We have now reviewed more than ten gaming laptops with the Nvidia Geforce RTX 5090 GPU, including devices from Asus, Schenker, Medion, HP, MSI and Razer. Most recently, we also reviewed the Gigabyte Aorus Master 16. Time for a comparison of raw gaming performance.
Of course, the form factor also has to be taken into account. We compare both 16-inch and larger 18-inch models. The latter can naturally dissipate waste heat more efficiently, so we also differentiate between the two form factors.
The configured performance profile also has to be taken into account, although we usually test all gaming laptops using a suitable gaming or high-performance profile without the fans running in constant turbo mode.
Let's first take a look at the synthetic 3DMark tests:
The two XMG Neo laptops take the lead, followed closely by the Tuxedo Stellaris 16 and the Medion Erazer Beast 16 X1. Interestingly, places 1 to 6 are all occupied by 16-inch gamers, with the first 18-incher, the MSI Titan 18 HX AI, appearing only in 7th place.
Our Gigabyte Aorus Master 16 lands in the midfield in 7th place, almost matching the average performance of all laptops with an RTX 5090.
The real-world gaming benchmarks are certainly more relevant for gamers, especially with our standard games that we run on every gaming laptop:
Here too, an XMG Neo takes the top spot, although this time not both models, but rather the Neo 16 A25 with the AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX3D. The E25 with the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX lands in in fourth place.
Our Gigabyte Aorus unfortunately only ranks 10th here and is only about 8% behind the Neo 16 E25, but a whopping 19% behind the Neo 16 A25. However, Gigabyte also regularly releases new updates that further improve performance and can be easily installed via GiMate (the control center). Perhaps the Master 16 will be able to overtake one or two competitors in the future.
Verdict
The fastest RTX 5090 gaming laptop we've reviewed so far is Schenker's XMG Neo 16 A25. Only the Tuxedo Stellaris 16 Gen7, whose review is still underway, appears to be as fast. All other RTX 5090 laptops are at least 7% behind in terms of gaming performance, at least based on our test results.
The recently reviewed Gigabyte Aorus Master 16 is at the back of the field in the gaming comparison, which is somewhat disappointing, especially considering the rather high price tag. On the other hand, the differences to most competitors are rather small and unlikely to be noticeable in practice, especially since the manufacturer regularly releases new updates. Whether the Aorus Master 16 can win out in other areas, and what other advantages and disadvantages it habors, can be found in our detailed review.