About a couple of weeks ago, NVIDIA officially announced their latest graphics processor for gaming laptops, the GeForce GTX 10 series for Notebook. NVIDIA dropped the “M” in the naming scheme (980M, 970M, 960M); instead they just called it the GTX 1080, GTX 1070 and GTX 1060 for notebook. Interestingly, the mobile counterparts of the GTX 10 series are almost the same with the desktop versions. Even the performance of these GTX 10 series mobile graphics processors are close or almost on par with their desktop counterparts. For those who are planning to buy the latest gaming laptops, I have listed below some of the gaming laptops that are powered with the latest GTX 10 Series notebook GPUs. Admittedly, these are not all the gaming laptops with the new GTX 10 series GPUs. I only included the gaming laptops/notebooks from Aorus, Asus, MSI and Gigabyte because they are available to order in the US and UK. Acer and Lenovo haven’t updated their gaming notebooks yet and I think Razer has not updated their lineup as well; at least at the time this article was published. If you are in the market looking for the latest and fastest gaming laptops go ahead and check them out below.
Before you begin to browse the different gaming laptops below, let me just give you a little information regarding these new GTX 10 series for Notebooks. The latest GTX 10 series for notebooks are powerful enough and performs very close to their desktop counterparts, thus M was dropped. You can say that the mobile versions are very close, but not entirely similar with their desktop counterparts. NVIDIA has also improved G-Sync support on notebooks, now capable of supporting up to 2560×1440 display resolution and up to 120Hz refresh rate. However, the GPU must be directly connected to the display.
Note that the GTX 1070 notebook version has more CUDA cores vs the desktop version. I’m not entirely sure why the GTX 1070 notebook has more CUDA cores compared to the GTX 1070 desktop version, but I think it would be wiser for NVIDIA to have more cores than increase the clock speeds of the GPU to balance thermals. You can check out the specs comparison of the desktop version vs the laptop version and the previous generations below.
GeForce GTX 1080, GTX 1070, GTX 1060 Notebook Specs Comparison
| Specifications | GTX 1080 (Desktop) | GTX 1080 (Notebook) | GTX 980M | GTX 1070 (Desktop) | GTX 1070 (Notebook) | GTX 970M | GTX 1060 (Desktop) | GTX 1060 (Notebook) | GTX 960M |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPU Chip | GP104 | GP104 | GM204 | GP104 | GP104 | GM204 | GP106 | GP106 | GM107 |
| CUDA Cores | 2560 | 2560 | 1536 | 1920 | 2048 | 1280 | 1280 | 1280 | 640 |
| TMUs | 160 | 160 | 96 | 120 | 128 | 80 | 80 | 80 | 40 |
| ROPs | 64 | 64 | 64 | 64 | 64 | 48 | 48 | 48 | 16 |
| Base Clock | 1607 MHz | 1556 MHz | 1038 MHz | 1506 MHz | 1442 MHz | 924 MHz | 1506 MHz | 1404 MHz | 1029 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1733 MHz | 1733 MHz | 1127 MHz | 1683 MHz | 1645 MHz | 1038 MHz | 1708 MHz | 1670 MHz | 1097 MHz |
| Video Memory | 8GB GDDR5X | 8GB GDDR5X | 4GB / 8GB GDDR5 | 8GB GDDR5 | 8GB GDDR5 | 3GB / 6GB GDDR5 | 6GB GDDR5 | 3GB / 6GB GDDR5 | 4GB GDDR5 |
| Memory Bus | 256-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit | 192-bit | 192-bit | 192-bit | 128-bit |
| Memory Speed | 10 GHz | 10 GHz | 5 GHz | 8 GHz | 8 GHz | 5 GHz | 8 GHz | 8 GHz | 5 GHz |
| Memory Bandwidth | 320 GB/s | 320 GB/s | 160 GB/s | 256 GB/s | 256 GB/s | 120 GB/s | 192 GB/s | 192 GB/s | 80 GB/s |
| TDP | 180 W | ??? | 100 w / 125W | 150 W | ??? | 81 W / 100W | 120 W | ??? | 75 W |
I decided to separate the laptops that are powered with a GTX 1080, GTX 1070 and GTX 1060. You can sort each column on the table. I have extracted these specs from their manufacturer’s page respectively. I didn’t include all the specifications and features of each gaming laptops because the table would be too long already. So I just extracted the important specs. Also take note that each gaming laptop/notebook model has several variants. These variants may differ in terms of memory size, storage size and options, or even display resolution. If you are planning to buy one, be sure to double check the specifications of the gaming laptop you choose before checking out.
After the table, I’ll just leave a few words below regarding some of these gaming laptops. Some of these are okay, some are quite good and balanced in terms of the specs, but some are just way overkill and I think a waste of money. But before that, here are the lists of gaming laptops powered with the latest GTX 10 series notebook GPUs.
List of Gaming Laptops with GTX 1080 Series Notebook GPUs
| Model Name | Processor | Memory | Graphics Processor | Storage | Display Size | Display Resolution | Dimensions | Weight | Availa- bility |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aorus X7 DT v6 | Intel Core i7-6820HK | 64GB DDR4 2400MHz (up to) | GTX 1080 | M.2 PCIe SSD, HDD/SSD | 17.3" | 3840x2160 or 2560x1440 | 16.85" x 12" x 0.90-1" | 7.05 lbs | US here UK here |
| Asus ROG G800VI | Intel Core i7-6820HK | 64GB DDR4 2800MHz (up to) | GTX 1080 | M.2 PCIe SSD (RAID) | 18.4" | 3840x2160 | 18.03" x 13.30" x 1.78" | 12.56 lbs | US here |
| Asus ROG GX800VH | Intel Core i7-6820HK | 64GB DDR4 2800MHz (up to) | GTX 1080 x2 (SLI) | M.2 PCIe SSD (RAID) | 18.4" | 3840x2160 | 18.03" x 13.30" x 1.78" | 12.56 lbs | |
| MSI GT73VR Titan 4K SLI-060 | Intel Core i7-6820HK | 64GB DDR4 2400MHz | GTX 1080 x2 (SLI) | M.2 PCIe SSD (RAID), HDD | 17.3" | 3840x2160 | 16.85" x 12.36" x 1.76" | 10.59 lbs | |
| MSI GT73VR Titan Pro | Intel Core i7-6820HK | 64GB DDR4 2400MHz (up to) | GTX 1080 | M.2 PCIe SSD (RAID), HDD | 17.3" | 1920x1080 | 16.85" x 12.36" x 1.76" | 8.59 lbs | US here UK here |
| MSI GT73VR Titan Pro 4K | Intel Core i7-6820HK | 64GB DDR4 2400MHz (up to) | GTX 1080 | M.2 PCIe SSD (RAID), HDD | 17.3" | 3840x2160 | 16.85" x 12.36" x 1.76" | 8.59 lbs | |
| MSI GT83VR Titan SLI | Intel Core i7-6820HK or i7-6920HQ | 64GB DDR4 2400MHz (up to) | GTX 1080 x2 (SLI) or GTX 1070 x2 (SLI) | M.2 PCIe SSD (RAID), HDD | 18.4" | 1920x1080 | 16.85" x 12.36" x 1.66-2.52" | 13.13 lbs (up to) | US here UK here |
| Gallery | Aorus X7 DT v6 | Asus ROG G800VI | Asus ROG GX800VH | MSI GT73VR Titan (Pro/4K) | MSI GT83VR Titan SLI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front |  |  |  |  |  |
| Rear |  |  |  |  |  |
List of Gaming Laptops with GTX 1070 Series Notebook GPUs
| Model Name | Processor | Memory | Graphics Processor | Storage | Display Size | Display Resolution | Dimensions | Weight | Availa- bility |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aorus X5 v6 | Intel Core i7-6820HK | 64GB DDR4 2400MHz (up to) | GTX 1070 | M.2 PCIe SSD 3x, HDD/SSD | 15.6" | 2880x1620 or 1920x1080 | 15.35" x 10.71" x 0.90" | 5.51 lbs | US here |
| Aorus X7 v6 | Intel Core i7-6820HK | 64GB DDR4 2400MHz (up to) | GTX 1070 | M.2 PCIe SSD 3x, HDD/SSD | 17.3" | 3840x2160 or 2560x1440 or 1920x1080 | 16.85" x 12" x 0.90-1" | 7.05 lbs | US here |
| Asus ROG G752VS | Intel Core i7-6700HQ | 64GB DDR4 2400MHz (up to) | GTX 1070 | M.2 PCIe SSD (RAID), HDD | 17.3" | 1920x1080 | 16.85" x 13.14" x 2.08" | 9.61 lbs | US here UK here |
| Asus ROG G752VS OC Edition | Intel Core i7-6820HK or i7-6700HQ | 64GB DDR4 2400MHz (up to) | GTX 1070 | M.2 PCIe SSD (RAID), HDD | 17.3" | 1920x1080 | 16.85" x 13.14" x 2.08" | 9.61 lbs | US here UK here |
| Asus ROG Strix GL502VS | Intel Core i7-6700HQ | 32GB DDR4 2133MHz (up to) | GTX 1070 (4GB or 8GB) | M.2 PCIe SSD, SSD, HDD | 15.6" | 1920x1080 or 3840x2160 | 15.35" x 10.47" x 1.18" | 5.15 lbs | US here UK here |
| Gigabyte P35X v6 | Intel Core i7-6700HQ | 32GB DDR4 2400MHz (up to) | GTX 1070 | M.2 PCIe SSD 2x, HDD/SSD, Swappable Bay | 15.6" | 1920x1080 or 3840x2160 | 15.16" x 10.63" x 0.82" | 5.29 lbs | US here UK here |
| Gigabyte P37X v6 | Intel Core i7-6700HQ | 32GB DDR4 2400MHz (up to) | GTX 1070 | M.2 PCIe SSD 2x, HDD/SSD, Swappable Bay | 17.3" | 1920x1080 or 3840x2160 | 16.42" x 11.30" x 0.89" | 6.17 lbs | US here |
| Gigabyte P57X v6 | Intel Core i7-6700HQ | 32GB DDR4 2133MHz (up to) | GTX 1070 | M.2 PCIe SSD, HDD/SSD, Swappable Bay | 17.3" | 1920x1080 or 2880x1620 | 16.57" x 11.42" x 1.13" | 6.61 lbs | US here UK here |
| MSI GT62VR Dominator Pro | Intel Core i7-6700HQ | 32GB DDR4 2400MHz (up to) | GTX 1070 | M.2 PCIe SSD, HDD | 15.6" | 1920x1080 | 15.35" x 10.47" x 1.56" | 6.48 lbs | US here UK here |
| MSI GT72VR Dominator Pro-015 | Intel Core i7-6700HQ | 16GB DDR4 2400MHz | GTX 1070 | M.2 PCIe SSD, HDD | 17.3" | 1920x1080 | 16.85" x 11.57" x 1.88" | 8.33 lbs | US here UK here |
| MSI GT72VR Tobii-031 | Intel Core i7-6700HQ | 32GB DDR4 2400MHz | GTX 1070 | M.2 PCIe SSD, HDD | 17.3" | 1920x1080 | 16.85" x 11.57" x 1.88" | 8.33 lbs | US here |
| MSI GT73VR Titan SLI | Intel Core i7-6820HK | 64GB DDR4 2400MHz (up to) | GTX 1070 x2 (SLI) | M.2 PCIe SSD, HDD | 17.3" | 1920x1080 | 16.85" x 12.36" x 1.76" | 10.59 lbs (up to) | US here UK here |
| MSI GT73VR Titan-017 | Intel Core i7-6820HK | 16GB DDR4 2400MHz | GTX 1070 | M.2 PCIe SSD, HDD | 17.3" | 1920x1080 | 16.85" x 12.36" x 1.76" | 8.59 lbs | US here UK here |
| Gallery | Aorus X5 v6 | Aorus X7 v6 | Asus ROG G752VS / OC | Asus ROG Strix GL502VS | Gigabyte P35X v6 | Gigabyte P37X v6 |
| Front |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| Rear |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| Gallery | Gigabyte P57X v6 | MSI GT62VR Dominator Pro | MSI GT72VR Dominator Pro | MSI GT72VR Tobii | MSI GT73VR Titan / SLI | |
| Front |  |  |  |  |  | |
| Rear |  |  |  |  |  |
List of Gaming Laptops with GTX 1060 Series Notebook GPUs
| Model Name | Processor | Memory | Graphics Processor | Storage | Display Size | Display Resolution | Dimensions | Weight | Availa- bility |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aorus X3 Plus v6 | Intel Core i7-6820HK | 32GB DDR4 2400MHz (Up to) | GTX 1060 | M.2 PCIe SSD 2x | 13.9" | 3200x1800 | 13" x 10.37" x 0.90" | 3.97 lbs | US here |
| Asus ROG G752VM | Intel Core i7-6700HQ | 64GB DDR4 2400MHz (Up to) | GTX 1060 | M.2 PCIe SSD (RAID), HDD | 17.3" | 1920x1080 | 16.85" x 13.14" x 1.69" | 8.95 lbs | UK here |
| Asus ROG Strix GL502VM | Intel Core i7-6700HQ or i5-6300HQ | 16GB DDR4 2133MHz (up to) | GTX 1060 (3GB or 6GB) | M.2 PCIe SSD, SSD, HDD | 15.6" | 1920x1080 or 3840x2160 | 15.35" x 10.47" x 0.92" | 4.8 lbs | US here |
| Gigabyte P55W v6 | Intel Core i7-6700HQ | 32GB DDR4 2400MHz (Up to) | GTX 1060 | M.2 PCIe/SATA SSD, HDD/SSD | 15.6" | 1920x1080 or 2880x1620 | 14.95" x 10.60" x 1.10-1.34" | 5.73 lbs | US here |
| Gigabyte P57W v6 | Intel Core i7-6700HQ | 32GB DDR4 2133MHz (Up to) | GTX 1060 | M.2 PCIe/SATA SSD, HDD/SSD, Swappable Bay | 17.3" | 1920x1080 or 2880x1620 | 16.57" x 11.42" x 1.13" | 6.61 lbs | US here |
| MSI GE62VR Apache Pro | Intel Core i7-6700HQ | 16GB DDR4 2133MHz (up to) | GTX 1060 | M.2 SATA SSD, HDD | 15.6" | 1920x1080 | 15.07" x 10.23" x 1.06" | 5.29 lbs | US here UK here |
| MSI GE72VR Apache Pro | Intel Core i7-6700HQ | 32GB DDR4 2133MHz (up to) | GTX 1060 | M.2 SATA SSD, HDD | 17.3" | 1920x1080 | 16.49" x 11.02" x 1.14" | 5.95 lbs | US here UK here |
| MSI GS43VR Phantom Pro-006 | Intel Core i7-6700HQ | 16GB DDR4 2400MHz | GTX 1060 | M.2 SATA SSD, HDD | 14" | 1920x1080 | 13.58" x 9.65" x 0.87" | 3.75 lbs | US here UK here |
| MSI GS63VR Stealth Pro | Intel Core i7-6700HQ | 32GB DDR4 2400MHz (up to) | GTX 1060 | M.2 SATA SSD, HDD | 15.6" | 1920x1080 | 14.96" x 9.8" x 0.69" | 3.96 lbs | US here UK here |
| MSI GS63VR Stealth Pro 4K-021 | Intel Core i7-6700HQ | 16GB DDR4 2400MHz | GTX 1060 | M.2 SATA SSD, HDD | 15.6" | 3840x2160 | 14.96" x 9.8" x 0.69" | 3.96 lbs | US here UK here |
| MSI GS73VR Stealth Pro | Intel Core i7-6700HQ | 32GB DDR4 2400MHz (up to) | GTX 1060 | M.2 SATA SSD, HDD | 17.3" | 1920x1080 | 16.21" x 11.21" x 0.77" | 5.35 lbs | US here UK here |
| MSI GS73VR Stealth Pro 4K-016 | Intel Core i7-6700HQ | 16GB DDR4 2400MHz | GTX 1060 | M.2 SATA SSD, HDD | 17.3" | 3840x2160 | 16.21" x 11.21" x 0.77" | 5.35 lbs | US here UK here |
| MSI GT62VR Dominator | Intel Core i7-6700HQ | 32GB DDR4 2400MHz (up to) | GTX 1060 | M.2 SATA SSD, HDD | 15.6" | 1920x1080 | 15.35" x 10.47" x 1.56" | 6.48 lbs | US here UK here |
| MSI GT72VR Dominator | Intel Core i7-6700HQ | 32GB DDR4 2400MHz (up to) | GTX 1060 | M.2 SATA SSD, HDD | 17.3" | 1920x1080 | 16.85" x 11.57" x 1.88" | 8.33 lbs | US here UK here |
| Gallery | Aorus X3 Plus v6 | Asus ROG G752VM | Asus ROG Strix GL502VM | Gigabyte P55W v6 | Gigabyte P57W v6 |
| Front |  |  |  |  |  |
| Rear |  |  |  |  |  |
| Gallery | MSI GE62VR / GE72VR Apache Pro | MSI GS43VR Phantom Pro | MSI GS63VR / GS73VR Stealth Pro | MSI GT62VR Dominator | MSI GT72VR Dominator |
| Front |  |  |  |  |  |
| Rear |  |  |  |  |  |
Regarding Processor
All of the gaming laptops mentioned above are powered with the current 6th generation Intel Core i7 Skylake processors. Some are powered with an i7-6700, i7-6800 or even i7-6900. Basically, these are all powerful mobile processors and you need not worry too much unless you demand for the fastest processing power around.
Regarding Memory
For gaming, 16GB of DDR4 memory is enough for most modern day games and applications. 32GB is very much plenty already, while 64GB is just plain overkill for gaming purposes alone.
Regarding GPU and Display
I think this is one important aspect that you should pay attention. Most of the gaming laptops mentioned above have a 1920×1080 or Full HD display. This means that a GTX 1060 (Notebook) is sufficient to play most games at high settings with 60 fps on average. With some graphics intensive games like Crysis 3 or The Witcher III, you might need to lower the settings down.
The GTX 1070 (Notebook) seems to be the sweet spot since you will have more than 60 fps on most game titles at 1080p. It’s already good for 1440p gaming resolution, and also great if the gaming laptop features G-Sync display for that smooth gameplay. However, a GTX 1070 might not be enough for 4K gaming, you may need to town down the graphics settings to get an average of 60fps. Again this depends on the game that you are playing. Some games are (very) easy to drive, while others are just graphics intensive.
The GTX 1080 (Notebook) is the fastest of them all, quite overkill for a 1080p resolution, great for 1440p resolution and sufficient for 4K gaming. But don’t expect smooth 60fps on ALL games with the GTX 1080 at 4K. It’s currently the fastest, but note quite there yet to be considered as “the” graphics card for 4K gaming.
TL;DR, these are just my recommendations: get a GTX 1060 for 1080p, GTX 1070 for 1080p/1440p with G-Sync and GTX 1080 for 1440p and 2160p. Do not buy a gaming laptop with a 4K display and the GPU is only GTX 1060. You won’t be able to enjoy 4K gaming with that. Example: MSI GS73VR Stealth Pro 4K-016 and Asus ROG Strix GL502VM 4K.
Also, do not get a laptop with a GTX 1080 SLI or GTX 1070 SLI and the display resolution is just 1080p. That is just plain overkill and waste of money. Example: MSI GT83VR Titan SLI. In fact I wouldn’t consider getting a gaming laptop with an SLI configuration. Theoretically, an SLI setup should be able to give you almost double the performance, but that is not always the case. Some games may not have good SLI support and there are other issues as well like power consumption, heat, and not to mention it will be very expensive. Better get the gaming laptop with the fastest single GPU instead.
Regarding Storage
We are nearing the end of 2016, be sure that you’re gaming laptop has at least a SATA SSD for the OS drive. Better if it has an M.2 PCIE NVMe for the OS drive. A secondary 1TB or 2TB HDD storage is good, but get a 7200rpm HDD and not the 5400 rpm. The 5400rpm storage is just slow and it will slow down your system. Better if you can replace the 1TB HDD with a 1TB SSD SATA.
Regarding Other Features
Each gaming laptops above have different set of features. Some have good built in speakers, some have mechanical keyboards, some have good built in DAC, some have Thunderlbolt3 or USB 3.1 (Type-C) while others don’t, some are lightweight while others weighs a ton! Just exaggerating. But the point is take time to check these added features, you may or may not need them.
There you have it guys, these are currently the latest and greatest gaming laptops around powered with the latest GTX 10 series notebook discrete graphics processor. If you like this article and find it helpful, please don’t forget to share it with your friends and follow us on Facebook/Twitter.
