QHD screens may be the best thing that happened to gaming laptops in 2021

One of the biggest announcements at CES 2021 seemed to come and go without much fanfare. Obfuscated by Nvidia’s debut of its RTX 3000 series graphics chips for laptops, you may not have heard that an increasing number of manufacturers are finally creating quick update QHD screens on your handheld gaming machines.

Independent QHD monitors (1440p) are a popular choice for demanding gamers who use desktop computers for a variety of reasons. First of all, monitors are often more affordable and feature-rich than most 4K monitors, although they look so good. Most importantly, modern high-end graphics cards, such as AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT and Nvidia RTX 3080 (and even some high-end products), run games very well in QHD.

Frustrating and inexplicably, though, QHD has not been an option if you want one integrated into your gaming laptop. You had the option of 1080p or 4K or the output option for a 1440p monitor that you purchased separately. That is shifting to 2021, and perhaps at the perfect time, as machines equipped with the RTX 3000 series and AMD’s RDNA 2 graphics chips will make the most of QHD.

Image: Acer

I’m still of the opinion that 1080p looks good for most use cases, but I will not argue that displaying games in 1080p with relatively smooth performance is a small obstacle for midsize laptop hardware to overcome. On the other hand, playing the latest AAA games in 4K resolution with all the graphics settings set to the maximum is both impressive and mediocre, with frame rates often falling in the unplayable zone. QHD screens on powerful laptops can offer great visual fidelity with hardware that you should have no trouble keeping up with.

The Razer Blade 15 is one of the few laptops announced at CES 2021 that will allow you to add a QHD screen to your order, and I was pleased to see that it wouldn’t add much to the grand total. For $ 2,199 ($ ​​200 more than the model with a 144 Hz FHD panel), you get a machine with a QHD IPS screen with a refresh rate of 165 Hz, along with the new Nvidia RTX 3070 and a tenth-generation six-core Intel Core i7 processor. This price is on par with many current laptops equipped with state-of-the-art parts and a fast-updating 1080p screen.

In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to see gaming laptops with QHD screens falling below the $ 2,000 price range this year. The Acer Nitro 5 for 2021 will also have the option of being configured with a QHD screen, and I’m sure many other OEMs will follow suit.

Image: Razer

I’m still not able to say what kind of performance the Nvidia RTX 3000 series offers on new laptops by the end of the month. But if you’re used to playing on a 1080p monitor, seeing everything running on a pixel-density QHD screen can be revealing.