Can laptops Really replace desktops for gaming
For a long time, avid gamers have scoffed at the idea that gaming laptops being comparable in performance to desktops. After all, how could it be possible to fit all the bulky components that are required to achieve a smooth gaming experience into such a small form factor. Even if you where able to squeeze the necessary components into a laptop its would still loud and prone to overheating on top of being prohibitively expensive. However, technology advances and today gaming laptops aren’t much thicker than some ultra-books but has the gap between the two worlds narrowed?
As powerful as laptop GPUs or graphic processing units have become, they will always be slower than their desktop cousins as you can always add more power into a computer tower that which doesn’t have the space limits as a laptop. However, with each passing generation the gap between the tow worlds has narrowed. Nvidia a large manufacturer of GPUs claims that the gap has narrowed 60 percent from the launch of their 680M card to their current 980M card. Performance aside a major issue of mobile GPUs is their fixed nature. A normal desktop GPU permits the owner to remove it and replace it with a new model should it fail or become outdated in a laptop this is an impossible activity.
Most high-end laptop carry quality CPUs or core processing units, but they don’t hold a candle to their desktop cousins. Some laptops manage to occasionally cram a desktop CPU into their designs, but they suffer from overheating and lack the ability to be water cooled meaning their full potential can never be unleash without dangerously overheating themselves.
To and individual not in the computer gaming world a keyboard may seem like an inconsequential thing. However, in the gaming world it is one of the things that is most obsessed about short of GPUs and the computer mouse. While the laptop keyboard is “free” the user is locked in with the only workaround being creating a mess of cables and taking up a large amount room to attach a separate keyboard defeating the purpose of buying a laptop in the first place.
There’s a large quality spectrum to computer screens in laptops and desktop computers ranging from the shady brands that none has ever heard off to the budget shattering 4k monitors of today. However, the same limitations with the keyboards in laptops repeat themselves with the screens. While they are again technically “free” the user is locked into whatever the factory chooses for them. Where as with desktops you are free to chose from shady brands to eye melting setup. A second limitation that is often a must for gamers is the ability to attach a second monitor or perhaps even a third. A laptop will never have more screens than what it came with from the factory but with a desktop a person is only limited by the amount of cash in their bank account.
In conclusion while laptops are quickly catching up to desktops on many fronts their innate structure limits the user to the choices made by the factory rather than what will enhance their gamin experience. Having said that laptops should not be dismissed to quickly because however lacking they are they will always be portable and for an individual who is on the go they are the only ones capable of filling their needs.
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