[GTALUG] OT: Inexpensive laptop for Minecraft?

Lennart Sorensen lsorense at csclub.uwaterloo.ca
Tue Sep 8 16:11:34 UTC 2015


On Sat, Sep 05, 2015 at 11:13:58AM -0400, D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:
> Bestbuy has them too, with a dock.  Also refurb.io
> <http://forums.redflagdeals.com/refurb-io-labour-day-clearance-select-desktop-computers-laptops-1805521/>
> <http://forums.redflagdeals.com/ca-refurb-io-lenovo-thinkpad-t420-i5-2nd-gen-4gb-300gb-hd-win-7-pro-261-a-1805549/>
> Note: these different sources have units with different generations of
> Intel processors, and I seem to recollect that that matters for GPU
> power.
> 
> But I don't really think that these are great for the price
> considering that they are used.  It depends on how much you value the
> ThinkPad attributes (good keyboard, repairable, very well-built,
> heavy).
> 
> These use the CPU chip's built-in GPU.  Although Intel's GPU has been
> getting better, it was fairly poor for gaming in older generations.
> Someone who knows more about Minecraft performance would perhaps know
> if these GPUs are good enough.  Or use google
> <http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Hardware_performance>
> 
> I would *guess* that current Intel i-series processors would have a
> good enough GPU for Minecraft.  I would also guess that the GPU part
> of any recent AMD APU is good for Minecraft (APU is what AMD calls
> their CPU + GPU chips).  But beware: low-end AMD CPUs are very slow by
> today's standards (and they go by a lot of different names).  This is
> cheap but I think that it isn't quite good enough:
> <http://www.nmicrovip.ca/asus-amd-a4-5000-6gb-ram-750gb-hdd-15-6-1366x768-dvdrw-windows-8-bilingual-kb-x552ea-sh41-cb-refurbished/>
> A4 series are probably too weak.

I would not think minecraft is heavy on the graphics either.

-- 
Len Sorensen


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