Buying Guide for a Laptop for Gaming
If you’re a gamer and you’re working off a limited budget (who isn’t?) then you’re almost always better off buying a desktop computer and not a laptop. You get a lot more mileage for your money.
But laptops, more and more, are becoming mainstream and don’t really cost as much more than desktops as they used to.
You really could find a laptop for gaming that was designed with all the right features, that wasn’t that much more expensive than the desktop equivalent. This is what you need to know.
How do you know that a given machine is a gaming laptop? Well, usually, they don’t build them to be as slim and lightweight as regular laptops. These, they built for performance, even if it means a less flattering figure.
Now a laptop for gaming isn’t just a powerful laptop. It needs to have specific features built in that don’t all have to do with performance.
Let’s look at something to do with performance first of all and get out of the way. It goes without saying that a laptop for gaming needs a powerful graphics card built into the system.
Since this is meant to be an evergreen advice article and not just something for today, it’s hard to specify what kind of graphics card it should be.
As of late 2011, one specification you could look for would be a card built-in that had 2GB in graphics memory. That isn’t the only specification you need to look for though. Just look for the best discrete desktop graphics card for gamers they are selling at the moment, and look for something that’s nearly as powerful for your laptop.
A good way to judge how adequate the graphics card on your laptop is, would be to look up the recommended configuration for the games you intend to play. If your laptop has something like that, you’re good to go.
But apart from the performance, you’re looking for things that make gaming actually easy and convenient. For instance, if they call it a laptop for gaming and the keys seem all crammed together, that’s poor design.
Look for well-spaced backlit keys and a tapering keyboard design. You need to be able to hit those keys in a split second.
Of course, you need a good screen that’s at least 15 inches, and Full HD would not be a bad idea either. But you do want screen quality and sound quality that really live up to what the game designers have intended. And intend very well, they do.
They build those games these days to spectacular Hollywood movie levels of budget. The better your screen and sound are, the better you’ll enjoy your game.
Look for audio ports that will allow you to directly plug your laptop into a surround sound system if it’s available.
Incoming search terms:

