Gaming and Editing Laptop sub $2k

[sactown024]

I posted recently about building a new PC from scratch but decided I need to stick with a laptop. I currently have a Macbook pro that I love but it just falls short on gaming and heavy photoshop.

There are so many laptops out there it's impossible for me to choose. I had a Asus ROG before my mac and I hated it, constantly overheated and shut down. What are some good gaming laptops under the $2k price tag? Honestly I only play world of warcraft but I would like to get into other games and not have any issues running it on max settings on a 27"+ 1440 res monitor.

 

[SteelCity1981]

there are a lot of good gaming laptops for under 2k out there. this one from msi is a really good gaming laptop for under 1900 dollars.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152940

MSI GS Series GS60 Ghost Pro 4K-053 Gaming Laptop

• 6th Generation Intel Core i7 6700HQ (2.60 GHz)
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M 6 GB GDDR5
• 16 GB Memory 1 TB HDD 256 GB SSD
• 15.6" UHD 4K IPS 3840 x 2160
• 15.35" x 10.47" x 0.78" 4.2 lbs


And if you don't want to spend that much you can get a decent gaming laptop for around the 1100 dollar price range which is prob going to be the minimum price point for what is considered to be an actual decent gaming laptop. anything lower in price and you start getting into low end cpu and gpu laptops that are not really suited for anything more then casual gaming..


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152947

MSI GE Series GE62 Apache Pro-004 Gaming Laptop

• 6th Generation Intel Core i7 6700HQ (2.60 GHz)
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M 2 GB GDDR5
• 16 GB Memory 1 TB HDD
• 15.6" FHD eDP Wide View Angle 1920 x 1080
• 15.07" x 10.23" x 1.06" 5.29 lbs.

 

[sactown024]

there are a lot of good gaming laptops for under 2k out there. this one from msi is a really good gaming laptop for under 1900 dollars.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152940

MSI GS Series GS60 Ghost Pro 4K-053 Gaming Laptop

• 6th Generation Intel Core i7 6700HQ (2.60 GHz)
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M 6 GB GDDR5
• 16 GB Memory 1 TB HDD 256 GB SSD
• 15.6" UHD 4K IPS 3840 x 2160
• 15.35" x 10.47" x 0.78" 4.2 lbs


And if you don't want to spend that much you can get a decent gaming laptop for around the 1100 dollar price range which is prob going to be the minimum price point for what is considered to be an actual decent gaming laptop. anything lower in price and you start getting into low end cpu and gpu laptops that are not really suited for anything more then casual gaming..


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152947

MSI GE Series GE62 Apache Pro-004 Gaming Laptop

• 6th Generation Intel Core i7 6700HQ (2.60 GHz)
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M 2 GB GDDR5
• 16 GB Memory 1 TB HDD
• 15.6" FHD eDP Wide View Angle 1920 x 1080
• 15.07" x 10.23" x 1.06" 5.29 lbs.

I keep hearing mixed things about 4k laptops like the text is too small to read. Is this true, is it better to stick with a non 4k setup?

Also -- what does this mean when it comes to external monitors? Can you hook up a 27"+ 4k monitor to it and have it run just as well?

 

[SteelCity1981]

well the 4k laptop monitor is good if you are doing a lot of detail work like graphics editing on the go where sharpness and contrast are the up most importance etc... but for gaming that laptop won't even come close to 4k games on a playable level. so if you aren't doing some serious graphical editing where you need to see a lot of details on the go then I wouldn't even bother spending the extra money on a 4k laptop unless it's a monster of a laptop which basically has highend desktop hardware in it capable of playing games at 4k. but those monster laptops also comes with a monster price that are way above your 2k limit anyhow and you miles well just build a 4k desktop gaming pc for a lot less if you are going that route.

for your second question yes. I mean the 960m on the lower end laptop can scale to 4k, so you can go that route if you don't have an absolute need for a 4k screen on your laptop.

 

[sactown024]

I dont need 4k by any means, just curious. Thanks for clarifying!

 

[SteelCity1981]

then you should be fine with the 1100 dollar MSI GE Series GE62 Apache Pro-004 Gaming Laptop that I mentioned then.

 

[sactown024]

I just came across this beast that is coming out next month. This would be awesome since it has thunderbolt port which means I can use it with 27" thunderbolt display (1440). It also has usb 3.1 which would be great for my photography workflow. Am I missing anything here, for $1800 and a 6th processor this seems like a great setup.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834232766&cm_re=asus_laptop-_-34-232-766-_-Product