New to PC Gaming- Decent Graphics Card/Gaming Laptop?

[OrpheusTelos]

Howdy, Escapists!

So I've been looking to replace the laptop I've had for the past couple of years, and while I was at it I figured I should try to get one that can do a decent job of playing games. I mostly play games on console, but with Dragon Age: Inquisition and The Witcher 3 coming out and looking rather stupendous, I was looking to catch up on the entries I missed, which would mean playing through the first two Witcher games, which as I understand it is no easy feat from a technical perspective. I was wondering what you guys would recommend as a relatively cheap solution that would leave the games running smoothly (I don't necessarily need maximum settings but it would be nice to have them run well).

Other PC RPGs I'm looking to check out are the Dragon Age games (though I might pick them up on console...), and the Enhanced Editions of the Baldur's Gate games.

Thanks in advance! I'm new to this whole thing so I appreciate any of those with more PC gaming experience who would be willing to offer advice.

PS: Forgot to mention! The reason I'm looking to purchase a laptop over a desktop is because I'm a college student and would prefer portability for the sake of travel.

 

[sneakypenguin]

For desktop an r9 270x or a gtx 760 would be good solid upper mid cards for 200-250ish (probably max anything right now at 1080 res) That said for laptop I have no idea, the mobile cards even with the same "gtx760m) designation is nowhere near as powerful as the desktop variants.

Honestly your probably best off going with a solid 800dollar pc and a 300 dollar cheap laptop rather than spending 1500 bucks for something thats gonna melt your lap be a pita to fix any issues and still not hit the performance of the 800 dollar machine.

 

[Ubiquitous Duck]

If you are looking to invest on a machine for a few years, I really would suggest looking at a powerful desktop over a laptop.

I got a laptop instead of a PC for the same reasoning you are saying and I really regretted it in the end. I spent a lot of money on that machine and it was really nothing but trouble and wasn't particularly good, considering the cost. It was fair enough at doing what I want, but it does marginalise your choices and there are massive compromises in forcing everything into the smaller space a laptop demands.

Also I had major heating issues which necessitated cooling stands and the like. In the end, it barely even seemed any more portable, after I had disconnected all the rubbish it was plugged into on my main desk at university.

And after university, I was left with this half-dead laptop that would've better served me if it were a desktop and inevitably had to be fully replaced, no part-replacements going on here - especially disappointing lifespan of 3 years, considering the cost as well.

It survived university and did the minimum needed, but what fun is that?

 

[clippen05]

Ehh, I personally don't understand the whole laptop necessity for college. I feel that they are more than a distraction than anything in lectures. I personally built a mini-ITX rig for university, so far have had no problems. Although that might just be because I prefer to do work in my room rather than at the library. If you must get a laptop, I'd recommend you do what others have said and get a cheap laptop for word processing and other schoolwork and then a more capable PC for gaming. GTX750Ti or GTX760 is more than enough these days on the graphics card front.

 

[octafish]

As others have said it is better to have two machines.

Any desktop Nvidia GTX *60 card is enough for 1080p maybe even the latest GTX *50 models, not sure about current ATI/AMD model numbers but around the same price as the Nvidia should give you a bit more performance.

If you must get laptop look only at GTX Nvidia cards, not GT cards, again not sure which ones are the crap Radeon cards, but it takes a lot of research. Don't think you are going to be carrying around a 17" notebook to classes, you are going to leave that beast at home. Plus you will probably get about an hours use out of the battery.

I used to have a netbook, but I couldn't do any real image processing on such a weak machine and the screen was pretty bad (and tiny, but tiny was good for portability). That said it cost about $200 four years ago.

I currently have a Clevo 13" W230ST laptop, because it is a beefy machine with a great 1080p IPS screen that (depending how you spec it) can cost about the same as a 13" MBP with the power of a 15" MBP. It can be used for light gaming, (BF4 runs at 720p, Guild Wars runs Ok and it has no problems with indie games) but it needs a cooling pad when being pushed and it chews through battery power when running Lightroom image conversions and games. Still it was cheaper than having my studio air conditioned, so now on hot days I can do my editing in my nice cool kitchen.