Whats more important in a laptop?

First of all, if you /are/ going to get this laptop:

You do want to make sure you get the upgraded 1920×1080 display. Touchscreen or not, a 15.6″ 1366×768 display isn’t something you want in your laptop. 1366×768 resolution in a 15.6″ display makes things onscreen rather large, the resolution itself doesn’t let you fit much onscreen, and 15.6″ displays that have 1366×768 resolution are almost always low-grade LCD panels with very poor image quality due to low contrast. DIsplays like this are displays that you want to make a point to avoid when you can.

As for the GPU: The NVIDIA GT 740M is something you want if you’re planning on gaming. If you’re not gaming, or running any other GPU-intensive software (e.g. CAD), then you don’t need it.

To clear up a common misconception, things like Processor and RAM are not the keystone defining aspects of how good your computer is, despite what marketing tends to imply. Getting 16GB of memory isn’t really going to affect anything at the core of how well your user experience is going to be. It’s a very specific-case thing to be able to benefit from particularly high amounts of memory. Get whatever comes stock with the laptop — be it 4GB, 8GB, or whatever.

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But there are many things that kind of get in the way with this laptop being a particularly spectacular choice in the first place. Namely that the 15.6″ 1920×1080 display, while good in the resolution aspect, still has contrast issues that give the display a washed out look, and are easily improved upon at this price point. You can also get a more powerful GPU for less, if game performance is something you need. Take a look at some of these alternatives.

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Gaming-capability, no touchscreen:

**Lenovo IdeaPad Y510p** (NVIDIA GT 750M GDDR5, 15.6″ 1920×1080 display w/ matte finish and good contrast) – **$889 + tax**

– Sign up and sign in for the Barnes and Noble Gold discount: http://lenovo.com/barnesnoblegold/

– Take this model: http://shop.lenovo.com/barnesnoblegold/us/en/lapto…

– Or this model: http://shop.lenovo.com/barnesnoblegold/us/en/lapto… ($929, adds 24GB mSATA SSD for hard drive acceleration cache)

– Avoid the cheapest model, as it comes with a 15.6″ 1366×768 display. 1366×768 resolution in a 15.6″ display makes things onscreen rather large, the resolution itself doesn’t let you fit much onscreen, and 15.6″ displays that have 1366×768 resolution are almost always low-grade LCD panels with very poor image quality due to low contrast.

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Gaming-capability + Touchscreen:

**ASUS N550JV** (Not all models have touchscreen)

– http://www.reddit.com/r/SuggestALaptop/comments/1c…

**Acer Aspire V7-482PG**

– http://www.reddit.com/r/SuggestALaptop/comments/1c…

**ASUS Q550LF**

– http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus—15.6%26%2334%3B…

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Touchscreen, without gaming capability focus:

**ASUS Q501LA**

– http://www.bestbuy.com/site/15.6%22+Touch-Screen+L…

**Acer V5-572P-6858**

– http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pd…

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Honestly? My rule of thumb is that any quantity of memory, or RAM, over 8 GB, is typically a marketing point and not a functional necessity. For design, you’re going to want a discrete graphics card, so yesm you want WITH 2GB GT 740M, if only because it will greatly accelerate your renders. GPUs are also utilized in design/CAD programs for general purpose computing. So get the second option. And you don’t need 12 GB of RAM. Drop it down to 8 GB or even 6 GB, and then see if you can’t get a better processor (Intel or AMD). That will help you most in the long run.

Hope it helps!

Source(s): Years of technical experience.

Intel® Core™ i7-47MQ Processor with ” 12GB Memory WITH 2GB GDDR3 NVIDIA ® GeForce® GT 740M with Optimus™ Technology “

You can easily upgrade to more ram later if needed at at a cheaper price.

Toshiba at http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/customlanding….

The 740M is more than likely the way to go. Although you may need both eventually, as the complexity of a 3D model directly affects RAM usage. A decent graphics card is needed to render the images on-screen, so that’s needed.

If you’re willing to go with other brands, I strongly suggest a laptop with a workstation-oriented graphics card such as Nvidia Quadro, Tesla, or NVS-series.