Help choosing a gaming laptop

[BeamLT]

Looking to spend €1500-1700 on a gaming laptop for college. I've already decided on a 15-16" display, 32GB RAM and a 1TB SSD.

For GPU, I'm thinking either RTX 5060 or RTX 5070. Would the 5070 be worth the extra cost over the 5060 (€150-200) when both have the same VRAM?

For CPU, it's harder to decide. Many gaming laptops have a mix of new and old gen CPUs. I'm aware some new gen CPUs don't perform much better over their old gen equivalents to warrant the extra costs, and that some old gen CPUs run very hot.

Some gaming laptops have OLED panels. Is OLED burn in still an issue? 1080/1200p or 1440/1600p?

What's the best CPU and GPU combo and resolution for my budget? I'm in Ireland.

Also, what do you think of the Lenovo Legion 5/5i laptops? They seem to be well regarded online, plus Lenovo has student discounts.

[Electric Cupcake]

Framework or Sager.

[StickyPawz]

You won't be disappointed with the Lenovo Legion line.

[BeamLT]

Originally posted by Electric Cupcake:

Framework or Sager.

I've looked at the Framework 16, but it's way out of my budget once I include all the components. Very limited choice for GPUs. I think the Framework RTX 5070 is slightly nerfed at 100W. I see other mobile 5070's with 115W.

We don't have Sager in Ireland, but we do have a company called PCSpecialist which builds Clevo-based laptops. They don't seem to do a student discount though.

[Painkilleruk]

For the price look for a dedicated gpu you can upgrade later if need be. 1tb is not alot especially if gaming too. OLED burn, well ive had most of the razer blades and none of them have ever got any burn in. More vram the better but with your budget for a little extra get a 5080.

[𝔇𝔬𝔬𝔪𝔤𝔲𝔶]

both 5060 and 5070 are not worth it, even 3080 ti performs better then 5070

https://technical.city/en/video/GeForce-RTX-3080-Ti-vs-GeForce-RTX-5070-mobile

As already mentioned 5080 is much better for gaming

https://technical.city/en/video/GeForce-RTX-5080-mobile-vs-GeForce-RTX-5070-mobile

[BeamLT]

Originally posted by 𝔇𝔬𝔬𝔪𝔤𝔲𝔶:

both 5060 and 5070 are not worth it, even 3080 ti performs better then 5070

https://technical.city/en/video/GeForce-RTX-3080-Ti-vs-GeForce-RTX-5070-mobile

As already mentioned 5080 is much better for gaming

https://technical.city/en/video/GeForce-RTX-5080-mobile-vs-GeForce-RTX-5070-mobile

The cheapest 5080 laptops are almost double my budget.

[Painkilleruk]

you can get a 5080 laptop for 2k

[BeamLT]

Originally posted by Painkilleruk:

you can get a 5080 laptop for 2k

I'm in Ireland. Cheapest 5080 laptop I can find is ~2700 euros. My budget is preferably 1500eur but I can stretch to 1700 at the most. Student discount would be handy too.

My plan is to build a main desktop for home and buy a secondary laptop for college. I need a laptop first, something for Unity projects and playing some games on the train as my college commute is over 4 hours a day.

[Painkilleruk]

Originally posted by BeamLT:

Originally posted by Painkilleruk:

you can get a 5080 laptop for 2k

I'm in Ireland. Cheapest 5080 laptop I can find is ~2700 euros. My budget is preferably 1500eur but I can stretch to 1700 at the most. Student discount would be handy too.

My plan is to build a main desktop for home and buy a secondary laptop for college. I need a laptop first, something for Unity projects and playing some games on the train as my college commute is over 4 hours a day.

I see your point, if you are willing to lower standard a little
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/-open-box-medion-erazer-beast-18-nvidia-rtx-5080-32gb-18-qhd-240hz-int-lap-mdn-06349.html

[BurakZG]

I would seriously consider a leptop without(!) discreet GPU, but with latest AMD APU with built in Radeon 880M.
They are within your budget.
The pure graphical performance will be lower than with dedicated GPU, but you will still be able to play all games (with some lower settings), and you will have overall much better laptop. One for which you will not need a buggy to carry it, with much better battery life and without problems of overheating.
Dedicated GPUs in laptops are in "dead end street". Nvidia knows it, that's why they put money on Intel recently. They are behind, but you don't have to be.
Especially avoid "high end" GPU laptop, with 5080 or 5090. There is no way you could use such laptop over 2 hours in the train. Unless you have very specific reason for such monster, you should avoid it.

[Electric Cupcake]

Originally posted by BurakZG:

I would seriously consider a leptop without(!) discreet GPU, but with latest AMD APU with built in Radeon 880M.
They are within your budget.
The pure graphical performance will be lower than with dedicated GPU, but you will still be able to play all games (with some lower settings), and you will have overall much better laptop. One for which you will not need a buggy to carry it, with much better battery life and without problems of overheating.
Dedicated GPUs in laptops are in "dead end street". Nvidia knows it, that's why they put money on Intel recently. They are behind, but you don't have to be.
Especially avoid "high end" GPU laptop, with 5080 or 5090. There is no way you could use such laptop over 2 hours in the train. Unless you have very specific reason for such monster, you should avoid it.

With Thunderbolt connections and eGPU enclosures, I foresee laptops and Micro-ATX cube PCs with onboard graphics, and optional external full GPUs when needed, will come into fashion.

Although the way Framework mounts the swappable graphics modules on the back does a surprisingly good job with thermal dissipation.

Despite not being called a "gaming laptop," the Framework 16 is the best damn laptop I've ever owned, and with a side-mounted vacuum cooler fan for the main board area, it runs games in 4k just fine without any problems. Of course, I'm running Linux on it, so of course it's quite efficient.

[BeamLT]

Originally posted by Painkilleruk:

Originally posted by BeamLT:

I'm in Ireland. Cheapest 5080 laptop I can find is ~2700 euros. My budget is preferably 1500eur but I can stretch to 1700 at the most. Student discount would be handy too.

My plan is to build a main desktop for home and buy a secondary laptop for college. I need a laptop first, something for Unity projects and playing some games on the train as my college commute is over 4 hours a day.

I see your point, if you are willing to lower standard a little
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/-open-box-medion-erazer-beast-18-nvidia-rtx-5080-32gb-18-qhd-240hz-int-lap-mdn-06349.html

That's still 2k GBP which is ~2300 EUR. My budget is 1500 and 1700 at a push. It's also an 18" as opposed to a 16" like I'm looking for. It would be bulky.

Originally posted by BurakZG:

I would seriously consider a leptop without(!) discreet GPU, but with latest AMD APU with built in Radeon 880M.
They are within your budget.
The pure graphical performance will be lower than with dedicated GPU, but you will still be able to play all games (with some lower settings), and you will have overall much better laptop. One for which you will not need a buggy to carry it, with much better battery life and without problems of overheating.
Dedicated GPUs in laptops are in "dead end street". Nvidia knows it, that's why they put money on Intel recently. They are behind, but you don't have to be.
Especially avoid "high end" GPU laptop, with 5080 or 5090. There is no way you could use such laptop over 2 hours in the train. Unless you have very specific reason for such monster, you should avoid it.

I'm looking at 16 inch laptops. Most of the 16 inch gaming laptops I'm looking at are in the 2-3kg range, so not too heavy IMO. Battery life isn't an issue either as the trains have power sockets, and of course my college does too. I also need something that is powerful enough for Unity projects.

Originally posted by Electric Cupcake:

Originally posted by BurakZG:

I would seriously consider a leptop without(!) discreet GPU, but with latest AMD APU with built in Radeon 880M.
They are within your budget.
The pure graphical performance will be lower than with dedicated GPU, but you will still be able to play all games (with some lower settings), and you will have overall much better laptop. One for which you will not need a buggy to carry it, with much better battery life and without problems of overheating.
Dedicated GPUs in laptops are in "dead end street". Nvidia knows it, that's why they put money on Intel recently. They are behind, but you don't have to be.
Especially avoid "high end" GPU laptop, with 5080 or 5090. There is no way you could use such laptop over 2 hours in the train. Unless you have very specific reason for such monster, you should avoid it.

With Thunderbolt connections and eGPU enclosures, I foresee laptops and Micro-ATX cube PCs with onboard graphics, and optional external full GPUs when needed, will come into fashion.

Although the way Framework mounts the swappable graphics modules on the back does a surprisingly good job with thermal dissipation.

Despite not being called a "gaming laptop," the Framework 16 is the best damn laptop I've ever owned, and with a side-mounted vacuum cooler fan for the main board area, it runs games in 4k just fine without any problems. Of course, I'm running Linux on it, so of course it's quite efficient.

I really like the idea of the Framework 16, but I don't have the budget for one and there's a very limited GPU choice. The Framework 5070 also seems to be nerfed compared to other 5070 (100W vs 115W).

[BeamLT]

So I went to my local PC store just to get a feel of gaming laptops, not buying there as buying online is cheaper. I really liked the feel of the Legions, especially the keyboard. They also had an Acer Predator which didn't feel too bad. They had Acer Nitro models available to order too which seem to be cheaper than other laptops spec for spec, but perhaps you get what you pay for.

[wing0zero]

Originally posted by BeamLT:

They had Acer Nitro models available to order too which seem to be cheaper than other laptops spec for spec, but perhaps you get what you pay for.

Personally I would take a better spec laptop in a plastic maybe cheaper case vs a lower spec that's fancy maybe a ally case if the same price, if it came down to say 5070 in one vs 5080.

[insanity-]

lenovo