Rate: This Power Laptop

quote:

---

it comes with a full video card.

---

I'm not sure what you mean by "full" here. Yes, it has discrete graphics, but most of the "gaming" oriented laptops will. The question is how powerful the graphics card is. GPU is the single most important factor in determining gaming performance. Nothing else is nearly as important. And in a gaming laptop, this consideration will make or break its longevity, because it usually cannot be changed or upgraded. Especially true in ASUS gaming laptops because it doesn't use the standard Mobile PCIe Module (MXM) like MSI and others.

So, looking at the full spectrum of what this laptop offers, it is a good value. If you were intending this to be a mobile workstation for video editing, 3d modeling, photoshop, etc. with some gaming with mostly older/indie titles and the occasional triple A blockbuster at very reduced settings, this would be perfect. It's well balanced for that.

If you are looking for higher gaming performance, you'll want to go with a better GPU at the sacrifice of everything else (if your budget is fixed). The 860M is really only the desktop equivalent of a 750 Ti, but slower. Both use Maxwell architecture, same number of CUDA cores (640), but the 860m operates at a lower frequency on the core and clock (thus a lower memory bandwidth). A step up to an 870M will give you 30% higher performance.

Even better, if you can spare another couple hundred bucks, would be a step up to the 970M, which is nearly twice as fast as the 860M. A Sager would fit the bill here: LINK

Doesn't come with an SSD, but it's got a second 2.5" bay to add one whenever you want. Also has M.2 slots.

Just something to consider. If gaming isn't your actual goal, you may want to steer away from the "gaming" style laptops all together. The GPU won't give you any other benefit outside of specialized rendering in 3D modeling and GPU-accelerated tasks in certain video editing programs. Mostly, it'll be the sole source of the heat coming from the chassis, and the reason your battery only lasts you 2-3 hours.