First, apologies if this isn’t the best community; please direct me to a better venue if so.
TLDR: I need to buy 2× used gaming laptops that are powerful enough for 3D-heavy games – I don’t know what to look for?
Situation:
My kids have used Lenovo laptops for their rooms, and after some years, their gaming choices (BeamNG and other such 3D-heavy games) mean that old business laptops won’t cut it. They need to be replaced (the laptops, not the kids!).
Problem:
Back when I was young, I understood CPU and GPU requirements - these days I don’t. Help!
- An Intel i7 may be great but it may also be several years old. I don’t understand the naming anymore.
- Most normal laptops have integrated graphics which don’t satisfy even most basic GPU requirements.
- Real “gaming laptops” are expensive! And I need 2 of them! Gotta find something used, and I have no idea what search criteria to set.
You can maybe look at second hand desktops? They can be cheaper. You can even build your own on a budget.
The i3/5/7/9 is the model while the number that comes after is the series. 9k , 12k, etc. With 13k being the latest. 13k is the latest series with 13900 being better than 13700, for example.
For an even better idea just check relevant benchmarks, as always.
As for recommendations… Since you want two 3d gaming capable laptops, it’s gonna be expensive even when going second hand. Imo, best way is to go to your second hand market of choice and look at the laptops in your budget and compare them against the minimum requirements of what you wanna play. There’s too many models and possible configurations so it’s not worth looking at specifics.
