Is the i5-4200M laptop CPU good enough for gaming?

[mehul154]

Considering the i5-4200M 2.5GHz dual core processor, paired with Nvidia GTX 760M on a 1600*900 screen.

From notebookcheck: http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-760M.92068.0.html
the 760M is quite a good gpu which can play (most) 2013 games on high so I'm worried the 4200M wont keep up. Will this processor bottleneck it? or cause lag in games?

Purpose for laptop: Mostly web-browsing, netflix, Bioshock infinite, skyrim, age of empires =), and the odd steam sale game. I wont be using laptop for video editing

I could upgrade to the quad core i7-4700MQ 2.4GHz for around £70, but really not keen to as this may cause overheating problems, and would really push my budget (£6-700)

Also, if any of you guys use a 14 inch laptop for gaming/general do you feel that it's too small? I previously used a 15.6" but downsizing to 14" (PC Specialist Skyfire III) so I could afford the gtx 760M!

 

[siddharthmukul007]

the i5-4200 with a 760 is good enough, just don't expect to play all games at ultra.

you will be fine.

 

[leiyong]

I got i5-4200M with NVIDIA 750M.
I can run games in medium-high at 900p, so it shouldn't be a problem for you.

Only downside with I5-4200M is that its dual core which means newest games could run better with quad core equivalent.

 

[siddharthmukul007]

i personally wont pay 70 pounds extra for the i7 with the same gpu.

the 760m will bottleneck the i7 in most games.

of course its your money, choice is yours.

cheers

 

[jaguarskx]

The i5-4200m should be fine. It can Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz if one core is used and probably up to 2.9GHz if both cores are used. However, I actually recommend you disable Turbo Boost when you play games so that the max speed is 2.5GHz since that can cause the laptop to run hot. It seems very common that when playing games the CPU will hit 90c to 95c which is why I recommend disabling Turbo Boost. That should limit the CPU temps to high 80's. Not great, but better than in the 90's.

The GTX 760m is estimated to be as powerful / slightly more powerful than a desktop Radeon HD 5770 / HD 7750 graphics card so you should be able to get decent performance in most games using high settings at 1600x900 resolution. Actual performance is affected by the laptop's motherboard though.

 

[jaguarskx]

Most games still only use 2 cores. Naturally there are exceptions though like Crysis 3 and any games using the CryEngine 3 game engine, and Battlefield 4 (multiplayer only) and potentially any multiplayer games using the FrostBite game engine.