Let me share with you maybe a little bit of an eye-opening fact did you know that it’s been almost 2 years to the day since we have had a new GPU architecture launch into the gaming laptop Market. That’s right the RTX 4000 series have essentially been around for two full years.
That’s going to change a bunch of things, it’s because Nvidia is launching the RTX 5000 series laptop GPUs and not only that those things will be available right alongside brand-new CPU architectures from both AMD and Intel.
RTX 5090, RTX 5080, RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5070 Next gen design
Now what I wanted to do is sort of sum things up here about what these combinations really mean for the 2025 gaming laptop Market basically devices like this and how things are evolving because it’s about to get very interesting basically manufacturers are throwing everything. They’ve possibly got at these new design’s new screens bigger cooling technology upgrades better keyboard and mouse a bunch of 18-in models the list just keeps on going on and on everything, we’ve been waiting for and some things that we didn’t even know we needed are coming in these new devices.
We have to start with the RTX 5000 series because that will be basically the Heart of any new gaming laptop and in a lot of ways this is a massive Step Beyond what the RTX 4000 series was ever able to offer. I’m not just talking about necessarily performance here but from a tech and features perspective this black wall architecture. While core counts yes they have generally gone up in some cases it might not be as much as you may have thought initially also Nvidia hasn’t really detailed core or memory frequencies on these new chips at least not on the laptop side either way.
That’s so important when you consider a lot of the flagship gaming laptops that use the 5090 and 5080 will be moving to high refresh rate 4K displays this year we’re also getting an RTX 5070 TI where there weren’t any TI class cards in the 4,000 series but speaking of memory. There’s some interesting things going on here like the RTX 5080 uses what’s essentially a desktop 5080 core but it gets 24 gigs of memory meanwhile on the desktop side, It only gets 16 gigs. It’s more disappointing in to see the 5060 sticking to an 8 gig 128 bit interface. When most if not all laptops it’ll be used in will have 1600p displays so higher resolutions where that kind of memory layout could provide a massive bottleneck in some cases there’s another thing that should jump out at you and that’s the RTX 570 other than the GDDR 7.
It is a literal carbon copy of the RTX 4070 at least in terms of Cuda core and You might have also noticed that there’s a pretty gaping hole in NVidia’s current RTX 5000 series lineup because, They have absolutely no Replacements at least right now for the RTX 4060 or 4050 that means at least initially anybody, who doesn’t want to spend like $2500 or more on a brand new gaming laptop they might have to sit out purchasing for a little while longer.
RTX 5000 power states
As a result of all of these architecture changes the RTX 5000 series of starting power has been raised Buy in some cases a substantial amount versus the RTX 4000 series though you might remember laptop GPU”s have completely configurable power levels between that bare minimum spec and the maximum value. Can essentially steal some of the overhead from the CPU and suck back a bit more power, It all depends how laptop manufacturers handle things like cooling power and temperature on individual models for example, The new revised g16 that’s coming out this year with its 5090. It will be running that GPU at a maximum of 130 wats, that’s because Asus’s Engineers they figured that is the maximum they could cram into here have it suck back while still delivering adequate temperatures and noise levels on the other hand.
We also got some time recently with the 2025 version of the Strick scar 16 and 18 those laptops feature a brand new heat sink with triple fans a massive Vapor chamber and liquid metal. That combination allows their RTX 90s to hit a maximum of 175 Watts with Dynamic boost while the CPU itself can get up to 65 Watts meanwhile, The MSI Titan 18hx also allows the RTX 1590 to flex upwards to 175 Watts. MSI was also able to push CPU power to constant 95 Watts at the same time and That’s one of the reasons the 2025 laptops will be so overall crazy with new GPU’s and CPU’s. Most manufacturers have finally updated their internals to the latest and greatest in cooling Tech that should lead to cooler temperatures more consistent performance and hopefully quieter running gaming laptops.
AMD’s more mid level to budget focused gaming laptop
We’re going to sort of shift gears here a little bit because I wanted to talk about the CPUs that these RTX 5000 series GPU’s are most likely to be paired up with and of course, The most logical answer is the Ryzen 9000 HX series which is technically called fire range since it’ll probably be the gaming King this time around and by a pretty wide margin too especially that x 3d chip but in general based on what we know about Zen 5. On the desktop side Intel will probably face a pretty big uphill battle in the gaming laptop Market too there’s also been a little bit of talk about something called the Ryzen 800 HX series. Now we don’t have official feeds and speeds about this quite yet, but it looks like this will take over.
I guess AMD’s more midlevel to budget focused gaming laptop lineup it’s basically a rebranded Ryzen 745 HX lineup but we’re just going to have to see how this shakes out and what kind of laptops. Since it’s rapidly becoming the go-to architecture for thinner and lighter gaming laptops whereas the higher-end processors mostly focus on desktop replacement systems. Intel’s Arrow Lake architecture is making its way to the gaming and Creator laptop side with a pretty wide range of a check series options none of which have hyper threading enabled. They replace also based on what we’ve seen the ultra 9 275 HX will be the one you’ll most likely see in most RTX 5000 series laptops meanwhile There’s also the standard H series, that should be rolled into more entry-level devices along with some Thin and light gaming laptops. To since these CPUs are meant to run at slight lower power limits than the HX series plus they get some LP cores thrown in too.
The reason why I’m bringing processors into this conversation is because When I started looking at the spec sheets for these new laptops from Asus Razer MSI and a few others, I noticed this weird Trend developing when it came to the utilization between AMD and Intel processors. now before I get too far into this, I don’t want to start any conspiracy theories here. I am just going to lay out the facts as They are right now first of all there are very few laptops from major manufacturers that combine an RTX 90 with the most logical CPU Choice a 9950 HX 3D or 9950 HX. There are a few exceptions though but those are mostly from smaller Brands but there might also be the MSI radar a 18 now.
I’m saying it might be simply because, We’ve had some feedback saying The RTX 5090 version may not actually happen but I’m crossing my fingers that it actually does anyways instead of that Flagship 90 most AMD based laptops typically max out at an RTX 580 or in the case of Asus’s g16 the x3d is matched up with at most an RTX 570 TI and Look to a lot of people that might be sort of like a a nothing Burger but Asus themselves. They set a precedent with the previous generation laptop the 7945 HX 3D which was launched in this thing the scar 17x 3D well straight from the get-go it came with an RTX 4090.
The lack of RTX 5090 option this time around it just feels off but despite that it’s not like Nvidia’s highest end GPU doesn’t get any AMD CPU options nope instead laptops like the Razor Blade 16 by the way props to Razer for going AMD on this one and MSI stealth and Vector series. They’ve all got it they’ve all got the 5090 EX except they’re pairing it with a Ryzen Ai 9 HX 370 likely due to those being, I guess more compact options.
AMD version with its 9950 x3d option
Another thing we’re starting to notice is that for the most part those high-end Flagship Gaming laptops, The ones where 5090 makes the most sense like the 2025 MSI Titan 18 Rog scar series well they don’t get any AMD CPU options whatsoever as a matter of fact while the 2025 version of the g16 and 18 gets.
It’s a brand new design the AMD version with its 9950 x3d option doesn’t see any design upgrade whatsoever it’s been the same for the better part of 2 years and look yes it absolutely feels like there’s something going on and I think that there is but this isn’t about some vast conspiracy theory at least not in my opinion, let’s be honest here even after years and years of AMD having such a competitive laptop CPU lineup well a lot of people just don’t have The name AMD in their lexicon when it comes to ultra high-end Ultra expensive Gaming devices the other problem.
That we might be seeing here is that AMD unfortunately has a pretty spotty track record when it comes to supplying volume of their CPUs in a timely manner to laptop manufacturers. So naturally a lot of laptop manufacturers, they’re going to say look we want to get those Halo devices out there because they have massive prices and probably massive profit margins. So why not go with Intel who can guarantee us a supply from day one but hopefully at some point maybe in the near future, There’s confidence in AMD processors and corresponding supply of them in order for us to see more customer choice in some of these higher-end laptops. I want to be able to go out and buy a Titan 18 with either an AMD or an Intel processor it’s not that hard to ask.
Thunderbolt 5 whereas AMD devices make do with the still perfectly fast
I guess Intel exclusive for those high-end 2025 laptops and that’s Thunderbolt 5 whereas AMD devices make do with the still perfectly fast but a bit less capable USB 4. We should start seeing in these 2025 laptops from both AMD and Intel is pcie Gen 5 SSD’s because, This is actually the first time that this has happened that SSD suppliers and the controllers that they use are not going to be sort of like burning the house down. I mean do you remember what we saw that year at Computer.
It it was just these towering heat sinks well That’s not necessary. There’s also a few other trends that you’ll see in these 2025 gaming laptops like a move to 16 10 UHD plus 1600p screens on almost every single model as a baseline configuration which should really make you wonder how those 8 gig cards will Faire at their native resolutions mini LED panels meanwhile will also see a lot more use in higher-end laptops rather than being reserved for those Ultra Niche products. And from what we’ve experienced during Hands-On time with a few of these 2025 models over the last few months well, there’s a general Push by every sing Le company to improve overall build quality and finally bring their keyboards up to today’s standards.
Nvidia has divulged A few very Choice numbers
So, the last thing I want to touch on here is performance and unfortunately, I don’t really have much for you at this point in time while Nvidia has divulged A few very Choice numbers here and there for the discrete desktop side it’s not the same with the laptop market and there’s probably a simple reason behind that right.
It’s because laptop performance from model to model is so V variable it’s all dependent on what I said before power limits thermals and A bunch of other factors so doing AB testing and ab comparisons is extremely difficult but we’ve had some off the record conversations with a lot of Partners about their new designs and when you combine the CPU upgrades alongside the RTX 5000 series GPU’s, New laptops to offer between 25 and 40% better gaming performance than 2024 models while running at identical power levels.
There will also be new power saving features rolled out as part of the max q technology stack that should see notebooks with these GPU’s get much better overall battery life. So I guess that covers pretty much everything and this 2025 is going to be a banging year on the gaming laptop side after what was essentially two years of stagnation the only thing is that. We’re going to have to wait a while for it because the new RTX 5000 series is only starting to roll out in March of this year but until that point well. We have a lot of Re benchmarking to do and We will be with you guys along for the ride while we expand our laptop coverage throughout this year.
