So, I just got a new laptop for gaming, because the old one was limited by the CPU in ALL games and I really need a PC with a good CPU, since I'm going to a college for software engineering, I guess I'll need a good PC for the years to come.
My old laptop never got 100% usage on the GPU, since the CPU always got to 100% and overheated and got even more limited, so everything was a lag-fest.

So my new rig comes like this:
CPU: Intel Core i7 4720HQ (pretty much the best mobile CPU if you don't have unlimited money) From a Pentium B960
GPU: GTX 950M (I could have gone for a 960M, but that came with a dual core CPU, higher price or a 256GB SSD) From a GT 540M
1 TB 5400 rpm HDD (from a 500GB, not a big difference)
8GB RAM (it comes on 1600MHz now)
1080p screen :D (which is worse than 768p because Windows sucks at scaling, but it's ok)

It was about $900 and it's about the specs of the Xbox One, so it can handle all games on decent detail, I think it was worth it. So far, it's bottlenecked my the HDD (the loading times are the same as the old one and it sometimes freezes because of it, but I can replace it if I will). Also, Planetside 2 can't be handled by my GPU when settings > medium, funny how the CPU never goes above 40% on 3/8 cores all the time.

If you want a GA from the <0.25€ games, let me know which one :D I'm cheap, I got the new laptop, sorry. 5s2YN

PS: @people bottlenecked by RAM, how? It's cheap and it's an upgrade you can do on any laptop or PC.

9 years ago*

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What is bottlenecking you? (if the story is more complicated, let me know)

View Results
CPU
GPU
Power source
Cooling system
RAM
HDD
I don't have a bottleneck
What do you mean I should upgrade my Pentium 3? 128MB RAM Master race.

4790K + a 290, 8GB of ram and a 120GB SSD. Don't have a bottleneck per se, but would love a better CPU cooler and more SSD space (also faster), but things can always be better. Plays everything at 1080p at Ultra settings or close to it.

9 years ago
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Intel Core 2 Duo E4600 Dual-Core 2.4GHz.
4GB RAM
GTX660
Witcher 3 still playable :)

9 years ago
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Looked a little at the gtx 660
Memory clock: 6 Gbps
WHAT. THE. F. PC gaming when you don't need a laptop is so cheap and cool (on the temperature side)...
My cousin has a pretty nice i7 with a GT 740M and Witcher 3 runs at a constant (at least it's constant) 15 fps.

9 years ago
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Its a 740M ... they use 64bit databus & slow ddr3 (and not fast gddr5) - what did you expect...

also the small keyword >> M << usually says they half the amount of gpu cores. For instance a 760M has just 1/2 of the shaders of a 670 and even runs at much lower clocks! They needed to throttle the energy consumption as low as possibly. The mobile chip probably needs around 20w vs the 160w for the desktop. So a 740M has potentially only like 1/4 of the amount of graphics power of the desktop 670. The 740M was never meant for anything beyond short rounds of casual gaming.

9 years ago*
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Well, the problem with casual gaming is that it can go anywhere from Candy Crush to agar.io (which needs a pretty badass CPU) to some Dota or shooters. Valve probably knows this, since all their games run on any dual core CPU build that ever existed. But tell that to whoever made Planetside 2... Those graphics are the most overkill I have ever seen in a game, so useless on a sci-fi setting with no story.

9 years ago
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Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66GHz
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS (320MB)
4GB RAM

...and that's why I belong to this group.

9 years ago
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I have a Titan X and a i7 4770k 3.5ghz processor with 16 gigs of ram. Basically my bottleneck is ram at this point. When you have 12 gigs of vram you need around 24-32 gigs of ram. Then again, I'm not using all that vram in my current setup so it's not a big deal.

9 years ago
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Why would you need 2-3 times system RAM compared to video RAM?

9 years ago
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I don't know, I haven't personally researched it because it honestly won't be an issue for me at all. I will likely never max out my vram. There was a lot of talk about ram bottlenecks when the card first came out, but it's probably total bullshit. I don't really feel like I have a bottleneck except maybe cooling :) I need a water block or something for my gpu. I have it on my cpu, but my gpu definitely downclocks as it gets hot on air.

9 years ago
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I really think having 2-3 times the system RAM as video RAM is really only an issue at the lower end of the scale. For some reason that I've never been able to figure out, people like to skimp on the system RAM, so they'll have 2 GB video cards and 4 GB of system RAM, and when you factor in the OS's consumption, that's a big bottleneck.

9 years ago
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Yeah that makes sense, but I was seriously hearing people spout out 32 gigs and stuff. Sounds like overkill.

9 years ago
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Some people think you can never have enough RAM, and to a certain extent, they're right. But its highly unlikely anyone would ever come across a need for that much, outside of specific programs or a useless amount of multitasking. If you have a pair of open slots, it wouldn't hurt to throw a bit more in there for the future, but its not something I would call a bottleneck. With a system that nice, more commonly overlooked issues are cooling, HDD, or PSU.

9 years ago
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not overkill if u use virtualization, in memory databases, ramdisk, etc. ;)

9 years ago
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Well yeah, but I mean overkill for a vram bottleneck. I shouldn't need 32 gigs ram to fully utilize a 12 gig vram video card. You're right though, there is many reasons for needing that much normally.

9 years ago
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CPU is killing it for me, it is a Q9300 paired with an HD7850. I can't overclock the CPU coz my MB is crap too, but I am looking to upgrade soon.

9 years ago
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Running an E8400 effortlessy @3.6ghz. Absolutely no memory overclock necessary. Just a bit of vcore added. Even simpler boards should be able to increase that. Can you elaborate what hinders you at doing?

9 years ago
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I have a gigabyte G41m-es2l, I managed to overclock my old E5400 on it but the multiplier of the Q9300 is at its max with the memory. what i mean is that i can't get it beyond 333*7.5 without going over the memory clocks. I am on DDR2, I meant it when I said my rig is trash. I can max out Metro Last Light Redux @1080p no AA though :D , the benchmark shows 31 fps

9 years ago*
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I'm fine with my rig for now :
Intel i5 4670 3,4 GHz (was an idiot and didn't get the K version -_- ); GTX 760 2gb ; 8gb RAM

For now I can run every game I want to play at high or more, so I don't see a point in upgrading. Will probably think about it in a year or so, when the next gen video cards and VR are out.

Also you should really replace the HDD with 7200 rpm HDD.

9 years ago*
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I dont have a gpu :D

9 years ago
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9 years ago
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My GPU has 1GB vram (GT 755M), and 8GB of RAM apparently isn't enough for cities: skylines + mods D:

9 years ago
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My gaming laptop: (Gigabyte P34K V3)
CPU: Intel i7-4720HQ (2.6GHz-3.6GHz)
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M GDDR5 2GB
Storage: 250G SSD
System Memory: 8GB DDRIIIL 1600MHz
Display: 1920x1080 (14")
Dimensions: 340(W) x 239(D) x 20.9(H) mm
Weight: ~1.80kg

I bought it 2 months ago. It's wonderful, but a little expensive. It costs me about $1500. T_T

You'd better replace HDD with SSD. A good SSD can improve your laptop's performance.

9 years ago
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Yeah, but the space. I'm not gaming 100% of the time.

9 years ago
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You think the 250GB storage is not enough?

If your laptop supports mSATA, you can buy a mSATA SSD around 100GB and install the Windows system in it, so you can still keep the 500 GB HDD to store your data like movies and photos.

9 years ago
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I ran out of 500 GB, and I also store movies and TV and stuff on it.
It doesn't support mSATA, though. But I can wait, since hard drive speed bottlenecks aren't killing anything yet. And Intel came up with something new, I'll wait.

9 years ago
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I have a low end system in general so It's not really being bottle necked just everything working as hard as they can.

9 years ago
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I would imagine people are being bottlenecked by their RAM because they're already using all of their slots and the max speed their motherboard will support. Anyone with open slots should really grab some cheap RAM to slam in there. Its a very easy and cheap upgrade.

9 years ago
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Hi m8, congratz on new lap... suggestion, take out DVD tray(i doubt that u use it anyway)sell it and buy Sata HDD tray.
I have no bottleneck except from poor optimization from developers , just need some new peripherals...

View attached image.
9 years ago
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I can do that? o.O

9 years ago
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sure... There is no real use for DVD tray nowadays(when was the last time u burned some DVD's? and how many did u burn in the last year?)
don't have it in my main PC, don't have it in my laptop

9 years ago
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The last DVDs I burned ended up corrupted...
I used the DVD slot to install 2 games in the past year, Skyrim and partially The Witcher 3. But they both came with CD keys, so it wasn't a big deal, and installing the Witcher 3 via DVD is an all night task (and there are way too many DVDs to sleep).

9 years ago
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so u get my point, right?

9 years ago
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Yeah, but I still have a few games on DVDs, like the first AC and some older games I still like to play :(

9 years ago
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image?

9 years ago
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I never actually though about keeping all the CDs on my images somewhere. It's a pretty nice idea, since I'll always have the tower PC at home with a DVD tray and there's an external HDD in my room. Come join my useless whitelist!

9 years ago
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;)

9 years ago
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CPU: Intel Core i7 4710HQ
GPU: GTX 980M
512GB SSD + 1TB HDD
16GB RAM
1080p capable of 100Hz.
It's an Asus G751JY... No bottlenecks that I can see, maybe the 4720HQ would've been better, but at that time it didn't yet exist.

9 years ago
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It has 100 MHz less power, but that's not something relevant in modern CPUs.
That looks like one of the $2000 laptops that were in the offer here. For $4000 you could get a dual SLI GTX 980M with a 1TB SSD (monster PC, but not worth the extra 2k IMO)

9 years ago
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$4000 is too much for a Laptop. I actually paid $1650 for this one and it still felt pretty expensive.

9 years ago
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Well, price is relative to income and society. People here judge you for buying a $200 phone that's better than the one they have because they paid $1000 for it (that's the price of the highest storage iPhone 6+ here).
(Not to mention the Samsung guys, since Samsung is just an Apple wannabe on the software side, they don't deserve a penny)

"How much did you pay for that phone?"
"$200"
"wtf you rich spoiled kid" pulls out iPhone

View attached image.
9 years ago
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Well, here people are pretty poor, some work about a year for what I paid for that laptop... but I know that sort you mentioned. We also have them....

9 years ago
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Intel Core i5 480m
Nvidia GT 540M
4 GB DDR3 (1333mhz)
SSD samsung 840 EVO 250GB

In games i think the bottleneck is CPU, but I'm not sure. But i used to maded renders on the laptop and RAM was the bottleneck in this cases. Now i make the model on the laptop and render it on a low desktop pc (i3 4160, 8gb RAM ddr3 1600, integrated graphics and 1TB HHD WB Blue)

9 years ago
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you need a new option... my wallet!

9 years ago
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My desktop is
i7 4790K
8GB DDR3
GTX 980
ASUS ROG SWIFT - Has Gsync, 144Hz and 1440p
A bunch of other cool stuff that does not really affect the FPS.

Basically, my bottleneck is the GPU. I mean it's obviously a very nice setup, but I like my games to be closer to 144FPS. Once you have a 144Hz monitor, 60 FPS seems inadequate. Throw in Gsync and comparatively standard 60Hz monitors look extremely bad. I had to use an older monitor that I used to love for a week and it actually made me nauseous and sick after I was used to the new monitor. The upside is that games are amazingly smooth. Practically no eye strain, which used to be an issue before. And it's extremely helpful in competitive Counter Strike matches. Went straight from Nova 3 to MGE after I bought the monitor.

9 years ago
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Weird how GPUs are advancing way faster than CPUs, GPUs are able to render a real life face. But the best GPU around can't handle new games at over 60 fps. Still, comparing graphics 10 years ago to graphics today, the change is amazing.

9 years ago
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Well, we are increasing the resolutions now as well compared to 10 years ago. Even at 1440p I get nearly 90FPS on witcher 3 with not everything turned up. I rarely turn everything up max, instead preferring to turn off overly GPU intensive stuff that gives barely noticeable graphical quality.

9 years ago
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The thing about The Witcher 3 is that everything is overly GPU intensive and barely gives any noticeable graphical quality...
I remember I saw a comparison video between min and max... I don't know what that was supposed to show, but the only difference was that the water had less light in it...
CDPR should really work on the minimum settings on their next game. There are games like LoL and Dota 2 that look like 144p potatoes on minimum settings but run on any PC and have the same gameplay, and there are games like GTA 4 or Rise of the Triad (the remake), which can run on any PC with a dedicated GPU on any setting, but when taking a corner you get a 50-90% fps drop... The fps drop is reduced with a better CPU, but they still are overkill. Oh, and there's The Witcher 3, where the detail sliders only decrease the fps. Not to mention the game is missing some low quality assets. My cousin had a weird graphical glitch that led to a driver crash (on a sex scene, watching that over and over trying to figure out what happened was pretty funny). He changed textures from low to medium and everything worked. But texture size is pretty irrelevant nowadays on performance if you have more than 2 GB of VRAM, the performance impact when going from low to ultra on texture size is almost the same as setting AF from 0 to 16x. Not the same, since AF has 0 performance impact on any modern GPU and makes a HUGE difference. In my experience, High textures on any game with AF off looked way worse than low textures with AF on.
I type too much

9 years ago
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My GPU is the built in Intel HD one, so basically restricted to either games from at least a few years ago, or indies.

9 years ago
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Simple answer? Everything.

9 years ago
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