Gone are the days when playing video games on a computer meant investing in a cumbersome desktop PC. Today, you can enjoy some of the latest and most demanding titles on a portable and space-efficient system.
Thanks to powerful hardware, the current crop of high-end notebooks will comfortably handle titles like Grand Theft Auto V, Battlefield 1 and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and also let you explore virtual worlds with the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive. Additionally, most are aggressively designed to suit their intended purpose, and also offer gaming-friendly extras like multi-color, backlit keyboards with programmable keys, and surround sound speakers.
Unsurprisingly, gaming laptops come with hefty price tags. Nevertheless, just because one is the most expensive on the shelves doesn’t mean it’s the best for you. Getting the most value for your money requires that you know what to look for, depending on your needs and budget.
Below are a few essential tips to finding the best laptop for gaming.
1. Pick the right size
Gamers aren’t known to be picky when it comes to portability, but if you’re not one to confine your gaming endeavors to just the desk, pick a laptop that will be easy to carry. Fifteen inch laptops give the best balance between functionality and portability, but some smaller ones, like the 14-inch Razer Blade (2016), offer excellent gaming performance while keeping the package reasonably compact.
Gamers aren’t known to be picky when it comes to portability, but if you’re not one to confine your gaming endeavors to just the desk, pick a laptop that will be easy to carry. Fifteen inch laptops give the best balance between functionality and portability, but some smaller ones, like the 14-inch Razer Blade
2. Start at Full-HD resolution going up
Regardless of your budget, start your search for a gaming laptop that comes with a resolution of 1920 x 1080. Some traditional gamers swear by 1366 x 768 because of the higher frame rates but, in truth, the trade-off is hardly worth it.
Gaming laptops with QHD (2560 x 1440) and UHD (3840 x 2160) panels offer richer colors and vivid details, which result in better-looking games. On the other hand, laptops with high-resolution displays are among the costliest on the market because, in addition to the high-quality panels, they’re typically equipped with premium-grade graphics cards, which are robust enough to render modern games at these resolutions.
3. The graphics card is everything
Mainstream laptops do just fine with integrated graphics, but if you’re looking for a gaming notebook, you’ll want one with a discrete GPU. Unlike integrated chips, which make use of system RAM in processing graphics, dedicated cards come with their own memory, called Video RAM, or VRAM. This translates to faster graphics rendering and better performance overall, as more RAM is left for other system processes.
The best gaming laptops currently on the market include one of NVIDIA’s 10-series GPUs, which range from the mid-range GeForce GTX 1050 to the high-end GTX 1080. While the former will churn out solid framerates in most moderately to heavily demanding games, the GTX 1080 can play top-range games like Grand Theft Auto V and Rise of the Tomb Raider in ultra-settings, while also offering support for all your virtual reality adventures.
4. Consider both CPU type and CPU generation
Most gaming laptops come with a quad-core Intel Core i5 or Core i7 CPU, which can easily be distinguished from the dual-core counterparts by checking the model numbers. A chip with an “H” or “HQ” suffix is a high-end quad-core processor.
The most recent gaming laptops are shipping with 7th generation Intel chips, which offer several upgrades from their 6th generation predecessors. In addition to better performance, newer processors are usually more optimized for new games than older chips. All 7th generation Intel CPUs have a model number that starts with a 7.
So, going by today’s standards, your prospective gaming laptop should have a quad-core 7th generation Intel Core i5
5. Don’t go below 8GB RAM
Your laptop’s graphics card may have a sizeable amount of VRAM, but that alone won’t be enough to keep the system running smoothly.
Eight gigabytes of RAM is sufficient for seamless multitasking and stable performance, but if you’re planning on using your new laptop for other RAM-intensive tasks like images and video editing in addition to gaming, it’ll likely be useful to go for 16GB RAM. Pictured above – Corsair Vengeance DDR4 SODIMMs
6. Check hard disk space and speed
Solid-state drives, or SSDs, have become increasingly popular among gamers because of their speed. Laptops with SSDs as primary storage drives typically boot faster and load games much quicker than those with mechanical drives.
On the flip side, SSDs are much more expensive than traditional hard drives. Consequently, budget-conscious shoppers often opt for the cheaper but reasonably fast 7,200rpm hard drives, which offer ample storage space while keeping the price of the laptop relatively manageable.
If you want the best of both worlds, however, there are a many high end gaming notebooks that come with both an SSD and an HDD. Here, you’ll have the option of storing your favorite games and core programs on the faster but smaller SSD, while reserving the hard drive for the rest of your files.
7. Notable extras
The considerations above will help you wade through all the great choices and narrow down to the best gaming laptops. But when you still have a few options left, it’s the extra features that will determine the machine you take home.
For starters, your gaming exploits will entail a lot of pounding on keys, so you’ll want your keyboard to be as comfortable as possible. If you can, have a go at the keys before you make the purchase to determine if it’ll be good enough for long hours of gaming.
Although you’ll probably buy a fitting pair of gaming headsets down the road, getting a laptop with decent speakers can’t hurt. Some gaming laptops even supplement their sound system with audio software for additional tweaking.
As for the battery, don’t expect your high-performance gaming laptop to break any endurance records. The best notebooks in this category only last about five hours.
Final words
Gaming laptops differ greatly from your average notebook. When shopping for one, therefore, extra care needs to be exercised to ensure you don’t waste money on a machine that’ll break a sweat with the lightest game you have. Keep in mind that the best gaming rig is that which will best fit your lifestyle, budget, and the games you wish to play.
