Although desktop PCs are preferred over laptops when it comes to PC gaming, laptops offer portability. This means you can game anywhere with your gaming laptop. Which is why we have this article with some gaming laptop shopping tips to help you pick one.
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Get one with a good GPU
With games becoming more dependent on GPUs, it would be wise to get a laptop with a decent GPU. One that will be able to play games at high graphics settings for a number of years. This is because it is usually very difficult to upgrade the GPUs and other components on laptops computers. Also you should go for laptops with dedicated GPUs instead of integrated graphics. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 or GeForce RTX 3060 or AMD’s RX 6000 series are recommended in gaming laptops.
RAM
A laptop with at least 8GB is ideal if you want to play indie titles and older games. Though 16GB and higher would be the better option, especially for AAA games. The more RAM you have, the more efficient your machine is when retrieving temporary information thus performance is increased.
CPU
CPUs like GPUs in laptops are very almost impossible to upgrade. Therefore, it is important to choose a laptop with a good processor. For Intel processors, it would be best to get a core i5 CPU for budget gaming or core i7 for high end gaming on a gaming laptop, preferably 10th gen and above. For AMD processors, Ryzen 5 Series is good for budget gaming and Ryzen 7 Series for high end gaming. Intel core i9 and AMD Ryzen 9 series are the best processors out there, but drive the prices up for laptops with these processors. Plus I think they are properly utilized in desktop computers.
Display (refresh rate, resolution, response time…)
60Hz displays should be enough though a lot of good gaming laptops have displays with a refresh rate of 120Hz and above. A resolution of 1080p should be fine. 4k resolution would be best but with higher resolution, your frame rates usually take a hit especially in laptops. Low response times like 1-3ms will be ideal.
Keyboard
This is more of preference. Whether you want mechanical keys or non-mechanical keys. Whether you want red or white backlight or RGB backlight.
Size (slimness)
This is also a matter of preference. Whether you want a gaming laptop that’s slim or a big one. Usually the slimmer the laptop the more expensive it is especially if it is supposed to be both slim and powerful.
Noise
Usually laptops with mechanical keyboards will be noisier than laptops with non-mechanical keyboards. Also, laptop fans will produce noise since they work hard to dissipate heat in the very compact spaces.
Battery life
Last but not least, we need to look at the battery life of a gaming laptop. Although we usually look for laptops with the highest battery life, gaming laptops need to be plugged in if they are to give the best performance. When you play games on a gaming laptop without plugging it in power, you do not get the best display settings. Usually the screen is dim or darker.
We hope this article helps you with some gaming laptop shopping tips. You can read more articles here.
