After spending a total of 130 hours research and testing, we found the $1,750 Asus ROG G751JT is the best gaming laptop for most people because it combines powerful gaming hardware with a better build quality than its competitors. The Asus will play most modern graphics-intensive games on high settings, plus it has a great cooling system, an amazing 17-inch 1080p IPS screen, and a comfortable, deep keyboard; so far, it’s the only gaming laptop to combine all these crucial features. Even better, it’s less expensive than our runner-up, the MSI GT72 Dominator, but has almost identical gaming performance.
Last Updated: January 18, 2015
A total of 130 hours of research and testing went into finding the $1,750 Asus ROG G751JT, our new pick for best gaming laptop. Its build quality is better than the competition and it has a great cooling system, beautiful screen, and a comfortable keyboard. No other competitor had the Asus’s combination of crucial features.Expand Most Recent Updates
The ROG G751JT-DH72 has a powerful Nvidia GeForce GTX 970M GPU, an Intel Core i7-4710HQ processor, 16 GB of RAM, and a 256GB solid-state drive. But like most gaming laptops–and similar machines that prioritize performance over all else–our pick has extra bulk and poor battery life compared to, say, an ultrabook. (This is a tradeoff most gamers are willing to make, but a flaw nonetheless.) The Asus’s speakers aren’t great either, but that’s easily remedied with a pair of headphones.
Also Great
If you’re comfortable installing your own SSD, then you can save at least $100 (depending on fluctuating Amazon prices) and get double the solid-state storage. The $1,500 CH71 modelhas the exact same specs as our main recommendation, but doesn’t come with an SSD. It does have an empty drive bay that’s perfect for our favorite SSD, and you can get the laptop and SSD for less than the DH72. (As always, double check current prices to make sure you’re getting the best deal before you buy.)
If our main pick is sold out, we recommend the MSI GT72 Dominator 214. Its specs and gaming performance are similar to the Asus, but the MSI is pricier. Its fans are also louder and its screen isn’t as great as the Asus’s IPS panel. That said, it’s still a great gaming laptop. Unlike our main pick, every key on the MSI’s keyboard can be remapped, and it has six customizable lighting zones. The 214 model also has a Blu-ray burner. (We only recommend the 214 config if it’s less than $2,000. If the price has jumped since the time of writing, we recommend the MSI GT72 Dominator 216instead, but its SSD is only 128 GB.)
Also Great
If you want more gaming power—and don’t want to build your own desktop—step up to theAsus ROG G751JY-DH71. It’s about $500 more expensive than our main recommendation, and it comes with the current top-of-the-line Nvidia GeForce GTX 980M graphics card with 4 GB dedicated video memory, 24 GB of RAM, and a Blu-ray burner. All of the other specs (and the chassis itself) are identical to our main pick. The extra cost isn’t worthwhile for most people, but if you’re planning to use your laptop to play the most demanding games for years to come, the GTX 980M is the best option.
Table of contents
Should I upgrade?
Laptops in general (and pricy gaming laptops in particular) should last you at least two years. You can often improve the performance of your machine by swapping an old hard drive for a faster solid-state drive or by adding RAM. Still, that won’t do much for your gaming performance if an old graphics card is holding you back.
If you’re like me, with a three-year-old gaming laptop that can’t handle new games at full resolution and can’t be brought up to speed with a simple parts upgrade, it’s time for something new. A personal example: my Asus G74SX-BBK7 doesn’t have a 1080p screen or SSD, its Sandy Bridge CPU is three generations old, and the graphics card is a low-end Nvidia GTX 560M. It wasn’t a great GPU to begin with, and now it’s a full four generations behind the curve. My computer can’t even play Skyrim, a game that was released back in 2011, on ultra settings. Current games like Watch Dogs and Thief need to be bumped down to medium or low settings to run at all.
Our pick for this guide can handle all these games at 1080p on high settings or better. If your gaming laptop is past its prime or you want to buy a gaming laptop for the first time, this is what you should get.
What makes a good gaming laptop?
In order to play games at decent settings, they sacrifice portability, battery life, and value.
Gaming laptops are a tough sell. In order to play games at decent settings, they sacrifice portability, battery life, and value. A $1,500 desktop gaming PC is much more powerful and upgradeable than a $3,000 gaming laptop. A $1,000 ultrabook will do non-gaming tasks just as well at a third the weight and four times the battery life, and it’ll have a much better build quality, keyboard, and trackpad.
A gaming laptop only makes sense if you’re a serious gamer but still want to be able to bring your machine to a friend’s house/LAN party or travel with it. Gaming laptops tend to be popular with students, deployed soldiers, and road warriors for whom a gaming desktop is infeasible.
The most important specs that impact a gaming laptop’s raw performance are, in order: GPU, CPU, RAM, and storage. Other important features include the chassis’ heat and noise management, keyboard, display, and (to a lesser extent) the speakers and trackpad.
We began by selecting a GPU for our ideal gaming laptop. Notebookcheck’s useful chart of “Computer Games on Laptop Graphic Cards” has the best examples of how this generation’s graphics cards perform in actual games.
Let’s use 2014’s Watch Dogs as an example. According to Notebookcheck, the 980M can run the game on Ultra at 44 frames per second (fps), which means gameplay that isn’t stuttery or choppy. The 970M can run Watch Dogs at 34 fps, which is close to our minimum playable threshold of 30 fps, but not enough to be a huge concern. The GTX 880M runs the game at 31 fps on Ultra, which means you may see occasional stuttering and need to tweak some options or bump the settings down to High. The 870M, however, can only run the game at 25 fps on Ultra, and the less-powerful 860M (which is still a current GPU1 runs at 19 fps. On these settings, you’d see frequent stuttering and choppy combat that are likely to interfere with your enjoyment of the game.
The GTX 970M is the second-fastest mobile GPU available right now, bested only by the top-of-the-line GTX 980M. The 970M is also available in laptops under $2,000, making it ideal for our main recommendation. To get a gaming laptop with a GTX 980M, you’ll have to spend at least $2,250 right now. For more information on the GTX 970M’s performance, take a look at Notebookcheck’s in-depth gaming benchmarks.
Nvidia’s high-end cards have held up well in the past, though the jump from the 800-series to the 900-series is a bit of an exception. The GTX 680M from 2012 is still faster than this year’s low-end 860M and last year’s mid-range 770M, according to Notebookcheck. This time around, the mid-range GTX 970M outperforms the previous generation’s high-end GTX 880M.
According to Nvidia, the new high-end GTX 980M is 35 percent faster than the 880M, and Anandtech’s Jarred Walton has found it to be about 28 percent faster so far in his testing of the MSI GT72 Dominator Pro.
It’s unlikely (but possible) that Nvidia will make another significant leap like this with next year’s mobile GPUs, so we still feel comfortable recommending the GTX 980M for our step-up recommendation. It’s the fastest mobile GPU right now, and, while it’s much more expensive, we expect it to hold up better over time. (The only way to outperform the GTX 980M right now is to use multiple GPUs in SLI or Crossfire, which adds complexity and some potential graphical issues.)
Once we settled on GPUs, we had to find a CPU for each that wouldn’t bottleneck the setup much (or, ideally, at all). AnandTech’s Jarred Walton reviewed the MSI GT72 Dominator Pro with a GTX 980M and an Intel Core i7-4710HQ and wrote “The upgraded model with i7-4980HQ should improve performance by another 12-15%, but I’m not sure it would be worth the additional cost. […] “for most games it’s not really a major concern – either the GPU is the bottleneck, or frame rates are far enough above 60fps that it doesn’t matter.” If the i7-4710HQ is powerful enough to avoid obvious bottlenecking on the GTX 980M, it will also work for the mid-range GTX 970M, so we focused on this common processor for both our main and step-up recommendations. AMD CPUs are generally not competitive in gaming laptops at present.
8 GB of RAM is plenty for most games, and most gaming laptops today come with 16 GB. 32 GB is a complete waste of money, even for our step-up machine, because gaming and multitasking situations won’t use more than 16 GB. So, we focused on laptops with 16 GB or less for both categories.
Storage options vary across manufacturer and even configuration, so we had to be flexible in this category. In a perfect world, the ideal gaming laptop would have at least a 256GB SSD and 750 GB of hard drive storage. The SSD is necessary for your OS, programs, and a modest library of games, and a roomy HDD is nice for storing extra game files, music, and other media. Once 1 TB solid-state drives are affordable, it’ll be nice to get rid of the spinny drives entirely—most ultrabooks already do. We didn’t eliminate any laptops without SSDs, but we took into account that it costs about $210 to swap out for our 512GB SSD recommendation.
Our ideal gaming laptop costs less than $2,000 and has an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970M or better GPU, a 2.5GHz Intel Core i7-4710HQ CPU or higher, 8 GB to 16 GB of RAM, and at least a 256GB SSD and 750GB hard drive. For our step-up recommendation, we’re looking for a machine with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 980M, the same 2.5GHz Intel Core i7-4710HQ processor or better, 16 GB of RAM, and the same storage requirements. We would prefer that it cost less than $3,000, but we’re less strict about price in gaming laptops as long as the machine is worth the cost.
(Thin and light gaming laptops haven’t been updated with 900-series cards yet, but our previous criteria were a GTX 870M GPU, a 2.4GHz Intel Core i7-4700 processor, 8 GB to 16 GB of RAM, and at least a 256GB SSD. We didn’t find any thin and light gaming laptops worth buying in our last update, but we’ll address this in-depth later on.)
Powerful hardware isn’t the only consideration. The CPU and GPU of a gaming laptop produce a lot of heat, and if the laptop doesn’t have an effective cooling system, it can overheat. That can slow gaming performance, shorten the lifespan of the laptop, or even burn you. The cooling system has to disperse heat well without drowning out your speakers with loud fans. The laptop also has to have a good keyboard, a decent 1080p display, and solid build quality.
Good speakers, trackpad, battery life, and portability are all nice but aren’t essential. Poor speakers can be bypassed by a good pair of headphones, and most gamers use a mouse instead of the trackpad while gaming. Battery life and portability have never been the strong suits of gaming laptops, which spend most of their lives plugged in and stationary. We’ll discuss why ultraportable gaming laptops aren’t quite feasible yet in the Thin and light section below.
There are a few features that aren’t important at all, but some gaming laptops have them anyway. Windows 8.1 isn’t necessary for gaming, but it’s not worth paying extra to avoid. A Blu-ray drive can be a nice bonus for watching movies as long as you aren’t paying too much extra for it. Touchscreens and 3D aren’t important for most gamers.CNET’s Dan Ackerman found that the GTX 980M is capable of playing some games at 4K resolution, though ultra-high-res displays aren’t necessary on gaming laptops just yet. UHD displays are common fixtures in thin and light gaming laptops (which haven’t been updated with 900-series cards yet), so we’ll cover this more below.
We also know not everyone has $2,000 to spend on a gaming laptop, and we’re currently working on a budget gaming laptop pick.
How we picked
Once we picked our hardware criteria (see above), we scoured the websites of major gaming laptop manufacturers like Alienware, MSI, Asus, Razer, Toshiba, and Lenovo, and we browsed boutiques like Clevo, iBuyPower, Origin, Digital Storm, and others. Then we put together a list of the laptops that fit our requirements and have positive reviews from trusted sources like CNET, AnandTech, Engadget, Laptop Mag, PCMag, and Notebookcheck. We also interviewed CNET’s Dan Ackerman and Laptop Mag’s Sherri Smith, two reviewers who have some of the most comprehensive knowledge of the past, present, and future of gaming laptops.
We eliminated the laptops that didn’t fit our criteria or had dealbreaking flaws mentioned in one or more trusted reviews and came up with two finalists: the Asus ROG G751JT and the MSI GT72 Dominator.
How we tested
We called in our two finalists and tested both. We benchmarked them using the latest versions of PCMark and 3DMark, as well as Bioshock Infinite’s benchmarking mode. We measured the laptops’ internal temperature using HWMonitor and measured the surface temperature at various points on the keyboard and underside using an IR thermometer.
We tested each laptop’s screen using some of the Lagom LCD monitor test pages, and used each for several work days to get a feel for their keyboards, trackpads, screens, and speakers. We also played an hour of the less graphically demanding Team Fortress 2 and an hour of the more grueling Bioshock Infinite, both on Ultra with Vsync off. We also played a smattering of other games, including XCOM: Enemy Unknown and Enemy Within, Crypt of the NecroDancer, and Path of Exile.
Our pick
The $1,750 Asus ROG G751JT – DH72 has the best combination of price and performance of all the gaming laptops we looked at, better build quality than the competition, and no dealbreaking flaws. The ROG G751 has a brilliant 17-inch 1080p IPS display, a comfortable, responsive keyboard, a good trackpad, and one of the quietest, most effective cooling systems of any laptop we’ve tested. Most importantly, it will be able to play most modern games on high settings—great performance for the price. If you want to know how our recommendation will handle a specific game, take a look at Notebookcheck’s benchmarks database.
The best gaming laptop for most people, the Asus ROG G751JT-DH72.
The G751JT-DH72 also meets all of our hardware requirements out of the box. (There is a cheaper, better configuration, but it requires buying and installing your own SSD—we’ll get to that in a moment.) The DH72 config has an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970M graphics card with 3 GB of dedicated memory, a 2.5GHz Haswell Intel Core i7-4710HQ quad-core processor, and 16 GB of RAM with two extra slots, allowing for expansion up to 32 GB. It also comes with a 256GB solid state drive and a 1TB hard drive for storage. All models of the G751 have a 17-inch matte IPS display with a 1920×1080 resolution, a dual-band 802.11ac wireless card with Bluetooth 4.0, a red backlit keyboard, and a one-year warranty.
Asus has improved on several of the previous model’s shortcomings, making an already-great gaming laptop even better. The G750 was our previous recommendation for best gaming laptop, but our biggest complaint was its screen. Its TN panel had poor viewing angles and a heavy matte coating that made a visible textured grid on the screen’s surface. The new Asus ROG G751 has a brilliant IPS panel with deep blacks, bright colors, and amazing viewing angles. The Asus’s IPS screen also doesn’t have theMSI’s blue tint, and the difference is very apparent when you look at the screens of the G751 and our runner up side by side.
The MSI GT72 Dominator (right) has a blue-tinted screen compared to the Asus ROG G751 (left).
Many gamers prefer TN screens for their faster response times, but IPS screens tend to be brighter and more color accurate, and they don’t wash out or invert colors when viewed from an angle. If every millisecond counts (perhaps you have a professional career playing Counter-Strike?), you’ll want a dedicated monitor known for its snappy response times. If you play games for entertainment—instead of a living—and want a screen to make your games look awesome, the Asus’s IPS panel does just that. We did compare the G751’s response times to the MSI GT72’s TN panel using the Lagom Response Time test page, and the Asus’s IPS screen came out ahead. Even though IPS panels generally have slower response times than TN panels, the Asus’s is good enough that it won’t pose a problem for most people.
The Asus ROG G751’s 17-inch IPS screen is a huge improvement over the last model’s grainy TN panel. It’s a delight to game on.
For several generations now, Asus’s flagship gaming laptops have kept cool under heavy gaming loads thanks to the massive, airship-like vents at the back; the G751 follows suit (but this time the vents are a flashy red!). After an hour of Bioshock Infinite at full resolution with ultra settings, the GPU reached a maximum of 65°C and the CPU was still a comparatively cool 75°C—both well within acceptable ranges, and the GPU was a full 20°C cooler than last year’s model in the same exact test.
The G751’s cooling system runs quiet, though its flashy red vents are anything but.
The WASD keys and the palmrest remained cool to the touch, and the underside of the computer—beneath the back right fan—was the warmest surface. No point on the G751 was close to the scalding heat we measured on the keyboard of the 2014 Razer Blade, which we eliminated because of its astonishingly high temperatures.
The G751’s fans also remained fairly quiet during all of our tests, and we never had to turn the speakers up to hear over their hum. Our runner-up, the MSI GT72 Dominator, has equally effective fans, but they’re loud enough to compete with in-game dialogue and make quite a bit of noise in a quiet room.
The Asus’s keyboard is deep, responsive, and comfortable.
The keyboard is largely the same as last year’s model—deep, snappy, and responsive—but with a few improvements. The G750’s keyboard had a white backlight, this year’s G751 has an edgy red backlight, matching the red accents elsewhere on the chassis. Asus has also added 5 keys in the upper left of the keyboard, above the escape key. The leftmost key launches Nvidia’s ShadowPlay recording software, the second launches Steam in Big Picture mode, and the remaining three can be mapped to anything.
Asus added five shortcut keys—Nvidia ShadowPlay, Steam Big Picture, and three macro buttons.
The G751’s trackpad—not often used for gaming—works well for all standard Windows 8 gestures and has two physical buttons for the left and right clicks. Asus’s software can automatically disable the trackpad when a mouse is plugged in, a useful feature for gamers who might otherwise accidentally trigger the touchpad with their palms while playing.
The G751’s trackpad is spacious and has two physical buttons.
As for ports, the Asus ROG G751 has just about anything you could want: Ethernet, VGA, HDMI 1.4 (which allows for 4K video output), Thunderbolt, four USB 3.0 ports (one of which supports fast charging), an SD/MMC card slot, and jacks for audio in, headphones, and a microphone.
Like most gaming laptops, the Asus ROG G751 is easy to upgrade. Only one screw and a small panel stands between you and installing a roomier SSD or another 16GB of RAM. It also comes with a one-year warranty.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
The Asus ROG G751JT might be the best gaming laptop for the best price, but it isn’t perfect. It suffers from a few flaws inherent to all gaming laptops—it’s bulky, heavy, and doesn’t have great battery life—as well as a couple problems unique to this particular chassis. The G751 also lacks a few features we don’t think are crucial but are worth mentioning anyway.
The Asus is undeniably a gaming laptop; it’s bulky, heavy, and has poor battery life.
The wedge-shaped Asus ROG G751JT is 16.4 inches wide, 12.5 inches deep, and 0.9 to 1.7 inches thick, and weighs a whopping 8.4 pounds. That’s a pound and a half less than its predecessor, but that number doesn’t include the chunky power brick you’ll also have to lug around. It’s huge, so if you want to buy a bag to carry it around, be sure to measure the laptop sleeve first.
In our tests, the G751JT-DH72 had less than three hours of battery life, and lasted about 8 minutes less than the runner-up MSI GT72 Dominator. For comparison, it lasted 3 hours and 36 minutes in Laptop Mag’s test, 3 hours and 40 minutes inEngadget’s test, and 3 hours and 14 minutes in CNET’s video-playback test. Size, weight, and battery life are common shortcomings amongst gaming laptops, and they won’t change until manufacturers figure out how to cool their thin and light gaming machines.
Our previous recommendation, the Asus ROG G750, had made some improvements to the line’s often subpar speakers. The G751’s speakers, however, are a step backward. The speakers are mounted on the inside of the hinge, which means sound bounces off the open lid and comes out louder and clearer behind the laptop, rather than in front where you sit. The speakers are also weak on bass, tinny and compressed, and don’t get as loud as our runner-up’s. All these problems can be solved by plugging in adecent pair of headphones.
As we mentioned above, the G751 doesn’t have a multicolored, customizable backlight beneath the keyboard—it’s red or nothing. It has no impact on gaming performance, but if you really care about the light show, our runner-up pick may be a better fit. The Asus also has 3 programmable keys, while the MSI GT72’s entire keyboard can be remapped to fit your specific needs. One more gripe, the new row of keys is placed above the escape key in the upper left of the keyboard, and I accidentally launched the recording software when I meant to hit escape more times than I care to admit.
Like most laptops, the Asus comes packaged with some bloatware (though not as much as the runner-up MSI). Pop ups from Asus WebStorage knocked us out of fullscreen games several times. It’s an easy problem to fix, and you can use Decrap to get rid of any unwanted programs.
The Asus ROG G751JT-DH72 model that we recommend has a DVD burner but not a Blu-ray drive. It’s not a crucial feature for most people, but if it is important to you, our step-up G751JY-DH71 recommendation has a Blu-ray writer. We’ll discuss that configuration below. Or you could always pick up an external Blu-ray drive for a lot less.
Our recommendation doesn’t have a touchscreen, but neither does our runner-up. Some may think that touchscreens are essential on Windows 8 computers, but there’s really no good reason to have one in a gaming laptop.
Who else likes it?
All the reviews we read focused on the step up Asus ROG G751JY with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 980M graphics card inside. However, the chassis is the same, and their expert opinions corroborate what we found in our own testing.
CNET’s Dan Ackerman wrote “The non-reflective finish on the screen is a welcome change from overly glossy displays, and because this is an IPS screen (in-plane switching), it looks good from off-angles.” Ackerman concluded “The game performance from the Asus G751 should please anyone who wants a premium gaming experience without trading up to a massive desktop tower.”
Engadget’s Sean Buckley also praised the Asus’ screen: “The ROG’s 17.3-inch IPS display hits all the right notes: It’s large, bright and has exceptionally wide viewing angles.” Overall, Buckley said “The G751’s unique design, excellent keyboard and mouse buttons and sturdy build are what make it stand out from the competition, though admittedly, screaming performance doesn’t hurt either.”
Laptop Mag’s Sherri Smith summed up the differences between the MSI GT72 and the Asus G751, writing “ASUS’ G751JY is locked and loaded, set on becoming the new gaming laptop to beat. In many ways, the $2,499 notebook is right on target, delivering a bright and vivid 17.3-inch display, powerful graphics, and blazing-fast SSD. It’s a bargain compared to the $2,999 MSI GT72, which delivers comparable gaming performance but stands out with a customizable backlit keyboard and better audio.”
A cheaper option with more storage (if you put in a little work)
Also Great
If you’re comfortable installing your own SSD, you can save at least $100 (depending on fluctuating Amazon prices) and get double the solid state storage with the $1,500 Asus ROG G751JT-CH71 configuration. It’s identical to our main pick, but has an empty 2.5-inch SATA drive bay instead of a 256GB SSD and costs about $300 less.
Installing a new SSD is easier than it sounds; there are only 5 screws between you and a brand new drive.
We recommend the $200 512GB Crucial MX100, our pick for best SSD. To install it, just remove one screw and one panel on the bottom of the laptop. Then remove the four screws holding in the empty drive casing, pop in the brand new drive, and put everything back together. All that’s left is to follow the instructions included with your SSD to clone your primary drive to the SSD and set it as your boot drive. Voilà! You’ve installed your own SSD and saved yourself some money.
Runner-up
If our main pick is sold out, the $1,900 MSI GT72 Dominator 214is a solid alternative. We don’t like it as much as the Asus because it’s more expensive (for similar specs), runs louder, and its screen isn’t as good. The MSI’s keyboard is also shallower, but it has the advantage of multicolored, customizable backlighting and remappable keys. The 214 config also has a Blu-ray burner.
Note: we only recommend the 214 model if it costs less than $2,000. If the price has jumped since we wrote this, we recommend the cheaper MSI GT72 Dominator 216instead. It has 12GB of RAM, a 128GB solid state drive, and a DVD drive, but none of the upgrades make the 214 config worth spending more than $2,000.
The MSI GT72 Dominator is a great alternative if our main pick is sold out.
The MSI GT72 214 is the best alternative to the Asus configuration we recommend. It has the same Intel Core i7-4710HQ processor and the same Nvidia GeForce GTX 970M graphics card—but with 6 GB of VRAM instead of 3 GB. The MSI also has 16 GB of RAM, and two 128GB SSDs in RAID 0 instead of a single 256GB one. Both machines have a 1TB hard drive for storage. The Asus is a better value, but if it’s sold out, the MSI is good too.
Even though the MSI has twice as much dedicated graphics memory as the Asus, our main pick was a bit faster than the MSI in gaming benchmarks and real-world gaming performance. It’s not a significant difference, but it does mean the extra VRAM is unnecessary with today’s games at 1080p (and even in 3DMark’s 4K fire Strike benchmark). It’ll be more important when 4K monitors and ultra-high-res textures become more commonplace.
The GT72 runs much cooler than MSI’s previous laptops, thanks in part to its vented underside.
Like the Asus, the MSI GT72 keeps all its components and surfaces cool during long sessions of intense gaming. (This is a huge, huge improvement over some of MSI’s previous gaming laptops.) However, the MSI runs louder than the Asus. Its fans are audible when idling in a quiet room, and they can compete with dialogue and sound effects when they ramp up all the way during intense gaming.
The MSI GT72’s 17-inch, 1920×1080 resolution, matte screen is decent for a TN panel. Colors are bright, blacks are deep, and it has impressive horizontal viewing angles. However, it’s limited by TN technology, and it can’t compete with the Asus’s IPS screen. The MSI’s screen has poor vertical viewing angles and a bluish tint. The Asus’s is brighter, it has more brilliant colors and deeper blacks, and it doesn’t wash out at all when viewed from an angle.
The MSI’s keyboard isn’t as comfortable as the Asus’s, but it does have customizable backlighting.
The MSI GT72’s keys have shallower travel and aren’t as smooth or comfortable as those on the Asus, so they aren’t as good for long gaming or typing sessions. However, the GT72’s keyboard has three zones of customizable backlighting—compared to the Asus’s keyboard, which glows red or not at all—and every single key can be remapped to fit your needs. These aren’t crucial features for most gamers, but may be the deciding factor for some people.
The MSI’s new dedicated function keys are better placed than the Asus’s.
Like Asus, MSI added a few dedicated function keys to its newest gaming laptop. The power button is located to the left of the keyboard next to the escape key. Below that is a button that toggles between the integrated and Nvidia GPUs, one that turns the fans on to full blast, another that launches the XSplit Gamecaster software, and a button that switches between various backlighting profiles for the Steelseries keyboard.
The trackpad doesn’t have a physical boundary around its edges.
The MSI’s trackpad doesn’t have two-finger scrolling or other gestures enabled by default. (You have to go into Mouse Properties, click the Device Settings tab, click the Settings button, go into the Scrolling tab, select Two-Finger Scrolling, and check the boxes to enable vertical and horizontal scrolling.) It also doesn’t have a physical delineation, which makes it easy to run off the edge of the trackpad if you’re not looking. These are both minor gripes for a computer that you’ll mostly use with a mouse. The trackpad and its dedicated left and right click buttons are otherwise solid and responsive.
The MSI’s speakers aren’t amazing, but they are much better than the Asus ROG G751’s. The MSI has deeper, richer sound that’s both clearer and louder than our main pick. They’re not the best gaming laptop speakers we’ve ever encountered (and you’re still better off plugging in headphones) but they do the job.
The MSI is a little wider and thicker than our main pick, but it’s just as heavy.
Both the Asus ROG G751 and the MSI GT72 weigh 8.4 pounds. The MSI measures 16.85 inches wide, 11.57 inches deep, and 1.89 inches thick. It’s a little wider and thicker than our main pick, but not as deep.
In addition to the video, Ethernet and power ports on the back (pictured above), the MSI has 6 USB ports, an SD card slot, and 4 audio jacks.
The GT72 has 6 USB 3.0 ports (two of which are marked as fast charge), an Ethernet port, two Mini DisplayPorts and an HDMI 1.4 port (all of which support 4K video output), and an SD card slot, as well as ports for headphones, a microphone, audio in, and audio out. It has a two year manufacturer’s warranty.
Like the Asus, the MSI is easy to upgrade. Both of our picks can be upgraded to 32 GB of RAM. The GT72 has four total M.2SATA drive bays that are accessible by removing the bottom panel of the chassis. The 214 configuration we recommend comes with two 128GB SSDs and has two bays open for later expansion, and the 216 configuration—which only comes with one 128GB SSD—has three.
The MSI comes packaged with lots more bloatware than the Asus, and booting up can feel a little sluggish as a result. As mentioned above, Decrap is the best way to trim down some of that unnecessary software.
The upgrade pick
Also Great
If you’re looking for more gaming power than our main recommendation (and don’t want to build a desktop) then the Asus ROG G751JY-DH71 config is the best option. For $500 more than our main pick, you get the top-of-the-line Nvidia GeForce GTX 980M graphics card with 4 GB of VRAM, an unnecessary 24 GB of RAM, and a Blu-ray writer. All the other specs are identical to our main pick. The extra cost isn’t worthwhile for most people, but if you want the most powerful mobile graphics card, one that should remain competitive for years to come, this is the model to get.
We don’t think the $2,840 J751JY-DH72X configuration is a good buy. AnandTech’s Jarred Walton didn’t find any evidence of throttling with the GTX 980M and the Intel Core i7-4710HQ processor in all of our picks, so the more powerful i7-4860HQ processor isn’t worth the extra cost. The 512GB SSD is nice, but not worth the price premium over the model with a perfectly adequate 256GB SSD, and 32 GB of RAM is complete overkill.
Don’t buy a Razer Blade 14 (or any other thin and light gaming laptop) yet
Since Razer first introduced the Blade in 2011, other laptop manufacturers have been working on gaming notebooks that are thinner and lighter than their bulky brethren. In the past year or so those efforts have come to fruition, and we’ve seen launches and announcements from MSI, Asus, Aorus, and others. Unfortunately every single one that’s been released so far suffers from the same dealbreaking flaw: poor heat management.
For this category we considered the MSI GS60 Ghost and the MSI GS70 Stealth Pro, and we tested the 2014 Razer Blade. All of these computers were tested and reviewed with Nvidia GTX 870M graphics cards; both MSI models have been updated with 900-series cards, but the Razer Blade has not.
The 2014 model of the Razer Blade has a crisp, 14-inch, 3200×1800 touchscreen, a great keyboard, a solid trackpad, decent speakers, and top-of-the-line build quality. It’s a sleek, elegant machine that doesn’t scream “clunky gaming laptop;” it looks more like a black MacBook Pro.
It’s less than half the thickness and a little over half the weight of the Asus ROG G751 or the MSI GT72 Dominator. All configurations include an Nvidia GeForce GTX 870M GPU, a quad-core Intel Core i7-4702HQ CPU, and 8 GB of RAM, with the choice of a 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB solid state drive. That’s the same GPU and a similar processor as the last-gen Asus G750JS-DS71 that we used to recommend, but with a much better screen, half the RAM, and no mass storage drive. This ought to mean good gaming performance.
Playing games on the new 3K screen is a treat, but that screen and updated hardware mean that the 2014 Blade has much worse battery life than its predecessor. It only lasted as long as the Asus ROG G750 and Alienware 17 that we tested for our last update, which isn’t good. One of the advantages of a thin and light gaming laptop is being able to occasionally use it for non-gaming tasks away from a power outlet, but with less than three hours of battery life, the Blade loses some of its edge.
The Razer Blade’s new cooling system is designed to vent heat away from the WASD keys on the left of the keyboard. Our tests found that the WASD keys werecomparatively cooler than the rest of the laptop, but they were still far too hot for comfortable gameplay. After a quick-but-demanding 82-second Bioshock Infinite benchmark on ultra settings at 3200×1800 resolution, the CPU hit 94 degrees Celsius and the GPU hit 85°C. The strip of metal above the keyboard was a scalding 139 degrees Fahrenheit; the underside of the chassis was 125°F, the S key was 106°F, and the left palm rest was still uncomfortably warm at 99°F. And that’s after less than a minute and a half.
An artificial benchmark on ultra settings at 3K is an unnaturally demanding use case right now, but the Razer Blade routinely got this hot—and sometimes hotter—during half hour and hour-long gaming sessions of Bioshock Infinite, Team Fortress 2, and Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn at 1080p. We didn’t observe the heat impacting gameplay during our sessions, but I did burn my leg after having the Blade in my lap for a short 15-minute stint.
Design is only good if it’s usable.
CNET’s Scott Stein wrote “after just a half an hour the bottom of the chassis got seriously hot” andEngadget’s Sean Buckley noted “the area just above the keyboard and part of the machine’s underside can get quite hot during gaming sessions. Keep your pants on, literally, or risk burning your legs.” Sean Hollister’s review for The Verge says “the laptop gets seriously hot if you crank all the settings up,” but Laptop Mag’s Sherri Smith found that the Blade’s back edge hit 108 degrees after streaming a full-screen Hulu video for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes of actual gaming, Smith measured the bottom of the laptop at 125 degrees. Still, all four reviewers rated the Razer Blade 14 highly, something we cannot agree with after using it. Design is only good if it’s usable.
We weren’t able to test the MSI GS60 Ghost and the MSI GS70 Stealth Pro ourselves, but other reviewers noted significant heat issues with both machines.Notebookcheck’s Florian Wimmer tested the GS60 Ghost Pro 3K Edition and found that the bottom of the laptop hit a maximum temperature of 172°F and that the average temperature of the area was still a scalding 134°F. Wimmer described the GS60 Ghost’s temperatures as “excessively high” and potentially “dangerous for the user,” cautioning readers “you should not use the MSI GS60 on your lap under any circumstances!” Notebookcheck also found that the GPU regularly hit temperatures of at least 90°C, which could cause “a drastic reduction” of its lifespan. Laptop Mag’s Sherri Smith reviewed the GS60 Ghost and observed that “the laptop’s undercarriage registered a rather uncomfortable 119 degrees” after just 15 minutes of playing The Cave.
As for the MSI GS70 Stealth Pro, CNET’s Dan Ackerman concluded “despite loud fans, the GS70 gets very hot when gaming” and Laptop Mag’s Sherri Smith measured the laptop’s underside at 110 degrees after 15 minutes playing Child of Light. Smith also wrote “the laptop’s fan was a noticeable distraction” while watching videos or gaming.Notebookcheck’s stress test found evidence of “extreme throttling,” and concluded that the heat could also “limit the GPU’s performance in real-life use.”
We don’t expect the GS60 or the GS70 to have cooler temperatures with the more powerful 900M-series GPUs, since MSI hasn’t changed either machine’s cooling system or design.
None of the thin and light gaming laptops that have come out so far can manage heat properly.
None of the thin and light gaming laptops that have come out so far can manage heat properly. Extreme heat for extended periods of time can hurt gaming performance, shorten the lifespan of the laptop’s components, and even burn the player. We hope manufacturers figure out how to manage heat in thin and light gaming laptops, but for now we recommend you steer clear of this form factor.
Ultra-high-resolution gaming
Ultra-high-resolution screens are also a growing trend in gaming laptops. They’re often attached to the thin and light machines with inexcusable heating problems. This makes it difficult to evaluate ultra-high-def gaming performance because of the potential for GPU throttling and other issues caused by poor heat management.
Both our pick and runner-up only come with 1920×1080 resolution screens, but both have HDMI ports capable of outputting 4K to an external monitor. CNET’s Dan Ackerman tested the Nvidia GeForce GTX 980M’s 4K gaming performance in his review of the Asus ROG G751. He found the high-end graphics card capable of driving modern games at 4K resolution, but only if the settings are turned down. Bioshock Infinite on medium settings ran at 48 fps at 3840×1260, and Thief ran at 30 fps on the same settings and resolution. Ackerman concluded “Newer games will play smoothly when output at 3,840×2,160, but in most cases only if you dial the game detail settings down to low or medium. Is the tradeoff worth it? For current-gen games, probably not. The G751 and its GPU are more impressive pushing games to their limits on the built-in 1080p display, or at 1,920×1,080 on an external monitor.”
There’s no reason to shell out extra cash for an ultra-high-resolution screen at this stage, but games are playable at medium to high settings with the current generation of hardware. Windows still doesn’t scale well at resolutions higher than 1080p on laptop screens—though this can be mostly remedied in 8.1 by fixing the scaling in Display Settings—and most gaming laptops with 3K and 4K screens have other dealbreaking flaws, specifically heating issues.
A note on boutiques
Boutiques like Origin, Digital Storm, AVADirect, Sager, and others sell less expensive, more customizable gaming laptops, often using chassis made by Clevo orMSI. Most boutiques allow buyers to choose almost all of their own components. It’s great if you know what you’re doing, but can be intimidating if you’re not intimately familiar with all the options for RAM, wireless cards, and thermal paste. Many boutiques also offer lifetime customer support, repair, and upgrade packages, setting themselves apart from traditional manufacturers with stronger customer service.
The downside of boutiques is that, so far, the chassis made by Clevo and MSI (aside from the runner-up GT72) tend to have subpar build quality compared to our recommendations. The tradeoff for a less expensive, ultra-customizable gaming laptop is worthwhile for some, but the trend of poor overall build quality means it’s not the best option for most. Several boutiques declined to participate in our last roundup, but if we find a chassis from a boutique worth recommending, we’ll be sure to update.
Two boutiques, XoticPC and iBuyPower, sell versions of our pick and runner-up. However, some configurations can’t be altered at all, and every model is more expensive than it is on Amazon. It’s a complicated and confusing process that adds no value and will save you no money, so you should steer clear of these retailers unless others are sold out.
Competition
The MSI GT72 Dominator Pro 210 is a more-powerful version of our runner-up. It’s a great gaming laptop, but we don’t think it’s a good buy unless the step-up Asus ROG G751JY-DH71 is sold out. The MSI is about $250 more expensive, has a worse screen, and runs louder than the Asus.
As explained above in the How We Picked section, we started by narrowing down any laptops that didn’t include an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970M or higher. That left us with a short list of contenders other than the ones mentioned above:
At CES 2015, MSI announced the GT80 Titan, an insane gaming laptop with two GTX 980M graphics cards in SLI and a built-in mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX Brown switches. It starts at $3,300 (yes, that’s three thousand and three hundred dollars) and no one should spend that much money on a gaming laptop.
Origin also updated its EOS-17X gaming laptop at CES, but it breaks $2,000 to get close to our pick or runner-up’s specs, and likely doesn’t match either the Asus or MSI in build quality.
The MSI GT60 has been updated with Nvidia’s 900-series mobile cards, but it was originally reviewed with last generation’s GPUs. It’s a 15.6-inch gaming laptop similar to the GS60, but not as slim. We hoped it would fare better in the cooling department, but Laptop Mag found that the vents on the underside hit 109°F and the space between the G and H keys hit 93°F after playing South Park: The Stick of Truth. Notebookcheckalso points out that the GT60’s fans get far too loud during gaming.
The MSI GT70 Dominator has also been updated with GTX 980M and 970M graphics cards, and was also reviewed with 800-series cards. AnandTech, Engadget, andNotebookcheck all called out the GT70’s blue-tinted screen and lackluster design. AnandTech gave it “the dubious distinction of being the loudest notebook we’ve ever tested” likening the sound of the machine’s inadequate single fan to a blow dryer. Engadget recommends users make heavy use of MSI’s cooler boost feature, it’s “horrendously loud, but it’s absolutely necessary. Turn it on if you don’t want to light your pants on fire.”
We ruled out any laptops that didn’t have an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970M or better. Toshiba hasn’t updated its Qosmio line of gaming laptops since Nvidia’s 700M series of GPUs, and the Alienware 18 still ships with 800-series cards. Even with the latest generation of GPUs, we wouldn’t recommend the Alienware 18 because it has dual graphics cards in SLI, which, aside from being complete overkill, comes with its own set of potential performance issues.
We’re considering laptops with a GTX 860M or lower for our in-progress budget gaming laptops guide.
Care and maintenance
Basic laptop care and maintenance rules apply: wipe down your screen with a soft cloth and just a little bit of soapy water, use compressed air to remove particles from your keyboard, and don’t spill liquids all over it. For gaming laptops in particular, it’s important not to block the vents on the back or bottom of the machine, especially during gameplay. You should also clean the vents regularly with compressed air, and it doesn’t hurt to pop open the bottom once in a while to clear out any dust buildup that could make your laptop overheat.
Laptops aren’t as upgradeable as desktop computers—what you buy is what you’re stuck with, for the most part—but gaming laptops generally allow users to swap out their primary drive and RAM. If your gaming laptop doesn’t have an SSD as a boot drive, upgrading to one of our recommendations will speed up OS and program boot times and can also improve in-game loading times for games stored directly on the SSD. As we said above, more than 16 GB of RAM is overkill at this point. However, if you find yourself maxing out your machine’s memory often, it’s an uncomplicated process to buy more and install it.
What to look forward to
Gaming laptops are a tricky category. Components—graphics cards, CPUs, solid state drives, wireless cards, etc.—are refreshed at various points throughout the year. Some gaming laptop makers only come out with one new line per year, while others update their offerings and prices year round to reflect new components. Such high product churn means that there’s not really a best time of year to buy a gaming laptop, but here’s what might be worth looking forward to:
MSI will be updating the GT72 Dominator, our runner-up, with USB 3.1 ports in the first half of 2015. USB 3.1 is backwards compatible with USB 3.0 and 2.0 so it won’t cause any problems for those without USB 3.1 devices–which is pretty much everyone right now–but this means the GT72 will be able to take advantage of much faster speeds as the standard is widely adopted in the coming year.
At CES 2015 Dell announced a redesigned version of the Alienware 17 and a newAlienware 15, both with IPS screens and the choice of a GTX 970M or 980M graphics cards. Our ideal configuration of the Alienware 17 (that matches our current Asus pick) costs $1,900, so it’s not too expensive, either. Both models are compatible with the Alienware Graphics Amplifier, and we’ll update this piece once we’ve tested the Alienware 17 and the Amplifier.
The Alienware 13 could be good thin and light or a budget option, but we won’t know until we’ve tested it ourselves. The Lenovo Y50 may be a good budget pick. We’re testing budget gaming laptops right now and will be publishing a brand new guide to budget gaming laptops as soon as we can.
We’ll keep this guide updated as manufacturers update their gaming laptops with the latest generation of GPUs.
Wrapping it up
The Asus ROG G751JT is the best gaming laptop for most people, because it has the best combination of price and performance without sacrificing build quality. It has a brilliant 1080p IPS screen, an effective, quiet cooling system, a comfortable and responsive keyboard, and a good trackpad. The DH72 configuration is ideal for most people, but you can save money by installing your own SSD with the CH71 config or spend more for the G751JY-DH71 with the top-of-the-line GTX 980M graphics card.
Footnotes:
1. Nvidia’s new 900-series mobile graphics cards, the GTX 980M and the GTX 970M, have replaced the GTX 880M and 870M. The less-powerful GTX 860M and 850M aren’t being replaced yet. The lineup, starting with the most powerful, is as follows: 980M, 970M, 860M (Maxwell), 860M (Kepler), 850M.
Jump back.
Sources
Comparison of Laptop Graphics Cards, Notebookcheck, December 4, 2014
Computer Games on Laptop Graphic Cards, Notebookcheck, December 9, 2014
Jarred Walton, Nvidia GeForce GTX 980M and GTX 970M: Mobile to the Maxwell,Anandtech, October 7, 2014
How to Install RAM, wikiHow, August 4, 2014
Han-Kwang Nienhuys, The Lagom LCD monitor test pages, Lagom.nl, May 18, 2008
Dan Ackerman, Asus ROG G751 review, CNET, November 10, 2014
Sean Buckley, ASUS' ROG G751 review: a properly oversized gaming laptop,Engadget, October 31, 2014
Sherri L. Smith, ASUS G751JY Review, Laptop Magazine, October 23, 2014
Jarred Walton, MSI GT72 Dominator Pro Review: GTX 980M Reigns Supreme,Anandtech, November 11, 2014
After spending a total of 130 hours research and testing, we found the $1,750 Asus ROG G751JT is the best gaming laptop for most people because it combines powerful gaming hardware with a better build quality than its competitors. The Asus will play most modern graphics-intensive games on high settings, plus it has a great cooling system, an amazing 17-inch 1080p IPS screen, and a comfortable, deep keyboard; so far, it’s the only gaming laptop to combine all these crucial features. Even better, it’s less expensive than our runner-up, the MSI GT72 Dominator, but has almost identical gaming performance.
Last Updated: January 18, 2015
A total of 130 hours of research and testing went into finding the $1,750 Asus ROG G751JT, our new pick for best gaming laptop. Its build quality is better than the competition and it has a great cooling system, beautiful screen, and a comfortable keyboard. No other competitor had the Asus’s combination of crucial features.Expand Most Recent Updates
The ROG G751JT-DH72 has a powerful Nvidia GeForce GTX 970M GPU, an Intel Core i7-4710HQ processor, 16 GB of RAM, and a 256GB solid-state drive. But like most gaming laptops–and similar machines that prioritize performance over all else–our pick has extra bulk and poor battery life compared to, say, an ultrabook. (This is a tradeoff most gamers are willing to make, but a flaw nonetheless.) The Asus’s speakers aren’t great either, but that’s easily remedied with a pair of headphones.
Also Great
If you’re comfortable installing your own SSD, then you can save at least $100 (depending on fluctuating Amazon prices) and get double the solid-state storage. The $1,500 CH71 modelhas the exact same specs as our main recommendation, but doesn’t come with an SSD. It does have an empty drive bay that’s perfect for our favorite SSD, and you can get the laptop and SSD for less than the DH72. (As always, double check current prices to make sure you’re getting the best deal before you buy.)
If our main pick is sold out, we recommend the MSI GT72 Dominator 214. Its specs and gaming performance are similar to the Asus, but the MSI is pricier. Its fans are also louder and its screen isn’t as great as the Asus’s IPS panel. That said, it’s still a great gaming laptop. Unlike our main pick, every key on the MSI’s keyboard can be remapped, and it has six customizable lighting zones. The 214 model also has a Blu-ray burner. (We only recommend the 214 config if it’s less than $2,000. If the price has jumped since the time of writing, we recommend the MSI GT72 Dominator 216instead, but its SSD is only 128 GB.)
Also Great
If you want more gaming power—and don’t want to build your own desktop—step up to theAsus ROG G751JY-DH71. It’s about $500 more expensive than our main recommendation, and it comes with the current top-of-the-line Nvidia GeForce GTX 980M graphics card with 4 GB dedicated video memory, 24 GB of RAM, and a Blu-ray burner. All of the other specs (and the chassis itself) are identical to our main pick. The extra cost isn’t worthwhile for most people, but if you’re planning to use your laptop to play the most demanding games for years to come, the GTX 980M is the best option.
Table of contents
Should I upgrade?
Laptops in general (and pricy gaming laptops in particular) should last you at least two years. You can often improve the performance of your machine by swapping an old hard drive for a faster solid-state drive or by adding RAM. Still, that won’t do much for your gaming performance if an old graphics card is holding you back.
If you’re like me, with a three-year-old gaming laptop that can’t handle new games at full resolution and can’t be brought up to speed with a simple parts upgrade, it’s time for something new. A personal example: my Asus G74SX-BBK7 doesn’t have a 1080p screen or SSD, its Sandy Bridge CPU is three generations old, and the graphics card is a low-end Nvidia GTX 560M. It wasn’t a great GPU to begin with, and now it’s a full four generations behind the curve. My computer can’t even play Skyrim, a game that was released back in 2011, on ultra settings. Current games like Watch Dogs and Thief need to be bumped down to medium or low settings to run at all.
Our pick for this guide can handle all these games at 1080p on high settings or better. If your gaming laptop is past its prime or you want to buy a gaming laptop for the first time, this is what you should get.
What makes a good gaming laptop?
In order to play games at decent settings, they sacrifice portability, battery life, and value.
Gaming laptops are a tough sell. In order to play games at decent settings, they sacrifice portability, battery life, and value. A $1,500 desktop gaming PC is much more powerful and upgradeable than a $3,000 gaming laptop. A $1,000 ultrabook will do non-gaming tasks just as well at a third the weight and four times the battery life, and it’ll have a much better build quality, keyboard, and trackpad.
A gaming laptop only makes sense if you’re a serious gamer but still want to be able to bring your machine to a friend’s house/LAN party or travel with it. Gaming laptops tend to be popular with students, deployed soldiers, and road warriors for whom a gaming desktop is infeasible.
The most important specs that impact a gaming laptop’s raw performance are, in order: GPU, CPU, RAM, and storage. Other important features include the chassis’ heat and noise management, keyboard, display, and (to a lesser extent) the speakers and trackpad.
We began by selecting a GPU for our ideal gaming laptop. Notebookcheck’s useful chart of “Computer Games on Laptop Graphic Cards” has the best examples of how this generation’s graphics cards perform in actual games.
Let’s use 2014’s Watch Dogs as an example. According to Notebookcheck, the 980M can run the game on Ultra at 44 frames per second (fps), which means gameplay that isn’t stuttery or choppy. The 970M can run Watch Dogs at 34 fps, which is close to our minimum playable threshold of 30 fps, but not enough to be a huge concern. The GTX 880M runs the game at 31 fps on Ultra, which means you may see occasional stuttering and need to tweak some options or bump the settings down to High. The 870M, however, can only run the game at 25 fps on Ultra, and the less-powerful 860M (which is still a current GPU1 runs at 19 fps. On these settings, you’d see frequent stuttering and choppy combat that are likely to interfere with your enjoyment of the game.
The GTX 970M is the second-fastest mobile GPU available right now, bested only by the top-of-the-line GTX 980M. The 970M is also available in laptops under $2,000, making it ideal for our main recommendation. To get a gaming laptop with a GTX 980M, you’ll have to spend at least $2,250 right now. For more information on the GTX 970M’s performance, take a look at Notebookcheck’s in-depth gaming benchmarks.
Nvidia’s high-end cards have held up well in the past, though the jump from the 800-series to the 900-series is a bit of an exception. The GTX 680M from 2012 is still faster than this year’s low-end 860M and last year’s mid-range 770M, according to Notebookcheck. This time around, the mid-range GTX 970M outperforms the previous generation’s high-end GTX 880M.
According to Nvidia, the new high-end GTX 980M is 35 percent faster than the 880M, and Anandtech’s Jarred Walton has found it to be about 28 percent faster so far in his testing of the MSI GT72 Dominator Pro.
It’s unlikely (but possible) that Nvidia will make another significant leap like this with next year’s mobile GPUs, so we still feel comfortable recommending the GTX 980M for our step-up recommendation. It’s the fastest mobile GPU right now, and, while it’s much more expensive, we expect it to hold up better over time. (The only way to outperform the GTX 980M right now is to use multiple GPUs in SLI or Crossfire, which adds complexity and some potential graphical issues.)
Once we settled on GPUs, we had to find a CPU for each that wouldn’t bottleneck the setup much (or, ideally, at all). AnandTech’s Jarred Walton reviewed the MSI GT72 Dominator Pro with a GTX 980M and an Intel Core i7-4710HQ and wrote “The upgraded model with i7-4980HQ should improve performance by another 12-15%, but I’m not sure it would be worth the additional cost. […] “for most games it’s not really a major concern – either the GPU is the bottleneck, or frame rates are far enough above 60fps that it doesn’t matter.” If the i7-4710HQ is powerful enough to avoid obvious bottlenecking on the GTX 980M, it will also work for the mid-range GTX 970M, so we focused on this common processor for both our main and step-up recommendations. AMD CPUs are generally not competitive in gaming laptops at present.
8 GB of RAM is plenty for most games, and most gaming laptops today come with 16 GB. 32 GB is a complete waste of money, even for our step-up machine, because gaming and multitasking situations won’t use more than 16 GB. So, we focused on laptops with 16 GB or less for both categories.
Storage options vary across manufacturer and even configuration, so we had to be flexible in this category. In a perfect world, the ideal gaming laptop would have at least a 256GB SSD and 750 GB of hard drive storage. The SSD is necessary for your OS, programs, and a modest library of games, and a roomy HDD is nice for storing extra game files, music, and other media. Once 1 TB solid-state drives are affordable, it’ll be nice to get rid of the spinny drives entirely—most ultrabooks already do. We didn’t eliminate any laptops without SSDs, but we took into account that it costs about $210 to swap out for our 512GB SSD recommendation.
Our ideal gaming laptop costs less than $2,000 and has an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970M or better GPU, a 2.5GHz Intel Core i7-4710HQ CPU or higher, 8 GB to 16 GB of RAM, and at least a 256GB SSD and 750GB hard drive. For our step-up recommendation, we’re looking for a machine with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 980M, the same 2.5GHz Intel Core i7-4710HQ processor or better, 16 GB of RAM, and the same storage requirements. We would prefer that it cost less than $3,000, but we’re less strict about price in gaming laptops as long as the machine is worth the cost.
(Thin and light gaming laptops haven’t been updated with 900-series cards yet, but our previous criteria were a GTX 870M GPU, a 2.4GHz Intel Core i7-4700 processor, 8 GB to 16 GB of RAM, and at least a 256GB SSD. We didn’t find any thin and light gaming laptops worth buying in our last update, but we’ll address this in-depth later on.)
Powerful hardware isn’t the only consideration. The CPU and GPU of a gaming laptop produce a lot of heat, and if the laptop doesn’t have an effective cooling system, it can overheat. That can slow gaming performance, shorten the lifespan of the laptop, or even burn you. The cooling system has to disperse heat well without drowning out your speakers with loud fans. The laptop also has to have a good keyboard, a decent 1080p display, and solid build quality.
Good speakers, trackpad, battery life, and portability are all nice but aren’t essential. Poor speakers can be bypassed by a good pair of headphones, and most gamers use a mouse instead of the trackpad while gaming. Battery life and portability have never been the strong suits of gaming laptops, which spend most of their lives plugged in and stationary. We’ll discuss why ultraportable gaming laptops aren’t quite feasible yet in the Thin and light section below.
There are a few features that aren’t important at all, but some gaming laptops have them anyway. Windows 8.1 isn’t necessary for gaming, but it’s not worth paying extra to avoid. A Blu-ray drive can be a nice bonus for watching movies as long as you aren’t paying too much extra for it. Touchscreens and 3D aren’t important for most gamers.CNET’s Dan Ackerman found that the GTX 980M is capable of playing some games at 4K resolution, though ultra-high-res displays aren’t necessary on gaming laptops just yet. UHD displays are common fixtures in thin and light gaming laptops (which haven’t been updated with 900-series cards yet), so we’ll cover this more below.
We also know not everyone has $2,000 to spend on a gaming laptop, and we’re currently working on a budget gaming laptop pick.
How we picked
Once we picked our hardware criteria (see above), we scoured the websites of major gaming laptop manufacturers like Alienware, MSI, Asus, Razer, Toshiba, and Lenovo, and we browsed boutiques like Clevo, iBuyPower, Origin, Digital Storm, and others. Then we put together a list of the laptops that fit our requirements and have positive reviews from trusted sources like CNET, AnandTech, Engadget, Laptop Mag, PCMag, and Notebookcheck. We also interviewed CNET’s Dan Ackerman and Laptop Mag’s Sherri Smith, two reviewers who have some of the most comprehensive knowledge of the past, present, and future of gaming laptops.
We eliminated the laptops that didn’t fit our criteria or had dealbreaking flaws mentioned in one or more trusted reviews and came up with two finalists: the Asus ROG G751JT and the MSI GT72 Dominator.
How we tested
We called in our two finalists and tested both. We benchmarked them using the latest versions of PCMark and 3DMark, as well as Bioshock Infinite’s benchmarking mode. We measured the laptops’ internal temperature using HWMonitor and measured the surface temperature at various points on the keyboard and underside using an IR thermometer.
We tested each laptop’s screen using some of the Lagom LCD monitor test pages, and used each for several work days to get a feel for their keyboards, trackpads, screens, and speakers. We also played an hour of the less graphically demanding Team Fortress 2 and an hour of the more grueling Bioshock Infinite, both on Ultra with Vsync off. We also played a smattering of other games, including XCOM: Enemy Unknown and Enemy Within, Crypt of the NecroDancer, and Path of Exile.
Our pick
The $1,750 Asus ROG G751JT – DH72 has the best combination of price and performance of all the gaming laptops we looked at, better build quality than the competition, and no dealbreaking flaws. The ROG G751 has a brilliant 17-inch 1080p IPS display, a comfortable, responsive keyboard, a good trackpad, and one of the quietest, most effective cooling systems of any laptop we’ve tested. Most importantly, it will be able to play most modern games on high settings—great performance for the price. If you want to know how our recommendation will handle a specific game, take a look at Notebookcheck’s benchmarks database.
The best gaming laptop for most people, the Asus ROG G751JT-DH72.
The G751JT-DH72 also meets all of our hardware requirements out of the box. (There is a cheaper, better configuration, but it requires buying and installing your own SSD—we’ll get to that in a moment.) The DH72 config has an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970M graphics card with 3 GB of dedicated memory, a 2.5GHz Haswell Intel Core i7-4710HQ quad-core processor, and 16 GB of RAM with two extra slots, allowing for expansion up to 32 GB. It also comes with a 256GB solid state drive and a 1TB hard drive for storage. All models of the G751 have a 17-inch matte IPS display with a 1920×1080 resolution, a dual-band 802.11ac wireless card with Bluetooth 4.0, a red backlit keyboard, and a one-year warranty.
Asus has improved on several of the previous model’s shortcomings, making an already-great gaming laptop even better. The G750 was our previous recommendation for best gaming laptop, but our biggest complaint was its screen. Its TN panel had poor viewing angles and a heavy matte coating that made a visible textured grid on the screen’s surface. The new Asus ROG G751 has a brilliant IPS panel with deep blacks, bright colors, and amazing viewing angles. The Asus’s IPS screen also doesn’t have theMSI’s blue tint, and the difference is very apparent when you look at the screens of the G751 and our runner up side by side.
The MSI GT72 Dominator (right) has a blue-tinted screen compared to the Asus ROG G751 (left).
Many gamers prefer TN screens for their faster response times, but IPS screens tend to be brighter and more color accurate, and they don’t wash out or invert colors when viewed from an angle. If every millisecond counts (perhaps you have a professional career playing Counter-Strike?), you’ll want a dedicated monitor known for its snappy response times. If you play games for entertainment—instead of a living—and want a screen to make your games look awesome, the Asus’s IPS panel does just that. We did compare the G751’s response times to the MSI GT72’s TN panel using the Lagom Response Time test page, and the Asus’s IPS screen came out ahead. Even though IPS panels generally have slower response times than TN panels, the Asus’s is good enough that it won’t pose a problem for most people.
The Asus ROG G751’s 17-inch IPS screen is a huge improvement over the last model’s grainy TN panel. It’s a delight to game on.
For several generations now, Asus’s flagship gaming laptops have kept cool under heavy gaming loads thanks to the massive, airship-like vents at the back; the G751 follows suit (but this time the vents are a flashy red!). After an hour of Bioshock Infinite at full resolution with ultra settings, the GPU reached a maximum of 65°C and the CPU was still a comparatively cool 75°C—both well within acceptable ranges, and the GPU was a full 20°C cooler than last year’s model in the same exact test.
The G751’s cooling system runs quiet, though its flashy red vents are anything but.
The WASD keys and the palmrest remained cool to the touch, and the underside of the computer—beneath the back right fan—was the warmest surface. No point on the G751 was close to the scalding heat we measured on the keyboard of the 2014 Razer Blade, which we eliminated because of its astonishingly high temperatures.
The G751’s fans also remained fairly quiet during all of our tests, and we never had to turn the speakers up to hear over their hum. Our runner-up, the MSI GT72 Dominator, has equally effective fans, but they’re loud enough to compete with in-game dialogue and make quite a bit of noise in a quiet room.
The Asus’s keyboard is deep, responsive, and comfortable.
The keyboard is largely the same as last year’s model—deep, snappy, and responsive—but with a few improvements. The G750’s keyboard had a white backlight, this year’s G751 has an edgy red backlight, matching the red accents elsewhere on the chassis. Asus has also added 5 keys in the upper left of the keyboard, above the escape key. The leftmost key launches Nvidia’s ShadowPlay recording software, the second launches Steam in Big Picture mode, and the remaining three can be mapped to anything.
Asus added five shortcut keys—Nvidia ShadowPlay, Steam Big Picture, and three macro buttons.
The G751’s trackpad—not often used for gaming—works well for all standard Windows 8 gestures and has two physical buttons for the left and right clicks. Asus’s software can automatically disable the trackpad when a mouse is plugged in, a useful feature for gamers who might otherwise accidentally trigger the touchpad with their palms while playing.
The G751’s trackpad is spacious and has two physical buttons.
As for ports, the Asus ROG G751 has just about anything you could want: Ethernet, VGA, HDMI 1.4 (which allows for 4K video output), Thunderbolt, four USB 3.0 ports (one of which supports fast charging), an SD/MMC card slot, and jacks for audio in, headphones, and a microphone.
Like most gaming laptops, the Asus ROG G751 is easy to upgrade. Only one screw and a small panel stands between you and installing a roomier SSD or another 16GB of RAM. It also comes with a one-year warranty.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
The Asus ROG G751JT might be the best gaming laptop for the best price, but it isn’t perfect. It suffers from a few flaws inherent to all gaming laptops—it’s bulky, heavy, and doesn’t have great battery life—as well as a couple problems unique to this particular chassis. The G751 also lacks a few features we don’t think are crucial but are worth mentioning anyway.
The Asus is undeniably a gaming laptop; it’s bulky, heavy, and has poor battery life.
The wedge-shaped Asus ROG G751JT is 16.4 inches wide, 12.5 inches deep, and 0.9 to 1.7 inches thick, and weighs a whopping 8.4 pounds. That’s a pound and a half less than its predecessor, but that number doesn’t include the chunky power brick you’ll also have to lug around. It’s huge, so if you want to buy a bag to carry it around, be sure to measure the laptop sleeve first.
In our tests, the G751JT-DH72 had less than three hours of battery life, and lasted about 8 minutes less than the runner-up MSI GT72 Dominator. For comparison, it lasted 3 hours and 36 minutes in Laptop Mag’s test, 3 hours and 40 minutes inEngadget’s test, and 3 hours and 14 minutes in CNET’s video-playback test. Size, weight, and battery life are common shortcomings amongst gaming laptops, and they won’t change until manufacturers figure out how to cool their thin and light gaming machines.
Our previous recommendation, the Asus ROG G750, had made some improvements to the line’s often subpar speakers. The G751’s speakers, however, are a step backward. The speakers are mounted on the inside of the hinge, which means sound bounces off the open lid and comes out louder and clearer behind the laptop, rather than in front where you sit. The speakers are also weak on bass, tinny and compressed, and don’t get as loud as our runner-up’s. All these problems can be solved by plugging in adecent pair of headphones.
As we mentioned above, the G751 doesn’t have a multicolored, customizable backlight beneath the keyboard—it’s red or nothing. It has no impact on gaming performance, but if you really care about the light show, our runner-up pick may be a better fit. The Asus also has 3 programmable keys, while the MSI GT72’s entire keyboard can be remapped to fit your specific needs. One more gripe, the new row of keys is placed above the escape key in the upper left of the keyboard, and I accidentally launched the recording software when I meant to hit escape more times than I care to admit.
Like most laptops, the Asus comes packaged with some bloatware (though not as much as the runner-up MSI). Pop ups from Asus WebStorage knocked us out of fullscreen games several times. It’s an easy problem to fix, and you can use Decrap to get rid of any unwanted programs.
The Asus ROG G751JT-DH72 model that we recommend has a DVD burner but not a Blu-ray drive. It’s not a crucial feature for most people, but if it is important to you, our step-up G751JY-DH71 recommendation has a Blu-ray writer. We’ll discuss that configuration below. Or you could always pick up an external Blu-ray drive for a lot less.
Our recommendation doesn’t have a touchscreen, but neither does our runner-up. Some may think that touchscreens are essential on Windows 8 computers, but there’s really no good reason to have one in a gaming laptop.
Who else likes it?
All the reviews we read focused on the step up Asus ROG G751JY with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 980M graphics card inside. However, the chassis is the same, and their expert opinions corroborate what we found in our own testing.
CNET’s Dan Ackerman wrote “The non-reflective finish on the screen is a welcome change from overly glossy displays, and because this is an IPS screen (in-plane switching), it looks good from off-angles.” Ackerman concluded “The game performance from the Asus G751 should please anyone who wants a premium gaming experience without trading up to a massive desktop tower.”
Engadget’s Sean Buckley also praised the Asus’ screen: “The ROG’s 17.3-inch IPS display hits all the right notes: It’s large, bright and has exceptionally wide viewing angles.” Overall, Buckley said “The G751’s unique design, excellent keyboard and mouse buttons and sturdy build are what make it stand out from the competition, though admittedly, screaming performance doesn’t hurt either.”
Laptop Mag’s Sherri Smith summed up the differences between the MSI GT72 and the Asus G751, writing “ASUS’ G751JY is locked and loaded, set on becoming the new gaming laptop to beat. In many ways, the $2,499 notebook is right on target, delivering a bright and vivid 17.3-inch display, powerful graphics, and blazing-fast SSD. It’s a bargain compared to the $2,999 MSI GT72, which delivers comparable gaming performance but stands out with a customizable backlit keyboard and better audio.”
A cheaper option with more storage (if you put in a little work)
Also Great
If you’re comfortable installing your own SSD, you can save at least $100 (depending on fluctuating Amazon prices) and get double the solid state storage with the $1,500 Asus ROG G751JT-CH71 configuration. It’s identical to our main pick, but has an empty 2.5-inch SATA drive bay instead of a 256GB SSD and costs about $300 less.
Installing a new SSD is easier than it sounds; there are only 5 screws between you and a brand new drive.
We recommend the $200 512GB Crucial MX100, our pick for best SSD. To install it, just remove one screw and one panel on the bottom of the laptop. Then remove the four screws holding in the empty drive casing, pop in the brand new drive, and put everything back together. All that’s left is to follow the instructions included with your SSD to clone your primary drive to the SSD and set it as your boot drive. Voilà! You’ve installed your own SSD and saved yourself some money.
Runner-up
If our main pick is sold out, the $1,900 MSI GT72 Dominator 214is a solid alternative. We don’t like it as much as the Asus because it’s more expensive (for similar specs), runs louder, and its screen isn’t as good. The MSI’s keyboard is also shallower, but it has the advantage of multicolored, customizable backlighting and remappable keys. The 214 config also has a Blu-ray burner.
Note: we only recommend the 214 model if it costs less than $2,000. If the price has jumped since we wrote this, we recommend the cheaper MSI GT72 Dominator 216instead. It has 12GB of RAM, a 128GB solid state drive, and a DVD drive, but none of the upgrades make the 214 config worth spending more than $2,000.
The MSI GT72 Dominator is a great alternative if our main pick is sold out.
The MSI GT72 214 is the best alternative to the Asus configuration we recommend. It has the same Intel Core i7-4710HQ processor and the same Nvidia GeForce GTX 970M graphics card—but with 6 GB of VRAM instead of 3 GB. The MSI also has 16 GB of RAM, and two 128GB SSDs in RAID 0 instead of a single 256GB one. Both machines have a 1TB hard drive for storage. The Asus is a better value, but if it’s sold out, the MSI is good too.
Even though the MSI has twice as much dedicated graphics memory as the Asus, our main pick was a bit faster than the MSI in gaming benchmarks and real-world gaming performance. It’s not a significant difference, but it does mean the extra VRAM is unnecessary with today’s games at 1080p (and even in 3DMark’s 4K fire Strike benchmark). It’ll be more important when 4K monitors and ultra-high-res textures become more commonplace.
The GT72 runs much cooler than MSI’s previous laptops, thanks in part to its vented underside.
Like the Asus, the MSI GT72 keeps all its components and surfaces cool during long sessions of intense gaming. (This is a huge, huge improvement over some of MSI’s previous gaming laptops.) However, the MSI runs louder than the Asus. Its fans are audible when idling in a quiet room, and they can compete with dialogue and sound effects when they ramp up all the way during intense gaming.
The MSI GT72’s 17-inch, 1920×1080 resolution, matte screen is decent for a TN panel. Colors are bright, blacks are deep, and it has impressive horizontal viewing angles. However, it’s limited by TN technology, and it can’t compete with the Asus’s IPS screen. The MSI’s screen has poor vertical viewing angles and a bluish tint. The Asus’s is brighter, it has more brilliant colors and deeper blacks, and it doesn’t wash out at all when viewed from an angle.
The MSI’s keyboard isn’t as comfortable as the Asus’s, but it does have customizable backlighting.
The MSI GT72’s keys have shallower travel and aren’t as smooth or comfortable as those on the Asus, so they aren’t as good for long gaming or typing sessions. However, the GT72’s keyboard has three zones of customizable backlighting—compared to the Asus’s keyboard, which glows red or not at all—and every single key can be remapped to fit your needs. These aren’t crucial features for most gamers, but may be the deciding factor for some people.
The MSI’s new dedicated function keys are better placed than the Asus’s.
Like Asus, MSI added a few dedicated function keys to its newest gaming laptop. The power button is located to the left of the keyboard next to the escape key. Below that is a button that toggles between the integrated and Nvidia GPUs, one that turns the fans on to full blast, another that launches the XSplit Gamecaster software, and a button that switches between various backlighting profiles for the Steelseries keyboard.
The trackpad doesn’t have a physical boundary around its edges.
The MSI’s trackpad doesn’t have two-finger scrolling or other gestures enabled by default. (You have to go into Mouse Properties, click the Device Settings tab, click the Settings button, go into the Scrolling tab, select Two-Finger Scrolling, and check the boxes to enable vertical and horizontal scrolling.) It also doesn’t have a physical delineation, which makes it easy to run off the edge of the trackpad if you’re not looking. These are both minor gripes for a computer that you’ll mostly use with a mouse. The trackpad and its dedicated left and right click buttons are otherwise solid and responsive.
The MSI’s speakers aren’t amazing, but they are much better than the Asus ROG G751’s. The MSI has deeper, richer sound that’s both clearer and louder than our main pick. They’re not the best gaming laptop speakers we’ve ever encountered (and you’re still better off plugging in headphones) but they do the job.
The MSI is a little wider and thicker than our main pick, but it’s just as heavy.
Both the Asus ROG G751 and the MSI GT72 weigh 8.4 pounds. The MSI measures 16.85 inches wide, 11.57 inches deep, and 1.89 inches thick. It’s a little wider and thicker than our main pick, but not as deep.
In addition to the video, Ethernet and power ports on the back (pictured above), the MSI has 6 USB ports, an SD card slot, and 4 audio jacks.
The GT72 has 6 USB 3.0 ports (two of which are marked as fast charge), an Ethernet port, two Mini DisplayPorts and an HDMI 1.4 port (all of which support 4K video output), and an SD card slot, as well as ports for headphones, a microphone, audio in, and audio out. It has a two year manufacturer’s warranty.
Like the Asus, the MSI is easy to upgrade. Both of our picks can be upgraded to 32 GB of RAM. The GT72 has four total M.2SATA drive bays that are accessible by removing the bottom panel of the chassis. The 214 configuration we recommend comes with two 128GB SSDs and has two bays open for later expansion, and the 216 configuration—which only comes with one 128GB SSD—has three.
The MSI comes packaged with lots more bloatware than the Asus, and booting up can feel a little sluggish as a result. As mentioned above, Decrap is the best way to trim down some of that unnecessary software.
The upgrade pick
Also Great
If you’re looking for more gaming power than our main recommendation (and don’t want to build a desktop) then the Asus ROG G751JY-DH71 config is the best option. For $500 more than our main pick, you get the top-of-the-line Nvidia GeForce GTX 980M graphics card with 4 GB of VRAM, an unnecessary 24 GB of RAM, and a Blu-ray writer. All the other specs are identical to our main pick. The extra cost isn’t worthwhile for most people, but if you want the most powerful mobile graphics card, one that should remain competitive for years to come, this is the model to get.
We don’t think the $2,840 J751JY-DH72X configuration is a good buy. AnandTech’s Jarred Walton didn’t find any evidence of throttling with the GTX 980M and the Intel Core i7-4710HQ processor in all of our picks, so the more powerful i7-4860HQ processor isn’t worth the extra cost. The 512GB SSD is nice, but not worth the price premium over the model with a perfectly adequate 256GB SSD, and 32 GB of RAM is complete overkill.
Don’t buy a Razer Blade 14 (or any other thin and light gaming laptop) yet
Since Razer first introduced the Blade in 2011, other laptop manufacturers have been working on gaming notebooks that are thinner and lighter than their bulky brethren. In the past year or so those efforts have come to fruition, and we’ve seen launches and announcements from MSI, Asus, Aorus, and others. Unfortunately every single one that’s been released so far suffers from the same dealbreaking flaw: poor heat management.
For this category we considered the MSI GS60 Ghost and the MSI GS70 Stealth Pro, and we tested the 2014 Razer Blade. All of these computers were tested and reviewed with Nvidia GTX 870M graphics cards; both MSI models have been updated with 900-series cards, but the Razer Blade has not.
The 2014 model of the Razer Blade has a crisp, 14-inch, 3200×1800 touchscreen, a great keyboard, a solid trackpad, decent speakers, and top-of-the-line build quality. It’s a sleek, elegant machine that doesn’t scream “clunky gaming laptop;” it looks more like a black MacBook Pro.
It’s less than half the thickness and a little over half the weight of the Asus ROG G751 or the MSI GT72 Dominator. All configurations include an Nvidia GeForce GTX 870M GPU, a quad-core Intel Core i7-4702HQ CPU, and 8 GB of RAM, with the choice of a 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB solid state drive. That’s the same GPU and a similar processor as the last-gen Asus G750JS-DS71 that we used to recommend, but with a much better screen, half the RAM, and no mass storage drive. This ought to mean good gaming performance.
Playing games on the new 3K screen is a treat, but that screen and updated hardware mean that the 2014 Blade has much worse battery life than its predecessor. It only lasted as long as the Asus ROG G750 and Alienware 17 that we tested for our last update, which isn’t good. One of the advantages of a thin and light gaming laptop is being able to occasionally use it for non-gaming tasks away from a power outlet, but with less than three hours of battery life, the Blade loses some of its edge.
The Razer Blade’s new cooling system is designed to vent heat away from the WASD keys on the left of the keyboard. Our tests found that the WASD keys werecomparatively cooler than the rest of the laptop, but they were still far too hot for comfortable gameplay. After a quick-but-demanding 82-second Bioshock Infinite benchmark on ultra settings at 3200×1800 resolution, the CPU hit 94 degrees Celsius and the GPU hit 85°C. The strip of metal above the keyboard was a scalding 139 degrees Fahrenheit; the underside of the chassis was 125°F, the S key was 106°F, and the left palm rest was still uncomfortably warm at 99°F. And that’s after less than a minute and a half.
An artificial benchmark on ultra settings at 3K is an unnaturally demanding use case right now, but the Razer Blade routinely got this hot—and sometimes hotter—during half hour and hour-long gaming sessions of Bioshock Infinite, Team Fortress 2, and Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn at 1080p. We didn’t observe the heat impacting gameplay during our sessions, but I did burn my leg after having the Blade in my lap for a short 15-minute stint.
Design is only good if it’s usable.
CNET’s Scott Stein wrote “after just a half an hour the bottom of the chassis got seriously hot” andEngadget’s Sean Buckley noted “the area just above the keyboard and part of the machine’s underside can get quite hot during gaming sessions. Keep your pants on, literally, or risk burning your legs.” Sean Hollister’s review for The Verge says “the laptop gets seriously hot if you crank all the settings up,” but Laptop Mag’s Sherri Smith found that the Blade’s back edge hit 108 degrees after streaming a full-screen Hulu video for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes of actual gaming, Smith measured the bottom of the laptop at 125 degrees. Still, all four reviewers rated the Razer Blade 14 highly, something we cannot agree with after using it. Design is only good if it’s usable.
We weren’t able to test the MSI GS60 Ghost and the MSI GS70 Stealth Pro ourselves, but other reviewers noted significant heat issues with both machines.Notebookcheck’s Florian Wimmer tested the GS60 Ghost Pro 3K Edition and found that the bottom of the laptop hit a maximum temperature of 172°F and that the average temperature of the area was still a scalding 134°F. Wimmer described the GS60 Ghost’s temperatures as “excessively high” and potentially “dangerous for the user,” cautioning readers “you should not use the MSI GS60 on your lap under any circumstances!” Notebookcheck also found that the GPU regularly hit temperatures of at least 90°C, which could cause “a drastic reduction” of its lifespan. Laptop Mag’s Sherri Smith reviewed the GS60 Ghost and observed that “the laptop’s undercarriage registered a rather uncomfortable 119 degrees” after just 15 minutes of playing The Cave.
As for the MSI GS70 Stealth Pro, CNET’s Dan Ackerman concluded “despite loud fans, the GS70 gets very hot when gaming” and Laptop Mag’s Sherri Smith measured the laptop’s underside at 110 degrees after 15 minutes playing Child of Light. Smith also wrote “the laptop’s fan was a noticeable distraction” while watching videos or gaming.Notebookcheck’s stress test found evidence of “extreme throttling,” and concluded that the heat could also “limit the GPU’s performance in real-life use.”
We don’t expect the GS60 or the GS70 to have cooler temperatures with the more powerful 900M-series GPUs, since MSI hasn’t changed either machine’s cooling system or design.
None of the thin and light gaming laptops that have come out so far can manage heat properly.
None of the thin and light gaming laptops that have come out so far can manage heat properly. Extreme heat for extended periods of time can hurt gaming performance, shorten the lifespan of the laptop’s components, and even burn the player. We hope manufacturers figure out how to manage heat in thin and light gaming laptops, but for now we recommend you steer clear of this form factor.
Ultra-high-resolution gaming
Ultra-high-resolution screens are also a growing trend in gaming laptops. They’re often attached to the thin and light machines with inexcusable heating problems. This makes it difficult to evaluate ultra-high-def gaming performance because of the potential for GPU throttling and other issues caused by poor heat management.
Both our pick and runner-up only come with 1920×1080 resolution screens, but both have HDMI ports capable of outputting 4K to an external monitor. CNET’s Dan Ackerman tested the Nvidia GeForce GTX 980M’s 4K gaming performance in his review of the Asus ROG G751. He found the high-end graphics card capable of driving modern games at 4K resolution, but only if the settings are turned down. Bioshock Infinite on medium settings ran at 48 fps at 3840×1260, and Thief ran at 30 fps on the same settings and resolution. Ackerman concluded “Newer games will play smoothly when output at 3,840×2,160, but in most cases only if you dial the game detail settings down to low or medium. Is the tradeoff worth it? For current-gen games, probably not. The G751 and its GPU are more impressive pushing games to their limits on the built-in 1080p display, or at 1,920×1,080 on an external monitor.”
There’s no reason to shell out extra cash for an ultra-high-resolution screen at this stage, but games are playable at medium to high settings with the current generation of hardware. Windows still doesn’t scale well at resolutions higher than 1080p on laptop screens—though this can be mostly remedied in 8.1 by fixing the scaling in Display Settings—and most gaming laptops with 3K and 4K screens have other dealbreaking flaws, specifically heating issues.
A note on boutiques
Boutiques like Origin, Digital Storm, AVADirect, Sager, and others sell less expensive, more customizable gaming laptops, often using chassis made by Clevo orMSI. Most boutiques allow buyers to choose almost all of their own components. It’s great if you know what you’re doing, but can be intimidating if you’re not intimately familiar with all the options for RAM, wireless cards, and thermal paste. Many boutiques also offer lifetime customer support, repair, and upgrade packages, setting themselves apart from traditional manufacturers with stronger customer service.
The downside of boutiques is that, so far, the chassis made by Clevo and MSI (aside from the runner-up GT72) tend to have subpar build quality compared to our recommendations. The tradeoff for a less expensive, ultra-customizable gaming laptop is worthwhile for some, but the trend of poor overall build quality means it’s not the best option for most. Several boutiques declined to participate in our last roundup, but if we find a chassis from a boutique worth recommending, we’ll be sure to update.
Two boutiques, XoticPC and iBuyPower, sell versions of our pick and runner-up. However, some configurations can’t be altered at all, and every model is more expensive than it is on Amazon. It’s a complicated and confusing process that adds no value and will save you no money, so you should steer clear of these retailers unless others are sold out.
Competition
The MSI GT72 Dominator Pro 210 is a more-powerful version of our runner-up. It’s a great gaming laptop, but we don’t think it’s a good buy unless the step-up Asus ROG G751JY-DH71 is sold out. The MSI is about $250 more expensive, has a worse screen, and runs louder than the Asus.
As explained above in the How We Picked section, we started by narrowing down any laptops that didn’t include an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970M or higher. That left us with a short list of contenders other than the ones mentioned above:
At CES 2015, MSI announced the GT80 Titan, an insane gaming laptop with two GTX 980M graphics cards in SLI and a built-in mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX Brown switches. It starts at $3,300 (yes, that’s three thousand and three hundred dollars) and no one should spend that much money on a gaming laptop.
Origin also updated its EOS-17X gaming laptop at CES, but it breaks $2,000 to get close to our pick or runner-up’s specs, and likely doesn’t match either the Asus or MSI in build quality.
The MSI GT60 has been updated with Nvidia’s 900-series mobile cards, but it was originally reviewed with last generation’s GPUs. It’s a 15.6-inch gaming laptop similar to the GS60, but not as slim. We hoped it would fare better in the cooling department, but Laptop Mag found that the vents on the underside hit 109°F and the space between the G and H keys hit 93°F after playing South Park: The Stick of Truth. Notebookcheckalso points out that the GT60’s fans get far too loud during gaming.
The MSI GT70 Dominator has also been updated with GTX 980M and 970M graphics cards, and was also reviewed with 800-series cards. AnandTech, Engadget, andNotebookcheck all called out the GT70’s blue-tinted screen and lackluster design. AnandTech gave it “the dubious distinction of being the loudest notebook we’ve ever tested” likening the sound of the machine’s inadequate single fan to a blow dryer. Engadget recommends users make heavy use of MSI’s cooler boost feature, it’s “horrendously loud, but it’s absolutely necessary. Turn it on if you don’t want to light your pants on fire.”
We ruled out any laptops that didn’t have an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970M or better. Toshiba hasn’t updated its Qosmio line of gaming laptops since Nvidia’s 700M series of GPUs, and the Alienware 18 still ships with 800-series cards. Even with the latest generation of GPUs, we wouldn’t recommend the Alienware 18 because it has dual graphics cards in SLI, which, aside from being complete overkill, comes with its own set of potential performance issues.
We’re considering laptops with a GTX 860M or lower for our in-progress budget gaming laptops guide.
Care and maintenance
Basic laptop care and maintenance rules apply: wipe down your screen with a soft cloth and just a little bit of soapy water, use compressed air to remove particles from your keyboard, and don’t spill liquids all over it. For gaming laptops in particular, it’s important not to block the vents on the back or bottom of the machine, especially during gameplay. You should also clean the vents regularly with compressed air, and it doesn’t hurt to pop open the bottom once in a while to clear out any dust buildup that could make your laptop overheat.
Laptops aren’t as upgradeable as desktop computers—what you buy is what you’re stuck with, for the most part—but gaming laptops generally allow users to swap out their primary drive and RAM. If your gaming laptop doesn’t have an SSD as a boot drive, upgrading to one of our recommendations will speed up OS and program boot times and can also improve in-game loading times for games stored directly on the SSD. As we said above, more than 16 GB of RAM is overkill at this point. However, if you find yourself maxing out your machine’s memory often, it’s an uncomplicated process to buy more and install it.
What to look forward to
Gaming laptops are a tricky category. Components—graphics cards, CPUs, solid state drives, wireless cards, etc.—are refreshed at various points throughout the year. Some gaming laptop makers only come out with one new line per year, while others update their offerings and prices year round to reflect new components. Such high product churn means that there’s not really a best time of year to buy a gaming laptop, but here’s what might be worth looking forward to:
MSI will be updating the GT72 Dominator, our runner-up, with USB 3.1 ports in the first half of 2015. USB 3.1 is backwards compatible with USB 3.0 and 2.0 so it won’t cause any problems for those without USB 3.1 devices–which is pretty much everyone right now–but this means the GT72 will be able to take advantage of much faster speeds as the standard is widely adopted in the coming year.
At CES 2015 Dell announced a redesigned version of the Alienware 17 and a newAlienware 15, both with IPS screens and the choice of a GTX 970M or 980M graphics cards. Our ideal configuration of the Alienware 17 (that matches our current Asus pick) costs $1,900, so it’s not too expensive, either. Both models are compatible with the Alienware Graphics Amplifier, and we’ll update this piece once we’ve tested the Alienware 17 and the Amplifier.
The Alienware 13 could be good thin and light or a budget option, but we won’t know until we’ve tested it ourselves. The Lenovo Y50 may be a good budget pick. We’re testing budget gaming laptops right now and will be publishing a brand new guide to budget gaming laptops as soon as we can.
We’ll keep this guide updated as manufacturers update their gaming laptops with the latest generation of GPUs.
Wrapping it up
The Asus ROG G751JT is the best gaming laptop for most people, because it has the best combination of price and performance without sacrificing build quality. It has a brilliant 1080p IPS screen, an effective, quiet cooling system, a comfortable and responsive keyboard, and a good trackpad. The DH72 configuration is ideal for most people, but you can save money by installing your own SSD with the CH71 config or spend more for the G751JY-DH71 with the top-of-the-line GTX 980M graphics card.
Footnotes:
1. Nvidia’s new 900-series mobile graphics cards, the GTX 980M and the GTX 970M, have replaced the GTX 880M and 870M. The less-powerful GTX 860M and 850M aren’t being replaced yet. The lineup, starting with the most powerful, is as follows: 980M, 970M, 860M (Maxwell), 860M (Kepler), 850M.
Jump back.
Sources
Comparison of Laptop Graphics Cards, Notebookcheck, December 4, 2014
Computer Games on Laptop Graphic Cards, Notebookcheck, December 9, 2014
Jarred Walton, Nvidia GeForce GTX 980M and GTX 970M: Mobile to the Maxwell,Anandtech, October 7, 2014
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Display technology is an increasingly competitive area in the world of smartphones. Traditionally companies have worked to dominate the space by improving their displays' resolution, colour balance and brightness levels.
Asus unveiled its first Android 5.0 Lollipop smartphone, the ZenFone 2, at CES 2015. While the use of Lollipop, which more upgrades to Android than can easily be counted, is pretty awesome, Asus has done a stellar job loading the ZenFone 2 with a wealth of top end hardware.
With the Nexus 6 finally unveiled we have to say this is one of the few instances where the run up rumours didn't do the device justice.
Taiwanese firm HTC is probably the only company in the world that is as focused on design as Apple. As a result it's no surprise its 2014 flagship smartphone, the One M8, is one of the best looking and designed smartphones currently available.
Since news of the PRISM spying campaign broke, privacy has been at the forefront of many people's minds. The scandal has made people more concerned than ever about what happens to their data.
Sony continued its rapid-release strategy at the IFA trade show in Berlin at the start of September 2014 when it unveiled its latest Xperia Z3 flagship smartphone.
Microsoft made a big deal about Windows Phone 8.1, listing it as the first "enterprise-ready" version of its mobile OS, when it first arrived in the UK.
Apple claimed for years that users didn’t want big-screen smartphones and there was no need for a handset to have a display any bigger than 4inches. However, given the popularity of big screens in other ecosystems, such as Android and Windows Phone, it’s become increasingly clear this is a false hypothesis.
Samsung handsets' releases always come with a lot of fanfare. Luckily this year the fuss was justified and Samsung unveiled what in our mind is its most innovative smartphone to date, the Galaxy S5.
Apple launched its iPhone 5S last September, and according to its own sales stats the handset was another winner. Apple managed to shift nine million iPhone 5S and 5C devices in the first three days of availability.
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