newer gamer laptops that are good for SL? is NVIDIA 860M good?

[Katsii Tennen]

I have just retired and will be traveling and I need to know if there's a used gamer laptop good enough to run SL so i can build and hear music and occasionally hostess.  I have found some for under 1000 with 8GB dedicated graphic NVIDIA 860M.  when i look at the system requirements the numbers on NVIDIA graphic cards are lower than that.  Have they not updated it or are the lower numbers better.  I am not a hardware person (In case u couldnt' tell)

 

[Madelaine McMasters]

Hi Katsii,

The 8 in 860 is a generation number. The 6 is a performance number and is the most important. The higher the performance number, the better. The M suffix denotes "mobile" parts, which are understandably slower than their desktop cousins.

Here's a table of benchmarks you can search to compare performance of various NVIDIA cards...

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu_list.php

The 860M is a decent performer at 1662, and considerably better than Intel's integrated graphics, which score around 500.

NewEgg.com lists a couple laptops using that chip for $899.99. Search for "860m laptop" and sort by price.

Happy Hunting!

[Rolig Loon]

It beats the recommended standards, so it will work fine for SL.  Only you can decide whether there are better options for the price you are paying for it.  The numbers on the cards are a rough guide to performance quality but it's more complicated than that, as you can see here.....

 For comparison, I have a  GT 650M in my laptop.   It has a rating of 1269 and I get along quite nicely with it.