You just need to pick your gaming laptop wisely. Here are some important tips to buy a Gaming Laptop
GPU: Your 3D graphics engine
Nvidia Most mainstream productivity laptops come with graphics powered by Intel, and they're not powerful enough to run serious 3D games. Intel's graphics unit is integrated directly into the CPU die, whereas the GPUs from AMD and Nvidia are completely separate—and much more powerful—chips. In fact, some people intentionally buy laptops with integrated graphics so their kids can’t play games on them. (Or at least the fun games.)
Manufacturers will try to entice you with hard drive and RAM upgrades, but your GPU will make the biggest impact on your gaming experience. So if gaming is important to you, buy the biggest, baddest, fastest GPU possible—because you’re essentially stuck with it for the life of the laptop.
MSI You don't necessarily require super-high-end Nvidia or AMD graphics in your laptop for a good gaming experience. But when you're looking at two similar laptops, it's generally wise to go for the GPU with the highest model number possible. A GTX 990M will be a better choice than the GTX 880M, and so on, down the line.
The bottom line is you should prioritize your gaming laptop decision around your GPU—and how much that GPU impacts the size of the notebook. These high-end GPUs are fast, but the heat they generate, and the power they consume, will limit you to very large notebooks (as the machines need to accommodate elaborate cooling systems and large batteries). And, yes, having two GPUs in a laptop is better than having one GPU when it comes to gaming performance.
CPU: Important but not paramount
Let's look at three increasingly powerful Alienware notebooks, each armed with a different CPU. At the bottom, we have dual-core 2.6GHz Core i5. The middle choice comes with a quad-core 2.9GHz Core i7. The high-end model features a quad-core 3.1GHz Core i7. These are all strong processors, and each supports Hyper-Threading, which tackles simultaneous processing tasks, much like multi-core technology does. But the price for that 3.1GHz machine is almost $850 more than the price of the 2.9GHz machine. The more expensive model also comes with extra RAM and better storage, but these are relatively unnecessary upgrades if your only goal is kick-ass PC gaming.
And, yes, I'd mention AMD processors, but it’s pretty rare to see a gaming notebook using AMD CPUs today.
RAM: Eight is enough
Gordon Mah Ung Today, 8GB is fine for the vast majority of games on the market. It doesn’t hurt to get 16GB, but it's difficult to find legitimate benefit for that much memory in today's games. Even worse, some system vendors like to offer extreme configurations—like 32GB of RAM—in their gaming laptops. That may pay off in some extreme content-creation scenarios, but gamers would be better off paying for a faster GPU or bigger SSD.
SSD: Check 'yes' for faster load times
Sandisk SSDs are definitely a nice luxury, but don't settle for one with a small capacity. Indeed, if your preferred laptop only has one storage option, going for a larger hard drive or hybrid hard drive (which pairs a small-capacity SSD with a large-capacity mechanical drive) is the better idea. You'll need that storage space for today's big games.
EA’s Titanfall, for example, is a 48GB download. If your main drive is a 128GB or even 250GB SSD, you'll run out of space in no time. So while SSDs provide a lot of great benefits, they can also leave you ass-out when you need storage space the most.
Display: Play it sensible
Razer The other criterion you should ponder is resolution. You'll want a machine with a sensible native resolution, and this typically means 1920x1080. While 4K is spectacular for pixel density and reducing the need to run anti-aliasing, this resolution will kill frame rates, at least if you run games at the display's native resolution.
Then there's the latest Razer Blade. This gaming machine has an insane 3200x1800 resolution, but the display is arguably overkill, especially if you want the fastest frame rates possible. We say stick with 1920x1080, and consider 1366x768 only if you're looking at a low-end model.
Keyboard
MSI Aside from these subtle touches, gaming laptops typically all use the same scissor-switch keyboards that productivity laptops employ. But then there's MSI’s new GT80 Titan. As insane as it may sound, this upcoming gaming laptop is touted to feature a mechanical keyboard. These haven't been common in laptops since the late 1980s. Mechanical keyboards require extra space for key travel, and this defies the general consumer desire for thinner, more streamlined chassis designs.
Size and weight compromises
Of course, not all gaming laptops have to be 12-pound monsters. You can definitely find thinner notebooks that still come with discrete graphics cards, but you'll have to give up some performance.
And that’s ultimately the rub: The more portable the laptop is, the less likely it will crank out super-fast frame rates. This is unlikely to change until there's some breakthrough in physics. So for now, just resign yourself to compromises.
Heat and acoustics
But you never really know what you're getting until you run a hardcore game for more than 10 minutes. So if you have the opportunity before buying a machine, put it under a real-world gaming stress test. Does the laptop get uncomfortably hot? Or does the machine stay cool, but sound like a hovercraft because its fans are spinning in overdrive? This is a problem you may encounter in some of the thinner gaming notebooks.
Upgradability: Almost off the table
I won’t say it’s impossible, as it can be done. But counting on an upgrade path in a gaming laptop is a fool’s errand. Just buy the laptop and be prepared to live with it for the next few years.
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