Hi, want to buy some used hardware to run with Linux (Gnome DE ON Mint, Debian OR ElementaryOS). Mainly Office use, transcoding, but also for casual gaming Half-life 2 and maybe some more modern games.
Are Thinkpads with integrated GPUs sufficient for that? Any nice alternatives which are sturdy and can be upgraded?
TIA!
EDIT: thank you for all the helpful input. Will check AMD options!
Modern games are not going to run well. Look for a Thinkpad with a Thunderbolt 3 port (make sure it actually has 4 PCIe lanes, some only have 2) and use an eGPU. Retro games will run fine on integrated graphics though.
I've been enjoying my Thinkpad E16 that I got brand new from Best Buy. https://startrek.website/post/13283869
I don't know about other games, but it wasn't too terrible playing Civ 6.
Yes it’s fine stay away from the discrete gpus there’s not adequate cooling for their extended use.
I can reliably play wii on an x230. I am pretty sure you can go ahead and play unless it is ps2 or xbox og or anything newer (wii/gamecube excluded)
If you have good Internet then GeForce Now or maybe another game streaming service may be adequate for outlier games. I play a bunch of older games decently on my T450 with no graphics card, but if a modern game pops up I can still stream it. That way I don't have to spend another few hundred bucks on a better laptop just for the occasional game.
generally a thinkpad should be fine, but you'll want a 1.7ghz+ cpu, aswell as a dx8.1 video card for half life 2