Does the processor make a huge difference?

[Frozen Mist]

I am buying a new laptop and I'm going over budget because I want to get something that will last as long as possible, for online gaming. (nothing hardcore, think League of Legends type stuff with periodic patches/updates)

Now I have personally noticed that these games get laggier and laggier the more physical memory they take up. So, my main focus has been on the memory GB.
Buuuuuuuuuuuut, I am starting to get a bit worried that the extra GB will be useless without the highest available processor.

I currently have it narrowed down to 2 laptops that I'm interested in:

Of these 2 laptops, which is better and why?

HP PAVILLION Windows 7 Home Premium 64
4th generation Intel® Core™ i5-4200U Processor + Intel® HD Graphics
12GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
1TB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
$600
http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-Pavilion/G1V32AV?HP-Pavilion-15t-n200-Notebook-PC-with-Windows-7-ENERGY-STAR-

VS

HP ENVY Windows 7 Home Premium 64
4th generation Intel® Core™ i7-4700MQ Processor
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 740M Graphics with 2048MB of dedicated video memory
8GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
1TB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
$700
http://shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-ENVY/G1L49AV?HP-ENVY-15t-j100-Quad-Edition-Notebook-PC-with-Windows-7-ENERGY-STAR-


The first laptop seems better to me but I'm not overly versed in this stuff to be 100% confident...
Ideally I'd like it to last through 4 years worth of updates without freezing up in game.
I would prefer to just upgrade the processor on the first laptop, but it sadly isn't even an option. emo

My current specs are 4GB, i3 core processor, and when I play these games the CPU gets around 25-40%, whereas the memory usage gets up to 60-80%, which is why I initially thought I should focus on RAM rather than the processor.

Advice/info plox?

[Frozen Mist]

Betamax Tracks

You'll be fine with 8 GB for LoL. I think you should focus more on the gpu where you should at least got for a 760m or 770m or a 880m if you wanna go nuts with it.

In comparison I can run Dota 2 on my desktop with 4 GB ram with other applications in ram just fine so.

Your browser is usually something that can eat up a lot of ram so do you usually have a lot of tabs open while you play LoL?

Not many of the laptops I've looked at even had graphics cards, if I wanted to go higher end I'd have to buy separately, which is fine since the laptop without it is cheaper, BUT I don't know if it'd even have a slot available for it...

I've been googling stuff to try and understand this and I was under the impression that if you don't have a special/dedicated graphics card, the computer falls back on RAM to run the regular graphics card.

[Nuclear Muchacho]

It's a wide known fact that in today's pc's it's all about the gpu, mobile or desktop alike. Of course cpu shouldn't stand out too much but the performance varies more between graphics cards than processors.

[Space Dynamics]

Nuclear Muchacho

It's a wide known fact that in today's pc's it's all about the gpu, mobile or desktop alike. Of course cpu shouldn't stand out too much but the performance varies more between graphics cards than processors.

+++ Yes! I sold a older core 2 Duo (3ghz) to a friend recently. We stuck a massive video card in it and it plays Skyrim on high. Not bad.

But if you plan on playing browser games like the ones @ kongregate, it is all on the cpu and ram. no video card will help you there.

[Frozen Mist]

Ok, new question. Does that mean my ram is only spiking because my graphics card is taking on more than it can handle?

[Frozen Mist]

Or should i buy the 2nd laptop since it has a dedicated videa card?

No ones said which laptop is better lmao.... .-.;;

Or if someone can find somethung better, 700 or under, link plox...

[Resistance_2012]

IMO HP ENVY hands down is better. Not only does it have a dedicated GPU on it but it has ram that is dedicated to the GPU thus not using the PC's main ram. The other reason is that as far as I know a i7 is better then a i5.

[Nuclear Muchacho]

Space Dynamics

Nuclear Muchacho

It's a wide known fact that in today's pc's it's all about the gpu, mobile or desktop alike. Of course cpu shouldn't stand out too much but the performance varies more between graphics cards than processors.

+++ Yes! I sold a older core 2 Duo (3ghz) to a friend recently. We stuck a massive video card in it and it plays Skyrim on high. Not bad.

But if you plan on playing browser games like the ones @ kongregate, it is all on the cpu and ram. no video card will help you there.

Correct, same for multimedia playback. But I think it's safe to assume you'll dabble in some client mmo sooner or later, as it's been stated upfront (before it was scratched out anyway wink )

The Mysterious Ninja X

League of Legends type stuff

Plus I like how LoL is specified as "nothing hardcore". That's like saying Starcraft is a mellow game. But who a I to evaluate people's skill wink .

[Frozen Mist]

Nuclear Muchacho

Space Dynamics

Nuclear Muchacho

It's a wide known fact that in today's pc's it's all about the gpu, mobile or desktop alike. Of course cpu shouldn't stand out too much but the performance varies more between graphics cards than processors.

+++ Yes! I sold a older core 2 Duo (3ghz) to a friend recently. We stuck a massive video card in it and it plays Skyrim on high. Not bad.

But if you plan on playing browser games like the ones @ kongregate, it is all on the cpu and ram. no video card will help you there.

Correct, same for multimedia playback. But I think it's safe to assume you'll dabble in some client mmo sooner or later, as it's been stated upfront (before it was scratched out anyway wink )

The Mysterious Ninja X

League of Legends type stuff

Plus I like how LoL is specified as "nothing hardcore". That's like saying Starcraft is a mellow game. But who a I to evaluate people's skill wink .

i meant hardcore in terms of system requirements. xP