Why gaming laptops excel at creative work, not just playing games

IDG / Matthew Smith

IDG / Matthew Smith

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Performance

On the surface, it makes a lot of sense why professional users go on this RGB-laden path. Robust gaming laptops such as the Razer Blade 16 are filled to the brim with an overabundance of hardware. They’re chock full of RAM and the fastest mobile CPUs. The Intel Core i9-14900HX and Powerhouse GPUs such as the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 with 16GB of VRAM delivery astounding levels of performance.

It’s simple: PC games demand maximum performance of the GPU, CPU, and RAM. This means that gaming laptops are conveniently equipped to deal with non-gaming tasks. Video editing relies heavily on the GPU, with some CPU backup. 3D Graphics workflows are likewise dispatched intuitively, taking advantage of the same potent hardware.

Utilitarian workstation laptops may have unnecessary specialized hardware that adds to the price. Much of consumer grade hardware is well-suited for workflows such as Blackmagic Design’s Davinci Resolve or Adobe Photoshop.

Nvidia’s CUDA on its GPUs make easy work of 3D tasks, along with available Studio Drivers on consumer hardware.

Desktops can have higher performance for a lower price, but with a lack of mobility as a caveat.

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Let’s break down what you’re getting in a high-end laptop. Workflows with video editing or 3D graphics will depend on the GPU. The CPU plays a vital role with photography and overall performance.

CPU

The fastest gaming laptops will pack a CPU such as the Intel Core i9-14900HX or an AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX. Power draw is lower than desktop counterparts due to thermal limits. The Intel Core i9-14900HX utilizes a whopping 24 cores and 32 threads. This means it will breeze through synthetic benchmarks such as Cinebench R23 and software such as Handbrake.

Adobe Creative Cloud users with apps such as Photoshop will benefit from these fast CPUs. The highest clock speeds are shy of their desktop counterparts, but they remain capable. Encoding and decoding can also be a benefit with modern CPUs for video editors where the GPU is not needed.

New chips such as the Intel Ultra Core lineup have built-in AI capabilities, which help to regulate performance and power usage.

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A drawback of these powerful CPUs will come down to cooling. Thermal limits are quickly reached and result in throttled performance. Higher fan noise will be expected unless power settings are tweaked by the user. Laptop cooling pads will be essential for prolonged sessions. Video editing or 3D design software can often have similar demands as gaming on the hardware.