Gaming

Pricey budget gamer. Budget gaming notebooks are becoming increasingly popular thanks to GPUs like the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050, and Asus has decided to throw their hat into the budget ring with the GL553VD. The notebook packs modest hardware into a well-built chassis with some nice extras, but are these factors worth the additional cost?

Inexpensive Titan. Nvidia’s GTX 1080 Ti is the most powerful consumer graphics card and replaces the similar but much more expensive Titan X. We review the Founders Edition with numerous benchmarks as well as noise and consumption measurements.

No-frills gaming. The FX502VM offers nearly everything that comes with the GL502VM without significantly impacting performance. The SKU with the lowest-end TN display, however, should be avoided due to its very poor contrast.

Quintessential v7. Gigabyte's new gaming machine is aimed at players who want as much power per Euro as possible and are willing to make compromises in the configuration for this. Compared with the predecessor, the P55W v7 can primarily boast with a slightly better total performance, and a somewhat quieter and cooler system.

Trimmed for performance. For extremely demanding gamers that find the performance of the 17-inch meteor G752 (GeForce GTX 1060 & GTX 1070) insufficient, Asus offers the G701, which is equipped with Nvidia's top-of-the-line model, the GeForce GTX 1080. We put the overclocked high-end notebook through its paces.

MOBA Heavyweight. With up to one million players online at any given time, Dota 2 is far and away the most popular game on Valve's Steam platform. This highly competitive game and eSport has come a long way since its origins as a mod for Blizzard's Warcraft III, and now runs as a stand-alone, free-to-play game on Valve's Source 2 Engine. The Source 2 Engine is well-optimized and very scalable, but has a reputation for being more CPU than GPU dependent. Do the resolutions and graphics options have a large impact on performance? What CPU and GPU you need for your notebook to keep framerates steady during even the most hectic late-game battles is the subject of this article.

Pascal Pavilion… HP has updated their Pavilion 17 with Kaby Lake and Pascal, which should provide better performance, longer battery life, and more thermal headroom. Is the Pavilion 17t-ab200 a budget gaming machine worth considering?

Trinity. After Rainbow Six Siege and The Division, Ubisoft releases their next Triple-A title, which focuses primarily on riveting multiplayer battlers. Knights, Samurai and Vikings - For Honor actually pits three different factions against each other. Our review focuses primarily on how different GPUs handle the various swinging swords, katanas and axes.

Compact gaming miracle. While our test model of the Alienware 15 R3 had some temperature problems, we are impressed by the 13-inch system. Besides the high performance in the small chassis, we are also convinced by the brilliant OLED screen.

Crackling tension. It is once again time for heart attacks: The latest title from the Resident Evil series focuses on the strengths from the first games and convinces with a thrilling single-player mode. PC gamers will be mainly shocked by the VRAM requirements.

Kaby-Lake upgrade. The Nexoc G734IV is a powerful 17.3-inch gaming notebook that smoothly runs all current games on the matte Full HD display. Users who enjoy upgrading can install additional hardware in the computer.

The aliens are back. We did not have the chance to review the first edition of the Alienware 15 R3 (Skylake + Pascal), but we can finally have a look at the promising gaming notebook with the Kaby Lake update. How does the 15-inch system hold up against the competition?

A balanced gaming laptop. MSI also uses the GeForce GTX 1070 graphic card in the GT62VR 7RE. The processor is new: Kaby Lake is used now. The rest of the features is also alright: IPS display, SSD+HDD, and 16 GB of RAM.

Entry-level Gaming Laptop. MSI's entry-level model into the gaming world costs about 1050 Euros (~$1117). You will get a well-equipped 15.6-inch notebook for this price. Its main weaknesses are the display, the battery runtimes and the automatic fan control. MSI should at least improve the latter.

Focused on the essentials. Gigabyte's newest version of ttheir P55W hasn't really changed that much. While the predecessor used a GeForce GTX 970M, the new model is equipped with a GTX 1060 - and that's a very noticeable difference.

Well-balanced. At a purchase price of almost 1300 Euros (~$1390), the Omen 17 w100ng is presently the cheapest device within its lineup. This slightly lower-performance model also renders games smoothly on its matte Full HD panel. The Omen offers a very good battery life for a gaming laptop.