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00:00Hey guys, Anton the Tech Chap, and as you know, there's a million questions when it
00:04comes to buying a new gaming laptop.
00:06Give me a few minutes, I'm going to run you through everything you need to know.
00:09I'll also put some of my recommended models and I'll keep updating them in the description
00:13below.
00:14And if you do find this helpful, then a cheeky subscribe and a thumbs up and all those annoying
00:17YouTube things would be lovely.
00:19So let's get straight into it.
00:20Tip number one, and it's pretty obvious, but don't spend more than you have to.
00:24Now for me, a proper gaming laptop, air quotes, is one that has a dedicated graphics card
00:30such as a new RTX 3060 and also a high refresh screen, at least a 144 hertz panel.
00:37And for that kind of spec, you're looking at spending around a thousand pounds or so,
00:40which is conveniently what this MSI GF65 Thin costs with an RTX 3060, 144 hertz screen.
00:47In fact, this kind of laptop is one of the best value I think you can buy right now.
00:52And it's perfect for 1080p 60 or even high refresh gaming.
00:56Of course, a thousand pounds is still an awful lot of money.
00:59You can spend a little bit less, maybe like six, seven, 800 pounds and get a laptop with
01:03maybe last gen 2060 or even a lower power 1660 Ti.
01:09But both of those graphics cards are now a little bit out of date.
01:12You do miss out on a couple of the bells and whistles like Nvidia's ray tracing and more
01:16importantly their DLSS, which I'll talk more about in a minute.
01:20Remember though, there's really no such thing as a fully future-proof laptop as there's
01:24always something else around the corner.
01:26And right now I'm expecting Nvidia's new mainstream GPUs.
01:29So follow ups to their 1650s and 1660 cards to be announced in May or thereabouts.
01:35So we should see some more affordable gaming laptops from June onwards.
01:40Intel are also due to release their H45 11th gen laptop CPUs as well, with these being
01:45the more powerful 45 watt Tiger Lake chips, which will go up against AMD's 5000 series.
01:51And also by the summer, I'm expecting to see some all AMD based laptops, meaning AMD
01:56Ryzen CPUs paired with their new 6000 series mobile GPUs, which I'm excited to see, especially
02:02with technologies like smart access memory, which boosts performance when you've got
02:06both AMD CPUs and GPUs.
02:09So all this means we could see more lower cost gaming laptops and high performance Intel
02:14based models arriving by the summer.
02:16So if you are on a budget, then it might be worth waiting just a little bit.
02:19Although if you're after something more powerful, say in the one to 2000 pound range, then we
02:23already have AMD's amazing 5000 series chips and Nvidia's powerful 3000 series GPUs paired
02:30with some pretty tasty high refresh and high resolution screens.
02:34Okay, tip number two, and actually it's worth looking beyond your traditional Asus, MSI
02:41and big brands out there.
02:43This is a PC specialist laptop, it's from a UK retailer, although it's made by Clevo.
02:48So basically they buy the chassis and the components and then they put their badge on
02:52it.
02:53But what you can do with these kind of laptops is actually spec it a bit like a desktop PC.
02:57So you can choose the graphics card, the processor, you can really go to town with it.
03:01And sometimes it can even be cheaper than one of the big brands.
03:04So it is definitely worth shopping around when you're buying a laptop.
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03:47Tip number three, and think about what games you're playing and also how demanding they
03:51are because that will give you an idea of what kind of spec you need and also how much
03:55you need to spend.
03:56For example, if you play demanding AAA games with max settings and ray tracing, then you'll
04:01want as powerful a GPU as possible, a CPU that won't bottleneck its performance, and
04:06maybe even a larger higher res quad HD or 4k screen to make the most of all that detail.
04:12And on the other side of that, if you play a lot of twitch shooters where you need fast
04:16reaction times, then a high refresh screen is your priority.
04:19240 hertz is plenty, but you can go as high as 300 or even 360.
04:24But for me right now, I'm playing a bit of Call of Duty Warzone.
04:27I'm also playing a fair bit of Age of Empires 2, which is not the most graphically demanding
04:31game, so there's no reason to go out and buy an RTX 3080 laptop.
04:35So depending on what you're playing, if you're playing Siege, Age of Empires, League of Legends,
04:39then you can easily get away with maybe an older 2070, 2060 laptop, or even like a 1660
04:45Ti.
04:46You don't have to spend that kind of money.
04:47So you really do have to think about what you're playing, how demanding it is.
04:51But at the same time, if you do want to play those games on a high refresh screen and you
04:54want to max it out, then you are going to have to have a fair amount of grunt behind
04:58the scenes.
04:59And to be fair, even thin and light laptops, this is the LG Gram 16, I believe it is.
05:05But this has an 11th Gen Intel processor with their Iris Xe graphics, and this is perfectly
05:10fine for some light to medium 1080p gaming, but it really does all come down to what you're
05:15playing.
05:16Don't try and put Cyberpunk or Crisis Remastered on this.
05:20Tip number four, and think about how big you want it.
05:24Let me rephrase that.
05:25How big the laptop should be.
05:27Most gaming laptops, the vast majority, are your normal 15.6 inch laptops, although some
05:31are 17 inch.
05:33And the bigger the laptop, generally the more powerful the components, the bigger the battery,
05:37the better the cooling.
05:39So keep that in mind.
05:40But then you are compromising on portability and generally cost as well.
05:44So it's the most common and the most popular.
05:46I think for me, a normal 15 inch laptop is absolutely fine.
05:49But then you do also have to think about different form factors.
05:53For example, I recently reviewed the ASUS ROG Zephyrus SE with its crazy dual screen
05:58setup and this comes in either 4K 120 or Full HD 300Hz variants.
06:04Now these kind of laptops are still pretty rare, but it is useful to have if you want
06:08your Discord or your Twitch down there and you want to do some multitasking.
06:12Others like the ASUS ROG Flow X13 come with an optional external graphics card.
06:17This has actually got a 3080 in it.
06:19And while this is very cool in theory, and I do take my hat off to ASUS who do keep innovating,
06:24this costs an absolute fortune.
06:27I can't believe it.
06:28We're almost halfway there.
06:29But tip number five, and let's talk about these things, the screens, because this is
06:35just as important really as the specs in terms of the resolution and also the refresh rate.
06:40Let's keep this simple.
06:41Right now, the best combination really is a 1080p screen with a 144 or maybe a 240Hz
06:46refresh rate.
06:47You're buying a gaming laptop.
06:48So most importantly, you want a smooth gaming experience.
06:52Having said that, I must admit some of these new laptops that we're seeing in 2021, which
06:57come with a Quad HD, so 1440p resolution and a 165Hz refresh rate, is actually a really
07:03nice balance between image quality and smoothness without having to go up to that 4K frame rate
07:09destroying resolution.
07:11Higher refresh is really important though.
07:12It's not just smoother, but it actually gives you an edge in games as you get more immediate
07:16feedback and then you can react faster, and this is key for competitive gamers.
07:20And while the difference between a 60 and a 144Hz panel is massive, the benefit is a
07:26lot less obvious when you jump up to 240 or even beyond that.
07:30I could just about tell the difference in a recent blind test, but it was tricky, although
07:34I expect some people are more sensitive to this than others.
07:37Okay, I think this is 360.
07:38It is.
07:39Is it?
07:40It is 360.
07:42One manufacturer also told me that now 144Hz panels are kind of like the base spec, but
07:48actually they don't tend to have the best colour accuracy or the best response times.
07:52So if you can go for one with a 240Hz panel, not only are you getting that higher refresh
07:57rate, but generally you'll also be getting faster response times, better colour accuracy
08:01and better contrast.
08:03Although this does vary between laptops and manufacturers, so it's always worth reading
08:07a few reviews before you buy it.
08:09I think for me, though, if I was going to buy a gaming laptop right now, I would quite
08:13like a 165Hz Quad HD.
08:15But as I say for the vast majority of you guys, 1080p, 240Hz, that's the sweet spot.
08:22Now tip number six, and if you learn nothing else in this video, hopefully that's not
08:26the case, but remember this, the GPU, the graphics card.
08:30This is obviously a desktop card, but this is the most important component when it comes
08:34to the performance of your laptop.
08:36But it's also where manufacturers upsell the most, with higher tier cards often adding
08:41hundreds to a laptop's price.
08:43But as a rule of thumb, you can kind of think about maybe an RTX 3080 being the best for
08:484K, 3070 for Quad HD and a 3060 for 1080p, near enough.
08:53Although if you want high refresh at those resolutions, then it may be worth jumping
08:57up to the one above it.
08:58Pretty simple, right?
08:59Well, kind of.
09:00It gets a little bit more complicated.
09:03Firstly, this is, as I say, a desktop card, and what you get in here is not exactly the
09:08same.
09:09Often we'll have cut down CUDA cores, and to give you a bit of an idea, a laptop 3080
09:14would be roughly equivalent to a desktop 3070.
09:17So you are getting a step down in performance with a laptop variant.
09:22But then, this is where things get really interesting, because not all graphics cards,
09:25particularly these laptop variants, are made equal.
09:28There is a massive difference in their TGP, the total graphics power, or what you and
09:33I can think about as wattage.
09:34And this way, manufacturers can balance the GPU performance against cooling and the battery
09:39size and the overall form factor of the laptop.
09:41But it can get confusing.
09:43For example, there are 11 different types of laptop 3080, ranging from 80 watts to 150,
09:49which have wildly different clock speeds.
09:51For example, a 150 watt 3080 might be 25 to 40% faster than an 80 watt one.
09:57Which is why, in some tests, you may see a top end 115 watt 3060 actually outperform
10:04the lowest wattage 3080.
10:06So it's a tricky one, because on the one hand, it means these companies can be a little bit
10:09more precise with what graphics card they put in their laptops.
10:13But on the other, for you and me, it's really confusing.
10:16And previously, we could just rely on NVIDIA's Max-Q branding, which does still exist, but
10:21it's not as consumer facing anymore.
10:23So really, what you have to do now is go onto the spec page and just see what the wattage
10:28is.
10:29And that'll give you an idea of what kind of performance you'll get from that particular
10:32graphics card.
10:34Tip number seven.
10:35And do you really need to buy one of these fancy new gaming laptops with a RTX 3000 series
10:41graphics card?
10:42Well, kind of yes, because there isn't a whole lot of options out there.
10:46AMD's mobile GPUs aren't out yet, although I'm looking forward to trying them later in
10:49the year.
10:50But also, particularly with the 3000 series, you are getting some nice extra bells and
10:54whistles.
10:55You're getting the best performance when it comes to ray tracing for the fancy reflections
10:58and the lighting.
10:59You're getting things like NVIDIA's resizable bar, which helps boost frame rates, and their
11:03reflex mode, which helps reduce latency.
11:06But above all that, most importantly, you're getting DLSS support, Deep Learning Supersampling.
11:12In supported games, DLSS, which is now up to version 2.1, actually allows the game to
11:17render at a lower resolution, and then it uses the GPU's AI-powered tensor cores and
11:22machine learning to intelligently upscale it to your selected resolution.
11:27And this means you're getting higher frame rates for no or minimal loss in image quality.
11:32And to be honest, this is a lifesaver in more demanding games like Cyberpunk and Crysis
11:36Remastered, particularly if you have ray tracing turned on, as it makes these games that would
11:41otherwise bring top-end laptops to their knees actually playable, even on a 3060.
11:47AMD's DLSS alternative, which is snappily named FidelityFX Super Resolution, is due
11:54for release later this year though, and I'm excited to try it out.
11:57Now without getting too bogged down in the rest of the specs, when it comes to the processor,
12:01this is still important because you don't want it to bottleneck your graphics card.
12:05As a rule of thumb, if you can go for a laptop that has one of the new AMD 5000 series of
12:10chips, or even an Intel, I'm going to say 10th gen because they haven't actually updated
12:14their 45W 11th gen series as I'm recording, although that should be coming very soon,
12:19but either 11th gen or 10th gen Intel CPUs, and then probably either an i5 or an i7.
12:25That's roughly all you need to know, but right now as I say as I'm recording this, your best
12:29bet is one of AMD's fantastic 5000 series of chips, such as the Ryzen 5 5600H or better.
12:37Beyond that, 16GB of RAM is still the sweet spot right now, and also you'll want at least
12:41512GB of SSD storage, although ideally 1TB as modern games, particularly the likes of
12:47Call of Duty, are just massive.
12:51Also a second drive slot in your laptop is a bonus, and most machines will allow you
12:55to upgrade your RAM or your storage if you want.
12:58Also when it comes to battery life, as you guys can imagine, you're not going to get
13:02a whole day out of these gaming laptops.
13:03It does depend on the battery size and also the components inside, and also the resolution.
13:08Is it full HD or 4K?
13:09Rule of thumb, you'll get between 4 and 6 hours of non-gaming use, so generally you'll
13:14want to bring your charger with you.
13:16Okay last but not least, let's talk about undervolting, because while it can sound a
13:21bit scary, it's actually really simple, it's not that dangerous at all really for your
13:25laptop, and it can help improve performance.
13:28On some laptops, if you lower the voltage of the CPU and the GPU just a little bit,
13:33you may actually get better performance because it can sustain a higher clock speed for longer
13:37before it throttles.
13:38This can apply to pretty much all laptops, and if it is something you'd like to try,
13:42I've actually made a whole video around it with a full walkthrough, so definitely check
13:46that out after this.
13:48And that is my gaming laptop buying guide.
13:51Hopefully you found it helpful.
13:52As I say, I'll leave my favorite laptops right now in the description below, I'll keep updating
13:57it, but I think for me, if I was going to go out and buy a new gaming laptop, I would
14:00get a 165Hz quad HD screen, maybe a 3060 or 3070, 16 gigs of RAM, 512 or 1TB storage,
14:10and pay about £1400 to £1500.
14:12But the best advice I can give you, other than subscribing to the Tech Chap, is just
14:16to make sure you read a few reviews of the laptop you're looking to buy.
14:20Look at what the TGP of the particular graphics card is, because that can make a big difference,
14:24and also think about what games you're playing.
14:26Do you really need to spend a ton of money on a 3080 if you're just playing Age of Empires
14:312?
14:32Thank you so much for watching, guys.
14:33I do hope you enjoyed the video.
14:35If you do want to see more from me, then give me a subscribe, a thumbs up, a bell icon,
14:39all those annoying flashy things, and I will see you next time, right here on the Tech
14:42Chap.
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