Hi gamers,

I plan to replace my fixed PC with a game laptop. I wondered who is playing on a laptop and what the experiences are with regard to heat dissipation, etc. With my current game PC, I never worried about the temperature of the CPU and the graphics card. I wonder how the fans will perform after several years of use in the laptop. I clean my PC thoroughly once a year.

My current setup :

Case : Corsair Carbide Air540
Mobo : Asus Z97 Maximus VII Hero
CPU : Intel 4790K 16GB Ram
GPU : Asus ROG STRIX GTX 1080 Ti O11G Gaming
Storage : Samsung SSD 840 EVO 1TB x 2
Mouse : Corsair Gaming Sabre RGB Optical
Keyboard : Corsair Gaming K95 Black RGB MX Red
Monitor : Asus Rog Swift PG279Q - 165hz
Speakers : Logitech z533
Headphones : Sennheiser HD 205-II

Specs from the laptop I want to buy :
Asus Strix G17 G712lw
144hz 17,3" ips panel
Intel® Core™ i7-10750H (hexa-core 2.6ghz, boost up to 5ghz)
Rtx 2070
16gb ram
1tb ssd


Thanks,
Niels

I would never game on laptop. I used to but the cooling fans always went bad within 1 year and was a hassle to take apart and replace. Much easier to replace parts on desktops. If you are spending that amount of money, i definitely would build a good desktop instead of laptop. If anything goes wrong on laptop, its much harder to identify problem and repair.

And repair parts are much more expensive too.

Do you mean for your main machine, or for specific purpose? If it’s for your main machine, I can’t see any reason for going for a laptop, as a box will surpass in all ways, heat dissipation, storage, addin capabilities etc.
There is a place for laptops. When I travel, which is a fair bit, I have an acre predator Helios which I take, and it’s pretty good. Always shorter battery life and gets a bit hot, but not too bad. Tracker pad is useless as they all are, definately get a mouse.
So yes, get something that fits what you want to use it for.

Most gaming laptops push CPU thermals to the very limit (and GPU thermals sometimes, but to a lesser extent).

While with a desktop PC, you CAN build a rather powerful quiet system, that's pretty much impossible on a laptop. If you want less noise, something will throttle. If you want maximum performance, it will sound like an airplane taking off.

To sum it up, only game on a laptop if you have to. If you have a choice, there are plenty of desktop options which save on size (like mini-ITX builds) and can be carried around every now and then. In the end it depends on how portable you need to be.

I like using my laptop for games that are strictly turn-based (or very close to it) and that require little or no mouse usage. For example, true roguelikes (like Tangledeep, for example) are a good candidate (Tangledeep does require mouse for a few non-essential functions like searching your inventory, however), as are older JRPGs (those that don't have action mini-games or other action elements). I also played Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls on it (though Wizardry 8 is not suitable due to it being heavily mouse dependent).

One could also play the early Ultima games (through 6, I would not advise 7 which requires a mouse) and the early Might and Magic games (through Xeen might be doable here, provided you learn the keyboard shortcuts for MM3 and later). Bard's Tale 1-3, including the remastered trilogy, are also playable on a laptop.

Note that my laptop is a low spec one, so I'm limited to games that have low system requirements, though there are likely not many games with high system requirements that are still nicely playable with the control limitations of a laptop.

I've been gaming on a 15" laptop for the last 6 months or so. I hadn't planned on it. I had been into retro rigs lately but got sucked into some newer online games with friends and family.

TL:DR - It's too small and unergonomic for serious online gaming.

the ergonomics suck - Putting the keyboard in a comfortable position moves the rest of the laptop into a bad position I can't tolerate for long. I have to use an external keyboard! XD
the screen is too small - My reaction time suffers greatly from this. External monitor to the rescue.
trackpad is useless for twitch games - Obvious problem. Better add a mouse and mousepad.
Noisy and hard to cool - Cooling system sounds like a jet engine if I run every at full speed with no throttling. Feel need to watch temps like an eagle. Where's my cooling pad?
Wifi sucks and I have ethernet - What's one more cable between friends? The Power brick will no doubt appreciate the company.

The end result is a cable octopus that's not convenient to transport and takes more space than a desktop. :(


I would not recommend a laptop as your primary gaming machine unless you travel or don't play twitch games and can avoid the peripheral mess. It's fantastic as a secondary though that you pull of the shelf whenever there's a need.

External keyboard, mouse and monitor while laptop is on a powered cooling pad next to my desk works reasonably well. I also keep the laptop covered with a cloth to help keep the dust out. In terms of bang for your buck you won't come close to a desktop pc, but if you have to go the laptop route then it's doable.

For my laptop, I intentionally choose games that avoid most of these issues. Specifically:
* Ergonomics: I play with the laptop in bed, and it helps that my laptop is smaller (11.6 inches, though it would be nice if I could go even smaller).
* Screen too small: I am closer to the screen, which helps compensate for this. Also, I avoid playing games where reaction time is an issue.
* Trackpad is useless for twitch games; I avoid both twitch games and those that require a pointing device. (I can tolerate some pointing device use here, but only in non-twitch segments of the game, and I prefer not to use it; the two games I've semi-recently played on it that need some mouse input are Tangledeep (strictly turn-based, only needed for searching your inventory) and The Quest (strictly turn-based).)
* Noisy: I use a fanless laptop, so no noise. Also, the laptop has a low power Celeron CPU and an integrated GPU, which together don't produce enough heat for it to be an issue.
* Wifi sucks and have ethernet: I don't play online games. (Even then, there are turn-based games that can be played online if you insist.)

agree with the externals,

with covid we had to do some adjustments to acommedate homeworking. It was quite easy to connect mouse keyboard and monitor to a workconfigured desktop. you can probably use the old equipment from your previous machine

special cooling pads that fit under the laptop are a thing too though i have no clue about their true effectiveness

https://www.amazon.nl/WWLONG-koelpad-ventilatoren-geschikt-snelheid/dp/B087ZYWPRS/ref=asc_df_B087ZYWPRS/?tag=nlshogostdde-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=430509123063&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14795661791284693167&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9065287&hvtargid=pla-907027786962&psc=1

I've always found cooling on laptops to be atrocius, deafeningly loud or worst case both at the same time. That alone completely disqualifies laptops as a gaming platform for me.

I'd rather build a regular PC that's quieter or even silent, more powerful, better suited to upgrades and actually considerably cheaper than any gaming laptop.

Unless portability is an absolute must for you, there is no reason for choosing a gaming laptop over a regular PC. And even then this only holds up if portability literally means "game anywhere" for you. If the portability aspect boils down to occasionally couch gaming on your big TV in the living room, you're still better of with a PC and a Steam Link.

How is this relevant?

As some posters stated above, I use my desktop for the "heavy" games. Most of the low-spec games I save for my laptop. In fact, I think all the games I have there are more than 20 years old.

Best way is a desktop and a laptop. Not just one. Also you can find a laptop that won't overheat the more common problem will be a real pain to replace a keyboard because it's usually welded to the top part of a laptop so you'll have to remove everything to replace it. Other problem for many laptop are very thin plastic standoffs that hold the hinges and tend to break after 3-6 years of normal use. After that you'll either have to replace a part of the case or do it more ugly way with drilling holes and fixing everything with screws, nuts and washers.
So you'll have to very picky to buy more or less durable one. And nothing can help with limited upgrade options. With laptops all you can do is to upgrade disks, RAM and sometimes screen if you're skilled enough. It will be impossible to upgrade CPU in most cases. So IMO there's no reason to spend more than 1.2k euro on a laptop unless you're buying a rugged industrial one which will last for quite some time.

I find that, even with games of that age, sometimes control issues make them unsuitable for laptop use. In particular, there are many games of that era which depend on the mouse, including Ultima 7 (which isn't that good of a game, but I digress), Dungeon Master and its clones (including Eye of the Beholder), and the early Elder Scrolls games.

I'm going to actually answer your question. I've been using laptops for a long time and contrary to other opinions, they run the latest games perfectly fine. I like laptops as they are less cumbersome, and I use plug-in earphones/headsets which laptops are more suited for. You are supposed to get a laptop that meets the specifications for the games needed and not just purchase any random laptop. As an example, my very ancient laptop runs Dragon Age Inquisition on high settings, and that's because it isn't a random intel-integrated graphics laptop.

The key is your personal threshold concerning graphical fidelity. If you are used to requiring widescreen, 4k, and mega-photo-realistic graphics, then obviously a laptop is not suitable. A desktop is meant to deliver that kind of fidelity. However, if you like compact design, nice-looking graphics, are okay with less fidelity but with smooth performance, then a laptop is fitting for you. The downside is they tend to cost a lot more than desktop PCs, plus the parts are not up-gradable.

Now on to your question. I've managed to keep a particular laptop of mine working for almost a decade, so here's what I did. Laptops need to placed on flat, solid surfaces. Do not place them on soft/unstable surfaces for extended heavy usage. I placed mine on a flat, wooden surface. No objects are surrounding the table. No other electronics are sharing the table. All the vents are unobstructed. The room is kept cool and fairly clean, with curtains drawn or sunlight/atmospheric elements away from the computer. You can also use cooling pads if you like.

Next is common sense, but when I was starting out I was very flippant about it. And that is, to switch off intensive programs if you are not using them. Like when you go to sleep, or if you have to leave, switch it off. You don't have to shut your computer down, just turn off the particular program/game. I used to leave all sorts things running, and that shorten the laptop's life-span considerably.

The last 50% for laptops, would be the brand. It is important to purchase from a stable/quality manufacturer, since the laptops come as a overall set. To which I see that you've got that pat down, as Asus is a reliable one. This is the advice I would give if you are planning to use laptops over the longer haul.