It happens that a person buys a laptop "just to have it." This is not very reasonable. If you don't have a clear reason to buy, then a brand new laptop is likely to be gathering dust somewhere on a table or a far shelf.

Versatile everyday laptop

Dell XPS 13

Notebooks from the middle and higher price categories fall into this category. A productive and balanced filling allows such laptops to cope with a wide range of tasks, including not too demanding games at medium and even high settings. Thus, gamers who do not prioritize graphics can save themselves from tangible expenses for a full-fledged gaming laptop with a powerful discrete graphics card.

The best laptops of 2017 according to TechRadar:

1. Dell XPS 13.
2. Asus ZenBook UX305.
3. Razer Blade Stealth.
4. Asus Chromebook Flip.
5. HP Specter x360.
6. Razer Blade.
7. Samsung Notebook 7 Spin.
8. Acer Aspire S 13.
9. Samsung Notebook 9.
10. Surface Book.
11. HP Specter x360 15.
12. MacBook.
13. Asus ZenBook Flip UX360.
14. Apple Macbook Pro 15.
15. Lenovo Yoga 910.

Rating the best manufacturers laptops compiled by Laptop Mag based on a combination of six key criteria: reviewer ratings, design, quality technical support and security, innovation, the range of laptops offered, as well as the loyalty of warranty conditions.

1. Lenovo.
2. Asus.
3. Dell.
4. Acer.
5. Apple.
6. Razer.
7. Samsung.
8. Microsoft.

For serious games

Razer Blade

Gaming laptops are very powerful and very expensive. This feature allows you to use gaming laptops for any work, including design, video editing, 3D graphics and design.

The video card is the most important part. In 2016, Nvidia introduced the tenth series of GeForce GTX graphics cards, which are not only much more powerful than previous generations, but also great for installation in laptops because they do not require a bulky cooling system.

If earlier Nvidia released heavily stripped-down mobile GeForce GTX with the letter M in the name for laptops, now you can install a full-fledged video card in a laptop: like in a stationary PC, but with slightly lower frequencies.

That is, if you buy a gaming laptop with a GeForce GTX 1050, 1050 Ti, 1060, 1070, 1080, or 1080 Ti, you'll get the performance of a desktop gaming PC with a similar graphics card.

The problem is that there are still a lot of outdated gaming laptops in electronics stores, and they cost like new, and sometimes even more expensive. The consultant may try to sell you such a laptop. Don't be tempted to buy a gaming laptop with GeForce GTX Series 10 only.

Older models are traditionally chosen as the processor for a gaming laptop. Intel Core i5 (for GTX 1050 and 1060), basic Core i7 (for GTX 1070) and older Core i7 (for GTX 1080). The amount of RAM is usually from 8 to 32 GB.

Top 10 Gaming Laptops According to TechRadar:

1. Razer Blade.
2. Asus ROG Strix GL502.
3. Alienware 13 R3.
4. Razer Blade Pro.
5. Gigabyte Aero 14.
6. Dell Inspiron 15 Gaming.
7. HP Omen 17.
8. Origin EVO15-S.
9. Gigabyte Aero 15.
10. Origin EON17-X.

For maximum mobility

If your lifestyle or work nature forces you to constantly move around, then mobility comes first when choosing a laptop. The smaller, lighter and thinner, the better. Often these laptops are called ultrabooks.

Top 10 ultrabooks according to TechRadar:

1. Dell XPS 13.
2. Asus ZenBook UX30.
3. Razer Blade Stealth.
4. HP Specter x360.
5. Samsung Notebook 9.
6. Acer Aspire S 13.
7. Surface Book.
8. Acer Swift7.
9. Lenovo Yoga 910.
10. HP Specter.

For maximum autonomy

If you spend most of your time away from an outlet, then the determining factor when choosing a laptop is the battery life.

We bring to your attention the rating of the most "long-playing" laptops according to Laptop Mag. The specified operating time is valid for constant web surfing in the browser via Wi-Fi without the use of other resource-intensive applications.

1. Lenovo ThinkPad T470 - 17 hours.
2. MacBook Air 13 - 14 hours.
3. Microsoft Surface Book - 12 hours.
4. Dell Latitude 7280 - 12 hours.
5. Lenovo Miix 310 - 12 hours.
6. Dell Latitude 5280 - 12 hours.
7. Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon - 12 hours.
8. Dell XPS 13 - 11 hours.
9. Dell Latitude 5480 - 11 hours.
10. Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming - 11 hours.
11. Acer ChromeBook R 13 - 11 hours.
12. Lenovo Yoga 910 - 10 hours.
13. Apple MacBook Pro 15 - 10 hours.
14. Asus ZenBook UX330UA - 10 hours.
15. HP Specter x360 - 10 hours.

Instead of a tablet

HP Specter x360

Now transformers are very popular, combining a laptop and a tablet. The design of such a hybrid allows you to unfasten the keyboard, rotate the top cover, or literally turn the device inside out so that the screen is on top. A mandatory attribute of the transformer is a touch screen. Laptops "2 in 1" are very compact, lightweight and can completely replace the tablet.

Top 10 convertible laptops according to TechRadar:

1. HP Specter x360.
2. Microsoft Surface Book i7.
3. Samsung Notebook 7 Spin.
4. Microsoft Surface Book.
5. Asus ZenBook Flip UX360.
6. HP Specter x360 15.
7. Dell Inspiron 13 7000 2-in-1.
8. Lenovo Yoga 910.
9. Lenovo Yoga 900S.
10. HP Elite x2 1012 G1.

To work on the Internet

If you only use a browser, then pay attention to Chromebook - more affordable laptops, sharpened for working on the Internet.

1. Asus Chromebook Flip.
2. Samsung Chromebook Pro.
3. Dell Chromebook 11.
4. Acer Chromebook 15.
5. Acer Chromebook R11.
6. HP Chromebook 14.
7. HP Chromebook 13.

As a more compact and aesthetic replacement for a desktop computer

Big system unit, monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers and a bunch of tangled wires do not add beauty to the interior and take up a lot of space. The laptop solves the problem easily and gracefully.

Undrey/Shutterstock.com

The configuration and cost of such a laptop will depend on what you usually do on the old stationary computer and what you plan to do on the new one.

For special work

This includes design, video editing, sound work, 3D graphics, engineering and other specialized activities.

The configurations of such laptops are highly dependent on the tasks being solved and the used software, and the cost ranges from tens to several hundred thousand rubles.

If you are looking for just such a professional laptop, then this guide is unlikely to be useful to you. For information about the correct configurations for narrow-profile laptops, it is better to look at the appropriate sites and forums. Only there you will find experienced professionals who are ready to help with advice.

What is worth paying extra for

Now you will learn about really useful things that justify every ruble invested in them.

Latest generation processor from Intel

There are no good laptop processors from AMD yet. Perhaps the situation will change with the advent of the Ryzen mobile line, but now the only reasonable solution is to buy a laptop with Intel Kaby Lake on board (Core i5 7xxx or Core i7 7xxx).

You can buy a laptop with a previous generation Core i5 or Core i7 (fifth or sixth) and get slightly less performance, but the trick is that the difference in cost between them is minimal or non-existent. Accordingly, it is better to choose the latest technology.

A powerful processor turns the laptop into a multitasking combine that not only works quickly, but also allows you to play not too demanding games, do video editing, graphics, and so on.

SSD instead of HDD

In order not to burden you with unnecessary words, we will simply leave here the indicators of the time required to launch some applications on a laptop with an HDD and an SSD, all other things being equal.

8 GB RAM

You must have heard how gluttonous Chrome browser in terms of memory consumption, and this is not the only program that requires a lot of resources to run quickly.

RAM is cheap and greatly affects the speed of the computer. Don't skimp on it.

Full HD screen

A laptop with a Full HD screen at a standard distance from it makes the pixels invisible to the human eye. Thanks to this, the picture becomes much better. Full HD fits more content, making working with desktop applications and on the Internet more comfortable and convenient. High-resolution matrices are usually made using more advanced technologies and have better characteristics than their younger HD counterparts.

Tenth series GeForce GTX graphics card

If you're buying a laptop with an eye for new games, then choose a model with discrete GeForce GTX 1050, 1050 Ti, 1060, 1070, 1080 or 1080 Ti graphics, depending on your budget.

In no case do not purchase laptops with GeForce GTX ninth series or even earlier. Save a little money and you'll end up with a much less powerful laptop without future headroom and decent VR support.

WiFi 5 GHz

Now wifi hotspots everywhere, but a side effect of such a ubiquitous presence is a drop in the quality and speed of communication. Roughly speaking, wireless routers jam each other.

The solution could be to switch to the 5GHz Wi-Fi band, known as 802.11ac.

Unfortunately for Wi-Fi usage 5 GHz also requires a router that supports this technology, but as a reward for spending more, you will get super-fast and stable wireless internet.

By the way, 5 GHz Wi-Fi support is useful not only for a laptop, but also for a smartphone.

USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 connectors

USB-C is the inevitable future, sooner than you think. In the next few years, this standard will become the only universal interface for charging and connecting any peripherals to a laptop.

The symmetrical design allows you to connect USB-C on either side, and therefore the familiar “does not fit, turned over, does not fit” problem familiar to everyone will be a thing of the past.

The famous USB paradox

Advanced Thunderbolt 3, in addition to being compatible with USB-C, has enough bandwidth to connect a 4K monitor, an external drive with read and write speeds comparable to an SSD, and a full-fledged external graphics card.

What you shouldn't pay for

Not all manufacturers are distinguished by the ability to create balanced laptops. In addition, some of the features present in laptops are often frankly useless.

Backlit keyboard

A laptop is a one piece device and its screen is always illuminating the keyboard. Accordingly, additional backlighting of the keys is not needed.

The only reason to choose a backlit model or to pay extra for this modification is the habit of working in complete darkness with a minimum screen brightness.

Above Full HD screen

The possibilities of the human eye are limited. With sufficient pixel density, we will not see them from a typical work with specific device distances. Such screens are best known as used in Apple products.

For a laptop with a screen diagonal of 13 inches and Full HD resolution, the distance from which the pixels cease to be distinguishable is 51 centimeters. Approximately at this distance, our eyes are when working at a laptop. Thus, increasing the screen resolution, and, accordingly, the pixel density, does not make sense.

If someone is persistently trying to prove to you that QHD and even more so Ultra HD (almost the same as 4K) is cool and necessary, then either you are dealing with a consultant in an electronics store, or you are faced with a marketing victim.

In addition to meaninglessness in terms of picture quality, over-resolution displays consume more battery power and require much more resources to render the picture, which negatively affects performance.

Mandatory Intel Core i7

The latest generation Intel Core i7 is a really cool processor, but there is such a thing as sufficient performance.

Simply put, you don't need a Nissan GTR if you use your car to travel to Auchan and work on congested roads.

Core i7 is good for heavy computing, video editing, graphics work and high-end gaming computers. An ordinary user will not use even a fifth of its performance, but will pay the full cost.

Mandatory discrete graphics card

A separate video card is needed for hardcore gamers who want to play new games with cool graphics, as well as for individual specialists. For web surfing office work and watching movies is enough power offered by the integrated graphics.

32GB RAM or more

If you don't know why you need so much RAM, then you don't need that much RAM.

If you are not a gamer, then 8 GB of RAM is enough for you, and if you play heavy games, then 16 GB is enough.

The fingerprint scanner

Now it is fashionable to put fingerprint scanners in laptops as a more convenient alternative to entering a password. Perhaps this will save you an extra second, but is it worth the money that manufacturers are asking for this feature?

Touch screen in an ordinary laptop

A touch screen is required for transformers - hybrid devices with a removable keyboard that combine a tablet and a laptop.

For an ordinary laptop, a touchscreen is not just useless, but also a frankly harmful excess that increases the cost of the device, battery consumption and sometimes worsens the quality characteristics of the screen itself.

Other guides for choosing equipment from Lifehacker.

The choice of a laptop can be compared to an exciting quest, after which the buyer, pumped with all the necessary technical knowledge, will have to decide and become the owner of a new laptop.

How to choose the right gaming laptop

This will take more than a day, or even a week, and the one who goes to the store, putting a few banknotes in his pocket, and hopes for an intelligent consultation from a technically savvy consultant, loses a lot. First of all - the pleasure of working with a computer that has already been purchased, which subsequently does not suit for many reasons.

The most gaming laptop is a serious technique that requires special attention already when choosing, and transferring such responsibility to friends, online services or consultants in a store would not be entirely correct. No one knows your abilities, needs and desires better than you.

From each according to his ability to each according to his needs

The laptop is in a very specific niche, and still cannot completely replace either a monoblock, or a tablet, or a desktop, just as it is irreplaceable itself. Do not forget that this choice primarily solves the problem of mobility, so it is not worth buying as a home multimedia center. For watching videos, reading books and browsing the news on the Internet on the go, a tablet, or even a smartphone, will be more convenient. And the game console is perfect for gaming on the run. With such a choice various devices you might think: why this device, but what kind of laptops? Gaming characteristics, however, for portable computers are quite high, and they still remain the leaders in sales of computer electronics, primarily due to comfort in operation and suitable technical characteristics, which we will consider in more detail.

The main features of the "gaming" display

• The minimum size is 15 inches, high resolution and contrast ratios, matrix response up to 12 ms. When choosing between a matte and glossy type of matrix, you need to take into account that glossy displays have a brighter color reproduction, while matte ones eliminate glare from any light source.

In general, when deciding how to choose a gaming laptop, you should start with a display that immerses us in an exciting virtual world. Laptops for gaming with a diagonal of less than 15 inches are extremely rare: when choosing a diagonal, you can be guided by a simple rule: the larger the better.

The responsiveness of the matrix affects the response speed of the monitor, to changes in the image image. If you want to get a sharp picture in fast-paced games, then the best gaming laptops come with a matrix response of 12ms or less. A low response value will create problems when managing game events.

In addition, playing games on a laptop will be difficult with a low contrast LCD monitor: in order to quickly act, you need to clearly see what is happening on the screen.

• Sufficient contrast for a gaming laptop - 1000:1. With this indicator, you can easily navigate even in the darkest scenes.
• Resolution is another important condition for a clear image, the higher it is, the more detailed the picture is, and the eyes are more comfortable.

Widescreen monitors

Gaming laptops are available with widescreen 16:9 monitors as well as standard 4:3 ratios. It all depends on your personal preference.

It is more convenient to play on 16:9 screens, as the view in games improves, it is also good to watch widescreen movies. The disadvantages include the fact that not all gaming applications support this format.

Performance: processor

Creating various saturated with movement and colors virtual worlds, game developers are becoming the “driving force” for the development of innovative technologies, making the most of available resources, creating better and better gaming laptops. The realism and quality of the picture on the screen is determined by the performance of the graphics adapter and processor.

• For a gaming laptop, it is desirable to use a video card with its own memory and a 2-core processor.

The characteristics of a gaming laptop are in no way inferior to a stationary PC. Behind the excellent design of laptop models, corresponding performance is hidden. Exist special programs to determine performance, the most common are PC mark053 and Dmark06.

• The test results showed that the laptop must be equipped with at least a 2-core processor: Core i5 (i7) or Core 2 Duo from Intel, Turion or Athlon 64 X2 from AMD.

Also pay attention to the clock frequency with which the heart of the laptop “beats”.

• Frequency selection: recommended - the higher the better.
• Another point: Turbo Boost technology in the Core i5 and i7 processors at peak load increases the frequency of the processor by 75 percent.

Graphics adapter

The video card is perhaps the main component of a gaming laptop. Built-in gaming graphics cards for laptops use the resources of a PC, and their performance is often not enough for modern games. Therefore, you need to choose a powerful discrete graphics card.

• Leading this market Radeon video cards HD from AMD/ATI and GeForce from Nvidia.

To ensure that RAM resources are not additionally used by the video card, we recommend choosing laptops with at least 1 GB of their own video memory.

• Gaming video cards for laptops with HyperMemory (ATI) and TurboCache (NVIDIA) technologies supplement the computer's own video memory with resources.

Expandable parameters: hard drive and RAM

When reviewing gaming laptops, it should be taken into account when choosing the optimal RAM that games are progressing all the time, becoming more realistic and requiring increased performance of the “RAM”.

• An important selection criterion is the ability to expand the amount of RAM, a similar option is available in most gaming laptops.
• Choosing HDD, be guided by the volume and speed of its rotation.

New games in optimal mode usually require at least 1 GB of RAM. It is also worth considering the fact that in addition to this, the resources of the "RAM" are used installed on the computer antivirus program, operating system and other similar applications.

• With this in mind, a laptop with at least 2 GB of memory is the best choice.

The number at the same time depends on the volume of the hard drive installed apps and games, disk rotation speed affects the speed of reading / writing information data, determining the performance of the entire system.

• Demanding fans of high-quality virtual games will not be satisfied with a cheap gaming laptop. We need a serious device with a 160 GB hard drive, with a rotation speed of 7400 rpm. in min.
• Notebooks also have the ability to install additional hard drives.

Keyboard size

Comfort in the game largely depends on the input devices - mice and keyboards.

• For convenience in the game, you will need a keyboard that is as close as possible to the desktop. The key properties of the keyboard for the player is the degree of rigidity and the shape of the keys, a small stroke for a clear and fast pressing.

Comfortable keyboard - successful game

In specialized gaming laptops, the keyboard has a number of special qualities. Accidental pressing, sticky keys or wrong combination is the way to an unsuccessful game.

• Close attention is paid to the keys used to control the game characters W-A-S-D, which can be marked with arrows, as well as the space bar. It is on these keys that the main load falls in games.
• Spectacular and convenient detail for games at night - backlit keyboard. Such a backlight, in addition to the shutdown options, can be endowed with brightness control.
• An important attribute of a laptop for gaming is the mouse, since the touchpad is not designed for such purposes. It is better to check the option to disable it in advance.

Peripheral connections

A gaming laptop, being a high-tech system, includes a certain set of multimedia interfaces and ports. The user's convenience when connecting headphones, a mouse or an external monitor will depend on their number and comfortable location, which means that the task of choosing a gaming laptop will be solved as correctly as possible.

One USB port on a laptop is usually occupied by a mouse. In addition, a flight simulator joystick, as well as gamepads and a racing wheel are connected via USB ports.

• Thus, it is desirable that the specifications of a gaming laptop include 3-4 USB ports.
• If you have a Plasma or LCD TV, look out for an HDMI port that supports high-speed digital video transmission. game on big screen impressive.

Despite the seemingly high-quality built-in acoustics, the sound will undoubtedly be more realistic and louder when Hi-Fi headphones or external speakers are connected to the gaming laptop.

• The S/PDIF audio output of the standard, in addition to the transmission of a conventional stereo signal, also supports the transmission of 5.1 audio.
• Integrated Bluetooth allows you to wirelessly connect peripheral devices to the gaming machine: headphones, mouse, mobile phones.

For fans of network and online games, the features will come in handy network connections. In addition to the classic wired LAN network, gaming laptops provide modules for connecting to wireless networks and the Internet, so a cheap gaming laptop may not have such ports.

• The 802.11g Wi-Fi module is the most advanced wireless communication format, featuring high-speed data transfer, and allows you to play anywhere, anytime.
• An additional feature is the wireless connection to local network for online battles.

Among the endless windows

Once you have decided on how to choose a gaming laptop, and decided on the characteristics, you can build your own PC. Not by hand, of course, but by imagination. You imagine what you want, and the manufacturer makes it a reality. You have already decided what to donate. You have roughly figured out how much a gaming laptop costs, and whether this acquisition will destroy your budget. All sorts of baubles and chips from the manufacturer are most often not important: it is unlikely that a fingerprint scanner is of fundamental importance for someone, in contrast to the performance of the platform. Of course, for comfort, someone will need a COM port, someone will need an LPT, and some may want to have an IRDA.

In the end, I would like to note that buyers armed with knowledge are almost never disappointed and make the right choice.

For a gaming laptop, speed and graphics quality are equally important. Both of these qualities are achieved only when choosing a balanced bundle of the main components of the laptop: processor, video card and RAM. In this article, we'll show you how to choose a gaming laptop configuration to fit your budget and get good gaming performance.

The most important criteria when choosing a gaming laptop

The gaming industry has been looking for a long time for some average indicator by which it would be possible to evaluate the speed of the game on, processors, drives and memory. As a result, we settled on frames per second, frames per second, fps, aka fps. It is believed that for a comfortable game you need 40 fps or more..

In fact, only 25 fps are usually displayed on the screen. "Extra" fps are simply thrown away and do not appear on the display. Why then such an overestimated bar? The thing is, it's an average. On difficult scenes, it is smaller, on easy scenes it is higher. And it is necessary to ensure smooth operation throughout all moments in the game.

Within certain limits, you yourself can change the FPS in the game on a laptop. To increase it, lower the image rendering quality or its resolution in the settings. There will be less details on the screen, but the FPS will be higher. This means the game will run faster.

What specifications should I pay special attention to?

So, let's formulate the main list of requirements for laptop components that you should focus on when choosing a mobile computer for games.

video card

For a gaming laptop, the GPU is even more important than the CPU. In general, of course, taking into account the possibilities of your budget. The faster the better. This means that it must be discrete. Those. having a separate chip soldered on the system board.

As a rule, video card manufacturers make mobile solutions based on regular, desktop ones. Slightly lower frequency, less memory on board, slightly lower performance, but the chip is essentially the same. There is very little space in a laptop, even a gaming one, and it is extremely difficult to ensure efficient heat removal from a hot chip.

Attention! Remember that a gaming laptop is bound to be noisy under extreme operating conditions. Therefore, when buying, be sure to try it in games to evaluate the level of fan noise. If silence is important to you, then it is better to choose a less powerful version of the laptop.

However, technologies are constantly improving and the difference in performance between mobile and conventional video cards is getting smaller. At the time of this writing performance leadership in the class of single graphics cards for gaming laptops belongs to. The regular 980 operates at 1127 MHz, while the mobile 980 operates at 1064 MHz. But the performance difference is not so significant. For example, in the game Tomb Raider, a laptop with a 980M video card showed 104.3 FPS, and a desktop computer with a regular 980 - 108.5 FPS.

It is believed that mobile video cards are more energy efficient. Those. with similar performance indicators, they heat up relatively less than solutions from the main red competitor.

AMD has another advantage - the price of their mobile video cards is slightly lower. That's why If you need to choose a gaming laptop with a minimal budget, then the AMD mobile graphics card is optimal for you..

A list of criteria for choosing a video card for a gaming laptop, sorted in descending order of the number of frames per second in games, looks something like this.

CPU

A powerful laptop for gaming should be equipped with a mechanical keyboard. It has a faster response time and lasts longer. Such a keyboard can be found both in MSI's mobile gaming line and in Dell.

Using the touchpad in a gaming laptop, except for working in office applications, we do not even consider. And in terms of choosing a mouse, each gamer has his own subjective preferences. So the touchpad in a laptop for games is not critical.

"Dream configurations" for gaming laptops

So, here are the main parameters for choosing a laptop designed for games and the Internet.

• You need to choose discrete solutions, and it is better from a company. In some laptops, manufacturers even use full-fledged desktop video cards, significantly strengthening the cooling system.
• In descending order of applicability: Intel Core i 7, i 5 and i 3. In low price range pay attention to mobile AMD processors. So that cheap laptop it is better to choose with a chip from this manufacturer.
• Mechanical keyboard. The best gaming laptops are equipped with just such. This factor does not affect the number of fps in games in any way, but it completely changes the gameplay.

And here are the “dream configurations” that the leading manufacturers have collected for us.

Class, price niche	Configuration	Price, USD
High price	: Intel Core i7 5950HQ / 5700H, 2x 8G	from 3500
High price	: Intel CORE I7 6 6700HQ (6MB Cache), NVIDIA® GeForce GTX 980M 4GB GDDR5	from 3000
Average price range	Dell Alienware 15: Intel Core i7, NVIDIA GeForce® GTX 970M with 3GB GDDR5	from 2000
Average price range	MSI GT72 2QE-1488RU Dominator Pro: Intel Core i7, NVIDIA GeForce GTX980M	from 2000
Affordable price	Lenovo IdeaPad Y5070: Intel Core i7, NVIDIA GeForce GTX860M	from 1000
Affordable price	ASUS K501LX: Intel Core i7, NVIDIA GeForce GTX950M	from 800

The question of which laptop is better to buy for gaming has been raised by gamers for many years.

The difficulty is that new models are coming out and what was previously considered the most powerful, today can no longer be considered as such.

The reason for this conclusion is very simple - all modern games are written for Windows (all sorts of chess and balls are not considered, we take into account games like GTA 5, NFS and the like).

But the problem is that if the computer is designed for the same MacOS, installing Windows on it will be very problematic.

The official Apple website says that there is a Boot Camp program for using Windows programs on a Mac.

There are installation instructions. But even in this case, no one is immune from compatibility problems.

Until that time, all the games were just fine, and the picture was, as they say, delicious. Now everything has changed. The same applies to other similar systems.

Frequency

The fact is that the minimum processor frequency for a gaming device today is 2.4 GHz.

Most modern games normally work only with such a frequency. It is logical that the higher the frequency, the higher the performance will be.

This can be clearly seen in the following graph.

Figure 4 shows the results of testing the same game with different processor frequencies.

Again, the main parameter here was the number of frames per second. And the lines of different colors show what the fps value was at different screen resolutions.

At 2160p the difference isn't that big, but at 1080p it's already quite noticeable.

Since most modern laptops have a resolution of no more than 1080p, it is obvious that for a good gaming laptop, the processor frequency should be at least 3 GHz.

This is more than enough for games that are still waiting to be released.

Advice: The minimum frequency of the processor should be - 3 GHz.

Number of Cores

Obviously, the performance of the computer also depends on the number of processor cores - the more there are, the faster the information will be processed.

Here the principle is very simple - all information is evenly distributed between the cores and they all process it.

But if we have already determined that the minimum processor frequency should be 3 GHz, then the criterion for the number of cores disappears automatically.

The fact is that processors with such a frequency simply cannot have few cores - from 4 to 8.

It's more important to look at the processor manufacturer and the core architecture. As for the first, let's say right away - AMD processors are not suitable for games. Choose Intel.

This is clearly seen in the following graph.

As you can see, here they took processors from Intel and AMD with a different number of cores and launched GTA game 5.

As a result, more frames per second were recorded when working with Intel processors.

In terms of architecture, the following graph shows that the optimal architecture models for Intel processors today are Broadwell, Skylake and Haswell, which have come out in the last 3 years.

Hence the next selection criterion.

Advice: Best Processor ArchitectureBroadwell, skylakeorHaswell.

Criterion number 3. RAM

As you know, usually games require a lot of files and data that relate to locations, objects, maps, saves and everything else. Responsible for all this RAM.

Accordingly, the heavier the game, the more data it needs for loading and normal operation, the more RAM it needs.

Of course, modern games require quite a lot of such memory, but not as much as manufacturers offer.

For example, let's take a few heavy games and see what their RAM requirements are for running at maximum settings:

1. Crysis 3 - 8 GB.
2. Battlefield 4 - 8 GB.
3. Assassin's Creed 4 - 4 GB.
4. Need for Speed ​​2015 - 8 GB.

The same picture with other heavy games of our time. 8 GB is enough for the toy to work quietly without any freezes.

Yes, it is possible that in a year or two something very demanding will come out and more gigabytes will be needed there, so we will take it with a margin.

Criterion number 4. video card

As for the video card, here we will consider the most important and central parameter - the size of the video memory.

This parameter determines how much graphic information the device can store in itself.

For example, if in the game you need to load some textures to go to the next level, then they will be loaded through this very memory.

The higher the resolution in a laptop, the more video memory it will need.

In most cases, one gigabyte of video memory is more than enough.

But in order to determine the ideal amount of video memory, we must again turn to the maximum requirements for the heaviest modern games.

After reading these requirements, you can see the following picture:

1. Crysis 3 - 4 GB.
2. Battlefield 4 - 4 GB.
3. Assassin's Creed 4 - 2 GB.
4. Need for Speed ​​2015 - 4 GB.

From this we can draw a very simple conclusion - for a modern gaming laptop, you need 4 GB of video memory.

All other parameters related to the video card simply cannot be low with a large amount of video memory. Hence the next criterion.

Advice: You need at least 4 GB of video memory.

It does not matter which model of the video card will be installed in the laptop, the main thing is that it has at least 4 GB of memory.

Criterion number 5. Hard disk capacity

Most of the games listed above require at least 30 GB of free hard drive space.

But of course, we will not have one game, but 10-20 pieces, so we need to multiply 30 GB by at least 10, the result will be 300 GB.

If you take it with a margin, it will be about 500 GB. This will be our next criterion.

Advice: The minimum storage capacity must be 500 GB.

Yes, manufacturers today offer more, but so far there is simply no point in this.

Even if you install the 10 heaviest games and add a sea of ​​\u200b\u200bmovies there, it will still be very problematic to fill even 1 TB.

In addition, there is a myth that the size of the drive somehow affects performance.

This is due to the fact that supposedly the more information on the computer, the slower it will work. It is not true.

All the information that is on the drive is processed by the processor, and the faster it does it, the more productive the laptop will be. And this pattern does not change even after years of using the device.

But above we have already determined that the minimum frequency of the processor should be equal to 3 GHz. So, this is quite enough for quiet work with a large number of gigabytes of information.

Types of hard drives

An ideal option for a gaming laptop is an SSD drive. The arguments for such a bold assertion are as follows:

1. SSD drives are 100 times faster than the same HDD drives. These are not just words. Other hard drives need to spin up to access data, but SSDs have the ability to instantly get it. And all because there are no moving parts in the SSD.
2. SSD drives have higher bandwidth, and at times. This means that this type of drive will be able to skip more megabytes every second.
3. SSD drives have much higher I/O performance. This parameter characterizes how many operations the device can process. It is related to the previous one.
   Bandwidth refers to how many operations a hard drive can get into at all, while I / O performance refers to how many of these operations it can process.
4. SSDs have much faster response times. This means that they react faster when some operation comes to them for processing. Accordingly, they can process this same operation much faster.

All these parameters are shown in the figure below.

As you can see, in all three parameters, SSDs are two or three heads higher than their HDD counterparts. SSDs have other benefits as well.

For example, due to their one-piece construction, they are much more reliable.

They are absolutely not susceptible to drops, scratches, mechanical damage and, in the end, shock. Fact: impact resistance of any SSD drive at least 1000g/0.5ms.

In fact, this means that you can throw it against the wall and drop it on the pavement - absolutely nothing will happen to it. In general, the following criterion is obvious.

Advice: The laptop must haveSSDstorage device.

Interestingly, the combination SSD drive and less RAM than described above and a less powerful processor than described above can also give impressive results.

Even with 5 GB of RAM and a processor frequency of 2.4 GHz, you can easily play the same Crysis 3 or NFS.

On the other hand, with the above parameters, you can sacrifice the dream of an SSD and take a model with an HDD.

Criterion number 6. Working hours

As you know, the operating time depends on the battery.

Of course, most of the time the laptop will work from a regular outlet, but from time to time the gamer will have to take it with him on trips or there will be some kind of power failure.

For such cases, it is necessary that the laptop has an excellent battery. Since games require a lot of computer resources, the battery must be very powerful.

Considering all the above parameters, the maximum battery life can be 9 hours.

But for a gaming laptop, 4 hours is also quite suitable - it still bothers to play games and sometimes you need to rest. Therefore, the following criterion is obvious.

Advice: Required minimum battery life is 4 hours.

In any case, you will have to buy another battery, because even if it is stated that the battery will last at least 10 hours, with an average load it will work somewhere around 7-8, and in games - 4-5.

Therefore, in practice, the same battery for 4 hours is enough for about 2 hours.

Advice: For a gaming laptop, be sure to buy a second battery, and more powerful than the one already built into it.

Criterion number 7. Weight and dimensions

Of course, no gamer wants to carry 10-20 kg on himself, even in a briefcase. The heaviest laptop to date is the Dell XPS M2010 which weighs 8.3kg.

There are also secret military developments from Philips, which, according to some experts, weigh up to 9 kg. Of course, it is not very convenient to carry such a colossus on yourself.

Therefore, it is optimal that the laptop weighs up to 4 kg.

Such a weight will not harm the human body, and if you constantly carry such an apparatus with you, a person will even stop noticing it.

Interestingly, all other settings in the Dell XPS M2010 were set to very low. high level at the time of the publication of this work.

As for the size of a gaming laptop, here the considerations are the same - it is absolutely inconvenient to carry too wide a colossus.

Therefore, it is optimal that the length of the device is not more than 500 mm, and the width is 40 mm.

This is where most experts agree. This size allows the laptop to have a diagonal of 17.3 inches. Hence another criterion.

Although, of course, someone may want to buy something big and impressive. Therefore, this parameter can also be classified as optional.

Criterion number 8. Connectors and drives

For some heavy games, in particular GTA 5, the manufacturer requires that the computer has a DVD drive.

This is done with the expectation that the user will still buy the official game on disk and will only use it, and will not download everything on the Internet from torrents.

Of course, the reality is that now everything can be found on the Internet and download various games for free.

But manufacturers are moving forward and, quite possibly, already in 2017 a game will be released that cannot be broken.

A few years ago, Fifa 14 came out and for a long time no person called a “cracker” (who makes cracks for the game, that is, files that allow you to bypass protection) could crack it.

Attempts were made even by teams of specialists, in particular skidrow, Razor, Reloaded and others.

Usually all versions of FIFA break down a month after the release, but here 5 months have passed and only after that a crack appeared on the skidrow website.

And now all new versions of the football simulator break down not so easily, and at least three months pass between the release of the game and the release of the crack.

In general, it's getting harder and harder for crackers to open new games, so there should always be a DVD drive and a few thousand for a new game.

The same applies to other connectors and communications.

For example, a laptop must have an input for an HDMI cable, because if you want to connect a computer to a TV, you can do this using an HDMI cable.

In extreme cases, you can connect the TV via a VGA connector, but it's better to still have HDMI. In addition, you always want to show your friends a powerful laptop and play something together.

Therefore, the computer must have several connectors for USB devices such as joysticks and gamepads. The optimal number of USB connectors is 4.

This conclusion can be drawn from the fact that most games in the mode of collective participation are designed for such a maximum number of people.

For example, the same Fifa has five positions - one for the keyboard and 4 for gamepads.

Advice: Must be present 4USBconnector and preferablyHDMI.

Criterion number 9. Brand

In the case of laptops, do not skimp on buying a laptop from a well-known brand. The benefits of such a purchase are obvious.

Firstly, a well-known brand has its own service centers, most likely in your city or the nearest large settlement to you.

The situation here is almost the same as with phones - there are well-known brands that sell their products at a high price, and there are Chinese brands that are the same in terms of parameters, but are sold cheaper.

But the problem is that the products of well-known brands can be repaired in any city, and in order to repair the representative of our socialist brother, you need to send him directly to China.

Maybe laptops will not need to be sent directly to the manufacturer, but it is still easier and faster for craftsmen to repair well-known brands.

And secondly, after all, many years of experience proves the reliability of a particular brand.

And cheap China is still something new for us and not yet fully tested.

Based on this, we can select a list of brands that enjoy the greatest authority among users. These include the following brands:

• asus;
• Toshiba;
• Apple;
• Dell;
• Lenovo;
• Acer;

Advice: Choose manufacturers -Asus, Toshiba, Dell, Lenovo, AcerorHP (Applewe excluded from the very beginning due to difficulties with adapting games to the OS).

First Place - HP ZBook 17

Based on all the above characteristics, one single winner of the competition for the title of the best gaming laptop on the market has been selected.

They became the HP ZBook 17. You can buy it for $ 5,500 or about 380,000 rubles.

In Russia, it can be purchased at the HP brand store. He has different configurations, but in the most powerful of them the following characteristics:

• Intel Core i7 processor with a maximum frequency of 4 GHz, 4 cores and Haswell architecture;
• 32 GB of RAM (you can take it with 8 GB, it will be half the price);
• two hard drives- one 256 GB SSD (it is better to install the main games on it) and another 1 TB HDD;
• there is DVD drive(HDMI no);
• the screen diagonal is 17.3 inches, the maximum resolution is 1920x1080;
• video memory - 8 GB;
• 4 USB ports - 3 for USB0 and 1 for USB 2.0;
• dimensions - 41.6x27.2;
• preinstalled Windows 7;
• weight - 3.5 kg.

The manufacturer gives a 3-year warranty on it.

As you can see, something still had to be sacrificed, in particular, an HDMI connector and a 500 GB SSD drive. But the fact that there is an SSD here at all is already a huge plus.

And the battery is weak - for 4.5 hours. But still, you won't find anything better on the market today.

It is worth saying that because of such a powerful graphics core, the HP ZBook 17 is perfect not only for gamers, but also for everyone who is somehow connected with graphics, in particular, designers, artists and developers.

In addition, a huge advantage of this device is that it is available in the CIS. Some modern powerful laptops can only be bought in America or China, for example.

Second place - Fujitsu CELSIUS H920

If we sacrifice several selection criteria, in particular the last one, then the winner will be the Fujitsu CELSIUS H920. It is very difficult to buy it.

Within the CIS, it is available only in a few stores. A real exclusive!

Although it costs about $ 3,000 or 200,000 rubles, which is very good. This monster has the following characteristics:

• Intel Core i7 processor with a frequency of 3 GHz, 4 cores, but with Ivy Bridge architecture;
• 16 GB of RAM;
• preinstalled Windows 7;
• screen with a diagonal of 17.3 inches and a resolution of 1920x1080;
• 4 GB video memory;
• SSD drive 512 GB;
• Blu-ray drive;
• 4 USB ports - 1 for USB0 and 3 for USB 2.0;
• battery for 9 hours.

In principle, due to a pure SSD drive, this model could beat our today's winner, even despite the outdated processor architecture, if it had more RAM.

And yet HP ZBook 17 is better.

But the Japanese Fujitsu CELSIUS H920 has its own advantages. In particular, it is a more durable battery.

If it will be possible to play on the winner of our today's competition for only 2 hours, then the Japanese will definitely withstand 4.

In any case, all modern games and even those that will be released in the next 2-3 years will work very well on both Fujitsu CELSIUS H920 and HP ZBook 17.

By the way, it is interesting that the Japanese was released in 2012, so the outdated kernel is not particularly surprising.

But the fact that this laptop has held the brand for 3 years is quite impressive!

Third place - Lenovo IdeaPad Y50-70

Finally, if one criteria is omitted, namely, the processor frequency up to 2.4 GHz (we said that this will be enough for all modern games), then the Lenovo IdeaPad Y50-70 will be the winner.

Of all three winners, this model is the most affordable to buy today - it is sold in dozens of online and offline stores.

Such a pleasure costs about 1900 dollars or 130,000 rubles. The characteristics of the Lenovo IdeaPad Y50-70 are as follows:

• Core i7 processor with Haswell architecture, 2900 MHz, 4 cores;
• 16 GB of RAM;
• the screen diagonal is 15.6 inches, the maximum resolution is 3840x2160;
• 4 GB video memory;
• battery for 5 hours;
• 1 GB of internal memory on the HDD hard drive (here, the HDD + SSD Cache combination is used, that is, the information is stored on the HDD and processed on the SSD - the effectiveness of this approach has not yet been proven);
• dimensions - 387x263.4 mm;
• weight - 2.4 kg;
• there is a DVD drive and an HDMI connector;
• 3 USB connectors - 1 for USB0 and 2 for USB 3.0;
• preinstalled system - DOS/Windows 10/Windows

In principle, this laptop loses to today's two winners only due to a slightly lower processor frequency.

But the difference is only 100 MHz, which will not be particularly noticeable in games. Under all other criteria, the Lenovo IdeaPad Y50-70 fits just fine.

In addition, it is very easy to buy it - there are many stores with different conditions. The Lenovo IdeaPad Y50-70 can even be borrowed.

But the Fujitsu CELSIUS H920 and HP ZBook 17 will have to be searched on the Internet, and you will definitely not find them in ordinary hardware stores.

So, you have chosen a gaming laptop and bought it. Now you need to do the following:

• Launch "Control Panel" and click on "Uninstall a program". There you need to see what software is already installed on the computer. The fact is that gaming laptops often add programs that duplicate each other or are not needed at all.
  They need to be removed.

• Clean up your computer from time to time. Games usually leave a lot of temporary and other junk files.
  To do this, open "My Computer", right-click on the disk where the games are recorded and in the window that opens, click "Disk Cleanup".

Disk Cleanup via My Computer

• Do backup data. To do this, in the same "Control Panel" you must select the item "Archiving computer data".

This will make it possible to restore the system to its initial state in the event of a malfunction.

In addition, in the same menu as shown in Figure 17, you can set up scheduled data archiving.

Although, on first launch windows system must make this setting yourself.

• Buy wipes to wipe the screen. While conventional computers do not need to have a crystal clear screen, gaming laptops should make sure that there is no debris and dust on the screen.
  It is very important that you always have a blank screen on your gaming laptop! And this is important, first of all, because otherwise the color rendition will suffer.

• If you plan to use your laptop in the same way as a normal laptop, without plugging it into the mains, from time to time you need to perform the following procedure:

1. Discharge the battery up to 40-50%;
2. Remove it from the computer and place it in a plastic bag;

3. Place the battery in one of the refrigerator chambers at a temperature of approximately 5 ° C;

5. Keep it in this state for several hours.

This procedure will significantly increase the battery life. Otherwise, after two years it will have to be replaced with a new one.

• If you live in a cold area and want to take your laptop out into the cold in winter, be sure to turn it off and wait about 20 minutes.
  The fact is that gaming laptops usually operate at elevated temperatures and too sudden temperature changes will definitely not do them any good.
  After arriving in a warm room from frost, you must wait at least half an hour and only then turn on the laptop. Of course, the device must be carried in a special bag.

• Disassemble the laptop from time to time and clean the dust inside it. In gaming devices, dust will accumulate twice as much as in ordinary laptops, because the load on them is much higher.
  Particular attention should be paid to the cooler (it is marked with a red frame in Figure 20).

All this will help to enjoy greater productivity over the long term.

Below you can see a small video presentation of the Lenovo IdeaPad Y50-70, the most convenient gaming laptop to buy with maximum performance.

Video review laptop Lenovo IdeaPad Y5070

Buying a laptop! Which one to choose for games?