What gaming laptop should I expect for c. £1k

Bellboy

Bellboy

Bellboy

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After a long while out of gaming, a few recent titles (eg. Starfield) are tempting me to get a semi modern gaming laptop. I've set myself a budget of £1k but am massively out of the loop on things, also seen a few things referenced which I am not sure how important they are. So a bit of general advice on expectations would be great. Also anything in particular I should keep in mind.

Current thoughts are: 16gb ram, 1tb SSD, decent screen (by and large I'd be playing directly on the laptop), and then obviously the requisite decent gpu.
Queries in my head are:
- should I aim for a 4xxx series gpu or 3xxx? I've seen some machines with the 4060 (and good wattage) within budget but not sure how essential that is. Would a 3070 be better? Will I get a decent all round laptop with these cards or should I aim lower?
- I assume wattage is v important, at least from what I've read. Is there a good minimum to expect / want?
- one of the specifics I'm not sure on is reference to dlss improving framerate. Is this important? Is this limited to the 4 series gpus? Does this make older gpus obsolete?
- what should I look for in the screen, within my budget?
- anything else I should have in mind?
- is this as good a time as any to be buying a laptop or is there a good reason to wait for a month or two?

Thanks a lot in advance!
 
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Even though they are fairly similar in performance I’d take a 4060 over a 3070 as less power / heat per fps and better features, both have DLSS but only the 40 series cards have frame gen which can near double FPS in games that support it and will improve smoothness although unlike generally higher FPS input lag will not improve so why the game looks faster it may not feel faster.

Make sure you check out the gpu spec and get at least an 85w TDP version as some can come with really low power limits of like 45w which would really hold back performance.
Bellboy said:
is this as good a time as any to be buying a laptop
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Some good deals may crop up around Black Friday but on the whole prices seem to be trending down.
 
Joxeon said:
Make sure you check out the gpu spec and get at least an 85w TDP version as some can come with really low power limits of like 45w which would really hold back performance.
Click to expand...

The TDP spec is a real minefield - a lot of the comparisons are 85W 3070s against 105W 4060s - the 130-140W 3070s will beat most if not all the 4060 mobile range and trade blows with the 4070 mobile range, but then you have outliers in all the ranges - I've not seen how the 4060 mobile with additional dynamic turbo level stacks up.

Though the 4000 series does have frame generation on its side, personally I'd still lean towards a 3070 (140 watt) mobile I think depending on how things fall within the budget unless the 4070 was within budget.
 
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Thanks so much for the advice and thoughts. Couple more queries if I may:
- are radeon gpus worth considering? I did a bit of research as there are one or two floating around on what seem like OK deals (eg. an Asus ROG Strix G15 with a 6800M gpu for under £1k), and got mixed messages - some say equivalent to a 3070/80, others say Nvidia GPUs are just better for gaming.
- is there a way to judge the screen on laptops based on the stats or is it really a case of reading some reviews and see what they say? I've seen some which sound like they have good specs (including the above) but then the reviews suggest it's decent but not amazing.
- should I be worrying much about the cpu? In the past I seem to recall the GPU was always the point a laptop would struggle, so was the priority. But do I need to be looking for a minimum cpu level, AMD or Intel, eg. i7 / 12th series / etc?

Obviously had a look on overclockers as well and they seem to have a few laptop deals with 4060s for £850 upwards. eg. This one (no idea which brands are better, noticed different GPU wattage on some, this one is 140W). Do these compare favourably?

Also seen a Acer Nitro 5 AN515-46 with a 3070ti (150W) for just over £1k, so a little over budget and pricier than the others mentioned, but seems to get good reviews (albeit it is a 2021 laptop as far as I can tell).

​

Thanks again so much
 
Crudely speaking, Radeon will give you better bang-for-buck on most current games but struggle for stuff which utilises ray tracing. It also depends whether you think frame generation is worthwhile.

For a laptop, I'd definitely favour 4060 over 3070. Dumping heat is much harder for a laptop, and the lower power draw matters too.
 
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So I took the plunge. Managed to get the below for £1040, below £1k if cashback tracks.

Just wondering - is a 4070 gpu worth the extra cost? There are plenty of laptops with 4060 gpus floating around for less than £1k, so just checking I haven't been dazzled by a bigger number.

Does the build overall seem decent?

Product DescriptionAcer Nitro 16 AN16-41 - 16" - AMD Ryzen 7 - 7735HS - 16 GB RAM - 1.024 TB SSD - UK
Product TypeNotebook
Operating SystemWin 11 Home
ProcessorAMD Ryzen 7 7735HS / 3.2 GHz, up to 4.75 GHz / 16 MB Cache
Memory16 GB DDR5 (2 x 8 GB)
Storage1.024 TB SSD - SED
Display16" 2560 x 1600 / WQXGA @ 165 Hz - matte
GraphicsNVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 (140w TDP)
Video Memory8 GB GDDR6 SDRAM
 
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