there's a much greater potential for a much more reasonable price. I know it's not portable, but if you had such a good laptop, would you want to be moving it around heaps?