In the gaming world, the PC master race is reigning over all the gaming platforms you can name and that goes without saying. And here we stay divided when it comes to Desktops and Laptops for gaming. There are a lot of factors to be discussed and it all comes down to your preferences to choose the right one.
Gaming rigs are never the same size and they come in all shapes and sizes. Considering a lot of factors, people’s preferences do vary in terms of choosing the best gaming beast. Some gamers love desktop gaming rigs to push the boundaries of graphical performance and experience. With ATX tower CPUs with a massive amount of RGB lighting everywhere not to mention bigger monitors to get the best out of the rig. And others who like the portability with the functionality to open your rig anytime you want. It all depends on the preference you have to go with different types of rigs and that’s why we can’t exactly determine which rig is the best.
There are a lot of factors to consider while trying to choose between a gaming laptop and a desktop. The gaming laptops are smaller and highly portable, but you’d have to sacrifice the need to customize it or upgrade it to the fullest. And on the other side, the gaming desktops are huge but they do come with extremely customizable hardware and you can upgrade them to next-gen hardware without any issues. So in other words, both gaming platforms are amazing and both of them come with their weaknesses.
But in this era of the computing world, both gaming laptops and desktops will provide you with the best gaming experience including performance and affordability. And we’re here to help you choose the best gaming platform according to your preferences.
Portability
This is a bit of an easy win for the gaming laptops because it’s pretty obvious. Even the biggest gaming laptops with 17-inch displays are still easy to pack up in a bag and travel with them anywhere. The slimmest gaming laptops that come with Nvidia’s GPUs are easy to travel with and they come with monitors and keyboards, which is certainly the point.
On the other hand, you can’t exactly put your desktop in a bag and travel around. Sure there are some mini ITX rigs available that are portable enough and you can travel with them to a gaming LAN party. You can put them in your car and travel along with them, but that’s not exactly comfy to do. And not to mention that besides your gaming towers, you’ll also have to carry the monitor you have with you.
Upgradeability
The signature ritual for anyone getting into PC gaming is the rule of building your gaming rig by yourself. And with that fact, you can’t exactly build a gaming laptop from scratch, you can’t build it at all. Even if you’re new to desktop rigs and are a beginner as well, it’s not as hard to build one as you may see it. And it’s completely customizable according to your preference. And if we talk about upgradeability, you can do it to the fullest if you’re feeling like missing out on next-generation hardware. If you want more RAM or a better GPU than you already have, you can do it without any problems. Even if you want to upgrade, that’s certainly possible with or without the change of your motherboard. It certainly depends on what type of processor you’re using in terms of needing to change the whole motherboard. And even if you need to change the motherboard, you still have a full-on PC case along with the PSU and other hardware parts as well to create another rig.
If we talk about prebuilt desktop rigs, things get a bit messy, and here’s why. Some prebuilt motherboards aren’t made for full upgradability since a lot of them are not standard in size. You can still upgrade RAMs and even GPUs but upgrading processors get a bit trickier.
Most laptops also are upgradeable and they’re limited. You can upgrade the RAMs and storage but that’s about it. You can’t upgrade GPUs and certainly not the processors. But nowadays, most slim laptops come with soldered RAMs and you can’t change them meaning you can’t upgrade them at all.
Some expensive gaming laptops let you upgrade with desktop-class processors along with GPUs but it’s a lot messier than a desktop build. It’s hard to access their upgradability and it’s a rare thing in gaming laptops.
Cost
It’s a bit tricky to compare gaming laptop prices with gaming desktops and there are a lot of different factors to take into consideration. But if we compare the average gaming desktops and laptops, the desktops come a lot cheaper than laptops if we only consider the core components. That includes processors, GPUs, and motherboards. RAMs and storage/
But the desktop gaming computers do come with additional costs when you’re building one from scratch. Buying gaming monitors is one of the main examples of how it can cost you more than gaming laptops. And if you’re looking for the keyboard and mouse that comes with prebuilt desktops, they do tend to be pretty bad.
Performance
The performance mainly depends on the specifications you choose to buy and that goes without saying. I mean, if we compare a $3000 laptop with a $1000 gaming desktop, the laptop will win without a second thought. But if we compare the same-priced gaming machines, the desktop gaming PC will easily win. They’re more powerful and the same series hardware will always perform better than the laptop ones. Desktops come with better temperature managing systems and laptops kinds don’t. You can even install a water cooling system on your desktop gaming rigs which can’t be said same about laptops
Bottom Line
There are no final winners in this list of Gaming Desktops vs. Gaming Laptops because ultimately, it all comes down to your preferences. If you are looking to save space and want portability, there is no match for gaming laptops. But if you want to explore the boundaries of gaming performance, gaming desktops are the logical choice.