High settings laptop requirements

[corwin.3495]

Hello!I want to buy a laptop that can support gw2 high settings at any time. I don't know much about hardware and what is good at the moment, so can someone help me which laptop I should buy if I want to play gw2 at max settings at all times without needing to worry much about frame drops and similar problems?

(I am moving to another country and I need to bring a laptop there so that is why desktop pc is not an option)

[alchemist.6851]

do you have indefinite funding?? what’s your budget?

[corwin.3495]

@alchemist.6851 said:do you have indefinite funding?? what’s your budget?

about 800-850 euro? (forgot to mention that part, sorry)

[corwin.3495]

For example, are these two any good?

1. HP 15-bs075nm - 2WF30EA/16 Intel® Core™ i7 7500U do 3.5GHz, 15.6", 256GB SSD, 16GB
2. ACER Aspire 5 A515-51G-846J - NX.GT1EX.028 Intel® Core™ i7 8550U do 4.0GHz, 15.6", 128GB SSD, 12GB

[FogLeg.9354]

It is pretty difficult to recommend any specific laptop because the models of CPU they include are meaningless. The actual perfomance of laptop is based on the cooling system quality, how well the hotness gets removed and how often CPU needs to be clocked down to avoid it overheating. Even same model of laptops can have widely different profiles on them.

Laptop parts are not designed to be powerful and perform well, they are designed to be energy efficient and consume as little power as possible. Even when manufacturers put similar names on desktop and laptop parts (for example i7 desktop CPU and i7 laptop CPU), it does not make these perform same way.

When trying to find "good enough" computer to play games on, what are your expectations? Do you want to have smooth and constant 60 fps framerate or very detailed image quality, 4k or 768p, do you want several other programs to run in the background while you play or are you planning to shut down everything just so the game can run? I can run GW2 on my desktop without problems usually (i5-6400, GTX 1050 Ti, 8GB RAM) but not at maxed settings, and there are always times when fps drops down and huge lag spikes appear. Now most times the lag is only noticable when large number of players are gathered up into single battle, either world bosses in PvE or 3-way Stonemist fights in WvW, much of these are cause by lag between your PC and server but some comes from thousands of pretty spell sparkles that cover up your screen. I doubt any laptop can handle these situations well enough either.

I will try to say something useful in the end - if you buy a laptop then you are paying for ability to take PC with you and use it even when not connected to the power cable. You are paying extra, so it will be not big grey box, but rather small thin one. You can buy laptop that plays games (nearly) as well as desktop with similar hardware system, but you will be paying at least double for it. If you however have set budget, any laptop for same price is going to about about half good at playing games as desktop with similar price.

[corwin.3495]

@FogLeg.9354

I am not planning on playing games without the power cable, and usually I just have google chrone running in the background when playing something, sometimes not even that. I am not a big fan of wvw and I rarely do world bosses, so I would like to be able to have max settings in the cities and in the open world, fractals too.

I know that if I buy a laptop it will be only half as good compared to a desktop for the same price, but I am planing to travel and I would like to be able to enjoy some games while doing so. Do any of these two look good enough for me to be able to achieve this goal? (if we exclude the cooling system)

[FogLeg.9354]

I think the game will run but not very well on these laptops. It is difficult to say if the quality and fps you will get are good enough for you, since people have different expectations. I would say to run the "well" you need to spend somewhere around 1200-1500 EUR on the laptop. For 800 EUR you can get desktop that runs GW2 well.

P.S. I do not play any games on laptops myself, so your best bet would be to get answer from someone who does play GW2 on laptop and can describe their experience with it.

[corwin.3495]

@FogLeg.9354I also prefer desktop, but I need to get a laptop because of my current situation >.< Still, thank you for the reply :)

[FogLeg.9354]

Here is someone playing GW2 on Acer A515-51G-C97B Intel Core i5 8GB GeForce MX130 which is slightly weaker than the Acer laptop you linked above:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKnCjDjf-kk768p obviously

[corwin.3495]

@FogLeg.9354wow, thanks for the effort dude :D I think I will go with the Acer one ^^

[Nash.2681]

@corwin.3495 said:Hello!I want to buy a laptop that can support gw2 high settings at any time. I don't know much about hardware and what is good at the moment, so can someone help me which laptop I should buy if I want to play gw2 at max settings at all times without needing to worry much about frame drops and similar problems?

(I am moving to another country and I need to bring a laptop there so that is why desktop pc is not an option)

@corwin.3495 said:

about 800-850 euro? (forgot to mention that part, sorry)

This two won't get together. I also strongly advice NOT to buy any of the two laptops you linked, for they both use a toned down CPU (the "U" series is specifically for laptops and is aimed for a lower power need, but in return they are significantly slower- something you will not want for gaming, esp. when it comes to CPU heavy games like GW2).Also, no frame drops at max. settings is pretty unrealistic, you will have drops in WvW and at world events, probably also in other crowded places.A few things you will want to have in your laptop:

• strong CPU
• good cooling (!!! preferably with good maintenance possibilities so you can easily clean your fans every now and then)
• dedicated GPU
• SSD

For reference, I posted my spec in my signature. I got this laptop as a desktop replacement roughly 2 years ago (for a much higher price than your budget tough) and it handles GW2 quite well on high'ish settings (not max), but still there are situations where the FPS will drop, no matter what.

€: no idea what that video is all about since I don't speak spanish, but all I see is someone running around in an empty area and still dropping to 40ish fps

[Megalorf.9675]

Max settings on a laptop? I play on a 8gb, gtx1050, i5 laptop and it runs on great frames and graphics.I personally wouldnt go overboard moneywose because the costs adds up quickly.Even wvw is fine on my setup.

But to each their own i guess. Getting a laptop to run gw2 on max? Never gonna happen on your budget.

[TheQuickFox.3826]

With that budget I would get a desktop instead.You will not find a laptop that can run GW2 and the expansions on high settings without slowdowns.

So, you got three options: Accept slowdowns in newer areas, accept lower detail settings, double your budget for a GTX 1060 or better and a fast CPU, or switch to a desktop.

Having said that: Even on high-end systems, GW2 will experience slowdowns in some occasions, like massive battles and some demanding areas like the Lily of the Elon

[anduriell.6280]

Cpu wise go for the new 8750h, 8850h better if you can. Graphic card as higher as you can, although for your price range 1050 is reachable. The ones ended in U (for low power) are not recommended for anything.Anything less than that and you'll have to be less than FHD High settings (7700hq with gtx 1070 here )

dont know if you are spaniard , here some prices from amazonhttps://www.amazon.es/Acer-Nitro-AN515-52-76N6-Ordenador-port%C3%A1til/dp/B07G3XCM18/ref=sr_1_5https://www.amazon.es/MSI-GL63-8RC-278XES-Ordenador-port%C3%A1til/dp/B07H8JHYPF/ref=sr_1_16

[corwin.3495]

I know that desktops are better, but as I mentioned I need laptop because I'll be moving.Thanks a lot guys for helping! ^^ I think this is enough for me to decide what to do, tnx again! :)

[crepuscular.9047]

unless you are living in the Arctics, you should not bother to run on high settings, it gets way too hot and starts throttling the CPU and GPU

and careful where you place that hot piece of iron, you dont want to place it anywhere near you know where :lol:

[DerJoker.9081]

Deleted, cause doubled up

[voodoo.7412]

i have a MSI gt70 even the card is old and the cpu also but i still get good fps up to 60 but go down to 35 on wvw and meta eventsi7 4730gtx980m16gb ddr3 ramalways on power cord

[tethyr.6513]

If you want a laptop that can run Guild Wars 2 on high settings, you're going to have to pay for it, it's going to be on the heavier side, and even then, some settings are going to have to give to keep the FPS up. I have the Razer Blade Pro 15 and it's rather phenomenal for GW2. Add the Razer Core X (with a desktop GPU that's 980Ti+) and you can play just about everything you want on high/ultra-high settings. The Core isn't something you'd drag around outside your apartment, but it's profile is far smaller than a desktop, and it'll make your laptop last longer as it'll no longer output the massive heat from gaming on high.

[godofcows.2451]

Here's a link to a previous discussion about external GPUs for a person looking for certain performance results on a laptop because that isn't easy. Yes, you will have the option of having something more proprietary from companies as mentioned from the post above mine then again, it is nothing but a port powered up externally, so naturally there are other choices. It can all get technical though, something you might not like.

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/comment/752652

If you're willing to lower down your expectation on the results, i'm pretty sure that the current iteration of integrated graphics cards can handle gw2 on a decent degree. definitely not at max graphics though. a laptop with a dedicated graphics card should be available within your budget and may offer better performance but you'll still have to lower your expectations of "MAX".

There is something that someone mentioned here that for that budget, he'd rather buy a desktop. It's kinda true though, I can build something decent with half of the budget you mentioned here in asia. I'm pretty sure you can do the same almost anywhere if you know where to look and what to do. You can just sell the rig off at a slightly losing price once you're on the move again on a buy and sell whereever you're going.