How well does a 500$ laptop from Best Buy run UT3?

[Flak Master]

I'm going to college next month, and could use a laptop for taking notes, doing my work anywhere, etc. The thing is, I'd like to also use it for gaming and for mapmaking. Would anything up to around 500$(my budget) be good enough to run UT3?

Thanks in advance!

These are a few that I'm looking at:

http://gaminglaptop1000.com/best-che...r-500-dollars/

http://bestlaptopforgaming.org/lapto...-reviews-2013/

http://www.squidoo.com/best-cheap-ga...tops-under-500

[Nightmare85]

Hi,

This is a German site but you can see how well graphic chips run certain games:
http://www.notebookcheck.com/Welche-...g.13827.0.html

The resolution of the laptop you linked isn't so extremely high, which should give you some more extra FPS.
(You don't plan to use an external monitor at home, do you?)
The graphic chip of this laptop is on place 172.

It is also important what exactly you require.
Are you someone who insists on seeing 60 FPS?
I, for example, insist.
And I can realize it very quickly if I get less than 60 FPS, and if this happens several times, I can quickly be disappointed.
Also, do you want max. details at all, or would you say medium - high details is enough as long as the FPS are nice?

Probably not the price or the laptop itself is important but the requirements you have.

Cheers!

[Flak Master]

My uses for the laptop would be for gaming, mapmaking, 3D Modeling(once I get used to Blender), and just about anything else that would require a moderately powerful PC. I'd like to be able to run UT3 on at least medium settings, though higher than that would be nice. Basically, I'm getting this laptop for college work and for being able to run the Unreal Engine 3, be that through UT3, the UDK, Gears of War, etc.(Not that I plan on playing GOW, but, whatever)

As for frames per second, I'd be aiming for something that can run smoothly for most of the game's maps, situations, and everything else. Be it 60 fps or whatever UT2004 measures frames in.

[Wormbo]

The UDK will need a bit more power than UT3, so that one should be your benchmark. Those laptops look powerful enough to run UT3 in native resolution, but that's also their main problem - the native resolution. For gaming it may be enough, but not for development. In the editor you will want to have as much space as possible on the screen and 1366×768 clearly is too small for that. I have a 1600x900 screen on my laptop and I still consider it a bit too small for the UnrealEd.

Your first link already points out the important things in the ranking table: #1 has the computing/rendering power, while #3 has the screen size.

Speaking of screens: I made the mistake to buy a laptop with glossy screen. Yes, the manufacturers (and even more so the people actually selling this stuff) claim that it's not a problem because the backlight is bright enough etc. However, after having used a matte screen IMHO is superior is most situations, except maybe when you're sitting in a dark room with dark clothes. Unfortunately the glossy screens are cheaper and for some reason people don't mind. (Maybe they simply never had the opportunity to compare to a matte screen in situations other than those where glossy screens produce their best image quality.)

[Flak Master]

The 1366x768 resolution shouldn't be a problem for me. My TV's(which also happens to be my desktop's monitor) resolution is slightly thinner than that by 6 inches. It would be nice to have a higher resolution, though, as I sometimes wish I could view textures and other things in higher detail. As for matte or gloss, I searched for the # 1 laptop's screen type and came across this:

http://bestlaptopforgaming.org/portf...g-6622-review/

Granted, it's over my budget on Amazon,(699$ without taxes)and is a different model, but if the Acer Aspire V3-571G-6407 has an HDMI or VGA port, I could simply use it with my TV if I needed to. The only problem would be the resolution, but, as I said earlier, I'm used to dealing with that resolution as I have made maps on my desktop PC with about the same resolution. As for the UDK, I hope it could run it, but I won't be too disappointed if it didn't, as I plan on making maps for UT3 moreso than full games.(at this point in time)

[Flak Master]

I apologize for double posting. I have been searching for laptops and am coming to a decision between two that would meet my budget. Both are on Amazon, and one is more expensive than the other. Here are the links:

Toshiba Satellite 17" laptop
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...tag=lptps06-20

Pros:
+Bigger Screen.
+More RAM.
+Stronger processor at regular clock speed.
+Larger HDD.

Cons:
-Not as graphically powerful as the Intel HD 4000.(According to Game Debate)
-More Expensive.
-Not available at any major retailers that sell laptops.(From the searching that I have done)

Up in the Air:
Amazon does not say how long the battery life lasts.

For the most part, the Toshiba Satellite has more benefits than the Dell PC.

Dell Inspiron 15.6" laptop:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...opsunder500-20

Pros:
+Cheaper.
+More powerful graphics card all around.

Cons:
-Smaller Screen.
-Processor must be set to turbo in order to run this game.(as well as most other modern or recent games)
-Not as much RAM.
-6-cell battery, which lasts around 3 hours.(Then again, I am not sure how long the one above lasts...)
-Smaller HDD.
-Not available at major retailers.

The Dell laptop might be doable, but that depends on the power consumption of the laptop while it's running in Turbo Boost mode.

Which one would you advise that I buy, based on my analysis and the information that the links provide?

If I was to set the Intel processor on Turbo processing speed, wouldn't that eat up battery life faster than running it at clock speed? The reason this could be a problem is the fact that I will also be using one of these laptops for college and, if the Turbo speed eats up the battery in, say, an hour, then the Dell laptop is definitely the least preferred. Is it possible to change the type of battery being used in a laptop?