Laptop specs adequate for casual gaming?

[a05bf693]

Hey i have been researching the past 2days and wanted to just get a second and maybe third opinion on whether this is a reasonable laptop for some moderate gaming, ( i wouldn't play resource heavy games like crysis etc and am happy to play games on medium) there are 2 options
1. Chassis & Display
Genesis IV: 15.6" Glossy HD LED 16:9 Widescreen (1366x768)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i3 Dual Core Mobile Processor i3-2350M (2.30GHz) 3MB
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 2GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 630M - 1GB DDR3 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - Hard Disk
250GB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
or
2.
the same as above except with a Geforce GT 555m 2gb ddr3

the first option is €573 and the second option is €640.
thanks for any advice!

[knockoutman]

Both laptops will be adequate for gaming, but option 2 will be the most likely one to be able to run your games on medium, and for many, high.

[Pip]

I agree with knockoutman. Second is the best option..is it cheaper?

[a05bf693]

thanks for the replies! the first one is £450 and the second one £515 so its an extra £65 for 22% increase in graphics card performance. I had read that the 2gb 555 would be better for higher resolutions but it wouldn't provide much advantage on a laptop as res doesn't go up very high and 630 performance would be better,is there any truth to that or did i just misunderstand what i was reading!

[TherealYeno]

The part about resolution is true but the 555m will also run lower resolution stuff better. The real question is what kind of life span are you looking from the laptop. If you are only looking to get one year the cheaper one will be fine but if you want three years the extra you spend now will be invaluable later. It is nearly impossible to upgrade a laptops GPU so proper investment is key.

[a05bf693]

The second option it is so!thanks for the advice!

[Pip]

When I was gaming on my laptop, with a 540M (equivalent to the 630M), with a 1366x768 resolution, I remember the game that used the most video memory was Skyrim V. It was about 768MB I believe.

Benchmarks indicate that the 555M DDR3 can run most demanding games at high settings while the 630M has to settle for medium. Beware though, as there are many versions of the 555M out there. Make sure you get the best one!