Hi, its me again. Didn't want to post in the older thread of mine because it got cluttered so want to make it as simple as possible and ask questions as simple as possible.



Current Laptop


Old Dell XPS 15 9550


i5-6300hq
1tb nvme ssd... upgraded from 250gb ssd a while back
32gb ram... upgraded from 8gb a while back.
84whr battery
intel hd 530 graphics
nvidia geforce gtx 960m



Laptop is connected to 2 external monitors... 32' 4k monitor and 24' 1920x1200 monitor. I use usb-c to display port cable to connect from laptop to the 32' 4k monitor. I use a hdmi to dvi-d cable to connect from laptop to the 24' 1920x1200 monitor.



I used HEM3 and starscaption/888caption/partycaption. I play on stars/888/party. I mix at both 2 sites at a time, such as stars/888 or 888/party. Or just play one site only.



I encounter ton of lag if having over xx amount of tables on stars due to aurora which I know lot of people also encounter. On 888, the issue is worst because the moment a 9th table opens, freezes and you got to close client and reopen it. Someone else on that 888 thread told me that also happens to them and its an issue with 888 software and it has nothing to do with the computer so nothing will fix that. But with stars, I have to assume its because of my old graphics card which is why I'm having lot of these issues?



But when not playing online, my computer doesn't have much issues. Now my chrome tabs do lag sometimes but it isn't that bad. So if I didn't play online, I would not consider getting a new laptop. A few years ago, I had upgraded the parts as oppose to buy new laptop... such as bigger ssd, 32gb ram and new battery etc.



Another thing I want to add is I actually have 2 dell powerbanks... these are for extra battery in case there is power outage or things like that. So I wouldn't want to get a laptop that has poor battery and don't have any powerbank for it. I do play plugged in 100% of the time with the 2 external monitors... but I don't want an issue where power outage, then I only got an hour or 2 left on my laptop before it goes out.

I will be planning to buy the laptop in the US as I travel. And the US is the best place to get electronics.



1. What is the minimum processor that I should get these days? Is it i5 or Amd 5? These are miles better than my old dell xps 15 9550 with i5-6300hq right? I check online and there is i7 and even i9 and AMD 7 and AMD 9. I assume the 9 is completely unnecessary right? I like to add, I do not do anything intensive on my laptop besides playing online. I do not play any games or anything like that etc which I think is important to mention.




2. Since I already have a 1tb nvme samsung ssd and 32gb ram on this old dell xps 15, 9550, just put these 2 things in the new laptop right? So whatever configurations that laptop has, just wipe the 1tb nvme samsung ssd in my current laptop and use that? So disregard whatever amount of ram or ssd that laptop has since I already have the upgraded parts?



3. Is it recommended to get a gaming laptop or not? Few people have mentioned this but I am not sure about this. From what I read online, gaming laptops get very hot. But not only that, the battery life is very poor. So that means most gaming laptop get at most 2 hours of battery? Some might be an hour? But what if you are just web browsing or youtubing? Are you going to get only 1-2 hour of battery at the most? Again I will use it plugged in connected to 2 external monitors. But don't want an issue where there is power outage and then I only got an hour or so battery on it. So at the moment with my xps 15 9550, if power outage, i have 2 hours on my battery and probably another 1.5 hours on each power bank so 3 hours total there and around 5 hours total backup at the most. Also do gaming laptops go bad faster since they get hot? The laptop that I had before this dell xps was actually a sager laptop. I believe it was a gaming laptop and the battery was very bad and the laptop went bad as well. So after that experience, I don't want anything to do with sager. I know there are brands like asus, msi, alienware and dell that has gaming laptops but should those be completely avoided? Again, I know those gaming laptops are meant for gaming... but using it for online poker seem ridiculous... but with how stars aurora is... then it might be necessary?




4. How important is the graphics card on the laptop? My graphics card is pretty old right? From what I read, you should get at least an nvidia geforce gtx 1650? I read online there is nvidia geforce rtx 3050 and 3050ti. There is also the rtx 3060 which seem to be the most popular one and faster one? I read online its miles better than the 3050? Also read there is 3070 and 3080 but that seems completely unnecessary. But does the 3060 use lot of battery compared to the 3050 or 3050ti? What about compared to the gtx 1650? What about laptops that have just the intel iris xe graphics? I assume those should all be avoided? Lot of these cheaper dell, LG gram, lenovo laptops seem to have this graphics card but that should be avoided right?



Also is this very important when having your laptop connected to 2 external monitors? The thing is back then, when I use to use 2 24' 1920x1200 monitors and connect it via hdmi to hdmi and usb-c to dvi-d or displayport...and this was before stars aurora and the 888 software change, I never recalled any lagging at all. But now there is. But how important is the graphics card when you are connecting multiple monitors? For example, say if sometime later on, I want to use 2 32' 4k monitors. I would need a docking station regardless right? Also I heard you can only do 4k at 60hz with 2 external monitors and if you have a 3rd external monitor... it will always be 30hz which would have lot of lag and unusable for many?




5. Should I just get one of these gaming laptops from best buy such as asus g14 or g15 or lenovo legion or is that bad idea? Also I'm not a fan of how gaming laptops look if you know what i mean. Also even though I don't carry it around, I don't want a machine that is like 6lbs. I like how something like the dell xps 15 looks. Should I get the current dell xps 15 on dell site? They seem to have 2 of them... the old xps 15 and the newer one. What I did notice is the graphics card is the rtx 3050 or rtx 3050ti. But that should be more than good enough right? Yes I'm well aware that dell laptops are overpriced compared to other brands but I been using this dell xps 15 9550 for a while and it works good... except when it can no longer handle stars and 888 due to their software changes. Also the other reason I want to stick with the dell xps series is because I have 2 powerbanks that I use with my current laptop... and I believe I could use it with the new dell xps 15 laptop but I do have to buy one of those adapter cables which I'm fine with. Do read people say dell xps laptop are way overpriced and you can pay much less for a gaming laptop with rtx 3060 but aren't you then going to get a gaming laptop and poor battery and higher chance of laptop going bad?




Thank you.

Why are your threads so absurdly long? We don't got time for that ****.

Literally any modern laptop will work for online poker. Get an i5 or ryzen 5 with 16gb ram.

You will be able to move over an nvme ssd, but your old ram is certainly another spec.

Hi. Well it's because I don't want to not mention the other things such as I want to make sure it could connect to 2 external monitors without issue. Because I know many laptops might just have hdmi only and my current laptop has usb c and hdmi.



Okay any modern laptop that is i5 or ryzen 5 with 16gb would work. Does the i5 need to be at least 11th generation or it need to be 12th generation? I have not read about laptops in long time and read some laptops i5 is 11th generation and older. But surely that is good enough?



What about graphics card? That is extremely important here right? Do I need to make sure its at least nvidia 3050 or 3050ti? What about 1650? What about 3060? Just make sure it isn't like the intel iris xe graphics or intel hd graphics?



Would you suggest a gaming laptop or just get the current dell xps 15 that dell is selling on the site? They have an old xps 15 9510 or the new xps 15 9520 and that is at least i7 11th generation.



I heard mixed reviews about gaming laptops but would you recommend that? Again, its to be used plugged in. My old ram is 32gb ddr4. From what I see online, most new laptops these days still use ddr4 and only the top ones use ddr5.

Some of them graphics card are 3050 or 3050ti or 3060. Which would you recommend from these? I do see there are cheaper gaming laptops though but just posting the better ones here. All these laptops are 15' except the Asus G14 which is 14'. But I would be using it plugged in with external monitors. Which of these would you recommend or not recommend? I heard very mixed reviews about Dell Ryzen Gaming laptop.



Older Dell XPS 9510

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/lapt...15-9510-laptop

$1600+tax




Dell XPS 9520

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/lapt...15-9520-laptop

$2049+tax with i7 configuration and 32gb ddr5



Dell G15 Ryzen Edition

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell...op/gn5515eyuch

$1100+tax



Lenovo Slim 7

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo-...?skuId=6470819

$1350+ tax on sale from $1550



Lenovo Legion 5

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo-...?skuId=6455136

$1200+tax



Asus G14

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-ro...?skuId=6494638


$1400+ tax on sale from $1650

You don't need a gaming laptop for poker

Other users had suggested I get a gaming laptop. That is why I was checking those online.



But which of those above would you recommend if any? What about those 2 dell xps models? Those are not gaming laptops but they do have a 3050 or 3050ti. Can you give me some laptop recommendations then? I am a fan of the xps as this xps 15 9550 I been using for years. So if there was no lag issue with stars or 888, I wouldn't even consider getting a new laptop. Back then, the only site I had ton of lag issues was party but people said everyone had freezing/lag issues with party. But now its stars and 888.



Well if I don't get a gaming laptop, do I need to make sure the graphics card is at least nvidia gtx 1650 or nvidia rtx 3050/3050ti or 3060? i see there is even 3070 and 3080. I know it's mentioned get at least intel i5 or i7 or amd ryzen 5 or 7. But what about the graphics card? If it has that intel hd graphics or intel iris xe graphics, then it would have the same problems im having now right? Thus make sure the graphics card is at least so and so?



And yea I wasn't a fan of looking at gaming laptops because I don't play any games besides online. Also I heard gaming laptop battery wears out faster than regular laptop. But again, I play plugged in all the time with 2 external monitors. But I prefer a professional looking laptop as well even though I rarely carry it outside and its used inside such as the XPS.



I do find it interesting all these gaming laptops with a 3050 or 3060 all cost less or the same as the older dell xps 15 9510 though. That's because dell is overpriced right? I look at some of the specs on the lenovo and asus they seem to be the same or even better than the 9510 and 9520 which cost lot more. So you are basically giving up battery when choosing a gaming laptop right? For example if I'm youtubing and doing other things, I wouldn't want the battery to be bad if say I was using it unplugged etc.

You are doing things wrong

All the time you spent on writing posts in CTH should have been spent on reading hardware reviews

You can then answer your own questions and you would have been level headtrauma or ionutd by now

By that you mean the cpu and graphics card right? The thing though is any reviews of these i5 or i7 or ryzen or amd processors I read about, they are talking about if you are web browsing or streaming youtube or gaming or other things. So they would say things like okay this processor is more than good enough for gaming and things like rtx 3060 is very good if you play games. And things like 3050 seem to be not as good as the 3060. Then you have the more expensive 3070 and 3080. But the issue? None of these reviews whether online or in youtube mention if these processors or graphic cards when playing online poker.



I seen some youtube videos on poker monitor setup and laptops but these are few years old and not up to date. I don't see any video or reviews that are recent that apply to the stars aurora software. For example, I can't find any review of someone saying okay this is my online poker setup with my desktop/laptop and these are the processor and graphic cards specs. And things like them saying I could even 24+ table with zero issues on aurora. I have yet to find any recent review of someone commenting on their desktop/laptop setup and playing aurora here or on youtube.



The thing is I haven't read one user in the stars software thread mention... okay i can 18+ table on stars aurora with no issue with say my i7 and 3060 graphics card. All I hear are people saying they have a modern i5 or i7 and decent or very good graphics card and they still get lag issues when playing 8 tables or less etc. So because of that, I'm thinking even a fast modern computer will have these exact issues with a modern i7 and 3050 or 3060.

Can you give me a list of laptops you recommend? Are any of the laptops I posted above fine or those unnecessary? I also heard of LG gram as a good laptop with fast processor but the issue is the graphics card seem to be the basic intel xe iris... so that's not good?

This issue is clearly causing you upset.

Get a mid tier new laptop or a mid tier gaming pc.

It will do all you want and these problems will go away.

Lots of places will allow you to return a laptop within a short period.

Hey. Well yea this is annoying.



Can you recommend me a specific laptop then online? Such as on best buy or dell or amazon site? You mention mid tier laptop or gaming pc but what about the ones I posted above? Those are probably all mid to high level laptop at least? Several people said I do not need a gaming laptop. And I wouldn't want a gaming laptop if it's not necessary. I'm not a fan of how gaming laptops look and prefer something more like the xps. But again it will be used inside so... that isn't that big of a deal.



I plan to get a new laptop in the US since that is the best place to a laptop. However, I can't test stars or 888 while in the US though so that is an issue.

All the laptops you are linking to are gaming and way too expensive for what you need.

Get a laptop without graphics card but with Ryzen CPU with internal GPU, like the Ryzen 6600 or the older 5500 or 5600.

https://www.tomsguide.com/news/amd-r...mance-and-more

Read more and you can take decisions without having to ask that many questions and write posts that are LOTR sized

A Ryzen 5 should be plenty for you

So that by the time he has finished writing them, the question is obsolete (see the fact that he references playing 18 tables, as if anyone in their right mind does that in 2022), which allows him to write another copy of war and peace for anyone who miraculously doesn't have him on ignore by now to digest in a continual circle of timewasting

Hey. Okay so a ryzen 5 is more than enough then but you recommend to not get a modern graphics card. But do you know of other players who play on stars who mentioned this would be fine? Again, stars software is much different with aurora than the old software.



Well, I heard of some people in the stars thread mention some even 24+ table. And few even 30+ table. Back then I remember lot of people said players would 24+ table mtt and sngs etc. Yea nowadays things are different, but those players still need volume though right? Recall someone mention they have to get volume so by that they have to 18+ table etc. Yes I know the majority of players do not play that many tables. But I got to assume some regulars do play that much... but the question is can they handle the software.



Again, I don't normally play that much tables. However, if sometimes I want to play lot of tables, I want to be able to on the computer without issues.

You worry about 24 tables on a new computer when your ancient computer can barely run 10 and you don't play 24 anyway.

The other week you were concerned that you couldnt have two YouTube videos running at the same time, lol.

You are trying to run 3 monitors on a old laptop that is not upto spec.

All your issues will disappear when you get a new computer. Getting a new comp is going to be very stressful for you (and for everyone on the forums) but it's the only fix for your issues.

Load up Amazon

Pick a mid tier laptop

Try it

If it doesn't work send it back

It will work though

Ryzen internal GPU can deal with a bunch of games, it can certainly deal with poker software

Hey. Well my laptop could handle 12 stars tables without issue most of the time. The issue comes when there is around 16 stars tables or so is when all this freezing/lagging occurs.



Also I forgot to mention that most of the time assuming I don't bust out of tables, there will be around 16 tables opened so when this occurs, all these issues happen. Lately every session I been having, more tables are opened due to me not busting out of other tables. I eventually bust out of these tables due to getting sat out and not being able to click on anything. I want to be able to comfortably 18+ table without any lag/freezing issue but to be on the safe side at least 20+. When I say I normally 12 table max, that is assuming I'm busting out of tables as I go along but that isn't always the case. So when this happens, I would need to unregister any tournaments that I signed up for if I didn't bust any tables.



The youtube video running issue, I just found out the cause of it with the chrome browser so that is fixed. Yes i know that bothered me and you said very few people open two youtube videos at once. I just wanted to see how it was like.



I never had any issues running my 2 external monitors on the same laptop with only 8gb ram back then before stars aurora and new 888 software. Also there is no issue running these monitors if I'm not playing online.



Yea I know I will have to get a new laptop for this. I am frustrated because I thought this xps would basically work for a very long time especially after I updated all the parts to it last time.

Okay will look at ryzen. I know there is intel, ryzen and amd.



Well it's mentioned stars doesn't like old GPU so i figure the laptop should have fast gpu. Also 888 for some reason, uses an extreme high percentage of gpu. It uses 40%+ etc. Stars doesn't use up more than 20% usually etc.



So that is why I wanted to know if someone could link me to a specific laptop they recommend. There are so many laptops out there so I thought dell xps is the easiest option except their graphic card is 3050/3050ti and I don't know if that is good enough.

Ryzen is the name of AMD's CPUs. Intel and AMD are the two CPU brands. You dont want a gaming laptop, those suck for the most part, and a 3050 is overkill for a GPU if all you are doing is playing poker. Basic integrated graphics will work just fine for that.


Just because stars doesnt run well on on old GPU doesn't mean it doesnt run well on a new, low end GPU. Its gonna be mostly the processor that determines how many tables you can run without freezing. And if a site has a bunch of animations or something that may stress the GPU then turn them off in the client.

i5 processor, i7 if want to go big plus 16gb of RAM and basic UHD integrated graphics and you are good to go. Many different brands/models fit these parameters, now its up to you to go to Newegg and do some research yourself and find which one you like the most.


PS. Avoid Dell. They haven't made a quality product in 20 years. Asus, HP, Microsoft, Lenovo, Acer are better brands.

Hey thanks for the response. Oh I didn't know Ryzen is name of AMD cpu. I had thought it was intel, ryzen and AMD.



What is the reason a gaming laptop suck? Is it because they all get hot easily? And thus they get worn out quicker and have more issues? I read almost all seem to have poor battery as well. I read 3050 was not that good for graphic card compared to 3060. But this is from people who play actual games etc. Almost everyone seem to say 3060 is miles better than 3050.



I thought a 3050 might not even be strong enough for gpu on stars though. But have you played on Stars ROW aurora though? The thing is aurora uses a ton of cpu and gpu etc and its much different from other sites. So I wanted experience from people that actually play on Stars ROW but more specifically heavily multitable.



Well I do turn off all the animations on stars. But it still has those issues though.



Yea everyone seem to say go with at least i5 or i7 or ryzen 5 or 7. I even have 32gb ram on laptop and it still has these issues.



I will most likely purchase it off best buy or dell site. I'm surprised you say avoid dell. The current xps im using now is still fine for everything... except playing on these sites.

I occasionally pick "view post" to see if you ever learn

I read 3050 was not that good for graphic card compared to 3060. But this is from people who play actual games etc. Almost everyone seem to say 3060 is miles better than 3050. I thought a 3050 might not even be strong enough for gpu on stars though.

you read this, you read that, did you read

in fact, don't answer that as i know the answer

This or something similar (Ryzen 7 6800h processor or Intel i7-12700h) is what I'd recommend if you want to play poker AND study poker using a solver ... and 16gb of RAM at minimum or a laptop that will allow you to upgrade the RAM.

https://www.microcenter.com/product/...ollection-grey


If your main focus is playing poker only and not studying with solvers then you could probably go with a cheaper model.

Hi. Well I am not familiar with these specs when it comes to computer. But I didn't know a Ryzen Internal GPU could deal with this software if it doesn't have a dedicated graphics card. Again, back when I bought this xps 15 9550 a while back, I didn't even look at what graphics card it was. I only looked at the processor and the ram etc. I thought this laptop would have no issues unless the sites were to completely change the software etc.



I would not be doing any of those solvers or anything like that on the laptop. My xps 15 9550 has 32gb ram and only reason i upgraded the ram was because i heard 8gb was not much so I added it back then.



But I wanted to know if there is anyone here that play on stars and has no issue with lag if they try to play lot of tables. Again, I don't normally play that much tables... but sometimes if I want to, I want the option to. I haven't seen one poster mention in the stars thread or similar where they say they can play 20+ tables on their so and so pc setup etc.



Also someone else said there is a good chance the reason my laptop has these issues is because I never cleaned the inside of it. That and also with the thermal inside my laptop. Would there be a chance the temperature in it could possibly be causing these issues? I have never opened a laptop to clean the fans or do those thermal repaste... heard those terms before but never did that or looked into it.



Thanks.

Almost no one plays 20+ tables anymore, except you apparently. Just buy the best PC you can afford comfortably and you should be good for the next 3 - 6 years hopefully.

Post your Multi-Tabling Report, then ask others to post theirs. I haven't gone over 5 tables in 6+ years...