Gaming laptop - budget up to £2k

Rogueywon

Rogueywon

Rogueywon

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I've just moved to a new job that's going to involve a fair bit of overnight travel. For years, I've been playing co-op games on weekday evenings with a regular group and I'd like to be able to continue that. While some of the titles we play are older, others include modern games that are a bit beyond the reach of my Steam Deck, such as Remnant 2 and Mechwarrior 5: Clans.

I'm not after a full-blown desktop substitute. I've got a perfectly good 7950X3D/5090 desktop that will be where I continue to play the big, flashy, cinematic singleplayer titles. What I'm after is something "good enough" and decently future-proof for gaming on the go. The use case here is absolutely "gaming when I'm not at home", so the laptop needs to be not-completely-massive, not-insanely-heavy and to be able to run from battery for at least a while.

In terms of graphical capabilities, I'd be looking at something like mobile 5070Ti or AMD equivalent level, I think. But it's been 15 years since I owned a personal laptop, so I've no idea which brands to go for or avoid these days. Budget is "up to £2k". Suggestions?
 
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Lenovo legion 7 9955x3d with 5080 & 240hz oled can be had for around 2.2k, if you can't stretch to that you can get the non x3d and 5070ti for under 2k. Id lean for the 5080 for the 16gb vram given you want to keep it for a while. Lenovo legion are the best for gaming laptops and have been for a long time, you can't go wrong.
 
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ProStreet said:
Lenovo legion 7 9955x3d with 5080 & 240hz oled can be had for around 2.2k, if you can't stretch to that you can get the non x3d and 5070ti for under 2k. Id lean for the 5080 for the 16gb vram given you want to keep it for a while. Lenovo legion are the best for gaming laptops and have been for a long time, you can't go wrong.
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Ugh, that is tempting and £2.2k isn't completely out of the question.

Edit: But I'm struggling to find it for under £2.5k, which is a bit more than I want to stretch to.
 
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Why not a previous Gen?

Plenty of Legion 7 Pro with a 14900 and 4080 for around the £1700 mark on the bay.
Some even have extra SSD and Warranty applied already.
 
Simmz said:
Lenovo has always had the best cooling when it comes to gaming laptops.
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Not just that but they typically run full power TGP GPUs.

radderfire said:
Is that a big problem then? What's the best laptop that OCUK sells within his budget then?
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It is a fairly sizable issue depending on how impacted the power scaling is and depending on how much lower TGP to reference ie you can lose 10-30%+ performance in demanding games. There are diminishing returns so 120w vs 140w reference doesn't seem to have the same degradation effect it did 3-5 years ago but often the scaling is notably lower.

Its why HP Omen often perform so poorly in benchmarks as they are typically 60-100w when say Lenovo would be 140-160w

Regardless, the performance difference between the 5070 and 5070ti is a generational jump so prioritising the 5070ti is a must.
 
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Simmz said:
Lenovo has always had the best cooling when it comes to gaming laptops.
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They're generally VERY good. I'd gently resist "always had the best" though :)

Varies a tiny bit year to year as to who else is making a big effort. E.g. I think the CURRENT Dell Alienware beats the current Legions for cooling. Pretty sure the razer blades are quite close too (despite being in a much more compact chassis).
 
Mercutio said:
They're generally VERY good. I'd gently resist "always had the best" though :)

Varies a tiny bit year to year as to who else is making a big effort. E.g. I think the CURRENT Dell Alienware beats the current Legions for cooling. Pretty sure the razer blades are quite close too (despite being in a much more compact chassis).
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Razer is the worst. Restricted wattage and poor cooling.
All at a 50% premium.
 
Diagro said:
Razer is the worst. Restricted wattage and poor cooling.
All at a 50% premium.
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Fair. I'd not seen much on em. I recall the razer being quite high on (e.g) notebookchecks overall "this CPU and this GPU" charts but looking at the chassis, I can believe it's got some hang ups.

Otherwise think my comments fair ;)
 
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I'd take a look at the Alienware offerings,
Going via the outlet you can pick up some bargains if willing to accept a device that has been rejected/returned.
They come with a full warranty so should be no issues there.

I got an Alienware x16 R2 with the below specs for just over 2k, calling up and haggling got me a discount also.

Intel Ultra 9 185H
32GB RAM
RXT 4090
2TB M.2 drive

Its been great, and I take it away when on trips for work to keep gaming on the go.
 
Datamonkey said:
I'd take a look at the Alienware offerings,
Going via the outlet you can pick up some bargains if willing to accept a device that has been rejected/returned.
They come with a full warranty so should be no issues there.

I got an Alienware x16 R2 with the below specs for just over 2k, calling up and haggling got me a discount also.

Intel Ultra 9 185H
32GB RAM
RXT 4090
2TB M.2 drive

Its been great, and I take it away when on trips for work to keep gaming on the go.
Click to expand...
There’s a 12% discount code so similar Spec to the above for around 1700 or a 5080 aurora 16 for just over 1900.
 
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