Lenovo Ideapad 310 Gaming

Apr 30, 2018
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Hi, I'm planning on buying a laptop for an online course but I'd also like to play some older RPG's e.g Gothic 1-3, Risen, Morrowind, Oblivion along with strategy games e.g Civ V, EU IV CK 2 and also ARMA 1-2. Will the Lenovo 310 model with these specs be up for the task, or will I run the risk of damaging the computer? I've little issue running the games on lower settings. Here's the specs. Thanks for any reply.

Brand name Lenovo
Item Weight 2.2 Kg
Product Dimensions 26 x 37.9 x 2.3 cm
Batteries: 1 Lithium Polymer batteries required. (included)
Item model number 80SM01MAUK
Series Ideapad 310-15ISK
Color Silver
Form Factor Notebook
Screen Size 15.6 centimetres
Screen Resolution 1920 x 1080 pixels
Maximum Display Resolution 1920 x 1080 pixels
Processor Brand Intel
Processor Type Core i3
Processor Speed 2000 MHz
Processor Count 2
RAM Size 4 GB
Computer Memory Type DDR4 SDRAM
Hard Drive Size 1000 GB
Hard Disk Technology HDD
Graphics Chipset Brand Intel
Graphics Card Description HD Graphics 520
Number of USB 2.0 Ports 2
Number of USB 3.0 Ports 1
Number of HDMI Ports 1
Optical Drive Type No
Hardware Platform Windows
Operating System Windows 10
Software Included Microsoft Office
Average Battery Life (in hours) 4 hours
Lithium Battery Energy Content 30 watt_hours
Lithium Battery Packaging batteries_contained_in_equipment
Number Of Lithium Ion Cells 3
 
Solution
The Intel HD 520 in 6th generation Intel CPUs is simply an integrated GPU, it cannot really compare to a even a low end dedicated GPU. For example, the weak Geforce 920m is a more powerful than the Intel HD 520. Click link below to see some game benchmarks.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-520.149940.0.html


Based on my experience with the testing my Dell Latitude 3540 laptop (with the dedicated Radeon HD 8850m disabled), the 4th generation Intel HD 4400 in the i5-4200u CPU can play the following games:

Skyrim - Playable at 1600x900 resolution, but needs some manual changes to the SkyrimPref.ini file to do things like disable shadows and decrease the amount of grass among other things. I think the Intel HD 520 should...
The Intel HD 520 in 6th generation Intel CPUs is simply an integrated GPU, it cannot really compare to a even a low end dedicated GPU. For example, the weak Geforce 920m is a more powerful than the Intel HD 520. Click link below to see some game benchmarks.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-520.149940.0.html


Based on my experience with the testing my Dell Latitude 3540 laptop (with the dedicated Radeon HD 8850m disabled), the 4th generation Intel HD 4400 in the i5-4200u CPU can play the following games:

Skyrim - Playable at 1600x900 resolution, but needs some manual changes to the SkyrimPref.ini file to do things like disable shadows and decrease the amount of grass among other things. I think the Intel HD 520 should be able to handle Skyrim at 1366x768 resolution with default settings.


Fallout 3 - Based on the same game engine as Oblivion. By default Fallout 3 and Oblivion cannot run using Intel integrated graphics; the games simply does not recognize the Intel iGPU. You need to download the following file in order to play those games; it was originally designed for Oblivion which came out first. While those games are older than Skyrim, the Gamebryo engine is not as well optimized as the Creation engine used in Skyrim so frame rates can vary widely and overall seems to be lower compared to Skyrim from what I recall. The FalloutPref.ini / OblivionPref.ini files needs to be edited to improve performance. Though the games are likely playable at 1366x768 resolution with default settings.

https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/17209/


Mass Effect Trilogy - These 3 games runs fine with the Intel HD 4400 so the newer and somewhat more powerful (I'm guessing ~20% better) should have no problems. Forget Mass Effect Andromeda... I am sure a lot of gamers have forgotten about it.


Star Trek Online - This is a free to play MMO; there is bit of a RPG element to it since there is a skill and specialization system. With the graphics update from April of last year, the game does not play as well as it used to with Intel iGPUs. I tested the game using the slightly more powerful Intel HD 530 iGPU instead of the GTX 960m in my Dell Inspiron 7559 laptop. The game is generally playable at 1600x900 with a mix of low and medium settings.


Morrowind - I tested the game using the Intel HD 4400. Despite having been released 11 years after the Morrowind, it does not handle the game very well at all. Fallout 3 (2008) and Oblivion (2006) runs better.


Sims 3 - Based on seeing others play this game using the Intel HD 3000 in 2nd generation Intel Core i3/i5/i7 CPUs, the Intel HD 520 should not have any problems.


Fallout Shelter - Finally decided to download this free to play game over the weekend. The Intel HD 4400 can definitely run this game.
 
Solution