Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Best gaming laptop for BG3

Time for an upgrade. Looking for some recommendation.
Want something powerful but that doesn't burn down the table or laps. Couldn't care less for thinness.
A great keyboard is a must.
Display Port is a must. The latest and greatest version.
Would like at least 120hz screen but with great colors and sharpness, something close to these M1/M2 macbookpro screen.
And of course something that runs BG3 as smooth as butter (Med to high settings).

It really depends on what your budget is as you can pay over £4,500 for a top of the line gaming laptop which is more expensive than a good desktop would cost you. Generally you'll just want to opt for the one in budget with the best specifications.

I have an Acer gaming laptop, it's a couple of years old but generally I've been happy with it. But the keyboard is appalling, so if that's a priority for you you might want to avoid Acer unless they've rethought their keyboard design in the last couple of years. They really should have.

I barely can reach constant 1440p 120 fps on ultra with a desktop 3080, and I use DLSS. I would recommend a RTX 4080 laptop, something like the HP Omen 17.

How do people know what their fps are?

It can be enabled as an overlay with Steam :

"I can barely maintain 120 fps" - That's perfect. Anything over 60 is absolutely wasted on a game such as this.

A 3080 is absolutely fine. A 4080 isn;t hardly necessary. Keep in mind that all the new games that come out, have to work on consoles too. So there really isn't that much incentive to get a super rig until the next generation of those is on the table. . And, whilst games certainly become prettier - publishers like to sell their games to people and they know most aren't willing or able to spend two grand on a graphics card. It's all certainly good, but also a massive investment. [although tomorrow my new laptop with a 4090ti comes in, so I really shouldn't talk]

Also, with the exception of the 4090 that sets you back a month's income, the 4 series doesn't perform that much above the 3 series.

What you have to keep in mind is that laptop GPUs are weaker than their desktop counterparts. So a laptop 4080 would be about as powerful as a desktop 3080.

I have a pretty decent gaming Laptop, even though its now 2-4 years old (honestly dont remember).

This is my 3rd I believe since 2010. Main problem I have had with all 3 has never really been graphics. Its been overheating, specifically CPU, (GPU has always been fine in that department). My current gaming laptop can run beautifull high and ultra graphics in most games no problem.

The constant 89-95 degrees celsius on my cpu however is a concern, and thats with turbo boost setting on the fans. Thats whilst playing high end games naturally, not during other tasks. The fan setting which keeps it from totally overheating, in turn over prolonged gaming weeks/months years, really wears the fans down/out. Got rid of my last gaming pc because both fans were rickety and damaged.

Any helpful tips for cooling down cpu? I know about cooling paste replacement, problem is getting to it, seeing as theres a massive heatshield that covers everything once I open her up. And this has some kind of glue/tape glue around the edges, and Im afraid Ill rip something off If I try to remove it, not to mention fearful of being unable to put it back on.

Mainly Im interested if there any settings I could possibly tamper with to help it out.

I have the exact same thing. I wish I wasn't dependant on laptop being a laptop, but I am not always where I live and I need it with me.

I have absolutely no idea if it's useful, but I bought a USB-powered fan plate thingy that my laptop can sit on. I had some performance issues with BG3 and some other games that I was worried were related to overheating, but I identified the problem as a Windows 11 setting so never really tested whether the cooling was at all effective. I guess I can give it a go and see! It does create yet more noise, though. But pretty minor in comparison with the laptop's own fan labouring away.

I seem to be hard on keyboards. This is only my second gaming laptop, and the first (it was a Samsung one) lasted seven years. By the end, it was no longer really good enough for modern games, but it was just about coping. What killed it was the spacebar and a couple of other keys breaking, and it being so old I couldn't find a replacement keyboard for it. But at least it had put in its time. The left control key of my newer Acer broke a couple of weeks back, which isn't wholly surprising as the keyboard always felt flimsy as well as all the black wearing off a lot of the keys. I seem to use the letters E,S,D,L,M,N,O the most! Which reminds me I need to try to call the Acer spare parts department to see if they can send me a new one!

I love the convenience of being able to cart my laptop around and game anywhere, but It is a problem that the whole machine can become unusable with the failure of one relatively simple part. I do have a wireless keyboard that I'm using now, but it does defeat at least part of the purpose of a laptop that it now needs more space and can't easily be used without a desk!

EDIT: Just had a quick play around and as far as I can tell the cooling pad does absolutely nothing for CPU temperature. It makes the air feel a little cooler to me, so it's less unpleasant to use a hot laptop, but that's about it. At least it didn't cost much. Or maybe that was the problem!

I have a nice workstation laptop. It's an i7 with an Nvidia graphics card, but I couldn't play the game because it kept overheating so bad. I tried thermal paste, but it didn't work.

So I had to go out and buy a new PC when Stadia shut down.

I ended up getting a desktop, and wow, this new thing plays BG3 without a care in the world, smooth as can be.


Thank you!

That is enormously helpful, especially with the screenshot.

For your home use, a separate keyboard is a godsend. Have you lappie up on a stand, raises your screen, too.

I've got a 2019 Acer Nitro 5 that I paid about $700 for and BG3 runs pretty well on highest settings.