HP Victus 16 in review: Core i5-13500HX and GeForce RTX 4050 combo results in a 1080p gaming powerhouse

HP recently refreshed its budget gaming laptops with current-gen Intel and Nvidia hardware. The HP Victus 16 has kept the same chassis as its predecessors. While that may have worked for previous iterations, it didn't fare nearly as well with this iteration due to its components running hot.

Our HP Victus 16 got hot to the touch after ten minutes of sustained load. This is a problem for anyone using the laptop's keyboard for gaming, as it gets noticeably uncomfortable after a point. In its defence, HP has engineered an elaborate labyrinth of fans and heatsinks to keep the internals chilly. Unfortunately, they get overwhelmed, and the fans can get audibly loud (up to 55 dB(A) under full load).

The HP Victus 16 was one of the first laptops we tested with Intel's Core i5-13500HX CPU. That combined Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 made for some interesting results. Raptor Lake-HX chips are designed to be power hungry, with the i5 drawing up to 131 watts (PL2) under load. Even the RTX 4050 could guzzle as much as 120 Watts by siphoning away some juice from the CPU.

Like most gaming laptops, the HP Victus 16 is not immune to thermal throttling. There was noticeable performance degradation in Cinebench R15 over a 50-loop cycle. It got worse on battery, but one chalk that down to the CPU limiting its PL2 wattage to 46 W. Overall, the Core i5-13500HX performs exceptionally well and punches above its weight class by outclassing CPUs like the Ryzen 7 7735HS and Intel Core i7-13700H.

The GeForce RTX 4050, despite its lacklustre spec sheet, was able to play everything at 1080p 60 FPS with all settings cranked up, which is acceptable for an entry-level laptop like the HP Victus 16. It didn't fare nearly as well productivity-wise, though. However, it was able to perform well in our The Witcher 3 stress tests, which is what a typical workload for the laptop will look like in most cases.

HP's Omen Gaming Hub lets you control many aspects of the Victus 15, such as power profiles, keyboard RGB, undervolting and fan speed. There's a dedicated section for the webcam, which allows users to configure AI-powered audio/video noise cancellation and other Nvidia Broadcast-related features. The 1080p module even comes with a physical privacy shutter.

Buy the HP Victus 16 on Amazon