RTX 30 series laptops: what you need to know

(CNN) –

If you’re hoping to buy a gaming laptop, now is the time to pull the trigger. Nvidia has just unveiled its latest 30 series graphics cards at CES 2021, which will usher in a new wave of notebooks that can deliver performance that rivals the new PS5 and Xbox Series X. Add that to Intel’s new processors and AMD and this year’s games Laptops are turning out to be some of the best PCs you can buy in general – whether you want to fly high in Microsoft Flight Simulator or do some serious creative work at home.

There are many new laptop technologies to understand now, which is why we sift through everything to find out what the latest innovations from Nvidia, Intel and AMD mean to you and how to make sure you are getting a gaming laptop that takes advantage of them.

Debuting in more than 70 laptops this year, Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 30 series of graphics processing units, or GPUs, promises better energy efficiency and stronger gaming performance in a series of highly portable designs. In short: if you’re buying a gaming laptop this year, you’ll want it to have an RTX 3060, RTX 3070, or RTX 3080 graphics card.

So why are these new laptop GPUs important? In addition to getting the existing benefits of Nvidia’s RTX series – including advanced ray tracing for ultra-realistic glare and gaming illumination, and Nvidia Broadcast to enhance your webcam streams using AI – the 30 series offers a variety of important new benefits to work and Tap. This includes Dynamic Boost 2.0, which constantly optimizes your machine for the best possible performance based on the tasks you are doing, and WhisperMode 2.0, which allows you to choose from several modes that will keep your laptop as quiet as possible or provide maximum speed. Nvidia says that half of the new RTX 30 series laptops on the way will support an incredibly high or better 240 Hz refresh rate, which will allow for incredibly smooth frame rates that are especially ideal for competitive players looking for responsiveness in fractions of second.

The RTX 30 series laptops are also not just ideal for gaming. New notebooks that meet Nvidia’s “Studio” certification – including the Asus ZenBook Pro Duo UX582 and MSI Creator 15 – can render content twice as fast as those of the previous generation. You are also getting up to 16 GB of graphics memory on RTX 3080 notebooks, which means a lot of space to handle various creative applications without having to worry about slowness or crashes.

Nvidia’s new graphics technology isn’t the only good reason to buy a gaming laptop this year – you can also expect a huge overall power boost, thanks to the latest advances from Intel and AMD. Any new laptop you buy will have an Intel or AMD processor, so it’s important to make sure that you’re buying the best one.

AMD has just unpacked its Ryzen 5000 series processors, which come in a variety of different flavors and all promise a huge performance boost over previous generation laptops. The latest AMD Ryzen 7 5800U processor, for example, promises up to 16% stronger performance and up to about 17 hours of overall battery life. On high-end gaming notebooks, you’ll see AMD’s HX series processors, including the Ryzen 9 5980HX, which can outperform the previous generation by up to 23%.

Not to be outdone, Intel also announced its new 11th Generation Intel Core H-series laptop processors at CES, which are specifically built to deliver incredible performance on thin 16mm laptops. The flagship of the Core i7-11375H CPU, for example, promises “the fastest single-thread performance of any laptop”, outperforming AMD’s Ryzen 4000 series chips by about 30%. These are a lot of numbers to reflect on, but the main thing is to keep an eye on the “11” and “H” in the processor name to make sure you are getting the best and latest.

Laptops with RTX 30 series graphics (and in some cases, the new AMD and Intel chips) will go on sale on January 26 in almost all major manufacturers, including Alienware, Asus, HP, Lenovo and Razer. We’ve selected some early highlights that are worth keeping an eye on this year, with options for both casual players and serious enthusiasts willing to spend a lot.

MSI Stealth 15M: If portability is your priority, the MSI Stealth 15M may be for you. Billed as the “thinnest 15-inch gaming laptop in the world,” the Stealth 15M measures just 0.63 inches thick and weighs 3.7 pounds, while still containing Nvidia’s powerful new RTX 3060 Max-Q GPU. Look this spring, starting at $ 1,399.

Razer Blade 15 Advanced Edition: If you are a competitive player willing to spend a lot in search of a high resolution screen that also has a fast refresh rate, it is worth taking a look at the Razer Blade 15 Advanced Edition. This sophisticated $ 2,499 model offers a 15.6-inch 1440p display with a high refresh rate of 240 Hz, along with powerful specifications, including a RTX 3070 GPU and a 10th generation Intel Core i7 processor.

Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 SE: For those looking to really do it all, there’s the Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo. This unique dual-screen laptop has a 14-inch secondary touch screen between the keyboard and the 15.6-inch main screen, which is perfect for doing things how to manage your live stream, check tutorials or monitor your system temperature while playing. You also get a bestial RTX 3080 GPU and a powerful AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX processor – although you have to pay a high starting price of $ 2,899.

If you’re buying your first gaming laptop – or looking to upgrade your old, noisy notebook that can barely run Fortnite – this is the time to do it. This year’s next wave of portable gaming PCs is looking like a viable alternative to high-end gaming desktops and consoles, and many of them will double as powerful multitasking machines to do the homework when you’re not exploring Cyberpunk 2077 or mowing grass. take down your friends in Gears 5.

We can’t wait to get our hands on the many exciting laptops hitting the market this year (and wasting many hours playing in the process), so stay tuned for our practical reviews and impressions.