Help me choose a laptop!

[IceSpear]

Hey guys in a month or so I'm going away, but I still want to be able to play FFXIV so I'm trying to find a laptop that can run the game. I was thinking of this http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebo...smosIII-17-LE/ but to be honest I know nothing about computers when it comes to these sort of things and I was hoping you guys could help me out. My Budget is £440.

[Raist]

I'd be concerned about that laptop in any open world content for sure. May find even just crafting/gathering would be a challenge.

May want to shop around a bit. Seen some models state-side around the $500-600 USD mark that may fair better on newegg. YMMV for the UK. If you can swing it, try to find one with a dedicated graphics card, not just Intel. Should state something specific like AMD R6, or nvidia 940m. Also, more system RAM. Ideally 8GB if you can manage, at least 4GB.

[Anova]

This is better discussed in more technical forums such as Reddit or Tom's Hardware. I'm not a guru on graphics cards, but I'm going to give my shots on it.

That CosmosIII should cover most of your needs. I suspect you will do fine on medium settings (although high and ultra-high settings may be difficult). More on that later.

The graphics card is generally used to process physics, lighting effects, and process pure polygons (read: player character models). RAM is used more often to process textures and visual effects. FF14 isn't that graphic intensive in terms of polygon count and physics (especially if you're just running dungeons/raids and not the massive open-world or diadem content). You can also keep this in mind when tweaking your graphic settings to optimize it on your laptop.

There have been reports of people using the HD Graphics series reasonably well for gaming. Nothing spectacular mind you, but it won't crash and burn. That said, the GPU will get very hot very fast and most people do not like the idea of a 70C oven sitting on their lap or burning a hole through their table. You may have to get a laptop cooling accessory if you intend to use it for any length of time (more than 1 hour of playing likely).

Movies and the like require less GPU and more RAM, which is considerably less power extensive and doesn't use the graphics card as much.

I would try to get at least 4gb RAM or preferably 8gb RAM. It's going to let you set a higher resolution and process more effects and players (useful for aforementioned massive content).

If you can bear it, cancel your subscription (for a short while) until you get back and save your money. There will be a laptop that can play FFXIV much more reasonably and at the same price in 1 or 2 years from now (or the same computer will be at 75% of its value by June).

[Judge_Xero]

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quote-save/

You would need something like this one.

[Judge_Xero]

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/cosmosIV-15/

I meant this one but I'm on my phone and it pasted the wrong one.

If you have the option to purchase from another supplier you are basically looking for an i3 with Hyperthreading or better and a GTX 940 or better.

I currently use a i3 with a GTX 740m and it plays very well.

The ones from that supplier are Cosmos and a bit over priced for what they offer.

[IceSpear]

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/cosmosIV-15/

I meant this one but I'm on my phone and it pasted the wrong one.

If you have the option to purchase from another supplier you are basically looking for an i3 with Hyperthreading or better and a GTX 940 or better.

I currently use a i3 with a GTX 740m and it plays very well.

The ones from that supplier are Cosmos and a bit over priced for what they offer.

It doesn't matter where it's from, as long as I can get it in the UK and it's around £440 I can get it from any supplier.

[Judge_Xero]

Found a couple models that would be pretty decent.

http://www.canadacomputers.com/produ...item_id=089327

http://www.canadacomputers.com/produ...item_id=069525

[Raist]

Unfortunately, it is looking like north if about 600 for one with a little more oomph overseas right now. Newegg still has one showing for 683:

http://www.newegg.com/global/uk/Prod...9SIA0AJ2NC2678

They had some cheaper but they were showing as sold out. May want to check back a little later. When you get to the laptops section, look on the left sidebar for the filtering options. One in particular to note is "Graphics Type". This will allow you to filter out ones with only integrated graphics (like Intel) so you get hits on ones with AMD and Nvidia GPU's

[matsjc]

You may want to try posting your inquiry on this link:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/foru...ould-i-buy.16/

Honestly with your budget I think you will have a hard time finding a decent laptop.

[hagare]

how good do you want the setting to be?
I use an ASUS A555LF, I can play it fine on medium and it looks good enough.