Gaming Laptop Analysis

Is the Gigabyte AERO 15 (2021) i9-10980HK RTX 3080 8GB Max-Q 64GB RAM 2.0TB M.2 4K 60Hz good as a gaming laptop? Excellent

Processor - The Core i9-10980HK 8-Core 2.40GHz is an excellent gaming CPU for 2022. Games are beginning to lean on more CPU cores for extra processing. Fortunately this CPU has 8 cores, making it an excellent gamers processor choice.

Graphics Card - Modern AAA 2022 gaming with the GeForce RTX 3080 8GB Max-Q is no problem, making this an excellent gaming laptop choice of GPU. AAA games often want a lot of VRAM from graphics cards. This laptop GPU has 8GB of VRAM, which isexcellent for modern gaming.

System Memory - Our review laptop here has an excellent quantity of RAM for 2022 AAA games. The 64GB of RAM will meet the game requirements of the foreseeable future as well.

Screen Size - This laptop screen size is capable of meeting 2022 gaming, making it a step closer to being a good laptop for gamers. Larger laptop screens normally equal less squinting at on screen text, providing the resolution is set inline with the screens native pixel count. We normally look to the 17 inch panels for focused gaming laptops, but this 15.6" screen is the most common and popular in the market, due to portability versus viewability. Exploring for a suitable gaming laptop, we look at 17 inches for the better viewing size, 15 inches is always a good size if portability is more your focus, but in our minds we want the largest screen size while still being portable, so we can more clearly see the games.

Refresh Rate - If you are focused on a gaming laptop then ideally you want a refresh rate of 120Hz or 144Hz or more. A lot of laptops come with 60Hz and this will stop your games being able to run in more than 60 Frames per second. Even if you hardware is capable of far more frames per second. Now after those thoughts on refresh rates, today’s review laptop has a 60Hz refresh rate, where we would say that is passable as a gaming laptop panel. For gaming we would consider getting a laptop with a higher refresh rate if our budget would stretch to it.

GeForce RTX 3080 8GB Max-Q graphics card gaming performance in the Gigabyte AERO 15 (2021) i9-10980HK RTX 3080 8GB Max-Q 64GB RAM 2.0TB M.2 4K 60Hz laptop

A key choice in any gaming laptop is making sure we identify the right graphics card in the laptop and know what it is capable of in today's gaming landscape. With this laptop we are taking a closer look at how its total laptop value compares to its capability when it comes to running modern demanding games. Also lets take a look at it when running modern popular games like, Grand Theft Auto VI or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022) in ultra graphics settings on its native screen resolution of 4K. A good way of considering performance of this mobile graphics card is by seeing how many of today's 500 most demanding games can be run at recommended graphics settings by the GeForce RTX 3080 8GB Max-Q found in this laptop. We can also then look at the weaker minimum requirement to see how many this laptop card can run of them, and it is 499 games at their min specs and then 482 games can be run at recommended graphics requirements.

Comparing Gigabyte AERO 15 (2021) i9-10980HK RTX 3080 8GB Max-Q 64GB RAM 2.0TB M.2 4K 60Hz to today’s best price to performance laptop ranges

As you have probably discovered during your research into buying your next gaming laptop, getting an up-to-date value assessment that enables you to compare a laptop’s hardware performance against today’s games is tricky. And especially so, when we factor in all variations of hardware and prices that the AERO 15 (2021) comes with. What we have done in this Gigabyte AERO 15 (2021) i9-10980HK RTX 3080 8GB Max-Q 64GB RAM 2.0TB M.2 4K 60Hz laptop review is give a price to performance rating to help standardise our comparisons.

Our price and performance review leads us to allocate all laptops a P2P rating out of 10, which is relative to all laptops for comparison purposes and gets adjusted over time as the prices for hardware adjust and new more capable hardware is created. This laptop is currently given a 5.3 for P2P out of 10. Looking at how this configuration of the AERO 15 (2021) laptop compares against other laptops within its range we can see it currently is placed at the 3rd spot. Those laptops that are closer to the top 1st place of the model range are considered better gaming laptops regarding performance and laptop price.

Our AERO 15 (2021) laptop should also be compared to today’s best Price to Performance model, the ASUS TUF A15 R7 4800H GTX 1660 Ti 16GB RAM 512GB M.2. When stacked up against this, our laptop has 206% worse rating difference on its P2P. It's worth noting that the very best P2P model has a recorded price of $999 to consider and of course this is purely a value for performance basis. Lets move down the P2P ranking list to position 2. Here we find the MSI Bravo 15 R7 4800H RX 5500M 16GB RAM 512GB M.2 laptop, which has a price at $1049. The AERO 15 (2021) laptop in this review is 167% worse when compared solely on price to performance against that 2nd best model.

How does the Gigabyte AERO 15 (2021) i9-10980HK RTX 3080 8GB Max-Q 64GB RAM 2.0TB M.2 4K 60Hz laptop compare to the best CPU performance focused laptops and today’s most popular games?

If you are looking for a strong CPU focused laptop then let's compare this AERO 15 (2021) laptop with the top CPU performance focused laptop available today and see how it compares. The CPU performance laptop we picked today is the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 R9 4900HS RTX 2060 Mobile 16GB RAM 1.0TB M.2. Its processor is the Ryzen 9 4900HS 8-Core 3.0GHz which delivers 23% better performance when stacked against our own review laptop’s Core i9-10980HK 8-Core 2.40GHz.

Today’s performance comparison for all games shows our laptop CPU can currently meet or beat 469 game’s recommended system requirements when we put the 500 most demanding games into a list. With a list of 500 Minimum system specs put in a similar most demanding order this changes to it being able to run 500 games.

Today’s games are getting more demanding so let's see how our gaming laptop performs against their recommended cpu system requirements. First off we have the Star Citizen which currently our Core i9-10980HK 8-Core 2.40GHz is 2% better next let's see how well it runs against Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022). We can see it is 17% better. Ok finally lets see it against Grand Theft Auto VI. Here our laptop is 17% better.

How does the Gigabyte AERO 15 (2021) i9-10980HK RTX 3080 8GB Max-Q 64GB RAM 2.0TB M.2 4K 60Hz laptop compare to the best graphics card performance focused laptops and today’s most popular games?

We may well be looking for a GPU centric laptop, and if that’s the case then let's see how this AERO 15 (2021) mobile pc competes with a top GPU performance laptop that is available today. The GPU focused laptop we picked for our comparison is the MSI GT76 Titan i9-10900K RTX 2080 Super 64GB RAM 2.0TB M.2 4K. Its got one of the best graphics cards found in laptops at the moment, which is the GeForce RTX 2080 Super 8GB. It delivers 15% better performance when benched against our own review laptop’s GeForce RTX 3080 8GB Max-Q.

Our laptop Graphics Card, the GeForce RTX 3080 8GB Max-Q, can currently meet the recommended system requirements of 482 games when compared against the top 500 most demanding games right now. This number changes to 499 for the top 500 most demanding minimum system requirements.

Lets take a look and see how well our GeForce RTX 3080 8GB Max-Q compares against today’s most popular games. Against the recommended graphics specs for Grand Theft Auto VI our laptop is 13% better, and compared to Star Citizen it is 80% better , where as against Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022) it delivers 13% better performance.

Today's Best Priced Mouse and Headset for Gigabyte AERO 15 (2021) i9-10980HK RTX 3080 8GB Max-Q 64GB RAM 2.0TB M.2 4K 60Hz laptop

The gaming mouse with today’s best price to value that would go well with the Gigabyte AERO 15 (2021) i9-10980HK RTX 3080 8GB Max-Q 64GB RAM 2.0TB M.2 4K 60Hz laptop is the Kayinuo M738 Gaming Mouse 3200DPI wired 6 Buttons. Its current price is $12.99. Another interesting point about this mouse is that as we price track it we can see it has dropped in price by $32.26 during these past two weeks. To give some extra insight into this mouse, we had it price tracked on 15th Aug 2020, where it was at its lowest price of $11.99.

The gaming headset with today’s best price to value that would go well with the Gigabyte AERO 15 (2021) i9-10980HK RTX 3080 8GB Max-Q 64GB RAM 2.0TB M.2 4K 60Hz laptop is the Corsair HS45-7.1 Surround. Its current price is $36.99. For reference, the lowest price recorded by us so far for the headset is $34.99 on 28th Nov 2019.