RTX 30 Series Laptops: What You Need To Know

(CNN) –

If you’ve been slow to buy a gaming laptop, now is the time to pull the trigger. Nvidia just unveiled its latest 30 Series graphics cards at CES 2021, which will usher in a new wave of laptops capable of delivering performance to rival the new PS5 and Xbox Series X. Add to that the new processors from Intel and AMD, and this year’s games laptops are fast becoming one of the best PCs you can buy overall – whether you want to soar into Microsoft Flight Simulator or do some serious creative work. home.

There’s a lot of new laptop tech to figure out right now, which is why we’ve dug it all in to break down what the latest innovations from Nvidia, Intel, and AMD mean to you, and how to make sure you get one. gaming laptop that takes advantage of it.

Debuting on more than 70 laptops this year, Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 30 series of graphics processing units, or GPUs, promise better power efficiency and stronger gaming performance in a series of highly portable designs. Long story 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 portable GPUs important? In addition to taking advantage of the existing benefits of Nvidia’s RTX series – including advanced ray tracing for ultra-realistic reflections and lighting in games, and Nvidia Broadcast for enhancing your webcam feeds using the IA – the 30 Series offers a variety of important new benefits for work and play. This includes Dynamic Boost 2.0, which constantly optimizes your machine for the best possible performance based on the tasks you perform, and WhisperMode 2.0, which lets you choose multiple modes that will keep your laptop as quiet as possible or deliver maximum speed. . Nvidia claims that half of the new RTX 30 series laptops on the way will support an extremely high refresh rate of 240Hz or better, which will allow for incredibly smooth frame rates, especially ideal for competitive gamers. seeking responsiveness in a fraction of a second.

The RTX 30 series laptops aren’t just great for gaming. New laptops that meet Nvidia’s “Studio” certification – including the Asus ZenBook Pro Duo UX582 and the MSI Creator 15 – can render content twice as fast as the previous generation. You also get up to 16GB of graphics memory on the RTX 3080 laptops, which means plenty of headroom to juggle multiple creative apps without having to worry about slowdowns or crashes.

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

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

Not to be outdone, Intel also announced at CES its new 11th generation Intel Core H laptop processors, specially designed to deliver blazing performance in laptops as thin as 16 millimeters. The flagship Core i7-11375H processor, for example, promises “the fastest single-threaded performance of any laptop,” beating AMD’s Ryzen 4000 series chips by around 30%. That’s a lot of numbers to chew on, but the bottom line is to keep an eye out for the “11” and “H” in the processor name to be sure you’re getting the latest and greatest.

Laptops with RTX 30 series graphics (and in some cases newer AMD and Intel chips) will go on sale January 26 from nearly all major manufacturers, including Alienware, Asus, HP, Lenovo, and Razer. . We’ve picked a few early highlights that are worth watching this year, with options for casual gamers and serious amateurs willing to spend the big money.

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

Razer Blade 15 Advanced Edition: If you’re a competitive gamer willing to splurge looking for a high-resolution display that also offers a fast refresh rate, the Razer Blade 15 Advanced Edition is worth a look. This top-of-the-line $ 2,499 model gives you a 15.6-inch 1440p display with a high 240Hz refresh rate, paired with powerful specs including an RTX 3070 GPU and a 10th Gen Intel Core i7 processor.

Two ASUS ROG at 15 FR: For those who really want to do it all, there is the Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo. This unique dual-screen laptop has a 14-inch secondary touchscreen between the keyboard and the 15.6-inch primary display, which is perfect for performing tasks such as managing your live stream, checking out tutorials or monitoring system temperature while gaming. You also get a beastly RTX 3080 GPU and a powerful AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX processor – though you’ll have to pay a steep starting price of $ 2,899.

If you’re shopping for your first gaming laptop – or looking to upgrade your creaky old laptop that can barely run Fortnite – now is the time to do it. This year’s next wave of portable gaming PCs looks like a viable alternative to next-gen gaming desktops and consoles, and many of them will double as powerful multitasking machines for working from home when you don’t. not explore Cyberpunk 2077 or mow. take down your friends in Gears 5.

We can’t wait to get our hands on the many exciting laptops to come this year (and waste many hours of gaming in the process), so stay tuned for our reviews and hands-on impressions.