Looking for advice on mobile graphics cards

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Aunnix

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Jul 24, 2012
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Hello.

I have a friend in the market for a new laptop. It is mainly for work (email, web, etc), but he plays a couple games (mostly Total War: Rome franchise). He was recommended to buy an HP laptop that has a Geforce GT 740M GPU. (I am a desktop guy, lol, so I don't know too much about laptop gaming). But, while this GPU seems fine for his current situation, I would like to recommend something that keeps some future games in mind.

So, I was going to recommend that he shoot for a GTX series but I am not too sure which model/version he would need, but after doing a little bit of research I am kind of looking at recommending the GTX 760M over the GT 740M. I've read that the GTX 760M is comparable to the GTX 650 Ti desktop graphics card, but I worry about how long the GTX 650 Ti will be a relevant graphics card considering it is now a lower budget card and they have released a GTX 690...

Currently, I am running an i5 3750K (or 3570K?) with a GTX 660 in my desktop for the past year and it has been great. I have played Borderlands, Starcraft, SWTOR, Far Cry 3, and a few others all on Max settings. Although he is essentially only concerned with the Total War: Rome games, I'd like to consider a couple more games that are currently a bit more GPU dependant (as I hear the RTS games rely more heavily on the CPU?)....

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!
 
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kookie3010
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Aunnix

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Jul 24, 2012
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Thanks for the link! I used it to compare the GT 740M, GTX 760M, and GTX 765M cards, and the results are not too pretty lol. I am guessing that the GTX 765M would be his top dollar as laptops average about $1300 with that card installed. But, none of these 3 can play the current Total War: Rome game on ultra/max settings (according to the website). I used Far Cry 3, Battlfield 3, Crysis 3, and Starcraft as extra games for further comparison as well.

So, it appears it will come down to whether he wants to spend an extra couple hundred dollars to ensure the next release or two over the next few years can be played on high settings or if he is going to go the cheap route and not worry too much about the next release or two of the Rome games.
 
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Aunnix

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True. But, who wants to spend a nice chunk of change to play video games on low - medium (lower) settings lol. I usually aim to play the current games on high to ultra settings so that over the next few years I can be playing games at AT LEAST medium, but hopefully high settings as they are released. It is easier to go budget on a desktop because the card can be switched out pretty easily. So I am trying to kind of future proof him since it's not as easy to upgrade a laptop.
 
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kookie3010

kookie3010

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Well the gtx 765m can play most modern games on very high/max setting with AA set to fxaa and some options like tessellation off.i played crysis 3 on my new Aw 17 on very high setting at 1600x900 res and get average around 55-60fps.on 1080 it average 38-50 on stock clock.it also depends on the cpu.the gtx 765m paired with a good cpu will be ur friend best bet.also if he can get a laptop with an upgradeable cpu and gpu it will be better for the.long.run.drawback is these upgrade able laptop is expensive.(waiting for my gtx 780m upgrade to arrive:p)
 
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Aunnix

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I compared the GTX 765 to the GTX 760 on the NotebookCheck website given in a post above. It's performance didn't seem to be much better than the 760. It showed the average frame rate only increased by like 5-10 frames, so I've recommended the 760M to him because it looks to be about $100 extra for the 765M.

Also, he will not overclock anything or adjust anything (aliasing, etc). He will run everything at factory settings (as he isn't very tech savvy) so I am not considering cards that he can/would make adjustments for.
 
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Aunnix

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Yeah, those would be good for him, but a little too much I think. He is looking for like $1000 or less. He was recommended to buy this HP http://www.microcenter.com/product/415884/ENVY_15-j092nr_156_Laptop_Computer_-_Natural_Silver but asked about the card. So, I'm doing the research for him a little and found that he can get the GTX 760M for about $1200 which (according to the NotebookCheck website) seems to ALMOST double the frame rates of the GT 740M. So, I recommended to just go a little over his budget and grab the GTX 760M as it should last him a couple more years (provided the laptop itself doesn't go bad lol).
 
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kookie3010

kookie3010

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Well if thats the case then go for the 760m.the 765m has 10-15% increase over the 760m.also make sure it has a good cpu as well as some games can be cpu intensive.also take note that if he plan on playing rome total war 2,fps drop will occur regardless of cpu or gpu as the game is very buggy.
 
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Aunnix

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Jul 24, 2012
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I told him to make sure he gets a quad core CPU at least 2.3ghz or higher.

I thought about compromising on the CPU and looking at a stronger graphics card, but the laptop is for his work as well. I'd say like 70% work, 30% gaming so I wanted to make sure he gets a pretty strong CPU on top of the graphics card.
 
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