Nvidia GeForce mobile options are ballooning out of control. Skip the GeForce GTX 1650 Ti and go for the superior GTX 1660 Ti instead

GeForce GPUs used to be easy to follow on laptops. Then in 2017, Nvidia effectively doubled its lineup by introducing Max-Q variants on top of the standard GeForce options. Now as of 2020, Nvidia has added Super variants on top of both the standard and Max-Q GeForce options for a huge web of GeForce GPUs to choose from.

With so many options on the table, some GPUs will inevitably be less of a bargain than others. Based on our experience with dozens of 2020 GeForce gaming laptops thus far, we can strongly recommend that buyers can skip the GeForce GTX 1650 Ti and go one level higher to the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti as these laptops are extremely close in price with a very wide performance gap as shown by our 3DMark benchmarks below comparing at least 20 different GTX 1650 Ti and GTX 1660 Ti laptops.

As an example, the Asus ROG Strix G15 G512 with 10th gen Core i7 and GTX 1650 Ti currently retails for about $1000 to $1100 USD while the Asus TUF A15 with 3rd gen Ryzen 7 and GTX 1660 Ti retails for the same price. Another example is the Lenovo Legion 5 equipped with the same Core i7 CPU and GTX 1650 Ti as the Asus G512 above for $1000 USD while the 2020 Lenovo Legion Y540 with GTX 1660 Ti graphics can be found in the $1100 to $1200 range. The laptops with the GTX 1660 Ti are able to offer almost 50 percent faster gaming performance than their GTX 1650 Ti counterparts for only $100 to $200 more.

Other factors like chassis quality, weight, noise, and ports shouldn't be ignored, of course, but the huge gains in both GPU horsepower and performance-per-dollar when jumping from the GTX 1650 Ti to the GTX 1660 Ti are notable nonetheless and shouldn't be overlooked by gamers.