Buying a gaming laptop is often one of the biggest decisions a gamer can make. Gaming laptops are usually not upgradable and come with a higher price tag in comparison with traditional laptops. So, they must last a few good years. Hence, the answer to the question about the main aspects of a gaming laptops is worth knowing.

The answer to this question mainly revolves around your personal preferences like what type of gamer you are, what sort of games you want to play and your available budget for the purchase. But outside those points, there are some universal truths about a gaming laptops that you must consider before hitting the 'buy' button.

Size and Portability

Well, you may find this suggestion a bit weird that the physical size of a gaming laptop is more important than its components. But you must know that the physical footprint of a gaming laptop tells you a lot about the kind of features the laptop is loaded with.

If you want an ultra-slim laptop with a large screen, low weight and large battery backup, then you will have to give up on certain features such as a high-end CPU, better graphics card, a higher resolution and extensive storage. Similarly, if you are looking for a gaming laptop with a better CPU and GPU and don't want to compromise on the resolution power either, then you will have to sacrifice the portability of the machine a bit. However, that is a place where Lenovo enters the game. Certain Lenovo gaming laptops are ultra-slim, and they are designed to provide you with high-end specs in a compact size body.

Display

It is a super awful feeling when you purchased a super-powered laptop, but it ended up having a lousy display. Good quality screens are expensive, so most budget-friendly laptops come with a compromise on this feature. But if you are a graphics freak, then getting a gaming laptop with a decent display is of utmost importance.

However, it is worth mentioning here that the resolution of the displays is not as important as you might think. 1080p still looks incredible on 15 and 17-inch screens but 4K is typically a waste at that size. 4K resolution drains your battery fast and is a big burden on your GPU as well. And if you want to experience phenomenal graphics or want to watch a 4K video, then paying for the extra pixels may be worth it for you. The good news is several MSI gaming laptops are offering a decent display but with a quite affordable price tag.

Refresh Rate

A quite important consideration while buying a gaming laptop is its refresh rate frequency. Refresh rates are typically listed in Hz. Normal gaming displays come with a refresh rate frequency of 60 Hz, meaning they can display up to 60 frames per second. However, most of the latest gaming displays are perfectly aligned to give you a frequency up to 144Hz as is the case with most of the MSI gaming laptops. Going for 144Hz displays rather than 60Hz can get you a lot of advantages. A 144Hz display improves the smoothness of games, reduces input lag and enhances the visual quality with better motion resolution.

If you are aiming for a vibrant and sharp graphics user experience, then you should consider going for an IPS panel. IPS panels don't always offer the same high-refresh rates as is the case with VA (vertical alignment) or TN (twisted nematic) panels, but still there are some out there. So going for a 144Hz, IPS display for your gaming laptop will certainly elevate your graphics user experience way above than it could be with a TN display.

CPU

CPU is one of the most critical factors that you should consider in a gaming laptop. Most of the CPUs show remarkable performance when targeting 1080p resolution. However, it doesn't mean that they can't process higher resolution, but it depends upon the capacity of your laptop's GPU. Both Intel and AMD are offering great processors for laptop gamers.

However, Intel's flagship Turbo Boost technology can give you a boost clock of 5.0Hz. That performance was only possible on higher-end desktop processors a few months ago. It is clearly showing the phenomenal speed with which the computer industry is progressing with each passing day. For reference, you can see the Lenovo Legion gaming laptop which features a powerful Intel Core i5, 10^th Generation processor and a high speed 16GB DDR4 RAM. Together, they are capable of pushing your favourite video games to the 144Hz limit of its gaming display.

GPU

No matter how good CPU and other specs you get, your gaming laptop is incomplete without having a decent graphics card. It doesn't have to be top tier, especially when you are looking for a convenient and easily portable gaming laptop. However, if you are aiming for an exceptional gaming experience, then it would be better to spend some bucks on a high-end GPU.

Like MSI Vector GP66 Gaming Laptop comes with a super powerful NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 8GB graphic card to give you ultimate performance. The card has been designed to support DLSS AI acceleration which is a groundbreaking AI rendering that boosts frame rates with uncompromised image quality. This 8GB RTX graphic card utilizes NVIDIA's flagship 2nd gen RTX architecture-with new RT Cores, Tensor Cores, and streaming multiprocessors to provide you with realistic ray-traced graphics.

Physical Memory

Now that your gaming laptop has a higher-end CPU and a solid GPU, together which are fully capable of rendering even the most advanced games, you need to consider supporting the latter duo with extensive memory to continue processing graphics at a high rate. Most of the latest high-end games require 4GB RAM just to meet the minimum requirements. However, as the technology is progressing, several gaming laptops are going to enter the market quite soon which will feature a RAM up to 32GB. Like MSI Raider GE66 Deluxe Edition is coming soon to hit the market with an extensive 32GB DDR5 RAM which is perfectly aligned to support super-fast rendering and speedy bootups.

The other distinguishing feature that you must consider while buying a gaming laptop is its data storage capacity. The data storage drive included in your gaming laptop must be able to process data quickly or the experience of the game will degrade. Currently, there are two types of data storage drives are available in the market. These include HDD or Hard Disk Drive and SSD or Solid-State Drive. Any of these drives will do their jobs in a gaming laptop. However, to have a smooth and lag-free gaming experience, it is recommended to go for an SDD (Solid-State Drive) drive.

Final Verdict

Hope you got an idea now that what sort of features you should look for in a gaming laptop? We hope we have got you covered with our detailed guide and which factors to look for. Gaming laptop with a decent screen and size plus featuring a powerful CPU together with GPU and supported by extensive storage will be a perfect fit to boost your in-game experience.