This is the most powerful gaming laptop right now, and this is the most powerful gaming
desktop PC I could build.
Let's find out how different they are in games and applications!
The laptop is MSI’s Titan GT77.
This thing has Intel’s Core i9-12900HX CPU and Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti graphics.
Unlike most other laptops, you can install up to 4 memory sticks and 4 M.2 drives.
My desktop PC on the other hand has Intel’s Core i9-12900KS, MSI’s RTX 3090 Ti Gaming
X Trio and DDR5-6000 CL36 memory from G.Skill.
MSI’s 2TB Spatium SSD was used for storing the games, and this Gen 4 drive can reach
some nice speeds.
Obviously we expect the desktop to win, but the question is by how much and at what cost?
Just before we find out, Gigabyte have sponsored this part of the video for me to tell you
about their latest GIGABYTE and AORUS gaming and creator laptops, featuring up to the NVIDIA
GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics card and up to the latest 12th Gen Intel Core i9 processor.
With an amazing looking 4K 16:10 OLED screen and top end specs, Gigabyte's Aero 16 is perfect
for content creators on the go.
The Aorus 17x goes to the next level for gamers with a fast 360hz screen, a 16 core processor
and plenty of room for cooling to keep your game running smoothly.
You can get up to 30% off with their end of financial year sale, links are in the description.
Now I could have used an RTX 3080 Ti in the desktop to match the 3080 Ti in the laptop,
but this isn’t meant to be a fair comparison.
I literally just want to compare the best gaming laptop I’ve ever had with the best
desktop PC I could build.
Right now MSI’s Titan GT77 goes for around $4300 USD, though it only just launched for
pre-order, so this could change.
Links to everything can be found below the video.
A similar desktop PC build with the parts I’m testing with actually ends up costing
a similar amount.
I haven’t included a monitor, keyboard or mouse though, things that the laptop has built
in, so those would push the price up higher than the laptop.
You could absolutely build something with much better value, like Intel i7-12700K or
even Ryzen.
Again the goal here is to compare the best of the best, not to do what makes sense.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s an obvious size difference between these two
setups.
Of course you could build a much smaller desktop PC with a smaller case, this is just what
I happened to have available.
But even so, you can’t deny that the laptop has more portability.
That's its entire purpose after all, it’s easier to move.
I could put the GT77 in a bag and just pull it out anywhere and use it.
The smaller size means it has more thermal and power constraints though.
That’s the tradeoff.
Here are the differences between the CPUs in Cinebench R23.
The desktop’s 12900KS was able to score 41% higher in multi core despite both chips
having the same core and thread count.
Ironically the CPU in the desktop was actually running hotter than the laptop at 101 degrees
Celsius, even with the 360 AIO.
To be fair the laptop was thermal throttling, but at 97 degrees Celsius.
I let this test run for 30 minutes to account for these sorts of limits, but if I just do
one multicore test run from idle, the laptop can hit 24,000, so a 20% lead for the desktop
if you count that.
The single core score was 12% higher on the desktop, so not as big of a difference, but
still a clear win.
Despite the high temperatures in both, the desktop system was running much quieter because
it’s got so much more space for cooling.
It’s no secret that gaming laptops can run loud, especially a top end model like this.
Things get interesting when we look at the difference in total power drawn at the wall.
The desktop system with the 12900KS was using 154% more power in Cinebench compared to the
laptop, so far more power in order to hit that 41% higher score.
Basically, this means that although the desktop does perform better generally speaking, the
laptop is more power efficient.
Meanwhile running a game at 4K was using 170% more power at the wall on the desktop, all
thanks to that power hungry 3090 Ti.
So what are the actual differences in game performance then?
To find out we’ve tested 10 games at 4K, 1440p and 1080p resolutions!
Let's start out with Cyberpunk 2077.
I’ve got the 1080p results down the bottom, 1440p in the middle, and 4K above that, with
the laptop below the desktop at each resolution.
Ultra settings weren’t too far off 60 FPS at 1440p, which is great for a laptop, the
best in fact when compared to any other laptops I’ve reviewed.
Compared to the top end desktop PC which was reaching a 62% higher average FPS though,
well it’s not even close.
Sure you could enable DLSS on the laptop to boost FPS even higher, but you could just
do that on the desktop too.
Microsoft Flight Simulator had the smallest difference between the laptop and desktop
out of all 10 games tested at 1080p and 1440p resolutions.
I mean the 1% lows or dips in performance on the desktop were still about the same as
the average FPS coming out of the laptop, but the laptop is still running the game well.
There’s a much bigger gap when it comes to 4K though, the 3090 Ti system was reaching
a 68% higher average frame rate now, quite a big difference.
Red Dead Redemption 2 was doing fine at max settings on the laptop at 1440p, and while
it was hitting 48 FPS at 4K which sounds low, let’s be real you don’t have to use max
settings for the game to still look good.
I’m just using heavy settings to demonstrate the differences.
The laptop can absolutely perform better at say high settings instead of ultra and you
could throw on DLSS, but regardless there’s no denying the desktop being much further
ahead.
Rainbow Six Siege was running fine at 4K max settings on the laptop, but still the desktop
system was 65% ahead in terms of average FPS.
Is the laptop still offering a good experience?
Absolutely, but if you really do want the best, clearly the desktop system has a large
edge.
But at the same time, good luck taking the desktop to school or the office every day.
Forza Horizon 5 had a below average difference out of the 10 games tested, but as we can
see there’s still a fairly large gap between laptop and desktop.
The laptop was around 70 FPS at 4K high settings, but the desktop machine was 50% ahead.
So yeah the laptop is absolutely usable here with the game still looking good, it just
can’t keep up with the 3090 Ti, though as we saw that is also using way more power too.
God of War runs quite well even at max settings.
Sure the laptop isn’t hitting 60 FPS at 4K, but we could turn on DLSS or FSR, or otherwise
drop down one level to high settings to boost it quite a bit.
Regardless, the desktop is reaching a 66% higher average frame rate here which is a
big improvement.
Dying Light 2 was able to run above 60 FPS at 4K on the 3090 Ti, which was around 71%
faster than the laptop, one of the bigger differences.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla had one of the smaller differences out of the 10 titles tested.
No DLSS or FSR to increase frames in this game, so this is what we get, granted we did
test max settings which are kind of overkill.
We’re dealing with overkill hardware though, so I thought it was appropriate.
Even with max settings the laptop is running above 70 FPS at 1440p, an amazing result from
a gaming laptop, the best I’ve ever seen actually.
It’s just that the desktop with higher tier more power hungry parts was reaching a 43%
higher average FPS.
Though it was also using more than double the power too.
Watch Dogs Legion was tested at max settings.
Again 1440p on the laptop was around the 70 FPS point without even using DLSS.
I feel like I'm repeating myself, but this is amazing stuff from a laptop, but yeah the
desktop PC was doing better than this at 4K despite that resolution having to spit out
125% more pixels.
Far Cry 6 wasn’t too far behind the magic 60 FPS on the laptop at 4K max settings, and
we’re not even taking advantage of FSR here.
Nevertheless, the desktop was reaching a 66% higher average frame rate, quite a big gap.
On average out of all 10 games tested, the desktop PC was reaching a 45% higher average
frame rate compared to the gaming laptop.
As we can see, results really depend on the specific game.
Red Dead Redemption 2 at the top for example was running 65% faster on the desktop system
while Flight Simulator down the bottom was only 26% ahead of the laptop.
The gap between them gets larger in favor of the desktop PC at the higher 1440p resolution,
with the desktop now 53% faster than the laptop on average.
This isn’t too surprising, the RTX 3090 Ti is far more powerful compared to the laptop
3080 Ti, and more GPU power benefits higher resolutions.
We see this peak at 4K where the desktop system was now nearly 66% faster than the laptop
on average out of these 10 titles.
This is quite a large difference, and although high spec gaming laptops absolutely can run
games well at 4K this generation, granted maybe not at max settings and with features
like DLSS and FSR, if you don’t need portability then you should probably consider a stationary
desktop machine to take advantage of the extra performance on offer while also running quieter.
At the end of the day, I think that’s what it really comes down to.
Whether or not you need to move your machine with you on a regular basis and if you need
that much power on the go.
Of course there are other solutions, like taking a hybrid approach of running a powerful
desktop at home and using a lightweight notebook on the go.
It just depends on your personal needs, But at least there are options.
If you want some fairer comparisons between laptops and desktops then check out these
videos over here next.
I made a much better effort to keep the laptop and desktop the same in those, but you can’t
argue it definitely was fun to see what the differences are between the best here.