Budget gaming laptop

Hey guys, I'm looking to get a laptop for my wife and I to use but I want it to be able to play some games. I'm not talking about Battlefield 4 at 60FPS, but I'd love if it could play World of Warcraft, maybe Dark Souls, indie steam games stuff like that. I have absolutely no idea what to look for, but I don't want to go above 500-600. Do you guys know of the best laptops that would allow me to also play some games on it? Any brands to look for?

Thanks duders.

Hmmm, I don't know if that exists for laptops at that price range...you can find a desktop that can do that for around there if you buy a GPU perhaps.

Maybe I'm wrong though (WOW plays on anything, but not Dark Souls).

Well, then forget I said Dark Souls. That was just something that came to mind. I'm trying to find a laptop in that range (around 500) that could handle some older games. For instance, this site lists some but I don't know what would be good and what isn't.

https://laptopninja.io/finding-the-best-gaming-laptops-under-500-dollars/

I'm no expert my any means, but in my experience, you will get more bang for you buck with ASUS or ACER Laptops. HP's tend to be a bit sluggish for games. For light gaming needs try to steer near an i5 processor or equivalent (i3 will really limit what you will be able to play), 4GB of Ram and 1GB Graphics card, just make sure it isn't an integrated card ( factory cards that usually have significantly less power) Nvidia or AMD cards will work well, AMD tends to be a bit cheaper. If you keep your rig around those specs you should be able to run most indie games, some AAA games on lowest settings and most games from 5 years back or older.From the list you posted I would personally choose the Acer Aspire E5-571-56UQ 15.6-inch Laptop, but do some more research and see what works for you.

I hope this helps!

This one looks pretty good, though it is at your max price point. Should be able to run Dark Souls (Probably even Dark Souls 2) very nicely, and it kind of goes without saying but WOW and most Steam Indies should run like a dream on it. Plus, it has a touch screen if your wife is into that, and on Best Buy you can get a free game with it I think.

I don't know how well this one would handle Dark Souls, but if you wanted something cheaper for indies and WOW this one seems pretty alright.

@ttocs: $500-600 will just about get you a decent laptop for normal use. Gaming laptops are a whole different matter.

I would highly recommend you think about buying a cheap but decent chromebook like a Dell or HP chromebook 11, and putting the rest of your money towards a midrange desktop. Even high end gaming laptops are hard to recommend due to the disadvantages inherent to the form factor, and with a "budget" gaming laptop, you're invariably getting something that's too unwieldy to be a good, portable machine for general usage and at the same time not powerful enough to provide an enjoyable gaming experience.

In short:

• Budget
• Gaming
• Laptop

Choose two!

I would never recommend a laptop for gaming for any number of reasons, but if you are going to stick to older games and indie games with simple graphics then you might be able to find something. Try to find a computer with a quad core CPU (like a Core i5 for example), at least 4 GB of RAM (although six will give you more legroom so to speak) and a graphics card with a minimum of 1 GB of RAM that supports DX11. For AMD graphics cards you want the number to end in 80 or 90 (or 870 or 950 for older models) such as a Radeon 280 for example. A 270 might do as well but that is very low end for gaming. On the Nvidia front you'll want something ending in 60 or 70 (with the 750 ti being the bare minimum I could recommend if they have a laptop version of that card). The ones ending in 80 or 90 are better but they cost more than $500 alone.

EDIT: Looking through that list the only one I could recommend as even a light gaming machine would be the HP Envy Touchsmart. You are absolutely not going to be running any game released in the past several years at all and older ones only on the lowest settings at no more than 30 fps, but 2D games and games more than 5 years old should run just fine. checked the minimum specs for Dark Souls and I'd say a desktop version of the GPU in that computer would meet the minimum specs just barely but a laptop version I wouldn't recommend.

Two good cheap ones

http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-G50-70-Laptop-Computer-Generation/dp/B00LASSTYK

http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-V3-572G-587W-15-6-Inch-Platinum/dp/B00K81O3PY

There's really no such thing as a budget gaming laptop. Whatever you do, make sure that you do not get an intergrated graphics card. Even if it's a decent card, there are some games that straight up won't run on them, and most under-utilize them.

Good luck. They don't really exist.

Thank you for that...
Had a shitty day and that was the first time I laughed.
hah!

A budget gaming laptop basically means a laptop with a "-50M" card, 650, 750, etc, they aren't powerhouses but will get you through most games if you don't expect lots of anti aliasing and turning stuff on ultra.

Bit narrow minded as there's plenty of awesome gaming laptops out there, yes they'll always be more expensive than a desktop PC but you pay for portability.

My laptop can play BF4 on ultra and doesn't get excessively hot (70-80c max load), I do prefer using my PC though, of course, my PC has my Xonar Essence STX and a bigger screen. (27" vs 17")

Huh? Just do research before hand and buy a laptop that doesn't operate as a small heater. The build quality on mine is lovely, unfortunately the smaller versions of it suffer from thermal throttling.

The biggest problem in many gaming laptops is Intel Turbo Boost is turned on by default which raises temperatures by around 20-25 degrees, this is silly as for 99% of games CPU speed makes little difference to performance, for me I turned this off and ran benchmarks - I cut a lot of my temperatures down, reduced noise a fair amount and didn't lose any performance at all. I also noticed an improved overall computing experience as my CPU wasn't constantly bouncing up to 3.4Ghz for no reason.

Turbo Boost is just a bad feature and doesn't work correctly, it shouldn't put my cores up to 150% just because I opened up Skype. As for battery life, my one lasts for around 4-5 hours, I don't really care about that though as it mostly sits at home, it's decent enough as I never take any laptops I have without a plug anyway. I have a MacBook Air at the moment which is my go-to for taking a laptop to the library or something, I'm thinking of selling both and buying a brand new laptop next year when the 970M comes out. (probably with a 15" screen to make it more portable too)

My desktop will always be my preferred option but as someone that will soon have an 18 month placement abroad, a gaming laptop is far more convenient than a desktop. I don't see the point in buying a gaming laptop unless you are travelling a lot or have an upcoming placement somewhere far away, I'll admit that, they just don't offer the same value for money, but hey, still cheaper than Apple! (groan)

@privodotmenit: Okay, I'll concede that there are certain situations where it would be helpful. But for $500 he isn't going to be getting anything ending in 50. Most laptops in that range are lucky to have a dedicated GPU at all, and if they do it is a couple generations old and on the very lowest end of the spectrum.

I probably shouldn't have said "gaming" laptop. I'm looking for a laptop that can play indie steam games and World of Warcraft. That's about it. We need a laptop to begin with, but I just want to make sure, for the price, that I get one that can play some low intensive games and World of Warcraft. I have a gaming PC already, so no need there. I'm just looking for the best laptop I can get for around 500-600 bucks that can also play some games. I really shouldn't have said gaming laptop, my bad.

So far, this seems to be the one I'm leaning towards since it has an nvidia card and seems like a decent enough laptop. Again, only going to be putting WoW and maybe some indie steam games on it. Nothing like Far Cry 4. I have my gaming PC for that. We just need a laptop and I want to make sure I get a good one.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00K81O3PY/ref=psdc_565108_t1_B00MM2WA8O#productDetails