Guild Wars 2

Hey guys, I need a laptop for college but, also would like to be able to play gw2 at about high settings… it’s the only game I play. So, anyone here who maybe knows a good laptop? Like bang for bucks ? I’ve been searching so long for laptops…
Best solution would be to buy an Asus with a gtx 850m, preferably with gddr5, but can’t find the gddr5 version :S
So now I want something cheaper. Something for €600 euros would be the best, but can also pay a bit more.

Please help! I will be forever thankful !

Exodius.3087:

also would like to be able to play gw2 at about high settings…

Forget it, for two reasons:

• Those being able to do it easily cost 4-digits in euros.
• It’s not advisable regarding the Shader work the GW2 graphics engine puts about – if the CPU can handle it in time (which the laptop versions certainly can not due to being throttled for thermal reasons) – on the GPU. Your laptop will fall apart due to heating issues.

not sure about euro pricing, but a good value in gaming laptops are the Lenovos y50 15". Uses the maxwell GM107 860m and has mobile quad core i7 HQ series cpus, med/high settings should be fine.

Sigh okey… guess ill let the gaming go, what about a good college laptop for 600 euros ? Real bang for bucks xD ? I’m so stuck, been searching for days… don’t know anymore whats good.

If you want a quality lappy, Lenovo would have my vote. They are known for quality and reliability when comparing to other brands out there.

Outside that, check out Sager and MSI lappies, you won’t need much for college assuming you aren’t using it for specialized projects like 3d modeling/rendering.

Yeah I wont be rendering, I will be making CAD drawings and at a point i have to use photoshop.
And about the MSI’s, I read quite some articles where people complain about their quality…
HP laptops also seem to be bad, but, i found such a nice HP laptop for 700 euros, but yeah, dunno if it’s that good…

An i5-4210U at 1.7GHz with a GTX 850M, is that good ? or should i pay 80 euros more and get a i7-4700 HQ ?

Exodius.3087:

Yeah I wont be rendering, I will be making CAD drawings and at a point i have to use photoshop.
And about the MSI’s, I read quite some articles where people complain about their quality…
HP laptops also seem to be bad, but, i found such a nice HP laptop for 700 euros, but yeah, dunno if it’s that good…

An i5-4210U at 1.7GHz with a GTX 850M, is that good ? or should i pay 80 euros more and get a i7-4700 HQ ?

How many layers on your CAD drawings. The Layers is what will make or break a laptop in cad drafting.

Unfortunately I do not know that, because I haven’t started my study yet. But the system requirements for my laptop according to my school are very low… So I’m thinking that if it can run GW2, then it will definitely be good enough for college haha.
And is a GTX 850m with DDR3 good enough ? and how much better would be the DDR5, and will a GT 840m also be good enough, also DDR3, for like medium / high graphics.

Exodius.3087:

Unfortunately I do not know that, because I haven’t started my study yet. But the system requirements for my laptop according to my school are very low… So I’m thinking that if it can run GW2, then it will definitely be good enough for college haha.
And is a GTX 850m with DDR3 good enough ? and how much better would be the DDR5, and will a GT 840m also be good enough, also DDR3, for like medium / high graphics.

I do not have access to a 850M or 840M to tell you exact numbers. But I do expect both of those GPUs to push 40FPS~ at 1366×768 on medium settings at the least. If you get an i7-QM (A quad core, instead of the Dual core) Then I will expect another 10-15FPS on top of that (This game is VERY CPU driven!!)

dodgycookies.4562:

not sure about euro pricing, but a good value in gaming laptops are the Lenovos y50 15". Uses the maxwell GM107 860m and has mobile quad core i7 HQ series cpus, med/high settings should be fine.

I second this. I am using a lenovo Y50 and the game looks absolutely phenomenal and it doesn’t heat up too much. I also bought it for college and I think it is a really good value

I bought a Medion P6815 two years ago for £600 with a 3rd gen i7 and GT650m and can play with maxed settings unless theres a zerg, it plays better than on my AMD gaming pc with 2×5850′s
whatever you get I’d recommend getting a laptop cooler, mine was only £20 and lowers full load temps by 20 degrees (http://www.quietpc.com/zm-nc3000)

If what u say is true….then any laptop with gt750m or higher should be able to run it lol, and MANY laptops have that.

Exodius.3087:

If what u say is true….then any laptop with gt750m or higher should be able to run it lol, and MANY laptops have that.

and a Q series quad core. Most laptops cpus are dual core, even the i5/i7s. The only intel laptop cpus that have true quad cores are those with HQ/MQ/MX series processors.

These are rare due to cost and also power consumption, as any laptop with these parts uses a lot of power, are bigger and heavier due to cooling requirements, and has short battery life compared to their dual core U/M series counterparts.

This may be an unpopular response but unless you absolutely need just one single powerful laptop I would suggest getting a cheap (and portable!) ~300€ laptop and then getting a desktop than can run GW2 as almost any discrete graphics card will win hands down in gaming performance. The main thing is though after what 8 years of Uni the number of times I’ve actually needed a powerful laptop (besides gaming) is surprisingly few, most of the time it just sits at my desk. Now I really wish I would have gone in this direction originally.

Nexzen.5924:

This may be an unpopular response but unless you absolutely need just one single powerful laptop I would suggest getting a cheap (and portable!) ~300€ laptop and then getting a desktop than can run GW2 as almost any discrete graphics card will win hands down in gaming performance. The main thing is though after what 8 years of Uni the number of times I’ve actually needed a powerful laptop (besides gaming) is surprisingly few, most of the time it just sits at my desk. Now I really wish I would have gone in this direction originally.

Yeah I have thought of thought option. The thing is, my pc runs GW2 just fine, but, me and my friends have a lan party every now and then, so a powerful laptop would be nice, and I decided to not upgrade my desktop and thus spend that money on a laptop.
But yeah…. I found a sick lenovo with gtx 860m, but it has no cd drive…
And now I don’t know wether to go for a cheaper laptop, like 500-600 euro’s, or get a really good one for 999 euros.
I’m still stuck.

Exodius.3087:

Nexzen.5924:

This may be an unpopular response but unless you absolutely need just one single powerful laptop I would suggest getting a cheap (and portable!) ~300€ laptop and then getting a desktop than can run GW2 as almost any discrete graphics card will win hands down in gaming performance. The main thing is though after what 8 years of Uni the number of times I’ve actually needed a powerful laptop (besides gaming) is surprisingly few, most of the time it just sits at my desk. Now I really wish I would have gone in this direction originally.

Yeah I have thought of thought option. The thing is, my pc runs GW2 just fine, but, me and my friends have a lan party every now and then, so a powerful laptop would be nice, and I decided to not upgrade my desktop and thus spend that money on a laptop.
But yeah…. I found a sick lenovo with gtx 860m, but it has no cd drive…
And now I don’t know wether to go for a cheaper laptop, like 500-600 euro’s, or get a really good one for 999 euros.
I’m still stuck.

Look into a Dell Precision M6500 with an i7 920XM and a FireGL7820. At 1920×1200 you will get between 50FPS and 80FPS on High settings (Low char/quality, no reflections, no or low post processing, and low shadows).

You can buy them used on Ebay for 550~ USD and less.

That might be the best option for you, given what you need/want.