Best Gaming Laptop to buy

[PuppyBoss]

Hi everyone. I wanted to buy a new gaming laptop and needed some advice. I did search online but I felt that most websites which listed the best gaming laptops were paid to advertise 1 laptop over the other, and also different websites said different models were the best. So I thought I'd ask on a neutral arena and take inputs from individuals rather than from companies.

First, let me tell you my requirements: It should run all the latest games, including beefy ones like Red Dead Redemption 2. I'm leaving my powerful gaming PC and going abroad, so I want to carry a good substitute for my gaming needs. I also do a lot of CPU intensive work, like high-res photo & video edits. My budget is around $2000, though I can go upto $2500 if it's really worth the price increase.

These are the things I must have with the new laptop:

1. Powerful GPU. I'm looking for the 2080 RTX cards
2. Powerful CPU: an i9 (or an i7, if it won't bottleneck the GPU)
3. Dual HDDs: minimum of 500 GB SSD for windows & game installations, and 500 MB - 1 TB SATA for storage purposes.
4. Atleast 16 GB of RAM
5. Large screen size. If I'm not mistaken, 17 inches the largest available for laptops
6. Efficient cooling. This goes without saying as its for gaming for long duration.
7. Future-proof and durable: As I'm making a significant investment, I'd want the laptop to be useful for the next 3-5 years. Should not be delicate/flimsy.
8. Good keyboard arrangement. Very small keyboard layouts won't be comfortable for gaming.
9. Adequate USB ports

Here's a list of things I'm not particular about:

1. Size: I'm buying it for gaming, so I don't mind if it's heavy and bulky.
2. Trackpad: I never use it and always use a wireless mouse. So this isn't an issue
3. Battery: Heavy gaming will drain battery, and I won't be gaming on battery. Will plug into power outlet when I play.

I searched online for such laptops, and liked a few models, each with its own pros & cons. Can you suggest which would be the best for me (from either the ones I've shortlisted or suggest new ones)

Asus ROG Zephyrus S GX701
MSI GS75 Stealth 8SG
MSI GT75 Titan

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Red Dead Redemption 2 is going to be difficult on any laptop.
Personally I’m not a fan of gaming laptops, particularly expensive gaming laptops.
Does it need to be portable?
What I am saying it may be better to buy a $1000 desktop and a $1500 laptop. Use the laptop for portability and use the desktop for gaming.

Laptop CPUs are made for minimal power usage, desktop CPUs are made for maximum processing power. Even though the specs may appear similar the desktop version will always be more powerful.
Also gpus in laptops are the same. They are designed to play video plus a little more for whatever screen the laptop has. Power efficiency is their strong point, plus the gpu cannot be upgraded.

Comparison benchmarks the mobile processor is about the same age and one would think about the same power but the desktop 8700k out performs the mobile processor in everything by about 33%.
I’d guess if you could buy the mobile processor it would likely cost $100 more.

UserBenchmark: Intel Core i7-8559U vs i7-8700K

 

[Racan]

I'm running RDR 2 at a stable 60 fps, maybe with slight dips in certain cutscenes (but with triple buffering enabled that's barely noticeable) on an MSI GS65 (i7-8750h, RTX 2060, 16 gb dual channel ram) using Digital Foundry's Xbox One X optimized settings.

If you want the best possible gaming perf on a laptop I'd chose one that isn't limited to running only on Nvidia's Optimus. It seems that this tech slows down graphics performance somewhat. So you could go with the Asus ROG Zephyrus S GX701, you can switch between G-Sync and Optimus, it has some of the best cooling (though kind of loud) and decent battery size, though personally I don't like the keyboard placement.

The MSI GS75 Stealth 8SG isn't bad either with options for 3xM.2 drives (2 nvme + 1 SATA) and the biggest battery 82 Whr