There’s Never Been a Better Time to Buy a Gaming Laptop

Gaming laptops have gotten more powerful over the years, and thankfully, prices of these portable gaming machines have gone down quite a bit too. And with the recent release of the mobile versions of the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti and GTX 1650 GPUs, you can expect budget-friendly gaming laptops to be even more powerful now.

If you’re in the market for a new gaming laptop, it’s the perfect time to purchase one now, especially if you want the most performance for your money. Let’s take a look at what the mobile GTX 1660 Ti and GTX 1650 offer, shall we?

Out of the two new mobile GPUs, the GTX 1660 Ti is naturally the more powerful one. In fact, compared to the mobile RTX 2060 GPU, the GTX 1660 Ti is only slightly slower. Notebookcheck, for one, went as far as to say that the GTX 1660 Ti is essentially on par with the RTX 2060. At least, when it concerns the mobile versions of both cards.

Basically, if you don’t care for RTX-exclusive features like ray tracing and Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), the GTX 1660 Ti is a mighty good option. You will get almost the same level of performance for less money; in theory, at least. Plus, the cost difference will ultimately depend on the pricing strategy of different brands.

Take MSI, for example, which is already offering a couple of GTX 1660 Ti gaming laptops in Malaysia. According to Tech Hypermart’s listing, the MSI GL63 8SD officially retails at RM6,099, though the retailer is discounting the price to only RM5,799.

For that kind of money, the gaming laptop comes with a GTX 1660 Ti GPU, an Intel Core i7-8750H processor paired with 16GB of RAM, a 15.6-inch 1080p display, 512GB of fast PCIe NVMe SSD storage, as well as a 1TB 7200rpm HDD.

But compared to the RTX 2060 variant of the very same laptop, you only have to pay RM5,899 – that’s only RM100 price difference. Granted, the GTX 1660 Ti model does come with double the amount of RAM and SSD storage, which explains the small price difference.

Anyway, let’s get back to the topic at hand with the GTX 1650. Compared to the GTX 1660 Ti, this mobile GPU is far less powerful. To put its performance into context, the GTX 1650 is only 1.7x faster than the GTX 1050. This comes as no surprise: Nvidia is touting it as a successor to the GTX 1050.

While the GTX 1650’s performance may not be quite as impressive as the GTX 1660 Ti, it is quite a capable GPU still. Nvidia claims that the GTX 1650 is able to push over 60fps in popular games such as Apex Legends, Fortnite, as well as PUBG at high settings and 1080p resolution.

Right now, there are a couple of brands that are offering GTX 1650 gaming laptops in Malaysia; Acer is one of them. The company’s new Acer Nitro 5 is packing a GTX 1650 GPU, a Core i5-9300H processor paired with 4GB of RAM, 256GB of SSD storage, and a 15.6-inch 1080p IPS display. How much does this gaming laptop cost? Only RM3,499 (or RM3,449 from Tech Hypermart). That’s good value for money.

Of course, there are also Max-Q variants of the GTX 1660 Ti and GTX 1650, so it can be quite confusing to shop for gaming laptops with either one of these two cards. Max-Q cards, while more power-efficient, are also less powerful than the standard models. You really have to pay close attention to which variant you’re getting to avoid disappointment.

Nonetheless, the introduction of the GTX 1660 Ti and GTX 1650 mobile GPUs are good news for those who are looking to get a budget-friendly gaming laptop that is still powerful enough. The GTX 1650 is ideal for those who want a good, entry-level gaming machine, while the GTX 1660 Ti is made for gamers who want something more powerful without breaking the bank.

All that’s left now is for gaming laptops with these new mobile GPUs to arrive in Malaysia, especially ones powered by the GTX 1660 Ti. We reckon gaming laptops with this GPU will offer one of the best – if not the best – performance-to-price ratio for the near future.