How much is the difference between Intel HD 5500 and AMD R5 M330?

[SNJ]

I am buying a new laptop. Most of the options I have looked at within my price range have a similiar configuration about everything else, one place where they are different is the GPU. While most come with integrated intel HD 5500 graphics, some Lenovo devices I've looked at come with a AMD R5 M330

I want to do light gaming on this laptop, should I pay the premium for the AMD GPU? Would it be worth it?

 

[SNJ]

Related question, will 4 GB of RAM on a laptop with integrated graphics prove a bottleneck for light gaming(1280x720 res, medium settings)? Since integrated graphics uses the total RAM available in the PC?

 

[Pantalaimon]

This http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html should give you a general idea.

 

[DidelisDiskas]

What is light gaming?

 

[SNJ]

What is light gaming?

Won't be playing the latest and most demanding games. Will play games at 1280 x 720 res, medium settings, AA turned off etc.

 

[SlickR12345]

Integrated take your ram memory, so yeah 4gb will be limiting your options a lot. Personally you buy laptop for basic office work and to be able to carry it around, maybe watch a movie and basic light stuff like that. If you plan on doing ANY gaming, even moba or free rpg's, then you need to get a desktop pc.

If you want a "gaming" laptop then you have to spend at least $1500 and have battery for basically 30 minutes when gaming, so it has to be plugged in anyways!

 

[Insomniator]

Integrated take your ram memory, so yeah 4gb will be limiting your options a lot. Personally you buy laptop for basic office work and to be able to carry it around, maybe watch a movie and basic light stuff like that. If you plan on doing ANY gaming, even moba or free rpg's, then you need to get a desktop pc.

If you want a "gaming" laptop then you have to spend at least $1500 and have battery for basically 30 minutes when gaming, so it has to be plugged in anyways!

This is... not true. 1060 3GB laptops are under a grand. 960M laptops have been as low as $700. Both are capable of more than the gaming described here. Though in this case here, I wouldn't consider the M330 good for even light gaming, as you can see in the link provided earlier it doesn't push 30fps in many games on low.

Whats your budget OP? I think a 950m would be as low as I'd go for any newer games -- https://us-store.acer.com/aspire-e-...s+LLC-11379691&utm_term=11379691&cjid=4485850

 

[Face2Face]

I am buying a new laptop. Most of the options I have looked at within my price range have a similiar configuration about everything else, one place where they are different is the GPU. While most come with integrated intel HD 5500 graphics, some Lenovo devices I've looked at come with a AMD R5 M330

I want to do light gaming on this laptop, should I pay the premium for the AMD GPU? Would it be worth it?

The R5 M330 is faster than the HD 5500, and about equal to Intel's HD 6100 IRIS.

 

[MrTeal]

I would say it depends on how much the premium costs, what else you use the laptop for, and how much you actually use it to game on. Depending on budget and usage you might want to consider stretching to more of gaming style laptops.

My last couple laptops have been ASUS N-series ones, and even with a quad-core i7 and lower end discrete GPU (Geforce 635M) it was only CDN$830. I never bought it to game on though, it was just the best lower cost option with a quad core and a 1080p IPS panel. It is perfectly passable to play older games at reduced settings, though some do just become unplayable. If your budget is reasonable, something like this would be a great option as well.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834890015
Quad-core and 960M with a 1TB HDD and a 128GB SSD.

That being said, a cheaper entry level gaming laptop has some pretty big compromises, so if you just want to occasionally fire up some Diablo 3 you might not want to sacrifice panel quality or portability to get a better GPU. If that's the case, the discrete AMD option would work fine.

 

[ElFenix]

keep in mind the 960M is the same chip as the desktop 750ti, with a touch slower memory and clocks. as opposed to the 1060M, which is the same chip as the desktop 1060, with the same memory and just a hair slower clocks. so you can almost look at benchmarks of either of those desktop chips and see the difference.

but a 1060 notebook is probably out of OP's price range.

 

[DidelisDiskas]

Won't be playing the latest and most demanding games. Will play games at 1280 x 720 res, medium settings, AA turned off etc.

Well, i had a laptop with an iris 6100, which is somewhat similar in performance. On 1080p it struggled to run xcom enemy unknown above 18 fps (with any settings), Wasteland 2 was unplayable, Team Fortres 2 would hower around 30 fps with ~low settings. So if you plan to play old games (<2012), or new indie games (pixelart etc.), it might be good enough, but if you plan to game more than a few hours a week, i would advise you to try and find something that has at least a nvidia 940m in it (i have seen very good deals on those).

 

[2is]

Related question, will 4 GB of RAM on a laptop with integrated graphics prove a bottleneck for light gaming(1280x720 res, medium settings)? Since integrated graphics uses the total RAM available in the PC?

4gb of system ram? That's a bottleneck for windows and a few small apps running, much less games