Hi everyone.
(Updated) I am looking for an affordable GAMING laptop. I do not want to build a DESKTOP, because it's not portable as I will be travelling places. I am not going to do high gaming (COD IW, GTA V, etc.) I will most likely play lighter games (stardew valley, cod bo2, ark survival) and I don't mind putting the graphics down a notch. My budget is under $500.
Cheers
"Cheap", "Affordable", "Gaming", "Laptop" and "under $500", not going to happen.
What sort of games are you looking to play, Dota/LoL? CS, AAA games or?
Just build a desktop
^this
Wait for AMD Ryzen to be released (next week) and build a desktop.
http://www.techspot.com/news/68253-amd-ryzen-goes-sale-march…
What a terrible piece of advice for the OP. Did you see anything other than the word "gaming"?
I agree that my advice may be unusual, some may even see it as terrible. It depends. Yes, it is posssible to build a gaming desktop for $500 IF (yes, there are some big "IFs" here) if you buy a second hand PC case, if a friend has a spare power supply, if you decide to upgrade graphics card later when you save some money, etc, etc. I gave this advice precisely because I saw "under $500" and "gaming" together. But… assuming no "IF-s", the whole thread becomes rather trivial and the answer is simple "not possible". Unless he mainly plays pong. Which we may or may not find out — if the OP decides to respond. A lot of ifs and buts…
So spend 70% of his budget on the cpu and $150 to buy the rest of the system?
I think what he meant was a laptop with a 'dedicated' graphics card for under $500. At this price it's obvious AAA titles won't play but he should be able to get away with older games at reduced settings.
Unfortunately the new Ryzen processors are enthusiast level parts, starting from $300 onwards.
For budget stuff, AMD is not releasing them till much later.
You would be looking at second hand equipment to achieve 'gaming' level hardware for $500.
"Cheap", "Affordable", "Gaming", "Laptop" and "under $500", not going to happen.
That entirely depends on what games your talking about. All the games you mention by name will play fine disproving your own point.
I was asking a question as to what games he was intending to play, with suggestions, because they weren't mentioned in the original post.
I don't want to build a desktop, I just want a laptop for light games.
You might be able to pick up a second hand one for your budget. Just a bit risky with gaming laptops as they tend to wear quicker due to the high heat.
An 860 or 960 is probably the minimum you'd want for any decent gaming but if you only play less demanding games then you might get away with a 940 or 950.
A laptop with a dual-core i7 and 750M is okay for light gaming at 1080p. I used to play multiplayer Battlefield 4 at 45fps with those specs and medium detail.
OP needs to be looking at 2-3 year old laptops with 750M or 850M on eBay and Gumtree. There's a couple of older Alienware models with quad-cores around that price.
What type of games are you planning on playing? You have to increase your budget and even then most likely be prepared to turn down the graphics.
Used is your only option. You will have a hard time getting a decent non-gaming laptop under $500…
You might get cheapest gaming laptop for around $1100 range but not for $500 unless you're buying Game Console. Why not just get game console?
I've already got an Xbox one and PS4. I just want to try out pc gaming, because you don't have to pay for online gaming and the games are cheaper.
I recommend looking at OCAU trading forums. You need to be a member of the forum for at least 90 days to view it though.
Note the buy and sell forums is invisible until you login.
http://forums.overclockers.com.au/
But I got some great equipment off there for very cheap prices. My current laptop is 2nd hand too, though it's a business laptop as opposed to gaming.
Under $500 is tough (new/refurbished) - Dell do intel 620 graphics laptops for that, something like an i5-7 series and you possibly could find an amd m430 or m440 but both are very low end dedicated cards.
Used under $500 might be the better option but comes with the obvious risks.
i dunno
the card seems crap
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-940MX.156033.0.h…
then again im a high or ultra gamer