I have a question in terms of gaming and laptops

[The-Shadow-One]

would this computer be uptodate enough to run games without struggling with even MMOs and Wow?
General Information:

Spoiler:

Processor

AMD Quad-Core A6-3420M
- 1.5 GHz
- 2.4 GHz TurboBoost
- 1333 MHz
- 4 MB L2 cache memory

Operating System

Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64

RAM

8 GB (2 x 4 GB)
DDR3

Graphics card

AMD Radeon HD 6520G Discrete-Class

Screen type

HD LED BrightView


Screen resolution

1366 x 768

Screen size

15.6"

Hard drive

750 GB
- SATA
- 5400 RPM

Optical disk drive

SuperMulti DVD±R/RW with Double Layer Support

Memory card reader

Multi-Format

USB

3 x USB 2.0

Modem/Ethernet

Integrated 10/100 BASE-T Ethernet LAN

WiFi

802.11 b/g/n

TV output

VGA
HDMI
Display Port

Sound

Altec Lansing speakers

Webcam

0 .3 MP

Keyboard & Mouse

Full size keyboard with home roll keys
TouchPad with on/off button and support for multitouch gestures

Battery

- 6-cell Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion)
- 6 hours

I really want to know as I have enough money to get a new laptop and.. I want to be able to make it count.

[Ragnarok]

well, having played WoW in the past on my raggedy old laptop, I can definately say "yes" on that point. as for other current MMOs, I'd again have to say yes, as well. have you checked out the alienware gaming rigs? even their "low end" rigs offer pretty high performance.

[Jakarius321]

All I can say without going too deeply into specs and price vs performance is that my cousin got a laptop around the £700 mark (special offer down from £1000 iirc) and it plays Skyrim pretty smoothly at 1080p, no AA but its not even needed on a smaller screen (which is a nice by-product).
But it cost £700.

The laptop you linked to has (as far as I'm aware) an integrated GPU which is unfortunately not what you're looking for in a gaming machine.
The processor also looks a bit weak. Basically what I'm trying to say is that when it comes to laptops you really have to spend a lot more to get the same level of performance as a desktop. And even if you did go all out and spend over £1000 the lack of upgrade-ability means it would be obsolete fairly quickly. Now I have no idea how this particular laptop performs in the real world so don't take this as fact but I'm just saying you want to be careful of anything with an integrated GPU.
You might be able to get a desktop with decent performance for £400 but laptops are just so tricky and expensive.
Must be something to do with the shrink rays they use on the components bumping the price up

[The-Shadow-One]

I'm not asking for like top end graphics, and It's going to be a allround laptop, I should be able to play Skyrim on medium at least yes? I know I'd be able to play Oblivion.. As that computer is a little better than my brothers.

[Jakarius321]

Its hard to know from looking at specs since they never include laptop graphics cards on requirements lists. You need to find someone else that knows more than I do (shouldn't be too hard here in good ol' UESP-ville) or find a review or video of the laptop playing recent games.

[Jakarius321]

In a perfect world that would be £500 but sometimes computers cost more than they should in the UK.
That's looks like a pretty good deal to me though Scozzar.

[Ragnarok]

I used to work on Toshiba laptops. not really impressed with those. the ones I worked on had a major design flaw in the grounding scheme of the speakers with the metal grille covers that would shock, zap and kill the MB.

[Ragnarok]

it was actually over 5 years ago, so I'm sure that particular issue has been fixed, but it was a design flaw found and reported from the field that should have never made it into production

[Archea47]

As Jakarius321 mentioned the AMD/ATI 'discrete' mobile cards are *not* traditional dedicated GPUs - the naming is (probably intentionally) misleading.

That said, here's a video of someone with a very similar machine playing Skyrim:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-amjD5apsRI

Looks *acceptable*. I would definitely get a laptop cooler and monitor your temps and like he shows in his description on the video turn off grass etc.

[Jakarius321]

As Jakarius321 mentioned the AMD/ATI 'discrete' mobile cards are *not* traditional dedicated GPUs - the naming is (probably intentionally) misleading.

That said, here's a video of someone with a very similar machine playing Skyrim:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-amjD5apsRI

Looks *acceptable*. I would definitely get a laptop cooler and monitor your temps and like he shows in his description on the video turn off grass etc.

That's better than I would have expected, laptop technology is coming along quickly much like desktop pc technology .

[Ragnarok]

Doubt it but is there a laptop that can run skyrim on ultra like this besides maybe the alienware m17 or m18?
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=P3RfjEoMBX ... 3RfjEoMBXc

[Abel]

What's the point of a laptop with an eyefinity setup? :/

[Ragnarok]

Not eyefinity capable, but able to run skyrim on ultra graphics mode

[Archea47]

Not eyefinity capable, but able to run skyrim on ultra graphics mode

Sure, there are plenty. For example:

http://www.amazon.com/MSI-Series-GT780D ... B0064Z6Y1Y

[Ragnarok]

great, but for that kind of cash, why wouldn't I just opt for the alienware m18 for top of the line performance?

*edit*

especially at THESE prices ...

[Ragnarok]

Uh the last link doesn't work..

fixed

[Archea47]

great, but for that kind of cash, why wouldn't I just opt for the alienware m18 for top of the line performance?

*edit*

especially at THESE prices ...

Well, that's exactly it. You can build a desktop that will play skyrim on ultra for cheap, but if you want to compress that machine to 1/20th it's size and put a monitor on it and have it somewhat reliable ... it's gonna cost $$$$. For what it's worth I can play Skyrim on medium on my laptop that I bought 3 years ago for $800. I wanted more performance, so I built a desktop for less than that to accompany my laptop. Dedicated machine. We're back to the classic pick 2 scenario, this time the 3 choices are: size, performance, being affordable. You can have the performance and it be affordable building your own desktop, but you are going to compromise with the size of the unit. You can have the small size and performance without it being affordable with the top of the line laptops