Nvidia Graphics Cards for Gaming Laptops: 7 Prime Picks

Hello everyone! Today I will talk about the best Nvidia graphics cards for gaming laptop ones that are installed in laptops and, as a rule, cannot be replaced, and if they are, it is usually by soldering, flashing, and without a guarantee of performance. As usual, I will start with budget solutions and finish with flagship ones, and also tell you about which laptops you can most often find certain models in.

Best Nvidia Graphics Card For Gaming Laptops

best nvidia graphics card for gaming laptop

best nvidia graphics card for gaming laptop

NVIDIA GeForce MX250

As part of this video, I will not consider the integrated graphics from Intel and AMD, therefore, opens today’s selection of NVIDIA GeForce MX250. Like other MX video cards, this is an entry-level solution that allows you to play most modern games at only minimal settings, and often with a resolution down to 720p, although there are exceptions among light projects. 

The model is available in two main modifications – with a 25-watt and with a 10-watt TDP: the second has a significantly lower clock frequency, and therefore a weakened performance. The difference between the versions is about 30 percent, and it is impossible to find out in advance which particular MX250 is installed according to the specifications of the laptop – you will have to study the reviews and reviews.

So what’s the performance? In the popular MOBA DOTA 2, it will be possible to rotate in FullHD even at high settings with about 50 frames per second, but at maximum, freezes in mass mixes are inevitable. In World of Tanks, it is comfortable to play only at the minimum when switching to the average preset, the FPS looks good, but in practice, the same unpleasant slowdowns are observed. 

The picture at ultra-low parameters does not look very presentable, but the frame rate indicator rises to almost a hundred. PUBG and Overwatch force you to reduce the resolution or scale of rendering, just like Apex Legends – at 1920 x 1080 pixels, your opponents will only enjoy light frags. And now a spoonful of honey in a barrel of ointment – all of the above applies to the 10-watt MX250, so if you plan to take a mobile PC with a 25-watt one, you can throw 20-30 percent of productivity. However, I do not recommend the GeForce MX series for games – most often such cards are installed in inexpensive laptops, as well as office models and some ultrabooks, the best option for budget gaming would be at least GTX 1050, and better GTX 1650 and more advanced graphics accelerators which I will discuss next.

Here is our review at Nvidia Geforce Mx350 Gaming.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050

The mobile version of the GeForce GTX 1050 is certainly not the newest video card, but multimedia and inexpensive gaming laptops with it are still popular, and the point here is, obviously, in their lower price compared to current competitors. 

A pleasant point is the absence of differences in the number of computing cores from the basic desktop version, while the unpleasant one is the obvious dependence of the performance output from the graphics accelerator on the quality of the laptop cooling system. Budget mobile PCs, as a rule, do not shine with ideally thought-out heat dissipation, so the performance of a laptop GTX 1050 is slightly lower than that of a desktop one.

However, for undemanding network games, it is still more than enough – the same second Dota at maximum speeds gives out more than 85-90 FPS. In tanks, you can also drive ultra, or at least high – in the first case, you will get 50-60 frames per second, in the second much more. What about more resource-intensive projects? You can not count on ultra settings in The Witcher 3: you will be able to play comfortably only on medium ones. The situation is similar with the fifth Battlefield: in-network mixes, so that there are no drawdowns, you may even have to set some parameters to low. 

To summarize, for light sessions and online games, the GTX 1050, as a rule, is still enough, but more demanding hits are comfortable to play either you will not be able to, or you will succeed at minimum or low-medium settings. Consider this when choosing a laptop.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 is a graphics card designed to replace the aging mobile GTX 1050 and GTX 1050 Ti, and it does it quite successfully: the superiority over the latter averages about 50 percent. Moreover, sometimes the new product even bypasses the notebook GTX 1060, and if it lags behind it somewhere, then by no more than 20 percent. 

Check the price of the Laptop with Nvidia Geforce GTX 1650.

Of course, DOTA 2, League of Legends, and similar light games no longer present any difficulty for the Turing model – you can safely set maximum settings in them, as for heavier projects on average, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order can cut enemies with a light sword at high and even ultra with 40-60 FPS, a similar situation in the third Witcher, only instead of a lightsaber there is steel and silver, Yes, and frame rate drops below 45 at maximum speed sometimes do occur, so some parameters, like the range of vegetation display, it is desirable to reduce, and, of course, disable HairWorks. 

I will say a few words about the fifth Battle, which is popular among shooter fans – you can comfortably play it at medium-high with 50-60 FPS, but ultra-settings, especially in online mode, cause noticeable slowdowns at some moments. 

Finally, it is worth recalling that the mobile GTX 1650 is on the market in two modifications with two and with four gigabytes of video memory, and if you plan to actively play modern projects, you should give preference to the version with four a couple of gigs in 2020 is clearly not enough. And do not take the GTX 1650 Max-Q: due to the reduced TDP to 35 watts instead of 50, it gives out a noticeably lower frame rate. 

so it is still desirable to lower some parameters like the range of vegetation display, and, of course, disable HairWorks. I will say a few words about the fifth Battle, which is popular among shooter fans – you can comfortably play it at medium-high with 50-60 FPS, but ultra-settings, especially in online mode, cause noticeable slowdowns at some moments. Finally, it is worth recalling that the mobile GTX 1650 is on the market in two modifications with two and with four gigabytes of video memory, and if you plan to actively play modern projects, you should give preference to the version with four a couple of gigs in 2020 is clearly not enough. 

And do not take the GTX 1650 Max-Q: due to the reduced TDP to 35 watts instead of 50, it gives out a noticeably lower frame rate. so it is still desirable to lower some parameters like the range of vegetation display, and, of course, disable HairWorks. I will say a few words about the fifth Battle, which is popular among shooter fans – you can comfortably play it at medium-high with 50-60 FPS, but ultra-settings, especially in online mode, cause noticeable slowdowns at some moments. 

Finally, it is worth recalling that the mobile GTX 1650 is on the market in two modifications – with two and with four gigabytes of video memory, and if you plan to actively play modern projects, you should give preference to the version with four – a couple of gigs in 2020 is clearly not enough. And do not take the GTX 1650 Max-Q: due to the reduced TDP to 35 watts instead of 50, it gives out a noticeably lower frame rate.

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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti

Having skipped the GTX 1650 Ti, I go straight to the GTX 1660 Ti: this is already a serious graphics accelerator that is practically not installed in relatively inexpensive multimedia laptops: it can be found in gaming models that cost 70 thousand rubles or more, respectively, for this price you get sufficient for any games in FullHD performance and providing the necessary margin of 6 gigabytes of video memory. 

At the same time, the TDP of the video card is from 60 to 80 watts, so it is really important to choose laptops with an adequate cooling system here, otherwise, the card will simply drop frequencies, which will lead to unpleasant FPS drops. If there are no problems with heat dissipation, there will be no problems with FPS the mobile GTX 1660 Ti is inferior to the desktop one, but not so much, so as not to pull some games at high or maximum settings in 1920 x 1080 pixels mode. 

For example, in the third Witcher, you can safely play with 60+ FPS and at ultra if you turn off HairWorks, but in the fifth Battle in network mode, it is better to lower the settings to high in order to exclude sharp drawdowns. Perhaps, if we talk about notebook graphics accelerators, the 1660th Ti is one of the best options in terms of price-performance ratio, which will not disappoint in any project, although sometimes you have to spend a little time customizing the options.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060

The most affordable mobile video card with support for ray tracing, the RTX 2060, is a rather controversial option for buying since its operating frequencies leave much to be desired: in order to squeeze the heat dissipation of the solution into a frame acceptable for laptops, NVIDIA had to resort to a serious cut in hertz: in the base laptop “two thousand sixtieth “works at 960 megahertz, and in a turbo boost it rarely accelerates to more than 1200 megahertz. 

It is clear that at the same time, there is no question of performance equal to the desktop version: the advantage over the younger Turing in the form of ray tracing seems to be rather doubtful: if we take a model with support for ray tracing, then it is clearly not the most budgetary one. 

No, of course, the RTX 2060, despite the low frequencies, is more productive than the GTX 1660 Ti. and allows you to set the maximum speed in FullHD in the fifth Battle, in the third Witcher, but still, there is an impression that the thermal package of the model is too curtailed.

The advantages of the card include only the significantly lower cost of laptops with it compared to devices with top-end RTX 2070, 2080, as well as their Max-Q and Super-versions: however, like other gaming laptops, they still cost quite a bit. expensive.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070

There are too few mobile PCs with an RTX 2070 Super graphics card on sale, and I don’t want to consider the Max-Q version because of its truncated TDP, so I’ll pay attention to the standard laptop “two thousand and seventieth”.

Its performance is noticeably higher than that of the RTX 2060, although it still does not match the flagship notebook GPUs with their 150W TDP. However, you can still play comfortably not only in FullHD resolution but also in the heavier QuadHD at maximum speed the exception is a few projects like the thunderstorm of modern video cards Red Dead Redemption 2.

You have to pay impressive money for an impressive level of computing power: RTX 2070 is only into top gaming laptops, and they cannot be cheap by definition. Yes, now prices are starting to gradually decrease due to the approaching release of the next generation of graphics accelerators, but all the same, it will hardly be possible to take a laptop with “two thousand and seventieth” for less than 110-120 thousand rubles. 

For the same money, you can build a much more productive PC, so if you don’t really need portability, check out our videos on assemblies in different budgets.

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NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super

GeForce RTX 2080 Super is the most powerful mobile video card available on the market because the 2080 Ti is not and will not be: the energy appetites of the “green” flagship are too great for a laptop form factor. 

The improved “two thousand and eightieth” is capable of delivering TDP up to 150 watts or more, so gaming laptop manufacturers have to go to various tricks to keep the temperature of the graphics accelerator and other system components within acceptable limits. 

Perhaps, the RTX 2080 Super can be characterized as the ultimate option for gaming in QuadHD and not bad for 4K, although, of course, in this extremely difficult mode you will often have to lower the settings, and there are so many laptops with the video card in question that you can easily collect for that kind of money Desktop PC with Comet Lake-S octa-core and RTX 2080 Ti.

Hi, fellow tech enthusiasts! I’m Syed Kashif Shah, and I’m proud to be your go-to expert for all things like problems, suggestions, recommendations related to graphics cards. As a seasoned Technology Consultant and Hardware Enthusiast, I’ve spent years in the graphics card troubleshooting and repair field.