15.6" or 17.3" Laptop with a discrete GPU, under $500

[notneps]

Anyone know of any? Something that can play older games at decent framerates.

 

[DonkeyOatie]

What sort of games, and how old?

I can play Oblivion on my 7 year old laptop with a built-in GPU (cost $1200 when new though)

An overstock or refurbished unit would seem to be the best bet.

 

[sadams04]

Nope. At / under $500 typically will be built-in graphics. With a discrete card you are still looking more in the range of $650. And even then you will typically find the GTX 720 / 730 series of cards. Still not all that great... You could look toward an AMD APU for slightly more GPU performance, but that comes at the cost of slightly less CPU performance. Maybe your best option is to look toward the used market, or find a way to increase your budget. If you can get into a GTX 860m you will be in good shape...

 

[DonkeyOatie]

Acer V3-572G

This is very close and with a GT840M.

A refurb. or open box might hit the spot.

 

[velo3100]

I would also say the acer v3 is a good budget laptop.