Notebook buying advice: How to find a gaming notebook
10.8.2020
Translation: machine translated
If you not only want to have your gaming PC in your home, but also want to be able to take it with you, there is no way around a gaming laptop. I'll go with you in search of a suitable laptop.
Our notebook buying guides are all about finding the right laptop for you. I give you basic tips and assessments for different areas of application and show you some examples of notebooks. My aim is to use filters so that you only have to decide between a small selection of devices in the end.
What you won't find here is an assessment of individual laptop models or recommendations for different equipment variants. The notebook market is too fast-moving for that and I refer you to the individual tests from our editorial team.
Gaming notebooks: a gamer's paradise to go
Almost every notebook manufacturer has its own gaming series on sale, but if you don't care about the typical gaming design and colourful LED lighting, you can also find models among conventional laptops that you can use for gaming.
Apple is doing a lot to ensure that there are more games for its Macs. But the selection of big titles still can't keep up with Windows. This makes the operating system the first criterion for your gaming notebook. Sufficient performance is also essential. You shouldn't be satisfied with less than 16 gigabytes of RAM for your games.
In order to run games with decent graphics quality, you need a stand-alone graphics card in your notebook and not just an integrated graphics chip. Geforce models from Nvidia are common for notebooks. The selection of Radeon models from AMD is significantly smaller than in the desktop sector. Basically, the more performance you want, the more money you have to spend. However, good deals with a reasonable value for money can often be found in the mid-range segment. If you want to delve deeper into the topic, I refer you to our individual tests
You can also find more detailed information on individual chipsets in our tests. Of course, the processor should also have a certain performance so that you can play games. Generally speaking, new chipsets not only always have slightly more computing power than their predecessor, but also often consume less energy. This is good for battery life and one of the reasons why I make sure that new processors are installed wherever possible. For Intel, this would currently be the ninth and tenth generation, for AMD the third and fourth generation. Otherwise, the higher the number behind "Ryzen" for AMD or "Core i" for Intel, the newer the CPU is and therefore potentially offers more power.
The screen should not be too small so that you can easily recognise opponents without an external monitor. 15 inches is the minimum, 16 or even 17 inches is even better. The entire notebook grows with the screen. This is no surprise, but must be taken into consideration if you want to transport it a lot. When it comes to resolution, you should opt for a 16:9 format, as most games support this. In other words: Full HD for a small budget and UHD if you're on a tighter budget. Intermediate sizes such as WQHD are not worthwhile, tend to distort the image or have black edges. Even high-priced gaming laptops sometimes only have a Full HD resolution. The reason: for many gamers, the refresh rate is more important than a higher resolution.
"G-Sync" or "FreeSync" are widely used for gaming monitors, but are a rarity for gaming laptops. With these technologies, Nvida and AMD ensure that the monitor adapts its refresh rate to the connected PC. As a result, the image should stutter less and the response time should be even faster.
Since the games with their constantly improving graphics are not getting any smaller, you need a lot of storage space. This would be cheaper with a conventional hard drive, but an SSD has a positive effect on loading times. However, the storage should not be less than 500 gigabytes; at least 1000 gigabytes (also known as a terabyte) is even better if you want to install more than three or four games at the same time and possibly save other files as well.
If I enter the above specifications into our filters, these are the five most popular models at the moment.
If you want to make further restrictions in the selection yourself or have completely different ideas about your gaming PC, then you can adjust the filters yourself here.
When I was but a young student, I'd sit in my friend's living room with all my classmates and play on his SuperNES. Since then I've had the opportunity to test out all the newest technology for you. I've done reviews at Curved, Computer Bild and Netzwelt, and have now arrived at Galaxus.de.