would this manage light gaming?

[chumpington]

Asus i5 4200 1.8gHz, 6gb, NVidia GT710M. For light gaming eg HL2, Doom 3.

Reckon it would manage it? Good processor but clocked slow, and naff GPU.

Thanks in advance.

 

[MxPhenom 216]

Yeah, that will be fine. Those types of games don't need much.

 

[kajson]

I dont know which i5 4200 that is, but the 4200u has a turbo core up to ~2.6ghz which is quite sufficient for light gaming.

According to notebook check, that gpu actually does about 8k 3dmark 06 points. Which isnt half bad for such a low end mgpu.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-710M.84746.0.html

some framerates there as well

 

[PHaS3]

Yes, it will run the games you specified well. Light gaming will be fine, more modern titles will have to run lower settings.

 

[chumpington]

Thanks, guys.

Re: boost, I must concede I don't understand much in that area. Is that where you go into the BIOS and up the clock speed? If so, does that risk frying your system or is it safe? Why do manufacturers sell systems with CPUs clocked lower than what they're capable of?

 

[erocker]

Thanks, guys.

Re: boost, I must concede I don't understand much in that area. Is that where you go into the BIOS and up the clock speed? If so, does that risk frying your system or is it safe? Why do manufacturers sell systems with CPUs clocked lower than what they're capable of?

You don't have to do anything. The CPU will boost it's speed by itself when it needs to.

 

[kajson]

Well actually I dont really get why the advertisement isnt more focussed on the turbo frequency, but ofc it's to lower power usage, you battery life improves enormously because of that bit of technology, as does the life expectancy of your system.

i3s do not have turbo cores, where as far as I know all i5's do.


You shouldnt do overclocking on laptops, except when there's some kinda specific gain to be made by a certain card. It mostly offers very marginal gains for lots of extra heat and potential future problems.

But the boost function is just to give you some extra performance when you need it, like your light gaming. Whilst keeping your system nice n cool when you don't need it, like surfing the net.

 

[Arjai]

My i5 3317u, is rated 1.7. But WCG Crunching on all 4 logical cores, it sits at 2.4. Single core stuff has run over 2.6, briefly, generally 2.6 single core performance, on this 17 watt laptop i5.

I shoulda, woulda, coulda got a better GPU than the HD4000 I have but, I chose not to, and the HD4000 has surprised me. I can run a bunch of stuff I never thought I could. But then again, I only toy around with Indie games anyways!

Overall, I love my little i5. It outperforms my expectations, regularly.

 

[mitya]

Oops, I was wrong - it's actually an i5-3337U, not 4200. Is that much worse? (I can look at CPUBoss etc, but I won't necessarily understand what I'm reading ) One of the replies above said all i5s have turbo-boost, so presumably this model does?

 

[Arjai]

Check out CPU-World, pretty straight forward info.

Also, my laptop came with 6GB ram. It sucked. I 2GB and one 4GB 1333....I switched up to a Kingston 8GB kit, 1600, in true Dual Channel.

Night and day? Almost, I don't get any hitches online while running WCG 100%, like I did. Resident Evil, is the only game I have to lower Crunching down in order to run smooth. Fez, Limbo, Dear Esther and Gratuitous Space Battles, massive fights, can't make this thing hiccup! Your 3337U, is very similar to my 3317U, but 100Mhz faster.

So, yes. If I could do it again, I would! i7's are great for crunching, 8 threads, but I could not justify the cost when I bought this. So far, NO regrets!

 

[mitya]

Thanks, Arjai, very helpful. Surprised 6gb was insufficient; I know it's not a huge amount either but thought it was enough to get fairly decent gaming provided the other specs are up to the job.

 

[Arjai]

Thanks, Arjai, very helpful. Surprised 6gb was insufficient; I know it's not a huge amount either but thought it was enough to get fairly decent gaming provided the other specs are up to the job.

If you are not WCG Crunching, 6GB could do the job. However, it is unlikely that they are two 3GB sticks in Dual...possible, but unlikely. A kit of matched sticks, of most any brand, will out perform the probable 1333 unmatched sticks laptop makers often use to cut costs. Also, HD4000 graphics use your ram as GPU ram...

So, the better RAM you have the better the graphics performance. Although, most laptops do not support super fast memory and I truly believe 1600 is PLENTY fast for most everything except video rendering, and the like.

That Nvidea graphics will also use your motherboard RAM.

 

[coconut wa te r]

it would be good

 

[RCoon]

Why is @chumpington and @mitya the same person? I don't understand why this thread necessitated a new account. OP should probably make 1 thread and pour all the knowledge from his several threads into one single thread of all knowing notebook-ness, then it might be easier to reference everything else he's looked at, and give all repliers a little more info on what he's already rejected/considered.

Just a thought.

 

[mitya]

haha - one account was created on my phone as I couldn't recall (or seemingly retrieve) my password for the first account.

Not trying to be deceptive - just the way it worked out.

 

[RCoon]

haha - one account was created on my phone as I couldn't recall (or seemingly retrieve) my password for the first account.

Not trying to be deceptive - just the way it worked out.

I still strongly recommend you make a single thread entitled something about deciding on a notebook for your purposes, then asking a mod around here to merge all your threads with that one. It would make it easier for everybody, including yourself.

You could perhaps list the main laptops that have been recommend in each thread and ask for feedback on each of them for your main priorities.

EDIT: Off topic, but you are eligible for both my giveaways sir, if you feel like trying your luck

 

[mitya]

@RCoon - suggestion noted. I'll see about doing that.

Actually my requests are not all for the same notebook. First I was after one (for work, you'll recall) and since then I've become unofficial researcher into one for my mum and friend, too.

I should have told them I can't type

Giveaways - a little confused (but love the pic): you've giving away the mouse and the raccoon toy, or did I misread the situation!?

 

[RCoon]

@RCoon - suggestion noted. I'll see about doing that.

Actually my requests are not all for the same notebook. First I was after one (for work, you'll recall) and since then I've become unofficial researcher into one for my mum and friend, too.

I should have told them I can't type

Giveaways - a little confused (but love the pic): you've giving away the mouse and the raccoon toy, or did I misread the situation!?

Ah, my apoligies, you probably could have mentioned the differing situations, or I shouldn't have made the assumption in the first place

Regarding giveaways, mice and mech keyboard only, the raccoon is MINE!

 

[mitya]

haha, got it