Wrong laptop specs or something with GPU-Z?

[GreiverBlade]

An SSD will make a great difference, so go with a laptop with one.

not really... at last for a i3. and it's not worth the difference to have a SSD and a i3 or a HDD and a i5, trust me i went from HDD to SSD to HDD again, on my laptop, with a i5, yes boot time and loading was faster but: that's all, it didn't make it snapier or or faster for anything else in a day to day use. (personnal experience)

and 128 versus 500gb even 5.4k rpm, not really worth it (again) ofc a external HDD is possible as the op said but ... it's always better to have one extra less if (maybe) one day you take the laptop for a trip (one mobile piece less to loose) tho i also do like that (and with some 64/32 gb USB3.0 thumbdrive)

curently writing on it with the 5.4k rpm drive (as i wrote i even tried a 7,2k rpm one ... who is in a external USB 3.0 enclosure and serve me as Steam library until i get a slim ODD to 2.5 adapter )

 

[Naki]

I have a very old Intel Core i3 CPU (1st gen) and the difference is remarkable.

I do have 8 GB RAM on my laptop, however.
I removed the laptop's optical drive, which I rarely use anyway, and added a HDD caddy, so my Acer Aspire laptop has both an SSD+HDD now.
I will never again use any computer with no SSD.

Also, Popcap games will load much faster from SSD - I know, as I have played a lot of Plants vs Zombies for PC myself.

 

[P4-630]

I have a very old Intel Core i3 CPU (1st gen) and the difference is remarkable.

I do have 8 GB RAM on my laptop, however.
I removed the laptop's optical drive, which I rarely use anyway, and added a HDD caddy, so my Acer Aspire laptop has both an SSD+HDD now.
I will never again use any computer with no SSD.

Also, Popcap games will load much faster from SSD - I know, as I have played a lot of Plants vs Zombies for PC myself.

Do you have a 1080p screen and using intel HD graphics on your laptop?

 

[GreiverBlade]

I have a very old Intel Core i3 CPU (1st gen) and the difference is remarkable.

I do have 8 GB RAM on my laptop, however.
I removed the laptop's optical drive, which I rarely use anyway, and added a HDD caddy, so my Acer Aspire laptop has both an SSD+HDD now.
I will never again use any computer with no SSD.

Also, Popcap games will load much faster from SSD - I know, as I have played a lot of Plants vs Zombies for PC myself.

yes they load faster .... it's exactly what i said, but we are talking of a i3 versus i5 on HD Graphics 4400 and 768p for the i5, 1080p for the i3
ergo you get a slower CPU fasted OS drive but the igp will be under a heavier load due to the resolution. still not a fair trade if i might say so.

 

[Naki]

Do you have a 1080p screen and using intel HD graphics on your laptop?

No, my laptop's screen is somewhat lower-res - 1600x900 (17.3"). And videocard is not Intel, but AMD Radeon HD5650M (quite slow for demanding or even medium-demanding games, but OK for smaller/less demanding ones).

Anyway, my Acer Aspire laptop is quite old, purchased around August 2010.
So it does not quite compare to current (2014/2015) models.

 

[GreiverBlade]

AMD Radeon HD5650M

which is on the level of the HD Graphics 5500, and quite above the HD Graphics 4400 (just a bit lower than a Iris Graphics 5100 or GT820M)

Ice storm and Cloud gate:
IS: min: 54809 avg: 54809 (7%) median: 54809 (7%) max: 54809 Points
CG: min: 6036 avg: 6036 (5%) median: 6036 (5%) max: 6036 Points

3DMark Ice Storm GPU 3DMark Cloud Gate GPU

3. Low-Midrange Graphics Cards
Modern games should be playable with these graphics cards at low settings and resolutions. Casual gamers may be happy with these cards.

Intel Iris Graphics 6100 Broadwell 48 300 1100 64/128 11.2 errata, wrong IG6100 over 5100 xD
IS:89341
CG:7894
Intel HD Graphics 5500 Broadwell 24 300 950 64/128 11.2
IS:59263
CG:5532
Intel HD Graphics 4400 Haswell 20 200 1100 64/128 11.1
IS:37082
CG:4912

Iris Graphics 5100:
Intel Iris Graphics 5100 Haswell 40 200 1200 64/128 11.1 (the GT820 is here, mea culpa)
IS:71489
CG:6943.5

 

[P4-630]

The system requirements for the games I can find are these:
https://support.humblebundle.com/hc/en-us/articles/202730970-PopCap-Games-System-Requirements

and for plants vs zombies:

• OS: Windows XP/Vista/7
• Processor: 1.2GHz+ processor
• Memory: 1GB of RAM
• Graphics: 128MB of video memory, 16-bit or 32-bit color quality
• DirectX: DirectX 8 or later
• Hard Drive: 65+MB of free hard drive space
• Sound: DirectX-compatible sound

They don't mention a graphics card

I think that PopCap games run on just about any recent system

 

[P4-630]

We got our previous laptop replaced for another model, a laptop with SSD, i3 1.9Ghz processor and 1080p display.
My mom is happy with the speed and the full HD screen, also her games work fine.

 

[Naki]

We got our previous laptop replaced for another model, a laptop with SSD, i3 1.9Ghz processor and 1080p display.
My mom is happy with the speed and the full HD screen, also her games work fine.

Great! Thanks for the heads-up.