We’ve tested 34 laptop and desktop GPUs to find out once and for all how everything compares!
Laptop and desktop GPUs often perform completely different despite having
the same name, so this comparison will allow you to see the real differences,
misleading product names and marketing aside.
Testing 24 games on 34 GPUs at 1080p, 1440p and 4K resolutions took more than 400 hours
to complete. Which is kind of like working for 5 weeks non-stop with 12 hour days with no
weekends.. I’m never going to financially recover from how much it cost to test all of this… Unless?
This part of the video has been sponsored by MSI and their Stealth 16 Studio laptop!
With up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 graphics and 13th gen Intel Core i9 processor, MSI’s Stealth 16
Studio can pack a punch. But as its name suggests, it does this while looking clean and stealthy.
The slim and lightweight magnesium-aluminum design feels great, it’s got the largest possible
battery, and the different screen options should satisfy both gamers and creators.
Car lovers might prefer the limited edition Mercedes AMG motorsport version,
with a racing inspired theme that makes its way into all areas of the laptop.
This version also gets an upgrade to an OLED screen and comes with unique
extras including a mouse and mouse pad, cable ties, USB stick, pouch and more
Check out the link in the video description to find out more.
Back to the big GPU comparison! There are way too many results to
fit on screen in an easily readable way, so we’re instead going to zoom in a bit
and scroll through them like this, starting with 1080p from the bottom.
The first thing that stood out to me is just how big the difference is between
the RTX 3050. When we average 22 games together, at 1080p the desktop version
is 72% faster - quite a difference. Though to be fair, I do have a lower wattage 3050 laptop,
you can get them with up to 95 watts which would close the gap.
Nvidia’s RTX 4050 laptop GPU basically matches AMD’s RX 7600S, though the 7600S doesn’t have
features like DLSS or frame generation. Right now the 7600S is on sale in the TUF A16 for
$900 USD, but the 4050 in an Acer Nitro 5 is $750, so kind of hard to justify AMD here.
The RX 6800M laptop GPU is only a little ahead of the RTX 3060 laptop these days,
while the 6650 XT desktop card was a little ahead.
The desktop RTX 3060 card was just 14% faster compared to the laptop,
a smaller difference compared to what we found with the 3050s. The desktop 3060 was matching
the RTX 4060 laptop. The laptop has less VRAM, but RTX 40 series has the option of DLSS 3.
AMD’s RX 7600 desktop card was close to the RTX 4060 laptop,
and 23% faster compared to the similarly named 7600S laptop GPU.
The laptop 4060 basically matched the desktop 3060, though with more VRAM,
the desktop card will probably age better in the long run.
The RTX 4060 desktop card was only 8% faster compared to the laptop version,
as both are actually using the same GPU,
so most of the difference here would come from other aspects like laptop vs desktop CPUs.
It takes an RTX 3070 Ti laptop to match the 4060 desktop card,
but again 40 series can use frame generation in supported games while the older 30 series cannot.
Meanwhile the higher tier RTX 4070 laptop GPU matches the RTX 3060 Ti
desktop card. The 3080 Ti laptop GPU was only a little better than the 4070,
but it also has double the VRAM capacity. Depending on how much you care about DLSS 3,
the extra VRAM from the older 3080 Ti may age better in newer games.
At this point the higher GPUs are definitely 1440p capable, so just before we move on I want to point
out that at 1080p the RTX 4080 laptop GPU was basically the same as the RTX 3080 desktop or
RTX 4070 desktop cards. The best laptop GPU right now, the RTX 4090 mobile, was slightly ahead of
the RX 6900 XT and RTX 3080 Ti desktop cards, while the RTX 3090 card was only a little ahead.
Yeah, the 4090 desktop card is 33% higher than the 4090 laptop,
despite both having the same misleading name, but the fact
that the best laptop sits between 3080 Ti and 3090 desktop cards is quite impressive.
Alright we’ve got fewer GPUs at 1440p because some of the lower end ones like the 3050 can’t
run it very well. We’ve also got more games now, 23 instead of 22 at 1080p, because those
lower end GPUs with less VRAM prevented us from including a game in the overall average.
1440p is more GPU bound, so the differences between laptop and desktop CPUs and RAM start
to matter less, which is why there’s almost no gap between the 3060 laptop and desktop card now.
The 4060 laptop and desktop gap gets smaller at 1440p too,
with the 4060 laptop now averaging 60 FPS in 23 games at max settings,
while the 4070 laptop GPU is only a little better than last year’s cheaper 3070 Ti laptop GPU.
Last year’s 3080 Ti laptop GPU sits just below the desktop 3070 card,
while matching the RTX 4060 Ti card.
The 4080 laptop was sitting in between Nvidia’s RTX 3080 and AMD’s new RX 7800
XT card. On average, the 7800 XT was basically the same as the older 6900 XT.
Meanwhile the 4080 desktop card was 37% faster than the laptop version,
once again showing that you can’t fairly compare based on product name alone.
The RTX 4090 laptop GPU was now matching the 3090 desktop card. The 3090 was a little higher at the
lower 1080p resolution, perhaps partly due to the CPU difference, but now at 1440p they’re basically
the same on average. That’s impressive from a gaming laptop, but at the same time, the desktop
4090 was 49% faster, an even bigger gap compared to the 33% difference noted at 1080p earlier.
Alright we’ve got 10 less GPUs at the higher 4K resolution,
because it’s just much tougher to run, and we can finally fit everything on one screen.
The 4090 desktop card is dominating here, and is 71% ahead compared to the laptop version,
a massive difference for something with the same name. The laptop version is still close to the
3090 desktop card, and also the 4070 Ti and 3080 Ti cards, so excellent performance considering
the constraints laptops have to deal with, but nowhere near comparable to the desktop 4090.
Meanwhile the desktop 4080 was 46% ahead of the laptop version,
not as big of a gap compared to the 4090s, but still a huge difference
for GPUs with the same name. The 4080 desktop is quite close to AMD’s 7800
XT desktop card and Nvidia’s 3080 - granted I only have the older 10 gig version here.
I don’t consider the 4070 laptop GPU to be 4K capable,
and the desktop version was 50% faster at 4K in our 24 game average.
But those are just averages from 24 different games. What about
the actual FPS results from each individual game?
You can view the FPS from all games on my website with the link below the video, because honestly,
it would just be way too boring going through it all here and take way too long. So check that out
if you want to see how any of these specific games perform on our massive GPU selection.
That page also covers the specific specs in the test PC, every laptop that was used
for the laptop GPUs, an explanation as to why some GPUs were missing, as well as an important
explanation on why some of the individual game data might not be fairly comparable.
So check that out with the link below to get all the details.
If you want more laptop vs desktop comparisons then check these out
next! I go into way more detail in those dedicated comparisons and include things
like fan noise and cost per frame value, so I’ll see you in one of those next!