Laptop with external graphics card required

lionel_hutz

Am looking to buy a new or refurbished laptop (£300-£400max), all
I use it for is streaming TV so I need a hdmi port and a dedicated graphics card. Has anyone come across any good deals as most of the ones I find have shared graphics cards which are no use.

bsod

anything can stream

lionel_hutz

I understand that any laptop can stream, I've been led to believe that to stream HD onto a TV I need a dedicated graphics card such as NVIDIA, so was looking for a laptop with that.
I've found this one, not sure how it rates though?
http://www.medion.com/gb/shop/budget-laptops-medion-akoya-p6653-md-99024-30018083a1.html

enfield_freddy

a raspberry Pi will stream 1080 vid ,


you have checked out the i3-5010U cpu?


this CPU has the intel 5500 graphics as standard , not a lot of difference between the Nvidia and the (disconnected) intel 5500 http://www.game-debate.com/gpu/index.php?gid=2575&gid2=1955&compare=intel-hd-graphics-5500-mobile-vs-geforce-840m-2gb


I have one of those i3-5010U in a intel nuc513 , this streams brill , offering 1900 x whatever in openelec

bsms1147

lionel_hutz wrote: »

I've been led to believe that to stream HD onto a TV I need a dedicated graphics card

Then you've been lied to.

enfield_freddy

bsms1147 wrote: »

Then you've been lied to.

seconded , however , please check the spec of that CPU , IT WILL lag in windows

lionel_hutz

bsms1147 wrote: »

Then you've been lied to.

Could you offer any advice on a decent spec laptop that will last a good few years and deliver what I need? (Basically I just watch sports via my laptop onto my TV in HD)

enfield_freddy

"most" laptops with a basic HDMI port will do what you require


why not take a 5m HDMI cable to PC sharks , and watch youtube on there big screen TV


the biggest problem will be the internet connection , make sure both your router and the laptop can access the 5g band.


whoever suggested that you "need" a dedicated vid card , has been in a comma for the last 10 yrs.


you can get good quality vid from a £25 raspberry Pi


you can get good quality vid from a £39 amazon fire


etc


etc

Cycrow

Just to be clear, not all pcs can play HD videos without a dedicated hardware decoder

But its usually the low powered systems that will struggle, as their cpu's arn't powerful to decode HD video quick enough.
Its nothing to do with streaming however, its the same if you are streaming it, or playing it directly

My Atom struggles with it, and only works when using the NVIDIA ION.

Most standard laptops dont usually use these really low powered cpus however and pretty much any i3 or AMD equivalent should be able to manage it. Some smaller atom based netbooks can struggle