I think your confusing getting "good performance, relative to your monitor" with "getting the same performance as high end desktop GPUs." Actual mobile GPUs are cut down versions of their desktop counterparts. Yes I know there are actual GTX 980 GPUs in laptops which is still a far cry from 980Ti or TITAN X GPUs. You will also still pay substantially more for the same level of performance with a lower performance ceiling.
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True Gaming Laptops Are Finally Becoming A Reality
- Thread starter Megalith
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I think your confusing getting "good performance, relative to your monitor" with "getting the same performance as high end desktop GPUs." Actual mobile GPUs are cut down versions of their desktop counterparts. Yes I know there are actual GTX 980 GPUs in laptops which is still a far cry from 980Ti or TITAN X GPUs. You will also still pay substantially more for the same level of performance with a lower performance ceiling.
Ya, I was reading one where they just put a GTX 970. It was 15% drop compared to the desktop, but the desktop also had a higher powered CPU and they didn't try to match cpu specs.
Ya, I don't see much point aiming for the high end crowd, cause the cost becomes too restrictive. Hit more users at a lower cost, than few users with crazy costs. I really wonder who bought those $5k+ DTR laptops.
I'd be more inclined to get one of those external GPU setups, if I was going to be going somewhere for an extended amount of time. Like going to work with the military downrange for a year. For home use, not so much. That's just my usage though. I'm sure it'd be great for others who don't want to have a desktop. They just want one machine.
If lan parties still existed, I'd be all over the external GPU setup. Lugging around a 50 lbs desktop (just the case/internals) sucked. Then I still had to haul a 27" monitor, keyboard, and mouse.
I think this is a great product, having the ability to use my ultra book for every day stuff and work, then being able to come home, and "dock" it and have multiple monitor and "gaming" abilities would be fantastic. I don't think they are going after the "4K ultra high settings" market with this one.
D
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This is the market for this device. I'll admit that it looks good to me as well. If you just lug your laptop across town for LAN parties then a traditional gaming laptop would probably work for you. If you seriously travel then weight becomes a huge issue. Especially if you are trying to keep everything to "2 carry on" and have what you need for a week of business travel. I bought a Razer back in 2014 and I have enjoyed it when I had to travel for extended periods. It's a pain though keeping your desktop and laptop in sync which is why this is appealing to me. No question that this will be a niche product.
I don't think this will ever replace the traditional gaming laptop, I just this this will be an option. When USB3 is more ubiquitous I think that Razer has gone the right direction, especially if they can make the device work with other manufacturer's hardware.
DukenukemX
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Most gaming laptops are over $1k and even then because of Intel's crap with mobile chips being mostly dual core, it makes no sense to invest in a gaming laptop. Especially when you have a graphics card waiting at home for you to plug into the laptop. That adapter for the GPU is very expensive as well.
Better off with a cheap desktop at home and a cheap laptop on the go. You'll get a better experience, and the cheap laptop won't be as heavy or as hot. Also with APU's from Intel and AMD doing so well, you can still play games with relatively mid to low settings on the go.
I'm not confusing it, but I see what you're saying. Of course a mobile GPU will never match a 980Ti or Titan, but It seems kind of weird that you'd buy an expensive laptop, and a very expensive desktop GPU / enclosure, to hook up to an external monitor. Sort of defeats the purpose of a laptop in my opinion, especially when you could pay like 60% of the cost to get the desktop components, and you could squeeze it all into a very small case if you needed to be mobile.
I spose I'm not in that niche that would need it. Interesting concept though, I guess I can see the appeal if you want to travel with a laptop for normal work tasks / a limited gaming capability, then when you come home, plug in your external GPU and make it a beast.
For the same money though, you could buy both a regular laptop that can do work / game with limited settings and a buy beefy desktop
heatlesssun
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Most of the devices being sold as gaming laptops come with full wattage mobile CPUs that are quad core. The lower wattage Core ULV CPUs are found primarily in ultrabooks and tablets.
heatlesssun
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For the same money though, you could buy both a regular laptop that can do work / game with limited settings and a buy beefy desktop
I think devices like this that can be mobile, or at least portable compared to a desktop, that can transform and dock, have a good future. One device that can replace two has a good deal of appeal. The price certainly is a stumbling block but many like the convenience.
Mobility of a laptop and a SFF PC aren't the same thing. The SFF PC is still a PC, requiring a monitor, keyboard and mouse for setup. A laptop is easier to transport and get running once you get where your going. Again, if you need true mobility then the SFF system doesn't compete. The people hooking these up to external monitors and graphics adapters would do so at home, but have a laptop for when they need a high degree of portability. Again this is a small niche that this appeals to. Frankly the biggest problem is that such a setup is really something that's going to benefit the young rather than older people unless you just travel a lot for work and still play games.
My girlfriend's brother, who uses this same setup basically wants a good experience at home, but he's so social that he's rarely home on weekends etc. He goes to friend's houses (including mine) to play games on the weekends. Or he's spending time at a girlfriend's house but he doesn't live with her full time. For him I thought it made sense, despite the increased cost. He wouldn't go back at this point. At least not until he stops running around so much. I think in his case the cost wasn't as much of a factor as the utility of being able to have a solid experience at both home and away.
Exactly. The niche appeals to a select few, but it does exist.
For the same money though, you could buy both a regular laptop that can do work / game with limited settings and a buy beefy desktop
That's the route I took. I've got a decent enough laptop for my portable gaming needs while having a much better system at home that a laptop can't equal. I travel only on occasion so I can afford to play some newer games with slightly reduced settings if I need to.
naturbo2000
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Somewhat true - since having a baby round the house, I've had to give up my old-school massive gaming rig. I literally had nowhere to put it (at least the monitor). My first port of call was to the world of eGPU, using a lenovo T420 laptop and a GTX560ti via expresscard on a 2m cable (housed in a mITX case). That was pretty awesome and allowed me to game in the lounge whilst my better half had access to the TV.
But the GTX560ti pretty well maxes out the link (PCIe 2.0 x1 + nvidia Optimus to output on the laptop screen). An upgrade to a GTX760 yielded me no fps improvement.
So then...
That depends. I have no room for a gaming rig setup. But I've put together a headless gaming rig (i5 + GTX760 in a miniITX case) purely for Steam home streaming. I can count on one hand how many times I've connected it up to a monitor and that was pretty much only for Windows 7 and 10 installs.
As soon as MS announced that Xbox One was going to get streaming to Windows 10 I picked one up. The only time that's been output to a TV is to see what update MS are pushing to me (i.e. when streaming doesn't work).
Streaming is no where near as good as having a dedicated cable connection to a GPU, (which is not as good as an internal GPU), but for a single thin and light laptop (without TB3 and eGPU support), there's certainly a niche for it.
I agree wholeheartedly with this. I would much rather have a "business" laptop (maybe a dell XPS, but I love trackpoints) with an eGPU over TB than any other solution.
The weight/heat/battery penalty of a gaming laptop doesn't interest me in the slightest.
I'm just waiting for the TB3 + enclosure dust to settle and I'll be back on that ship no doubt. Until then, I'm happy in the land of home streaming.
Either that, or my gaming rig will gain a HTC Vive ;-)
Your usage and everyone else's usage can be different. It makes perfect sense to some ppl, you just happen to not be one of them.
I fly from Germany to the US or Germany to Japan multiple times a year. I have no gaming machine in the US or Japan, nor do I even have a place to put them. I'm usually in the US or Japan for 1-2 weeks at a time.
So tell me why it makes no sense for me to get a gaming laptop.
A cheap desktop and a cheap laptop will cost just as much as a cheap gaming laptop, if not more. I just ordered up an Alienware 13" laptop. Dual Core I5 2.2 ghz, 8 gig memory, 256 gig ssd, and GTX 960m for $1200. Configuring up a laptop to match (minus the discrete graphics) puts me in the $750 range and it ends up with only a 1080p screen. Unlike the QHD one I'm getting, 3200x1800 touch display. The weight also was barely different. 0.5 lbs difference. I can also turn off the discrete graphics, so it'll run just as cool. Add in a desktop that can game as well as the laptop and I'm already spending more.
Really, it probably starts to even out if I get a graphics adapter and a better video card and get the same matching video card on the desktop.
For the same money though, you could buy both a regular laptop that can do work / game with limited settings and a buy beefy desktop
Only if you're looking at the top tier gaming laptops. If all you're looking at is the low/midrange gaming laptops, you aren't buying a normal laptop that matches the gaming laptop (minus discrete graphics) and a beefy desktop for less or even the same.
M76
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I don't need an external gpu to pick it up and go elsewhere with it. There is no reasonable argument to justify using a laptop for gaming at home. When I'm home I do everything on my desktop. Then if I need to go somewhere then pick up my laptop and take it.
hardware_failure
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Was going to make this exact post, word for word.
Yes, laptop sales continue to grow while the PC dwindles, especially in the home user market. If anything, a full on PC rig's biggest step above a mobile device is "for real" gaming.
Define "for real" gaming.
Zangmonkey
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It's not just gaming. I can now keep one system for cad work and put a professional card in here. I can have just one computer for multiple tasks if I have multiple core units with different GPUs
Dan
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MSI gs60 15" here with a 850m, 4710QM, 12gb of ram, 256 m.2 and a 500gb WD black... I play almsot every game I want at near highest settings @ 1080p. on a 850m! Gaming laptops are totally here.
Dan
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I totally understand where he is coming form. You want 2 980ti's a 4960x and 64gb of ram. While its extremely overkill in most situations, My desktop is 5760x1080, my 850m would shit a brick at those resolutions. There's other forms of gaming other then on a single monitor... VR, multi monitor, shit somepople have wide screen 4k monitors going on. Laptops cant handle everything
You misunderstood me apparently. I didn't say there was a justification for gaming on such a setup at home over a desktop. But if you need the portability primarily, then its nice to have the external GPU enclosure at home so you can have a gaming experience which would be similar to that of a desktop.
hardware_failure
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While I agree 100% I wasnt even going that far. I was more referring to the physicality of a laptop.
The biggest screen realistically in a laptop is what, 17"? 4k or 4 trillion pixels, its still 17". When used to gaming on 27" or bigger, 17" is a joke. Built in keyboard and trackpad, yea right.
Okay lets plug in a big screen and 3rd party wireless keyboard and mouse. And make sure you pack your beefy headphones (I actually prefer 5.1 speakers). At that point... whats the point?
Modred189
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There are a ton of use cases where this make sense. Say you are a college student. You are on a semi limited budget, and you can only really afford one system. But you NEED a laptop for classes. However, you WANT to game as well. However, being stuck on a 17" screen while in your dorm room is a little silly.
So, you buy a $1500 gaming laptop, a $100 monitor, $50 in keyboard and mouse, $50 on a headset and, boom, for $1700, you have a single system that can do it all. AND, no need to worry about file syncing etc that becomes an issue if you have two systems. Alternatively, here, you buy a $1k laptop and, say, a $250 video card with the Core, and not only do you get all the benefits of the first setup, but the laptop itself isn't massive and heavy.
Otherwise, you're likely going to spend more on two systems: a decent laptop with good battery and stats ($700-$800), plus the gaming rig for the dorm (say $800), in addition to the monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers. AND you have to deal with multiple systems and the file transfers etc.
Exactly.
Modred189
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I did the former while I was in grad school and law school and while at times it was great (OneNote syncing class notes between home and school was great), some times it was a HUGE pain. Periodically files wouldn't sync right for whatever reason (crappy school wifi), I had to buy multipole copies of software, or multilicense versions, whatever.
THere were, of course, benefits, but the draw of a single laptop with a "dock" at home with all of my desktop style peripherals was always tempting, but never 100% the best option.
tylertoast
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It'd be cool to see if there were backwards compatibility on it.
Other then just USB-C, would love to hook up an old laptop with a 670m and make it useable again.
Other then just USB-C, would love to hook up an old laptop with a 670m and make it useable again.
Blorgon
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You're completely missing the point. The idea is to take your laptop out into the worldto work, to school, to your local coffee shopfor productivity, and then come home and plug in for gaming.
Honestly, who games mobile? I just don't understand why people would want that. Shitty local wifi, no mouse and crappy keyboard, nowhere comfortable to sit. Where are you people doing your gaming that makes it worth the hassle?? What magical place have you found in the world where the distraction of other people, and shared internet isn't an issue?
I much prefer the idea of having a single PC and being able to do everything I just mentioned. Coming home to a real KB/M, a nice monitor, a comfy chair, and a good, reliable ethernet connection is the only way I'd ever want to do gaming.
Modred189
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While I agree with your sentiment generally, I have an answer to this:
Commuting on the train. I have a ~45minute train commute to and from work, and I can do a lot of playing. That said, i'm not big on multiplayer these days, so an internet connection is unnecessary, but I have spent a LOT of time on Minecraft, Prison Architect and a few others circa Chicago.
Tell that bullshit to my 14" Ultrabook sized Razer Blade. Catch up man, your knowledge is old and false.
http://www.razerzone.com/store/razer-blade?src=pgm.94785200&utm_source=bingads&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=razarbladelaptop&utm_campaign=bingadsusbrandsystemsblade
Bullshit
I was looking for exactly something like this a couple of years ago to supplement the power of my Razer Blade. My Blade was pretty good and it wasn't until Fallout4 was coming that I looked at my current job and figured that I really didn't need gaming laptops anymore and could get away with a desktop again. But while I had that Blade I looked for something just like this that I could throw in my checked bags for a trip and connect up for those long nights and weekends in the hotel room.
As a traveling gamer you can;
Keep you laptop on the plane with you, use it as a laptop is intended to be used, and when you get to the room plug in this add-on card and enjoy the extra horsepower while extending the serviceable life of your $2,000 laptop.
You just need to correct point of view to appreciate the benefits that it might give some folks. One size don't fit all.
Darunion
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I think you are missing the point. You do not avoid marketing a product because less than 100% of the population of the world wants it. You will never create a product that everyone loves, hell even sliced bread as much as we joke about is not preferred by some. External GPU for laptops opens up a new possibility for gamers that was otherwise a bit restrictive. Those who are running 4 way cards on all 4k monitors does NOT represent the majority of gamers. Those ones are kind of in the same group as audiophiles. A lover of games wants hardware to enjoy their games,A game-i-phile(?) wants games to enjoy their hardware.
We could also argue that playing on large monitors takes away from refresh speed thus limiting the gaming experience so one person does not necessarily have a 'better' setup than someone else.
^^ He's got good perspective going.
Darunion
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I feel like we both have agreed a couple of times lately. Kind of an odd feeling
OK, this is getting weird, let's stop
SavageThrash
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