First, apologies if this isn’t the best community; please direct me to a better venue if so.
TLDR: I need to buy 2× used gaming laptops that are powerful enough for 3D-heavy games – I don’t know what to look for?
Situation:
My kids have used Lenovo laptops for their rooms, and after some years, their gaming choices (BeamNG and other such 3D-heavy games) mean that old business laptops won’t cut it. They need to be replaced (the laptops, not the kids!).
Problem:
Back when I was young, I understood CPU and GPU requirements - these days I don’t. Help!
- An Intel i7 may be great but it may also be several years old. I don’t understand the naming anymore.
- Most normal laptops have integrated graphics which don’t satisfy even most basic GPU requirements.
- Real “gaming laptops” are expensive! And I need 2 of them! Gotta find something used, and I have no idea what search criteria to set.
If your kids don’t need a laptop, I’d highly recommend just getting them a desktop pc with GTX 1060 or RX 5600 or better. You should be able to find these used at a fraction of the cost of gaming laptops with the same performance, plus they’ll be a LOT quieter.
Gaming performance requires cooling, which means ideally some big chunks of metal with a lot of air going through. Laptops should be light, thin and portable. These requirements don’t mix well.
As the other post said, a desktop will go farther (and last longer!) for less money, and you can build/repair/buy one and upgrade it later.
I wrote a long, detailed wall of text, but I changed it in favor of saying, go out and research the games/requirements that are needed, and then go research benchmarks of CPU’s and GPU’s running those games. What is your budget? It’s impossible to give a realistic suggestion without a budget.
Not sure what your budget is, or what type of games they are getting into. But if you want to stay with laptops you have really two high level directions.
Get one with an integrated GPU that’s pretty good (ryzen for example) or get one with a discrete GPU.
Another point, I’ve bought new and used, sometimes you can find decent prices on used stuff, especially if you’re willing to haggle, but new stuff on closeout is also worth considering.
If they aren’t playing cyberpunk, something that has a ryzen 5 or 7 config might just work great. Here’s a dell for $550
If you need an actual GPU then you the price goes way up. But shop around a bit, buying at the end of November is usually a good time to find deals. Here’s another with a 4050 for $899 Here’s one with a GeForce 4070 for $1399
