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Lord Hoosier

Lt. General
91 Badges
Mar 12, 2017
1.292
591
  • Hearts of Iron 4: Arms Against Tyranny
  • Hearts of Iron IV: No Step Back
  • Hearts of Iron IV: By Blood Alone
  • Victoria 2
  • Victoria 2: Heart of Darkness
  • For The Glory
  • Darkest Hour
  • Crusader Kings II
  • Crusader Kings II: Holy Fury
  • March of the Eagles
  • Europa Universalis IV
  • Europa Universalis 4: Emperor
  • Cities: Skylines Deluxe Edition
  • Cities: Skylines - Campus
  • Prison Architect
  • Stellaris: Galaxy Edition
  • Stellaris: Nemesis
  • Hearts of Iron IV: Colonel
  • Battle for Bosporus
  • Imperator: Rome Deluxe Edition
  • Imperator: Rome - Magna Graecia
I will be attending a university this fall and need to buy a laptop. I want a Windows machine that can run PDS games including imperator and Stellaris. The most intense game I will likely play is civ vi. I need a big battery and please no Gamer Swag branding. Will I require to get a do dedicated GPU or would Intel iris be enough. If you have any recommendations please tell me. I am looking at spectre x360, Razer blade stealth, and xps 15 currently.
 
PDS games will run fine on anything with Iris level graphics and an SSD hard drive. Civ VI will need something a bit more. The razer stealth is probably not going to be fun to play Civ on but if you like the size, it will be fine for the current Paradox games.

We have no idea what Imperator's requirements will be. It looks more graphically detailed on the world map so far but release and testing is a long way off. It wouldn't be fair to say "this will play Imperator fine" because not even the devs know how well it will play yet. With that said, either of the other two have current gen graphics cards and are serious investments so they should be just fine.
 
PDS games will run fine on anything with Iris level graphics and an SSD hard drive. Civ VI will need something a bit more. The razer stealth is probably not going to be fun to play Civ on but if you like the size, it will be fine for the current Paradox games.

We have no idea what Imperator's requirements will be. It looks more graphically detailed on the world map so far but release and testing is a long way off. It wouldn't be fair to say "this will play Imperator fine" because not even the devs know how well it will play yet. With that said, either of the other two have current gen graphics cards and are serious investments so they should be just fine.

Thanks
 
FYI no current PDS or PI game is officially supported on any Intel video system, except KoPP2 I think. BattleTech and CSL worn't even run, most likely.
 
Let me throw out the option of an external GPU like HP's Omen Accelerator which doubles as a docking station. You would get the advantage of good graphics on big monitor at your home base, but still get the full mobility and longer battery life of a lighter laptop.

What is your total budget range? What non gaming use will you require? ie are you a humanities guy who needs a browser and a word processor, or are you an engineer who will be doing CAD, or maybe a CIS guy who will be compiling code, or a graphics, video editing etc?

Finally, will this be doubling (tripling) as your primary entertainment center for music and video?
 
Let me throw out the option of an external GPU like HP's Omen Accelerator which doubles as a docking station. You would get the advantage of good graphics on big monitor at your home base, but still get the full mobility and longer battery life of a lighter laptop.

What is your total budget range? What non gaming use will you require? ie are you a humanities guy who needs a browser and a word processor, or are you an engineer who will be doing CAD, or maybe a CIS guy who will be compiling code, or a graphics, video editing etc?

Finally, will this be doubling (tripling) as your primary entertainment center for music and video?
I am a humanities guy who mostly needs the machine for browsing and word processing, but I wan it to double as a gaming machine, but only really for PDS games and maybe civ vi. However, I want it to be capable of light editing and have a decent screen and audio (1080 is fine so long as its pretty) as I watch lots of videos. Finally i want it to be under 1400 USD and I'd really rather not have a "gamer swag" machine as I am studying Theology and Religious Studies at an Orange and Black machine that says "Republic of Gamers" in huge RGB letters will likely not make good first impressions at a conservative Vatican run university. I do make ocassional videos so light editing with a dedicated gpu would be nice.

In short I want a conservatively designed machine with good screen and audio that can run PDS games and maybe do very light editing.
 
Razer Stealth looks great, except for the integrated graphics.
Spectre has dedicated gfx ( https://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDI...pecs-of-the-GT-1030-for-Laptops.223530.0.html )
XPS also has integrated graphics.

I can't vouch for games unreleased, and we're doing a little apples to oranges (operating systems), but if I lock my MacBook Pro (Mid 2015) to its integrated Intel Iris Pro, CK2, EUIV and Stellaris are all launchable and playable ( did a few minutes in each ). I also can't vouch for how they will play deep into the game when things slow down a bit.

The MBP's intel iris pro is roughly equivalent to a 720m, so far inferior to the integrated graphics of the machines you are considering which are supposedly closer to a 1030.

I think any of the machines you've listed would be fine for your purposes, and should they prove inadequate a couple of years from now, you could always explore the various eGfx solutions : https://www.windowscentral.com/razer-core-dell-xps-15-guide

As this is going to be your primary *everything*, I would make sure you have adequate ram (the savings on 8GB isn't worth not getting 16GB) and storage. Video, music, pictures eat up space fast, spring for at least 512GB if you can. The HP comes in within budget for 16RAM, 512HDD while the other two are a little more expensive (Dell @ 1500, Razer @ 1600), with the Dell you can probably find some codes or deals if you don't need to jump right away.
 
I guess I'm asking do I need a gaming laptop to run these games or will something like an xps or spectre with integrated graphics do the job just fine?
 
I already have a decked out desktop with an i7 and r9 fury and ram and coolers and all that jazz, but I need a machine that I can take with me. The majority of what i play is euiv, CKII, stellaris and hoiiv. I want to play Imperator as soon as it comes out of the PDS oven half baked next spring. I assume if a machine can play aaa games passably, I'll be fine. I do not want a battery sucking huge in your face gamer laptop. I am asking if I'll need one.

At my high school my friends and I got euiv onto our school loaner machines clandestinely (with the help of an inside man, the seminarian who ran the tech desk who also was a PDS fan) . The 2014 Mac book air couldn't handle it as it had a dual core CPU. So basically I think I want to prioritize cpu over gpu. I'm not going any less than i7 unless you tell me that's overkill.

So in short what's the smallest gpu I can safely be PDS future proof with. I'm thinking 1050 ti but I'm not sure.
 
I already have a decked out desktop with an i7 and r9 fury and ram and coolers and all that jazz, but I need a machine that I can take with me. The majority of what i play is euiv, CKII, stellaris and hoiiv. I want to play Imperator as soon as it comes out of the PDS oven half baked next spring. I assume if a machine can play aaa games passably, I'll be fine. I do not want a battery sucking huge in your face gamer laptop. I am asking if I'll need one.

At my high school my friends and I got euiv onto our school loaner machines clandestinely (with the help of an inside man, the seminarian who ran the tech desk who also was a PDS fan) . The 2014 Mac book air couldn't handle it as it had a dual core CPU. So basically I think I want to prioritize cpu over gpu. I'm not going any less than i7 unless you tell me that's overkill.

So in short what's the smallest gpu I can safely be PDS future proof with. I'm thinking 1050 ti but I'm not sure.

I'd recommend staying away from integrated graphics as you should probably include some performance headroom in case your tastes change in the future. Plus for $1400 you can easily get 1070 graphics with a 7th gen Intel CPU.

There are loads of laptops with dedicated graphics that don't scream gamer, such as the Lenovo Y530 or the Dell G7 (the latter of which even has Thunderbolt 3 so you can use eGPUs).
 
Avoid the ones with integrated intel graphics card only like the plague. Msi makes good laptops in my opinion I have an msi from 2014 and runs great still and can play all paradox games really well at 60 fps except hoi4.
 
You can get one for a similar price with a 1060 video card

Well yeah I know that but honestly with a budget of 1400USD he can have the full gamut of budget gaming laptops and still not hit his limit.

My advice? Look at both Amazon and Newegg and find the max specs for your budget, don't skimp out because when a few years goes by you'll be kicking yourself when your laptop is to crap to run a game you just bought (been there done that).

And over all, I would avoid the Dell XPS line as they tend to overheat and thermal throttle. Would also avoid gaming thin and lights in general as they tend to overheat and have soldered on RAM and/or storage and you'll want the maximum upgradability a laptop in your budget range. Trust me.

Also I wouldn't worry too much about weight so long as its under 6 pounds and a 15 inch display. So long as you have a bag with proper weight distribution you won't notice the weight so much as the bulk of a 17 inch laptop (again, been there done that).

Overall, I'd recommend the Dell G7. It doesn't have as good a display as say the Helios 300, however, it doesn't have a design that screams gamer and if all your doing aside from gaming is word processing the display won't matter much.
 
Well yeah I know that but honestly with a budget of 1400USD he can have the full gamut of budget gaming laptops and still not hit his limit.

My advice? Look at both Amazon and Newegg and find the max specs for your budget, don't skimp out because when a few years goes by you'll be kicking yourself when your laptop is to crap to run a game you just bought (been there done that).

And over all, I would avoid the Dell XPS line as they tend to overheat and thermal throttle. Would also avoid gaming thin and lights in general as they tend to overheat and have soldered on RAM and/or storage and you'll want the maximum upgradability a laptop in your budget range. Trust me.

Also I wouldn't worry too much about weight so long as its under 6 pounds and a 15 inch display. So long as you have a bag with proper weight distribution you won't notice the weight so much as the bulk of a 17 inch laptop (again, been there done that).

Overall, I'd recommend the Dell G7. It doesn't have as good a display as say the Helios 300, however, it doesn't have a design that screams gamer and if all your doing aside from gaming is word processing the display won't matter much.
What's your opinion of the legion y530 vs the g7?
 
I will be attending a university this fall and need to buy a laptop. I want a Windows machine that can run PDS games including imperator and Stellaris. The most intense game I will likely play is civ vi. I need a big battery and please no Gamer Swag branding. Will I require to get a do dedicated GPU or would Intel iris be enough. If you have any recommendations please tell me. I am looking at spectre x360, Razer blade stealth, and xps 15 currently.
You will definitovly need a dedicated gpu, for eu4 and ck2 a entry level mobile gpu will be enough but for anything more recent you will need a better gpu...and a fast cpu is mandatory
 
I think I've decided on the Lenovo Legion y530 with an i7 and 1080ti. Will that fit my needs for a laptop even if I decide to play slightly more demanding games?