Help! Lenovo T450s GT940M Performance / Light Gaming

[nwattanavekin]

Hi guys,

I'm a bit of a rookie here but was wondering if the Lenovo T450s with GT940m which I am planning to buy for business and everyday use will also survive casual gaming at its native resolution of 1080p or only at 1600x900 (or lower?) and if possible at what settings, medium?.

Please correct me if I'm wrong but I understand that VRAM primarily dictates the resolution capabilities of the graphics unit as it is used to render texture details, the T450s oddly enough offers only 1GB for its 940M

I only plan to play light games like WoW (will it handle the upcoming expansion?) and occasionally Counter Strike (yes I'm stuck in the old days 😛)

The specifications are below

Intel Core i7-5600U Processor (4MB Cache, up to 3.20GHz)
NVIDIA GeForce 940M 1GB without Docking Connector
8GB DDR3L-1600 4G Base+4G (1 SoDIMM)
256 GB Solid State Drive, Serial ATA3 OPAL2.0 - Capable

Also an additional question is whether or not the i7 5600U will be a significant performance boost over the baseline

Intel Core i5-5200U Processor (3MB Cache, up to 2.70GHz)

They do charge significantly higher for the i7

Thank you in advance guys would really appreciate help here!

Sincerely

 

[jaguarskx]

The 940m is generally best suited for either 1366x768 or 1600x900 depending on how graphically intensive the games it. For a game like LoL you will have no problems playing at 1080p with maxed out graphics. The same can be said of CSGO and probably Dota 2. However, for a game like the Witcher 3 you are probably looking at 1024x768 for best performance. See link below for some 940m benchmarks; note it is likely for the 2GB version and performance can vary depending on the CPU.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-940M.138027.0.html

Upgrading to the more powerful Core i7-5600u can help game performance, but that depends on if the game is dependent on CPU or not. Games that are not dependent on the CPU will not get any performance increase while games that are can get a small performance improvement.

Just be aware that the ThinkPad T450s with the nVidia 940m is not available to all regions. For example, if you are ordering the T450s from the United States directly from Lenovo's website there is no option to configure it with the nVidia 940m.

 

[nwattanavekin]

The 940m is generally best suited for either 1366x768 or 1600x900 depending on how graphically intensive the games it. For a game like LoL you will have no problems playing at 1080p with maxed out graphics. The same can be said of CSGO and probably Dota 2. However, for a game like the Witcher 3 you are probably looking at 1024x768 for best performance. See link below for some 940m benchmarks; note it is likely for the 2GB version and performance can vary depending on the CPU.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-940M.138027.0.html

Upgrading to the more powerful Core i7-5600u can help game performance, but that depends on if the game is dependent on CPU or not. Games that are not dependent on the CPU will not get any performance increase while games that are can get a small performance improvement.

Just be aware that the ThinkPad T450s with the nVidia 940m is not available to all regions. For example, if you are ordering the T450s from the United States directly from Lenovo's website there is no option to configure it with the nVidia 940m.

Thank you for the quick response jaguar, would it be safe to assume that World of Warcraft will fit in to the same category as CSGO/Dota 2 when it comes to system requirements at say medium settings? I raid a lot in the game and wanted to know if it will be able to handle the game at enjoyable resolution and settings

Are there any sources around which i can compare games on how dependent they are on specific components of a PC or is it impossible to know?

Thanks a bunch!

 

[jaguarskx]

For mobile GPUs NotebookCheck.net is basically the best source. It's more or less the only site that benchmarks mobile GPUs.