Help buying a Laptop?

[matthew22]

Hi im from the uk, im looking to buy a new Laptop. My price range is around £400 but maybe up to £500. I want to be able to run games like Total war: Shogun 2 and other Total war games (Napoleon/Empire) preferably at high-ish settings. I would also like a Laptop that that is capable of basic functions also such as internet, email and word processing. I need it to be a Laptop as i travel alot.

I have been looking on this website at Laptops: http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/laptops/703_7006_70006_xx_xx/xx-criteria.html

I was just wondering if anyone could take a look at this website and with my price range in mind and recommend a laptop to me? This would be a great help to me as im really trying to make the most of my money.

I have been looking at getting this laptop: http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/hp-pavilion-g6-2213sa-15-6-laptop-red-18093449-pdt.html

But if there is a better one for my price range please let me know.

Thanks

 

[stickmansam]

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/hp-pavilion-g6-2230sa-15-6-laptop-ruby-red-17419991-pdt.html

Slightly cheaper but you lose out 250GB of storage

 

[Brett928S2]

Hi

I am Uk as well....

You NEED to add around a grand to that budget to play even reasonable games on a laptop, or preferably BUILD a gaming PC...

All the best Brett

 

[matthew22]

Hi thanks for your responses, yeah unfortunatly i dont have those sorts of funds to spend on a Laptop 🙁!!!

I only really play empire and napoleon total war, i play them on my current laptop at medium-ish settings the specs are: AMD E2-300M APU Dual core (1.8), AMD RadeonHD 6380G intergrated GPU, 4GB RAM.

The specs of the Laptop im looking at are Quad-Core AMD A8-4500M processor (1.9 GHz, 2.8 GHz with Turboboost, 4 MB L2 cache), AMD Radeon HD 7640G Discrete-Class
up to 4.98 GB of dedicated RAM, 8GB RAM

Will these specs improve the quality of my gaming? im not looking for ultra settings as i know i cant afford it but will it make a decent impact?

Thanks.

 

[urkain]

Since budget is an issue I would take a look at how much RAM you are using while currently playing. If it is over 75-80% consider just bumping the ram on your current machine to 8gb. On my current laptop before I upgraded the RAM I was running 92% so I upgraded to 8bg and maw quite a big improvement. Also ram is pretty cheap.

 

[bryonhowley]

The Total War series are fairly demanding on the CPU and GPU and as Brett said to play them on highish settings you are going to have to add some money inorder to get a laptop that will do what you want. Gaming laptops are not cheap sadly that is just the way it is.

 

[matthew22]

Not even worth the change in Laptop i mentioned above then or?

 

[stickmansam]

Well I play Napoleon Total War on my laptop with a AMD Phenom II N930 (roughly comparable to the A8) and 5650m (stronger than the 7640G) and I get 45fps avgish on 768p, the high preset but no AA and ultra unit size.

 

[matthew22]

Any idea what fps id get with the 7640g?

 

[stickmansam]

I would say about the same or a big lower since our cpu's are matched but you're only a bit weak graphics wise so about the same or slightly lower depending on the game.
You'll probably gain some fps by going medium

Dunno about shogun though, looking at the 7660g perf which has a stronger cpu and gpu, you are likely only gonna be able to hit low/med in that game

Your card
http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-7640G.69836.0.html

my card
http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-5650.23697.0.html

7660g
http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-7660G.69830.0.html