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GeForce vs AMD vs no video card

mauricio#0588 mauricio Member Posts: 12 Arc User
Which is better to buy, apple MacBook pro 15 with amd 4gb for boot camp or any gaming PC laptop for 4 gb GeForce? But I wonder how many GB for full settings on video card graphic? Can it be without video card?? Razer blade stealth 13" have no video card but it has shared 16 gb, will that still works for games?? Star trek online said works better on Alienware. I wonder why? Since Alienware was the first founded then years later razer founded so I wonder razer is better or Alienware still better?? I'm no game expert but I want top best video card for full settings and I rather want MacBook but razer is same but not Mac-y. Hmm hard to thinking! What's your advice?

Comments

  • tigerariestigeraries Member Posts: 3,492 Arc User
    as long as you can do DX10 and met the min specs your ok... higher the better.

    NVidia GeForce 8000
    ATI/AMD Radeon HD 2000
    Intel G965M Express
    Intel HD Graphics 2000 or better

    keep in mind, these specs are old and uses the min setting.

    alienware doesn't run STO better... they just pay for product placement.
  • mauricio#0588 mauricio Member Posts: 12 Arc User
    Ok awesome thanks it make much easier to decide.
  • jaguarskxjaguarskx Member Posts: 5,945 Arc User
    Before you go out and make your purchase based on the above system minimum recommendation, let me give you a bit of information from my own personal testing of playing STO on 2 different laptops.

    First of all, yes you can play STO with a laptop that has integrated graphics. However, they will not give what most people would consider good performance in STO and STO has relatively low system requirements compared to many other games. My Dell Inspiron 7559 has a quad core i5-6300HQ (Intel HD 530 integrated graphics core) and a GTX 960m.

    The GTX 960m can pretty much run the game with max settings at 1080p resolution and for the most part it gets 50+ FSP unless there are a lot of particle affects. Then it can drop below 50 FPS. The GTX 960m was considered to be the weakest of nVidia's previous generation GPU that most hardcore gamers (those people who likes to max out everything most of the time) that "qualifies" as a gaming GPU. The current generation nVidia GPU that "qualifies" as a gaming GPU is the GTX 1050 (which is roughly about 25% more powerful than the GTX 960m).

    The Intel HD 530 found in 6th generation Intel CPUs basically has the same ballpark performance as the the Intel HD 620 / Intel UHD 620 found in the current 7th / 8th generation Intel CPUs. Definitely more powerful than the old Intel HD 2000, but still pretty weak compared to dedicated GPU. Playing at 1080p using a mix of low and medium settings with Lighting 2.0 disable, frame rates are generally floating between 20 FPS and 30 FPS with 24 FPS being the average. When there are a lot of particle affects frame rates can drop to 15 FPS or even lower. Lowering the resolution to 1600x900 the Intel HD 530 can more consistently get close to 30 FPS most of the time.
  • evilmark444evilmark444 Member Posts: 6,950 Arc User
    Used to be an nVidia guy, then switched to AMD about a year and a half ago cause they were so much more affordable, but I think I heard that the rush to mine crypto currency has caused AMD cards to spike in price so nVidia might be a better option now even if your on a budget. Stay away from integrated graphics if at all possible.

    Also, unless you absolutely need portability I would avoid a laptop for gaming. Desktops (especially windows PCs) can be easily upgraded over time and it's very easy to manage heat, laptops on the other hand usually can't be upgraded outside of increasing the RAM and can have issues with cooling. Back in '05 I got an Alienware laptop and I swear it felt like that thing got hot enough to fry eggs on the mouse pad any time I played a game, I wasn't surprised at all when it eventually stopped turning on.
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  • arionisaarionisa Member Posts: 1,421 Arc User
    Best advice. Do not, do not, do not buy a laptop without a dedicated graphics card if you plan to be gaming on it. It might work fine today but that will not last. My last laptop ran STO just fine with everything maxed when I first started playing, by the time Lighting 2.0 was brought out I could only play with lighting 2.0 turned off and most setting at min.

    I now have a lap top with a dedicated Geforce 920MX with 2GB ram and everything is now at max again. I don't track frame rates, I just know that it requires a lot of action, with a lot of effects going off to notice any changes in smoothness.

    Other advice, when shopping for a laptop, do not limit your search to gaming laptops. Search for laptops with dedicated graphics. When I was looking, the best priced gaming laptop I found was a refurbished one from Best Buy. Then I searched for dedicated graphics instead of gaming and found this one. Open box, not refurbished, same processor, ram, and video card as the gaming laptop, just a 1TB HDD instead of a 1.5 but only 1/2 the price. I do believe the "gaming" laptop had a few other options dealing with multimedia plus more USB ports etc, stuff I'll never miss. The big thing that I noticed in my searching was that with 2 almost identical laptops, just calling one a "gaming" laptop means the price will be significantly higher.

    BTW, my old laptop that I first mentioned. It was a gaming laptop, and was quite expensive when I bought it. Even a "gaming" laptop might have integrated graphics so don't let the "gaming" in the name sucker you in like it did me.

    Disclaimer: Amazon, Ebay etc might have had better laptops/prices, and possibly not such a huge price difference just for having "gaming" in the name. When it comes to things like laptops I only buy through a retail chain that has a store within driving distance. I'm not going to deal with the time and hassle of shipping it back and forth if something is/goes wrong with it.
    LTS and loving it.
    Ariotex.png
  • jaguarskxjaguarskx Member Posts: 5,945 Arc User
    arionisa wrote: »
    I now have a lap top with a dedicated Geforce 920MX with 2GB ram and everything is now at max again. I don't track frame rates, I just know that it requires a lot of action, with a lot of effects going off to notice any changes in smoothness.

    I assume you are playing at 1366x768 resolution since the 920mx is a pretty weak GPU. Intel actually do have high end CPUs that have integrated graphic cores that are equal to or more powerful than the 920mx. Intel's most powerful integrated GPU is the Iris Pro Graphics P580 which is relatively close to the performance of the nVdia 945m.
  • mirrorchaosmirrorchaos Member Posts: 9,844 Arc User
    The Intel integrated cards are the last act of the deperate to play from, they literally don't have the ability to run a hotdog stand let alone produce graphical rudeness. :tongue:

    If you really want to experience this game? Go for either card maker, Nvidia or AMD. The latter is always much cheaper but it is often unreliable, it is the reason i switched away from AMD for Nvidia. The former is far more expensive but you get a solid graphical beast and reliability to match.

    Now Laptops were never designed for gaming, not even the gaming laptops as they were originally designed for office use. If you really must play games from it with some graphical capabilities, play some games that won't stress the laptop enough to turn your cool room into a furnace. Luckily STO is 8 years old and the engine is even older, more than 10 years old. so the chances are that a reasonable laptop from today so long as the cpu and graphics are beyond min specs and not an intel intregrated, it would also be nice to make sure your memory is 8gb with good virtual memory numbers and graphics memory higher than 2gb if possible (and try to avoid ddr3 or ddr5 memory for the graphics card).

    gaming laptops are seldom cheap and around level pegging with a complete entry level PC build.
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    Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
  • seaofsorrowsseaofsorrows Member Posts: 10,918 Arc User
    I won't ge too much into the NVidia vs. AMD thing since I admit my heavy bias toward Nvidia and based on years of experience, it's not an opinion I am currently open to changing. :)

    That being the case, what others have said is absolutely right.. get one of the two, do not depend on integrated graphics if you plan on playing games. Integrated graphics are just fine for normal web use, watching videos, social media, etc. They're also more then sufficient for work computers running office applications and they really help bring down the overall cost of building an 'every day' PC for non gamers.

    If you want to game, you really need either an AMD or Nvidia GPU for best performance. Don't get too hung up on how many GB the card has because while it's important.. there are also many more factors that are just important if not more then total memory size.

    Your first step is deciding between mobile or desktop. This decision should be fairly simple.. if you don't need the ability to take the computer with you on the go.. get a desktop. It's really that simple. Laptops in this day and age are great gamers but you pay for portability and you have to deal with how difficult (or sometimes impossible) they are to upgrade. Desktop will cost you less, generally perform better, and will last a very long time due to the fact that they're easy to upgrade.

    If you're going the desktop route, the best deal at this time is still the GTX 750 Ti. It's more then enough to handle STO with ease but it's not powerful enough to be a desirable GPU for Crypto Mining so it still runs right around $250 USD for the 2GB version. If that's still more then you want to pay, I would give serious looks to the GTX 750 or the Radeon RX 560. At around $150 USD they are both great cards for STO if playing at 1080p resolution. They will struggle with higher end games, but even demanding games should still be playable on Low-Medium settings depending on CPU and RAM.

    If you decide to go Laptop, that complicates things, but I am sure we can still find you some deals. I would be prepared to pay a bare minimum of $1k USD for a descent gamer and expect closer to $1200-$1500 depending on how much power you require. You could build a really good desktop for roughly half that. It all depends on how much you need portability.
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  • theraven2378theraven2378 Member Posts: 5,985 Arc User
    Geforce, much better than AMD
    NMXb2ph.png
      "The meaning of victory is not to merely defeat your enemy but to destroy him, to completely eradicate him from living memory, to leave no remnant of his endeavours, to crush utterly his achievement and remove from all record his every trace of existence. From that defeat no enemy can ever recover. That is the meaning of victory."
      -Lord Commander Solar Macharius
    • protoneousprotoneous Member Posts: 2,952 Arc User
      Which is better to buy, apple MacBook pro 15 with amd 4gb for boot camp or any gaming PC laptop for 4 gb GeForce? But I wonder how many GB for full settings on video card graphic? Can it be without video card?? Razer blade stealth 13" have no video card but it has shared 16 gb, will that still works for games?? Star trek online said works better on Alienware. I wonder why? Since Alienware was the first founded then years later razer founded so I wonder razer is better or Alienware still better?? I'm no game expert but I want top best video card for full settings and I rather want MacBook but razer is same but not Mac-y. Hmm hard to thinking! What's your advice?
      As someone who's played STO on a Mac for over 7 years (now via bootcamp on a 2012 Mac Pro), you may want to compare a Dell XPS 15 vs the Macbook Pro 15 or Razor.

      The XPS (FHD not 4K) is my current laptop of choice while Apple corrects a few issues with their laptops. When you compare specs, ports, price, and upgradability it ended up being my choice and plays STO fine at FHD or 2560x1440 with external screen. It also has the benefits of upgradable RAM, M.2 SSD, as well as USB3, USB3 type C, Thunderbolt 3 and XDHC ports, and room for a second 2.5" HDD. The TB16 Thunderbolt block blends well with a laptop/desktop system as well. So far the ownership experience has been pretty good.

      The current MBP 15 will play STO just fine though if you want to stay within the Apple environment except while gaming in Windows10. Tbh I miss that environment, as well as the better track pad and (versions 2015 and prior) better keyboard. Just be aware that the MBP 15 currently has keyboard issues and the storage and RAM isn't upgradable (soldered in).

      Cryptic stating that STO plays better on Alienware (made by Dell) is nothing more than cooperative advertising. I looked at Razor laptop products but for me at least found the XPS 15 to be a better choice (accessories, price, reviews).

      As others have stated a discrete graphics card is highly preferable. The mobile version of the Nvidea 1030 or better (PC) or the AMD in the Mac you're looking at (or the AMD used in any MBP 2013 or later). However gaming laptops (PC) with a 1060 or higher you'll usually pay a price of way more heat and fan noise for those better frame rates and higher graphics settings.

    • arionisaarionisa Member Posts: 1,421 Arc User
      jaguarskx wrote: »
      arionisa wrote: »
      I now have a lap top with a dedicated Geforce 920MX with 2GB ram and everything is now at max again. I don't track frame rates, I just know that it requires a lot of action, with a lot of effects going off to notice any changes in smoothness.

      I assume you are playing at 1366x768 resolution since the 920mx is a pretty weak GPU. Intel actually do have high end CPUs that have integrated graphic cores that are equal to or more powerful than the 920mx. Intel's most powerful integrated GPU is the Iris Pro Graphics P580 which is relatively close to the performance of the nVdia 945m.

      Yep, I play my games at the same resolution as my desktop as running a game in windowed mode at a different res than the desktop can cause problems. While the 920mx might be considered weak when compared to some top of the line cards, it is powerful enough to run every game I play at max, which makes it plenty strong enough for me. :)
      LTS and loving it.
      Ariotex.png
    • theraven2378theraven2378 Member Posts: 5,985 Arc User
      Geforce 745 for me, oldish card but it still does the job it's designed for so no complaints
      NMXb2ph.png
        "The meaning of victory is not to merely defeat your enemy but to destroy him, to completely eradicate him from living memory, to leave no remnant of his endeavours, to crush utterly his achievement and remove from all record his every trace of existence. From that defeat no enemy can ever recover. That is the meaning of victory."
        -Lord Commander Solar Macharius
      • casualstocasualsto Member Posts: 672 Arc User
        Invest in a good pc/laptop. Maybe you will want to play other more demanding games. Also STO works fine on better computers, especially with a good CPU.
      • vetteguy904vetteguy904 Member Posts: 3,844 Arc User
        unless you need portability, seriously, go desktop. you can build a gaming rig for 1K that will let you run STO or SWTOR at max settings
        Spock.jpg

      • protoneousprotoneous Member Posts: 2,952 Arc User
        No serious gamer would ever consider a MAC for anything other than a door stop. STO is not supported on a MAC so you have to use a workaround called Bootcamp to run it in a Windows environment and if you're going to do that then you may as well get a gaming PC. Obviously this depends on your budget and here I would say stretch it as far as you can go to future proof yourself to some extent. Go for the 10 series Nvidia cards, obviously the GTX 1080Ti is the current top dog but some second hand GTX 1080s are on ebay at a good price and this is a phenomenal card. The GTX1050Ti is extremely good and will run all games easily and is considerably cheaper than the 1080s. STO is a bit heavy on the CPU so get a fast clock CPU, e.g. 4.0 gHz Skylake or similar.

        Try to squeeze in at least 16GB DDR4 ram, ideally 32 or 64Gb. Go for an M2 chip for the OS and only SSDs for your main gaming drive, you can stick a good sized mechanical drive in there for storage. A nice gaming motherboard such as the Asus Z170-K and a good case with some liquid cooling and plenty of fans and your cooking with gas.
        I guess I'm not a "serious gamer" then :smile: Many people prefer working in the OSX environment when not gaming combined with the refinement of construction of a Mac. Bootcamp is not a workaround, it's called running Windows :wink: Being able to run multiple OS's is called versatility. Per my post above a new Macbook Pro laptop (or any 2013 and above) will play STO just fine. I've being playing STO without any issues on both Mac laptops and desktops for 7 years.

        My Mac Pro desktop plays STO at 2560x1600 with all settings maxed. It meets all the requirements you've outlined: 16GB ram, OS's and game on PCIe connected SSD's, supports M.2, 10 series graphics card, 3.6GHz hex core processor. etc. It also runs W7, W10, and 3 different versions of Mac operating systems.

        Since the OP seemed interested in laptops, I did mention the XPS 15 which I also happen to own. While not a gaming laptop it's one of the few I've come across that comes close to the construction, refinement, and portability of a MBP, while again meeting the other requirements you've outlined. Being a windows laptop and mentioning a current issue with the new MBP keyboards I guess you could say my advice was without prejudice.

        This wasn't supposed to be a Mac vs PC thread, the idea is to help the OP within the guidelines he set in his post which was choosing a laptop.
      • seaofsorrowsseaofsorrows Member Posts: 10,918 Arc User
        No serious gamer would ever consider a MAC for anything other than a door stop. STO is not supported on a MAC so you have to use a workaround called Bootcamp to run it in a Windows environment and if you're going to do that then you may as well get a gaming PC. Obviously this depends on your budget and here I would say stretch it as far as you can go to future proof yourself to some extent. Go for the 10 series Nvidia cards, obviously the GTX 1080Ti is the current top dog but some second hand GTX 1080s are on ebay at a good price and this is a phenomenal card. The GTX1050Ti is extremely good and will run all games easily and is considerably cheaper than the 1080s. STO is a bit heavy on the CPU so get a fast clock CPU, e.g. 4.0 gHz Skylake or similar.

        Try to squeeze in at least 16GB DDR4 ram, ideally 32 or 64Gb. Go for an M2 chip for the OS and only SSDs for your main gaming drive, you can stick a good sized mechanical drive in there for storage. A nice gaming motherboard such as the Asus Z170-K and a good case with some liquid cooling and plenty of fans and your cooking with gas.

        I agree with some of this, but you're kind of moving further into the high end spectrum then it sounds like what the OP is after. You could build a quality gaming computer for less then what you suggested, even though your suggestions are obviously solid. The sweet spot for price to value in gaming right now lies more in the i5 lineup, a GTX 1080 is overkill for non VR gamers running 1440p or lower, but all of what you said is good except for RAM.

        You should check out this article and other similar articles on the topic of RAM for gaming. In short, even at 4k, you will never.. ever break the 16GB barrier. 32 GB is toally unnecessary and respectfully.. 64GB is ludicrous. With the current pricing on DDR4 RAM you would spend more on 64GB of Memory then you would on on the rest of the system. In short, 8GB is fine.. 16GB is optimal. More then that is 100% useless if you're just gaming.
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      • salvation4salvation4 Member Posts: 1,167 Arc User
        Yeah..Here I am waiting to build my second new rig as I gave my last one away..Currently using a rig with an IGPU of a C2Q Q8600 2.66GHz with 8 gig of DDR2 800MHz which had a GTX560 that got killed because of a power flactuation, YES I KNOW THATS ANCIENT TRIBBLE RIGHT THERE, but atleast it can run STO for the time being till I can build my new rig..LOL.STO is kind to the older hardware also..
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      • protoneousprotoneous Member Posts: 2,952 Arc User
        On the bright side, hopefully video card, RAM, and other solid state memory has peaked in price and will come down in the near future.
      • protoneousprotoneous Member Posts: 2,952 Arc User
        No offense taken. You did manage to sneak in quite a few colorful comments about Macs: "don't have time for pretty looks", "our (PC) machines are working machines", "outdated and restrictive", "they should stick to cel phones", attracting the naive and uneducated" "the PC will always win" :wink: but do so while stating many good reasons and from the standpoint of a computer literate person who makes makes a living off their machine. Would it surprise you if I actually agreed with the vast majority of your statements?
        Sorry, I am not MAC fan and I didn't mean to disparage your machine, I'm sure it does everything you need well. However I'm a pro film editor and in my business we don't have time for pretty looks, our machines are working machines and as such need to be compatible with 99% of the software and film formats out there. When a client comes to us and tells us he needs his raws back as .Mov because he can't access any other film format without first converting it then we have a problem. Apple don't release their codecs and so the codecs we have are never as good as the genuine Apple version and the film quality suffers. Now if majority of our clients ran MACs then we would have to invest in them too. However 99% of our clients run PC based systems and as you know PC systems have no such restrictions, every and all film formats are available to them.

        It's wasn't about pretty looks for for me at least but quality of construction and the engineering behind it that leads to easy of use with great longevity... therefore there used to be some value for the extra cost you'd pay. A mac laptop almost a decade old used to have a better trackpad and keyboard than the vast majority (if not most) of PC laptops on the market. It's a shame many PC laptops were made so cheaply that they might as well be considered "short term, disposabe" items.

        Lately though Apple has done a great job with their own design decisions (after leaving their users with outdated systems since about 2013) making their high end laptops even thinner so they can thermal throttle faster, not be able to handle even a lower TDP half decent video card, needing a lower profile keyboard that is almost due for a mass recall, and have soldered in not only the RAM but the SSD storage as well, while raising their prices to almost ridiculous levels. Did I mention their way oversized trackpad that interferes with typing for many? Looks like they really are targeting the naive coffee shop crowd instead of the creative professional and are trying their best to make their expensive machines disposable.

        I'm not a pro film editor but at one time was involved in professional level fine art printing. Entire video, photo, and audio studios (including mine) used to be often based upon the former 2012 and prior Mac Pro. Then came the the 2013 garbage can style replacement which may have been a great example of unique airflow engineering but was otherwise useless in a studio environment due to lack of connectivity and expansion options. Can't speak for video but they also outright dropped their class leading Aperture photo management software leaving many studios who used it in a lurch with massive libraries that had to be converted and imported into replacement software. It's no wonder 99% of your customers run PC based systems. I'm making the switch as well.
        PCs don't have to run a different operating system to enable them to run a game or any other software. You didn't want it to be a MAC v PC debate and for good reason, the PC will always win, especially nowadays with a great OS as W10 and enormous processing power per $ value of the PC, supreme flexibility. The OP asked if he should get a MAC, I'm telling him why he's wasting his money, only a MAC enthusiast would ever advise a non IT literate person to get a MAC for gaming or anything else, it's quite simply an outdated and too restrictive system.

        Many people still prefer the Mac OS environment for their consumer day to day needs. For quite a while it was at least a decade ahead of windows in many ease of use aspects. I agree that this is no longer the case. It's about time Windows caught up. It's neither outdated nor restrictive imho, but may be restrictive for your own uses. If the OP likes the Mac environment the choice is his but agree it shoehorns you into that environment unless you want to dual boot.
        MACs have had their day IMO, Apple should stick to what they are good at, sometimes, phones, and the general public should do their research before being sold an overpriced but pretty piece of technology that can't run most software in the world without having to use the software from a PC first.

        Given the direction Macs have been heading I can't disagree that they've had their day. Again though don't confuse pretty with well built and realize for the non-gamer there isn't much in the way of consumer software a Mac can't natively run. Also agree with their products being overpriced while in their day at least you got some return on that price by way of build and engineering.
        There's a reason Apple stores look like the bridge of the Enterprise and why Apple's marketing is so slick, it attracts the naïve and uneducated (in terms of IT) public to its platform. Sure Bootcamp will work but you're going to need a powerful MAC to make all games work well and for a far lower price you can get a PC that will do it better.

        Are you calling me naive and uneducated? (j/k) It attracts people who like working within the Mac environment. From your narrow perspective of just gaming I agree you're going to need a powerful Mac to make all games work well. Do they currently make such a product that can compete with a Windows machine, especially within a reasonable price range and with ease of upgrade-ability? Nope. Another clear win for windows. They haven't really offered a decent desktop since 2012, which happens to be the unit I own and was referring to as hitting all your requirements in my original post, and has been heavily upgraded.
        So, if you have neither and you are into games, it's pointless buying a MAC, if you are into film editing it's pointless buying a MAC, in fact I don't see any point in buying a MAC at all. If you have one like you then fine, make the best of it, you have, but to advise others that MACs are ok for gaming is not really fair.

        I advised the OP that the MBP he was looking at would play STO just fine, but also suggested that he consider a windows laptop. You may not see any point for buying a Mac at all, I still do but those reasons are diminishing so rapidly I may be in 100% agreement with you any day now :sweat:

        There was once a picture of a Mac on the cover of PC Magazine entitled "the fastest Windows laptop of the year is... a Mac". Sadly they've most likely had their day and unless you like the environment for general purpose day to day use I agree with your recommendations, and thank you for your well written post. This response written on a PC by a former Mac enthusiast.



      • protoneousprotoneous Member Posts: 2,952 Arc User
        edited May 2018
        @protoneous , well written and interesting, thanks.
        Your post inspired one of those rare double-shot moments in life when you realize a) you're trying to defend something that's no longer defensible and b) that the company whose produces the computers you've used for many years may have have lost it's direction. Hopefully they'll find it again.


      • vetteguy904vetteguy904 Member Posts: 3,844 Arc User
        edited June 2018
        well, I'm running a GTX 770 windstream 4g and I'm running maxed out quality...

        and i will echo the others.. stay away from MAC as long as widows 7 is supported by M$.
        Spock.jpg

      • isabella#8688 isabella Member Posts: 1 New User
        You see, saying “better graphics cards” isn’t exactly free of vagueness. When you say “better”, you could be talking about performance, expense, efficiency and even if you pick just one criterion, you have to choose between consumer and professional cards.
        I think NVIDIA won the competition this year because they practically made AMD get lost in oblivion in the high end market and they still did pretty well in the budget end.
      • protoneousprotoneous Member Posts: 2,952 Arc User
        [snip]
        ...and i will echo the others.. stay away from MAC as long as widows 7 is supported by M$.
        I'd hold of on Macs until they've resolved issues with their laptop keyboards and release their new desktop (Mac Pro) replacement. It would be nice to see a laptop SSD replacment or upgrade path as well for their 15 inch laptops. Only the 15" models have discrete graphics.

        Obviously if you have specialty uses (serious gaming is a specialty use) where windows is a better fit get whatever is best for you or provides what you value most.

        Keep in mind the OP was trying to decide between a Razor, Macbook Pro, or Alienware laptop and seemed to be questioning discrete versus dedicated graphics (i.e. Razor 13" dedicated).

        My recommendation remains the same as above: a quality Windows 10 laptop with a discrete Nvidea card in the 1050, 1050Ti, to 1060 range. I'll add that it should be M.2 NVMe SSD based in this day and age and have no less than 8GB of ram.

        If you really like the Mac OS and experience as some do, hang tight until the issues mentioned are corrected and be prepared to pay more for a less up-gradable product (memory, and possibly SSD) that will most likely give you less gaming performance, but may make up for this in other areas for some.

      • vetteguy904vetteguy904 Member Posts: 3,844 Arc User
        protoneous wrote: »
        [snip]
        ...and i will echo the others.. stay away from MAC as long as widows 7 is supported by M$.
        I'd hold of on Macs until they've resolved issues with their laptop keyboards and release their new desktop (Mac Pro) replacement. It would be nice to see a laptop SSD replacment or upgrade path as well for their 15 inch laptops. Only the 15" models have discrete graphics.

        Obviously if you have specialty uses (serious gaming is a specialty use) where windows is a better fit get whatever is best for you or provides what you value most.

        Keep in mind the OP was trying to decide between a Razor, Macbook Pro, or Alienware laptop and seemed to be questioning discrete versus dedicated graphics (i.e. Razor 13" dedicated).

        My recommendation remains the same as above: a quality Windows 10 laptop with a discrete Nvidea card in the 1050, 1050Ti, to 1060 range. I'll add that it should be M.2 NVMe SSD based in this day and age and have no less than 8GB of ram.

        If you really like the Mac OS and experience as some do, hang tight until the issues mentioned are corrected and be prepared to pay more for a less up-gradable product (memory, and possibly SSD) that will most likely give you less gaming performance, but may make up for this in other areas for some.

        agreed, but for the price he is going to pour into any of his choices, he is far better off with a desktop, unless as I posterd before, he needs the portability. but I'm thinking he can build the game rig and still get a decent lappy for whatever else he needs to do
        Spock.jpg

      • protoneousprotoneous Member Posts: 2,952 Arc User
        protoneous wrote: »
        [snip]
        ...and i will echo the others.. stay away from MAC as long as widows 7 is supported by M$.
        I'd hold of on Macs until they've resolved issues with their laptop keyboards and release their new desktop (Mac Pro) replacement. It would be nice to see a laptop SSD replacment or upgrade path as well for their 15 inch laptops. Only the 15" models have discrete graphics.

        Obviously if you have specialty uses (serious gaming is a specialty use) where windows is a better fit get whatever is best for you or provides what you value most.

        Keep in mind the OP was trying to decide between a Razor, Macbook Pro, or Alienware laptop and seemed to be questioning discrete versus dedicated graphics (i.e. Razor 13" dedicated).

        My recommendation remains the same as above: a quality Windows 10 laptop with a discrete Nvidea card in the 1050, 1050Ti, to 1060 range. I'll add that it should be M.2 NVMe SSD based in this day and age and have no less than 8GB of ram.

        If you really like the Mac OS and experience as some do, hang tight until the issues mentioned are corrected and be prepared to pay more for a less up-gradable product (memory, and possibly SSD) that will most likely give you less gaming performance, but may make up for this in other areas for some.

        agreed, but for the price he is going to pour into any of his choices, he is far better off with a desktop, unless as I posterd before, he needs the portability. but I'm thinking he can build the game rig and still get a decent lappy for whatever else he needs to do
        You're absolutely right. A desktop is by far best bang for your dollar. A couple of the OP's choices carry a base price tag of $3000 up here in Canada (our dollar is about 25% less than the USD atm). A friend just bought a discrete video card laptop with an SSD and IPS screen for about $700. That's enough left over for a desktop there so yes, pricey choices.



      • vetteguy904vetteguy904 Member Posts: 3,844 Arc User
        yep. I'm willing to even wager that the cost of a MBP, you can get a same stat laptop AND build the gaming desktop
        Spock.jpg

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