Choosing a laptop for gaming : Test | Hashrate | Specs | CPU | Config

Today, there are a lot of tips on the Internet for choosing a gaming mobile computer, but as it turned out, basically all the tips boil down to the fact that when choosing a laptop for gamers, you need to build on the performance of the CPU and GPU. While CPU and GPU specs are by far the most important considerations when choosing a mobile gaming device, there are other parameters to look out for when shopping for a gaming laptop.

What is a gaming laptop

So, as the name implies, a gaming laptop is a class of laptops designed primarily for computer games. Many will say that now almost all laptops, if they are not more than two years old, with the exception of budget models, can cope with all existing computer games. This statement is true, but only partially. Yes, on a non-gaming mobile computer on which OS “Windows” is installed, you can run absolutely all existing computer games, but you will hardly be able to play them normally. The fact is that there is such a thing as a frame per second (FPS) and if this parameter is very low, then on the display of your laptop, instead of a smooth display of the game scene, you will contemplate a regular slide show. We also note that in every computer game there is a section of graphic settings, which is responsible for the quality of the picture displayed on the display.

In this section, as a rule, there are a lot of options that improve the quality of graphics. For example, if you set them to the minimum value, then the quality of the picture will be appropriate. Enabling high graphics settings in games, as a rule, leads to a significant drop in FPS, especially for high-tech AAA-class gaming applications with high graphics levels, such as Crysis, which once brought even powerful gaming systems to their knees. Based on the above, we can say that a gaming laptop is a mobile computer that is able to produce an acceptable frame rate in computer games even at high graphics settings. In addition to the high gaming performance, there are several other features that indicate that the laptop belongs to the class of gaming devices, we will talk about them later.

Gaming Laptop Specifications

Since we are talking about gaming laptops in this article, we will only discuss those components that are found in them and especially affect gaming performance, these are the central and graphics processors, respectively. And here, we must admit, we have practically no choice, because we are talking, in fact, about three large manufacturers, whose components can be found inside laptops – AMD, Nvidia and Intel.

Processors

With processors for gaming laptops, everything is quite simple, there are not so many of them, each manufacturer has its own line of processors designed for mobile gaming computers. They differ from other processors by a large number of cores, support for multithreading, high frequencies and high TDP heat dissipation. Determining which processor is suitable for gaming laptops is quite simple, since both AMD and Intel have marked these CPUs with the letter H at the end of the name for the past few years, for example, Intel Core i9 i7 i5 x-xH, (Intel Core i7-10750H, Intel Core i5-10300H) or AMD Ryzen 9 8 7 5 x-xH (AMD Ryzen 7 4800H, AMD Ryzen 5 4600H), we hope that the letter H will remain in the marking in the coming years.

Video cards

About video cards, we can say the following, for games in a laptop there must be a discrete (dedicated) video card with its own memory of at least 4 GB. At the moment, this amount of memory is quite enough for all games, although in the future, most likely in a couple of years, this volume will not be enough, as computer games become more and more technological every year, acquire new visual effects and high-resolution textures. As in the case of processors, discrete video cards are marked with special letters from Nvidia, this is the GTX series and the RTX from AMD, this is the RX 5xxxM, 6xxxM series. Keep in mind that Intel currently does not have discrete graphics cards for laptops, but rumors say they should appear in the near future.

Network card, RAM storage

Storage and memory are pretty straightforward. For data storage in laptops, both solid state drives (SSD) and conventional mechanical HDDs are used. Moreover, in inexpensive gaming laptops, as a rule, either an SSD of a small capacity up to 500 GB, or a combination of an SSD drive and an HDD disk, are installed. Expensive models of gaming laptops, as a rule, have several slots for installing drives. Most often, large-capacity SSDs are installed, combined in a RAID array. The amount of RAM can also be different from model to model, that is, if in inexpensive gaming laptops it is 8-16 GB, in expensive ones, respectively, from 16 and above. Another important factor when choosing a gaming laptop is the Ethernet controller, which, as you understand, is responsible for the Internet connection. In gaming models, the Killer E2xxx network controller is mainly installed, which is positioned as an alternative solution for gamers. Although the performance of the Killer controllers did not show significant differences from other solutions, the features of DoubleShot Pro and Double Shot X3 Pro will be very interesting, as well as the ability to bind six levels of priority to network applications. Applications with the highest priority level run over a wired connection, which results in lower latency. The rest of the applications, depending on the load, are distributed between wired and wireless connections.

Appearance, keyboard

Gaming laptops tend to have an original design with an aggressive slant or theme. Usually, the case of a mobile gaming computer has many additional holes and air intakes designed to cool the components installed inside, on ordinary laptops there are much fewer such holes. Another difference between gaming laptops from ordinary ones is the presence of the first customizable RGB (multi-colored) keyboard unit backlighting. At worst, the backlight can be one-color, but not white. We also note that some manufacturers do not limit themselves to keyboard backlighting, but also place the backlight on the case itself, for example, on the back of the top cover with a display or along the perimeter of the main unit, as well as all gaming laptops have backlighting and the company logo. Another extremely important thing for a gaming laptop is its keyboard, which differs from conventional laptops in both the principle of pressing the keys and their location. If you look at the keyboard of a gaming mobile computer, then all the keys are large enough, this is done in order not to miss the desired key during games. Also note that most gaming laptops offer additional hotkeys for frequently used functions. As for the keystroke mechanism, in conventional “scissor” keyboards, the actuation point of the button is approximately 3/4 of the way that a key takes when pressed. And on gaming laptops, the actuation point is halfway down the road.

Another important thing is the registration of clicks. Many keyboards cannot handle more than five simultaneous keystrokes. In gaming models, each key press is processed independently of the others, which means that the keyboard is capable of correctly registering any number of simultaneous key presses. Some gaming laptop manufacturers have abandoned scissor keyboards in their mobile gaming devices, and have installed mechanical keyboards in their gaming laptops, where each key has its own mechanical switch with contact and return spring, so that the key does not have to be pressed to the end.

Display

Some people think that the display in a gaming laptop doesn’t really matter. Yes, this component is not of paramount importance, if we talk specifically about the performance of a computer, you can also connect an external monitor, but a laptop is a mobile device, and an external monitor is constantly carried along with a laptop is nonsense, so a high-quality matrix installed in a laptop also plays important role. In general, a low-quality screen is a disease of many laptops, not only ordinary ones, but also gaming ones, especially manufacturers manage to equip entry-level gaming laptops with low-quality screens in order to save money.

The display in a mobile gaming computer must display the maximum number of colors, have a good color gamut, brightness and contrast, as well as have a minimum response time, the less the better, ideally no more than 3 milliseconds. Today the overwhelming number of gaming laptops have a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, in expensive models you can meet a 4K display resolution, but a powerful video card is needed to process a gaming picture on such a display. Even when choosing a mobile gaming computer, you should pay attention to the type of screen matrix. There are two types of matrices to choose from: TN or IPS, recently the first type of matrices is very rare. The IPS matrix has better viewing angles than the TN matrix, as well as a pleasant, high-quality image. Another important parameter when choosing a laptop is the display refresh rate, the minimum indicator is 60 Hz, the maximum is 300 Hz.

Cooling system

The cooling system is another important component of a gaming laptop to look out for. If the cooling system consists of a simple bundle of a radiator with a fan, then, accordingly, with powerful components, the laptop will get very hot, and the processor and video card will drop the frequency, which will ultimately lead to a loss of performance. To prevent overheating, gaming laptops are equipped with a serious cooling system, which includes several fans, heat pipes and radiators. As a rule, S.O. in gaming laptops they are equipped with unique fans with thin blades, highly efficient turbines with intelligent control, they have multiple ducts for throwing dust out of the case, heatsinks with an increased number of fins, and some manufacturers have gone even further and use evaporation chambers or C. O based on water cooling. You should also know that a powerful cooling system in gaming laptops has a fairly high noise level, unlike other universal or multimedia counterparts.

Specialized software

If a laptop belongs to the class of gaming, then it must have specialized software installed, for example, MSI gaming laptops have MSI GAMING CENTER software installed, ASUS laptops can offer the ASUS ROG Gaming Center to the user. This software is software that allows you to easily configure and control your gaming equipment from adjusting the keyboard backlighting to overclocking the processor and graphics card. Also, specialized software can adjust the fan speed, adjust the sound quality and tune your screen for optimal use in games.