Gaming Laptops Questions?

[paulyron]

I have a Dell XPS 15 9520.  Specs are

 

15.6' screen

1920x1200 Resolution

86wh battery

 

 

i7-12700h processor

32gb ram

1tb ram

Intel iris xe graphics

Nvidia rtx 3050

 

 

I mainly use it to play online poker and use it with 2 external monitors.  So a 32' 4k monitor and a 24' 1920x1200 monitor.  Have my laptop plugged in pretty much always.  I even leave my laptop 24/7 while plugged in but locked if not using it.  

 

 

The other things I do on the laptop is web browsing with a ton of chrome or Firefox pages.  I visit and play YouTube videos a lot.  I do online banking and those things as well. 

 

 

The thing is I know this is an entertainment laptop and not a gaming laptop.  However, if it has a Nvidia 3050, that still doesn't count?  I bought this laptop years ago because when going from the XPS 15 9550 to this one, I wanted a graphics card.  I thought at the time, 3050 was okay.  From reading online, any of the 3050 or 4050 or 5050 is as basic as you can get right?  The thing is I do not play those games most people play on the laptop.  I only play online poker but the issue is these poker clients online does use more power and backup compared to years ago.  I use some other program programs that require you to have a faster computer or it would lag a bit.  At the moment, I have lot of lag issues still because I play lot of tables.  Back years ago, this was never an issue.  It's the fact that these poker clients and poker programs like poker tracker use lot of computer resources.  The thing is one poker client that I play on, you could actually have it switch to the dedicated graphics card which for me would be the Nvidia 3050 so I do that with the site.  I did compare it to just using the Intel iris xe graphics card I think it performs a little better but I"m not sure.  The issue is I still have lot of lag issues where it freezes when I'm playing.  So this costs money when I play.  The thing is the main culprit is the poker clients because many years ago, the same clients nobody had issues with lagging even when playing tables.  These clients are not web browser clients but clients you download.

 

 

What I'm curious about is if I get a gaming laptop and say the graphics card is at least a 5060 but preferably a 5070 or 5070i, would that mean I might not have any lag issues?  I read a 5080 and 5090 is the highest graphics card.  The thing is that one poker client you can switch it to use the dedicated graphics card so would a gaming laptop possibly solve these lag issues?  Another poker site I play on only uses the Intel iris xe graphics and you can't switch it to the Nvidia 3050 it seems.  I think when I tried that, when I used task manager, that other poker clients still used the Intel iris xe graphics.  So does that mean it's impossible that certain programs or clients can't use the dedicated graphics card?

 

 

[paulyron]

I heard gaming laptops have really bad battery.  But almost all gaming laptops allow you to switch to the regular graphics card and not dedicated right?  However, I read somewhere that if it's a Intel 9 processor or something like that with a Nvidia 5070ti, that might not be possible?  So some laptops might not allow you to use the other graphics cards and you have to use the dedicated graphics card or is that not true?

 

 

Lenovo is probably the best brand for gaming laptops right?  I know there is Lenovo and Asus and Alienware and others.  The thing is I always prefer a laptop screen of at least 15.6' though.  The other thing is all gaming laptops have a brick as a charger?  What is the lowest brick then?   I heard you can get a 300w brick which is very heavy.  I always had the regular 130 watt Dell charger with my old XPS 15 9550 and 9520.  So a gaming laptop, the brick is always heavy when carrying?  But using it as a desktop is fine right since the brick is there?  

 

 

As far as the battery goes, is it true gaming laptops can last 6 hours or more as long as you can turn off or switch the dedicated graphics card to the regular one?  So for gaming laptops that use amd Ryzen 9 or 7, that would be the AMD Radeon?  But for Intel 9 and Intel 7, is it the Intel iris xe graphics or Intel arc?  The thing is almost everyone uses the discrete processor when doing things that don't require that right?  Makes no sense to use the faster one if web browsing or youtubing?  But those gaming laptops do that unless you turn it off or switch?  The XPS 15 9520 always uses the Intel iris xe graphics for everything when I check the task manager.  The only time it uses the rtx 3050 is when I made that poker client used the dedicated graphics card and when playing, I do notice some percentage usage of the rtx 3050 GPU.  However, I have no idea if it is better by that much over the Intel iris xe graphics as I still have lagging.

 

 

 

[paulyron]

The thing though is would it be possible the lags I'm having because it's connected to my 2 external monitors?  I connect to each monitor by usb-c to display port and HDMI to DVI I believe.  The thing is it uses the Intel iris xe graphics card to connect to the monitors.  I can't connect it with the rtx 3050 right?  Why not?  

 

 

So with a gaming laptop, is it using the dedicated graphics card to connect the external monitors?  Could that be another reason for the lagging?  I do have a wavlink docking station but never used it... possible that might make the lag issues less?  The thing is I mainly play with monitors connected.  I do know if I play on my laptop without monitors, the lag is even worst it seems.

 

 

The other thing is if you use a gaming laptop, wouldn't that mean any power bank you use it with it will drain out really fast?  When power outage and laptop at 100% and connected to an Anker 737 24000 mah power bank, it lasts 1 hour 5 minutes before power bank goes to 0%.  This is with my laptop by itself and no monitor since power outage.  With a gaming laptop that uses 300w charger, wouldn't the Anker charge 30 minutes and that might be it?  The only thing is if power outage and I buy a power station, isn't it going to draw a ton of power?  If I buy a power station, would connect laptop to it and at least my 32' 4k monitor to it.  I would prefer to connect both that and the other 24' 1920x1200 monitor.  Is a gaming laptop going to most likely solve the lag issues if it is at least a 5070?

[CasualExtremist]

18 minutes ago, paulyron said:

Have my laptop plugged in pretty much always

So why are you worried about battery life? Maybe power outages are a good time to take a break from the poker?

 

21 minutes ago, paulyron said:

I read a 5080 and 5090 is the highest graphics card

Only true in desktop applications. Laptops have the "mobile" version of graphics card. So less performance than their desktop counter part. Also laptop manufactures can further reduce performance for "reasons" so a 5080 in a Dell laptop may not perform the same as a 5080 in a HP laptop, for example.

[porina]

15 minutes ago, paulyron said:

The thing is the main culprit is the poker clients because many years ago, the same clients nobody had issues with lagging even when playing tables.  These clients are not web browser clients but clients you download.

Not really possible to advise further without experience of each client and how they behave with complex hardware like multi-GPU systems. You'll have to figure that out yourself.

 

5 minutes ago, paulyron said:

I heard gaming laptops have really bad battery.  But almost all gaming laptops allow you to switch to the regular graphics card and not dedicated right?  However, I read somewhere that if it's a Intel 9 processor or something like that with a Nvidia 5070ti, that might not be possible?  So some laptops might not allow you to use the other graphics cards and you have to use the dedicated graphics card or is that not true?

Gaming laptops tend to use a lot of power when gaming, and the battery is relatively small. For best gaming performance, it is expected to use them plugged in all the time. If you want long battery life when not gaming, other types of laptop may work better.

 

The standard configuration of a gaming laptop is a CPU with built in GPU, and then usually a dGPU in addition. There may be rare exceptions where so called gaming laptops don't have a dGPU, but we'll ignore that for now. At the minimum, the iGPU will be connected to the display. For lower end gaming laptops, the dGPU can only ever display by passing image data to the iGPU. For higher end gaming laptops, they can add a switch to make the dGPU directly connected to the display. It may also be possible to disable the iGPU so it is never in use. That is how I have my gaming laptop configured. The iGPU adds no value at all, and only negatives. It reserves 2GB of system ram for itself by default, and Windows will do something stupid sooner or later when deciding which GPU to run things on. Plus, you have yet another driver active on the system. About the only benefit is power consumption could be lower when dGPU is not in use, but again, for most gaming laptop use cases, you'll be plugged in so that is irrelevant to most users most of the time. I even have the battery limiter set, so it doesn't normally charge above 60% and not wear the battery out for the rare occasion I might need it.

 

5 minutes ago, paulyron said:

I heard you can get a 300w brick which is very heavy.  I always had the regular 130 watt Dell charger with my old XPS 15 9550 and 9520.  So a gaming laptop, the brick is always heavy when carrying?  But using it as a desktop is fine right since the brick is there?  

The brick generally has to be at least as powerful as the laptop when everything is running at max, and connect some USB devices as well why not? Mine is nominally 130W GPU, the CPU I forget if it is 55 or 65W, but between them that's nearly 200W already without accounting for things like screen, ram, SSDs, even backlit keyboard. If the brick were less powerful, then it may need to power throttle even when plugged in and who wants that?

 

4 minutes ago, paulyron said:

The thing is it uses the Intel iris xe graphics card to connect to the monitors.  I can't connect it with the rtx 3050 right?  Why not?  

It costs extra hardware to implement it, so it wont be on low end laptops like yours. It may be present on higher end models.

 

[paulyron]

1 hour ago, CasualExtremist said:

So why are you worried about battery life? Maybe power outages are a good time to take a break from the poker?

 

Only true in desktop applications. Laptops have the "mobile" version of graphics card. So less performance than their desktop counter part. Also laptop manufactures can further reduce performance for "reasons" so a 5080 in a Dell laptop may not perform the same as a 5080 in a HP laptop, for example.

I am worried about battery life when a power outage happens while I'm playing online poker.  If that happens and I don't have enough backup power, I lose money at the tables.  I play tournaments online so if I have no internet, I'm basically sitting out at my tables and lose all my chips.

 

 

If I'm not playing online poker, I don't mind that much about the battery that much.  Though I wouldn't like it if the battery is really bad even unplugged when just web browsing.

 

 

Yes I know the laptop is the mobile version of it.  So a 3050 laptop is very poor right?  So you need at least a 5070 or 5070ti for it to be any significant?  When I bought the XPS 15 9520 years ago, I made sure to get a laptop with an Nvidia 3050 on it at least so that is what I got.

 

[paulyron]

1 hour ago, porina said:

Not really possible to advise further without experience of each client and how they behave with complex hardware like multi-GPU systems. You'll have to figure that out yourself.

 

Gaming laptops tend to use a lot of power when gaming, and the battery is relatively small. For best gaming performance, it is expected to use them plugged in all the time. If you want long battery life when not gaming, other types of laptop may work better.

 

The standard configuration of a gaming laptop is a CPU with built in GPU, and then usually a dGPU in addition. There may be rare exceptions where so called gaming laptops don't have a dGPU, but we'll ignore that for now. At the minimum, the iGPU will be connected to the display. For lower end gaming laptops, the dGPU can only ever display by passing image data to the iGPU. For higher end gaming laptops, they can add a switch to make the dGPU directly connected to the display. It may also be possible to disable the iGPU so it is never in use. That is how I have my gaming laptop configured. The iGPU adds no value at all, and only negatives. It reserves 2GB of system ram for itself by default, and Windows will do something stupid sooner or later when deciding which GPU to run things on. Plus, you have yet another driver active on the system. About the only benefit is power consumption could be lower when dGPU is not in use, but again, for most gaming laptop use cases, you'll be plugged in so that is irrelevant to most users most of the time. I even have the battery limiter set, so it doesn't normally charge above 60% and not wear the battery out for the rare occasion I might need it.

 

The brick generally has to be at least as powerful as the laptop when everything is running at max, and connect some USB devices as well why not? Mine is nominally 130W GPU, the CPU I forget if it is 55 or 65W, but between them that's nearly 200W already without accounting for things like screen, ram, SSDs, even backlit keyboard. If the brick were less powerful, then it may need to power throttle even when plugged in and who wants that?

 

It costs extra hardware to implement it, so it wont be on low end laptops like yours. It may be present on higher end models.

 

Yes I know gaming laptops are meant to be plugged in.  But if you have a power outage, are you screwed then?  Especially if you want to use it connected to 2 external monitors?  So even a power station would drain a lot of power on the gaming laptop right?

 

I notice lot of gaming laptops that is Lenovo and asus and these seem to be 5070 and up.  So the GPU.... those laptops have either an Amd Radeon or what is the name of the other one?  Is it Intel arc or Intel iris xe graphics?  So that means when using a high end gaming laptop, you are using the 5070+ video card for connecting external monitors right?  So less lag overall for anything?  

 

What laptop do you have that is 130W GPU?  Is it a gaming laptop?  The thing is the lowest watt a gaming laptop charger has ... has to be at least 130W at the minimum?  Highest I read online is like 330W?  Well my XPS 15 9520 bought years ago was pretty expensive with my specs.  It cost over $2000 at least for it.    Do you mean low end if you mean comparing it to gaming laptops?  Because the XPS I believe is the most expensive brand for windows laptops it seems?

 

So even with a docking station, I can't use the 3050 with the external monitors right?

 

The thing is do you believe a gaming laptop that is 5070 and higher probably would mean I have less lag issues with that poker client though?  Would that make the monitors connect to the 5070 as oppose to the regular GPU?  So gaming laptops that use Ryzen 7 or 9 use a different GPU compared to Intel right?

 

That means Ryzen is preferred because battery is always better?  I read someone mentioned that if you have a processor that is an Intel Core Ultra 7 or 9 and it uses like a 5070 or 5070ti, the battery would be real bad where you can't turn off the GPU somehow.  Is that possible?  I believe I read some laptops are like this so that means even web browsing would be 2 hours max?

[porina]

6 hours ago, paulyron said:

But if you have a power outage, are you screwed then?  Especially if you want to use it connected to 2 external monitors?  So even a power station would drain a lot of power on the gaming laptop right?

If I have a power outage, how much battery life a gaming laptop has is not going to be high on my priority list. I can't use it anyway unless I tether to my phone perhaps? What's a power station? Like a portable battery bank? I wouldn't charge one off a laptop regardless.

 

6 hours ago, paulyron said:

What laptop do you have that is 130W GPU?  Is it a gaming laptop?  The thing is the lowest watt a gaming laptop charger has ... has to be at least 130W at the minimum?  Highest I read online is like 330W?  Well my XPS 15 9520 bought years ago was pretty expensive with my specs.  It cost over $2000 at least for it.    Do you mean low end if you mean comparing it to gaming laptops?  Because the XPS I believe is the most expensive brand for windows laptops it seems?

Lenovo Legion something with 3070. The charger ideally should cover the laptop running fully, which in my case would be somewhere over 200W since it also has to include the CPU, display, and everything else in the laptop. Any less than that and it would have to drain battery to run at full power. When I was talking about high or low end, it was in context of gaming laptops. 

 

6 hours ago, paulyron said:

The thing is do you believe a gaming laptop that is 5070 and higher probably would mean I have less lag issues with that poker client though?  Would that make the monitors connect to the 5070 as oppose to the regular GPU?  So gaming laptops that use Ryzen 7 or 9 use a different GPU compared to Intel right?

If you get the right laptop, you can disable the iGPU so everything has to use the dGPU, and it works more like a desktop. Again I can't comment if it might fix your software issues.

 

6 hours ago, paulyron said:

I believe I read some laptops are like this so that means even web browsing would be 2 hours max?

When I got my gaming laptop I estimated the battery life from full was around 4 hours in light usage. I never tested it though, but have used it for an hour or two and it didn't empty.