Guild Wars 2

Okay so I’m going out of the country for a couple months and I’m looking for a laptop that will run GW2 well so i can still play while traveling. These are the two I’m looking at

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834315062

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=1TS-001A-00098

I know the 2nd one is better but is it $250 better?
I’m not really that familiar with laptop gaming so any help or experience with the respective graphics cards is appreciated,

My $400 wal-mart special laptop with integrated graphics and a 2.8g processor runs GW2…with potato graphics and poor FPS, but it’s playable. Both of those laptops look like they would run GW2 at max or close to max settings easily.

I would argue that keyboard quality is the most important factor in choosing a gaming laptop (unless you opt to purchase a separate keyboard, but then portability becomes an issue, as most “travel” keyboards are worse than the laptop keyboards they’re meant to replace) You’re also going to want a good travel mouse, because playing GW2 with the touchpad is extremely uncomfortable.

Keyboards/keypads are, unfortunately, not something you can really compare through the internet.

The 2nd IS $250 better IF you plan on playing anything else that’s a bit more demanding GPU wise or if you like to use the laptop for watching videos and other multimedia stuff. If it’s only about GW2, I’d stick to the first one, since the 940m GPU is roughly as good as the GTX660m I use (and most things run fine on high), the CPU’s are pretty close together and, which is quite important, has the much smaller native resolution. You can check and compare CPUs/GPUs here if you want to.
Another thing to keep in mind- both laptops have pretty slow HDDs built in, your loading times ingame will probably quite long.
Besides some QoL things like the keyboard, you should worry more about stuff like cooling and maintenance possibilities, since those are the things that mostly affect your gameing experience and the longlivity of you laptop.

Nash.2681:

The 2nd IS $250 better IF you plan on playing anything else that’s a bit more demanding GPU wise or if you like to use the laptop for watching videos and other multimedia stuff. If it’s only about GW2, I’d stick to the first one, since the 940m GPU is roughly as good as the GTX660m I use (and most things run fine on high), the CPU’s are pretty close together and, which is quite important, has the much smaller native resolution. You can check and compare CPUs/GPUs here if you want to.
Another thing to keep in mind- both laptops have pretty slow HDDs built in, your loading times ingame will probably quite long.
Besides some QoL things like the keyboard, you should worry more about stuff like cooling and maintenance possibilities, since those are the things that mostly affect your gameing experience and the longlivity of you laptop.

I’ve never given laptop cooling or maintenance much thought, though I’ve never had a laptop overheat or fail on me. Keyboards are much more than a quality of life thing. Extended periods of gaming on small, uncomfortable laptop keyboards can lead to severe hand cramps, and worse, long term nerve damage.

While I’ve never had a laptop fail from heat, I’ve tried using an HP “typical” (non-gaming) laptop for GW2 and it got so hot where my hand rested on the computer that it burned me. I now use an actual gaming laptop and have no problems with heat.

Quarktastic.1027:

Keyboards are much more than a quality of life thing. Extended periods of gaming on small, uncomfortable laptop keyboards can lead to severe hand cramps, and worse, long term nerve damage.

What? The keyboards on laptops are fine. Just don’t be an idiot and use it in some super awful position and you won’t have issues.

Quarktastic.1027:

Nash.2681:

The 2nd IS $250 better IF you plan on playing anything else that’s a bit more demanding GPU wise or if you like to use the laptop for watching videos and other multimedia stuff. If it’s only about GW2, I’d stick to the first one, since the 940m GPU is roughly as good as the GTX660m I use (and most things run fine on high), the CPU’s are pretty close together and, which is quite important, has the much smaller native resolution. You can check and compare CPUs/GPUs here if you want to.
Another thing to keep in mind- both laptops have pretty slow HDDs built in, your loading times ingame will probably quite long.
Besides some QoL things like the keyboard, you should worry more about stuff like cooling and maintenance possibilities, since those are the things that mostly affect your gameing experience and the longlivity of you laptop.

I’ve never given laptop cooling or maintenance much thought, though I’ve never had a laptop overheat or fail on me. Keyboards are much more than a quality of life thing. Extended periods of gaming on small, uncomfortable laptop keyboards can lead to severe hand cramps, and worse, long term nerve damage.

Well, since you seem to be content with a $400 wallmart machine, I assume you don’t play that much on a laptop at all, so I’m not surprised that you never had any heating issues or such. But be asured, if you consider computer games as a hobby and play for several hours if you have the spare time for it, heating becomes something to think about. Being able to clean the fan(s) without breaking warranty seals and without having to disassemble half of the laptop is golden.
And I really don’t get that keyboard problem. I play exclusively on laptops for 11 years now, rpg’s, sports games, fps, strategy games, and I don’t have any problems with my hands or wrists. Still I can imagine this would be different if I already had somekind of previous illnesses concerning my hands or if I’d used something below 15,6", but let’s be honest- if you intend to play on a laptop more than 15-30 min a day or type a lot, you won’t go sub 15,6".

Nash.2681:

Quarktastic.1027:

Nash.2681:

The 2nd IS $250 better IF you plan on playing anything else that’s a bit more demanding GPU wise or if you like to use the laptop for watching videos and other multimedia stuff. If it’s only about GW2, I’d stick to the first one, since the 940m GPU is roughly as good as the GTX660m I use (and most things run fine on high), the CPU’s are pretty close together and, which is quite important, has the much smaller native resolution. You can check and compare CPUs/GPUs here if you want to.
Another thing to keep in mind- both laptops have pretty slow HDDs built in, your loading times ingame will probably quite long.
Besides some QoL things like the keyboard, you should worry more about stuff like cooling and maintenance possibilities, since those are the things that mostly affect your gameing experience and the longlivity of you laptop.

I’ve never given laptop cooling or maintenance much thought, though I’ve never had a laptop overheat or fail on me. Keyboards are much more than a quality of life thing. Extended periods of gaming on small, uncomfortable laptop keyboards can lead to severe hand cramps, and worse, long term nerve damage.

Well, since you seem to be content with a $400 wallmart machine, I assume you don’t play that much on a laptop at all, so I’m not surprised that you never had any heating issues or such. But be asured, if you consider computer games as a hobby and play for several hours if you have the spare time for it, heating becomes something to think about. Being able to clean the fan(s) without breaking warranty seals and without having to disassemble half of the laptop is golden.
And I really don’t get that keyboard problem. I play exclusively on laptops for 11 years now, rpg’s, sports games, fps, strategy games, and I don’t have any problems with my hands or wrists. Still I can imagine this would be different if I already had somekind of previous illnesses concerning my hands or if I’d used something below 15,6", but let’s be honest- if you intend to play on a laptop more than 15-30 min a day or type a lot, you won’t go sub 15,6".

I’ve played for many hours on that laptop, with no heating issues whatsoever. Sometimes spending entire weekends away from home, gaming 5+hours a day. The keyboard is absolute trash though. I wind up getting hand cramps and have to take 5 minute breaks every 30 minutes or so. Let’s just say I’ve never found a laptop that had a keyboard I actually found comfortable to use.

Spacing between the keys is also an issue for me. The keys on my laptop are completely flat and spaced very closely together, which causes me to frequently hit the wrong keys, or hit multiple keys at once.

I used a laptop for GW2 for year up until very recently.

The best thing to do, if you can, is use an external monitor and USB mouse and keyboard.

It’ll make your life so much easier. If you can’t use a second monitor, at least get the keyboard and mouse. You won’t regret it.

An external mouse is a must, but the built-in keyboard should be fine. If you do decide to get an external keyboard, make sure to get a quality mechanical board instead of some crappy rubberdome.