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-   -   The Laptop Thread: Configs, deals & questions (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/gadgets-computers-software/67390-laptop-thread-configs-deals-questions-316.html)

Thanks, but I have already seen that. That link isn't of much help.

In fact the below link gives a more better detailed and game based feedback too.
http://www.game-debate.com/gpu/index...e-gtx-960m-2gb

But I was not looking for links like that - have spent a lot of time on those. I know 960M is better - that's a no-brainer. The point is the additional $200. I was looking for subjective feedback from someone who has gone through this decision and could give his/her feedback on any one of the GPUs, especially the 950M or a cheaper one like the 940MX.

I went ahead and purchased a deal with GTX 950M with GDDR5 ram, which is a lower clocked version of 960M. Will give feedback later.

I have a laptop with 860M (960 is successor of it) and also have a gaming rig with GTX 780ti. If you ask my experience with both of them in regards of gaming performance then I would say the laptop is no where near in gaming department when compared with that desktop. I can bear only light games on that laptop. 850M/950M are much worst. And no, 950 is not lower clocked version of the 960M, rather its higher clocked version of 850M.

Look at the benchmarks, picked from the same GPUboss link I posted earlier. frame-rate in benchmarks of demanding games like Battlefield or Thief is unacceptable on the 950M/850M compared to 960M/860M:

Thanks. And of course, the laptop is never going to be close to the desktop, even with the upcoming Pascal GPUs.

Well I am referencing to 950M with GDDR5. That one is supposed to be the lower clocked version of 960M. The link you are referencing to is with DDR3 ram, an older version.

On paper (and if I refer to this link) it makes it a far better GPU than the older one with DDR3, and close to the 960M, also with GDDR5.

Anyway I have purchased the unit already. So will share feedback once I get it. From what I researched, there should not be a big difference.

With an i5 Skylar CPUs, and 8GB of DDR4 should give me a fair chance to play most of the top-end games, atleast on medium settings, if not high.

A short update - I cancelled that old order and went for a better spec gaming laptop - Dell Inspiron 15 7559
- i7-6700HQ
- 8 gigs of DDR3 ram
- GTX 960M with 4 gigs of GDDR5 ram
and the whole works. Slightly on the higher side of what I needed but that's fine.

So far I'm busy trying out the games I have and they are running just great at max settings. Will be putting in a 256GB/512GB SSD and the coming months should be fun! :)

I also bought it last month but it came with 16GB Ram, not 8GB. Ordered TPU keyboard cover and carbon fiber skin cover guard from China.

Looks like they have discontinued the SSD Model. Mine is with 16 GB + 960M (4 Gb) + 256Gb SSD + 1 TB HDD Model.

Thats cool :)

Now you can also consider installing Linux alongside Windows in duel boot config for outright performance and quick booting and shutdowns. These days plenty of games are also available on Linux along with lot of productivity apps, even the Steam has their own OS which is based on Linux.

Nice! Is the keyboard cover specific to this model? Do share the link - I could find only lousy ones for this model. And not in a hurry to fill the second ram slot for now, will be putting money on the SSD

Edit: Just noticed you mentioned China - I guess you got it from Ebay? Still, please do share. Will try to see if there are faster options.

Well, Amazon is still offering it with SSD. Dell.com is offering the SSD + HDD option only on the touch screen models. Anyway with the easy option to open up and upgrade, it's better to get the parts on my own - memory is cheap on the open market!

Thanks. And yes yes, that's the plan.
But I didn't know about Steam on Linux - that would be interesting. But I wonder if they have a lot of games on Linux? Their Mac collection sucks big time!

Most of games these days are platform independent. I have more than 10 games in my Steam library and I can play around 6 of them in Linux. They are cross platform so you can install and access them on either of the OS of your liking form same account.

SteamOS is basically a Linux distro with it's own feature set suited for gaming. You can access plenty of other Linux apps and tools also from the Steam client. Though I have Linux Mint since that is more stable, reliable and easier for productivity apps as well as for games. Install the Steam client and you can easily access and mange your library same like Windows.

Open Steam website or client app and you will find shorting option for Linux+SteamOS, you will get amazed to see how many games are there. :D

Ah my bad. With a Macbook Air, there weren't too many graphic intensive games I could have played; and even if I could have, I didn't have space for them. The ones I was looking at didn't have a Mac version.

Also my knowledge on Steam has been pretty low; I have always been one of the those who reaches out to torrents to get cracked games. Old habit from college days, never really grew out of it. Now looking at the options available on Steam.

If you don't mind sharing, what are those 10 games you have? I on the other hand, am only a FPS gamer. Can't play anything else.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/272125370415...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Placed order on July 21, not yet arrived - promised delivery by Aug 8.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Lapto...08.0.54.Xmtvft

Placed order for black skin for Inspiron 7559 on July 11 - along with another transparent skin for XPS-13 Gold.
Both costed USD 50.11 including shipping by Sweden Post.
Asked seller to mention cost as USD10.00 which he did. Arrived without customs duty on Aug 2. Yet to install the skins on both laptops. Plan to do it this weekend.
Just checked the link, seller offering 5% discount!

You won't find many games on Mac, downside of being at dark-side.


My collection has mixture of strategy, RPS, racing-driving and FPS. Since you have interest in FPS, let me list out few I have played.

Do grab the FarCry 3 and 4, available cheaply these days. They were launched at four digit price and have been highly successful. You will not only fight with humans, but will also encounter animals, demons and what not. The location of FarCry 4 is set in Himalayan region so we Indians can co-relate with the character names and the Hindi abusive language used by them :D. But Far Cry 3 is a must to have. You can skip 1 and 2, they are very old, 3 is good starting point with very nice graphics and story elements.

GTA-V is fun game with very nice graphics as usual which you can consider. I don't have Steam versions of any of these and they run only on Windows, not supported on Linux.



To list a few platform independent games which run on Windows and Linux both, and few are supported in Mac as well:

War Thunder is free multiplayer war game where you have short battles using Tanks and planes. Its a multiplayer game with nice graphics.

Grid Autosport - if you like playing racing games with nice graphics.

Insurgency - close quarters combat FPS. Though I haven't played it yet but have in my wishlist.

These can be good starting point for you, without need of spending a lot. Majority of them are online multiplayer as well and that is really fun to play against real humans. You can make your friends also to have same games and can play with them online. :)



Few pointers: Steam keeps running discount offers time to time so keep eye on them. For example recently they had summer picnic sale where they were offering lot of games at upto 80% discounts. Apart from big sales, you can find few games with discounts on regular basis as well, like right now also lot of games are available at discounts upto 50% including many FPS.

Once you have downloaded any game, you can create backup of it any time and can restore back using Steam client. Do backup timely so that if anything goes wrong with your computer and you have to install the fresh OS, you can restore back at any point of time, otherwise you will have to re download the whole game. Also you can restore a game using past backup on other computer as well.

Once you have purchased a game, you can install it any point of time on any of your computer having any supported OS.

You can share your game with other people in your family and friend circle also, They won't have to buy the game you already have or you won't have to buy if any of your friend has it. Just that the original owner won't be able to play the same game till the period the game is shared with other.

So much flexibilities with Steam.

Experts,

Went to showroom to see this laptop http://www.compuindia.com/dell-vostr...-3458-laptop-9

However left it because in BIOS, it showed me Video controller as Intel HD Graphics
and when booted into Ubuntu it showed me 3d controller something.
On the laptop there was a small label of geforce too. The sales person was insisting that NVIDIAŽ GeForceŽ 920M 2GB DDR3L is there but not visible.

We were not convinced though, so left it

Did we miss anything or ?

//RJ

I thought so. Can't wait that long, got this from Amazon in 2 day service. It's no where close in comparison to the one I had on my Mac but this will do for now. The key mapping is perfect; ironically it has a INR sign on one of the function keys - I guess we know where it was produced :D

Amazon Link
Oh I have played my share of games till half a decade back. Far Cry 1, FEAR series, Medal of Honor series, Half Life 1 & 2 series, Call of Duty series, Hitman series, Return to Castle Wolfenstien, Bioshock, Max Payne, and so many more.

About 10 years back, if I looked at the top 20 FPS games of all time, I would have played 15 of them atleast :) My favorite till date remains the Half Life series. Nothing comes close to them. Pity they stopped after episode 2.

Back then I stopped playing since then due to lack of a good gaming PC and work mostly.

For now I have got a few games - "Wolfenstein: The New Order", "Hitman: Blood Money", "Black Mesa". There's a deal on Doom, Fallout 3 and a few more; but not interested in them. The idea is to just have a few VERY specific games that are already out or will be coming in the future.

Had a look at Insurgency - seems to be interesting. More of a multi-player than single player.

Thanks - didn't know about that. Did you mean I can share the game to another steam user id for a time duration?

In that case, there probably could be a 2ndary market where one could "rent" out their game to someone else, no? Wonder how that works.

In a PC with integrated and also a separate card, by default the Integrated HD is selected and for graphic intensive applications the NVIDIA card gets selected. On Windows the NVIDIA Control panel has the above configuration/setting. One can choose to set NVIDIA card as the default card for specific apps or for all apps if required.

I'm sure the setup would be same for Ubuntu too. I don't think the sales guy was pulling a fast one on you, just not doing a great job in selling!

Yeah. I haven't tried it but AFAIK you can add 5 family members in your steam account and can share the games with them till you wish.