Budget gaming laptop? Is it possible?

Gallagher1991

Distinguished
Jul 27, 2011
6
0
18,510
Hey guys, i am looking to buy a laptop in about 2 weeks for college and i would be using it for Microsoft office programs, music, and watching movies in between classes and in my down time but i am also looking for one that can handle some gaming. I currently play Borderlands, Fallout 3, Starcraft 2, Darksiders, and some older games that anything could handle :sol:

Im not looking to max out these games but being able to play them at 30fps on low-medium quality setting would be amazing :D My budget is anywhere from $400-700. I am looking for the most for my money so intel, amd, whatever works better i will take. I will be buying it from newegg. Thanks for the help guys!
 
Solution
In spite of having 4 APU cores the A8-3500M lags behind the i5-2410 quite a bit in overall CPU power.
On the Big List of CPU mobile benchmarks the i5-2410 ranks #35 and the A8-3500M is #123.

For GPUs it's a closer match in performance but with the GT 540M having a convincing lead over the HD 6620G.
GT 540M ranked #98 and HD 6620G #125.
Keep in mind that with games which are a bit more CPU dependent (RPGs and Sims) like StarCraft II that gap might be a bit wider.

wintermint

Distinguished
Sep 30, 2009
165
0
18,640
Well between the two I would go for the i5-2410m and the 540m because they'll have better performance imo. Intel is clearly ahead in the processing power. Between the 540M and 6620g.. .they're both mid range graphic cards but according to notebookcheck. The 540m placed in the higher Class 2 while the 6620g is in the lower range.

The other differences are memory (2gb) which shouldn't really matter. 140gb in HDD which may matter to you if you dont keep usb flash drive or external hard drive, and the blu-ray player. I did see that HP has Beats audios but that's probably overrated.
 
In spite of having 4 APU cores the A8-3500M lags behind the i5-2410 quite a bit in overall CPU power.
On the Big List of CPU mobile benchmarks the i5-2410 ranks #35 and the A8-3500M is #123.

For GPUs it's a closer match in performance but with the GT 540M having a convincing lead over the HD 6620G.
GT 540M ranked #98 and HD 6620G #125.
Keep in mind that with games which are a bit more CPU dependent (RPGs and Sims) like StarCraft II that gap might be a bit wider.
 
Solution

Gallagher1991

Distinguished
Jul 27, 2011
6
0
18,510
I just looked at the 17.3'' acer that wintermint suggested and it had the HD 6650M and i was wondering if the performace was greater than the 540M. I would get the 17.3'' if the graphics were considerably better.