So after looking through the comments here and a lot of browsing, I narrowed my choices down to these 5 laptops:

1. Acer Aspire V Nitro VN7-792G-79LX
2. ASUS ROG GL752VW-DH71
3. ASUS ROG GL552VW-DH71 - (15.6" version of above)
4. Dell Inspiron i7559-763BLK
5. DELL Inspiron i7559-2512BLK

So they all seem like decent rigs, but I have a few points of comparison I'm not sure about concerning choosing between them:

Note: for the time being I'm planning on using only the laptops screen since I won't be home and won't have the option of a docking station.

• They all have the Gtx 960m, but some have 4GB dedicated VRam while others have 2. how significant would that difference be and if I get 16GB regular ram would it make up for the difference?

• From the reviews I saw that some (at least the ASUS ones) have a TN panel, while the rest have IPS. how significant would this be for game development purposes?

• it seems that most/all of them have one full size 2.5" drive slot and another M.2 slot. so I'm probably going to have to choose between an SSD drive or 2GB more VRAM/ an i5 6300HQ instead of an i7 6700HQ which would be preferable in this situation?

• Some have DDR4 ram as opposed to DDR3/3L. would this make a major difference?

Also if anyone has others to suggest or anything to add it would be much appreciated!

They all have the Gtx 960m, but some have 4GB dedicated VRam while others have 2. how significant would that difference be?

Minimal, unless you are driving a large external monitor. This class of integrated GPU isn't super powerful, so you'll be playing at lower resolutions and detail settings anyway, kind of negating the benefit of added VRAM.

and if I get 16GB regular ram would it make up for the difference?

No, NVidia integrated GPUs have dedicated VRAM, it doesn't overlap with system RAM. That said, you should probably get 16 GB of RAM (and not all laptops are upgradeable - check the manufacturer docs).

while the rest have IPS. how significant would this be for game development purposes?

It'll have better colour reproduction, wider viewing angles, and be generally easier on the eyes.

Some have DDR4 ram as opposed to DDR3/3L. would this make a major difference?

Minimal difference at best. You'll generally run into bus speed limitations on laptop hardware before this really comes into play.

While what others have noted about laptops and performance is generally accurate, it isn't Always the case.

If you need it to be a laptop, the best I can find near the price range you indicated
(a little higher but I've looked for better under $1k and haven't found it)

cyberpowerpc.com - Weekly Specials tab, Big Game Fangbook 4 SX6 Special.

i7-6700 cpu
16 Gigs of 2133mhz DIMMs
GTX 960 video (4 gig)
a 256 gig M.2 SATA III SSD
8x DVD RW drive
And has a 15" 1080p display
$995 US

The tiny SSD is a pinch, but you can add a 1 TB HDD for another $55.

I was looking at it for a friend who wants one that will let him drag me into heroengine to try it out.

-- The ASUS ROG GL752VW-DH71 may be better, depending whether or not you intend to add other components. (which the Dell won't allow)

So upon further review I think import and shipping costs included I might be better off getting a laptop here rather than ordering one from the states.

I was thinking about this Asus GL552VW-CN311T

But I noticed that the suffix for this model (CN311T) doesn't really come up on search results out of my country (Israel) and doesn't have any reviews online.

• Is this commonplace
  for brand name laptops to have country export specific models? more importantly- should reviews I find for other GL552VW models hold for this laptop? (sans the obvious hardware changes of course)

• Also: one of the main attractions of this specific line of laptops for me is the presence of a USB 3.1 type C connector, which as I understand could be used to hook up an external power bank to power the computer, prolonging it's theoretical battery time a few times over. Am I correct in assuming there is no way to use a similar power bank setup with computers without this socket? (at least in a self sustaining way, that the laptop is charging and not discharging slower

Apple macbook pro are exeptional beasts, I have no idea how they do it, it is quite paranormal to me. If one plans on working with rasters and 3d graphics production/animation, he should aim for a desktop to accomodate next to him. The low consumption of TDP in notebook processors is really spoiling any kind of exhoustive work, in a disturbing extent.

Well, there are always the 45 Watt TDP CPUs available in the bigger Laptops, at least if you buy intel.... these are 4 core chips that are just slightly slower than the desktop chips.

Of course, most laptops overheat anyway, even more so with these chips, so even if the number say the chip is about 80% as powerful as a desktop chip, that is simply not true most of the time (less thermal headroom).

And then there is the noise and heat these laptops are producing. It can be rather unearthly, and is one of the few sectors where a good brand OEM can make a difference. Same spec internals in one laptop might run fine without creating a lot of noise, while sounding like a jumbo jet and still overheat in a different laptop.

Add to that the increased draw on the battery, and you really need to ask yourself if you do need so much power in a laptop.

One thing to keep in mind is the application you plan to run on your laptop. Some 3D apps rely solely on the CPU besides the rendering of the viewport (for example ZBrush)... for running such an application, the Graphics card you use is actually not so important.

Other rely heavely on GPGPU, often CUDA. Meaning these applications will be much faster if there is a fast NVIDIA card present in the system.

That being said, I ran 3D programs fine on a weedy dualcore i5 from 4 years ago isntalled in a tablet without dedicated GPU. And 3D Coat, as well as Blender ran just about fine. Don't get me wrong, I couldn't reach anywhere near the amount of polygons on screen I can on my desktop (6 core i7, GTX 970).... nor was the Interface as quick and snappy as I had it there.

But given the circumstances, I was impressed how usable it was. I was able to start a basic 3D sculpt in military camping out in the wild, that I still use as a base for models today.

If you are not spoiled by more powerful system, you can get away with quite modest systems still for 3D work. Depends on your requirements and patience really.