I might be in the minority but in terms of PC gaming I prefer a gaming laptop more than a PC.

S

SNG32

Member
Basically if I can get performance that's either close or better than console settings I'm happy. I like the fact that I can hook it up to my TV and take it with me wherever I go. A desktop is cool but to me I already have a PS5 and Series X for stationary gaming. Laptop and Switch for portable gaming. I know most PC gamers look down on laptops but I think they've came a long now in giving a great gaming experience.

Anyone else on a similar page?
 
While not as popular as the desktop, gaming laptops are still very popular. Some people appreciate the smaller size and portability, nothing wrong with that.
 
Me too. I work at my PC, so it has that association with me, plus it's at a desk with an upright chair.

My gaming laptop I 'can' work on if I'm away from home, but I tend to have it connected to my big screen TV and couch game. The performance is significantly better than XSX or PS5, so it's like a supercharged console.
 
Can't say I agree personally. I hated using laptops even when I was in school, I'd jump onto a desktop whenever I had the chance.
 
I hate laptops so much. I thought they were amazing and cool in the 90s, but in the end I decided I hate using them for almost any purpose. They do have their uses though occasionally.
 
I don't get enough power for my financial investment. I bought a gaming laptop to play the Witcher 3 at 1080p 60fps High settings and quickly saw it fall behind with no upgrade path.
 
I'd agree with you if it werent for the heat and noise coming off of them. My PC is dead silent even when gaming at 100%, every laptop I've ever seen makes a noise I just can't tolerate.
 
When I first joined the PC Master race in 2013...I bought a Toshiba Qosmio laptop for $1300. It worked well for a number of years, but was sorely disappointed when it broke down on me and couldn't swap out parts to upgrade or repair other issues.

Ever since then I vowed that the next time I buy a PC, I would build it myself. I've had my PC since 2018. Started with a paltry 1070ti and an i5 processor. Now rocking a 4090 and a ryzen 7 5800x out of the same case. I alternate my upgrades. Get a new CPU/motherboard one generation, then the GPU next generation. Adjust cooling as needed.

It's really the best way to go. I don't need to do productive work remotely and for gaming on the go...I think the Steam deck is a much better option than lugging around a laptop.
 
Mister Wolf said:
I don't get enough power for my financial investment. I bought a gaming laptop to play the Witcher 3 at 1080p 60fps High settings and quickly saw it fall behind with no upgrade path.
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What kind of laptop do you have if you don't mind me asking.
 
I'd only ever buy a laptop as a satellite to a more powerful PC, basically something for word processing, web stuff and possibly even streaming games.
I'd never make it my main gaming or even work platform (unless I was forced with lots of travel I suppose).
 
Ewww, laptop peasant. You stay away from me from now on.


On a more serious note, whatever works for you. That's kind of the beauty of PC gaming.
 
Jigsaah said:
When I first joined the PC Master race in 2013...I bought a Toshiba Qosmio laptop for $1300. It worked well for a number of years, but was sorely disappointed when it broke down on me and couldn't swap out parts to upgrade or repair other issues.

Ever since then I vowed that the next time I buy a PC, I would build it myself. I've had my PC since 2018. Started with a paltry 1070ti and an i5 processor. Now rocking a 4090 and a ryzen 7 5800x out of the same case. I alternate my upgrades. Get a new CPU/motherboard one generation, then the GPU next generation. Adjust cooling as needed.

It's really the best way to go. I don't need to do productive work remotely and for gaming on the go...I think the Steam deck is a much better option than lugging around a laptop.
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The steam deck is cool but the screen is to small for me if I just want to do gaming using just my gamepad.
 
I was into gaming laptops for travelling or moving around the house, but now that gaming handhelds like the ROG Ally are here I find gaming laptops to be irrelevant nowadays.
 
SNG32 said:
The steam deck is cool but the screen is to small for me if I just want to do gaming using just my gamepad.
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True that is one downside. This is kinda why the idea of an Xbox handheld made by the surface team is interesting to me. I think wee'll get a bigger screen and hopefully the ability to play PC games on it.
 
The Cockatrice said:
Only someone who doesnt own a gaming PC would say that. If u travel a lot sure, if not, then there is 0 reasons to use a laptop.
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I did have a gaming pc before I got a laptop. It was dope but the portability aspect I know sounds crazy but
I'll spend the money on. Maybe one day when I have the space again I'll probably get a desktop again.
 
Me too, the 4090 just blew it all over the place, I'm not buying Jensen words anymore, he need a miracle to resolve the mess.
 
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CrustyBritches said:
A gaming laptop ends up being used like a desktop 90% of the time. I think a desktop and a Deck are the best way to go.
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To each his own the decks are still lacking in the performance department because they can only go so high in power with gpus and CPUs. I know laptops have there limits too but they are much higher than handhelds.
 
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If you can get past the marketing scam that mobile GPU nomenclature is.

Buy a 4090 laptop only to get less GPU power than a desktop 4070ti...and so on down the stack.
 
Dr.D00p said:
If you can get past the marketing scam that mobile GPU nomenclature is.

Buy a 4090 laptop only to get less GPU power than a desktop 4070ti...and so on down the stack.
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But what does this matter if you care about achieving console level performance and portability. If I wanted the best of power I would just buy a desktop with a 4090.

I have a great experience with me sitting on my lazy boy playing helldivers 2 high settings 60 fps on my laptop.
 
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how you upgrade a gaming laptop:

dumping-trash-daniel-labelle.gif
 
Never had a gaming laptop. My gaming is getting old though. I might consider one, especially if they have VRR screens. Otherwise I may wait for Steam Deck 2 even if it is a couple years away.
 
I thought it was a better purchase at first, that it fit a Renter's lifestyle better, until my screen fell apart after a year, and I realized the build quality is so much worse. Now I have a i8200 with widescreen monitor, and am much happier.
 
SNG32 said:
Basically if I can get performance that's either close or better than console settings I'm happy. I like the fact that I can hook it up to my TV and take it with me wherever I go. A desktop is cool but to me I already have a PS5 and Series X for stationary gaming. Laptop and Switch for portable gaming. I know most PC gamers look down on laptops but I think they've came a long now in giving a great gaming experience.

Anyone else on a similar page?
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I'm with you on that. My main gaming devices right now are Steam Deck, Switch and Legion Slim 5 laptop.

I'm more than happy with the performance. Can play pretty much any game at high settings, 60+ FPS while keeping the temps at around 65 for both CPU and GPU.
 
Disagree.

Performance is not that great for the price (compared to desktop alternative).
thermals are an issue in most models.
build quality is usually not great unless you're willing to spend a lot of money.
They are not upgradeable aside from the RAM/SSD.
They are heavy and bulky so it hurt's the portability aspect, some of them are like 17 inches too.
If they are not heavy and bulky, they'll most likely have thermal issues and throttle performance.


I owned a gaming laptop for the last 4 years and played on it about 3 times, it sounds great on paper but on practice it wasn't for me. Prefer my desktop + Steam deck + actual portable laptop combo much more.


But hey, much more power to you if you enjoy them more!
 
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SNG32 said:
To each his own the decks are still lacking in the performance department because they can only go so high in power with gpus and CPUs. I know laptops have there limits too but they are much higher than handhelds.
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It's going to be unique to each person. I'd say a college student is probably the ideal case for a gaming laptop, but even then you might run into issue with battery life and noise(can be mitigated with power states). I have a couple decent laptops and I used a laptop as my primary gaming PC for about a year. My laptop ended up plugged like a desktop to a monitor 90%+ of the time. It limits your upgrade path compared to a desktop, it lacks the perf/$, and it's comparatively noisy as well.

Even though I built a new desktop and bought a Deck I still hung onto my 3060 laptop as I have over a year of work on it, and there's important albeit extreme limited scenarios that I have use for portable power. What's funny is that I didn't feel safe rolling around with my spendy laptop full of my personal projects and data, so I ended buying another "throwaway" 5500U laptop for trips. Last year I took on trip to a music festival and I stayed in a Airbnb. It worked great for watching shows and editing pics and vids from the concerts, and a little light gaming.

So yeah, I'd recommend a desktop for everyday use(perf/$, quiet, upgradeable), a Deck for portable/couch/bed gaming, and an affordable laptop with a good CPU/RAM/SSD for bringing on trips.
 
DownLikeBCPowder said:
I hate laptops so much. I thought they were amazing and cool in the 90s, but in the end I decided I hate using them for almost any purpose. They do have their uses though occasionally.
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Nothing worse than starting a new job and the IT department handing you a laptop.

I hate them yet I have like six of the fuckers because they're so useful.
 
I like them, I travel a lot for work, plug it into the hotel tv, or I will use it to play PC on my TV at home. Also nice to bring to my motorcycle garage, hook up the projector and play something with a buddy.
 
Bang for buck is absolute shit with gaming laptops, they are usually not upgradeable and most have either severe heat or noise issues or both....

No, just no....
 
I bought a really nice gaming laptop back in 2009 and loved it to bits. Eventually the battery couldn't hold a decent charge, then it started overheating, then it died. Never felt like dropping money on a gaming laptop after that.
 
Buying a gaming laptop was so far my worst purchase related to PC.
1st of all you pay premium, with what i paid for my laptop i could have build a desktop 2 times more powerfull, not to mention i would be able to easely upgrade it.

Once it runs more demanding games, it gets very hot, so not good to actually use it on the lap, and even some of the keys get hot.

I can only recomend one t someone that travels alot. If you want a PC to play at home, get a desktop.
 
I found hooking a laptop up to a tv to be sort of a hindrance. Now I just game stream via Shield and my PC.

For portable shit I got a steam deck and I just recently got a 35XX which is a Gameboy style handheld that plays all the 8-32bit games no sweat.
 
No, for the primary reason that it's a static piece of hardware, with less power at a higher cost.

I'd rather go desktop with a portable PC.

But that's me. Some people like laptops and that's fine.
 
Yep its pretty awesome. 1080p is all I need when taking into account portability factor. Still looks ok on the big tv. Sorry, I cant lug around a 15 kg pc back to my inlaws.
 
SNG32 said:
What kind of laptop do you have if you don't mind me asking.
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When the Witcher 3 released I bought a laptop with a Nvidia 980m. Started craving better performance and built a PC with a GTX 1080 when it first released. PC ever since.
 
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My eye has been on the Lenovo Legion Slim 14.5 OLED as its been discounted to just over $1000 a few times. Would prefer a desktop but I'm gonna be mobile over the next few years between countries so a laptop it is.
 
The big problem with gaming laptops is the requirement to be plugged in. Somewhat defeats the purpose of being portable.
 
I bought my gaming laptop January 2021. The cost of the entire laptop (i7 11800H/3060/165hz screen) was less than just a 3060 desktop GPU. I actually bought two for the family. They are both still working flawlessly and run everything well. I run most games at 4K with DLSS.
 
SNG32 said:
Basically if I can get performance that's either close or better than console settings I'm happy. I like the fact that I can hook it up to my TV and take it with me wherever I go. A desktop is cool but to me I already have a PS5 and Series X for stationary gaming. Laptop and Switch for portable gaming. I know most PC gamers look down on laptops but I think they've came a long now in giving a great gaming experience.

Anyone else on a similar page?
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I tried this and I can't stand the noise level of laptop gaming. I have a 4080 and it was so loud turned me off completely to laptop gaming.
 
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