Is there going to be a less gaming oriented laptop buyer's guide any time soon? I'd love a "picking an ultrabook on budget" guide. Perhaps a few options in the 700-1100 range with different key features like one a high end display, one with a lot of power, one with a crazy battery life, etc.
I agree. When I was in college, I didn't even have time to sleep. So, my brain just has trouble wrapping itself around the very concept of any student ever needing a "gaming" laptop.
I think people find games to be a great release from the stress, and they make time. I don't know anyone that straight-up didn't have time to game (I knew plenty that spent that time doing other things, though). One possible exception is if you're working a full-time job on top of a bachelor's or something but those are few and far between.
The "Back to School" part is more about timing of the article than it is about who should get these laptops. I'd say for a college student, the Acer V7 would make the most sense though -- small enough to easily carry around, fast enough to handle some gaming.
i just ordered a laptop from powernotebooks. it's a 15" clevo w 780m. all the machines come 1080 screens. the 770m really can't hang at native resolution w ultra+aa settings on aaa games. street proces for the 780 was $250. should keep the laptop relevant 2-3 years.
my two questions about the thing are: will the 180w adapter limit the machine in any way? does faster ram help gaming/compiler/vm/general performamce?
The only thing a larger power brick would help with might be faster battery recharging while gaming. 100W for the GPU, 57W for a 4930 (47W for lesser quad cores), and 5-15W for everything else doesn't leave a whole lot of reserve for charging if you're maxing the entire system out while gaming.
You mean the MSI GX60? No, they're not worth the cost, as we noted in our reviews. CPU bottlenecks with Richland are simply too much to ignore with such a high-end GPU. Half of our gaming suite runs better on the MSI GE40.
Exactly man! There's no glaring deficiency that disqualifies it from inclusion on this list like there is for the Razer Blade 14 or MSI GE40. The screen, build quality, speakers, and keyboard are all good to great. Only the one-piece clickpad is a bit twitchy and buggy but that's not unique to this machine. The Y500 even offers a 650M SLI with an i5 option for under $900. This kind of performance is simply unmatched at this price level. Then of course there are the refreshed Y500 and Y510p SKU's with GT 750M GPU and Haswell i7 respectively.
I bought a first-generation Y500 at the beginning of the year with an i7-3630QM, 8GB DDR3-1600, GT 650M SLI, 1080p screen, 1TB 5400 RPM HDD+16GB SSD, Ultrabay DVD drive accessory, and extra 170W power brick for less than $1000 brand new. Of course I used some rebates to hit such an insanely low price point but this should give you an idea of how terrific of a value this laptop is. I even managed to perform a 42% overclock on the GPU without touching voltage and now this thing flies, outperforming even the GTX 770M at stock! And due to the power and thermal efficiency of the Kepler architecture it stays under 80C under full load at all times even with the massive overclock.
Sorry, I was trying to finish this up (and the "just another hour or so" ended up being more like six). I've included the Y500/Y510p in the midrange section; they wouldn't be my first pick necessarily, but if you're more interested in gaming than things like battery life and portability, they make a compelling case.
Thanks for updating the article Jarred. I think you're spot on with your observation of the relative merits of the Y500/Y510p. Since the subject of this article is gaming laptops it's a very interesting choice for those who may desire absolute performance above all else. It may not have Optimus or an SSD like some of the other mid-range offerings mentioned but it does offer higher frame rates while costing a few hundred dollars less. As far as I know no other laptop maker has paired two mid-range GT-level GPU's in SLI to match the performance of a single high-end GTX-level GPU like Lenovo has done here. Of course, at the same performance level a single-GPU configuration is always more desirable due to the inherent problems with SLI like scaling and driver support, but the real kicker here is that the Lenovo still ends up costing much less than a similarly-equipped system with an i7 and GTX 675MX or 770M.
For the low-mid range why not HP? I have an older HP Pavillion AMD Llano system w/dgpu and it beat the i5, gt640m at the time and cost less. The newest iteration is an HP Envy 15z-joo series, but for $679 (w/o a discount code) you get a10-5750 + HD8750 running in dual graphics, I'd like to see how that stands up against the Toshiba’s Satellite L55-A5278 ($640) recommended here.
My most recent testing of Dual Graphics was a joke... it hurt performance relative to the dGPU alone in about 80% of games. There are cases where it's beneficial, but overall it just wasn't worth the trouble. DX10+ only, works with fewer games than regular CF, flaky performance, and oh -- microstutter is much, much worse on Dual Graphics than on CrossFire. Sadly, the laptop died (or at least the power brick did) before I could finish all the testing.
The DX9 titles do run horribly on the Llano, and I don't play FPS on there. Truth be told, I did buy the Llano initially to run WoW at 1080p w/beautiful eye candy and can't be happier (also where I compared my benchmarks to the i5/gt640m systems). I understand this is about gaming in general and not just specific games, but there might be a gaming segment out there where the apu+dgpu might shine and save someone some $ also. Also, it does take more user management to tweak and monitor the system to get that performance, so there is a trade off for the lower price vs time spent.
As a college student myself, I'd recommend anyone who isn't absolutely desperate for saving space to get a cheap or decent laptop and build a gaming desktop. $800 laptop + $800 desktop can get you better performance than a $1600 gaming laptop, and you can also end up with a laptop that has better build quality, battery life, etc. due to a wider array of options to choose from.
I think it's a perfectly valid suggestion, though the article wasn't necessarily aimed at students and I can't imagine cramming even a small mid tower into a dorm room has gotten any easier in the ten years since I lived in one...
OTOH I guess you'd usually have more desk space now (or smaller desks) since you don't have to slap a CRT on it. :P
Looking forward to the other articles, I'm quite interested in what you can get at 12-14" for closer to $1K if you don't need a dGPU... I'm sure that includes a large variety of hybrid systems now like the split slates, the Yogapads, etc.
Probably gonna be even harder to narrow it down outside of gaming systems!
No... CRTs were often 18" or more deep, compared to maybe 10" on an LCD. Plus you had to deal with pincushioning, trapezoidal distortion, etc. Other than refresh rates, LCDs are superior in every way.
I thought that for around 800$ getting a 1600X900 screen ,i7 4th gen,nvidia 750m GDDR5(almost as good as 670m since its not the GDDR3 version) & the option add SLI if required was awesome ,especially for students on a budget.
The Y410p is also a fine option, although it should be noted that for not a lot more money a Y500/Y510p can be had with a 1080p display and preconfigured SLI options in a chassis not much bigger.
As current pricing stands though, the least-expensive $769 Y410p SKU falls under the budget requirement of this article and clearly stands head and shoulders above the rest. With an i7-4700MQ and GT 750M GDDR5 (faster than the previous generation GTX 660M) there's no question it offers superior performance, and the only thing it really lacks compared to the higher SKU's is the 900p screen.
Configured with the 1600x900 screen, the Y410p seems to be a nice all-rounder laptop on the cheap. Of course, I suppose that the resolution doesn't bespeak anything about the screen quality itself.
Upgrading to SLI on the Y510p opens up a can of worms about driver and game compatibility as well as questions about battery life, reliability, and heat.
All this work, and no mention of the new Asus G750 series? They start around the 1300-1400 range, and can get models over 2k. With 3d screen in the top of the line model.
Ahh ok. IT got a passing mention. I can't seem to find it atm, but there are two models, 1 comes with a small ssd fully populated ram, and 750gb mechanical HD, and costs about $400 more than the other which has the same graphics card, processor, and screen, but comes with a faster 1 TB mechanical HD, and no SSD, and leaves comes with two 8gb sticks instead of 4x4gb RAM.
Sorry for calling you out Jarred, I missed the mention of it. Just thought I should mention that the one for 1399 seems like a good value for that segment.
It makes much more sense to get last-gen model with great discount. m17x with 680M is available around $1500-1600, which is only 20% slower than 780M model.
I recommend the Clevo W350ST from xoticpc. Best laptop you can get for just over a grand. 4700mq cpu and 765m gpu. That or the 13 inch clevo, I wanted to get that one too.
Nice review...but you left out <a href="http://www.PowerNotebooks.com">PowerNotebo... </a>. They carry Alienware, Sager (Clevo) and MSI and have great pricing and customer satisfaction.
Don't know if the US store carries it as well, but best buy Canada has an A8-based Acer that also sports a touchscreen for just $450 (after a $50 coupon). Pretty good deal for casual gaming.
I'm actually surprised that the ASUS N550 isn't mentioned. It's a nice very high quality laptop for only $1,000 at XoticPC if you get the non-touch, IPS Matte screen (and an 1080p IPS Matte screen is totally worth it for many people) Two heat sinks, fairly thin for two heatsinks too, and number pad. Brushed metal surfaces and I hear the audio is supposed to be good. I'd love to see a review of it from you, Jarred :)
Me too, actually. From notebookcheck.net's review of it, it seems like the perfect all-rounder kind of laptop that provides all of what was described in the review of the Acer V7: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Asus-N550JV-CN...
What about the Samsung Ativ Book 8? Comes with quad-core i7 and 8870M, but actually also with a good battery life and 1080p PLS screen. Granted, it's not yet refreshed with a Haswell CPU, but still an excellent choice.
I don't buy your Enduro prohibition. I understand that someone may wish to use a gaming laptop in a mobile/low power mode, but then that's not the point of a gaming laptop. I enjoy having a portable gaming machine.
I own a gaming laptop (Mx18) and generally only use it plugged in. I do not use the non-discrete GPU. I'd rather not have any options that may include cards that use Enduro discarded because of the problems that may or may not exist due to that technology. Frankly, throwing away half the options because of a feature of one of those options that users may not use seems a tad silly.
I'm looking for a lesser beast for my sons to use, but I do not intend to use anything less than a 17" screen at 1080p. Not including discrete card options because of Enduro limits the value of this review. Hopefully, moving forward with Jarred's "weekly" guide, Enduro machines will be considered.
Your use of an Alienware is really skirting the issue, as you can actually disable Enduro. Most laptops (all laptops that aren't from Alienware) that include Enduro have issues. Simply put, Enduro doesn't always work the way it should, it reduces performance relative to discrete only mode, and until that gets fully worked out I would not recommend such a laptop over the competing offerings with NVIDIA GPUs. If you're looking at a lower cost laptop with a midrange GPU, is saving $50 and getting Enduro and its issues worthwhile? No. If you're looking at a high-end laptop like the M17x/M18x, would saving $100-$250 on a $2000 notebook be worthwhile? Again, not in my book.
I would rather have a notebook with an AMD GPU that doesn't even try to include Enduro support -- the muxes on the M18x try to give you the best of both worlds, letting you choose, but my experience with the M17x is that even disabling Enduro doesn't always result in the expected behavior. That might be AMD's drivers though, which would be one more reason to go with NVIDIA. So you have to ask yourself: if I can get basically more performance, with working dynamic switchable graphics (Optimus), and drivers that tend to be updated more regularly and simply work better... why would I buy the alternative?
I wish the AMD mobile GPUs and Enduro worked so well that this wasn't even an issue, but it is and sweeping it under the rug doesn't help. Sadly, I think AMD is now focusing less on Enduro than they were a year ago, what with reorganizations and downsizing. They are releasing new beta drivers than before, but I have yet to see one that fixes every concern I discussed when last I looked at Enduro. In fact, I've seen very little change since the 13.3 Enduro Beta.
100% Agreed Jared. I get such a kick out of AMD fanboys who take people to task rather viciously because of our dislike for Enduro. They feel insulted at such ideas, and it's really kind of hilarious. You have PROVEN in your tests that Enduro is STILL a large problem on many games, in which AMD has NOT been able to remedy even after 19 months now. I have said it on other sites that Clevo machines with AMD GPUs are to be strongly avoided until IF AMD decides to fix Enduro, or if they even can at all. At this point, it's obvious that they can't. AMD has only released one Beta since May, and that really did nothing at all, despite all the rumors of a Memory fix that everyone was told was forthcoming since January, but that never materialized. It was just a rumor that got all the AMD fanboy's all excited, then they got their heart's broken again. Naturally, the AMD fanboy gets their little feelings hurt, and off to their rooms they go crying. Nvidia is still the superior GPU on every front- Hardware and Drivers, and that isn't going to change.
The MSI GE series is mostly fine, but the display is a big question mark. The GE40 had a lousy LCD, which is what ruined it for me. The GE60 might have a better display, but I can tell you that there are 1080p 15.6" panels that have a very poor contrast ratio, so if MSI used one of those then the same problem appears there. That said, not everyone demands a great display, so if you're okay with lower contrast displays the GE40 is fine, and the GE60 couldn't be any worse than the GE40 display.
Looks like the customized Toshiba Qosmio X70-ABT2G22 is the overall best bang for the buck, but I'm wondering how well that single fan cooling config is going to keep up. Guess we'll find out when mine gets here. I almost went with the clevo or Asus, but in the end being able to customize my build for less dough won out. Thanks for the excellent review!
Help! I'm a designer who needs a gaming machine to keep up with my heavy graphic use and multitasking. But I also want a touch screen. Is there such an animal with a 17" screen available? Also concerned about hear/ fan issues. Want 4 th gen core7. Thanks!!
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Snoopykins - Friday, August 23, 2013 - link
Is there going to be a less gaming oriented laptop buyer's guide any time soon? I'd love a "picking an ultrabook on budget" guide. Perhaps a few options in the 700-1100 range with different key features like one a high end display, one with a lot of power, one with a crazy battery life, etc.JarredWalton - Friday, August 23, 2013 - link
I'll be trying to do a guide weekly going forward, so yes. With the back-to-school season now in full swing, there's plenty to cover.StormyParis - Friday, August 23, 2013 - link
I must be an old fart. Something about "Gaming laptop, back-to-school edition" and $2,000+ prices irks me. Twice over.DaveLessnau - Friday, August 23, 2013 - link
I agree. When I was in college, I didn't even have time to sleep. So, my brain just has trouble wrapping itself around the very concept of any student ever needing a "gaming" laptop.Des_Eagle - Friday, August 23, 2013 - link
I think people find games to be a great release from the stress, and they make time. I don't know anyone that straight-up didn't have time to game (I knew plenty that spent that time doing other things, though). One possible exception is if you're working a full-time job on top of a bachelor's or something but those are few and far between.JarredWalton - Saturday, August 24, 2013 - link
The "Back to School" part is more about timing of the article than it is about who should get these laptops. I'd say for a college student, the Acer V7 would make the most sense though -- small enough to easily carry around, fast enough to handle some gaming.Tech Pro - Saturday, August 24, 2013 - link
I absolutely agree with you Bro (Y)dehemke - Monday, August 26, 2013 - link
Nothing was more detrimental to scholastic performance than a new Microprose game being released... XCOM and CivII.. argh!kogunniyi - Friday, August 23, 2013 - link
When do you plan to post a review of the Alienware 17?6cef - Friday, August 23, 2013 - link
i just ordered a laptop from powernotebooks. it's a 15" clevo w 780m. all the machines come 1080 screens. the 770m really can't hang at native resolution w ultra+aa settings on aaa games. street proces for the 780 was $250. should keep the laptop relevant 2-3 years.my two questions about the thing are: will the 180w adapter limit the machine in any way? does faster ram help gaming/compiler/vm/general performamce?
DanNeely - Friday, August 23, 2013 - link
The only thing a larger power brick would help with might be faster battery recharging while gaming. 100W for the GPU, 57W for a 4930 (47W for lesser quad cores), and 5-15W for everything else doesn't leave a whole lot of reserve for charging if you're maxing the entire system out while gaming.Vinas - Sunday, September 1, 2013 - link
disagree about the 770mMeaker10 - Friday, August 23, 2013 - link
If mythlogic is using msi keyboards again msi will simply clamp on supply again and stop them *sigh*nFrost - Friday, August 23, 2013 - link
No mention of the MSI notebooks with the 7970m or 8970m for $1200?JarredWalton - Saturday, August 24, 2013 - link
You mean the MSI GX60? No, they're not worth the cost, as we noted in our reviews. CPU bottlenecks with Richland are simply too much to ignore with such a high-end GPU. Half of our gaming suite runs better on the MSI GE40.KillerFry - Friday, August 23, 2013 - link
Hey, where is the Razer Blade?DanNeely - Friday, August 23, 2013 - link
Rejected because it has an utterly horrible quality screen.tviceman - Friday, August 23, 2013 - link
I'm surprised you did not recommend the Lenovo y400 or y500. Both can be often had for under $900 and have gt750m's, with a slot to upgrade to SLI.octiceps - Friday, August 23, 2013 - link
Exactly man! There's no glaring deficiency that disqualifies it from inclusion on this list like there is for the Razer Blade 14 or MSI GE40. The screen, build quality, speakers, and keyboard are all good to great. Only the one-piece clickpad is a bit twitchy and buggy but that's not unique to this machine. The Y500 even offers a 650M SLI with an i5 option for under $900. This kind of performance is simply unmatched at this price level. Then of course there are the refreshed Y500 and Y510p SKU's with GT 750M GPU and Haswell i7 respectively.I bought a first-generation Y500 at the beginning of the year with an i7-3630QM, 8GB DDR3-1600, GT 650M SLI, 1080p screen, 1TB 5400 RPM HDD+16GB SSD, Ultrabay DVD drive accessory, and extra 170W power brick for less than $1000 brand new. Of course I used some rebates to hit such an insanely low price point but this should give you an idea of how terrific of a value this laptop is. I even managed to perform a 42% overclock on the GPU without touching voltage and now this thing flies, outperforming even the GTX 770M at stock! And due to the power and thermal efficiency of the Kepler architecture it stays under 80C under full load at all times even with the massive overclock.
JarredWalton - Saturday, August 24, 2013 - link
Sorry, I was trying to finish this up (and the "just another hour or so" ended up being more like six). I've included the Y500/Y510p in the midrange section; they wouldn't be my first pick necessarily, but if you're more interested in gaming than things like battery life and portability, they make a compelling case.octiceps - Saturday, August 24, 2013 - link
Thanks for updating the article Jarred. I think you're spot on with your observation of the relative merits of the Y500/Y510p. Since the subject of this article is gaming laptops it's a very interesting choice for those who may desire absolute performance above all else. It may not have Optimus or an SSD like some of the other mid-range offerings mentioned but it does offer higher frame rates while costing a few hundred dollars less. As far as I know no other laptop maker has paired two mid-range GT-level GPU's in SLI to match the performance of a single high-end GTX-level GPU like Lenovo has done here. Of course, at the same performance level a single-GPU configuration is always more desirable due to the inherent problems with SLI like scaling and driver support, but the real kicker here is that the Lenovo still ends up costing much less than a similarly-equipped system with an i7 and GTX 675MX or 770M.mo_danish - Saturday, August 24, 2013 - link
I wish you talked about Gigabytes P34G. Really looking forward to that laptop and there are barely any professional reviews of it.CSbeer - Saturday, August 24, 2013 - link
For the low-mid range why not HP? I have an older HP Pavillion AMD Llano system w/dgpu and it beat the i5, gt640m at the time and cost less. The newest iteration is an HP Envy 15z-joo series, but for $679 (w/o a discount code) you get a10-5750 + HD8750 running in dual graphics, I'd like to see how that stands up against the Toshiba’s Satellite L55-A5278 ($640) recommended here.JarredWalton - Saturday, August 24, 2013 - link
My most recent testing of Dual Graphics was a joke... it hurt performance relative to the dGPU alone in about 80% of games. There are cases where it's beneficial, but overall it just wasn't worth the trouble. DX10+ only, works with fewer games than regular CF, flaky performance, and oh -- microstutter is much, much worse on Dual Graphics than on CrossFire. Sadly, the laptop died (or at least the power brick did) before I could finish all the testing.CSbeer - Saturday, August 24, 2013 - link
The DX9 titles do run horribly on the Llano, and I don't play FPS on there. Truth be told, I did buy the Llano initially to run WoW at 1080p w/beautiful eye candy and can't be happier (also where I compared my benchmarks to the i5/gt640m systems). I understand this is about gaming in general and not just specific games, but there might be a gaming segment out there where the apu+dgpu might shine and save someone some $ also. Also, it does take more user management to tweak and monitor the system to get that performance, so there is a trade off for the lower price vs time spent.abrowne1993 - Saturday, August 24, 2013 - link
As a college student myself, I'd recommend anyone who isn't absolutely desperate for saving space to get a cheap or decent laptop and build a gaming desktop. $800 laptop + $800 desktop can get you better performance than a $1600 gaming laptop, and you can also end up with a laptop that has better build quality, battery life, etc. due to a wider array of options to choose from.nerd1 - Saturday, August 24, 2013 - link
I highly doubt you can build any better desktop with only $800, considering all the extra costs like display, keyboard, OS, storage and etc.abrowne1993 - Saturday, August 24, 2013 - link
Most college students can get the OS for free and they'll have a TV they can use. A keyboard is $10 if you don't care about how nice it is.Impulses - Saturday, August 24, 2013 - link
I think it's a perfectly valid suggestion, though the article wasn't necessarily aimed at students and I can't imagine cramming even a small mid tower into a dorm room has gotten any easier in the ten years since I lived in one...OTOH I guess you'd usually have more desk space now (or smaller desks) since you don't have to slap a CRT on it. :P
Looking forward to the other articles, I'm quite interested in what you can get at 12-14" for closer to $1K if you don't need a dGPU... I'm sure that includes a large variety of hybrid systems now like the split slates, the Yogapads, etc.
Probably gonna be even harder to narrow it down outside of gaming systems!
DanNeely - Sunday, August 25, 2013 - link
a 22" LCD ends up being as much of a space hog as a 17% CRT was; it's just a different shape.JarredWalton - Thursday, August 29, 2013 - link
No... CRTs were often 18" or more deep, compared to maybe 10" on an LCD. Plus you had to deal with pincushioning, trapezoidal distortion, etc. Other than refresh rates, LCDs are superior in every way.kartikk - Saturday, August 24, 2013 - link
I was a little surprised to see that the Lenovo y410p was not included in the list.http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/y-ser...
I thought that for around 800$ getting a 1600X900 screen ,i7 4th gen,nvidia 750m GDDR5(almost as good as 670m since its not the GDDR3 version) & the option add SLI if required was awesome ,especially for students on a budget.
Can this option be added to the list?
kartikk - Saturday, August 24, 2013 - link
Also if when using a single 750m it is possible to enable nvidia optimusJarredWalton - Saturday, August 24, 2013 - link
Noted in the Y510p section.octiceps - Saturday, August 24, 2013 - link
The Y410p is also a fine option, although it should be noted that for not a lot more money a Y500/Y510p can be had with a 1080p display and preconfigured SLI options in a chassis not much bigger.As current pricing stands though, the least-expensive $769 Y410p SKU falls under the budget requirement of this article and clearly stands head and shoulders above the rest. With an i7-4700MQ and GT 750M GDDR5 (faster than the previous generation GTX 660M) there's no question it offers superior performance, and the only thing it really lacks compared to the higher SKU's is the 900p screen.
blackrook - Monday, August 26, 2013 - link
Configured with the 1600x900 screen, the Y410p seems to be a nice all-rounder laptop on the cheap. Of course, I suppose that the resolution doesn't bespeak anything about the screen quality itself.Upgrading to SLI on the Y510p opens up a can of worms about driver and game compatibility as well as questions about battery life, reliability, and heat.
Samunosuke - Saturday, August 24, 2013 - link
1. The Nvidia GT 740m is a better performing gfx than the AMD 8750m.2. As Jared stated above, enduro has far more issues than optimus.
SilthDraeth - Saturday, August 24, 2013 - link
All this work, and no mention of the new Asus G750 series? They start around the 1300-1400 range, and can get models over 2k. With 3d screen in the top of the line model.JarredWalton - Saturday, August 24, 2013 - link
See the end of the high-end section.SilthDraeth - Saturday, August 24, 2013 - link
Ahh ok. IT got a passing mention. I can't seem to find it atm, but there are two models, 1 comes with a small ssd fully populated ram, and 750gb mechanical HD, and costs about $400 more than the other which has the same graphics card, processor, and screen, but comes with a faster 1 TB mechanical HD, and no SSD, and leaves comes with two 8gb sticks instead of 4x4gb RAM.Sorry for calling you out Jarred, I missed the mention of it. Just thought I should mention that the one for 1399 seems like a good value for that segment.
SilthDraeth - Saturday, August 24, 2013 - link
ASUS G750JX-RB71http://www.bjs.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Produ...
nerd1 - Saturday, August 24, 2013 - link
It makes much more sense to get last-gen model with great discount. m17x with 680M is available around $1500-1600, which is only 20% slower than 780M model.Voltism - Saturday, August 24, 2013 - link
I recommend the Clevo W350ST from xoticpc. Best laptop you can get for just over a grand. 4700mq cpu and 765m gpu. That or the 13 inch clevo, I wanted to get that one too.Fireball24 - Saturday, August 24, 2013 - link
Nice review...but you left out <a href="http://www.PowerNotebooks.com">PowerNotebo... </a>. They carry Alienware, Sager (Clevo) and MSI and have great pricing and customer satisfaction.Fireball24 - Saturday, August 24, 2013 - link
I mean <a href="http://www.PowerNotebooks.com">PowerNotebo... They carry Alienware, Sager (Clevo) and MSIFireball24 - Saturday, August 24, 2013 - link
One more time... http://www.PowerNotebooks.comSetiroN - Sunday, August 25, 2013 - link
Don't know if the US store carries it as well, but best buy Canada has an A8-based Acer that also sports a touchscreen for just $450 (after a $50 coupon). Pretty good deal for casual gaming.vld - Sunday, August 25, 2013 - link
Thanks!Freakie - Sunday, August 25, 2013 - link
I'm actually surprised that the ASUS N550 isn't mentioned. It's a nice very high quality laptop for only $1,000 at XoticPC if you get the non-touch, IPS Matte screen (and an 1080p IPS Matte screen is totally worth it for many people) Two heat sinks, fairly thin for two heatsinks too, and number pad. Brushed metal surfaces and I hear the audio is supposed to be good. I'd love to see a review of it from you, Jarred :)blackrook - Monday, August 26, 2013 - link
Me too, actually. From notebookcheck.net's review of it, it seems like the perfect all-rounder kind of laptop that provides all of what was described in the review of the Acer V7: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Asus-N550JV-CN...rxzlmn - Monday, August 26, 2013 - link
What about the Samsung Ativ Book 8? Comes with quad-core i7 and 8870M, but actually also with a good battery life and 1080p PLS screen. Granted, it's not yet refreshed with a Haswell CPU, but still an excellent choice.punko - Tuesday, August 27, 2013 - link
I don't buy your Enduro prohibition. I understand that someone may wish to use a gaming laptop in a mobile/low power mode, but then that's not the point of a gaming laptop. I enjoy having a portable gaming machine.I own a gaming laptop (Mx18) and generally only use it plugged in. I do not use the non-discrete GPU. I'd rather not have any options that may include cards that use Enduro discarded because of the problems that may or may not exist due to that technology. Frankly, throwing away half the options because of a feature of one of those options that users may not use seems a tad silly.
I'm looking for a lesser beast for my sons to use, but I do not intend to use anything less than a 17" screen at 1080p. Not including discrete card options because of Enduro limits the value of this review. Hopefully, moving forward with Jarred's "weekly" guide, Enduro machines will be considered.
JarredWalton - Tuesday, August 27, 2013 - link
Your use of an Alienware is really skirting the issue, as you can actually disable Enduro. Most laptops (all laptops that aren't from Alienware) that include Enduro have issues. Simply put, Enduro doesn't always work the way it should, it reduces performance relative to discrete only mode, and until that gets fully worked out I would not recommend such a laptop over the competing offerings with NVIDIA GPUs. If you're looking at a lower cost laptop with a midrange GPU, is saving $50 and getting Enduro and its issues worthwhile? No. If you're looking at a high-end laptop like the M17x/M18x, would saving $100-$250 on a $2000 notebook be worthwhile? Again, not in my book.I would rather have a notebook with an AMD GPU that doesn't even try to include Enduro support -- the muxes on the M18x try to give you the best of both worlds, letting you choose, but my experience with the M17x is that even disabling Enduro doesn't always result in the expected behavior. That might be AMD's drivers though, which would be one more reason to go with NVIDIA. So you have to ask yourself: if I can get basically more performance, with working dynamic switchable graphics (Optimus), and drivers that tend to be updated more regularly and simply work better... why would I buy the alternative?
I wish the AMD mobile GPUs and Enduro worked so well that this wasn't even an issue, but it is and sweeping it under the rug doesn't help. Sadly, I think AMD is now focusing less on Enduro than they were a year ago, what with reorganizations and downsizing. They are releasing new beta drivers than before, but I have yet to see one that fixes every concern I discussed when last I looked at Enduro. In fact, I've seen very little change since the 13.3 Enduro Beta.
transphasic - Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - link
100% Agreed Jared. I get such a kick out of AMD fanboys who take people to task rather viciously because of our dislike for Enduro. They feel insulted at such ideas, and it's really kind of hilarious. You have PROVEN in your tests that Enduro is STILL a large problem on many games, in which AMD has NOT been able to remedy even after 19 months now.I have said it on other sites that Clevo machines with AMD GPUs are to be strongly avoided until IF AMD decides to fix Enduro, or if they even can at all. At this point, it's obvious that they can't.
AMD has only released one Beta since May, and that really did nothing at all, despite all the rumors of a Memory fix that everyone was told was forthcoming since January, but that never materialized. It was just a rumor that got all the AMD fanboy's all excited, then they got their heart's broken again.
Naturally, the AMD fanboy gets their little feelings hurt, and off to their rooms they go crying.
Nvidia is still the superior GPU on every front- Hardware and Drivers, and that isn't going to change.
WaldenC - Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - link
What's your take on something from MSI's GE series? I'm particularly looking at:http://www.msimobile.com/level3_productpage.aspx?c...
Especially since I'm finding it for ~$100 less than their listed price.
JarredWalton - Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - link
The MSI GE series is mostly fine, but the display is a big question mark. The GE40 had a lousy LCD, which is what ruined it for me. The GE60 might have a better display, but I can tell you that there are 1080p 15.6" panels that have a very poor contrast ratio, so if MSI used one of those then the same problem appears there. That said, not everyone demands a great display, so if you're okay with lower contrast displays the GE40 is fine, and the GE60 couldn't be any worse than the GE40 display.Vinas - Sunday, September 1, 2013 - link
Looks like the customized Toshiba Qosmio X70-ABT2G22 is the overall best bang for the buck, but I'm wondering how well that single fan cooling config is going to keep up. Guess we'll find out when mine gets here. I almost went with the clevo or Asus, but in the end being able to customize my build for less dough won out. Thanks for the excellent review!horuss - Wednesday, September 11, 2013 - link
What about MacBook Pro? Isn't it suitable for playing with bootcamp?KimiB - Sunday, September 15, 2013 - link
Help! I'm a designer who needs a gaming machine to keep up with my heavy graphic use and multitasking. But I also want a touch screen. Is there such an animal with a 17" screen available? Also concerned about hear/ fan issues. Want 4 th gen core7. Thanks!!Solatari - Sunday, January 19, 2014 - link
Alienware 17 - gtx 780m, 4800mq, 8gb ram - perfect for gaming?maria00 - Friday, September 7, 2018 - link
Acer is also the best gaming laptop, regarding any issue with your Acer laptop get help from thishttps://www.acersupportnumber.com/acer-laptop-supp...
it really provides a better solution.