New Laptop Surface Book VS Dell XPS 15 VS Dell Inspiron 7000(9550 skylake) for on the go and games

[dpoverlord]

So my conundrum.

I don't own a laptop and need one when I'm not home... Since I would "like to think" I have a good battlestation
55" Sammy Js9000
ASUS Rampage V extreme /5930k
Eva 980ti ACX classified SC
32gb crucial ballistix
Raid 0 4tb (2x2tb) 850 pro
1 2tb 850 pro
3 WD Ref Pro 4t
1 Seagate baracuda

But I still don't have an on the go laptop.

So my choices came to wanting mobility, lightweight, battery life, and if able to the ability for it to be "pad like"

I went ahead and ordered:

1. Surface Book 1tb fully decked out with all options $3199 1gb 940m

2. New Dell XPS 9550 with touch 4k screen, i7, at around $3,300 2gb 960m

3. Dell Inspiron 7000 15 $2,300 but has a 4gb 960m

My main like of the inspiron is I feel with a 4k display from my experience it's a travesty to have less than 6gb of Vram. So how in the world could a surface book play anything with such a crap GPU. It's sex as hell and looks amazing and fits a my needs but, really what is that GPU?

My friend has the XPS as of last week and loves it, but the camera is at the bottom and games need to be lowered to less than 1080p since the GPU does not have enough memory.

Inspiron I would only consider because the GPU has more Vram.

Price is no object really BTW. I can afford any of these 3.

Personally I really want that surface book, but how mad will I get when it can't run any game?


Any opinions?

 

[DF-1]

well, the thing to think about is if you want a mobile lightweight laptop you're not going to be running the same types of games.

think about indies and other stuff, don't think about battlefield 5 and battlefront. you're not going to get the same experience as a desktop.

any of those should be able to handle things decently well. i have a surface pro 2 and it runs things alright. diablo 3 at 30fps, hearthstone, pretty much any indie game. thats with an intel HD4400 and a i5 4200

 

[DarkStar02]

well, the thing to think about is if you want a mobile lightweight laptop you're not going to be running the same types of games.

think about indies and other stuff, don't think about battlefield 5 and battlefront. you're not going to get the same experience as a desktop.

any of those should be able to handle things decently well. i have a surface pro 2 and it runs things alright. diablo 3 at 30fps, hearthstone, pretty much any indie game. thats with an intel HD4400 and a i5 4200

This ^^. Save the gaming for your desktop computer.

 

[dpoverlord]

This ^^. Save the gaming for your desktop computer.

Got ya, so basically any of those are good and just take what I want. I really want that surface book but that 1gb if GPU ram scares me.

How can you have a 4k screen with such an underpowered gpu

 

[DF-1]

How can you have a 4k screen with such an underpowered gpu

Kyle says there's no good 4k gpu yet. So there certainly isn't a laptop 4k gpu.

There are gaming benchmarks for the laptop that you could look up

 

[dpoverlord]

Kyle says there's no good 4k gpu yet. So there certainly isn't a laptop 4k gpu.

There are gaming benchmarks for the laptop that you could look up

I understand this point, but there are 960m cards with 4gb of ram. I get the fact that it won't do 4k however why 1gb, give me 4gb. 1gb would something that would be in a gtx460. A 4k screen needs that Vram

 

[Aurelius]

Before you run out to buy the highest-powered laptop you can, ask yourself: how often do you plan to (or expect to) play games on your laptop?

It's easy to claim "I'll do it all the time," but remember: you have an all-out gaming desktop. You won't be using that laptop for games while at home, and you may not like the compromises in performance and screen size that you have to make when playing intensive titles. Unless you're at that desktop so rarely that it gathers dust, you'd be getting way more power than you need.

My recommendation? If you can spring for it, get a Surface Book... but stick to one of the mid-tier variants, don't feel you "must" get the highest-end model unless you know you're going to use a Core i7 and 1TB of storage. Go for a version with a dedicated GPU if you're concerned about having some decent gaming ability, but remember that this will probably be more about general-purpose needs (web, work, media) than playing the latest first-person shooter. Roll the money you save into future PCs.

 

[doug_7506]

I'm kind of in the same boat as you.

A Little bit of backstory (feel free to skip). About two years ago I cycled through 4 laptops before finally settling on a cheap ultrabook. I went through the first MSI gs60, a Sony Vaio with the external GPU, and an MBP. Each of these was roughly $1500, and I did not keep any longer than a month. I ended up settling on a uses Asus ux31a that I picked up for roughly $500.

The lesson was that at the time, there was not a laptop that did everything that I was looking for. It is hard to find a laptop that has great battery life and is thin, light, and good at gaming. That is why I ended up with the Asus it is just a great ultrabook.

Now that I am in the market for another laptop (my UX31a is on its last leg), I know that I'm ok with sacrificing graphics power. As mentioned above, I have found a few games that run great on just the Intel CPU when I need to scratch the gaming itch. I really like the surface book and the XPS 9550. But of course, I'll never touch gaming at 4k.

The 9550 though seems the way to go. It has a stronger CPU, gfx card, and larger screen. The only worry I have is about battery life.

 

[AthlonXP]

I'm actually can relate as well. I have a pretty decked out Alienware 15 R2 myself and to honest I am thinking about selling it because I have probably played games on it once since getting it 2 months ago.

 

[Aurelius]

I'm actually can relate as well. I have a pretty decked out Alienware 15 R2 myself and to honest I am thinking about selling it because I have probably played games on it once since getting it 2 months ago.

That seems to be a common theme, actually. Many people think they want a hardcore gaming laptop, but haven't assessed how they're likely to use a laptop in the first place. Is it going to be your only PC, or do you regularly play at LAN parties? Sure, get one. But don't buy a big, clunky gaming portable simply because you can't imagine life without your Steam library. If you're getting it primarily to write reports or catch up on the web while you're away from home, you should focus more on something that's easy to carry and lasts a long time on battery. I'd honestly be fine with a 12-inch MacBook if I didn't need something more powerful for work.

 

[polo191]

For that money I'd consider getting something more powerful. 4K displays like everyone is saying, is not really supportive of gaming. Some laptops to consider are the MSI GS60 or the AORUS series laptops. Both are thin and powerful.

 

[TFchris]

Whatever you do, don't get the Dell XPS 15. It uses the same touchpad as the XPS 13 which is lacking drivers to make it usuable. If you use a mouse, then it's great. Otherwise, it's trash.

 

[dpoverlord]

What is it a good choice then?

 

[Aurelius]

What is it a good choice then?

If you're not going to be doing serious gaming (and you probably shouldn't), look at the Surface Book... just don't feel compelled to get a maxed-out model just because you can. The base dGPU version ($1,899) would be more than enough for the occasional game.

Also: Razer just unveiled an updated version of the Blade. There's no touch, but it stuffs a pretty solid gaming laptop into a truly portable design.

 

[heatlesssun]

If you're not going to be doing serious gaming (and you probably shouldn't), look at the Surface Book... just don't feel compelled to get a maxed-out model just because you can. The base dGPU version ($1,899) would be more than enough for the occasional game.

Surface Books with the dGPU are far from gaming machines but they are capable of more gaming than many might think. I definitely wouldn't get a SB if the main objective is high performance AAA gaming though, that's not at all what it's for.

 

[TFchris]

What is it a good choice then?

I heard good things about the zenbook ux303 series. Although I never tried it myself, they don't seem to have the same trackpad issues that the dell xps 13/15's have. The only annoying "problem" I hear about the zenbooks are that the clicks on the trackpad are too loud, which isn't really a problem.

 

[dpoverlord]

For gaming you would not use a track pad but how is it be surface book otherwise? I'm disappointed with the level of the GPU.

 

[dpoverlord]

Ended up going with the Surface Book.

Only problem is that after the firmware updates it's not loading the nvidia drivers. Love the look and feel though

 

[heatlesssun]

Ended up going with the Surface Book.

Only problem is that after the firmware updates it's not loading the nvidia drivers. Love the look and feel though

Congrats! I have the latest official nVidia drivers running on my Surface Book. Initially they wouldn't install by simply running the installer. nVidia must have updated the installer to recognize the dGPU in the Surface Book and now they install perfectly.