Best student laptop for light gaming?

I’m looking for some advice on picking out a laptop for a student—they’ll be heading abroad for university, so portability is key.

Since they'll be lugging it around campus, I’m leaning toward a 15.6-inch screen.

To be honest, I don't follow graphics cards closely enough to know if something like a 940M or 950M is actually decent for light gaming or if it's just a waste of money.

The primary use case is pretty standard academic stuff—nothing heavy like video editing or high-end graphic design. Just Office, emails, browsing, streaming movies, music, and social media.

A few specific requirements:
- An SSD—either built-in or at least the option to add one alongside an existing HDD.
- A solid, well-built chassis.
- Windows isn't strictly mandatory.

Given my past experience with Toshiba, what are your thoughts on this particular model:

I haven't settled on a final price yet, but the budget is roughly $2333 and could stretch up to about $3333.

You can definitely game on NVIDIA cards. Just hit up Notebookcheck and search for something like a GTX 950; you'll see exactly which games run and what kind of FPS you can expect.

Anyway, if money isn't an issue, that Toshiba is a beast. If you like it, stop overthinking and just get it...

Just make sure to double-check if that Toshiba "No Matter What" warranty deal is still active...

Cut the nonsense. You aren't going to have much fun with a 950M; honestly, it’s just a slightly weaker rebranded 860M. If you want a decent experience, you should be looking at a minimum of an NVIDIA GTX 960 with 4GB of DDR5 VRAM. Also, I suppose if you end up with a slightly lower-end CPU, try not to skimp too heavily on the GPU—CPUs are generally quite powerful these days. If you can afford to wait, I’d personally suggest holding off for a month until the 1060M drops. It’ll likely become a cheap, mainstream GPU with 4GB of DDR5 and support for asynchronous compute, which should help take some of the load off the CPU. Plus, once the prices for this current generation of laptops start to drop, you'll have much better options. In my opinion, now isn't really the best time to buy; it might be worth waiting until the dust settles regarding Pascal and the rest of these newer architectures.

Cut the crap...

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-....138026.0.html

If you look at the link, the biggest takeaway is that the 950m comes in two flavors—GDDR3 or GDDR5—whereas the 960m only ships with GDDR5.

Are there differences between them? Sure. Is there a massive gap worth sweating over? Not really.

I also forgot to mention: if you aren't dead set on a Toshiba, take a look at some other laptops. You can find plenty of solid options for similar money, or even less. Check out these models here:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/laptops/search?sort=price_low_to_high

And honestly, just hunt for the best deals on Amazon.

By the way, do you think the 1060m will become cheap mainstream gear in a month and tank laptop prices? That would be nice... but it's probably a pipe dream. 🤷

darkowl72 said:Cut the crap...

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-....138026.0.html

If you look at the link, the biggest takeaway is that the 950m comes in two flavors—GDDR3 or GDDR5—whereas the 960m only ships with GDDR5.

Are there differences between them? Sure. Is there a massive gap worth sweating over? Not really.

I also forgot to mention: if you aren't dead set on a Toshiba, take a look at some other laptops. You can find plenty of solid options for similar money, or even less. Check out these models here:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/laptops/search?sort=price_low_to_high

And honestly, just hunt for the best deals on Amazon.

By the way, do you think the 1060m will become cheap mainstream gear in a month and tank laptop prices? That would be nice... but it's probably a pipe dream. 🤷

The 1060 series likely won't even be available in November. Much like the desktop market, we'll see two faster siblings first, but they are unlikely to appear in entry-level machines.$3.25.
In fact, you can count on one hand how many models feature a 1070M or 1080M on a 15.6" screen.
Therefore, the 960 NVIDIA is the best value, or alternatively, pick up a temporary solution for six months—something with an i5 and 940M for around $600—and sell it once better hardware arrives.
Toshiba even offers an authorized trade-in program for their computers at a discounted rate.

Sorry I'm running a bit behind—got stuck in some heavy traffic.

I have a feeling there’s been a slight misunderstanding here. This laptop isn't actually for my own use; a student I know is heading off to college soon and asked if I could help him track down something decent.

Regarding those questions about the GPU—I haven't had a chance to sit down and hash it out with him yet, but I'll ask which specific games he's planning to run. If he's just looking at lighter titles, I’d probably lean toward the 950m option—provided the laptop stays relatively light and offers an SSD+HDD combo.

That’s why that Toshiba caught my eye, even though the one darkowl72 linked seems to offer a solid selection for a lower price point than the Toshiba.

Waiting around to buy isn't really an option, though—he should be starting his semester around September, or whenever school kicks off.

Look, I’m a secret IBM fan, and while that Intel Core i7 6700HQ has 8 virtual cores compared to the "mere" 4 physical ones on the Intel Core i5 6300HQ, I just can't justify the massive price gap when you look at something like this Dell:

It's a killer configuration with great specs and high build quality (standard for IBM, really). It doesn't come with an SSD out of the box, but you can easily upgrade it. I haven't found the exact specs for the Ford model yet to confirm if there's a free M.2 slot for an easy install—most 551 series models have one, which makes upgrading seamless (though you'll have to crack it open at an authorized service center to keep the warranty intact). Besides, SSD prices have tanked; you can pick up a decent SSD with a 5-year warranty for around $60.

The options range from basic setups all the way up to a top-tier 256 GB model with a 5-year warranty, though that one's pricier:

If there isn't a dedicated connector, you can always swap out the DVD drive—which nobody uses anymore anyway—for a caddy adapter to fit any standard SSD:

A few actual reviews for you:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/fileadm...e588adddec.jpg
http://laptopmedia.com/review/asus-n...or-multimedia/
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=N551+ssd

By the way, regarding the weight—it's a bit of a trade-off against the heavy-hitting hardware, specifically the GPU with its solid cooling, the rugged build, and the dual storage setup. You don't get everything in one package.😬