Recommend laptop cpu/GPU for older Source/Steam games

In My Humble Opinion (IMHO)
#1

I’m not talking newer, relatively expensive chipsets like the mobile versions of the 960, 1060 and up. I want to buy a used laptop on ebay, and I want to look at the cheaper ones that will still run certain old games.

I would like to play some older games, in the Source engine. Left 4 Dead 2, Portal 2. Maybe the game, “Insurgency”, but that’s not a Source engine game. I don’t know which CPU/GPU combos would run those 2 or 3 games at about 50+ FPS at 1080p, with most of the eye candy turned on.

AMD has some new CPUS that have gpus built in. Generally, those sort of things aren’t good gpus, but these are said to be pretty good, and I suspect they might be able to handle an older game like the ones I mentioned above. Would they? Probably not a lot of laptops with those on the used market yet, but you never know, so I thought I’d ask.

I’m not limiting it to those AMD chips, just mentioning them in particular. I’d like to know of ANY older, potentially inexpensive laptop cpu/GPU combo that would run the above games fairly well.

#2

In case anyone doesn’t know the OP is stuck in a nursing home for several months and has a serious poverty problem:
https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=857129

Thus if someone has a laptop around that would meet this criteria which he isn’t using he might consider donating it to the OP.

#3

Are you running it on a monitor? An older cheap laptop like you’re looking for won’t necessarily have a 1080 screen.

#4

No, it might not have a 1080p screen, but it certainly won’t have more. If I allow for it, I know that the gpu/cpu will do what I need it to. Thought that would keep it simple.

Guess we haven’t had any laptop experts bump into this thread yet.

PastTense, While money isn’t as free-flowing as anyone would like (is it ever?), I’m not requesting charity and have yet to do so, though I do appreciate your concern. I’d rather not confuse issues. I simply need an answer to my OP, if anyone here happens to know about this sort of thing. Armed with enough info, I’m sure I will find a good deal on ebay given time. Time is one thing I seem to have in abundance.

I have yet to meet a subject the Dope didn’t know about. :smiley:

#5

Firing up ye olde Google fu.

Left 4 Dead 2 System Requirements

Minimum Video Card: Video card with 128 MB, Shader model 2.0. ATI X800, NVidia 6600 or better
Recommended: Video Card Shader model 3.0. NVidia 7600, ATI X1600 or better

Going with the NVidia 7600, which was succeeded by the 8600, giving better performance and adds DirectX 10 hardware support. Both are legacy products which can be had for under $50 as a desktop graphics card.

Over to the NVidia for the list of 8M series laptops.

Grabbing a Dell XPS from the list…

eBay: Dell XPS M1730 Gameing Laptop 17" (USED)Extreme CPU 2.8 for $299 and free shipping.

You don’t mention what your target price is, but this seems like a reasonable place to start.

#6

Ha! great start. My target price is low, but $300 has to be in the ballpark. Can’t reasonably expect much lower than that. I’d like to get a list of usable GPU sets and look around, see what’s available on ebay. Might get lucky, get something with somewhat better gfx for the same price. I want to see what chips will do the job, then go see what they cost

So the 8600 gpu is a go. You’re recommending I skip the 7600 so I can move up to directx10, like it mentions in your link. Good idea.

8600M GT

other chipsets I assume I can safely use:
GeForce 8700M GT

Man, that’s a busy list of info. Can’t quite make a lot of sense from it. Thought I’d go through it an follow the list of chipsets and what succeeded what, but it doesn’t quite work that way for me.

#7

Definitely take the list of games you want to play over to Can You Run It to see what the beefiest graphics card is recommended. I’m thinking that the 8600/8700 is a good bet because I’ve always used NVidia products. The Dell XPS has always been a good performer for my wife and her gaming needs. I’ve always been a desktop gamer so I haven’t even looked at laptops until a couple of years ago.

Good luck and enjoy your gaming!

#8

Yeah, I’m not a laptop person at all. The only one I ever had was a hand-me-down one that was 5 years old when I got it, and it was weak when it was new. I just recently upgraded to my first desktop AMD cpu before going into the hospital. My seven-year-old desktop held up well for what I needed it to do, but too many parts were failing. In 16 months, I lost my gpu, power supply, HDD and most problematic of all, my motherboard. I got a great deal. Would have saved more if I’d waited until I got out of the hospital and nursing home, but then I’d be in rough shape to be putting it together. Glad it’s done.
What Ive been looking for is a video card hierarchy list for laptops , like you can find for desktop gpus. You’ve helped establish the low end of the gfx requirements. It SHOULD be easy for me to proceed from there to find other chipsets that will work.

Looks like the notebookcheck link you gave has that in a way, in that the gfx are separated into classes. Class one being best, and getting worse from there. Maybe that will help me.