Is This $250 Budget Laptop Worth Buying? Can It Game? AMD 3050U

Can you game on a $250 Budget laptop, Let's find out!
In this video, we take look at this low-cost low spec HP 14-dk1013dx laptop powered by the AMD Athlon 3050U dual-core CPU with built-in Radeon graphics.
We test out games like cs Go, Fortnite, VALORANT​​, Skyrim, Minecraft, half-life 2, and even GTA5 plus we see how well this laptop handles emulation using the Dolphin emulator for GameCube and Wii, Redream for Dreamcast, and PPSSPP for PSP.
Find low-cost laptop at BestBuy: bit.ly/3nbkdD3
Or Amazon: amzn.to/3elcePX
Follow Me On Twitter: / theetaprime
Follow Me On Instagram: / etaprime
Equipment I Use:
Screen Capture Device: amzn.to/2STpX4C
Tool Kit: amzn.to/2M6l9WS
Soldering Station: amzn.to/2FtdVeu
Camera: amzn.to/2M6KFLB
Tripod: amzn.to/2CmdYVY
Raspberry Pi 4: amzn.to/3cCrvKb
Flirc Case: amzn.to/2OBQTXz
00:00-Intro
00:15-Overview
01:10-Specs
01:43-teardown/Upgrades
03:03-Windows 10 performance
03:24-4K video playback
03:47-Minecraft
04:08-CS GO
04:34-Fortnite
04:59-VALORANT​​
05:23-Skyrim
05:50-Half-Life 2
06:11 Dirt 3
06:34-GTA5
07:16-Dreamcast Redream
07:40-PSP PPSSPP
07:57-Gamecube Dolphin
08:21-Wii Dolphin
08:44-Final thoughts
DISCLAIMER: This video and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission at no extra cost to you!
This video and Channel and Video are for viewers 14 years older and up. This video is not made for viewers under the age of 14.
Want to send me something?
ETAPRIME
12520 Capital Blvd Ste 401 Number 108
Wake Forest, NC 27587 US
THIS VIDEO IS FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY!
#Gaming #laptop #etaprime DISCLAIMER: Under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. No Games Or Applications Are Included Or Added On Or To Any Device In This Video

[@HandheldHardware]

Pretty sure LowSpecGamer would say yes

[@dawsonramdass1145]

Yup I'm pretty sure

[@ChristopherMontero5555]

I agree

[@christianosmarboruelcarmon7872]

Desactivar sombras 👌🏻

[@AlmostBrokeLbs]

Me too and im waiting for him to comment on this comment @LowSpecGamer

[@Yuzuki1337]

Pretty sure Linus would take a $1200 laptop and be like "It's alright for gaming but not great." 🤣

[@AnotherFreakingDude]

remember when a $250 laptop wouldn't even run basic webpages well? Pepperidge farm remembers.

[@ETAPRIME]

😂

[@peterisaac16]

i guess thanks to AMD??

[@AnotherFreakingDude]

@@peterisaac16 Yes, and to Lisa Su

[@BastetFurry]

It did, back then at least. I paid 300€ when i bought my Eee4G on release, the last one at Saturn in Essen i might add, and it could access everything. And i still love that small bug, DeusEx runs flawlessly on it and if you solder in an USB stick on one of the internal ports you even have enough storage for everything.

[@nunagoras]

@@peterisaac16 Yeah!... And those specs aren't far away from my almost 10 years old AMD based laptop, apart SSD storage and better, even if same amount of RAM. That is impressive! AMD is simply far away from Intel these days pretty much on everything else. And they seem to be a single notch below NVIDIA on top gaming video cards. Give them one or 2 years and they'll likely to surpass them even at that and totally reign the microchip market entirely!...

[@adamlark8631]

I'm not making a joke when I say that you'd be a fantastic narrator, good sir. Thank you always for the incredible help on new projects!

[@Kennephus]

For a machine like this, I'd love to see a suite of classic PC games alongside emulation. That's the biggest get over a Chromebook in my mind. Including HL2 is a good start, but maybe add a few like Starcraft 2, Civ 5, and Tomb Raider 2013?

[@ccricers]

In this GPU apocalypse, all these APU based computers are a godsend.

[@mediocre_one6215]

I bought this laptop for my daughter to use for remote learning when covid first hit. It's pretty good. After school she only really plays Minecraft but it runs well.

[@peterpereira3653]

Minecraft is the biggest selling video game title ever, so goes to prove that you don’t need the very best hardware or a AAA game title.To sell a video game in huge sales numbers.Minecraft emphatically provides evidence to prove that.

[@justsheeeps134]

@@peterpereira3653 and provides environment to learn coding too very excellent :D

[@gojosatoru6902]

@@justsheeeps134 yeah but remeber to upgrade it to more ram coz to run heavy IDEs :D

[@soyeddoficial]

Can you play league of legends?

[@alpzepta]

This laptop a great choice thanks to AMD processor. They give you a run for the money and they did it since the beginning of the AMD (Even though AMD late 2000s to 2016 late pre Ryzen CPU is slower than intel CPU but their superior intergrated AMD Radeon GPU made up for it)

[@dave4shmups]

Thanks for testing out a laptop with one of the new AMD Athlon CPUs! I've haven't seen anyone on KZbin that I subscribe to do that yet.

[@Cu8ez]

Buying one of these tomorrow for OSRS, thank you for this review!

[@dooley9621]

Thanks ETA. Quick question I am sure a lot of viewers would love to see a tour of all your gaming devices. If you would love to get a tour hit like on this comment and video to show ETA how much interest there is out there.

[@lncognito_Mode]

Congrats ETA on 1M!!! Thanks for making this review, I am planning on preordering the Aya Loki Zero. This review helped me to gauge the performance of it.

[@leorojas6390]

Yes, another budget laptop video. One of my favorite videos to watch on your channel, ETA. I got the Lenovo ideapad 3 last year on black friday for $299 at best buy but mine's gray instead of blue and has a 1080p display.

[@Wingnut353]

The real steal last year was the Motile 14.... $199 for 3200U + NVMe and an actually decent screen.

[@leorojas6390]

@@Wingnut353 but does it have dual channel ram though?

[@Mchenrygames]

Not bad, light work and light gaming. Still impressive how far integrated gpus have come.

[@Jin17104]

I feel like ETA walks around and says hey i can make a video of that! lol love the videos man :D

[@Cykotr0n]

Love your format. SUBSCRIBED!

[@nandhinisr3443]

The problem with this chip is the lack of hypertreading. If there were 4 logical cores then there would be no stutter and noglitches in esports games and gta 5 as well

[@martykong3592]

Thanks for great find, share and video! SOunds like a much better choice than a chromebook for the price and best of all upgradable! Cheers! :)

[@SweetBearCub]

Target sells a slightly upgraded model with the 3150U right now for ~$270. It was on sale for $180 a few weeks ago. The upgraded processor is ever so slightly faster, and can work with 4 threads across its two cores. Also, thanks for testing out Skyrim, still love it. I would love to see it at higher than medium, as well as Fallout 4.

[@vulcanplayzyt6820]

In my country this costs almost $ 400

[@lito_0050]

a amazin review! thanks bro

[@xxsilxntz_nightz5564]

Omg thank you for the test I ordered one for Christmas and I got the same one and price as you it’s good enough for me

[@fraserlamb5787]

Not many people test games with a frame cap but I have been running red dead 2 on a 4650g and have found capping to 30 fps really smoothes out the dips. Especially when limiting power.

[@DoctorStrange489]

Great video. Just one clarification, were the games played on the 4GB stock RAM or after you upgraded the RAM?

[@duhmall]

Can you test a lightweight Linux distro, such as Lubuntu or Zorin OS Lite edition? I know Zorin OS Lite did wonders on a Celeron N3350 when it was struggling on Win10.

[@DigitalJedi]

I've been wanting to do a similar video with some of my favorite games, just need to get the older laptop I have set up with windows 10 for some of them to run correctly. I might have to look at one of these guys for the job instead, saves me the trouble and frees up my old machine for linux.

[@abymohanan9403]

Thank you so much for this video

[@omarbarakaeden5608]

thanks, i have been using this laptop for 3 years now and turns out it was not that bad in some newer games

[@drexsavage6296]

Thanks! Maybe I will get it!

[@hakuuchiha3077]

You always have nice vids

[@metronorthrailfan2244]

That’s the same laptop I have. not only did I upgrade the RAM in mine but what I also did was I also redid the thermal paste to get much better thermals.

[@askdavidhow]

A Linux video for this will be great and as always thanks for posting 😉

[@elwiswo]

Really helpful

[@unicaller1]

At $250 it has 2 SO-DIMM slots that is nice often the base RAM is onboard on at this price point. In that range though just a bit more money really gets you a lot.

[@leylas479]

Very thank you man

[@KenCunningham921]

You got my hopes up, I need one with 4 cores for software defined radio and emulation. Good deal though

[@esteveguineueta2328]

I've been testing this CPU for more than a year and I can assure you this CPU is more than enough for daily tasks. It has similar performance than a laptop core i3 7th gen even with half the threads as it has turbo. In our company we use laptops with this CPU for lots of tasks paired with 8GB of RAM and we don't feel it's slowing down anything at all compared to desktops, which are i3 7th gen. Of course, a desktop i3 is faster, but that does not mean we are in need of that amount of power. They will be more futureproof than a laptop CPU? of course, but we are talking about a laptop here. The issue here is that if the CPU can't handle 1080p-2160p graphics it means it's just crap. When the society based their computers for the gaming capabilities, if a CPU wasn't made for playing games in the first place? are we living in a parallel world or we just do not want to accept that a laptop is for working and a desktop is the one suitable for playing (among other tasks)? I also want the battery of my phone to last years without charge, but it does not mean I have to create an alternate reality and think that is actually real.

[@antishifty]

Try amd apu tuning utility. It works just fine with these Athlon chips.

[@allftw2677]

some laptops can run games with the highest settings .you need to look for a laptop which is $500 or above.

[@kayburcky7146]

You should try Undervolting because one of the Problem of laptop APUs is always Power limits and if you lower the voltage, the power draw of both components is reduced and more "performance" can be cramped into the power limit. Got me GTA V running pretty good on a Kaby lake R laptop with integrated graphics.

[@qwertyuser8541]

Could you elaborate on how to do under volting or provide some links ? Thanks in advance. FYI, i bought a mini pc with amd 3150u proc

[@WodkaEclair]

Great review, shame it's not a better computer, but that's what you are here to tell us :D This is exactly the price range that these reviews become interesting at.

[@pweddy1]

I can't wait to see the next gen 7nm Athlon parts! They will probably be as good as 1st Gen Ryzen desktop quad cores!

[@Burpingwaffles]

Weirdly enough is if you update the bios it unlocks the ram limit from 16gb to 32gb of ram for some reason

[@Kraven83]

But still locked at only 2400mhz?

[@User-kn7ym]

I'll add this to my "Future playlist"

[@steamtaco3672]

Are there any good laptops for gaming at $250? I've been checking around and it seems that there really aren't that many options at all

[@collinsgichuhi8255]

It might not run newer games on high settings and high fps, but I am sure it can run indies and older AAA titles really well

[@RandomFandomMediaGroup]

Yep, honestly he didn't give it much of a fair shake IMHO. It actually didn't do too bad, and this thing has better IO than many way more expensive laptops now!

[@marshalldteach3545]

Bruh its 250$. Add 50$ u get a xbox series s. Best for 1080p 60fps which is the screen of most people

[@collinsgichuhi8255]

@@marshalldteach3545 goodluck getting a Series S at MSRP Add extra for Xbox live and Game pass

[@marshalldteach3545]

@@collinsgichuhi8255 bruh bestbuy has stock of series s not of series x and ps5. And gamepass ultimate is 15$/month which include xbox live and gamepass both. So 300$ with 15$/month. Good enough then spending 60$ a game..

[@collinsgichuhi8255]

@@marshalldteach3545 $180 for a year of gamepass? That's more than half of the laptop's cost. At leadt on PC you have options like Humble bundle, fanatical, free games on EGS and Steam.

[@justin-hurd]

Hey eta, what is your opinion on gaming on a surface pro 6 I5? could you recommend any of your videos for a device like it? I'm trying to set mine up for gaming and movies so me and my lil sis can have fun on long car trips!

[@ooee123]

Hi ETA Prime, I've been tasked with looking for a machine for the sole intended purpose of playing Age of Empires 2 Definitive Edition. With today's GPU prices, it's hard to justify a capable machine when all you want to play is 1 game, so I've been paying more attention to lower-end models. Do you think you can provide a benchmark for that? Or at least it's a game that I'd like to see showcased. Thanks!

[@mr.techie8565]

ETA, I think a Linux video would be great!

[@scottfoldenauer3638]

Good review. Thank you. Do you have a specific chromebook alternative?

[@sanjaydanoob5854]

"41 FPS ISNT GREAT" ME WITH 25 FPS: OMGGG!!

[@shlokshah5379]

For the price you can easily make a better pc

[@WariWahab]

Looks like a great Linux laptop! I wonder what the thermals/power management on it looks like on linux, say something like Pop_OS

[@MartinPaoloni]

Killer value! With upgradeable RAM, SSD and WiFi card, I'd get that if I were on a budget. The screen looks nice. Is it an IPS panel?

[@marcogonzalez3049]

Good Review😀👍

[@billysherman2702]

Yes I would love to see a Linux test on this hardware! :)

[@mrhaydendp]

Late but Ubuntu 20.04 LTS is dodgy (changing brightness doesn't work, Linux mint has display issues) but 21.04 distros have full hardware support with no issues.

[@greenprotag]

Yea with it handling Gamecube fairly well I would be curious about a standalone emulation system with Batocera or something similar.

[@matchesmalone79]

Before covid hit, for $250, u could get a 14" hp touchscreen laptop, with ryzen 3 3200g from the microsoft store. Picked up 2 for my daughters. Only a few months later, I saw the same ones going for double everywhere.

[@qwertyuser8541]

Bro, can u paste the product link here

[@Bassquake76]

1366x768? Now thats a rez Ive not heard of in a loong time. 😄

[@zigzag00]

I have this laptop :) It's really good! I upgraded the SSD and RAM and it's so much better.

[@Thak00l1]

I’m a simple man.. I see a notification for ETA Prime, I click.

[@nargalda773]

#meetoo

[@affend_lpgamerforlife295]

Same

[@someonehere4380]

ok.. why do u have to comment about it instead of commenting on the actual video

[@anonymous16472]

Same

[@iamcaptsv]

I have the same specs with an Acer laptop, how were you able to run Skyrim at 60fps? Do you have the list of settings you used?

[@adammillerexperience]

Hay there I purchased this laptop in 2020. I am currently able to play apex legends with friends via cross platform. It alright on the lowest setting, still slight hitching going on but totally playable.

[@boondaguh]

At 01:59 I'm pretty sure that's a connection for a sata 3 ribbon cable just south of the i/o. It says HDD there on the edge. I bet you could just source any ol' ribbon cable from the last 10 or more years and shove it in there. Not much has changed in the whole sata 3 scene for a hot minute. If you inspect the empty area closely on the side away from the battery, the bezel appears to be able to accommodate a slide-in style adapter.

[@adinchandra1797]

0:57 : This Laptop is still have SD Card Reader... Which is Midrange to High End not Available directly

[@yadspi]

I was gonna say, the more expensive the laptop, the less ports.

[@sketchpen777]

ETA I suggest you start using the java version of Minecraft for your benchmarks since the windows 10 edition can almost run on everything or at least include it...love ur videos btw

[@aleksanderhr.fredro8407]

Definitely please do a linux video on that!

[@afanhaqulfadillah6992]

Yeah, that's perfect linux web browsing machine

[@amilyester]

Finally, a gaming machine that is in stock and affordable.

[@MrGattor33]

I definitely am interested in the video using Linux on this laptop!

[@tomtray6277]

The reason why I luv ETAprime is that he review all kind of budget product. Majority tech reviewer only give reviews product that 80% of consumer cannot afford to buy.

[@bitelaserkhalif]

6:42 reminds me when playing with q8400 and bad HDD connection

[@andreamarici3244]

Hi, i found a Chromebook with this specs on Amazon. I have found different sites how to install steam on Chrome OS. The only difference is that the memory is not a SSD but it's an EMMC. I play games on my PS4 mostly but occasionally i would like to play some old games on my laptop, like The Witcher 1, F.E.A.R, Far Cry 2, etc... Do you think that it's possible to play with an EMMC memory?

[@JJ-tn6fw]

Will this be able to run a dual 1080p monitor setup? I just want to run discord, voicemod, voicemeeter, use obs virtual cam at 24fps 1080p and stream it on discord, and do some very light photo editing on davinci resolve. Will this laptop be able to handle it?

[@Metaphor9696]

I'm looking for a cheap laptop or PC specifically for my portable LaunchBox build that has up to PS2 and GameCube. Would you recommend this one or something more powerful?

[@11.darklone]

I bought this laptop back in 2020. Amazing laptop for the price, never had one issue.

[@troychrismusic]

Did you upgrade with an additional 4GB memory card for the second slot? I want to max out so I would need a 12GB ram stick to max out correct but looks like there's only an 8gb crucial ddr4 card? Can you replace the pre-installed 4GB ram card as well?

[@Btech94]

7:11 is their some sriver issues or lack of cpu power? My 7 year old intel core i5 3230 paired with intel 4000 shit graphics gives me around 18fps with no graphical glitches.

[@Charsept]

This is more upgradable than $1000 laptops 😅

[@bobbyhinner3225]

And better I/O. Full size sd card and two usb type A? That’s a lot compared to some high end laptops

[@apachemimi447]

???

[@AnTran147]

Recently bought my younger brother a $550 laptop from Costco for university that comes with a 5700U. It has 4 GB RAM soldered, so only 1 SODIMM slot, and it has just one m.2 drive slot. Compare that to this with its m.2 slot, SATA III bay, and TWO SODIMM slots. Especially if you buy one used for less than $150, like I just did for myself.

[@a.kbgmia.k8302]

Yes just buy it and it's a best choice and then install a ssd and 4 gb ddr4 ram in it and that's fine

[@InkDragon]

YES SHOW US THE LINUX ON IT I need a new trashy laptop, my current one has a hard time running discord & chrome at the same time but its like 6+ years old

[@alexispariona7436]

2:20 I think 3000 series AMD mobile processors (rzyen - athlon) just supports until 2400mhz, It's the same even with my ryzen 7 3700u (2400 mhz). The real change came with 4000 series going up to 3200 mhz. BTW I love your content!

[@capt.heinrich6945]

How did you remove the screws? I was only able to remove the two lower screws but I can't seem to find the rest. I have a feeling they are under the rubber pads, if so how did you remove the rubber pads?

[@bevlander]

Love the channel mate. But please, any chance you could demo different games, it's literally the same games everytime. Sure, I understand chains of olympus is s good benchmark, but please show different games

[@noble_lime]

Thanks for reviewing the laptop because I use the same processor with 12gb ram on my laptop (BTW use Linux because windows is a crappy os for this processor, even macos/hackintosh work well on this processor)

[@halimmuhammad4937]

Gaming in linux? What os u run?

[@noble_lime]

@@halimmuhammad4937ubuntu. Because ubuntu is best os for Lenovo laptops

[@JamesSmith-sw3nk]

For Valorant, maybe try creating a custom resolution and set the refresh rate to 50hz and then turn vsync on.

[@frozenturbo8623]

Basically downgrading in refresh rate

[@arijeanz]

damn, an m2 ssd at this price point holy shit!! the times have changed and i am so here for it

[@gdb5549]

Question, are you runnign minecraft java, or bedrock edition? Because I am planning on buying this and I just wanna know

[@t-rexyt8759]

Sir, may i know what minecraft did you used to test the laptop? Is it bedrock or java?

[@porgesomer]

Does Vulkan on ppspp works better with Intel integrated graphic rather than directx? Or it's just a matter of experimenting and there's no general rule for that?

[@FukDaOppsss]

I’m in the process of building my gaming PC and in that process I’m playing some of these games on my laptop and it’s running decent and playable

[@IamMysterium]

Wife recently bought this for me. Since Skyrim is the only game worth playing, as shown in your video, it runs well. Main PC is the HP 1650 Super.

[@catsnponds5959]

It’s called a hp pavilion not a gtx 1650 super that’s the gpu

[@IamMysterium]

@@catsnponds5959 I thought Iding by the gpu was more informative than simply HP Pavilion. But thanks for straightening out my heresy.

[@jessicabruno2820]

Emulation tests appear to have been done on battery? Did you test windows games on battery too?

[@finalroxas4731]

Also I really like your videos.

[@virtualink5]

This could definitely use a linux test. Would definitely be interested to see Zorin OS on this laptop

[@ujvl]

@thefallenshadow how about Ubuntu ??

[@mramogus9194]

I love it, its in my budget also for gaming, what android emulation test? plz reply!!

[@krazycharlie]

Hi ETA Prime! I have a petition for you: next time you test emulation on Ryzen mobile APUs, could you please include Motorstorm Artic Edge when testing PPSSPP? For some reason, I'm having troubles with this game, the textures don't load well and the game doesn't run full speed on my 3500U laptop. I'm not really sure if the game is fully compatible, if my laptop isn't powerful enough to run it or maybe I'm using a build way too old to run it. I'm also sure there are other games that have problems but this is the most problematic for me. Thank you in advance and have a good one!

[@chrisl5097]

yeah absolutely would love to see this machine running Linux with emulation testing

[@allftw2677]

This laptop did VERY well. Holy crap. You can turn down the render distance in Gta to get better fps.

[@Charsept]

Some Linux gaming would be interesting on a device like this. With a distro leaner than W10, I'd be interested in the gaming results

[@waterheart95]

It would be about the same, linux is lighter but not that much lighter with gaming. Emulation will be better at least due to more capable open gl drivers.

[@frozenturbo8623]

Would be worse considering most games are windows native which sucks and almost everyone hates windows but had to use it or performance loss on Windows native games

[@wintutorials2282]

That’s great! Holy shit

[@alexisdiaz3411]

Excuse me, which drivers did you download, I have the problem that I download some and it does not recognize them

[@DimNussens]

Damn, I found this like right as it came up

[@FS--ew3se]

@perrandy2011 linux maybe?

[@FS--ew3se]

@perrandy2011 "perfect for shools"

[@younglingslayer2896]

I was in the market for one of these but picked up a pre-owned HP laptop with a ryzen 2300u and vega 6 for $100 cheaper, battery life's not the best but it games extremely well, I highly recommend the 2300u

[@RaffyART1995]

Do you still use it for playing games

[@MysticWhiteDragon.]

Low Spec Gamer does a lot of cool game mods which can get higher demanding games to run on lower spec machines.

[@DiwaGalvez]

You know we've come a long way when this $250 laptop beats my old $700 laptop that ran an AMD Turion from 2008

[@pedrovay2003]

Something like this would be perfect for Steam streaming.

[@AnimeFan4Life2022x]

My del laptop (with back lit keyboard) games pretty well on medium or low settings including while it can also use the browser pretty well tho hard drive space is limited that is why I have it hooked with a external hard drive beside that great laptop!