How Much VRAM for Gaming Laptops? Q&A with Hardware Unboxed!

Jarrod & Steve from @Hardwareunboxed answer your recent questions about VRAM and fight about gaming laptops vs desktops!

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Timestamps
0:00 Welcome Back To Hardware Unboxed!
0:11 Video Sponsor - HyperX
0:56 Does VRAM matter as much for laptops as desktops?
5:15 Is 16GB VRAM enough for 4K gaming laptops?
10:37 Worth spending more $ for 12GB VRAM for 1440p gaming?
12:06 How will RTX 3060 laptops with 6GB VRAM go in future games?
15:41 RTX 4060 8GB VRAM laptop enough for games in 3-4 years?
18:50 Gaming laptops vs desktops - Jarrod & Steve Fight!
26:17 Which Laptop / Desktop for Computex Travel?
29:19 Will entry/midrange GPUs be affordable again?
37:22 Best GPU for 1440p gaming on laptop & desktop side?
43:28 GDDR6 vs GDDR6X VRAM, can faster memory make up for less capacity?
46:46 Is eGPU + laptop setup viable / close to desktop?

Disclosure: Purchases made through store links above may provide some compensation to Jarrod'sTech.

[Havanu]

This is why I like what Framework is doing. You can go from 11th gen to 13th gen, and even reuse the 11th gen module for something else with a seperate housing they provide that connects IO to the MB. And swap GPU's well in their upcoming laptop. Way of the future!

[ConsciousSonder]

For Lenovo as an example, the 4070 legion pro 5 came in under 1500, but the legion pro 7i with 13900hx and 4080 is running about 2600 pre tax after coupons in the US. That’s 1200 buck difference for that jump in performance, personally I’m okay with dialing some textures down to save that kind of money.

[theftking]

The 24GB of VRAM alone in the 4090 is basically makes it worthwhile. If they made a 4070 class card with like 16GB of VRAM it'd slay.

[cruizera]

More collaborations like this, please. Very enjoyable and informative.

[cameronbosch]

4:15 With Pascal and Turing, the full-powered versions of those GPUs were very close to the desktop models, which is why Nvidia removed the M designation from the laptop GPUs. But Ampere threw that out the window, and Nvidia only required laptop OEMs to add the GPU power limit because consumers complained (and it could have been lawsuit worthy because of misleading advertising). Nvidia should still add the M designation back to laptop GPUs...

[dpthelight]

Being able to move a PC from bedroom to family room is another major benefit of laptop.
If you get a quality laptop they make almost no noise if your good at tunning.
Just need to be able to set the fan RPM lower then 3000.

[bairaqarpinker]

Wow, could you imagine, question in the title answered in the first, not click bait leading to the end of the video to keep attention span as usually youtubers does! Because its Jarrod and HU! I love q&as from this channel!

[ArmchairMagpie]

I bought a gaming laptop for when a spend a few weeks regularly outside my home elsewhere. Usually, you know upfront that you are not going to have desktop performance, even if the GPU model number matches the one in your PC. It is also quite pricey compared to the desktop experience. But on the other hand, with modern laptops you are much more efficient, and it's amazing what you can pack into 15 inches and less. Some games, that don't rely on high FPS, can actually run for a 1.5 – 2 hrs easily on battery. Nowadays, I am also using it to do remote work. But overall, I think, buying a laptop as your only gaming computer is only really making sense if you are constantly on the move or don't have much space at home.

[jonathanr]

What's unfortunate is some of these VRAM issues are just due to terribly optimized games like The Last of Us. It's a nice-looking game for sure, but no way should it be performing so crap on high end hardware.

Take that in comparison to the Doom games from a company like ID software, who has had amazingly well optimized games ever since they existed in the early 90s.

Doom Eternal on a GTX 1660TI laptop gets above 60 FPS at the highest settings at 1440P or a even a 1060 laptop that's good for over 60 FPS max settings at 1080p.

[unionofslavstanrepublics]

Very happy to see my question being answered first!

Thanks!

[floriol]

"Avengers Endgame is the most ambitious crossover ever"

Jarrod: "hold my beer"

[ishimarumasaki]

"we got some questions that you guys answered"

classic jarrod

[edwardtan]

I think vram should not have been an issue, its how the game was optimized. 10 or 15 years ago programmer was more creative with how the program (optimized the games) most especially game developers back in the days of extremely limited RAM. Game developers and programers are getting lazy opting out to approach the problem with brute force (high vram / ram) rather than usung creative programming.

[munem]

Damn, you can tell that Jarrod was really sweating under the intense heat of those studio lights lmao

[meanmachine]

Brought an Omen 16 with 6800H and a 150w 3070ti, for fricking 1380 dollars in sale, in India! Now feeling very happy after seeing this video

[bfish]

I was so confused about what channel I clicked on for a minute 🤣

[cameronbosch]

For me, the worst RTX 40 series GPU for laptops is the 4070. It's voltage limited, performs much worse than the 4080 & 4090, doesn't perform much better than the 3070 Ti, and has the same exact 8 GB of vRAM as the 4060. IMO, either go for the 4080 or save some money and go for the 4060.

[marcm.]

21:17 gaming on a laptop without it being plugged in is unusual. But there are many occasions in which you can plug in but you're not home. I agree that this is mostly a niche issue, in so much as most people do not travel for most of their life or most of the year. Even there there are occasions, where you might benefit from a very small factor system and carry as part of your luggage the monitor. For the most part, people who live in situations like dorms, or go to coffee shops or libraries, are the only other people that I can think of truly would benefit from a laptop that's for gaming. But that's not a niche portion of the market, a lot of students need to have that portability. But the portability is not about gaming on battery, it's about being able to take your whole device in your backpack

[HolloVVpoint]

Laptops definitely have a place. Used have a gaming rig, however since I got kids now just don’t have the space for it anymore so I’m my case a laptop is perfect. The performance levels aren’t the same (technically), but honestly as someone who has had top of the line Laptops Alienware and Razer and top of the end gaming rigs, once you start playing the games you really can’t notice the difference. After the initial ten minutes you just get used to it.

For example I’ve played Mass Effect, Witcher 3 and Skyrim consistently over the last decade on nearly every platform imaginable (PC laptop, PC Desktop, PS3, Xbox 360, PS5 and Series x). But Because the games are good, and performance is decent on every platform I haven’t noticed a difference.

Currently have a Blade 16 4080, and PS5 and Steam Deck. Play whenever I get the chance on whatever is easiest at the time and outside of what spot in the house I’m playing it really makes no difference to me.

[ganteng]

So basically for now it's better to buy a console for gaming than to get a gaming laptop if you more focus on gaming than productivity