New to PC Gaming: Laggy games

[MP2013]

Hi all-

I'm brand new to PC gaming and I just purchased an HP Envy 15 TS. I'm already seeing laggy game performance with some games I bought from Steam. I was hoping you guys could help me out as I'm really excited to finally get back into gaming.

Specs:
Intel i7-4700 (4.7 GHz)
12 GB Ram
1 TB HD - No ssd
Intel HD 4600

I just bought Skyrim and FarCry 3 - most of my issue have come from the latter game. Menu is laggy and cut scenes are extremely laggy. I changed video quality to medium and the cut scenes became bearable but the graphics started acting weird (little boxes of shadow popping up, shading issues, trees disappearing and reappearing..) Gameplay is OK but gets slow every now and then..

My question is - is my PC just not up to standards for gaming? I chose this computer over the Lenovo Idea Pad but I'm starting to regret my choice.. If I should look for another Laptop - what specs are important when comparing to the ones I have? Is RAM causing my issues or my graphics card?

Thanks a million guy.. Happy Thanksgiving!!

-Mike

[Trunks]

As far as laptop's go they're not ideal for gaming. The graphics card available for them are not up to par with current games. I know my friend bought a 1,400 dollar laptop and he was lagging on Battle Field 4.

For your computer I'd say it's definitely the Graphics card, you have an integrated card which basically means it's just built into your motherboard. The bad thing about Laptop's is that you really can't upgrade unless it's memory. But yeah, definitely your graphics card causing you to lag.

If you want to start PC gaming, I highly recommend getting a PC, they're a lot cheaper when it comes to performance. Also, they're upgradeable once a part becomes out dated.

Not sure how tech savy you are, but here is a list of graphics cards in order, top being the best preformance.

Graphics Card Performance Hierarchy Chart - Best Graphics Cards For The Money: November 2013 (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html)

I recommend getting a system starting with the GTX 560 or higher. GTX 560 being the minimum requirement to play new, top of the line games( that's what I currently have and I can only play BF4 on medium settings, next year I'll have to upgrade ). Laptop graphics cards are labeled as mobile; as you can see there is only 3 laptop graphics card able to play the top of the line games, and they're going to be pricey.

If you look for your card, Intel HD 4000 series it's pretty far down the list, it's on the farthest right hand side.

Gaming and laptop's really don't go well together.

A good site to see if you can run a game or not is here
Can You RUN It | Can I run that game | Game system requirements (http://systemrequirementslab.com/cyri)

[MP2013]

Trunks, this is exactly the response I was looking for! Thanks!!!

I guess I will look into PC as a gaming hub. I still need a laptop however (would love for it to play games as well..)

Moving forward w/ this laptop situation - I have two options

I can upgrade to another HP Touch w/ 4 gb more ram and a NVIDIA GE GT Force 740 M OR I just found a Lenovo Idea Pad w/ Nvidia GE GT FORCE 755m - only drawback is 8gb ram and no touchscreen..

Any idea which computer is a better option? Same price..

[BobTD]

Get More From Your Games: A Beginners Guide to Graphics Settings (http://lifehacker.com/5985304/get-the-most-from-your-games-a-beginners-guide-to-graphics-settings)

understanding what the common video setting are and how they can speed up or slow down games can help a lot. Like having your resolution set to your displays native resolution.