One of the best ways to stay ahead in this world is to have the best machines, So if you are a professional developer or a gamer or aspire to be one someday then you need to have a best laptop.
What you should know before buying a gaming laptop?
Now before you move on to top best machines pick, you should way in mind a few things so that you can make a wise decision. The most important thing you are going to need in your laptop is performance.
The Performance depends on five pillars ie.
- PROCESSOR
- RAM
- STORAGE MEMORY
- GRAPHICS CARD
- BATTERY
lets see each of them one by one.
PROCESSOR
The Processor is a computer brain.
- ATOM
- CELERON
- PENTIUM
- CORE I3
- CORE I5
- CORE I7
- CORE I9
These are the typical processor which are available in the market.
The first three are the primitive ones so we will focus on core i3 and above processors.
Now the laptop processors are made primarily by two companies ie. INTEL and AMD
If you are going for an AMD laptop then the equivalents are
- RYZEN 3
- RYZEN 5
- RYZEN 7
The capability of each processor is listed below.
- For Basic Office Usage
- Browsing the Internet, Watching Movies, etc.
- 2-4 Cores
- 1.9-4.0 GHz Indicative Clock Speed
Intel Core i3 = Ryzen 3
- Heavy Office work like Excel and Powerpoint
- Light Gaming
- Image Editing
- Coding (Except game Dev, 3D Rendering, etc.)
- 2-4 Cores
- 1.9-4.0 GHz Clock Speed
Intel Core i5 = Ryzen 5
- Heavy Gaming
- Professional Game Development
- 3D Graphics Creation
- Video Editing, Professional Photo Editing
- 4-8 Cores
- 2.4-5.0 GHz Clock Speed
Intel Core i7 or i9 = Ryzen 7
RAM
RAM stands for Random Access Memory and it is stores all the opened files, apps, and games while you are using it. More RAM allows more of them to be running simultaneously.
There are two types of RAM available in the market. The DDR3 is older, slower, and consumes more power and the DDR4 is faster and more power-efficient. Typically the laptop comes in 4 GB, 8 GB, and 16 GB of RAM, a minimum of 8 GB is recommended because the program these days use a lot of RAM.
However, if you plan to use heavy software like Photoshop, video editing, or Heavy Gaming then you should go for 16 GBof RAM one more thing to keep in mind is the upgradability of the laptop so if you have an empty slot in the laptop ie. is a plus point and the bonus for you because you can add more RAM in the future.
STORAGE MEMORY
It is a place where your operating system and all the documents, photos, apps, and games will be stored. The speed of the internal storage is very very critical and the performance of the laptop.
There are two types of Storage memories available these days in the market. The STANDARD HARD DRIVE and the newer SOLID STATE DRIVE it is highly recommended to use an SSD these days although it is a bit expensive it is totally worth the price and you can really feel the performance boost over the standard mechanical hard drive. The other economical option is to use a laptop with SSHD which means it will have 128 GB of SSD and 1 TB of HDD, the operating system, and all the important apps will be installed on the SSD, and the rest of your documents and movies and photos will be stored on the HDD.
- It is a Mechanical Drive and Stores Data on Magnetic Disk
- Slower and Less Reliable Because It Contains Moving Parts
- Lifespan is Less
- Cheaper
- It Stores Data on Electronic Chips
- Extremely Fast and Highly Reliable
- Long Lasting
- Expensive
GRAPHICS CARD
The Graphics card is a dedicated chip inside your laptop, responsible for the quality of visuals that you see on the screen.
The Graphics card is two types:
- THE INTEGRATED GRAPHICS is onboard graphics.
- DEDICATED GRAPHICS where you have separated graphic cards.
The latest Intel Processors contain an integrated graphics chip that is sufficient for everyday needs. But if you use heavy software like Photoshop or 3D modeling software or play heavy games then you required a Dedicated Graphics card.
NVIDIA and AMD are the two popular companies that made Dedicated graphics cards.
One important thing to note here is if you are not a game developer if you do not play games at all you probably do not need a dedicated graphics card.
Most of the Programming except for game development and machine learning does not require a dedicated graphics card, so if you are just a programmer you can do away with these features.
- NVIDIA- GTX 1050, 1060, 1650, 1660 etc.
- AMD- RX 550, 560, 570, 580, 590 etc.
- NVIDIA- GTX 1070, 1080; RTX 2060, 2070, 2080 etc.
- AMD- RX 5700, VEGA 56, VEGA 64 etc,
BATTERY
The other important aspect is the Battery Life. The Battery is measured in Watt Hour (WHr), More watt-hour means more battery life. However, this is not completely true. The battery life depends on how you use your laptop and what kind of apps you run.
Also, a bigger battery will mount to a bigger and heavier laptop, generally, laptops with Integrated graphics consume much less power then laptops having the dedicated graphics card.
