Gaming laptop?

I also prefer a "gaming" laptop over a desktop. But maybe that is because I prefer portability over gaming. I'm not much of a gamer but I like that I am able to fire up a game at 1080p every now and then. I got a 5060 gaming laptop mostly for work, I use it at work and take home with me over the weekends.

I also recently started paying with CAD so the GPU may be useful for that as well from time to time.

Yes, a gaming laptop is heavy and not very portable and the battery life sucks. It also doesn't perfom as well as the desktop counterpart so it's kinda like the worst of both worlds, I get it. But I still prefer it.
 
Nothing wrong with buying a laptop for gaming , you will be able to do a lot more with it, start playing with AI and forget about gaming even completely. You go crash in a coffee shop. Build a website for them. Make money. Get hacked. Give them a full time IT service so they don't get hacked again. Make more money.

Wait a second.... 💡
 
I wouldn't buy a gaming laptop again. They are not built to last.

I had a Gigabyte and its hinges gave in. At the end of its time with me, it's dGPU gave in.

I now have a Wootbook which I got in 2023 and the issues I've had with the thing are still a constant pain.

* BSODs are a norm with this thing, and have been for years. I could probably write a book on the troubleshooting I have done here.
* The screen cable gave out at one stage, I replaced that myself with an Aliexpress cable
* The hinge mounts gave out, much like on my Gigabyte. Had to buy the whole keyboard deck replacement to fix that
* The screw mounts on the bottom cover broke too, I replaced that cover as well
* Some keys on the original keyboard deck and RGB go a bit wonky - they were stuck lit up in red

The Wootbook has been a terrible experience if I am honest. It is probably one of the most expensive things I have bought (excluding car and house and so on) yet its existence has caused nothing but grief.

I enjoy laptops and they have their place. My work one is a workhorse, and almost the same age as my Wootbook. The thing is abused, and pretty much used and tossed around daily. My Wootbook has had a life of peace and pampering, yet condition wise they couldn't be further apart.

I will never buy a gaming laptop again.
 
rustypup said:
No such thing as a "gaming laptop"

Power draw and heat are perpetual issues that almost always lead to an early grave

Also depends heavily on the type of "gaming"
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Depends on the laptop.

Thick and chunky often run cool eg Asus ROG or Lenovo Legion Pro.

Thin like Blade and Asus Zephyrus run warm and have to throttle.

But Laptop GPU is not a desktop GPU.

Although a thick RTX 5080 laptop today (TGP 150-175W) matches or even outperforms a desktop RTX 3090 of several years ago and is on par with a desktop 5070 (non TI) of today.

To claim a desktop RTX 3090 is not a good gaming GPU would be crazy, even in 2026.

But you need a thick laptop with decent cooling.

Asus and Razer sell thin laptops with Laptop RTX 5090s in them. Those things perform even worse than desktop RTX 5070 and that GPU is mostly wasted on them.
 
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mr_norris said:
I wouldn't buy a gaming laptop again. They are not built to last.

I had a Gigabyte and its hinges gave in. At the end of its time with me, it's dGPU gave in.

I now have a Wootbook which I got in 2023 and the issues I've had with the thing are still a constant pain.

* BSODs are a norm with this thing, and have been for years. I could probably write a book on the troubleshooting I have done here.
* The screen cable gave out at one stage, I replaced that myself with an Aliexpress cable
* The hinge mounts gave out, much like on my Gigabyte. Had to buy the whole keyboard deck replacement to fix that
* The screw mounts on the bottom cover broke too, I replaced that cover as well
* Some keys on the original keyboard deck and RGB go a bit wonky - they were stuck lit up in red

The Wootbook has been a terrible experience if I am honest. It is probably one of the most expensive things I have bought (excluding car and house and so on) yet its existence has caused nothing but grief.

I enjoy laptops and they have their place. My work one is a workhorse, and almost the same age as my Wootbook. The thing is abused, and pretty much used and tossed around daily. My Wootbook has had a life of peace and pampering, yet condition wise they couldn't be further apart.

I will never buy a gaming laptop again.
Click to expand...

You have to know its limits. Eg with those heavy lids, you need to open them by holding them in the centre, and pulling up gently.

Don't extend the screen past 100 degrees.

If you can, use an external keyboard or pad to game.

Be gentle with the thing.
 
rustypup said:
Power is limited to balance heat so regardless of what spec CPU you chuck in there, it is capped way below desktop builds

Same issue on GPU

Same issue with upgrades.

There is no "gaming laptop" that isn't some horribly stunted, sad, copy of an actual gaming machine.
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We all know gaming laptops aren't as powerful as their desktop counterparts. It doesn't mean there's no such thing as a gaming laptop.

It just means that, for the convenience of portability, you make some trade-offs on performance, potentially even longevity. Still perfectly useable for plenty of gaming.

It's not like everything outside of playing current day AAA titles on max graphics isn't gaming. I personally mostly play smaller indie games these days that far from stress my entry level gaming pc. Am I not a gamer now?
 
porchrat said:
We all know gaming laptops aren't as powerful as their desktop counterparts. It doesn't mean there's no such thing as a gaming laptop.

It just means that, for the convenience of portability, you make some trade-offs on performance, potentially even longevity. Still perfectly useable for plenty of gaming.

It's not like everything outside of playing current day AAA titles on max graphics isn't gaming. I personally mostly play smaller indie games these days that far from stress my entry level gaming pc. Am I not a gamer now?
Click to expand...
Plottwist: gaming laptops are better for work…
 
rustypup said:
Power is limited to balance heat so regardless of what spec CPU you chuck in there, it is capped way below desktop builds

Same issue on GPU

Same issue with upgrades.

There is no "gaming laptop" that isn't some horribly stunted, sad, copy of an actual gaming machine.
Click to expand...

You’re talking absolute poop

A desktop being faster doesn’t make a gaming laptop stunted, it makes it portable. That’s the entire bloody point.
 
Mirai said:
You have to know its limits. Eg with those heavy lids, you need to open them by holding them in the centre, and pulling up gently.

Don't extend the screen past 100 degrees.

If you can, use an external keyboard or pad to game.

Be gentle with the thing.
Click to expand...
I treated her like a delicate lady. I even asked for permission before lifting the lid :(
 
Adenoid Hynkel said:
You’re talking absolute poop
emoji23.png


A desktop being faster doesn’t make a gaming laptop stunted
Click to expand...
Your ignorance is glaring.

Thanks for sharing, though.
 
rustypup said:
Your ignorance is glaring.

Thanks for sharing, though.
Click to expand...

Strange way of saying I can’t actually dispute anything you said.

Herr der Verboten said:
More alarmingly - his talking poop.
Click to expand...

Don’t hurt yourself contributing all that substance to the discussion.

Posted from my Razer Blade 18, which will happily outperform your desktop any time of the day.
 
Adenoid Hynkel said:
Strange way of saying I can’t actually dispute anything you said.



Don’t hurt yourself contributing all that substance to the discussion.

Posted from my Razer Blade 18, which will happily outperform your desktop any time of the day.
Click to expand...
Did you hurt yourself in the process? We cannot help you with that.
 
Herr der Verboten said:
What does you poop tell you?
Click to expand...
You have had 3 attempts now and still haven’t managed to say anything about the actual topic

First the peanut gallery comment and then you repeated my joke back to me, and now we’re at what does my poop tell you?

So I’ll make it easy. what specifically was wrong with what I said about gaming laptops?

And have you actually ever owned and used a modern high end gaming laptop? Because if you haven’t, perhaps sit this one out, you clearly don’t know poop about what you’re arguing about.
 
Adenoid Hynkel said:
You have had 3 attempts now and still haven’t managed to say anything about the actual topic

First the peanut gallery comment and then you repeated my joke back to me, and now we’re at what does my poop tell you?

So I’ll make it easy. what specifically was wrong with what I said about gaming laptops?

And have you actually ever owned and used a modern high end gaming laptop? Because if you haven’t, perhaps sit this one out, you clearly don’t know poop about what you’re arguing about.
Click to expand...
Did you get hurt?
 
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