Posted: 11/21/2025 5:58:24 PM EDT
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I type this on a $299 laptop purchased in 20something. I downloaded ages of empires 4, this thing can't really do it. Starcraft 2? Nope. I dont know my elbow from my asshole when it comes to computers. I want to play strategy games, maybe a FPS here or there. Should I go desktop? Back in my day laptops could not compete when it came to games. Budget: under $2,500? No idea even what to type. If you said the cost to play is $4k it is what it is I guess. I dont need a professional setup but my free time is so rare I dont want to spend my 1hr per week on a strategy game fighting lag. What do you recommend? I figure now is a good time for electronics purchase? I'm looking for the BCM 14.5 upper of gaming computers to speak this place's language. Thanks! |
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Originally Posted By TurtlesAlltheWayDown: I type this on a $299 laptop purchased in 20something. I downloaded ages of empires 4, this thing can't really do it. Starcraft 2? Nope. I dont know my elbow from my asshole when it comes to computers. I want to play strategy games, maybe a FPS here or there. Should I go desktop? Back in my day laptops could not compete when it came to games. Budget: under $2,500? No idea even what to type. If you said the cost to play is $4k it is what it is I guess. I dont need a professional setup but my free time is so rare I dont want to spend my 1hr per week on a strategy game fighting lag. What do you recommend? I figure now is a good time for electronics purchase? I'm looking for the BCM 14.5 upper of gaming computers to speak this place's language. Thanks! $2500 is a pretty good budget. I'd spend half that and grab a Lenovo Legion with a RTX5080. You can assume a laptop GPU will be approximately one level lower than the same model desktop GPU. The 5080 will likely be approximately a desktop RYX5070. I wouldn't bother with Alienware or a Dell. Now is a very bad time to purchase RAM. It's gone up about 4x in the past 12 months. Unless you want to play AAA games at full spec you can probably get away with something like an $800 ROG TUF laptop.. I'm biased to Nvidia GPU and AMD CPU but it seems intel is still more popular in laptops. If you want to spend a bit more you can grab a Framework 16 and pick the GPU you want and upgrade/change dang near everything about it. Plus, it's reparable, easily, unlike dammed near every other laptop. |
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Gigabyte Aorus Master good option as well. For that budget make sure you get Thunderbolt 5. Its bleeding edge right now but it will be the standard with that bandwidth. Also allows for external GPU that will actually run well!! Gives you more system life when you can drop in a 6080 next year or skip and buy external 7 series card. Thunderbolt 5 write up https://www.tomsguide.com/computing/thunderbolt-5-vs-thunderbolt-4?utm_source=google&utm_medium=h5d&utm_campaign=h_tg_00268&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22496575360&gbraid=0AAAAAqzfqMZu6xJ0GywWMFp7znjzUk1s3&gclid=CjwKCAiAuIDJBhBoEiwAxhgyFnSnyQvZLWCZy5Jq0_jirswEqPHw0EgC426nTvpYdjRIzPnZwM7vRxoCbKgQAvD_BwE eGPU https://www.razer.com/gaming-egpus/razer-core-x-v2?srsltid=AfmBOop86uDabdPL8si8izIImcZSS3eicwJ8tf5oMl-L-zBc0zLVK4eX Aorus https://a.co/d/2O1q0Y1 Alienware https://www.bestbuy.com/product/alienware-area-51-16-2-5k-gaming-laptop-intel-core-ultra-9-275hx-32gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-rtx-5070-ti-2tb-storage-liquid-teal/J3K4L6QTYV/sku/6632697?sb_share_source=PDP&ref=app_pdp&loc=pdp_page Also, a laptop 5090 is roughly the same performance as a desktop 5070ti. 5070ti laptop comparable to 5060 8GB desktop card. I hate recommending an 8GB VRAM video card in the laptop but if you use eGPU then it makes sense. Many games are over 100GB installed, Call of Duty is 250ish. Might be a black friday sale that drops the 5080 version down more. Minimum spec regardless of brand to get you through next couple of years: 32GB RAM 5070ti (8GB of RAM in regular 5070, Ti should be 12GB which is greatly preferred!!) 1TB NVME drive 2K screen (2560x1440) Thunderbolt5 Recommended upgrade 32GB or 64GB RAM 5080 (16GB of video RAM) 2TB NVME drive 2K (on laptop this is sweet spot for resolution and performance) Thunderbolt 5 |
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If you haven't played in a while, I know you said FPS wasn't a primary driver but there are some really great titles out right now! Game recommendations: Civ7 No Man's Sky BF6 Borderlands 4 Cyberpunk 2077 (turn on path tracing, ray tracing and DLSS) Anno Pax Roma Baldurs Gate |
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Originally Posted By cvryanm: If you haven't played in a while, I know you said FPS wasn't a primary driver but there are some really great titles out right now! Game recommendations: Civ7 No Man's Sky BF6 Borderlands 4 Cyberpunk 2077 (turn on path tracing, ray tracing and DLSS) Anno Pax Roma Baldurs Gate Path tracing? I'm not familiar but I've also been out of the loop for a while. Stalker 2 is also a fantastic one to add to that list. |
| Love Stalker as well! Great game. Path tracing on Cyberpunk makes it VERY realistic, the future of gaming. There are mods for the game that border on Ai reality level of detail. I will do a side by side this week to compare and post a new thread. |
 Cyberpunk 2077: POV Hyper-Realistic Motorbike Ride on RTX 5090 with DreamPunk 3.1.1 Graphics in 8K Excellent example for what is possible right now with path tracing |
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Originally Posted By cvryanm:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9UKt_qtzvcExcellent example for what is possible right now with path tracing I did some research. Path tracing is generally too complex for real time such as gaming. It.appears cyberpunk uses a hybrid method similar to lumen but from what I read it is not true and proper path tracing. |
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Originally Posted By TurtlesAlltheWayDown: I type this on a $299 laptop purchased in 20something. I downloaded ages of empires 4, this thing can't really do it. Starcraft 2? Nope. I dont know my elbow from my asshole when it comes to computers. I want to play strategy games, maybe a FPS here or there. Should I go desktop? Back in my day laptops could not compete when it came to games. Budget: under $2,500? No idea even what to type. If you said the cost to play is $4k it is what it is I guess. I dont need a professional setup but my free time is so rare I dont want to spend my 1hr per week on a strategy game fighting lag. What do you recommend? I figure now is a good time for electronics purchase? I'm looking for the BCM 14.5 upper of gaming computers to speak this place's language. Thanks! If you're looking to play the most demanding current games, get a desktop. But for more reasonable games, laptops can do fine. I have an older Alienware with a 3-series GPU, I can play CyberPunk 2077 at very reasonable settings, just not "max it all out". If you want to game on a laptop, thermals are king. The GPU certainly, and not uncommonly the CPU, can very much thermal-throttle before really reaching their max abilities, particularly if the fan curve in the machine favors quiet over performance. Some laptops (like mine) have two entirely separate heat pipes/fan/cooler, one for the CPU, one just for the GPU. If I'm gaming I generally put on my headphones and turn the fans up to max, so I'm getting all the performance she'll give. |
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Originally Posted By GlutealCleft: If you're looking to play the most demanding current games, get a desktop. But for more reasonable games, laptops can do fine. I have an older Alienware with a 3-series GPU, I can play CyberPunk 2077 at very reasonable settings, just not "max it all out". If you want to game on a laptop, thermals are king. The GPU certainly, and not uncommonly the CPU, can very much thermal-throttle before really reaching their max abilities, particularly if the fan curve in the machine favors quiet over performance. Some laptops (like mine) have two entirely separate heat pipes/fan/cooler, one for the CPU, one just for the GPU. If I'm gaming I generally put on my headphones and turn the fans up to max, so I'm getting all the performance she'll give. Very much this. Temperature management on some laptops is garbage. My Asus TUF has a single thin heat pipe connecting the CPU and GPU then it goes to a pair of fans. It sucks. It cannot keep up with the measley hardware of the machine. Stalker 2 on slow.spec at 1080p will make it touch 98C in less than 10 minutes . On the flip side my OLD malibal with a 560 has massive heat piping, massive fins and the heat generating components are not connected has never had a thermal issue. It's never really even blow hot air like the Asus does. I used to use that old malibal for day long LAN parties. Different thermal designs have different results. Thin, light and quiet sucks for removing heat. |
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I ended up going with this lenovo with 32gb of ram upgrade. Came out to $1200 out the door. No idea if thats a deal or I got had but hopefully it can handle a 15 year old strategy game. Howd i do? |