Solved! What is considered a mid-range GPU in laptops.

[rogueleader]

I'm going to college soon and as such I must purchase a laptop. I would like to get one that can play triple A games (not necessarily at extremely high quality with 8x aa, but at least at the native resolution with medium settings at a reasonable framerate), that will not soon become obsolete (can play triple A games for atleast 2-2.5 years).

My price range is around 800, what gpus should I be looking for?

 

[lostandwandering]

Mid-range now would probably be 9600M GT or an HD4650. IMO, if you want a decent gaming experience those would be the minimum requirement. Anything less would probably be a disappointment.

 

[frozenlead]

^+1.

Generally, any card with a 6 as the second number in it's model is a midrange card.

 

[rogueleader]

^+1.

Generally, any card with a 6 as the second number in it's model is a midrange card.

Yep, I know that from building desktop pcs. I just would like to know where a card like the NVIDIA GeForce GT 220M or the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 falls in. Are these cards worthless for gaming?

 

[lostandwandering]

^Out of the two the HD 4650 is the better card and it is actually not that bad of a performer. This site will give you a decent idea of what to expect: http/www.notebookcheck.net/Which-games-run-fluidly-on-notebook-graphics-cards.18488.0.html