Gaming on a laptop now cheaper than desktop?

[Mutuh]

Given the terrible pricing on RAM and GPUs, do you thing it is actually cheaper to game on laptop than on a similarly specced, freshly assembled PC? This came to mind when I was looking at 1060 prices and some laptop offerings from MSI and Assus. Bang for buck - is a gaming laptop a better deal?

[Crunchy Dragon]

It may be cheaper up front, but I would personally build a desktop for gaming and upgrade on that as needed.

 

Laptops don't have the ability to expand and upgrade that desktops do.

[Drak3]

As of right now, no.

 

At the worst, it was only worse for DIYers.

[Imglidinhere]

7 minutes ago, Mutuh said:

Given the terrible pricing on RAM and GPUs, do you thing it is actually cheaper to game on laptop than on a similarly specced, freshly assembled PC? This came to mind when I was looking at 1060 prices and some laptop offerings from MSI and Assus. Bang for buck - is a gaming laptop a better deal?

I know the Dell G7 Inspiron models are lower priced than comparable desktop models. The downside is that laptop versions of those GPUs, even though they say they're a full 1060/1070 and whatnot, ARE slower than the desktop versions by about 10%. That and the mobile versions of the GPUs out there, these new Max-Q cards, are essentially what we might call the M-version of those GPUs, like the old 960M and 970M? Yeah the 1060 Max-Q is a 1060M through and through. Though when a 1060M matches the old 980M, and is considered a mid-range card... that's not too shabby. I know the older 980M will handle any game 1080p 60FPS without an issue or stutter at this moment... (Also maxwell overclocks yo)

[Mira Yurizaki]

If you're starting absolutely from scratch, a gaming laptop may also be cheaper in the sense that you're getting a complete system, which includes peripherals. Just something to consider.

[PrimeSonic]

3 hours ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

It may be cheaper up front, but I would personally build a desktop for gaming and upgrade on that as needed.

 

Laptops don't have the ability to expand and upgrade that desktops do.

Basically this ^

Once you've picked your laptop, whatever specs it has is basically where you're gonna stay until you replace it entirely.

 

At best you'll be able to upgrade maybe the RAM and the storage.

But while on a desktop PC you could upgrade your graphics card down the line, with a laptop you're stuck with what you have and replacing and entire laptop is always more expensive than replacing just a graphics card.

 

So it's easier to keep a desktop "current".

Is it worth it to you? Do the costs of upgrading a desktop more often outstrip the costs of replacing a laptop less often?

 

If you really want to save a buck, try getting a pre-built that you can later upgrade yourself.

Some of them are going for around the MSRP of what's inside. So the GPU price hike might not be so bad there.