At CES 2021, Nvidia launched its GeForce RTX 3000 GPUs for laptops. These, of course, are led by the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080, a graphics card that set the standard for 4K PC gaming in 2020. Of all the gaming laptops announced at the virtual event, however, very few have it. it embraced 4K gaming, and rather everything packed into FHD and QHD panels with higher refresh rates. And it's time.
![Gigabyte]()
We're all in favor of pretty creative laptops, don't get me wrong (Image credit: Gigabyte)
Who needs a 4K display anyway?
When we're talking about a 15-inch or even a 17-inch laptop screen, 4K resolution is totally unnecessary. We spend hours looking at laptop screens of all sizes and resolutions, and there are only a few devices that we've been able to look at and say “this is a 4K display” when it isn't. this is not a full size monitor. When you look at a 4-inch 27K gaming monitor, for example, you're looking at a pixel density of 163 PPI, which is basically considered the gold standard. Then when you look at a 15-inch laptop, but drop the screen resolution to 2K, or 2560 x 1440, it's actually more pixel-dense than the 4-inch 27K display, at 195.81. PPI. Basically, you have a more pixel-dense screen on the laptop, without needing the extra horsepower that a 4K display requires. Also, in recent years, as laptop manufacturers have realized that many creative professionals are buying gaming laptops for work, new options have started to emerge. That's basically why Gigabyte, for example, rebranded its Aero line of laptops to focus more on creatives who want to game in their downtime, rather than jump into gaming. It's no surprise that the Gigabyte Aorus 17G is primarily a 1080p laptop with a high refresh rate, while the Gigabyte Aero 15 OLED packs a fancy 4K OLED panel. This division of the gaming laptop market between gaming devices and creative devices, even though the latter have roughly the same internal hardware, results in products that make more sense for their respective audiences than anyone else does. you have to pay for features they don't have. need. So it looks like the 4K gaming laptop is disappearing from the market, which is great news. Not only does a 120Hz display make more sense for a device designed solely for gaming, but the level of hardware needed to make 4K gaming a universally positive experience isn't there yet.
![MSI RTX 3080]()
Imagine trying to install it on a laptop (Image credit: Future)
Now there is an RTX 3080, but only a little
When we reviewed the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080, we found it to be more than capable of handling just about any game in sunny 4K with minimal issues. And, now that you can buy a gaming laptop with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080, you might be thinking that it can run any game in 4K and boost settings with high frame rates. There are definitely some games that you will be able to play without any problems, but you have to keep in mind that desktop and mobile graphics are not exactly the same. Nvidia doesn't have the full specs listed on their website, but Anandtech has a handy table we can refer to until we get one of these laptops in-house to test. According to the specifications listed by Anandtech, the RTX 3080 mobile features 6.144 CUDA cores, with a boost clock between 1245 and 1710 MHz (to be configured by laptop manufacturers). For comparison, the desktop-class RTX 3080 has 8,704 CUDA cores with a 1.71GHz boost clock. That's a pretty huge difference, and it means the mobile-class RTX 3080 probably won't get the 4K power it does. his desktop brother. Now, there's a good reason why the mobile version of the graphics card is so much smaller than the desktop version. It just doesn't make sense to put such a power-hungry graphics card in a mobile form factor. Not only would the battery life be absolutely appalling, but you'd also need the laptop to be so thick it looks like it came straight out of 2004. Because the mobile-class RTX 3080 is closer to a desktop-class RTX 3070 in raw specs, it makes sense that even Nvidia is pitching it as a 1440p GPU. Many of the latest generation gaming laptops have tried to release 4K versions of their laptops, but this just resulted in people manually lowering their in-game resolution to achieve a playable frame rate. It's definitely part of the game on PC, but it's still not a great experience, especially for someone who is new to the platform and just wants a functional product. All of the gaming laptops announced at CES 2021 have very high refresh rates, which can be just as difficult to fully exploit as a 4K display. However, getting 60fps on a 1080p 360Hz display is a much less horrible experience than 20fps on a 4K display. That's why we say bring the fastest laptop screens.