Advice for gaming laptop that can play BF3

[Englander]

My buddy is going to live in France for a year and not taking a PC. However, a lack of BF3 would make him go crazy so he's after a laptop that he can do his work on and also up to the task of playing BF3 (and maybe one or two other similar games). His budget is £600. So essentially, what sort of kit can you get at around that price point? In terms of screen size, he's probably looking around the 15.6" mark, I'm not sure if going up to, say, 17" will be stretching the budget.

I've been out the game on laptops, especially ones capable of gaming, for quite some time so I thought I'd pose the question to other Hexites to see what their opinion is

[Megabiv]

To be honest I can't see a £600 laptop playing Bf3 very well but if that's the budget I'm sure there will be something. A quick search found this and while it has a low resolution screen it will at least have a better chance at running games on it due to less stress on the gpu, but i'd wait for someone who has gamed on a laptop for some better advice.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Can he get closer to £700,or is around £600 the maximum budget??

I have found some laptops for around £500 to £600 too.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

For under £500 this laptop has an HD7690M:

http://www.ebuyer.com/357110-hp-pavi...op-a8k05ea-abu

I am not sure if the HD6520G and HD7690M can run in Crossfire though.

This laptop costs around £500 and has a more powerful CPU but an HD7670M:

http://www.ebuyer.com/366635-toshiba...skdme-004003en

This has an HD7670M which can run in Crossfire with the HD7660G IGP:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-NP35...6616359&sr=1-9

This has a GT640M:

http://www.ebuyer.com/393860-acer-as...k-nx-rykek-008

The laptop is known to run hot though AFAIK and has 4GB of system RAM.

Basically,GT640M>HD7690M>HD7670M.

However,the HD7670M+HD7660G Crossfire combination might be faster than a GT640M,although I am not sure.

[GoNz0]

To be honest I can't see a £600 laptop playing Bf3 very well but if that's the budget I'm sure there will be something. A quick search found this and while it has a low resolution screen it will at least have a better chance at running games on it due to less stress on the gpu, but i'd wait for someone who has gamed on a laptop for some better advice.

my 2 year old medion akoya 6624 with a geforce GT425M plays BF3 and cost £500 back then.

this would play it on high settings http://www.medion.com/gb/electronics...mpaign=Rondell

[Megabiv]

Well after some digging it seems that laptop gpu's have come quite away since I last took note. Here is a video showing it running on a laptop with an Nvidia GT630M gpu and its not bad.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would be aiming for the best graphics card you can get,after looking at the benchmarks for desktop graphics card with BF3. The GPU is the one thing you cannot upgrade in most laptops - unless the CPU is soldered on,it can be upgraded.

The HD7690M is quicker than the GT630M,so I would be looking at that as a minimum for BF3 looking at the benchmarks. Both the GT630M and HD7670M can barely break around 25FPS at medium settings,looking at the aggregated scores on notebookcheck which tests many laptops. They seem to use one of the more intensive parts of the game.

The GT640M produces around 35FPS on medium it seems and this is the average of many notebooks. The Crossfire setups might be quicker but there are not many benchmarks for them in BF3,although in some games the HD7670M and HD7660G is meant to be around the level of the GT650M.

[Golden Dragoon]

For under £500 this laptop has an HD7690M:

http://www.ebuyer.com/357110-hp-pavi...op-a8k05ea-abu

Avoid the DV6 series, they are made incredibly cheaply, have seen 5 of them that have broken, 4 of them the plastics around the hinge have cracked badly after a year of use as HP didn't think to even use a couple of cm of metal to reinforce them, the other had a gpu fail due to poor solder joints.

[Englander]

Thanks for the advice and guidance - this is just what I was looking for. Budget-wise, it could sneak above £600 if there is a particularly good deal.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Avoid the DV6 series, they are made incredibly cheaply, have seen 5 of them that have broken, 4 of them the plastics around the hinge have cracked badly after a year of use as HP didn't think to even use a couple of cm of metal to reinforce them, the other had a gpu fail due to poor solder joints.

The hot running Acer might also not be so good too,unless you have a permanently attached underside cooler I suspect!!

To the OP the £679 Dell with the GT650M looks good:

http://www.dmxdimension.com/dell-uk/...codes-coupons/

However,the normal caveats with Dell suffice.

[scaryjim]

If he can make it up to £650 how about this gaming Medion: i7-2670QM and GT555M with Optimus (switches off the discrete graphics when it's not in use to save battery), and it's a full 1080p screen too. Only 4GB of RAM, but that shouldn't really cause any performance issues with a discrete GPU.

Or £670 will get a 17" 1600x900 laptop with i7-3610QM/6GB and GT640M.

Actually, Medion have loads of decent laptops around that price - just found a 15" one with IvyBridge i5 cpu and GT650M GPU for < £600. Trade off is 4GB RAM and 500GB mechanical HDD, but that's still pretty damn good for the price...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

That dual core Core i5 and the GT650M looks a good choice,as long as build is good. The Acer M3 runs really hot for example,which is not so great in the long term. With a discrete card you will need decent cooling.

Having,said that some of the Medion laptops use MSI as an OEM,meaning they might actually have reasonable build quality and cooling.

[scaryjim]

My buddy is going to live in France for a year and not taking a PC.

Why don't buy a desktop instead?

[stothy]

Buy the PC there?

[scaryjim]

You'd seriously buy a PC in France for one year? Wish I has your wallet

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

How about a SFF PC like a Shuttle and a small LCD screen??

Not that hard to move around too.