How to Choose a Good Laptop: Essential Factors

Desktop vs. Laptop: The Non-Negotiable Starting Point

How to Choose a Good Laptop: Essential Factors without knowing about laptops. You got up in the morning and went to the computer store to buy a laptop. Upon arriving at the store, a store employee greeted you.

He asked you what you wanted. You said, “I need a powerful laptop for work or play.” He recommended this laptop model to you. You looked at the laptop in detail. You saw that the graphics card was something with “mx”—you thought it was a very good card. Then you looked at the processor; when you saw that the processor was i7, you said, “Ok, this is the laptop I was looking for.” You didn’t look at the price in other stores because you were too impressed with the laptop.

You bought the laptop and then went home and installed the programs and games. But you didn’t get the performance you expected. The performance you get in games is very bad, and the rendering times in programs take a long time. But you still think you’re getting the best laptop you can get for this price because you don’t know about laptops.

Is the processor model of the laptop good? Is the graphics card good? Is the RAM capacity of the laptop enough? You don’t have the slightest idea. Actually, you could have bought a better laptop—but you bought a weak laptop model that is not enough for you. It’s not just these.

Because you didn’t do price research from other stores, you bought the laptop for $150 more than its normal price. Welcome to the club of overpayers.

Defining Your Need: The 3 Critical Scenarios

So what should you do to avoid joining the overpayers club? Actually, the answer is very simple: You need to have some knowledge about components such as processors, graphics cards, and RAM in laptops. In this video, I will explain the components to you as much as I can, but first, we need to agree on a few things.

1. Desktop or Laptop?
   If you have a budget and you plan to buy a computer in this budget, desktop PCs that you can buy for the same price are more powerful than laptops. Because the engineering work of the components in laptops is more costly than desktops.
2. As a result, laptops cost more than desktops. Therefore, if you do not travel a lot and do not need to move the computer, building a computer is much more advantageous than buying a laptop. I think you understand this.
3. Purpose of using the laptop.
   You need to decide on the purpose of using the laptop. Let me put it this way: We have several scenarios in front of us.

• Scenario 1 (Gaming): If you’re going to play games, the most important component is the graphics card. Of course, the processor is also important for you, but you do not need an incredible processor.
• Scenario 2 (Rendering/Work): When we move on to the second scenario, the laptop will be used mostly for performance-requiring tasks such as 3D modeling, video editing, and rendering. So these laptops will be for rendering. The important component for us in this scenario is the processor, but now you also need a good graphics card for these tasks.
• But why? We know that while playing games, we can get higher performance according to the performance of the graphics card—but why is the graphics card important in rendering? Let me explain it to you this way: Until a few years ago, render engines were able to render mostly using the cores in the processor, but now render engines use the cores of the graphics card instead of the processor cores.
• Although this is a newer technology, especially in the 3D rendering industry, many of the render engines can now render with the graphics card. In addition, rendering using the graphics card takes much less time than rendering using the processor. That’s why I find the graphics card as important as the processor in this scenario.
• By the way, let me give you another important information: For this scenario, you need to choose a laptop with NVIDIA graphics card. Because the cores called “CUDA” in NVIDIA graphics cards are very performant in rendering. You may be a little confused by this point, but don’t worry—you will understand it all.
• Scenario 3 (Office/Battery Life): In the third scenario, there are laptops that will not be used for gaming and rendering—less power and long battery life to be used in the office.
  Let me also say this: in this first and second scenario, they both have the disadvantage of short battery life due to the high power consumption. Therefore, in these two scenarios, we use the laptop mostly plugged in. You have to choose a scenario that matches your purpose. You have 5 seconds.

Processor Deep Dive: Letters & Numbers Decoded

1. Processors.
   If you looked at the laptop models, you may have seen names such as i5, i7, Ryzen 5, and Ryzen 7 in the title. These are the processor models found in laptops. Ryzen processors are produced by AMD; the processors on the other side are produced by Intel. The performance hierarchy in Intel processors is as follows: i3 includes entry-level, i5 mid-range, and i7 and i9 high-end processors.
2. The same hierarchy exists in AMD’s Ryzen processors. We understand this info, but I see some numbers and letters next to the processor—what do they mean? For example, let’s take the processor in this laptop as an example and examine it. Now we look at the 4th and 5th digits from the right. These numbers will show us the generation of the processor. One, two, three, four, and five.
3. As you can see, the fourth and fifth digits show the number 11—so this processor is an 11th generation i7 processor. So, does the performance increase as the processor generation increases? Actually, that’s not exactly the case. But of course, there are newer technologies due to the later release in a newer generation processor. We understood the processor and generation connection.

The Power Secret: What Processor Letters Reveal

Now listen carefully to what I have to say—this is very important here. As you can see, there is a letter at the end: the letter “H”. What does this letter mean? At the end of the processors, you will see things like “H”, “G1”, “G7”, “Y”, and “U”. These are very important for you to choose the laptop you will buy.

• “U” = Efficiency Focus: Processors with the letter “U” at the end are processors designed for low power consumption. These processors are not very performant, but they provide long battery life.
• This allows us to use these laptops for a long time without being connected to the charger. So if you see the letter “U” on the processor of a laptop, know that that laptop is designed for low power consumption.
• “Y” = Ultra-Low Power: Processors with the letter “Y” consume even less power than processors with the letter “U”. So they are ultra-low power consumption.
• “G1/G7” = Integrated Graphics Tier: The letters “G1” and “G7” indicate the level of the internal graphics card in the laptop. The internal graphics card of the processor with the G7 is more powerful than the processor with the G1.
• Of course, the processors I have shown so far are not very powerful processors. We can’t get a very good performance.
• “H” = Performance King: If we are doing things that require performance such as playing games, 3D modeling, and rendering, we need to choose processors with the letter “H” at the end.
  Now let’s put these processors in the scenarios I just showed.
• This is the current state of the table right now. If you remember, I just told you that the processor is very important for rendering.

Benchmarking Rendering Performance

So how can I compare laptop processors according to their rendering performance? First of all, I go to Google and type “laptopsreviewer cinebench r23” in the search box and search. I go to the site laptopsreviewer.com. After scrolling down a bit, I click on this option. And in front of me are the laptop processors lined up. The rendering performance of these processors decreases from top to bottom.

Real-World Example: Processor Hierarchy

Let me explain in a way you can understand better. For example, a laptop with a 12900HK processor gives better rendering performance than another laptop with a 6800H processor. You can take advantage of this list of processors when choosing a laptop that fits your budget.

Budget Matching: Finding Your Processor

Let me even tell you how to choose the laptop. Let’s choose a processor here as an example. I choose the 12900H processor. I am searching for i7 12900H laptop on Google. It lists laptops with 12900H processors for me. I check laptops—but these laptops are out of my budget.

I go back to the list and select another processor at the bottom of the list. I do the same search for this processor. And I find these laptops fit my budget. So the best laptop processor I can buy at this price for rendering is 12700H.

 The Graphics Card Crossroads

But there are two different laptop models that fit my budget. So which one will I choose? Here you need to choose the graphics card.

Graphics Card Basics: NVIDIA vs. AMD

2- Graphics Cards. First of all, know this: There are 2 most preferred manufacturers for graphics cards. One is AMD, the other is NVIDIA. If the graphics card has RTX, GTX, Quadro in its name, this card is produced by NVIDIA. If the card has RX in its name, this card is produced by AMD.

Ray Tracing & CUDA: The NVIDIA Edge

RTX series cards developed by NVIDIA are known for technologies such as ray tracing and DLSS. Ray tracing is a technology for creating realistic images that calculates reflections in the image. If you are interested in this technology and you say “it is indispensable for me, what would I do without this technology”—you have to choose laptops with NVIDIA RTX cards, because this ray tracing technology does not work very well on AMD cards at the moment.

It even works pretty badly. On the other hand, if you are interested in rendering, you still have to choose a laptop with an NVIDIA card—because if you remember, I just told you that the cores called “CUDA” in NVIDIA cards are very performant in rendering. Therefore, it will be much better for you to choose NVIDIA cards.

GPU Comparison: Wattage Matters!

So how do we compare graphics cards? How can I know which card is more performant? First of all, know this: in a video card series, the higher number of video cards is more powerful than the other. For example, 3080 is better than 3070—and 3060 is better than 3050. So there is no list of it? Of course there is! I typed “laptop gpu benchmark list” in the search box and searched. I clicked on the site “laptopmedia.com”.

When I scrolled down, I saw a list of graphics cards. The performance of the graphics cards here decreases from top to bottom. If you have noticed, there is the letter “W” next to the graphics cards. This tells us the maximum wattage consumed by the graphics card. Of the same two graphics cards, the model with higher wattage is more performant and consumes more power than the other.

As you can understand from here, not only the “model” of the graphics cards is important—the watt values consumed are also important. You can find out this consumed watt value from the specifications of the laptop.

Finalizing Your Render Laptop

Now let’s go back to the render laptop—if you remember, we were undecided between the two models. As you can see here, one has an RTX 3050 TI and one has an RTX 3060 graphics card. The laptop with the RTX 3060 inside is more powerful. I choose the laptop with RTX 3060 and add it to the render category in the table. We chose our render laptop.

Gaming Laptops: Graphics First!

Now let’s move on to the gaming laptop category. As I said before, our first priority in a gaming laptop is the graphics card, not the processor. So I go back to the graphics card list—and here I choose a graphics card from the top of the list. For example, we can look at the price of laptops with 3070 Tİ graphics cards.

I found a model that I can afford, and I’m adding it to the game category. By the way, you can play games on the laptop we chose for rendering—you can also render on the laptop we chose for the game. In other words, there is no rule that rendering is not possible on a gaming laptop. It’s just a matter of preference. For whatever purpose you will use the laptop, you can choose it.

RAM, SSD & Screen: The Supporting Cast

“Well, I understood everything so far—but other components like RAM, SSD, and laptop screen are not important?” Of course, they are important—but because the options are more limited and it is easier to choose, I want to tell them all together quickly.
3- RAM: For today’s games and programs, you have to buy a laptop with at least 16 gigabyte RAM. I even think that after a few years even 16 gigabyte RAM will be insufficient. Even now, I can get insufficient RAM errors in my detailed After Effects works.

Therefore, the laptop you will buy must have at least 16 gigabyte RAM. It is true that you do not need high-capacity RAM in games—but when it comes to rendering, even 16 gigabyte RAM can be insufficient. But 16 gigabyte RAM is enough for entry level.

4- SSD: My advice to you is to buy a laptop with at least 512 gigabyte SSD. The size of today’s games and programs has increased a lot—so buying less than 512 gigabyte SSD may be the wrong choice. Over time, you may have to delete something to free up disk space.

5- Laptop Screen: If you are going to play games with a laptop, it will be much better for you to buy a laptop with a high screen refresh rate. Because playing on a screen with a high screen refresh rate—especially while playing competitive games—increases your performance in the game.

For this reason, I recommend you to buy a laptop with at least 144 hertz screen for gaming. But if you’re not gaming and need more accurate colors, you need a screen with high color accuracy. There are standards such as NTSC and sRGB that have been developed to determine this color accuracy.

If you look at the detailed technical specifications of the laptop you will buy, you will see the percentage values of these standards. This means that this screen can display 72% of the NTSC color gamut. The higher this percentage value, the more saturated and accurate the colors are. Therefore, you need to choose a laptop with high color accuracy. Of course, it is hard to find all these features together—but if you have a budget, you can solve this problem by buying an external reference monitor.

Scenario 3 & The MacBook Wildcard

Now let’s move on to the laptop in third scenario. I have already explained the processors in this scenario. In such laptops, there are special series of known brands. For example, MSI’s Summit series, Huawei’s Matebook series, Lenovo’s Thinkpad series, Asus’ Zenbook series can be given as examples.

You can look at the laptops in these series and decide on the laptop you will buy according to your needs. Now we have finished the whole table—but I would like to make one more addition to the work and render scenario here. If you remember, I told you that in first and second scenarios we would have to stay plugged in because it consumes so much power. But I want to do my work and render at high performance without being plugged in.

Also, I don’t play any games. For this, we create an additional scenario to this scenario—and add Apple’s MacBook series here. By the way, know this: There is a problem with most Windows-based laptops—If we want to get full performance from the processor and graphics card in these laptops, we have to use it plugged in. Because after unplugging the laptop, the processor and graphics card reduce their performance to save power.

Therefore, we cannot get high performance from these laptops without being plugged in. On the other hand, old MacBooks with Intel processors are not included—but the new MacBooks with M1 and M2 processors are both incredible performances and can give this performance for a long time without being plugged in. Therefore, if you travel a lot and do not play games, you can look at MacBook models with M1 and M2 processors.

Also, let me add something: If you are interested in music production programs such as FL Studio and Logic Pro X, you do not need a powerful graphics card—but you need a powerful processor, so you can look at new MacBook models.

Final Advice: Price Research is Non-Negotiable

“Bro, I am not interested in computers, I did not understand anything from this video, what should I do?” Laptop has chronic problem? Can you get a better laptop for this price? Get the answers to the questions. And look at the price of the model you will buy from many stores—do a price research.

Laptop Buying FAQs: Avoid Overpaying & Choose Wisely

1. How do I compare laptop processors for rendering?

“First, go to Google and type ‘laptopsreviewer cinebench r23’. On laptopsreviewer.com, processors are lined up—rendering performance decreases from top to bottom. Example: 12900HK gives better performance than 6800H.”

2. Should I choose NVIDIA or AMD for graphics?

“If you need ray tracing (‘indispensable for me’) or do rendering, choose NVIDIA (RTX/GTX/Quadro). Ray tracing ‘works pretty badly’ on AMD (RX cards). NVIDIA’s CUDA cores are ‘very performant in rendering’.”

3. How do I pick between two laptops with the same processor?

“Check the graphics card! Use ‘laptop gpu benchmark list’ on laptopmedia.com. Performance decreases top to bottom. Higher wattage (e.g., 100W vs. 80W) means better performance—check laptop specs for watt values.”

4. Is an i7 always better than i5?

“No! Check the letter at the end: ‘H’ = high performance (gaming/rendering), ‘U’ = battery efficiency. A ‘U’ processor won’t handle heavy tasks well.”

5. Can I game on a “rendering” laptop (or vice versa)?

“Yes! ‘There is no rule.’ Gaming laptops can render, and rendering laptops can game. Choose based on your priority: GPU for gaming, CPU+GPU for rendering.”

6. Why do I need NVIDIA for rendering?

“‘CUDA cores in NVIDIA cards are very performant in rendering.’ Rendering with GPU is faster than CPU—and NVIDIA’s CUDA tech makes it ‘much better’.”

7. What’s the minimum RAM/SSD I need?

“At least 16GB RAM—’after a few years even 16GB will be insufficient’ for rendering. SSD: Minimum 512GB, ‘or you’ll delete files to free up space’.”

8. Is screen refresh rate or color accuracy more important?

*”For gaming: 144Hz+ refresh rate (‘boosts competitive performance’). For design: High color accuracy (check % of NTSC/sRGB in specs—’higher = more accurate’).”*

9. Can I get full performance on battery?

*”No for Windows laptops! ‘We have to stay plugged in’—unplugged, performance drops. Only new MacBooks (M1/M2) give ‘incredible performance without being plugged in’.”*

10. What if I still don’t understand specs?

“‘Do price research from many stores.’ Ask: ‘Can you get a better laptop for this price? Does it have a chronic problem?’ Avoid joining the ‘club of overpayers’!”