Everything you need to know about choosing a gaming laptop
You’re buying a gaming laptop. Maybe your existing one can’t keep up with the newest games, or you’re new to PC gaming. Whatever your reason, how can help you focus your search. Selecting a gaming laptop is vital as it will be your primary instrument in the gaming world. These factors will help you choose the correct equipment for your setup.
Mobile machine: shape and portability
You value portability how much? A 2.6kg ROG Strix SCAR 16 and 2.2kg ROG Flow X16 may look similar, but every gram counts if you carry the system all day in a backpack. If you’re on your feet less or the laptop spends more time at a desk, a bigger gaming laptop might provide a more immersive screen and greater performance.
Another form factor: external display? ROG Nebula screens are stunning, but the 13-inch Flow X13 lacks the real estate of the Strix SCAR 18. whether you intend to just use the laptop’s main display, assess if all your apps will fit or whether you should upgrade. However, individuals with supplementary monitors or portable displays like the ROG Strix XG17AHPE have additional form factor options.
What battery life do you need? Anyone who uses their gaming laptop mostly in their gaming area and seldom takes it on the road may benefit from a laptop that values performance and screen size above battery life and mobility. ROG Strix laptops may be suitable for you. You may want a laptop that’s as portable as you are ROG Flow and Zephyrus laptops provide outstanding gaming in thin, light designs that travel anywhere and are tuned for extended battery life.
Finally, sweat the little things. While not flashy, a laptop’s keyboard and trackpad may make or break its usefulness, so consider them. All ROG laptops include large trackpads with smooth, precise tracking to ensure you never miss a click, unlike many inexpensive computers. All keyboards offer deep travel, robust tactility, and single-color, 4-zone, or per-key RGB illumination. Bigger computers like the Strix SCAR 18 can fit bigger trackpads, number pads, and keyboard accessories. The Zephyrus Duo 16 and Strix G16 follow suit with a Number Pad incorporated into the trackpad for optimal space-saving and usability.
Recommended ultra-thin/light: Zephyrus G14, Flow X13, Z13
High-performance immersive screens: Strix SCAR 16 and 18 provide power and versatility. Zephyrus M16, G16
Make it pretty: refresh rate and resolution
Laptop screen size isn’t everything. Gaming displays rely on refresh rate and resolution, which might determine how much horsepower your system requires to maximize hardware performance. Next, limit your display choices.
A screen refreshes more times per second, resulting in smoother action. Competitive gamers use high refresh rate screens to gain an advantage, but casual gamers may feel the difference. High-intensity gamers need a fast refresh rate.
Response time matters, particularly with high-refresh screens. Response time indicates how rapidly pixels may change colors during a refresh, whereas refresh rate specifies how many frames per second a display can show. Slow reaction times might obscure moving objects, making it tougher to aim and fire at a distant opponent. Most ROG laptops have a 3ms reaction time or less, assuring clear motion for a competitive advantage.
That includes motion, but resolution the amount of pixels in each frame determines frame quality. Two numbers top and side pixels describe greater resolutions, which provide crisper, better-fidelity visuals. Most ROG laptops have extra-tall 16:10 screens, giving you more room on top and bottom.
Buying a PC with a higher-resolution display wins, right? Sort of. For the same refresh rate, increasing the number of pixels twice the graphics power needed to draw each pixel. This is why ultra high refresh screens are commonly combined with lesser resolutions, higher resolutions reduce gaming framerates.
Finally, will you consider HDR? HDR increases the range between the brightest whites and deepest blacks on screen, giving great realism by reproducing both dazzling highlights like the sun and dark, realistic shadows in caves and other poorly lit regions. Find gaming laptop with her gorgeous Nebula HDR displays powered by Mini LED panels or her brand new Nebula Display with an OLED panel, available on the 2024 Zephyrus G14 and G16, for the most immersive content and images that burst off the screen.
Top high-refresh gaming laptops: Strix SCAR 16, SCAR 18, G18, G16
Top HDR gaming laptops: Strix SCAR 16, SCAR 18, Zephyrus M16, G14, G16
Cool your gaming laptop: thermal performance and fan noise
Before choosing your hardware, consider the cooling system, an unsung hero. Anyone may put the newest technology in a stylish chassis, but without a powerful cooling solution, thermal throttling might reduce performance. ROG machines’ unfettered performance comes from almost a decade of study and design.
ROG Intelligent Cooling
Strix machines cool best They can accommodate more fans, full-width heatsinks, and heatpipes than other computers due to their bigger form factors. The CPU and GPU employ Thermal Grizzly’s liquid metal thermal compound, a novel substance that lowers chip temperatures by over 15°C compared to thermal pastes. As seen in TGP chart, Strix gaming laptop use their tremendous cooling potential to provide up to 175W of GPU performance, allowing NVIDIA’s 40 Series GPUs shine.
Cooling gets harder as machines grow smaller and lighter. While some companies may settle with subpar cooling in a smaller form factor, ROG gets inventive. The Zephyrus and Flow families of gaming laptop outperform similar thin-and-light machines without added noise or weight, thanks to the slim Zephyrus Duo 16’s Active Aerodynamic System Plus 2.0 system, the vapor chamber on her 13- and 14-inch devices, or a strategically placed third fan. ROG Intelligent Cooling will wow you, even if they won’t match Strix laptop thermal and performance headroom.
Wireless chips and port choices keep you connected
Your laptop probably supports Wi-Fi 5, a crowded technology with two frequency bands full with wireless devices fighting for a restricted bandwidth. ROG notebooks from 2022 and after include Wi-Fi 6E, the newest specification with 6GHz band access. If you live in a region with several Wi-Fi networks or struggle to connect your many devices, updating your router to WiFi 6E and connecting it with a new ROG laptop may improve your wireless workflow.
Finally, consider what sort of I/O you want. Do you want a few USB ports or a USB-C dock for Ethernet? Need a dedicated HDMI port? Want the gaming laptop to have as many ports as possible? Flow devices usually feature the fewest on-deck connections but may be utilized wirelessly, with docks, or with I/O extension like XG Mobile. Zephyrus gaming laptop have the most critical ports like USB and HDMI, whereas Strix machines have the most I/O packed in.
Flow X13, Z13, Zephyrus G14 are lean machines.
The strongest I/O: Strix SCAR 16, SCAR 18, G16, G18
Balanced connectivity: Zephyrus M16, G16, Duo
Select CPU, GPU, RAM, and storage power
After picking the aforementioned features, choosing the remainder of the hardware is easy. Simplify CPU selection by eliminating intermediate and high-end options. All of ROG’s 2023 machines include flagship Intel and AMD high-core count CPUs, so you can’t go wrong. More powerful CPUs with more cores improve performance in open-world games, simulations, ray tracing, and other non-gaming jobs.
GPU power is different. The NVIDIA 40 Series GPU series has four performance tiers: entry-level, midrange, enthusiast, and halo. In broad strokes, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU is ideal for 1080p, the 4070 for 1440p, and the 4080 or 4090 for ultra-fast framerates at 1440p or 4K. That plus upcoming innovation like DLSS Super Resolution, Frame Generation, and Ray Reconstruction should allow you to dial in performance for years.
They provide the total graphics power of all laptops so you can make the best selection. The same GPU might perform differently depending on the power given to it. For maximum framerate, all of current-gen gaming laptop include a MUX Switch to prevent GPU-display bottlenecks.
For most modern games, 16GB of RAM is plenty. Some games benefit from more, although they are rare. whether you’re unsure, explore your games to determine whether you need more. For individuals who prefer to have many tabs open in a web browser, talk with pals on a phone call, and stream while in game, 32GB of RAM is the finest memory for gaming laptop and should set you up for the future. Not all of gaming laptop enable you update the RAM, so purchase what you believe you’ll need for the future for optimum results.
Finally, consider storage More storage means more games may be loaded at once. 512GB can get you started, but current games are becoming bigger every year, so your collection might fill up rapidly. 1TB is a good start, with greater capabilities for long-term storage. As with other ROG laptops, storage may be upgraded later, but don’t underbuy if you anticipate your storage demands will expand.
Highest FPS: Strix SCAR 16 with Intel Core i9-14900HX and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU
Value-packed flagship performance: Intel Core i9 14900HX Strix G16 with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU
Casual gamers with diverse requirements benefit: AMD Ryzen 9 8940H with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU Zephyrus G14
