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torgian11

Private
Mar 17, 2018
15
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Hey guys. You probably remember from other titles such as Too late to back the beta? and Wow, looking forward to this!

So unfortunately, my current MacBook was dropped (thank you, random person who backed into my table with no care in the world, who proceeded to look down at my laptop, look back up at me, shrug and walk away. Frack you too.) Fortunately, I have a computer rider on my insurance, so USAA is paying me about 2700 USD to buy a new system.

I've been using a 15 inch for the past five years (MacBook pro) so I'm thinking of paring down to a 13" model.

Keep in mind, there really is only one game I would like to play: this game. Unfortunately, I have no idea how the new MacBook Pro 13 inch's Iris Plus 640/650 graphics will perform for that game.

Yes, I could get another 15 inch with the Radeon Pro 560, but I think that would be overkill for what i use my laptop for (mostly web/app programming, some data stuff, and photo editing using Lightroom)

Now, if I could use the 13inch to play both Battletech and programming, then great! End of story.

All that said, I am open to the possibility of getting a Windows laptop. Thinkpads are pretty much the go-to portable here in China, but there are some other brands that are popular (Asus for the most part). However, I don't want anything heavy (so no gaming-focused laptops). Battery life and portability is still high on the list.

So is durability and longevity. I've had bad experiences in the past with PC laptops, with slowdowns and fragility to the point where I replaced the PC laptop once every year or two (this was back when I was in the military). However, I'm hoping this has changed in the past several years.

Let me know what you think! Thank you for your suggestions :)
 
Maybe look at the updated Gigabyte Aero 15x. It has been getting really good review from what I have seen if you want to get a windows laptop
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Gigab...070-Max-Q-Full-HD-Laptop-Review.296594.0.html


You may also what to check out the new Kaby Lake G Chips as they will be very good for battery life while still being very decent for gaming. The only laptop currently out that i know of using those chips is the New Dell 2in1 15in
 
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Most of the weight in a laptop comes from the powersource. Big battery = heavy. You can get "ultraportable gaming laptops" (like the Origin PC EVO15-S, or Asus ROG Zephyrus GX501VI) that have all the hardware you'd need to run BATTLETECH on it's maximum graphics settings, but have a small battery to keep their weight under 5 lbs; however, if you skimp on the battery to keep it light then you'd need to stay plugged in when playing for more than a few hours.

I'm sure you could run BATTLETECH on a Mac if you want to stick with an Apple product. You won't find the latest and greatest hardware in a Macbook (and you'll also have to wait a bit after the release of BATTLETECH for your version of the game), but my four year-old laptop ($1400 at the time) can run the game just fine, so I'm sure you'd be in OK shape if you take that route.

However, you generally get more bang for your buck, hardware wise, with PCs. And a $2700 budget can get you a damn fine PC.

You'd get even more bang out of that budget if you built yourself a tower (I'm practically salivating at the thought; building a tower for myself has been on my to-do list for the last year, and $2700 is well outside of my prospective budget), but if it's a laptop you need then you can still get some top-of-the-line hardware.
 
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Mac laptops are super nice hardware. I’m not sure if they have fixed it, but the big drawback I’ve seen on them has been the tiny internal SSDs. If you want to stick with the Mac and still play Battletech at release, you could dual boot (which involves paying for Windows, possibly just for this, which isn’t ideal).

I normally use a desktop or a tablet, so notebooks are not my area of expertise. Hopefully you’ll find something you’re happy with. :)
 
Thanks mate, but I'm actually thinking of spending less than 2700 USD.... perhaps closer to half of that, which is why I'm considering a 13 inch MacBook pro with the Iris Plus 650 graphics and 16 gigs of ram.

I might still go that route, since it sounds like if a 4 year old MacBook can run battle tech, well, so can a brand new one.


Camicon Dachass said:
Most of the weight in a laptop comes from the powersource. Big battery = heavy. You can get "ultraportable gaming laptops" (like the Origin PC EVO15-S, or Asus ROG Zephyrus GX501VI) that have all the hardware you'd need to run BATTLETECH on it's maximum graphics settings, but have a small battery to keep their weight under 5 lbs; however, if you skimp on the battery to keep it light then you'd need to stay plugged in when playing for more than a few hours.

I'm sure you could run BATTLETECH on a Mac if you want to stick with an Apple product. You won't find the latest and greatest hardware in a Macbook (and you'll also have to wait a bit after the release of BATTLETECH for your version of the game), but my four year-old laptop ($1400 at the time) can run the game just fine, so I'm sure you'd be in OK shape if you take that route.

However, you generally get more bang for your buck, hardware wise, with PCs. And a $2700 budget can get you a damn fine PC.

You'd get even more bang out of that budget if you built yourself a tower (I'm practically salivating at the thought; building a tower for myself has been on my to-do list for the last year, and $2700 is well outside of my prospective budget), but if it's a laptop you need then you can still get some top-of-the-line hardware.
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torgian11 said:
Thanks mate, but I'm actually thinking of spending less than 2700 USD.... perhaps closer to half of that, which is why I'm considering a 13 inch MacBook pro with the Iris Plus 650 graphics and 16 gigs of ram.

I might still go that route, since it sounds like if a 4 year old MacBook can run battle tech, well, so can a brand new one.
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Not a Macbook, an Asus G75V (Intel i7-3630QM CPU @ 2.4GHz, 16GB of RAM, and Nvidia GeForce GTX 660M 2GB graphics card).

Funny enough, I got my years mixed up; it's actually pushing six years old this year. I really need to replace this thing.
 
nimdabew said:
If you don’t mind going windows, look at the blade 13 with the GeForce 1080. If I could swing it, I would buy that in a heart beat. It’s almost better than my tower, but is laptop form which is mind boggling.
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Are you talking about adding a external GPU??? Because the Blade 13 only has a Intel UHD 620 for Graphics, No discrete graphics for the 13"
 
Kiiiddd said:
Are you talking about adding a external GPU??? Because the Blade 13 only has a Intel UHD 620 for Graphics, No discrete graphics for the 13"
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Yeah, it's the Blade Pro that runs a GeForce 1080.
 
Camicon Dachass said:
Yeah, it's the Blade Pro that runs a GeForce 1080.
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I don't think any of the right models that fit his description have been updated to 8th gen Intel chips so I wouldn't go Razer till they do that. It should be soon because the MSI and gigabyte models just updated with 8th gen chips in the last week or 2
 
I am also hesitant to buy a new laptop right now since the 10 series chipset is going to be replaced with the latest and greatest within a year. Then you can get the older chipset laptops for much cheaper real soon on blow out prices. It's how I picked up a 970Ti for $230 a year or so ago
 
Until December when i bought a new desktop (my first since my 486-50Mhz) i was playing all my games on an Asus ROG laptop. It's been a solid and dependable machine for three years and i still use it for in home streaming when the TV is in use. It has a GTX 860m and that will still handle most games on pretty high settings. They do a really wide range of models and specs so you should be able to find one that suits your requirements in terms of power and weight. I would agree with the previous posts about the new chipsets, though they do mean there might be some bargains if you don't mind having the previous generation.
 
I really like the macbook pro I use for work (although I'm dreading getting a new one later this year as I DO NOT like many of the changes), but macs are not that great as gaming platforms. It's adequate when I'm travelling for work and don't feel like bringing my ASUS ROG... but Macs have pretty mediocre graphics cards when it comes to gaming.

SmallKube said:
Until December when i bought a new desktop (my first since my 486-50Mhz) i was playing all my games on an Asus ROG laptop. It's been a solid and dependable machine for three years and i still use it for in home streaming when the TV is in use. It has a GTX 860m and that will still handle most games on pretty high settings. They do a really wide range of models and specs so you should be able to find one that suits your requirements in terms of power and weight. I would agree with the previous posts about the new chipsets, though they do mean there might be some bargains if you don't mind having the previous generation.
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I'll second this - Asus ROG laptops are very nice and IMO reasonably priced. I have one that's a bit older that has a GTX 660M and an i7 (I also have 16 GB of RAM which is nice).... I can still run most games on fairly high settings despite it's age. I will probably get a new one later this year when the new chipsets drop.
 
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I love Mac laptops, but if you're going to get one, you want to stick with the 15" and up, as they have discrete graphics. The Iris graphics in the 13" are not going to have a good time with this game.
 
HappyPig said:
Does anyone have an idea or explanation as to why the Mac version requires a minimum of 2 GB of video RAM while Battletech on Windows requires 1 GB?
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Could be optimization issues with Apple's OS. Could be that, because they know what kind of graphics cards a Macbook has, they can give a more exact specs recommendation.
 
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