The Power of Desktops vs Laptops: A Comparative Analysis

When it comes to gaming and high-performance computing, two popular options often come to mind: laptops and desktops. While both have their own advantages and disadvantages, one cannot deny that desktop systems have a significant edge over laptops when it comes to raw power and performance. In this article, we'll delve into the details of how desktops outperform laptops in various games and applications.

Rainbow Six Siege was one of the titles tested, where the laptop managed to run fine at 4K maximum settings, but still lagged behind the desktop system by a significant margin. The desktop system averaged around 65% more frames per second compared to the laptop, showcasing the substantial difference in performance between the two.

Another game, Forza Horizon 5, had a below-average difference in terms of performance, but even with that, the desktop system still managed to outperform the laptop by a considerable margin. The laptop averaged around 70 FPS at 4K high settings, while the desktop machine was able to reach an average of 130 FPS, demonstrating the superior performance of desktop systems.

God of War was another game tested, where the laptop struggled to maintain a smooth frame rate at 4K resolution, but even with that limitation, it could still be made usable by adjusting settings such as DLSS or FSR. However, even with these adjustments, the desktop system remained significantly faster, reaching an average of 66% higher frames per second.

Dying Light 2 was another title tested, where the laptop's performance fell short of the desktop system's capabilities. The desktop machine was able to reach an impressive 71 FPS at 4K resolution, while the laptop struggled to maintain a frame rate above 60 FPS.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla had one of the smaller differences in terms of performance compared to other titles tested. However, even with this relatively small difference, the desktop system still managed to outperform the laptop by around 43% at 1440p resolution.

Watch Dogs Legion was another game tested, where the laptop's performance was impressive but still fell short of the desktop system's capabilities. The laptop averaged around 70 FPS at 1440p without using DLSS or FSR, while the desktop machine reached an average of 45% faster frames per second.

Far Cry 6 was another title tested, where the laptop's performance was decent but still lagged behind the desktop system by a significant margin. The laptop averaged around 60 FPS at 4K maximum settings, while the desktop machine was able to reach an average of 66% higher frames per second.

On average out of all 10 games tested, the desktop PC was reaching a 45% higher average frame rate compared to the gaming laptop. However, it's essential to note that results can vary depending on specific game titles and settings used.

The gap between laptops and desktops grows larger at higher resolutions, particularly at 4K. The desktop system's superior performance in this regard is largely due to the increased power of modern GPU architectures, such as NVIDIA's RTX 3090 Ti. When compared to the laptop's more powerful yet power-hungry 3080 Ti GPU, it becomes apparent that laptops can struggle to keep up with desktop systems at higher resolutions.

Ultimately, whether or not one needs a gaming laptop depends on their specific requirements and lifestyle. While laptops offer portability and convenience, they often come at a cost in terms of performance. For those who need raw power and don't require portability, a stationary desktop system is likely the better choice. However, for those who value mobility and don't need extreme performance levels, laptops can still provide an excellent gaming experience.

In conclusion, while laptops have made significant strides in recent years, they still lag behind desktop systems in terms of raw power and performance. That being said, there are still options available for those who want the best performance without sacrificing portability. A hybrid approach, using a powerful desktop at home and a lightweight notebook on the go, can be an excellent compromise between convenience and performance.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enThis is the most powerful gaming laptop rightnow, and this is the most powerful gamingdesktop PC I could build.Let's find out how different they are in gamesand applications!The laptop is MSI’s Titan GT77.This thing has Intel’s Core i9-12900HX CPUand Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti graphics.Unlike most other laptops, you can installup to 4 memory sticks and 4 M.2 drives.My desktop PC on the other hand has Intel’sCore i9-12900KS, MSI’s RTX 3090 Ti GamingX Trio and DDR5-6000 CL36 memory from G.Skill.MSI’s 2TB Spatium SSD was used for storingthe games, and this Gen 4 drive can reachsome nice speeds.Obviously we expect the desktop to win, butthe question is by how much and at what cost?Just before we find out, Gigabyte have sponsoredthis part of the video for me to tell youabout their latest GIGABYTE and AORUS gamingand creator laptops, featuring up to the NVIDIAGeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics card and up tothe latest 12th Gen Intel Core i9 processor.With an amazing looking 4K 16:10 OLED screenand top end specs, Gigabyte's Aero 16 is perfectfor content creators on the go.The Aorus 17x goes to the next level for gamerswith a fast 360hz screen, a 16 core processorand plenty of room for cooling to keep yourgame running smoothly.You can get up to 30% off with their end offinancial year sale, links are in the description.Now I could have used an RTX 3080 Ti in thedesktop to match the 3080 Ti in the laptop,but this isn’t meant to be a fair comparison.I literally just want to compare the bestgaming laptop I’ve ever had with the bestdesktop PC I could build.Right now MSI’s Titan GT77 goes for around$4300 USD, though it only just launched forpre-order, so this could change.Links to everything can be found below thevideo.A similar desktop PC build with the partsI’m testing with actually ends up costinga similar amount.I haven’t included a monitor, keyboard ormouse though, things that the laptop has builtin, so those would push the price up higherthan the laptop.You could absolutely build something withmuch better value, like Intel i7-12700K oreven Ryzen.Again the goal here is to compare the bestof the best, not to do what makes sense.I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’san obvious size difference between these twosetups.Of course you could build a much smaller desktopPC with a smaller case, this is just whatI happened to have available.But even so, you can’t deny that the laptophas more portability.That's its entire purpose after all, it’seasier to move.I could put the GT77 in a bag and just pullit out anywhere and use it.The smaller size means it has more thermaland power constraints though.That’s the tradeoff.Here are the differences between the CPUsin Cinebench R23.The desktop’s 12900KS was able to score41% higher in multi core despite both chipshaving the same core and thread count.Ironically the CPU in the desktop was actuallyrunning hotter than the laptop at 101 degreesCelsius, even with the 360 AIO.To be fair the laptop was thermal throttling,but at 97 degrees Celsius.I let this test run for 30 minutes to accountfor these sorts of limits, but if I just doone multicore test run from idle, the laptopcan hit 24,000, so a 20% lead for the desktopif you count that.The single core score was 12% higher on thedesktop, so not as big of a difference, butstill a clear win.Despite the high temperatures in both, thedesktop system was running much quieter becauseit’s got so much more space for cooling.It’s no secret that gaming laptops can runloud, especially a top end model like this.Things get interesting when we look at thedifference in total power drawn at the wall.The desktop system with the 12900KS was using154% more power in Cinebench compared to thelaptop, so far more power in order to hitthat 41% higher score.Basically, this means that although the desktopdoes perform better generally speaking, thelaptop is more power efficient.Meanwhile running a game at 4K was using 170%more power at the wall on the desktop, allthanks to that power hungry 3090 Ti.So what are the actual differences in gameperformance then?To find out we’ve tested 10 games at 4K,1440p and 1080p resolutions!Let's start out with Cyberpunk 2077.I’ve got the 1080p results down the bottom,1440p in the middle, and 4K above that, withthe laptop below the desktop at each resolution.Ultra settings weren’t too far off 60 FPSat 1440p, which is great for a laptop, thebest in fact when compared to any other laptopsI’ve reviewed.Compared to the top end desktop PC which wasreaching a 62% higher average FPS though,well it’s not even close.Sure you could enable DLSS on the laptop toboost FPS even higher, but you could justdo that on the desktop too.Microsoft Flight Simulator had the smallestdifference between the laptop and desktopout of all 10 games tested at 1080p and 1440presolutions.I mean the 1% lows or dips in performanceon the desktop were still about the same asthe average FPS coming out of the laptop,but the laptop is still running the game well.There’s a much bigger gap when it comesto 4K though, the 3090 Ti system was reachinga 68% higher average frame rate now, quitea big difference.Red Dead Redemption 2 was doing fine at maxsettings on the laptop at 1440p, and whileit was hitting 48 FPS at 4K which sounds low,let’s be real you don’t have to use maxsettings for the game to still look good.I’m just using heavy settings to demonstratethe differences.The laptop can absolutely perform better atsay high settings instead of ultra and youcould throw on DLSS, but regardless there’sno denying the desktop being much furtherahead.Rainbow Six Siege was running fine at 4K maxsettings on the laptop, but still the desktopsystem was 65% ahead in terms of average FPS.Is the laptop still offering a good experience?Absolutely, but if you really do want thebest, clearly the desktop system has a largeedge.But at the same time, good luck taking thedesktop to school or the office every day.Forza Horizon 5 had a below average differenceout of the 10 games tested, but as we cansee there’s still a fairly large gap betweenlaptop and desktop.The laptop was around 70 FPS at 4K high settings,but the desktop machine was 50% ahead.So yeah the laptop is absolutely usable herewith the game still looking good, it justcan’t keep up with the 3090 Ti, though aswe saw that is also using way more power too.God of War runs quite well even at max settings.Sure the laptop isn’t hitting 60 FPS at4K, but we could turn on DLSS or FSR, or otherwisedrop down one level to high settings to boostit quite a bit.Regardless, the desktop is reaching a 66%higher average frame rate here which is abig improvement.Dying Light 2 was able to run above 60 FPSat 4K on the 3090 Ti, which was around 71%faster than the laptop, one of the biggerdifferences.Assassin’s Creed Valhalla had one of thesmaller differences out of the 10 titles tested.No DLSS or FSR to increase frames in thisgame, so this is what we get, granted we didtest max settings which are kind of overkill.We’re dealing with overkill hardware though,so I thought it was appropriate.Even with max settings the laptop is runningabove 70 FPS at 1440p, an amazing result froma gaming laptop, the best I’ve ever seenactually.It’s just that the desktop with higher tiermore power hungry parts was reaching a 43%higher average FPS.Though it was also using more than doublethe power too.Watch Dogs Legion was tested at max settings.Again 1440p on the laptop was around the 70FPS point without even using DLSS.I feel like I'm repeating myself, but thisis amazing stuff from a laptop, but yeah thedesktop PC was doing better than this at 4Kdespite that resolution having to spit out125% more pixels.Far Cry 6 wasn’t too far behind the magic60 FPS on the laptop at 4K max settings, andwe’re not even taking advantage of FSR here.Nevertheless, the desktop was reaching a 66%higher average frame rate, quite a big gap.On average out of all 10 games tested, thedesktop PC was reaching a 45% higher averageframe rate compared to the gaming laptop.As we can see, results really depend on thespecific game.Red Dead Redemption 2 at the top for examplewas running 65% faster on the desktop systemwhile Flight Simulator down the bottom wasonly 26% ahead of the laptop.The gap between them gets larger in favorof the desktop PC at the higher 1440p resolution,with the desktop now 53% faster than the laptopon average.This isn’t too surprising, the RTX 3090Ti is far more powerful compared to the laptop3080 Ti, and more GPU power benefits higherresolutions.We see this peak at 4K where the desktop systemwas now nearly 66% faster than the laptopon average out of these 10 titles.This is quite a large difference, and althoughhigh spec gaming laptops absolutely can rungames well at 4K this generation, grantedmaybe not at max settings and with featureslike DLSS and FSR, if you don’t need portabilitythen you should probably consider a stationarydesktop machine to take advantage of the extraperformance on offer while also running quieter.At the end of the day, I think that’s whatit really comes down to.Whether or not you need to move your machinewith you on a regular basis and if you needthat much power on the go.Of course there are other solutions, liketaking a hybrid approach of running a powerfuldesktop at home and using a lightweight notebookon the go.It just depends on your personal needs, Butat least there are options.If you want some fairer comparisons betweenlaptops and desktops then check out thesevideos over here next.I made a much better effort to keep the laptopand desktop the same in those, but you can’targue it definitely was fun to see what thedifferences are between the best here.\n"