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If a gaming laptop is not for you (because of budget, size, whatever) but you want to play PC games, you can find many mainstream and multimedia laptops that are powerful enough to play most games, but at lower detail and resolution than gaming laptops. Pay attention to these specifications:

Graphics card (GPU)

• It’s the most important component for gaming.
• If you can’t find a laptop with a high-end graphics card that suits you, you can still go for a mainstream graphics card. Current options include the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5730 and 5650 and Nvidia GeForce GT 400M series (GT 420M, GT 425M…). The older Nvidia GeForce GT 330M and GT 335M are good options, too.
• If you can find the Acer Aspire 5943 with the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850 at a good price, go for it, it uses DDR3 memory instead of GDDR5, but it’s faster than any of the mainstream graphics cards.
• This kind of graphics cards is usually found only in laptops of 14″ or larger, but there are a few 13″ (or smaller) laptops with good graphics cards.
• Don’t pay much attention to the amount of memory of the graphics card: 512 MB is enough for all the GPUs in this category. For high-end graphics cards such as the ATI Mobility HD 5800 series and Nvidia GeForce GTX it’s better to go up to 1 GB.

Processor (CPU)

• Most games don’t need a very powerful processor to run well, but some games, specially strategy ones, perform much better with a faster processor.
• Keeping this in mind, an Intel Core i3 processor is usually enough, but processor-hungry games will perform better with faster processors such as an Intel Core i5 or i7.
• As for AMD’s side, a fast Phenom II X2 such as the P620 (2.8 GHz) should have a performance similar to a Core i3 processor, but most Phenom II X3 and X4 run at low clocks (usually around 2 GHz) and will give you a lower performance, because many games are optimized for fast dual-core processors.
• Beware of low voltage Intel processors, because naming can be confusing. If there is a “U” in the model number (i.e. Intel Core i7 640UM), the processor is a low voltage version and it’s going to have much lower performance than the standard voltage one (but longer battery life).
• To summarize, if you have to choose between a better processor and a better graphics card, the GPU should have preference, but if you can afford a faster processor, go for it, just in case.

Memory (RAM)

• Dont’ worry about that, as long as you have 4 GB of system memory, you are OK. Going from 4 GB to 8 GB gives little benefit in gaming performance, so you can save your money for other upgrades.

Suggested laptops

Many well-known brands offer mainstream and multimedia laptops that meet the recommendations above:

• Acer: the Aspire laptops with a “G” in the model number have dedicated graphics cards,  but they are often low-end ones such as the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470.
• Asus: you have interesting models in the K and N series (the N series being the most expensive ones), that are sometimes renamed as X series for some big-name retailers.
• Dell: all laptops in the XPS series have Nvidia GeForce GT 400M series GPUs and are customizable, so they are an excellent option. 3 sizes to choose from (14.0″, 15.6″ and 17.3″).
• Hewlett-Packard: the Pavilion series has a good price/performance ratio, and they are customizable, so pick the size and processor flavour you prefer, go for a good graphics card, and you are done! (hints: dv6 models are 15.6″, dv7 ones are 17.3″; models ending in “t” use Intel processors, models ending in “z” use AMD ones).
• Sony: the Vaio EA (14.0″), EB (15.6″) and EC (17.3″) series can have an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650, while the nicer (and more expensive) Vaio F (16.4″) can have the Nvidia GeForce GT 425M. All models are customizable.
• Toshiba: there are some models with good graphics cards in the Satellite L650 (15.6″, cheaper), A660 (16.0″, better quality) and P500 (18.4″) series.