Help with Alienware M14X

[Boost3d]

Hello, I'm new to PC gaming and I just wanted to know what games I could run on this laptop. I bought The Culling and it ran very poorly and idk why so if you guys can give me tips on what games to run and how to know if I can run a game in general.

Alienware M14X R1:

Core i5 2430M
8GB RAM
Geforce 555M
Windows 7 64-bit
500GB HD

[The Rock God]

The 555m is a rather weak graphics chip, with laptops as far back as 2007 having more powerful graphics. The reason it ran The Culling poorly is it's significantly below the listed minimum requirements for the game (a GTX 460).

Benchmarks showing what to expect:
(Keep in mind that you have the mid version of several types of 555m)

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-555M.41933.0.html

[Arya]

Simply put, your Laptop doesn't have enough computing power to run games. Any games.

You need a more powerful system. I don't recommend replacing it with another Laptop, most Laptops are very poorly suited to gaming and all are more expensive than they're worth.

For a slightly more detailed explanation;

PC Gaming has two main pillars, the CPU and GPU. The CPU does most of the processing, and you need a reasonably powerful one for a gaming machine. Ironically it's the less important of the two. What really defines the power of your system is the GPU, or Graphics Card.

The Graphics Card processes the visual images you see on screen, having a powerful one is very important - otherwise you get terrible performance as you experienced. They evolve quite rapidly, the GTX1080 I bought last week is 2.5X as powerful as the GTX970 it's replacing - a card only launched a few years ago.

[Boost3d]

OK is a graphics card replaceable on a laptop? Do you think that the graphics card would allow me to play more games and if so which one do you think is good enough?

[Dr. Fronkensteen]

Originally posted by RoadKill2101:

OK is a graphics card replaceable on a laptop?

They are not. Your only option is building/buying a new computer.

[[LTT] LinusFTW]

Originally posted by RoadKill2101:

OK is a graphics card replaceable on a laptop? Do you think that the graphics card would allow me to play more games and if so which one do you think is good enough?

You can't replace the GPU on a laptop as the GPU chip is soldered to the motherboard. I would sell that system and either get a laptop with a Pascal GPU (GTX 1060,1070 or 1080) or build a desktop from scratch.

[Boost3d]

Really? What games can I run on this thing, I don't wanna spend too much money.

[[LTT] LinusFTW]

Originally posted by RoadKill2101:

Really? What games can I run on this thing, I don't wanna spend too much money.

Basic 3D/ 2D games.

[Dr. Fronkensteen]

Originally posted by RoadKill2101:

Really? What games can I run on this thing, I don't wanna spend too much money.

Maybe stuff pre-2010? And pixel games like Terraria. Nothing fairly new will work well.

That gpu is about equivalent to most integrated graphics, so google videos of a game you wish to try + integrated graphics to get an idea of how it might run.

[Boost3d]

I'm able to run CS:GO and Chivalry pretty well.

[[LTT] LinusFTW]

Originally posted by RoadKill2101:

I'm able to run CS:GO and Chivalry pretty well.

They don't require loads of GPU horsepower.

[Boost3d]

OK what PC do you guys recommend I get? I dont wanna spend a whole lot. I wanna be able to run games like The Culling, H1Z1, Ark, GTA 5, Doom if possible. Games like those.

[[LTT] LinusFTW]

Originally posted by RoadKill2101:

OK what PC do you guys recommend I get? I dont wanna spend a whole lot. I wanna be able to run games like The Culling, H1Z1, Ark, GTA 5, etc

To start off with I recommend building a desktop from scratch.

Intel Core i5 6400 or 6500, any H110 or B150 motherboard, 8GB of DDR4 RAM and a GTX 1060 6GB.

[Boost3d]

Do you know how much that would cost? Like an estimate

[[LTT] LinusFTW]

Originally posted by RoadKill2101:

Do you know how much that would cost? Like an estimate

What is your currency?

[Boost3d]

USD