Question Help choosing gaming laptop

[noobcasualgamer]

I currently have a 10yr old Dell XPS15 that is crashing on old games that used to run fine on it. While I can't afford a decently high end gaming laptop right now I am sick of this one and am trying to find a decent replacement that will still hold up for a few yrs as I save for a higher end system.

1. What is your budget?
Around A$1500. Can go up to A$1700 if that little bump in price makes a big difference.

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
15 inch screen. I'm guessing that's what is meant by size.

3. What screen resolution do you want?
Any.

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Both?

5. How much battery life do you need?
6-8hrs surfing the web, watching youtube, and editing word docs would be nice. I am able to run plugged in for games. This category is of least importance as long as I can get a few hrs on battery doing non gaming work.

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
Currently I play Northgard, Unturned, AoE2 & 3, Sins of a Solar Empire. I would expect to be able to play these games on high graphics settings and other newer games (BF2042) on at least medium settings if playing them one day takes my fancy.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
Surfing the web, watching video (youtube, netflix etc), document editing, basic stuff.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
1TB SSD

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
None specific. Ideally sites or shops in Australia.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
~5yrs

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
None

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
None

13. What country do you live in?
Australia

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
Can't think of anything. I'll probably have follow up questions though.

Thanks

 

[Lamoi]

Any particular graphics card you after?

I have a similar, maybe slightly higher budget than yourself.

If your looking for raw gaming performance, I’ve been impressed with MSI from what I’ve seen. However for the complete package I’ve narrowed it down to the Lenovo Legion.



Chk out the hierarchy of GPU’s — gives you a better idea of where they sit in the rankings and which is generally better

https://www.tomshardware.com/uk/reviews/gpu-hierarchy,4388.html



Lenovo are releasing the Legion refresh soon with their new 12th gen 2022 range . Which should push prices down further.
The Legion come with full powered mobile GPU’s, not all laptops do. Which is very important to note. You can get caught out by that.
But a lot more laptops are coming with higher TDP now.

My first choice —

LENOVO Legion 5 15.6" Gaming Laptop AMD Ryzen 7, RTX 3070, 512 GB SSD
£1119

Legion laptops come with a MUX switch too.


However — I was also considering..

MSI GP66 LEOPARD NVIDIA RTX 3080, 32GB, 15.6" FHD 240HZ, INTEL I7-11800H GAMING LAPTOP
£1899

I think we need to be careful when choosing a laptop, as you can get addicted to chasing high-performance. You then start thinking oh maybe I can get a laptop with an RTX 3080?


That’s why vids like this can really help you — save $$$ !

View: https://youtu.be/qjO4OS3VA-k


Compare the performance gains …. There certainly not massive, and you are paying a lot more for 10-12% more fps. It’s not worth it….


This also might be helpful -

View: https://youtu.be/RwIL4EQYpc8