What to Look For in Gaming Laptops

Table of Contents

January 2, 2021

게이밍 노트북 Whether you play games or design them, you need a laptop that can handle the task at hand. Look for 2-in-1 laptops with screens that bend back 360 degrees or detach completely to function as tablets too.

The best game development laptops offer blistering speeds, high-quality graphics and plenty of screen real estate. Gigabyte’s Aorus 17x, for example, is designed to perform resource-heavy tasks without slowing down or throttling.

CPU

The CPU (central processing unit) is one of the most important parts of a gaming laptop. A good processor will give you a smooth gaming experience and fast loading times. To get the best gaming performance, consider getting a high-end Intel Core i5 or AMD Ryzen processor. A Ryzen 5 series processor is great for everyday computing, while the 7 and 9 series are perfect for gaming and video editing tasks.

Another thing to consider is the number of ports on a gaming laptop. Desktop computers usually have many ports to connect multiple monitors, keyboards, and mice. On the other hand, laptops have limited connectivity options. Some even have only a single USB port and an HDMI port.

A great option for gamers on a budget is the Lenovo Legion 5 Gen 6 15 (2021). It has an Intel Core i5-7300U CPU and a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 GPU, which is enough to run most modern games at high settings. It also has a great display, a spacious keyboard, and a responsive touchpad. However, it has a few cons, including a small SSD and a relatively short battery life.

Another popular choice is the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022). It has an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 laptop GPU and an Intel Core i7-7700K CPU. This makes it a great choice for gaming, but it isn’t as portable as the Razer Blade 14. It also gets hot and loud under load.

RAM

RAM stands for Random Access Memory and is a temporary storage location for data that the CPU needs to run applications and open files. The more RAM a laptop has, the faster it will perform. Laptops often have less RAM than desktop computers because they need to balance performance with portability and energy efficiency.

A gaming laptop will typically have between 8 and 16 GB of RAM. This is enough to allow you to play games at high settings without experiencing lag. For most other computer uses, however, you may be able to get away with 4 GB.

When shopping for RAM, you’ll see a number listed that refers to the amount of capacity it has, typically in gigabytes (GB). You’ll also find a speed rating that indicates how fast the RAM can operate, usually expressed as mega transfers per second or MHz. Lastly, you’ll need to determine whether the motherboard on your gaming laptop supports double or multi-channel RAM.

Think of RAM as your desk at home, where you keep all the things that are important and active to you right now. Data in RAM can be processed twenty to a hundred times faster than information stored on a hard disk, and once it’s no longer actively needed, the system moves it back into long-term storage.

Graphics Card

Graphics cards generate and process visual data on your display device, making them an important part of any computer. They’re used to display graphics and text on your screen, but they’re also capable of enhancing system performance by streamlining visual data and relieving CPU stress. They’re available in two distinct forms: Integrated and Dedicated.

Most laptops come with integrated graphics cards that are built into the motherboard. Unlike desktop GPUs, which can be added as an upgradeable component, integrated GPUs aren’t upgradable. As a result, they’re usually reserved for low-power operations and applications that aren’t very graphically intensive. Compared to integrated GPUs, dedicated cards offer superior performance.

As gaming gets ever more advanced, video games require significantly more power and memory to operate at peak functionality and visual depiction. Because of this, laptops that utilize multiple graphics cards are often a better choice for gamers.

While it would be great to have RTX 3090 Ti-level graphics in a laptop, the reality is that the same desktop silicon can’t be squeezed into a portable device without running into thermal constraints that prevent it from operating at full capacity or worse, damaging the device. Fortunately, there are workarounds to this problem. For example, the Razer Core X is an external GPU (eGPU) that lets you plug in a desktop-compatible GPU and enjoy a much smoother and more powerful experience on your laptop.

Screen

The screen is one of the most important parts of any laptop for gaming. It’s where you see all the action, and a good one will help you play games at high frame rates without stuttering or tearing. Most gaming laptops come with 1080p screens, but higher resolution panels are available. Look for a panel with at least that resolution, and consider getting one with IPS (in-plane switching) technology for better viewing angles. Also, the wider a screen’s color gamut, the more vibrant its colors will be.

Some laptops come with panels that have even higher resolutions, such as 2560 x 1440 or 3840 x 2160 (aka 4K). These are sharper, but they use more power and harm battery life. Some laptops also offer touch screens, which are useful for games that use a lot of input devices.

For an even more immersive gaming experience, pair your laptop with a second monitor. Connect the monitor to your laptop using an HDMI cable and you’ll have a dual-display setup that can give you more space for your game windows and more of a desktop feel. This setup is perfect for PC gamers who don’t want to sacrifice portability for performance. Use Nvidia’s G-SYNC or AMD’s FreeSync to limit ghosting and tearing between your laptop and monitor.

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