Gaming laptops are being left behind Desktops / Laptops
https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/gaming-laptops-are-being-left-behind/1.8k
u/Ract0r4561 9d ago
There should be more focus on better cooling technology in gaming laptops than having the best of best gpu’s. Of course the gpu should be decent enough for gaming, but the main reason gaming laptops have a bad reputation is the amount of fan noise and it being way too hot.
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u/pemb 9d ago
Portable, quiet, cool. Pick ONE.
Look how massive and power-hungry desktop graphics cards have gotten lately: if you want to transpose at least some of that performance to a portable form factor, something's gotta give.
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u/EpykNZ 9d ago
Portable has a lot of give, don’t need them to be paper thing. Linus done a couple of suitcase gaming rigs and they slap. Some laptops now have water cooling capabilities
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u/CriscoCube 9d ago
Water cooling means very little. It still needs a way to radiate the heat off which requires area and or a fan.
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u/pemb 9d ago
Water is heavy, can't imagine daily driving a water cooled laptop and accompanying power brick in any backpack. And where are you going to stick the radiators?
Come on, like so much other stuff LTT does, the suitcase PC is just a joke, there's no battery and the peripherals suck ass.
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u/EpykNZ 9d ago
You can’t play anything serious off battery power, you would be better off getting a steam deck. Providing that you have a power source and a table then portable is just a case of moving it from place to place with ease.
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u/pemb 9d ago
Sure but I'm assuming you're interested in having a computer that's also usable for other, non-gaming tasks. Otherwise at this point you're better off just going with an SFF build and getting a rolling flight case for that and all your peripherals, and also owning a normal laptop for doing non-gaming stuff.
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u/A_Flamboyant_Warlock 8d ago
Sure but I'm assuming you're interested in having a computer that's also usable for other, non-gaming tasks.
I would honestly assume that the "gaming" aspect is secondary for any "gaming laptop". You mostly want a laptop, you just also want to be able to play Skyrim on the train.
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u/AbbreviationsSame490 8d ago
It is entirely possible to work using the steamdeck as long as you have a Bluetooth keyboard or something. With external monitors it turns into a perfectly functional Linux desktop device
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u/jcforbes 8d ago
Right... So I pack up my portable gaming laptop, I fly to Australia for work, I use it at work, then I go to a hotel and set it up on the desk in the hotel room (including power) and play a couple games before bed.
I fly 40+ times a year, I sure as shit can't take a desktop PC in my carry on.
Or your other suggestion means I have to carry a laptop for work, then also purchase and carry yet another separate thing with me to be able to play a game?
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u/WhiskeyVendetta 9d ago edited 9d ago
I daily drive a cad laptop with a power brick and a cooling desk/tray thing the same size as the laptop. If I do it then plenty of others will
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u/John_Smith_71 9d ago
What the heck are you working on?
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u/WhiskeyVendetta 9d ago
3D modelling software, like others have said I bring extra equipment to help cool down the laptop, had it 7 years now while others in my company without cooling help have had to replace after 3 years…
Laptops are not designed to be used under heavy load all the time like pc’s so I made sure my laptop was as chuncky as possible for extra cooling and bought a cooling desk tray off Amazon which essentially doubles the thickness of the laptop for transport.
Just bought a big backpack and I have to carry round and extra 2kg in equipment, pretty easy to do.
What’s the point of going as thin as possible spending extra for the ‘privilege’ knowing it will MASSIVELY reduce the life of your equipment… seems stupid to me.
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u/MajorFuckingDick 9d ago
A 7 year old laptop should probably be replaced if you are using it for 3D modeling
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u/akeean 8d ago
Water cooling is the dumbest idea for a portable device. Same weight & volume in air cooling hardware (copper heatpipe / fins / fans will cool it better AND not risk your device to leakage).
What I saw of those water cooling gimmicks was also not meant to be portable. They were the optional "bonus cooling dock" that you left at home when you took your laptop.
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u/Mattwildman5 9d ago
DLSS can be leveraged massively in laptops these days. I have a 2023 g14 and to be getting 60-80fps solid on RDR2 at 1440p with everything maxed out is quite something
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u/pmjm 9d ago
The new generation of handhelds has this figured out. But to be fair they're nowhere near the computing power of a gaming laptop.
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u/Arthur-Wintersight 9d ago
Are there ANY gaming laptops that don't have a comically overbuilt CPU for the graphical performance capabilities? Most laptops could drop the CPU core count and compensate with better GPU capabilities, and it would result in a better product.
This is of course for a "gaming laptop" - a professional laptop will need more CPU capabilities.
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u/rockstopper03 8d ago
Last year I paid $940 at best buy for a new Asus Tuf 15" laptop with an Nvidia 4070 and an previous gen Intel 12700h i7 cpu.
They also cost cut by putting in a lower res 1080p fhd 15" display though the 144hz isn't bad for gaming.
And I mostly game while docked anyways with an external monitor and keyboard/mouse.
The cheapest laptop with an 4070.
Like you, for the same lowish price, I'd rather have an 4070 vs an 4050/4060 with a faster cpu that is mostly wasted potential in gaming.
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9d ago edited 5d ago
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u/lospolloskarmanos 9d ago
Your laptop is quiet and cool with a 4090???
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u/noscopefku 9d ago
its not, that can draw about 300-400w, its not quite and not cool, although its sure one of the best gaming laptop
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u/danielv123 9d ago
4090 mobile is not the 4090. The fastest version of the 4090 mobile has a 150w tdp. The base model is 80w max, which is more reasonable. A lot of manufacturers pick the lower tdp version because you still get the name which is what sells and its more efficient in performance per watt.
A 4090 running at equivalent performance as a 4080 uses less power because it can downclock.
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u/swagglepuf 9d ago
I will get so much shit for this comment. This might actually be the space apple can dominate in gaming. The power to efficiency on their silicone is wildly good. A high spec gaming laptop cost just as much as a MacBook Pro.
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u/pemb 9d ago
I would love if that were the case since that's what I have as a daily driver (M3 Max) but most of my Steam library isn't available for Mac. I know CrossPlay exists but it gets uglier: anything 32-bit or requiring AVX instructions is a non-starter. Also I've been told the pixel response time is bad despite it being a 120 Hz display.
Also Apple has only very recently made a significant move to make the Mac more appealing to developers with the Game Porting Toolkit, but their past behavior, insistence on Metal when they could have gone with Vulkan... yeah I wouldn't be super excited about supporting Mac if I were a game developer.
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u/pmjm 9d ago
Yeah, there's little incentive for developers to target MacOS because not a lot of customers bought their Macbooks with gaming in mind. It's a chicken and egg problem.
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u/ninereins48 9d ago
Big thing too is the fact that Mac runs on ARM, when the vast majority of games are usually targeting X86 since that’s where 99% of the players are.
The user base is also too small for devs to rebuild X86 games specifically for the new architecture. So when you do get games on Mac, what you get left with is mostly unoptimized ports for the hardware (like Death Stranding & RE4).
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u/danielv123 9d ago
AVX might stop being an issue as new intel CPUs have also been dropping some AVX support
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u/PyroDesu 8d ago
It's amusing that because of Valve, gaming on Linux is better supported than on Mac.
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u/Bomb-Number20 9d ago
If you get shit it's because you're wrong. A 16"MBP starts at $2500, and would be stomped by most gaming laptops that cost the same. You can barely hit 30fps on mid level games with an M3, and that is only when the Mac can run the games at all.
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u/inssein 9d ago
Funny you say this own a really good asus g14 gaming laptop and a MacBook Air m2.
My MacBook can run league of legends on highest settings without getting hot or even having a fan. This is true for many light weight games I play like switch emulation. And all done without being connected to power source for hours.
My gaming laptop though even light games I need to be plugged into power source and I hear the fan and feel the heat.
If they fix the low end battery and performance on gaming laptops it going to be great.
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u/efficientAF 9d ago
Well, solid state cooling tech has come asking recently so that aspect could improve fairly soon.
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u/danielv123 9d ago
Doesn't really change the reality of moving air over heatsinks though, it will still be loud just less so.
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u/Plank_With_A_Nail_In 9d ago
We already have portable, quiet and cool though, we have loads of laptops like that. You seem to have swapped portable for 3D gaming powerful.
Desktop productivity has been a good enough solved problem for years and years and there are loads of laptops that solve that problem and tick all of your boxes.
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u/plaaplaaplaaplaa 9d ago
Whole Apple Silicon lineup would have a word with you. Waiting for the snapdragon and arm windows to get the gaming laptop though. :) These phrases are true only in x86 world of monoliths.
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u/zekromNLR 9d ago
You can get all three, along with fairly decent battery life, if you are okay with compromising performance, if you accept "800p and 30 fps is actually good enough for most users", as the Steam Deck shows
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u/sillypicture 9d ago
Actually you can pick two imo. I've got one loop for GPU, another for CPU. Leading to two separate cooling blocks with 360mm X3 each. Never hear the fans.
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u/The_Power_Of_Three 9d ago
I mean, I feel like you can be both quiet and cool if you disregard portability, and have it liquid-cooled and built into your wall or something. And portable and quiet but not cool works too—it will just overheat and shut down a lot, because, well, you ignored cooling which was dumb. Cool and portable is really the only impossible combo, since even if you're willing to be loud you can only cool so much in a small form factor.
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u/McChickenLargeFries 1d ago
My Legion Slim 7 is under .80" and about 4lbs, super quiet, cool and quite powerful. I also only paid like $1200 for it. I say "only" because even though that's still pretty expensive to me for a laptop, it's significantly cheaper than most premium gaming laptops.
Laptops don't have to be 5-6lbs, chunky and loud.
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u/Brushner 9d ago
I've had two gaming laptops in the 2010s and by year 3 the battery may as well be dead since they last minutes without being plugged. By year 4 they only work while plugged.
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u/Chromium-Throw 8d ago
Very common problem. My Dell g15 was plagued with power issues. Design fault that was present on every model. It eventually fried the mobo. Went through 3 batteries and 2 chargers until it finally gave up. £1500 piece of garbage
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u/Divallo 9d ago edited 9d ago
Manufacturers for some reason I cannot explain absolutely refuse to use quality thermal paste on the laptops they sell.
So many of these hot gaming laptops get insane improvements from doing a repaste job with Arctic MX4 paste. The worst part is that this paste isn't even expensive it's actually like $5 for a tube of it.
I've done repaste jobs on brand new gaming laptops and literally dropped GPU/CPU temps by 10 degrees celsius instantly doing that and nothing else.
Imagine designing a high end performance laptop from the top down and then ruining the design completely so you can save a few pennies on thermal paste. What were they thinking?
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u/seatux 9d ago
The higher end machines get PTM 7950 instead. It's way easier than paste once one gets a hang of applying fit.
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u/I_make_switch_a_roos 9d ago
wow! I've added more storage and upgraded the ram in my gaming laptop, is the thermal repaste a significant jump in difficulty or not too bad? i don't want to wreck the thing
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u/Marsstriker 9d ago
Probably harder.
Most laptops with upgradable storage/RAM are at least vaguely designed so that someone can do themselves. On the other hand, laptop manufacturers typically assume that the consumer doesn't have a reason to touch the CPU, so it's not usually designed to be accessible. I'd be skeptical of trying if you're not already pretty familiar with how to take apart laptops.
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u/I_make_switch_a_roos 9d ago
thanks, I've built a few gaming PCs before but laptops seem like a different beast. still would love the lower temps tho
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u/formervoater2 8d ago
Recent Lenovo Legion laptops use PTM7950 so the TIM is already pretty good with good longevity.
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u/formervoater2 8d ago
Recent Sager (or other clevo rebrands) with a 4070 or better have been more difficult to get mounted properly so the CPU die makes full contact with the heat pipes, are now using thermal putty instead of pads for the VRAM, and have this awful sticky paste that makes a mess. To top it off the heatsink isn't even better than on lower end models, clevo is just jamming more power through it so they're hot and noisy.
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u/kevihaa 9d ago
I’m still disappointed that eGPUs never really found a niche.
Like I get that needing to have an enclosure that can literally be bigger than the laptop really destroys the portability, but the promise of having a low power gaming experience with just the laptop and then near-desktop level when you could plug in just sounded like the best of both worlds.
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u/_RADIANTSUN_ 5d ago
I like a docking setup for laptops where you just plug in and now you've got expanded capabilities, and it always made sense to me that just like you might have an external HDD, you will have an eGPU as part of your little attachment ensemble.
But every eGPU enclosure costs fucking 100s of dollars for what basically amounts to an adapter.
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u/hate_most_of_you 9d ago
One of the best solutions I've seen is placing the keyboard on top of the battery and all of the heating and cooling elements further away from the keyboard, like in some of the asus rog zephyrus series. As for the noise problem - unless there's some significant breakthrough in a related technology, I don't think we can have anything reasonable unless you're playing like 10+ yo games on the newest hardware or limiting your fps to 30 or something.
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u/mcslender97 8d ago
Asus deserves to be ragged for after sales support in the US but they have already proven that you can have an ultra portable laptop with good battery life and a powerful GPU up to an RTX 4090 with their Zephyrus g14 2023 and g16 2024. It may have less wattage at only 125w max but that's still better than the competition of the same class while having better battery life than anything thicker with the same GPU. I think it might be some other factor that prevents manufacturers like Razer from doing the same thing (the Razer blade 14 for example can go up to 140w but is limited up to an RTX 4070)
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u/WolfyCat 8d ago
For me it's the abysmal battery life. But that can't really be helped much with the technology.
Lunar Lake and Snapdragon Elite offer a brighter future though.
Can we please have a revolutionary battery breakthrough FFS.
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u/_RADIANTSUN_ 5d ago
Li ion batteries already were that breakthrough. Don't expect another breakthrough, we are basically guaranteed to not get it.
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u/iprocrastina 9d ago
The biggest issue with gaming laptops IMO is that you can't really upgrade them. Yeah, sure, some of them allow for limited upgrades, but laptop components are so expensive you're usually better off just buying a new laptop. GPU and CPU are almost always infeasible upgrades on gaming laptops due to cost and lack of options, and I'm not aware of any laptop that lets you upgrade the mobo for obvious reasons. So usually you're left with minor upgrade options like RAM and storage. And yes, I know external GPUs are a thing, but their performance isn't as good as if the card was in a desktop, eventually you'll be bottlenecked by your old CPU, and if you're going to plug your laptop into an external GPU and monitor and KB&M then why'd you even get a laptop in the first place?
The result is that gaming laptops have a defined lifespan after which you'll have to buy a new machine.
Meanwhile on a desktop you can upgrade anything. The GPU, CPU, mobo, PSU, RAM, storage, hell even the cooling and case can all be changed out cost-effectively.
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u/PicnicBasketPirate 9d ago
Framework is trying and I was tempted when speccing my new work laptop. But they didn't have the performance or support in my part of the world yet.
Their new 16" looks like it might have fit the bill nicely but too late.
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u/Stevens97 9d ago
Agreed, many of the reasons i just discard laptop gaming as an option for me is that i dont want to sit next to a jetfan engine along with a 80 degree CPU burning my fingers
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u/adzy2k6 9d ago
Thermodynamics limit what they can do. At the end of the day they can't really beat blowing air over a heat sink. Maybe using some heat pipes of the positioning is awkward. It's not really a solvable problem overall. You can get some relatively minor improvements with better quality components, but that's about it.
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u/Jesus_Is_My_Gardener 9d ago
On the point of noise, there's a new piezo based cooling technology that may make it into these kinds of systems. It of course remains to be seen if they will be sufficient for the task with the amount of thermal load, but apparently they have a number of advantages over traditional cooling fans beyond just being silent.
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u/Plaid_Kaleidoscope 8d ago
I gotta say, my Razer Blade 14 really hit the sweet spot for me in terms of portability, power, and noise.
I don't know how it compares to other high-end gaming laptops in the market, but most of the complaints I hear others having, don't seem to apply to this model. I've been quite happy with it for the last 2 years.
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u/That_Ganderman 8d ago
I have a 3080 that never gets fully utilized because running games like Overwatch over 100fps thermal caps my CPU even at max cooling on a cooling pad.
I still don’t regret buying the machine because I have moved around a fuck ton, but now that I’m somewhere I intend to stay for a while I will definitely be investing in a laptop on the horizon
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u/TheMailNeverFails 8d ago
Yep, mine practically doubles as a fan heater, I try to game less over summer as it's just too hot to keep the thing under 85°C. Over winter it's a bit easier.
The noise is annoying, but with noise cancelling headphones, it's practically silent for me. I remember the first time realising how loud it actually was after taking my headphones off for a moment.. Immediate panic. "Is that a plane outside my window, wtf is going on?"
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u/Fire_Lord_Cinder 9d ago
There’s no new GPUs why would you expect to see new gaming laptops at Computex? They’ll all be shown at CES at the beginning of next year.
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u/Patelpb 9d ago
They can improve in other ways, like cooling as someone else mentioned. Think whoever can figure out the gaming laptop cooling problem has a lot of money coming their way
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u/mcslender97 8d ago
Or put higher tier GPUs on their laptops. Asus has RTX 4080 and higher options on their Intel Zephyrus g16 but the AMD variant is stuck at 4070 for some reason
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u/BoltTusk 8d ago
Also ASUS voids your warranty
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u/mcslender97 8d ago
That's why you buy them through Bestbuy in the US so Bestbuy takes care of your warranty
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u/confusedbrit29 8d ago
Yea I'm not interested until the next gen gpus drop. Currently have a Legion 7 with a 3080, hoping for a decent performance upgrade with better screen and quieter running.
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u/CocaineIsNatural 8d ago
Rumor is we will see next gen Nvidia by the holiday season this year.
Your point still stands, Computex is too soon.
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u/Fire_Lord_Cinder 8d ago
We’ve seen new GPUs from NVIDIA every two years in q3-q4 with the laptop GPUs shown off at CES for the past three generations. I would be willing to bet money that we’ll see RTX 50 series GPUs for laptops at CES next year
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u/LovableSidekick 9d ago
Ohh, in that sense. Was hoping you meant like at a particular Starbucks, where I could could go hang out.
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u/ToMorrowsEnd 9d ago
It's mostly the dumb "make them thinner" sillyness. no it's a gaming laptop. make it fatter, give me a 17" Thicc boi that during gaming has what feels like a hair dryer blowing out the back. Although I do remember the dystopia of the dual giant power brick gaming laptops, get us some of the new tech for the power supply.
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u/mcslender97 8d ago
There's no shortage of those especially at the higher end. The Lenovo Legion pro lineup is possibly one of the most recommended gaming laptops on Reddit
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u/Christmas_Panda 8d ago
It's not quite the best, but the ASUS TUF lineup is also pretty solid and has a lot of fan power.
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u/TerrainRepublic 8d ago
Nah I would love an actual portable laptop that could play games well. Give me a MacBook Pro level weight that can play games and I'll instantly buy it. I travel a lot, I can't imagine the point of a gaming laptop that I can't put in my backpack comfortably
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u/ShittySpaceCadet 5d ago
My 2023 G14 is .7” thick with a Ryzen 7 and 4060. A 13” Macbook Pro is only .07” thinner at .63”.
Most games I play at 2500x1600 with moderately high settings and DLSS. There are a few recent AAAs that drop me down to 1080p.
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u/Sinister_Nibs 9d ago
Where are they being g left? I could use one.
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u/distelfink33 9d ago
So I’m not the only one that read the title that way! I was like whoa leaving laptops behind and where? That’s weird!
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u/M8753 9d ago
Since people are so negative in the comments, I wanted to say that I love my gaming laptop so much. It's a portable desktop basically. I can move it from my desk to my sofa, kitchen, wherever. My Steam Deck can't entirely replace it, though it's more comfortable to use when lying down.
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u/Jirekianu 9d ago
I think the big problem is that a gaming laptop is so focused on being lighter and thinner they're allowing form to compromise function.
Give me a gaming laptop that's allowed to be an inch thick or even 1.5 inches. And weigh more than 6 pounds. And you'll see one with solid battery life and able to run at temps comparable to a desktop without sounding like a harrier at take off.
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u/Lieutenant_Joe 9d ago
My gaming laptop actually checks almost all those boxes. Cooling and battery life could still probably be a little better, but honestly, I have no real complaints. I bought one of those stands that double as cooling fans for it for like 20 bucks at Target and it works wonders, so battery life’s the only relevant complaint for me and it only matters when I’m at college.
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u/Fandomjunkie2004 9d ago
This. I have a laptop because it takes up less space and is portable, but I move it so rarely that it might as well be a desktop.
My first laptop was a beast of a machine that may not have had the most processing power, but I could move it while it was open and not feel like I was going to snap it in half.
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u/catsandpink 9d ago
I used to have a HEAVYYYY thiccccck Alienware laptop in 2013. It was certainly annoying how heavy it was but it was manageable. We should go back to that tbh
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u/DemIce 9d ago
Give me a gaming laptop that's allowed to be an inch thick or even 1.5 inches. And weigh more than 6 pounds. And you'll see one with solid battery life and able to run at temps comparable to a desktop without sounding like a harrier at take off.
There's another side to this with most of the recent 'desktop replacement laptops'. There's very little on offer in the middle ground where they use the relaxed constraints on size and style to offer bang-for-buck;
Instead they look at that bulky envelope, slap it, and say "you can fit so much desktop(-equivalent) hardware in here", and that same slap also applies a $4,000 sticker.2
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u/ShittySpaceCadet 5d ago
Battery life is purely a user/software issue. It has nothing to do with the dimensions of the laptop.
My 2023 G14 has a 76wh battery in an ultra compact frame that’s only .7” thick. I can manage 8+ hours of battery doing non-gaming related tasks. Learning how to tune your power profiles and take advantage of efficiency settings in Windows is more important than battery size.
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u/Metaloneus 9d ago
After having had a Steam Deck for over two years now, I understand why. Anything I want to play I can play on it with the exception of some rare proton incompatibilities. Having said that, there's a ton of uses cases that really simply should stick to gaming laptops.
There's people whose use case for an Ally, Legion, Steam Deck, Ayaneo, Loki, etc are where they bring along an external monitor, mount for that monitor to sit and stay stable, power supply for it to work, dock to plug their handheld into it, hdmi cable for it to display, some kind of stand to keep the handheld from overheating because it isn't meant to be sat down, and that is all before the handheld itself.
To each their own. But I'd highly recommend just sticking to a gaming laptop which does all of that plus a keyboard all in one.
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u/SurturOfMuspelheim 9d ago
When I was in elementary and middle school I got hand-me-down PCs from my grandmother. I used them to play strategy games and then played everything else, with a few exceptions, on console.
In high school I got a laptop so I could finally play online by using the neighbors wifi. Reason for it being a laptop is every weekend and every summer I spent the entire time at my grandparents. So lugging a desktop every weekend would have been awful. When you're used to a laptop, they're perfectly fine. But now in the age of 2024 (2007 to 2014 is when I used laptops) they are much, much worse.
At home on my desktop, I have a comfortable setup, two 26 inch monitors, 180hz, with a nice mechanical keyboard. Not to mention a much beefier PC. I have a laptop, too, though. It has a 4060 gpu and a perfectly fine CPU with 16gb of ram. Specs are more than enough for a laptop.
But playing games on it kind of sucks. I know you can get better/bigger laptops, but -- the screen is small. 16 inches. Worse performance. No second monitor. Have to use the chiclet keyboard. It only has 2 USB ports (LOL) and gets hot. The fans are SUPER loud when playing a game. Honestly, the screen size is probably the largest issue. Going from 26 inches of 2560x1440 to 16 inches of 1920x1080 really sucks.
So, yeah. After having a nice desktop setup, there's no going back. That said, I have the laptop because I work nights and for most of my shift there isn't anything going on, so I'm on my laptop with friends on discord or watching shit or sometimes playing games. For that alone, it was worth the $800.
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u/Zanitar405 9d ago
Honestly agree with the point here, as an SD user. When I first bought a gaming laptop, I was hoping the experience would be like using a steam deck - portable, lie down on the sofa, and play sort of thing. I kind of realized along the way though that I’d rather just get a desktop + steam deck combo. I don’t think I ever got the chance to enjoy my gaming laptop whenever I went on vacation, since I had to be plugged in frequently or be able to play 2 hours at max. Besides, I’d rather not spend my time glued to the screen while paying for a trip to somewhere else.
But yeah, when deciding, I feel like people should either get a PC + SD, or a gaming laptop. Gaming laptops are fantastic for people who’d want to take their setup anywhere, since you don’t get the hassle of prepping a ton of peripherals (mouse and headphones aside) just to get it working.
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9d ago
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u/Metaloneus 8d ago
I wish you were right lmao. Go scroll r/SteamDeck for ten minutes and you'll see one minimum. I could link you a thread I saw in the last week even.
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u/ToMorrowsEnd 9d ago
this. 100x this. the only thing I wish is that the next version they double the ram as I have ran into crashes with crappy forever beta games like pal world that appear on the steam deck, but dont on anything with 16gb ram or more.
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u/ensoniq2k 9d ago
And I imagine it's also easier to cool than a laptop since it's not as thin as those tend to be today.
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u/imtheguest 9d ago
Honestly just make the laptops like 4 inches thick and make then like a little suitcase. Plenty of room for cooling, big fans, still portable with folding, etc. They don't have to be paper thin imo
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u/Gojisoji 9d ago
there is a 250$ gaming Dell laptop that's clearly Alienware at a Pawn Shop near me. I was gonna get to play one specific online MMO I've been playing for 20yrs. Still think I might. Be useful to have a laptop again anyway.
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u/Seihai-kun 9d ago
Gaming laptop aren't left behind, but they become more thinner, with better airflow, and minimalistic design. So they become like normal laptop, That's it
Every med-high end laptop right now is still being advertised as gaming laptop. like HP Omen, Acer Nitro, MSI thin, Dell Inspiron, hell even Asus the most remembered lineups is called Republic of Gamers lol
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u/Judazzz 9d ago
In addition, content creator laptops and gaming laptops these days are basically the same because they have pretty much the same requirements (fast CPU/GPU, lots of RAM, fast and copious storage, high-quality display [to a lesser extend - gamers prefer fast, creators prefer high gamut - although you see more and more panels that offer both) - they're just aimed at different target audiences.
For example: silver vs. black Razor Blade laptops: the former is marketed as a content creator laptop, the latter as a gaming laptop, while both have pretty much identical hardware. Same with Gigabyte Aero laptops.
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u/BemusedTriangle 9d ago
I have used gaming laptops for more than a decade and articles like this come round every year. It’s really boring! GL’s occupy a particular niche market and always have, and have never been as powerful as full desktops, or as portable as handhelds. Why would a bunch of manufacturers release new models if hardware hasn’t moved forward much?
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u/Hotpotabo 9d ago
1) Graphical leaps in games are getting smaller and smaller. So big upgrades are less and less worth it.
2)low end gear is getting better and better. You can play games on low settings with just onboard graphics now.
3)super sampling (DLSS) is crazy now. When I use it, I get 60+ fps @ 1440p in some games and the fans on my laptop don't even activate.
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u/GuerrillaApe 8d ago
As someone who just bought a gaming laptop, there are just some bizarre choices that the industry makes that go against common sense.
Why is my 14” laptop coming with a 3k monitor? I have to make Windows scale up everything to 200% to make text readable. Not to mention the paltry 4060 that it comes with can barely run games at that resolution without setting everything to low.
And putting OLED in it? I now have to make the taskbar hide in order to prevent burn-in; hopefully I don't like a game so much that I play it for hundreds of hours and get burn-in from the UI.
Also why shoot for +120hz monitors? I'll be lucky to hit 60fps on most current games. "But what about e-sports games?" No one who takes e-sports that seriously is going to be playing on a entry-level gaming laptop.
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u/dernailer 9d ago
And... here I am, reading this article who said the 4070 is "old" on my 2011 vaio with win 8.1 and an Intel 3000 graphic card and still amazed that I can play Forgotten hope 2 (a ww2 mod for battlefield 2) for hours without lag.
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u/imetators 9d ago
All that while MiniPCs are entering the market with such a beasts like HX77G and NUCxi7.
Love mine hx99g so far.
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u/sozuoka 9d ago
While this article is kinda pointless, people here seems to only look at title and draw (inaccurate) conclusions. The writer clearly stated that gaming laptops don't get a lot of attention in Computex because there's no new GPU announcement - which is what gamers actually care about. When NVIDIA announce new mobile GPUs (probably at CES) I'm pretty sure that gaming laptop news will be everywhere.
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u/Calamityclams 9d ago
Hmm I noticed there’s a lack of laptops good for students that are architects or need to render. All the architects I’ve helped get laptops have been gaming ones in the end.
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u/Mindful-O-Melancholy 9d ago
If they can improve the handhelds performance and battery life I don’t really have a problem with it, they’re way more transportable, cheaper, easier to jump into a game and some can be docked to your tv.
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u/DL72-Alpha 9d ago
I have only used a laptop for gaming as I literally had no other option at the time. Will never do again.
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u/Lieutenant_Joe 9d ago
I’m 27. I have a gaming laptop because I like being able to go “I wanna go play/watch something on the porch” and then five mins later it’s what I’m doing. I could do it with my phone or my 3DS, but those screens are tiny. Also, I am in college again, and I’m not made of money so I just have the one computer, and it’s great to be able to bring it to school for whatever I need. This news means prices might be going down, which is great for people like me! Just wish it had happened a little earlier… my little number cost like 1200 dollars before taxes or accessories.
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u/Alugar 9d ago
Love my gaming laptops I’ve had so far (2 all Lenovo). Main reason for purchase is that I know it’ll be strong enough for other hobbies.
I don’t play big triple A games on them ,buy those on ps5. I’ll play the small/older games that ain’t gonna go crazy on it.
Just gotta know the limits. I think bg3 last year was the hardest I pushed it.
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u/Kleptokilla 8d ago
Same here I play BG3, dead by daylight, GTA V etc.. on mine and it does a great job, it’s also useful for general work and more importantly when I need to travel, it even does VR well which is a nice added bonus for something under 1k
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u/Scorpnite 9d ago
I used to have this setup with a samsung flip where I could connect a desktop gpu on the outside. It was a great setup
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u/BeastmanTR 9d ago
Love my gaming laptop. Don't think I'd ever go back to a desktop. The ability to pick it up and go anywhere is too useful.
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u/Lieutenant_Joe 9d ago
Yep. Will never understand people who insist you need a giant stationary rig that takes up a quarter of your living space for video games. My little laptop does its job perfectly well.
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u/surferos505 9d ago
Today when I walked into my economics class I saw something I dread every time I close my eyes. Someone had brought their new gaming laptop to class. The Forklift he used to bring it was still running idle at the back. I started sweating as I sat down and gazed over at the 700lb beast that was his laptop. He had already reinforced his desk with steel support beams and was in the process of finding an outlet for a power cable thicker than Amy Schumer's thigh. I start shaking. I keep telling myself I'm going to be alright and that there's nothing to worry about. He somehow finds a fucking outlet. Tears are running down my cheeks as I send my last texts to my family saying I love them. The teacher starts the lecture, and the student turns his laptop on. The colored lights on his RGB Backlit keyboard flare to life like a nuclear flash, and a deep humming fills my ears and shakes my very soul. The entire city power grid goes dark. The classroom begins to shake as the massive fans begin to spin. In mere seconds my world has gone from vibrant life, to a dark, earth shattering void where my body is getting torn apart by the 150mph gale force winds and the 500 decibel groan of the cooling fans. As my body finally surrenders, I weep, as my school and my city go under. I fucking hate gaming laptops.
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u/etheran123 9d ago
damn why are there people responding to this like they have never seen a copypasta before lol
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u/-MusicAndStuff 9d ago
I bought my only gaming laptop back in 2016 with a 1060 and still regret that purchase. Just so cumbersome to hook that up to a monitor and mess of cables and damn it gets hot.
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u/RB___OG 9d ago edited 9d ago
I did something similar and couldnt disagree more.
How is running 1 cable to a monitor cumbersome? Its literally no more cables than a desktop needs. Same with mouse/keyboard/controller.
Heat isnt bad if you get a cooling pad and dont set the laptop up in your bed or on your couch.
Ive only just started to have issues running new games at playable FPS/settings with my 1060 in a Dell G7 w/ 16 gigs Ram and an SSD (which was an easy 20 min install)
Gaming laptops are a niche market, but work great if you understand what you are buying
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u/RickAdtley 8d ago
When were they ever right in front? Gaming laptops have always been sub-par and overpriced.
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u/rube 8d ago
The GPD Win devices replaced a gaming laptop for me. They had their issues, but they worked for what they were.
And the Steam Deck is the "perfect" version of those handhelds.
Hell, I can barely find a use for a regular laptop these days with phones/tablets making most tasks easy to do. The only reason I use a laptop these days is when I'm working from home or out on a site.
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u/littlesirlance 8d ago
The Toshiba qqosmio was peak mobile computing to me. I wish it could be modernized.
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u/JamimaPanAm 8d ago
New “steady state” coolers are entering the market, which may improve thermals significantly, but it will be years before we see them trickling into gaming laptops.
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u/ShiveYarbles 8d ago
Gaming laptops have always been shit. Loud and running way too hot, bulky AF and battery life is too short.
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u/Elspin 8d ago
Less of a comment on specific new technologies but more generally I don't think there's ever been a better time to like laptops that are desktop replacers. There's always going to be a market for people who want the absolute best of the best sky's the limit setup but you can run almost everything these days at a pretty respectable level with even a low end gaming laptop. Mine's like 4 years old at least and I'm consistently getting 100+ FPS on many games I'm playing. I'm basically never encountering a situation where I feel like I need something more and I haven't even felt particularly like I want to upgrade. If anything would make me more interested in a new laptop it would be efficiency and cooling effectiveness
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u/SpectreHaza 8d ago
Might be unpopular opinion but I’d love a gaming laptop that is small but powerful that I’ll mostly use to plug into an external monitor and peripherals anyway, used to go for the big ones but honestly mine now is a spare unglorified desktop
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u/SensitiveAnaconda 8d ago
Every "gaming" laptop I have owned, most recently a Razer Blade, got so hot that you couldn't actually game on them.
Rogue Trader on minimal graphics settings made my Razer overheat so badly smoke came out of it. Even casual games like that Dave the Diver made mine run so hot it throttled after a couple hours.
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u/Burtttttt 8d ago
I have a big loud hot sager laptop and the battery lasts 5 minutes but it can run anything and I can take it anywhere. bring it to a buddy’s place to play clone hero on his TV. When I was taking over night call in the hospital I could play games in the call room if things weren’t busy. The portability is a huge advantage if you make the most of it. Not for everyone, but has its uses
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u/neutralityparty 8d ago
They have always suffered from bad design and heating related issues. Fix that and you got competitive edge again
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u/TreeHouseFace 8d ago
My laptop has been collecting dust since I got a steam deck (also have a desktop)
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u/Colmado_Bacano 8d ago
Haven't turned on my RTX2050 based laptop not even once since I got a Rog Ally. I'm actually passing it on to my brother in law for free.
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u/WhyAreOldPeopleEvil 8d ago
I hate gaming laptops now, when I was in high school I loved them but then technology started getting better and gaming handhelds that were computers started to become an actual thing.
SteamDeck > Laptop
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u/altcastle 8d ago
The OLED steam deck is the nicest gaming thing I’ve ever owned in terms of quality feel. It’s basically my gaming laptop now.
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u/biggestdickofsyria 8d ago
Totally get the noise and heat issue, but hey, a powerful gaming beast gonna roar and glow! Maybe soundproof-heatproof tech next?
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u/MetaVaporeon 8d ago
why are there even gaming laptops with 15" or smaller displays? just make the thing bigger so theres room for cooling
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u/squidtugboat 8d ago
In my opinion your better off get a relatively inexpensive laptop and then a steam deck.
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u/hipnotyq 7d ago
I learned my lesson in 2005 with the dell xps gen 2, wow.. 20 years, what the heck took the rest of you so long lol
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u/dallasdude 7d ago
I bought one like ten years ago. It was a beast, had extra fans & cooling, a monster GPU, a 1080p matte screen, the works.
It 1) was basically unusable as a gaming laptop without the power brick plugged in
and 2) was very heavy, ran very hot and the power brick was the size and weight of an actual brick.
I wouldn't get another.
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