Getting back to gaming

It's been several years since I've played an adventure game but now I am ready to start again. But I need a new computer. I was looking at 2 in 1 laptops (not interested in a desktop). What kind of specs do I need to play the current adventure games? I do know I need 64 bit and 8gb ram is a good starting point. When it comes to storage rpm or ssd? Ssd is faster but does it make much of a difference in adventure games? How fast of a processor? Best video card? I want to buy something that will still run games 2 or 3 years from now. My budget is $800-1000. Any suggestions would be very appreciated.

I know I've probably put this in the wrong forum but I didn't know where else to put it. My apologies.

I moved your post over to the Glitches forum. The techies here can give you some good advice in regards to your questions.

I'm not qualified to recommend any models of current laptops. It's been several years since I shopped for a laptop or looked at them.

Check the recommended system requirements for the games you're interested in (not the minimum requirements). Make a list of the high end 3D games that are at the top of your list and Google the name of the game and "system requirements" (without the quotes).

Be aware that graphics cards in laptops are usually slower than their desktop equivalents. They are also not replaceable or upgradable. See what's available in your price range.

I can't add much more to what Jenny said. Since you haven't played any adventure games for a long time, you should be aware that the newer games are requiring more and more "power" in a computer. The vast majority require a stand-alone video card which is going to make a laptop much more expensive. Of course, your budget is going to be a big part of the decision.

Doing a search for "best gaming laptops 2017" should bring up quite a few hits.

There is a new thing out there called the "Alienware Graphics Amplifier". It allows you to use a desktop video card with a laptop. I don't know much about it but I thought I would let you know it exists so you can check it out. Anything made by aliens is usually cool.

That's an interesting piece of hardware, Geo. I was wondering about an adequate power supply, but it come with a 460 watt one. It's pretty pricey - $199 and then you STILL have to buy a GPU to install in it. And that assumes you have a laptop display that could support it. I can see why it would be very attractive to hard core laptop gamers though because as Jenny said, laptop GPUs are usually not as powerful as those for the desktop.

I just noticed it looks like its only for Alienware notebooks. I thought it could be used with any notebook at first.

I didn't notice that either. Too bad it isn't though.

Also it kind of defeats the purpose of having a laptop if you have to depend on big things like that dangling off of it.

Thanks for all the replies. It makes it a little easier to find what I am looking for. Although I am still wondering if SSD rather RPM makes much of a difference in adventure gaming. Does anyone know?

Nothing wrong with having big things dangling.

"RPM" means Revolutions per Minute.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rpm
"RPM" does not mean "mechanical drive" or "hard drive."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk_drive

If you ask for an "RPM drive" in a store, they will either look at you funny or send you to the automobile department.

With most games it won't matter if you use an SSD or a mechanical hard drive because RAM is more important.

However with the game "Obduction," an SSD was "strongly recommended" by the developer to reduce load times.

Considering the complaints about load times with the new reboot of "Black Mirror," there may be other games where an SSD will cut down on load times of games -- not just load time when you start the game, but when you move to different locations (or rooms) within the game.

SSD's are more expensive than mechanical hard drives for the capacity you get, but if you want to store large amounts of data you may want to use external storage anyway.

He, he, Geo!!

Thank you Jenny. Obduction was the game I was looking at to try and figure out what specs would be best.

Geo

I recently got my grandson his college laptop with a 500GB SSD and a reasonable stand alone video card for abou5 $900. That's probably the range you would be looking at.

There was a detailed description of Obduction's requirements back in 2016. The old link at obduction.com no longer works, but the article can still be read at the web archive ***here***.

Here's a quote from the article


If you are interested in Obduction, also check out Quern and Xing (also puzzle/adventure games with high requirements)

Quern and Xing are on my Steam wishlist and I did check out their specs. Definitely need a new pc. Thanks for the link.

Do you remember what model that was?
What video card it had?

It was this one... It isn't that much of a video card, but we were trying to avoid getting him anything too powerful as this was his "going off to college" laptop and we figured he might spend more time doing his retro gaming than studying!



https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MD0X2MB/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Some very mixed reviews there -- most either very good or very bad.

One other thing to consider is the size of the screen.
For gaming maybe you want larger than a 15.6" screen.

Definitely a thought about the screen size for gaming. This was supposed to be a college computer, so it was just the right combination for him. The kid is already 6'5" tall with the accompanying hand size, so one of the smaller 13 or 14 inch screens and key boards was not an option for him. Since he does lug it around campus in a backpack, weight was also a consideration. Also be sure to look at how long the battery will last if you plan on using it off power.

He's been using it for about 4 months now and absolutely loves it - says it is the right combination of everything he needs. He's pretty tech savvy. His desktop was was a Christmas present 5 years ago which he and I built together.

I watch these threads as I am very interested in eventually getting a gaming laptop. Most important to me is the video card, Ram and speed of the computer..... I have an older Del XPS 17 inch... but the weight of it and how hot it got made me get an additional cooling pad for it this makes me want to consider giving up screen size unless they have gotten the heat factor under control... Just a comment.

I'm leaning toward this one. https://caen-store.acer.com/laptops/gaming/nitro-5-gaming-laptop-an515-51-705q
It's on the Canadian Acer store website but Winfrey I'm sure you could find it on their US site. The only thing holding me back is price as it is considerably over my budget.

My concern with that one, lspace, is the very small 256 GB SSD since you will be using it for gaming. You will need to manage your space carefully. The video card is the low end of the spectrum, but would probably play most newer adventure games.

I just got this sale price on the same Nitro 5 laptop, but with a 1 TB HDD and a Core i5 this morning. Maybe you will find a sale like that in Canada!

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a...EB5aHRpLm5ldA==

I do have a couple of concerns about your Nitro 5. The 8 GB ram worries me as some of the new games are recommending 16 GB however if it's upgradeable then no worries. The other thing I'm wondering about is storage speed. The Nitro 5 is rpm and I would like ssd as it is faster. Do you have any issues with the rpm being slow?

I guess being on a budget I will have to compromise and I will need to choose wisely as I don't want to end up with a pc that's out of date a year or two from now. In Canada our pc's are so expensive.....in some cases almost double in price as the same US one.

I noticed that. I am still using 8 GB of RAM in my desktop for high end shooters and RPGs. I'm sure I will run into one that needs more soon though.

The storage speed is definitely something to consider... The SSDs are super fast and a few games recommend them to avoid lag times. But they are also much more expensive. Most HDDs in laptops are 5600 RPM which is pretty slow. Most HDDs in desktops are at least 7600 RPMs. It's just another reason why a laptop is not a very good option for gaming unless you can afford a really good one.

When I hit the lottery I would like to put a 2 TB SSD in my desktop! But until then I will use my 10,000 RPM Velociraptor hard drive.

As I don't play shooters or rpg........only adventure games I should be ok with 8 GB ram so long as it can be upgraded. I will keep looking until I find that magic combination of the specs I want and the price I am willing to pay. I foresee upping the budget so it may have to wait until after Xmas.

Good luck and maybe there will be some good after Christmas sales!

lspace, I thought of you when I got this in my email from Newegg this morning...

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a...EB5aHRpLm5ldA==

I wish this was about $1,000 cheaper... On my wish list