Looking for a new laptop to do some gaming/animating.

That’s great because I’m looking for one to go back to school

 

Does it have to be a laptop,

You will get much better value from a desktop.

Also you should know that there is a global GPU shortage right now, so prices can be crazy.

 

This. A decent vide card is your whole budget right now.

 

What type of gaming and what type of animating?

 

Yep. I bought a NIB graphics card in 2017 for about $200 (GTX 1060). That same card is like, $400 used on eBay right now. Don't even want to think about top-of-the-line 2021 graphics cards and their prices.

 

The top end gaming card, the RTX 3090, is about 1600-2000

Selling on ebay right now for about 3k.

Never seen anything like it.

 

GPUs can be bought for retail price. Its just incredibly hard. Best Buy, Amazon, NewEgg do random drops. I got lucky, and it took me 4 months of commitment.

 

Honestly, if you go to Best Buy and start searching for gaming laptops, that's not a bad place to start. Sorting by lowest prices to highest, the cheapest one starts at $700, which is exactly your budget.

This link should work: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/pc-gam...pcmcat287600050003&sp=+currentprice skuidsaas

Model # and SKU for the two cheapest 'gaming laptops':
Model: 15-ec1073dx | SKU: 6427566 (HP)
Model: GF63035 | SKU: 6456141 (MSi)

Not sure how those two stack up for your animation needs, but the graphics card within them should be plenty.

 

If you let microcenter build it you get dibs on the high end graphic cards. Gaming laptops are nice with the 300hz monitor better than mid tier pc.

 

I would also stay away from HP and Lenovo, and keep it Intel and not AMD for the chipset.

 

That's what I would do with your budget. Shop it around- NewEgg, Amazon, maybe Google it.

You can usually upgrade the RAM on your own later.

 

Buying a MacBook and playing games online through stadia has worked for me. You get a free month of Pro to see if you like their free games service but you don't need Pro to play the games you buy. Much more convenient than GeForce now but your preferences may vary. With stadia getting their kit let's you play on tv without needing a gaming rig. The main downside is finding people to play against online so getting friends on the service def boosts value

I generally don't replay or resell the games I beat so if Google decides to shitcan the service it's not like I'm crying over lost money or resale value.

A video card, at best, is a 3-5 year old investment that needs a desktop. Getting a laptop GPU means you're setting yourself back another 2 years in gfx cards. It also likely to be a battery drain even when you aren't playing games.

Most affordable gfx cards fit that range but the point is that laptops are already playing catch-up.

Everything else, laptops win with portability, productivity, resale and convenience. Invest more with a high resolution screen (even 1080p looks like garbage to me) and you're set for most things. Can always dock it to a nice monitor at the office.

If you have time to upgrade and research leading edge tech, desktops might be for you, but you probably wouldn't be posting this topic if you're at that level. Also a good idea to research reliability if you're going the laptop route.

 

Try the Acer nitro 5. Only down side is the battery life is not so great, but that's the norm with gaming laptops. You can easily upgrade the ram and storage with the remainder of the money if you feel the need to.