Here are 3 reasons why you should not waste your money on a 2024 gaming laptop,
but also 2 reasons when it might make sense.
The first reason is that there aren’t actually any new laptop CPUs available this year. And that’s
despite both Intel and AMD doing their best to make you think otherwise and spend your money.
New AMD based gaming laptops have their latest Ryzen 8000 processors this year.
But until they launch Zen 5, these chips are literally the same as what they were offering
with Ryzen 7000 last year. According to AMD’s naming scheme, the 8 on the
front just means it’s a 2024 part. It’s the third number we’ve got to pay attention to,
and so far they’re all using the same Zen 4 architecture. If we actually look at the specs,
all the core and thread counts, cache and clock speeds are literally the same.
Don’t get me wrong, Zen 4 is still great and performs well,
but you can spend less and get the exact same thing in a 2023 laptop.
The only improvements the Ryzen 8000 parts have is improved AI performance
from the NPU. So for gamers, that’s not worth a higher price.
Alright, but what about Intel?
Well, yeah, technically Intel did introduce their 14th gen laptop processors this year, but
the 14th gen architecture is literally the same as 13th gen. They’re both based on Raptor Lake.
The main difference is that 14th gen has an extremely small bump in clock speeds. But apart
from that, core counts and cache are otherwise the same as last year, just with a higher price tag.
The only exception seems to be the Core i7-14700HX,
which does actually have more E cores compared to the 13700HX last year. But
that’s it. i5 and i9 laptop processors from 2024 are basically the same as 2023.
Just look at this. If we compare ASUS’s Scar 18 from 2023 to 2024, the 2023 model was actually
slightly better in both single and multi core performance. Of course some of this
comes down to silicon lottery luck, but it still demonstrates there are no major differences.
And it’s even worse when it comes to laptop GPUs,
which is my second reason not to buy a 2024 gaming laptop.
All 2024 gaming laptops are still using Nvidia’s RTX 40 series laptop graphics,
which came out at the start of 2023, so more than a full year ago at this point.
And unlike the desktop side, laptops are not getting a Super or Ti refresh.
Now don’t get me wrong, the 40 series is still great for playing modern games very well,
but the fact is if you’ve got to spend more money to get a newer 2024 gaming laptop
and you’re getting the same graphics that was already available last year,
well there’s not really much reason to spend more money just to get the same FPS in games.
Which leads me right into the third reason not to buy a 2024
gaming laptop - new 2024 models simply cost more money because they only just launched.
Let’s use my gaminglaptop.deals website for example. We update this every day
and share the latest sales with you, so that you can save money
on your next gaming laptop. But we don’t currently have any 2024 models listed,
because there just aren’t any good deals yet. Link to this website can be found below.
Yeah, the prices will probably go down over the next few months and I would expect to see some
decent sales. And when that time does come we will add them to the gaminglaptop.deals
website. But still, in most cases, a 2023 gaming laptop is still likely
to be cheaper as they are a year older while also delivering basically the same experience.
Of course that’s not to say that there aren’t good reasons to buy a 2024 gaming laptop,
it’s just that in most cases it’s not worth it right now.
Here are two reasons when a 2024 model might make sense.
The first is if the price is right. Although most 2024 models cost more money because they’re newer,
I have seen some cases where the price difference is quite small. So
in that case if we’re talking like less than 50 bucks or maybe the same price,
then yeah you might as well just go and get the 2024 option. Again,
this will change over time, 2024 models should only get cheaper as the year goes on.
And the second reason that it might be worth buying a newer 2024 gaming laptop
is that it might have some new specific feature that you really care about. Laptop
manufacturers are well aware that the CPU and GPU upgrades are lacking this year,
so in an effort to increase sales they’ve improved their laptops in other ways.
For example, if you really want a Razer Blade 16 with an OLED screen,
then the more expensive 2024 model is your only option, because the 2023 model didn’t offer that.
And that’s the case for a few other laptops too, like the ASUS Scar 18 offering a Mini LED
option in 2024, or the ASUS Zephyrus G14 and G16 getting OLED screens.
So if you want to save money with a cheaper 2023 gaming laptop, then check out this video next,
where I go through the top 5 best gaming laptops of 2023.
Or check out this one instead if you want to see what the new 2024 models
have to offer. I’ll see you in one of those next!