Hi guys -

I'm not very knowledgeable about computers so forgive me if this is a silly question, but any help would be appreciated.

I am looking to buy a new laptop for the sole purpose of being able to play the Windows games I have hoarded in my GOG account as I currently have a Mac. Banished seems to be one of the most graphics-heavy of the Windows games in my library, which is why I am posting this question here. I can spend $500. There is a list here that has what looks to be reasonable options for budget gaming laptops, but I'm not sure if any of them can run this game (I can't post links because this is my first forum post so if you go and look you have to type http:// first, but you don't have to go look necessarily to answer my question):

laptopninja.io/finding-the-best-gaming-laptops-under-500-dollars/

The Banished page says that at a minimum it requires an Intel Dual Core 2Ghz processor. The top laptop on this list, which I would love to buy, has an AMD A10-7300 Quad-Core 1.9Ghz processor. Would this be powerful enough to run Banished (I'm certainly okay with playing it on lower graphics settings if need be), even though it is less than 2Ghz?

Other options on the list include an AMD A-Series A8-6410 2.00 GHz processor, an Intel Core i3-4030U 1.8 GHz Processor (3 MB Cache), and an Intel Core i5-4210U 1.7 GHz Processor work. Would any of these work even though they are technically less than 2 GHz?

Final question - this list mentions that some of these laptops can run games like Skyrim, DOTA 2 and Dark Souls 2. If they can run those, would they be able to run Banished? It seems like they should, but again, none of them have anything higher than 2Ghz processors and many don't even have that, so I wanted to make sure before buying.

Thanks, and sorry again for being ridiculous in my lack of knowledge about computers. >.< If I would have more luck in another forum please let me know.

Having not purchased a laptop in a long while I don't feel I should advise you. Since your post is a couple of days old I will suggest you make the same post in the General Discussion forum.

Find the General Discussion forum here.

I will mention this although it won't be much help. My brother plays Banished on a Toshiba with an i7 Intel processor. He has reached 100 years with 3k people several times with no room to build anything else. With that much data it will barely scroll the screen. He has sent me a save of some of his larger games and they do the same on my old quad core desktop with 1GB of RAM but don't crash.

On my old desktop I see minimal slowdown at 50 - 70 years and 2k+residents.

I believe the game will play well on most decent systems unless the game gets really large. Older laptops (like mine) won't run the game due to lacking the proper shader support (best guess) but I think the newer laptops with a decent graphics card will be fine.

Posting in the general discussion will probably get you a much more relevant response. =) Maybe name the post "What laptops will run Banished" to get the best input?

Edit: Ninja'd but I will leave it anyway =)

Thank you so much!! That's just what I was looking to hear. I figured that any of them probably *could* play Banished and any other GOG game as well, but I just wanted to be sure. ^_^ Thank you! I appreciate the response. In hindsight, I probably should have posted on the general forum - thanks for the suggestion. ;-) I got impatient though and just went ahead and ordered the one with a quad core 1.9GHz. From your brother's experience it sounds like I might have trouble too with a large city, but hopefully I can turn all the settings down or something and at least play it a little bit. I can probably deal with that as long as I get to play the game at all. But I'm glad for the heads up. Thanks!!