5 things no one tells you about buying a gaming laptop

You can buy one of the best gaming laptops on the market and still come out with a subpar experience. Gaming laptops are complex, highly personal, and rife with misunderstandings when it comes to specs and performance. Before pulling the trigger on a new gaming laptop, there are a few critical elements you should keep in mind. Here are the unspoken rules of buying a gaming laptop that no one tells you.

5

Your power brick can make or break portability

Don’t ignore how you’ll keep your laptop powered

The right side of the laptop houses a USB-C port and a power button that doubles as a fingerprint reader. 

The power brick for your gaming laptop is the silent killer. It can kill your back, at least. You’ll need to carry around the power brick with your gaming laptop if you want to get anywhere near its full performance, so it’s important to keep the size and weight of the brick in mind. Even laptops with similar specs, weight, and dimensions can come with vastly different power bricks, so make sure to do a little bit of research about the size and weight of the power adapter for any gaming laptops you’re interested in.

For instance, the Zephyrus G16 from Asus comes with a slim, relatively compact 200W power adapter. The Lenovo Legion Pro 7, on the other hand, comes with a massive 400W brick. Given the power demands of gaming laptops, each laptop brand has its own power adapter design, which includes not only the size and weight of the adapter, but also how much power it can deliver. For instance, the Zephyrus G14 and Omen Transcend 14 come with nearly identical specs, but the Zephyrus comes with an external 200W brick while the Omen Transcend uses a USB-C power adapter.

Outside the main power adapter, a big feature to look out for is USB-C power delivery. You’ll give up quite a bit of performance on USB-C power delivery compared to a brick in most cases, but it’s a good feature to have around so you can pack away the full power brick and keep your laptop topped off with USB-C power while on the go.

Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 9

$2000 $2699 Save
$699

CPU

Intel Core i9-14900HX, 24 cores, 32 threads

GPU

Up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop

Display type

IPS, 240Hz, G-Sync

Display (Size, Resolution)

16-inch QHD+

RAM

Up to 32GB DDR5 5600 MT/s

Storage

Up to 2TB M.2 NVMe SSD

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Lenovo Legion 5 review: A sneaky-good gaming laptop for $1,500

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4

Laptop GPUs don’t tell the full performance story

Play careful attention to your GPU’s TGP

Laptop GPUs are dirty liars. Every mobile graphics card comes with a range of power, which is defined as the Total Graphics Power, or TGP. The laptop maker ultimately decides where to set the TGP, which falls somewhere in a range set by Nvidia (or AMD, if you happen to find a mobile AMD GPU in 2025). The TGP range is usually generous, and it can make a massive difference in performance. For instance, the laptop RTX 4090 has a TGP range of 80 watts up to 150W, with an additional 15W available through Dynamic Boost.

Two laptops with the same GPU on paper can have vastly different real-world performance. For example, a thin and light laptop like the Zephyrus G16 with an RTX 4090 comes with around a 20% performance loss compared to something like the massive MSI Titan 18 HX, despite the fact that both laptops come with the same GPU. Nvidia requires laptop brands to list TGP in their specs, but some brands still don’t. If you can’t find TGP, make sure to look up several third-party reviews to understand how powerful the components are.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2024)

CPU

Up to Intel Core Ultra 9 185H

GPU

Up to Nvidia RTX 4090 Laptop GPU (115W)

Display type

16 inches, OLED or TFT, 16:10 aspect ratio, G-Sync, Pantone validation

Display (Size, Resolution)

Up to 2560×1600 (QHD+), OLED, 240Hz, 100% DCI-P3, 0.2ms, VESA DisplayHDR True Black 500, Dolby Vision

RAM

Up to 32GB LPDDR5x-7467MHz

Storage

Up to 2TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD

Expand

Related

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024) review: This 14-inch gaming laptop is legit

Slim, stylish, and powerful

3

Your specs aren’t as important as they seem

A gaming laptop is a full system, and you should treat it as one

Paying attention to TGP is important, but even more important is not getting caught up on specs. Unlike desktop components, where you can expect largely similar performance between two CPUs or GPUs carrying the same name, laptops are a single unit. The thermal design, cooling, and power delivery system all play a role in performance, regardless of what the specs suggest. If you get too much tunnel vision on the specs of your gaming laptop, it’s very easy to get less performance while spending more money.

Don’t believe me? Here’s Notebookcheck’s review of the Zephyrus G16. Even with a Core Ultra 9 185H and an RTX 4090, the Zephyrus is actually about 5% slower than the Alienware x16 R2. The Alienware laptop comes with an RTX 4080 and Core Ultra 9 185H. That’s two portable 16-inch laptops packing very similar hardware, and the RTX 4080 outperforms the RTX 4090. That’s not uncommon, either. TGP alone can make it so a less powerful GPU on paper performs better in practice, and that’s before factoring in variables like cooling. With laptops, especially, performance comes first before specs.

Alienware x16 R2

$1900 $2100 Save
$200

CPU

Up to Intel Core Ultra 9

GPU

Up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU

Display type

IPS, 100% DCI-P3, 240Hz, 3ms, Nvidia G-SYNC

Display (Size, Resolution)

16-inch QHD+ (2560 x 1600)

RAM

Up to 32GB LPDDR5X 7467MT/s

Storage

Up to 8TB

Expand

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2

Integrated graphics are a lifesaver

You don’t always need a ton of GPU horsepower

Integrated graphics are much better than they used to be. You buy a gaming laptop so you can get the full power of a discrete graphics card, but you shouldn’t ignore the integrated graphics. Especially today, with tools like Lossless Scaling and AMD Fluid Motion Frames, you can play a ton of seemingly demanding games on your integrated graphics. You’ll want the discrete GPU to step in if you’re near an outlet, but for lightweight titles on the go, you can run them on the integrated graphics and save your battery life.

A very clear example of how much you can get out of integrated graphics is the Ryzen 7 7840U. This laptop chip is nearly identical to the Ryzen Z1 Extreme you’ll find in handhelds like the ROG Ally X, short of some low-power optimizations for handheld form factors. Even a low-end discrete GPU is leagues faster, but the integrated graphics should have no issues keeping you busy with rounds of Balatro or even some lightweight competitive play in a game like Rainbow Six Siege.

Razer Blade 18 (2024)

CPU

Intel Core i9-14900HX

GPU

Up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU

Display (Size, Resolution)

18-inch QHD+ 300Hz Mini-LED, 16:10 (2560×1600) or 18-inch UHD+ 200Hz, 16:10 (3840×2400)

RAM

Up to 64GB LPDDR5X 5600MT/s

Storage

Up to 4TB (2TB+2TB) M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD

Battery

91Wh

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1

A discrete GPU will zap your battery life, even if you aren’t using it

Disable your discrete GPU for the best battery life

Gaming laptops have never been known for great battery life, but you don’t want to make the situation worse by running your discrete GPU at all times. Even if you’re just browsing the internet and running lightweight applications, a discrete GPU can drain your battery life in no time. The integrated graphics in your laptop’s CPU can handle a basic video display much more efficiently than a discrete GPU can, so it’s best to leave the discrete GPU disabled when you’re not playing games.

When shopping for a gaming laptop, look for one with a MUX switch or Advanced Optimus. A MUX switch is a physical piece of kit that will switch between your integrated graphics and discrete graphics, but it requires a reboot when switching. Advanced Optimus is basically a MUX switch, but you can switch between the iGPU and dGPU on the fly. Base Optimus or no Optimus at all means you’re sacrificing performance or battery life, respectively.

HP Omen Transcend 16 (2024)

$1200 $1600 Save
$400

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Gaming laptops are complicated beasts

Gaming laptops have their own quirks. Two laptops that are similar on paper can deliver wildly different experiences in practice, and that’s true in everything from power to portability. Although you should look into the specs of a laptop, the best way to find a machine you like is to seek out as many third-party reviews as possible.