Yes, gaming laptops are good for graphic design as hardware specs suits the both graphic designers as well gaming users. Below this post is all about why you should buy gaming laptops for graphic designing and why you should not.
No doubt, buying a gaming laptop to use in graphic design is something that is becoming more and more common. Is this a meaningful move? What are the reasons we should use it and what are the reasons we should not?
Remember there is a specific laptop exists in the market, which are design for graphic designing and programming.
See Also: How to Choose a Gaming Laptop
Table of Contents
Are Gaming Laptops Good for Graphic Design?
Are gaming laptops good for graphic design? Let’s answer this question by seeing those reasons that do support the idea of buying a gaming laptop for graphic design.
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Maximum Performance
The first reason in favor of buying a gaming laptop for graphic design is undoubtedly the fact that they usually have better processors and graphics cards than ultrabooks and other types of laptops, thanks to their great focus on high performance.
Thus, it is much more likely to find 6 or 8 core processors and powerful graphics cards, which depending on the application can be an important point in favor.
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Refrigeration
Naturally, due to this prioritization of performance over external design, you will also tend to have more careful cooling than with other types of laptops.
One destined for gaming should be prepared to handle this type of activity, which is characterized by great stress on the graphics card, which is a component that consumes a lot. So, this way we should have more or less plenty of cooling for graphic design tasks.
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Maintenance
Let’s not forget a general rule, gaming laptops offer better maintenance options than conventional ones.
Here our most important axis is undoubtedly the RAM memory, which in the case of being expandable will allow us to reach quite high amounts, depending on the compatibility of the laptop.
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For example, we could make one with 16GB become 32GB, or even 64GB if possible, which does bring great benefits to graphic designers and allow us to work with several programs and with large photographs.
In contrast, in most ultrabooks the RAM is soldered, so it is not expandable, and in general there are not many laptops with large amounts of memory out of the box.
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Bigger Screens
Another relevant fact is the screen size, because in gaming laptops it is usually 15.6 inches and even 17 inches, but in other types of laptops it will be more common to see 13 or 14 inches.
This is something that will depend on the specific model, but in general terms it is fulfilled. It also depends a lot on the priorities of the designer, since he does not have to be looking for a particularly large screen.
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Good Connectivity
In recent years, the external design has been prioritized in a rather exaggerated way before the connectivity of laptops.
It is very common to find ultrabooks that only have USB-C ports, although they are Thunderbolt and provide us with large capacities. They are also an impediment or you can say little expensive.
On many occasions, those who want to do graphic designing want to connect a large number of devices to their laptop.
It could be an external monitor, multiple storage drives, a calibrator, etc… You’re more likely to find a gaming laptop that meets your connectivity needs than an ultrabook.
In addition, it is still perfectly common to find a Thunderbolt port on a gaming laptop, so it could go even further in terms of connectivity.
Reasons We Can’t Use Gaming Laptop for Graphic Designing
Let’s now see the reasons that make us discourage the purchase of gaming laptops for graphic designing. Below are the compelling reasons, so the solution will not be easy and will depend a lot on each specific model.
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Battery Autonomy
The first aspect is the most obvious. Due to its focus on performance, it is more common for a gaming laptop to have a lower battery life. The high performance of its processors and graphics cards also implies greater consumption, since:
- Of the processor band, versions not intended for energy efficiency but for performance are used, such as the H (high performance) and non-U (high efficiency) variants of the Intel Core and AMD Ryzen processors.
- And regarding the graphics card, the integrated graphics of a good part of the ultrabooks have a negligible consumption, something that is not the case in gaming laptops.
Keep in mind that today’s gaming laptops incorporate technologies such as NVIDIA Advanced Optimus, which are capable of determining if the dedicated graphics card is necessary or not.
And when it is not, they turn it off completely, allowing the integrated graphics to be used, much lower consumption.
Also, let’s combine this with the fact that it is more common to find larger batteries (for example, more than 90 Wh, which requires that the laptop is not too thin), which could lead to autonomy being better than an ultrabook. It is not the most common thing in the world.
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Size
Another point that is quite easy to understand is that having a larger laptop, both in terms of thickness and the diagonal of the laptop’s body, strongly limits portability, something that can affect someone who works in graphic design.
Many will prefer to make all kinds of trade-offs, down to connectivity or battery life, in exchange for a laptop that is easier to handle and carry around. Everything will depend on each use case.
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Cases where GPU or CPU power is irrelevant
Also, that focus on performance can be done totally in vain. Starting from the fact that it is already possible to find perfectly capable ultrabooks in terms of their CPU or GPU power, there are many cases where a lot of power is not needed.
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Graphic design is an application that often only requires a moderately powerful processor. Everything depends on the workload, size of the photographs and graphic elements used, etc.
As we pointed out in our guide on what a layout setting needs, if you’re not using apps that take advantage of some kind of GPU acceleration, it’s of little relevance and will be more than enough with integrated graphics.
Actually, almost all graphics designing programs (CorelDRAW, Photoshop, Lightroom, RAWTherapee…) are dependent on the graphics cards. Anyone who is also dedicated to video editing would need a good GPU as well.
In short, GPU power is usually irrelevant in photo editing, and for the CPU there are already very powerful single and multi-core options in normal ultrabooks.
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Screens Focused on Features Irrelevant to Design
Another absolutely fundamental point and that disqualifies gaming laptop for graphic designing is the fact that they prioritize characteristics of the screens used in gaming, which are totally irrelevant for graphics designing.
Specifically, we talk about how the refresh rate is one of the fundamental aspects of gaming laptops, finding laptops with 120Hz and 144Hz at very low prices. This does not benefit us at all at a professional level, working with graphic design.
Obviously it provides some comfort and fluidity but it is nothing that should be required in a laptop for graphic designing.
In graphic designing, we interested in reaching 4K, even at 60Hz, while a gaming laptop everything that is 1080p or little more, which is enough.
See Also: How to Choose a Laptop for Students
This point is leave the cheapest and most basic gaming laptops if you have any plan to use it for graphic designing.
Conclusion
As we have seen in the article, buying a gaming laptop for graphic designing is something that can have great advantages if we make the right choice, but on many occasions the drawbacks outweigh them.
Above all in most cases prioritizing gaming features leads to leaving aside other important aspect of graphic designing.
For example, on a gaming laptop, a 1080p screen with a 240 Hz refresh rate will be more welcome than a 4K screen with 60 Hz, which would be much more suitable for designing.
When it comes to screen size, many gaming laptops are differentiating themselves from the rest due to their image quality, which is the main reason why they attract designers.
However, it would be a mistake to overlook it only as the fact is graphic designing laptop market has matured a lot in recent years as well.
It’s is better to do a comprehensive laptop search not by range, but by feature set. Whoever is dedicated to graphic design should have their eyes set on the laptop screen they are looking for.
Should focus on good resolution and color accuracy as well as those aspects that we have discussed throughout in the article, such as
- Adequate amount of RAM, which allows it to be expanded (like a good part of gaming laptops).
- Good connectivity that allows not depending on dongles or anything else.
- Of course, a good autonomy, adequate power for our needs, the desired size, etc.
We hope that this guide has been useful for you to know which features of gaming laptops are most desirable for graphic designing, and which are not.
Zahid Khan Jadoon is an Interior Decorator, Designer and a specialized Chef and loves to write about home appliances and food. Right now he is running his interior designing business along with a managing a restaurant. Also in his spare time he loves to write about home and kitchen appliances.