I know three things to look for are high ram (32GB is good) and plenty of processor cores (8+). And a good graphics card. But are these three things all I really need to look for in a gaming PC? Or is there other stats to look at as well?
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32GB is overkill for gaming for now. It could change but very unlikely anytime soon.
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If you want a 8 Core, go for an AMD 4800H or higher
If you want Intel the i7 8750h or i9 variants
I haven’t kept up with Laptop news, last time I saw AMD side doesn’t offer high end mobile gpus yet. This may have changed. -
GPU, depending on the cooling solution and which variant of the gpus, I believe there is huge diminishing returns for anything higher than a rtx 2060.
For gaming laptops to be successful they need to have good thermal designs. usually that means bigger laptops that have next to no battery life and requires you to be plugged in all the time. You will have to sacrifice somethings if you want a mobile laptop that can game, and usually that is performance.
If you aren’t comfortable opening the laptop or if for some reason the manufacturer made it very difficult to access the laptop motherboard, you may want to consider getting larger storage drives or against what I mention in number 1 more ram.
Though if this laptop is meant to be in the house 99% of the time, I’d strongly recommend against getting a laptop and just building a desktop.
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Why is a desktop better? The gaming laptops I’ve been looking at have equal Ram and processor power isn’t too far behind a desktop. I mainly stick with laptops because my space is limited.
Desktop equivalent is cheaper and has much better cooling solutions. Easier to swap parts out later rather then having to do a overhaul. If you need/prefer to buy a prebuild add on roughly another $100. Without sales or discount involve, highend laptops range from 1500+ for the rtx 2070 models and are hindered by heat especially overtime.
For example…
PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/nvnMsk
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor ($279.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard ($124.99 @ Best Buy)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($139.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Blue 1 TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($114.99 @ Adorama)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB Video Card ($499.99 @ Best Buy)
Case: NZXT H510 ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.99 @ B&H)
Power Supply: Cooler Master MWE Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($99.99 @ Best Buy)
Monitor: MSI Optix G24C 23.6" 1920x1080 144 Hz Monitor ($199.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1529.92
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-07-23 06:28 EDT-0400
How limited on space are you? I sympathize since I was in that scenario before, where my laptop + a mouse was literal all the space I had.
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Thermal and power limits.
Mobile CPUs have small power budgets in the BIOS that aren’t easy to change, and you aren’t going to get your maximum boost even if you had the cooling.
So hypothetically a 45w TDP 8/16 chip on a laptop may boost to 4.5ghz for like 20-30 seconds, but then fall back to its base frequency of 3.2ghz
Meanwhile, if properly cooled, a desktop CPU will generally stay at its max boost forever and in higher end boards you can adjust the power limit.
The new hp omen has good cooling and design with the amd ryzen or 10th gen
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Pretty limited, i dont have enough space to do a desk, so a desktop isn’t feasible.
Then do what you need to do. Try to get the best you can for the laptop.
You can watch this video to get an idea.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0rpNVh3e50
TL:DW> AMD is the better option on average. Intel consumes more power and runs a bit hotter. Intel can be faster but more likely to hit thermal limits.
Again the only concern is the limited gpu options for AMD side due to laptop manufacturers not producing it.
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I’d also recommend something with good build quality as well as hardware specs.
Generally things that go wrong on laptops are also just the chassis buttons/screen/etc.
Get something quality.
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Depends on how limited you are, there are some super small desktop builds that don’t really take up that much space and will outperform pretty much any laptop.
What ever happened to that one guy who used to post here…he was big on itx systems. K something
Slap your laptop on a cooling pad and you will be gtg.
Check out slickdeals.net/laptop-deals/ for some good US deals on em.
That depends, Asus and Dell tried to reuse the cooling solution from their Intel systems to their Ryzen 4000 systems and they overheat like a MOFO.
Also, my 4800H maintains 3.8Ghz all cores xD
itx builds can lead you down a very expensive rabbit hole real fast…
not speaking from personal experience or anything…
The only person on this form that I’m aware of that is an ITX enthusiast is Shottie. The guy also has quality photo shots of his build. He puts my build to shame despite having the same case lol.
@Hoku
A lot of AMD products from Asus has been poor. Its like they don’t even invest 1/10th of the effort to test and QA their products. Not saying all, but enough to cause an uproar.
I remembered, it was that Kagthul guy
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ahh good ol Kag
grouchy mcgrouch
Anywho, if OP still looks at this thread
Here is a razer blade 14 next to the Ncase, one of the smallest cases on the market.
https://imgur.com/a/zBbt3U6
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