Which Portable Gaming Setup is BEST?
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2019-05-06
·
2,144 words · ~10 min read
0:00
Do you like to game?
0:01
Yeah.
0:02
Do you like to game at your house?
0:04
Yes.
0:04
Do you like to game in kind of unusual places?
0:07
Hell yeah.
0:08
Okay, whoa, dude, okay.
0:10
I was kind of thinking like in a hotel or coffee shop,
0:13
but anyway, the point is, if you are gaming on the go,
0:17
you're gonna have to make some kind of sacrifice,
0:20
be it performance, weight, or battery life.
0:24
So today, we're gonna investigate
0:26
which option makes the most sense for mobile gaming,
0:30
but not until after our sponsor, Synergy.
0:33
Synergy allows you to combine your desktop computers,
0:36
laptops for that matter, into one cohesive system
0:39
by allowing you to share your mouse and keyboard
0:40
between multiple systems.
0:41
Check it out at the link below.
0:52
Now, there are really three approaches for gaming on the go.
0:55
Huge honking gaming laptop, thinner gaming laptop,
0:59
or thin and light notebook with an external GPU.
1:02
And today's objective is to find out
1:05
which one is the best, objectively, the best option.
1:09
So let's meet our contenders.
1:12
Coming in at a whopping 10.35 pounds,
1:16
this laptop has been described as a shot of adrenaline,
1:20
a big, heavy beast of a laptop, and barely even portable.
1:26
The ASUS G703 is possibly the only mobile, asterisk,
1:31
device on the market that can actually take advantage of Intel's
1:34
Core i9-8950K.
1:37
Some people have even gotten it to do five gigahertz
1:40
on all six of its processing cores.
1:43
And when you combine that with a GTX 1080, 32 gigs of RAM,
1:47
and a RAID 0 NVMe storage array,
1:49
this laptop spanks most people's gaming desktops.
1:54
Then, over on the other end of the spectrum,
1:55
weighing in at a featherweight 2.9 pounds,
1:59
is the Razer Stealth, which is, well, if we're being honest,
2:03
basically useless for serious gaming.
2:04
That is, until we hit it with a GTX 1080
2:08
in an external enclosure via Thunderbolt 3.
2:11
Now it's rocking a quad-core Core i7,
2:13
16 gigs of RAM, NVMe storage, and of course,
2:16
the GTX 1080 that we just duct taped to it,
2:19
helping it kick gaming laptop stereotypes in the balls
2:22
by combining extreme portability
2:24
with extreme gaming performance.
2:26
Also an extremely useful, sometimes, touchscreen.
2:30
Finally, the middleweight in our bout is the Razer Blade 2018.
2:34
At 4.63 pounds, this laptop is on the heftier end
2:38
of what we might call totable,
2:40
but it does have the muscle to make up
2:42
for that junk in the trunk.
2:43
It's got a six-core i7-8750H and a GTX 1070 Max-Q,
2:49
which some might say is the perfect compromise for gamers.
2:53
But then again, some people also love the Olive Garden,
2:57
but, like, you go there and at first you're, like,
2:59
stoked about the unlimited bread,
3:00
but then you get your pasta and it's just, well, basically,
3:04
it's more bread.
3:06
So then, we have designed a few challenges
3:09
for these machines to compete in,
3:10
so without further ado, let's get ready to ride!
3:14
Not allowed to say that because I will get in trouble.
3:17
Now, challenge number one.
3:19
Our three contestants arrive with their laptops
3:22
in their backpacks at some destination,
3:24
let's say the gym.
3:27
Just kidding, these guys.
3:29
Then they need to game, so they gotta get it out and ready
3:33
as quick as possible.
3:35
Ready, set, goldfish!
3:38
I don't care, I'm going.
3:39
Yeah, screw you, Linus.
3:41
All right, so Colton.
3:44
Oh, Colton's got the G703.
3:48
Whoa, that's gonna be a bit of a challenge here.
3:50
The Camara.
3:52
The Camara has a whopping two power cords for him to set up,
3:57
two power bricks for him to figure out how to manage,
4:00
but it does make up for some of that with its massive IO,
4:05
pretty much everything else out of the water.
4:06
It's got Thunderbolt 3.
4:08
It's got USB 3.
4:09
It's got an SD card reader.
4:11
It's got an actual Ethernet port.
4:13
James, meanwhile, is already completely set up.
4:18
The Blade Strike's kind of a middle ground,
4:20
so he's got ample USB.
4:22
He's got no touchscreen, unfortunately, on this machine.
4:26
I'll help you out with that there.
4:28
He's got Thunderbolt 3.
4:29
He's got mini DisplayPort and HDMI,
4:32
along with Thunderbolt 3,
4:33
so he can do multiple displays,
4:34
multiple displays out.
4:36
And Alex, are you set up now?
4:39
Wow, so coming in first is the thin gaming laptop.
4:43
Coming in second, actually,
4:45
is the ultralight with the external GPU enclosure.
4:50
I mean, you do give up some IO, though.
4:51
It's only got two USB ports,
4:53
plus that Thunderbolt port and a headphone jack,
4:55
so yeah, but then again,
4:57
if you're willing to carry this around,
4:59
you do get additional ports,
5:00
including Ethernet over here.
5:01
And coming in dead last, poor Colton.
5:05
Are you even at the desktop yet?
5:07
I'm at the desktop.
5:09
No one can see what you're typing.
5:12
It's pretty clear that the winner here in terms of setup
5:16
is our thinner gaming laptop.
5:18
But now it's time for round two,
5:20
the drag race of the computer world, Cinebench,
5:24
which hopefully Colton will figure out
5:26
how to open at some point.
5:27
Look, we had Riley,
5:30
we had Riley cast for this spot,
5:32
and it just, like, he was busy with TechLink,
5:34
so it just doesn't matter.
5:35
Anyway, on your marks.
5:36
Get set.
5:38
Bench it.
5:39
No, Colton, wrong one.
5:41
Fortunately, you have a super-fast machine,
5:43
so we can just cancel that, run the CPU one,
5:45
and you'll probably still finish before them.
5:47
So you can actually see here,
5:49
Colton's six-core, 12-thread processor
5:52
has already overtaken the Blade Stealth's
5:55
quad-core, eight-thread processor,
5:58
because remember, there's more to it
5:59
than just how many cores and how many threads you have.
6:02
There's how high it'll turbo and how long it'll stay there.
6:05
In fact,
6:06
it's even closing in on the Blade,
6:08
although this one does look like
6:09
it's gonna come in slightly ahead,
6:10
with about 1,000 points.
6:13
Finishing, well, second in time,
6:16
but that's only because of Colton.
6:17
With nearly 1,200 points,
6:19
the Chimera is clearly the fastest machine here
6:23
when it comes to multi-threaded CPU-intensive processes,
6:27
and the Blade Stealth does show some of its weakness,
6:31
because there's only so much cooling,
6:33
and therefore turboing up that you can do in such,
6:36
thin and light chassis.
6:38
There we go, about 530 points.
6:42
So, when it comes to getting serious work done on the road,
6:46
you're pretty much stuck with something at least this class,
6:50
with more serious work being most suitable
6:54
for obviously the most powerful machine.
6:56
Now, it's time for the main event, gaming performance.
7:00
So, let's get Shadow the Tomb Raider fired up here.
7:04
Make sure you guys are all on the high preset.
7:06
And fight!
7:09
Whoa, did Colton get the game launched
7:11
well before everyone else?
7:12
Looks like that RAID 0 NVMe is working out for him over there.
7:16
All right, everyone's set up and good to go?
7:18
Everyone's on high?
7:19
Yeah.
7:20
Everyone's on DirectX 12?
7:21
Go!
7:23
Let's see who manages to load in first.
7:25
Pull out wide so we can see.
7:30
All of them at once.
7:31
Whoa!
7:32
Colton's out ahead with the loading times!
7:35
Followed by, I mean, this is basically what we expected.
7:37
I can't act too surprised right now.
7:39
Now, what's interesting here
7:41
is that even though our Camara has the same GPU,
7:47
a desktop-grade GTX 1080,
7:50
as our Blade Stealth does in its external enclosure,
7:53
the frame rates that it's seeing are significantly higher
7:57
because you're gonna be limited,
7:59
not just by the PCI Express 4X interface
8:03
over Thunderbolt 3 here,
8:05
but also by the fact that the data has to be sent back from
8:09
the core to the display over that same link,
8:13
causing a little bit of bottlenecking.
8:15
Also, this processor doesn't turbo up to five gigahertz
8:19
or whatever.
8:20
So what that means in the real world is that the Blade,
8:23
which also has the benefit of a nice, fast 120 Hertz display
8:27
compared to our Blade Stealth,
8:28
ends up with better real-world FPS at the same resolution,
8:33
even though it has a GTX 1070 Max-Q.
8:36
So that's like a neutered 1070.
8:38
So no real surprises, in short.
8:39
In Shadow of the Tomb Raider,
8:41
or in any of the other games that we ran while we're at it,
8:45
bigger is more badder when it comes to gaming performance.
8:49
But with that said, our Razer Blade Stealth,
8:54
and therefore the Ultrabook category in general,
8:56
is not down for the count yet,
8:59
because our final category is portability.
9:02
As I alluded to before, the G703 has terrible battery life.
9:08
Like, you could put the largest battery
9:09
allowed in it,
9:11
and it would still barely have juice for over an hour.
9:14
As for the Razer Blade, well, it does a bit better,
9:17
but even if you're just watching YouTube videos
9:19
or using Excel,
9:20
you're still looking at around four hours of battery life max,
9:23
not to mention that both of those laptops
9:26
are heavier than I'd like to carry around with me all day.
9:29
The Stealth, on the other hand, is easy to cart around
9:32
and has a battery that lasts over eight hours
9:34
with light to moderate use.
9:35
That is over double the Blade and almost eight times,
9:38
and that's a lot of battery.
9:39
So if you're looking for a laptop that's as heavy
9:41
as you're looking to carry around,
9:42
then you're gonna need more than one.
9:44
I'm gonna go with the G703.
9:46
And this is where things kind of get a little bit tricky.
9:49
So we set out to determine which one
9:51
was the best gaming laptop,
9:53
but you could make a pretty strong argument
9:56
for the clear winner being having a gaming desktop at home
10:00
and a thin and light for when you're traveling.
10:03
With that said, for people that travel a lot
10:06
or are on shift work, or are truckers,
10:08
So for me personally, a big part of me is leaning towards the external GPU because I hate carting around a gaming laptop a lot and probably 80 to 90% of what I use my notebook for is kind of writing scripts on the go.
10:25
So that gives me the flexibility to do what I need to do during the day without running out of battery, but still be able to have the full experience when I'm able to get to a desk.
10:35
With that said, it's just hard to recommend to most people because first, you need a notebook with a Thunderbolt 3 X4 port, then you need to buy an expensive enclosure, then you need to get a GPU knowing that there isn't going to be enough bandwidth over Thunderbolt to take full advantage of it.
10:55
Meaning in the end, you have paid top dollar for a middle-of-the-road gaming experience.
11:01
So for the time being, I'm going to keep rocking this.
11:04
But we'll have to let you guys decide, and let us know in the comments below, who do you think ultimately won the game off?
11:13
But you know who the big winner is? Anyone who chooses Squarespace.
11:17
Squarespace allows you to create a beautiful website with their all-in-one platform, and their award-winning templates make it easier than ever to make a gorgeous online presence for yourself, for your local sports team, for your restaurant, or for anybody.
11:32
Squarespace also provides award-winning 24x7.
11:34
Customer support via live chat and email, and they do live webinars now, and you can check out their help guides as well.
11:41
And you can now transfer your third-party domains to Squarespace.
11:44
So instead of working with multiple vendors to maintain your online presence, you can manage all your domain and billing settings in one place.
11:51
So go check it out. Every Squarespace site includes a store so you can manage your products, orders, and inventory.
11:56
So go to squarespace.com forward slash LTT.
11:59
We're gonna have that linked below, and use code LTT to save 10% on your first purchase.
12:04
So thanks for watching, guys. If this video sucked, you know what to do.
12:08
But if it was awesome, get subscribed, hit that like button, or check out the link to where to buy the stuff we featured in the video description.
12:14
Also down there is our merch store, which has cool shirts like this one, and our community forum, which you should totally join.