Recommended requirements help

[Mehweweh]

So I finally decided that I wanted to purchase ARR for my PC, but now the problem is that my laptop probably doesn't have good specs as far as graphics go. I've ran the heavensward benchmark on my laptop on both high and low settings and my scores always ran between low and standard. My laptop's system details are the following:

OS Windows® 8.1 64 bit
CPU Intel® Core® i5-4210U (1.70GHz 1600MHz 3MB)
Memory 6GB
Available space on hard disk More than enough
Screen Resolution 1366 x 768
Graphics Card Intel® HD Graphics 4400
DirectX® 11

Since some of these details are apparently lower than the game's requirements, I need to find away to fix this issue, without having to pay too much money (student on a budget here). Can someone help me with this issue? Thanks in advance.

[Enkidoh]

Unfortunately laptops are well known for being difficult/expensive to upgrade components for, and when it comes to hardware I freely admit I'm a wimp. I think your main issue is probably your video card and processor are a bit slow (the usual suspects when it comes to trying to get a game to run), those would probably be the first things to be upgraded.

As for recommendations, I'm really sorry as I'm utterly clueless as to whats available for laptops at the moment so I have no idea about what to buy that is in your price range - I'm still playing the PC version of the game on a desktop PC under Windows XP SP3 which ironically the HW benchmark rated as 'fairly high' - figures I guess.

[Sagittarian]

The processor is a little low but that will mainly affect your load times. The biggest issue is your GPU, or lack thereof. Built-in Intel graphics can be decent but really aren't up to "gaming" standards. You want a real GPU with separate RAM on it.
Whether or not you have space to install a separate graphics card depends on the laptop though. Can you give us the model/brand information?

[elemental10]

Low/standard on your benchmark means you can run the game. Just not with all those beautiful flares you see in people with high-end rigs.

I'm myself is on a laptop, i7 3rd gen, GT 635m, and 8GB RAM. I -can- run the game on Laptop(standard) but i experience lots of stutters and frame drops in town. I either turn off/lower almost all settings to get it to nearly constant 30 fps. In highly chaotic fights, Ravana or Titan, it stays at 28 - 30 fps.

[Mehweweh]

Whether or not you have space to install a separate graphics card depends on the laptop though. Can you give us the model/brand information?

I have a Lenovo G50-70

[Sagittarian]

I have a Lenovo G50-70

It looks like some versions of that model come with an AMD Radeon R5-M230 2GB GPU installed alongside the Intel graphics. If you have one of those it may just be a matter of making sure the drivers are installed and it is available to use. It probably would have been advertised with "2GB Graphics" if it has one of those cards.
If it doesn't have the AMD card already installed it *may* be possible to add it (since some models do come with it) but it's probably not something you want to do yourself. You could try asking Lenovo or a local computer shop.

And as elemental10 said, you can play with low/standard scores but you'll probably want to turn down the graphics settings and some fights will still be painful.

[Mehweweh]

And as elemental10 said, you can play with low/standard scores but you'll probably want to turn down the graphics settings and some fights will still be painful.

Is that with or without an AMD Radeon R5-M230 2GB GPU installed?

[Sagittarian]

Is that with or without an AMD Radeon R5-M230 2GB GPU installed?

Without.
I just upgraded my desktop for Heavensward. I had been using an all-in-one with lower specs than your laptop - I think it managed to score 2400 on the benchmark with the lowest possible graphics settings. It got me through all of ARR but there were certain graphics intensive fights that I didn't feel I could participate well in due to the computer taking too long to actually display the attack telegraphs: notably Titan HM, all the extreme primals, and certain levels in the Binding Coil of Bahamut. The kicker for me was that at this scene in the benchmark it wouldn't actually display the dragon being hit by the summoner's spell even with minimal graphics settings.

[Mehweweh]

That's funny. I think my settings showed the exact same issue. I've been checking around to see which graphics card would work best for my laptop in terms of gaming and the work I'll be doing as I study in engineering.