Ultimate Gaming Laptop Buying Guide for 2016

Today we bring you the ultimate gaming laptop buying guide for 2016.

When it comes to gaming, more and more people are inclined towards buying a gaming laptop nowadays. The majority of such consumers are young college students. Having a gaming laptop is a good idea for them as it serves two purposes. It can be used for general college work and of course for playing games. Needless to say, the work comes secondary – always!

I often get a lot of queries from individuals with different budgets who want to buy a new gaming laptop and are looking for a laptop buying guide. So, I thought it would be a great idea to write a post to make everyone’s life easier.

Before we begin let me clarify this – A gaming laptop can NEVER match the performance of a gaming PC. So, do not make comparisons between them as it is just a waste of time. Second thing – We will not be discussing gaming consoles today. We will have a post on that sometime later. You can check out my Xbox One review if you would like to.

Laptop Buying Guide

The ultimate gaming laptop buying guide for 2016


1) Is portability the most important factor for you ?

This is the most important point to be considered if you are planning to buy a laptop for gaming. Portability should be the most important reason for you to buy a gaming laptop. As discussed earlier, a gaming laptop cannot match the performance of a gaming PC. Even the most awesome gaming laptops like the Alienware’s, MSI’s and ASUS’s struggle to match up with the performance of a gaming PC in a similar price range. The only edge that a gaming laptop has is its portability. You can easily carry the laptop to a friend’s place for a LAN play, carry it while travelling or play games while comfortably lying on your bed. Make no mistake – portability should be the most important factor for you if you are planning to buy a gaming laptop. If not, you need a re-assessment on your priorities.

2) GPU and the VRAM

The most important features of a gaming laptop are its GPU and the VRAM. Without any question, we had to include this in our laptop buying guide. Make sure that you go ahead with the GDDR5 VRAM as it is superior to the GDDR3. Similarly a higher capacity VRAM is preferable as it will hold a greater number of textures and graphic data which is required to generate a desirable framerate. So, a 2GB VRAM will run most of the recent games, however if you want your gameplay experience at the highest settings, you should consider 4GB of VRAM. As far as the GPU is concerned, you will come across AMD’s Radeon based laptops and NVIDIA GeForce graphics based gaming laptops. You may choose any one after a bit of research. Personally, I would suggest you to go with NVIDIA GeForce ‘GTX’ 700M or 800M series GPU’s. There are really good performers. Do note that I mentioned ‘GTX’ and not ‘GT’.

3) CPU and RAM

Next up in the gaming laptop buying guide is the consideration for CPU and RAM. You should definitely go for an Intel 4th or 5th generation core. It offers a great combination of performance and battery life. Do check the CPU speed and the L2 cache size before picking up a gaming laptop. RAM should be no less than 8 GB. Make it a point to compare the RAM speed as well. A faster RAM will keep your system fast and stable. It will also help in avoiding any kind of bottleneck.

4) Screen Resolution

Any serious gamer should not settle for anything less that a 1080p resolution. The resolution depends on your GPU. So, if you are going with a lower configuration GPU, you can settle for 1366×768 pixel resolution. Even this is a pretty decent resolution for playing games on your laptop. Anything lower than this is not acceptable. Moreover, a higher resolution will enable you to connect your gaming laptop to an external Full HD display and the gaming experience will be great.

5) Keyboard Layout

You should always make a point to check the quality of the keyboard before buying a gaming laptop. Also, the keyboard should include a dedicated number pad. Gamers would know the importance of the num keys. Do make it a point to try your hands on the keyboard before making a purchase.

6) Invest in a Cooling Pad

A gaming laptop is bound to heat up even though the cooling solutions are really good. It is advisable to invest in a cooling pad for you laptop as it will help in providing a greater cooling effect. You should consider buying the cooling pads that have higher heat dissipation. Check out the one’s that are manufactured by Deepcool and Cooler master.

These are some of the most important factors which were covered in our laptop buying guide. You should certainly consider these factors before buying a gaming computer. Mind you, gaming laptops will be expensive. There are budget gaming laptops that are available as well, however you may not be able to play the most recent games in full throttle on these machines. Again, make a list of your requirements, weigh your options and only then zero in on a choice. Also, do check out the best budget laptop that is available in India.

Drop us a comment if you have any questions and do let us know which gaming laptop did you zero in on. I would love to hear your thoughts on the gaming laptop buying guide as well. Happy Gaming !