Gaming Laptop - recommendations

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So I am well and truly out of touch with modern gaming laptop standards. Everything seems very expensive for what they have inside?!

My ideal budget is a max of £1k but there seems to be a plethora of laptops in this range. I have no idea how AMD and Intel compare these days, last time I was really in the loop AMD wasn't even a consideration which might be a 5+ years ago mentality!!

Needs to be portable so no huge 17" screens. 1080 and 15.6" is fine although a 120HZ refresh rate is minimum.

Do not care for aesthetics or RGB stuff - just pure performance inside.

My price range seems to be where the RTX2060 seems to crossover with the 1660/1660Ti. Is the 2060 much better than the latters and worth a lower CPU for the same price?
 
Soldato
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The 2060 isn't much better. I'd rather have a 1660ti with a faster CPU then have the slower CPU and a 2060 myself and have the more balanced system. The lower powered CPU's seem to hamper the 2060 performance a lot.
 
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Lenovo Legion 5P £999
  • AMD Ryzen 7 4800H Processor
  • RAM: 8 GB / Storage: 256 GB SSD
  • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB
  • Full HD screen / 144 Hz
  • Battery life: Up to 5 hours
 
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For the price and budget

I would spend the money on a laptop that comes with the best possible screen and CPU you can get, could always run a external graphics card later on if the built in one was not good enough
 
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I would be tempted to try and push for the Omen 17 with the i7 10750H and RTX2060.

Its better cooled than a lot of these suggestions and runs the higher powered 115w RTX2060 which is actually slightly faster than the desktop GTX1660Ti.

https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/33075283 for proof on just how good it does with that hardware.

The new RTX2060 115 Watt is 13% faster than the GTX1660ti and only 7% slower than the 115 Watt RTX2070.

Basically its what the RTX2060M should have been from the start to stop the GTX1660Ti Cannibalising sales.
 
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Soldato
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Last week I allowed myself to be bargained (sadly not from OcUK) into handing over £760 for a Lenovo Legion 5i. 10300H/8GB/256GB/2060/144Hz. Ok, it needs at least another £80 spending on it, eventually, for at least another 500GB in the second NVMe slot + a second 8GB SODIMM, but it's been something of a revelation.

I hadn't experienced high refresh rate gaming before, but I'm now playing Borderlands3 on medium settings at 90-120fps instead of maxxing out the details and 'tolerating' 50-70fps. It is rather wonderful, but 60MHz panels are now dead to me, which makes my wallet sad, especially if I -- one day -- get back to 3-screen flight sims and sim racing.

Anyway, the 960M chipset in my old laptop has been left in the dust (the 2060 gives me approx x4 performance in most benchmarks and I was running Borderlands3 on Low at 1600x900 to get a consistently playable 40ish fps) and even though the old laptop is i7-6700HQ/16GB, so far the 10300H/8GB has not given me any cause to feel restricted. Those doing video processing all day may have other demands, and of course with a laptop it makes sense to get the best package you can because you're stuck with it for the next few years. But life is compromise and this, so far doesn't feel like a compromise... apart from Borderlands 3 taking up half my drive. :)

Anyway, just thought I'd throw this into the thread. I did add £40 to upgrade to 3 year warranty though, because this is a big purchase for me in current circumstances.

Oh, other plus for the Legion... looks like a laptop, not a teenager's tech wet dream. Plastic chassis nearly put me off, but it feels solid and the cooling isn't too loud even under full load. It's louder than my old Lenovo Y700, but that's doing a lot les work in a larger chassis with bigger cooling vents.
 
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Last week I allowed myself to be bargained (sadly not from OcUK) into handing over £760 for a Lenovo Legion 5i. 10300H/8GB/256GB/2060/144Hz. Ok, it needs at least another £80 spending on it, eventually, for at least another 500GB in the second NVMe slot + a second 8GB SODIMM, but it's been something of a revelation.

That was an amazing deal. I just missed out on it because I spent too long deliberating. As soon as I'd watched some reviews on the laptop I was sold, but by that time it was out of stock. After seeing that deal I just cant bring myself to buy the 5P with the 4800H & RTX2050 at £900(£1000 with 100 cash back). I've waited long enough without a laptop, I'm going to wait and see if lenovo reduce the price of it, when they eventually list it on their website.
 
Soldato
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I've waited long enough without a laptop, I'm going to wait and see if lenovo reduce the price of it, when they eventually list it on their website.
I went from laughing to folk who 'wasted' money on gaming laptops (why pay more for less?) to someone who needed to give up gaming or do it on a laptop, so I, er... made the wrong choice, probably. :) But sofa gaming is seductive so I'm a convert now with another three years of gaming ahead covered by a warranty (unless I get careless).

However my Lenovo Y700 was a great Black Friday purchase 4 years ago. I paid £699 for the i7-6700HQ/16GB/256/960M(4GB) and even though it had its quirks and a mainboard failure in the first 9 months, it has a really solid metal chassis, great screen (slightly more contrasty and saturated than this new laptop if I'm honest, but the 144hz refresh rate wins every time), and has incredible sound tailored by JBL. I miss that on the new laptop (think it's the JBL third 'subwoofer' speaker that makes the difference), but I'll get over it. And the 960M was way more capable in games than I expected, with obvious compromises being made but nothing that ruined the experience.

Anyway, I spotted that Y700 deal listed in advance and spent most of that week researching competitors, and I ordered just after midnight as soon as the deals went live. This year I think you may find yourself spoiled for choice as retailers try to make up for a very weird year.

In the tech game, the patient folk always win in the end. I'm normally among them, but this time last week I got very close to killing myself falling off a ladder, so I was in 'live for today' mode when that offer cropped up. It's a luxury when I already had an 'ok' gaming laptop, but this high refresh thing has got me excited about PC hardware for the first time in ages. I suspected it might, but those buttery smooth frame rates are as seductive as slobbing on the sofa ruining my lumbar vertebrae. :)

Good luck on the bargain hunt.
 
Soldato
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I've just gone for this:

Asus TUF Gaming A15 FA506
AMD Ryzen 5-4600H
8GB
512GB SSD
15.6 Inch FHD 144Hz
GeForce GTX 1660 Ti

EDIT - Actually, there was a problem with my order and I've read that the TUF has terrible cooling, so I'll look for something else. OK went for this:

Lenovo Legion 5 15IMH05H
Core i5-10300H
8GB
256GB SSD
15.6 Inch FHD 144Hz
GeForce RTX 2060 6GB

My previous laptop melted (i7700HQ / GTX 1070) and was sadly outside warranty, so I've stumped up the extra for a 3 yr warranty this time! (I prefer not to buy a new laptop more frequently than every 3 years, although I'm not that upset about being "forced" to get a new one! :D)

I was tempted with the RTX 2060, but couldn't justify the extra money. Pretty sure the 1660 Ti is basically the same as the 1070 I had previously, although it would been nice to have been faster.

Looking forward to the Ryzen though! Again, 4800H was tempting, but not worth the extra (IMO), since I don't have a need for the extra cores.
 
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Soldato
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I hope you didn’t buy from the Lenovo website?
This is ran by Digital River in the UK and their customer service is awful.
Hopefully you have no reason to contact them if you did.
 
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Some interesting suggestions in here. Is there any eta on nvidia 3000 series mobile gpus? If they have a similar performance for price bump as their desktop counterparts do then I might try and hold out for that.
 
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Some interesting suggestions in here. Is there any eta on nvidia 3000 series mobile gpus? If they have a similar performance for price bump as their desktop counterparts do then I might try and hold out for that.
Thats what im going to do, hoping to get a laptop on par or close to xbox/ps5 graphics, i have a main desktop and need something mobile for when im staying with the missus,
I expect they will come next year, though i have no idea, just speculating,
Maybe a mobile version 3060 or less should do the trick
 
Soldato
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Derbyshire
I've just gone for this:

Asus TUF Gaming A15 FA506
AMD Ryzen 5-4600H
8GB
512GB SSD
15.6 Inch FHD 144Hz
GeForce GTX 1660 Ti

EDIT - Actually, there was a problem with my order and I've read that the TUF has terrible cooling, so I'll look for something else. OK went for this:


well id say not all Tuf models have terrible cooling, ive had my ryzen version for probably a year or nearly a year now without any faults whatsoever. though in fairness i dont use it all the time, i will have moments i just it for couple days, few weeks then not for months, but in the times i do use it i dont have any issues, its my first gaming laptop and been very pleased with it.
 
Soldato
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Dundee
I've had my A15 since June and am very happy with it.

I have the 4800h and 1660ti model and get cpu temps in the low - mid 80's and gpu temps mid - high 70's while gaming so perfectly normal for a gaming laptop.
 
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