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00:00Hey, how's it going guys? This is Dave2D, and this is a video on which laptop GPU to buy.
00:11Now, if you have an unlimited budget, you can drop like $3,000 or $4,000 or even $5,000 on a gaming laptop with 4K gaming capabilities.
00:18It's awesome, but if you're like most people, you have a limited budget, and you're trying to choose between some cheaper gaming options, this video is for you.
00:25So these are the laptop graphics chips we're going to look at, and if you care about specs, you can pause the screen and check them out.
00:31Now, there's a bit of confusion to the naming system that NVIDIA gave this generation of laptop graphics chip.
00:36So, last generation, there was a GTX 960M and the 970M. Those were 50W and 80W TDP video cards.
00:44So the wattage number refers to the amount of thermal energy that you need to dissipate from those chips.
00:49These line up with the GTX 1050 and the GTX 1060 chips. These are also 50W and 80W chips.
00:56It's a little confusing, so sometimes in the comments I'll see people asking, why are you comparing a 960M with a 1050?
01:02It should be comparing a 960M with a 1060, but that's just not the case. It's 960M with a 1050.
01:09That's just the way that NVIDIA made it this year.
01:11And the reason why you have to compare chips by wattage is because the higher the wattage, the more cooling you need to build into the laptop to remove it.
01:18You can't put an 80W graphics chip into a laptop designed to cool a 50W chip, and then you can't put a 50W chip into a laptop designed to cool a 35W chip.
01:27It just doesn't work.
01:28Okay, let's talk about graphical performance.
01:30If we look into a benchmark program like Fire Strike, so Fire Strike 1.1, and we assume that the 960M is like the base score.
01:38The GTX 1050 is around 25% better, the 970M is around 70% better, the 1050Ti is around 75% better, and the GTX 1060 is way better.
01:49It's like two and a half times.
01:50So these scores don't always translate to the same percentage increase in gaming frame rates, but they're usually close.
01:57Starting with some lightweight games like Dota 2 at 1080p on ultra settings, I haven't played this game in forever, and it already ran nicely on the 960M.
02:05But if you're after better visual quality or higher frame rates, these new cards are nice.
02:10Next up is Overwatch, still a relatively lightweight game.
02:13It's playable on any of these cards.
02:15In fact, most of my Overwatch career has been spent on a GTX 960M.
02:19But on the newer cards, you can get some significantly better frame rates or image quality.
02:23Doom, like the new Doom, is a step up in hardware requirements.
02:27And on the 960M, it's really not playable on high settings.
02:30You'll need to drop resolution or graphics quality.
02:33But on the 1050Ti, you can get some really smooth frame rates on high graphics quality.
02:37Battlefield 1 is a bit more demanding, especially with the multiplayer maps.
02:41Here, we're actually starting to see a drop off in frame rates.
02:44Even on the 1050Ti, we can't quite hit 60 frames per second on high settings.
02:49You need to play on the GTX 1060 to break 60 frames per second on high graphics.
02:53Rise of the Tomb Raider pushes all these chips pretty hard.
02:57The GTX 1060 will break 60 frames per second on high settings.
03:00But even then, it's getting close. It'll dip below 60 pretty often.
03:03And I'd say that this game is kind of where the GTX 1050Ti reaches its limits for really good image quality at 1080p.
03:10And then lastly, Witcher 3, which I'm sure you guys are sick of seeing.
03:14But it's a very well optimized game and uses your hardware effectively.
03:17It's a beast of a game and it's not an enjoyable experience unless you have some pretty good hardware.
03:22And in this case, the lower end cards just don't cut it.
03:25If VR is your thing, the only card that can comfortably handle VR and is officially VR ready is the laptop GTX 1060.
03:32The 1050Ti is kind of capable. I've tested it on some lighter games without it dropping too many frames, but it's not ideal.
03:39In regards to video editing, there's a slight improvement in render times as you get better GPUs, but it's not huge.
03:45The performance gains are more pronounced with higher res footage, like with the 5K Scarlet footage.
03:50I'm not sure why, it might be VRAM related, but in general, video editing performance in Adobe is much more CPU dependent.
03:56The last thing I want to talk about is pricing, and for a lot of people this is the most important factor.
04:01A laptop with a GTX 960M starts at around $700.
04:05A laptop with a 1050 will start at around $800.
04:08A 970M device tends to be $1,000 or more.
04:12A laptop with a 1050Ti will be around $900.
04:15And a laptop with a GTX 1060 starts at around $1,300.
04:19So, I did the math.
04:27Okay, it's pretty obvious.
04:28The one with the best value is the GTX 1050Ti.
04:31And it's not that the other ones are a bad value, it's just that for current titles playing at 1080p resolution with a 60Hz screen, which is like your standard gaming laptop screen, you're getting the best value there.
04:41And my guess is that you're going to get two, maybe even three years of gaming at really good frame rates, like 60fps or higher, with really good image quality.
04:49And at that price, it's a really good deal.
04:51It's kind of crazy that you're getting this kind of image quality with this kind of frame rates at this kind of price.
04:56It's pretty cool.
04:57Now, there's one last thing.
04:58I'm giving away two laptops.
05:00The first is the Dell Inspiron 7567.
05:02This has a GTX 1050Ti with the i5.
05:07And the second laptop I'm giving away, this one's a little better, is the MSI GS63.
05:11This has a GTX 1060.
05:13I've done reviews for both of them.
05:15I'll link the videos down below.
05:17To win them, I mean, you should be subscribed and all that to this channel, but it's actually not going to be a YouTube contest.
05:22I'm going to run it on my other social media, probably on Twitter, maybe Instagram, maybe one on each.
05:27I haven't decided yet, but when this video goes live, maybe wait like two or three days, and you'll see a detailed post on my social media accounts as to how to win them.
05:35So if you're interested in winning one or, yeah, you can only win one.
05:38You can't win both.
05:39But if you're interested in winning one of these, follow me there.
05:42That's the end of this video.
05:43Hope you guys enjoyed it.
05:44Thumbs if you did.
05:45Subs if you loved it.
05:46I'll see you guys next time.