What characteristics to choose a gaming laptop. How to choose a laptop - expert advice. Brand: what's in your name

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 random access memory. 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 video chip is even more important 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 minimum budget, then mobile AMD 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 the low price range, you can pay attention to mobile processors AMD. So 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.

How to choose a laptop to meet all your requirements? Or just not to make a mistake in choosing in terms of price-quality ratio?

A laptop- a self-sufficient computer and a mistake in choosing will be more painful than choosing a separate component for a home computer.

With the help of this guide, you will learn all the necessary characteristics that you should pay attention to when choosing a laptop. Also, this article will help you not to overpay money for functions you do not need, and possibly tell you what you can safely save on in your case.

Laptop is selected for different purposes. Of particular priority: long battery life, replacement home computer (or as a second computer), for multimedia(movies, music) or just All In One*.

* all in one

Laptop for work and travel , should combine such characteristics as: working hours on battery, low heat dissipation, good display, strong structure and wear resistance, compact size, advanced communication opportunities.

Laptop as a replacement for a home computer and for stationary use, it should have such characteristics as: a large display, a variety of communication ports, a comfortable keyboard, a good processor and video card, a capacious hard drive and a lot of RAM.

Laptop for multimedia tasks - should combine such things as: a large and high-quality display, a productive processor (for playing movies in HD), a good sound system and a capacious hard drive.

AllIn One – quite rare specimens that combine all the characteristics from these categories, thanks to competent power management and overall thoughtfulness of the design of the laptop. Often have a video subsystem of two video cards(built-in and discrete), which allows you to greatly increase the laptop battery life. These laptops are equipped with processors that have advanced technologies to reduce power consumption when running on battery power. As a rule, they have rechargeable batteries with b about more sections and increased capacity.

All-in-one notebook by Asus:

High-quality display, advanced communication options (including a variety of ports), high-quality finishing materials, interesting design, a well-thought-out system for removing hot air - all this also applies to this class of laptops.

The only disadvantage of such versatility is their price. Not everyone is ready to part with so much money if most of the opportunities will not be used.

Let's start with manufacturers.

Notebook manufacturers .

It is the manufacturer that determines the quality of the installed components and the durability of the laptop. Even if they are identical in content. After all, it is the manufacturer who thinks through everything, from the cooling system to the quality of the display and BIOS firmware.

A very good indicator of the quality of a laptop is if the manufacturer also manufactures motherboards, cooling systems, displays, or possibly other electronic components ( ASUS, MSI , Toshiba, Sony, Samsung and others). In such laptops, in most cases, you can be sure that most of the stuffing and cooling systems are well thought out. It is also worth paying attention to the manufacturer's experience in the production of laptops, but this is not a guarantee of quality. Some manufacturers produce low quality products very consistently.

Also, each manufacturer has its own peculiarities, which are often used in laptops from all price categories. For example: attractive appearance and a high-quality display (Sony); not easily soiled, scratch-resistant glossy case (Asus); better reception (Lenovo); not heated keyboard (Asus) and so on.

Display.

If you want to sit at a laptop for more than 2 hours a day, then you should make sure that the laptop uses a high-quality display. This is also worth considering if you are working with graphics or just want high-quality color reproduction and wide viewing angles.

In these cases, you should look towards laptops with matrices. They provide accurate color reproduction and high viewing angles. You can read about the types of matrices in our material:

Now there is a tendency to release displays for laptops only with, when instead of cold cathode lamps, backlighting is used. This allows you to make the top cover of the laptop much thinner and significantly reduces power consumption.

On the one hand, this is significant reduces power consumption, increases the brightness level and makes the laptop cover much thinner. On the other hand, the light from the diodes is more irritates the eyes, due to a light that is more unusual for the eye, and a lower flicker frequency than classical backlighting (cold cathode lamps). However, there are still more pluses and they are much more significant for a mobile device. Therefore, laptops are increasingly used LED display illumination.

Another important factor for the possibility of long work at the laptop, without eye fatigue - matte display. Many often face a choice - matte or glossy.

The only advantage of the glossy display is a sharper picture and slightly more vibrant colors.

Of the minuses - very strong soiled(your prints will be stored for a long time); glare, which all the time make the eyes focus on different points, which certainly leads to faster fatigue; the worst viewing angles(again due to glare); inability to work if behind bright source Sveta.

Hardware or laptop internals.

Availability powerful(multi-core, with high frequency) processor primarily affects: the overall speed of the OS and its interface, video encoding, the speed of working with photos, archiving, painless launch of several applications at the same time, an increase in performance in games and other applications that depend on processor resources. You can read about the choice of processor in our material:

It is also worth noting that in laptops – not used logic sets on Intelatom. If you have looked at just this one, this is. Which, although it will faithfully serve for Internet surfing, office applications and at the same time keep charging for a long time, it is not capable of more (of course, there are exceptions, but they are always very close in price to a full-fledged laptop).

It is always better to take a full-fledged budget laptop than an expensive netbook. After all, even the weakest, full-fledged dual-core processor (the same Celeron CULV 1.2Ghz), will be more powerful than the most powerful 2-core atom with technology Hyper Threading.

If you are going to periodically use your laptop for gaming, encoding music and video, watching high-definition video ( HD), work in photoshop and others graphic programs, then in any case you cannot get by with built-in graphic solutions from Intel (X 3100, Intel GMA****, 4500HD etc).

For such purposes, it is necessary to have discrete(not built into the chipset, with its own own video memory) from manufacturers such as AMD And NVIDIA. This is a guarantee that your laptop will play without problems. HD-video, have good performance in graphic editors ( photoshop, Flash etc.) and feel good in modern games (depending on the video card model and graphics settings). At least the games of 2 years ago, in any case, will be within his power.

Quantity- primarily affects the speed of simultaneously running applications and the speed of work, OS loading.

Lack of RAM ( RAM) can lead to slow OS operation, "sluggish" execution of "orders" and brakes in games due to constant access to the paging file. As you know, there is never a lot of RAM, but still, if it is not enough for you in the future, its amount can be expanded by simply adding memory modules, if the laptop chipset allows it.

RAM- practically the only component except hard drive, which can be replaced in a laptop. Sometimes you can change the video card, but for a similar one in terms of characteristics. The laptop processor is rarely replaceable, as it is often soldered directly to motherboard laptop. Although recently there has been a trend to place processors in mobile sockets, and this is very good.

Pro hard disk capacity and the presence or absence of such things as CD Rom, I think everything is clear and at your personal discretion. The more disk space, the better. According to speed characteristics, mobile hard drives differ by up to 10%.

A huge plus if a laptop uses a hard drive as a system disk and in addition to it. Either the only SSD large storage. The use of solid state drives significantly increases the speed of loading and operating the OS. Reduced response time, installation of programs and unpacking archives.

Communication possibilities.

Almost every laptop has a module. Exists several standards this wireless communication. The more supported standards, the greater the chance that your laptop will catch almost everywhere in the coverage area. Usually the standards switch themselves, depending on the type of access point equipment.

Existing standards: 802.11a/b/g/i/n. Usually enough b And g standards, but the presence 802.11n adopted in 2009 d welcome.

It's also nice to have on board ( 4G) or 3 G module.

Networks at these frequencies have very large coverage areas, but in any case, you need to have a subscription to them (there is no free cheese). If in your city and your region where you would like to use a laptop - there are no networks Wi—Max or 3G, then you should not buy a laptop with their support (surcharge is about 3-5 tr). And do not despair if these modules are not provided in the laptop. There are a lot of cheap external ones on the market. 3G/4G modems connected via .

When carrying a laptop over a distance of more than 100m, use laptop bags with security framework. They really save laptops in some cases.

That's all. We hope you choose a laptop that meets all your needs.

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

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 is compiled by Laptop Mag based on a combination of six key criteria: reviewers' ratings, design, quality of technical support and provision, innovation, range of laptops offered, and loyalty to warranty conditions.

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

For serious games

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.

As a processor for a gaming laptop, older models of Intel Core i5 (for GTX 1050 and 1060), basic Core i7 (for GTX 1070) and older Core i7 (for GTX 1080) are traditionally chosen. 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

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.

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 Wi-Fi points are everywhere, but a side effect of such a ubiquitous presence is a drop in quality and connection speed. Roughly speaking, wireless routers jam each other.

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

Unfortunately, 5 GHz Wi-Fi also requires a router that supports this technology, but as a reward for spending extra, 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.

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 distance for working with a specific device. 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.

Choosing 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 of 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 consider 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

By creating a variety of virtual worlds rich in motion and color, game developers become 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. There are special programs for determining 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 clock frequency, with which the heart of the laptop "knocks".

• 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 that in addition to this, the resources of the “RAM” are used by the anti-virus program installed on the computer, 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 gaming W-A-S-D characters, which can be marked with arrows, as well as a space. 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. Playing on the big screen is 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, network connectivity will be useful. In addition to the classic wired LAN, 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 transmission, 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 roughly figured out how much a gaming laptop costs, and whether this purchase 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 not disappointed and make the right choice.