Are Gaming Laptops Good For Video Editing?
Yes, gaming laptops can be good for video editing, but consider these important factors when choosing one!
Specs
At the end of the day, it all comes down to the specs of the hardware in the gaming laptop. Gaming in itself is a fairly resource intensive workload, so gaming laptops are often well equipped to handle plenty of other tasks such as video editing.
You’ll want to focus on the CPU, GPU, memory and screen quality when selecting a gaming laptop for video editing.
CPU, GPU & RAM
These key specs will ultimately determine the video editing experience on your laptop. It’s difficult to give generalized suggestions here as there are a number of factors to consider.
The video files that you’re editing are a variable that will affect performance. Different codecs, bit rates and resolutions for example will perform differently on different hardware.
Your video editing software of choice should also be considered when selecting a gaming laptop for video editing. DaVinci Resolve for instance may benefit more from a powerful GPU, while Adobe Premiere may benefit more from a more powerful CPU. More memory is especially helpful with larger projects and file sizes.
I benchmark both of these software suites with every gaming laptop I review, you can refer to the best laptops for Adobe Premiere Pro and the best laptops for DaVinci Resolve here to see how different gaming laptops compare.
Screen
The screen will be a key factor in selecting a gaming laptop for video editing. It of course depends on the level of quality you’re looking at producing, but a better quality screen will make the job easier. This may be less important if you are primarily editing with an external monitor connected to the laptop.
Having a color accurate screen for color grading for instance will improve your end result. There are a number of screen options available these days including OLED and Mini LED for laptops, though generally most models designed with gaming in mind have high refresh IPS or similar panels.
These aren’t inherently bad, and can actually be quite good – it just depends on the specific panel. Typically higher quality panels increase the cost of the laptop, so you’ll need to check reviews for screen specs like color gamut, color accuracy, brightness and contrast.
The screen is one of the first areas where budget gaming laptops cut costs. While you can certainly edit videos with budget friendly entry level gaming laptops, don’t expect amazing screen quality.
Some gaming laptops may have a 4K 60Hz screen option that has very high color gamut and brightness, as well as a 1080p 144Hz option but with lower color gamut. The latter is of course better for gaming, so it’s a tradeoff that you need to make based on which workload is more important to you.
Creator Laptops
Before Nvidia announced Studio laptops at Computex 2019, gaming laptops and the occasional business laptop were your best bet for video editing.
These days there are a number of creator branded laptops that might be a better fit for creative work, but generally speaking a gaming laptop is still going to have the horsepower for video editing.
Creator laptops tend to focus more on the things that are important to creators, such as a higher quality screen (usually with a lower refresh rate compared to gaming laptops) and other extras like SD card slots.
Gaming Laptop or Creator Laptop?
As video editing still requires good CPU, GPU and memory, creator laptops generally still do quite well at gaming. If video editing is your main focus with some gaming on the side, I’d consider a creator specific laptop first. On the other hand, if gaming is your focus with some video editing on the side, then a gaming laptop might be a better choice.
Of course if you don’t need portability then a desktop PC would be better paired with your choice of screen, but if portability is essential then these are your options. Personally I only edit videos on a laptop when traveling, so not much in 2021, but my 3+ year old laptop is still more than up to the task so you definitely don’t need the latest and greatest tech either.
24 Comments
Jim
Hello, what thermal paste (non liquid-metal) would you recommend to repaste.
Jarrod
To be honest I’ve only ever used Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut personally, but believe there are better options, thermal paste isn’t something I have really compared.
Kym Grant
Considering the display to be important .. an external monitor would be an alternative to supplement a medicore laptop display, considering video editing would be a work in progress at home, work and in between … ?
Jarrod
Yes that’s definitely an option, and certainly preferable if you’re going to be using it all the time mainly due to it being larger, though of course you lose the portability aspect so depends if you’re able to set up a docking situation in the home or office for instance.
yogesh sharma
nice content sir i love to watch your videos and love your way of explaination and way ofwriting article
Alex Hales
Which gaming laptop is good for playing GTA V?
Bhuvanesh Parmar
Hello Jarrod!! Big fan of your content!!
I have an Acer Predator Helios 300 with i7-10750H processor and a RTX 2060 with 90W power limit, this laptop comes with a 230W power brick. The MSI GL65 with the RTX 2060 115W and same processor also has a 230W power brick. So I want to increase the power limit of my Helios GPU because I know it can push up to 115W, the only problem is it is locked by Acer OEM. I also have the temperature head room, under full GPU load my laptop GPU does not go above 72’C temperatures and RTX 2060 mobile has max temperature limits upto 88’C.
My question is, can I flash the VBIOS of nvidia to increase the power limit of my RTX 2060 to 115W? If so, how can I do it?
You are the only person who can answer this. I have searched everywhere on internet and unfortunately there is not much information available for VBIOS FLASH for laptops. PLEASE HELP!!!!
Jarrod
Probably, I’ve heard of other people doing that, but I don’t have any personal experience with flashing VBIOS. The risk is the cooling system may not have been designed to handle the higher power load.
John Gamer
Everyone needs a laptop nowadays. Because we depend on it so much that we need a powerful machine. There are many laptops in different categories, and 1300 dollars is enough to get a powerful laptop. At this budget, you will get a premium and powerful machine. Altogether, Apple Macbook Pro M1 is the overall winner with almost perfect fitting in most conditions. But, If you are looking for a windows laptop with the latest Gen processor and big display, HP Pavilion 15 might be the best choice.
Noah
Hi Jarrod! First, let me just say thanks for the content you provide, it’s so helpful, entertaining and educational. One of my go to channels on YouTube even though I’m not even in the market for a new machine. I have a question as to what I should look for on my next laptop, as I was expecting a little bit more from my Razer Blade 15 Base Model 2020 version.
I am a graphic & brand designer, primarily using Adobe Illustrator to do branding work (I am actually unsure if this application utilises the GPU at all, or if it even has to, seeing as my old 2015 MacBook Air was capable of handling my entire workload everyday, even on battery. I can run this application for quite of few hours on battery saver mode and the processor set to 70%). I also make music using Ableton Live and a wide selection of VST’s (Very processor intensive and to my knowledge doesn’t use the GPU at all, but requires “Best Performance” mode to access the necessary processing power and drains the battery incredibly quickly). So my questions are-
If I’m looking for a great laptop that has great colours for doing design, awesome processing power for handling Ableton Live and a good battery life that could outlast the majority of other laptops, what should I be looking for? Is there a specific machine that comes to mind, or benchmarks and spec sheets that I should be paying attention to?
And is there anything I can do with my current machine (mentioned above) to improve battery life and processor performance besides undervolting? Is disabling the graphics card potentially an option?
Again thanks so much for the content on YouTube, do you have a patreon I could donate to or subscribe to?
Cheers, Noah.
Jarrod
Hey Noah, I never got to test the base model blade myself so not too sure about how it compares to others. These two pages will probably help you, I’ve sorted all laptops I’ve tested by battery life and also have colour gamut results on the response time page:
https://jarrods.tech/list-of-laptop-battery-life/
https://jarrods.tech/list-of-laptop-response-times/
Personally I use the Aero 17 with 4K screen, the panel is great, battery is large but generally Ryzen does better than Intel for battery life. You could try disable the dGPU in device manager so random software can’t even call it, but generally with optimus enabled it shouldn’t get used.
Gowtham
I’m planning on buying legion 7 or 7i laptop on black friday sale . Thanks to you I decided to buy legion but I can’t come to a conclusion which one should I buy AMD R7 5800H or i7 11800H, they bost are almost same cost wild RTX 3070, 32gb ram and 1tb SSD . But my main question is does direct storage in Intel does make any difference in real life use while using unreal engine 4??
Jarrod
I think I answered you on YouTube stories. Basically Intel does a bit better in games, otherwise can’t speak to directstorage as no games implement it yet, but it may be beneficial in supported titles.
Gowtham
So it doesn’t matter which one I take legion 7 or 7i . I have seen your video R7 5800H vs i7 11800H no.of Times , in that in 45W amd is better and in 80W intel is better . Does it get 90° when 80W?? And does PCI gen 4 is noticeably better for designing purpose ??I’m sorry for asking this because till now I’m using an old laptop with intel i5 7th gen with Intel integrated graphics . So I myself new to this Stuff , it’s a huge step up for me ,so I’m a bit confused about this . It’s just that I don’t want to regrate for what I have purchased .
Jarrod
PCIe difference is basically nothing in most games today, but PCIe 4 + direct storage with Intel might be useful in future, plus Intel does better in games. Honestly just get the Intel version if gaming is the priority.
David Oluwarotimi Jayeola
Hello Jarrod,
My Legion y540 has been displaying that my product number, MTM and serial numbers are invalid.
This happened after my technician reprogrammed my bios because the laptop refused to boot the Windows OS and BIOS. Please, how do i solve this issue ?
P.S there is no lenovo support center in my country
Jarrod
Not sure, but Lenovo support is the answer. Shouldn’t matter that they’re not physically present in your country thanks to the Internet.
Sathishkumar
Hi Jarrod ! Huge fan of your Content !
I have an Asus Strix G15 Advantage edition with RX 6800M (new M7 batch) , however it randomly reboots after GPU intensive tasks . After doing some research on the internet , it seems that a lot of people are facing the same issue . I saw your comment on twitter regarding this issue that you didn’t have any reboot issue .
It’s been 4 months but Asus hasn’t acknowledged the issue or released any Fix for that . Many people have tried various things but none seems to fix the issue . Estimate of about 5000+ owners(according to ROG forum post views) of this laptop are facing the issue . The reboot issue can easily be replicated by running blender for 5 minutes and watching a youtube video after that.
Our only hopes are big laptop reviewers like you acknowledging this issue and make Asus know about it . PLEASE HELP !
Murat
hi, i have a problem my legion 5 pro screen : /
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1MEhyx3UpU
https://www.reddit.com/r/LenovoLegion/comments/r3osb9/legion_5_pro_ghost_screen_problem/
Another friend of mine has this problem too. In everyday use, it is incomprehensible if it does not overlap with the gray background. I accidentally saw it in photoshop yesterday. I noticed it in Illustrator today. Then I did tests.
10 minutes of static image, picture retention problem occurs. It starts to decrease after 2 minutes. It disappears completely in 8 minutes.
I guess this is the general problem of ips panels. I hope it doesn’t get worse and worse. The current situation is not overly disturbing. I wonder if it will increase in the future.
Do you have this problem in other legion series or all other laptops with ips screen? I think you can add this to the tests 😀 Apart from the color quality of the screen, there is also a problem with keeping the picture on the screen, mu test.
https://www.rtings.com/monitor/tests/picture-quality/image-retention#comparison_3617
Tom
Hi Jarrod!
I was wondering how could i disable optimus on my Lenovo ideapad gaming 3 15ACH6, bc when i read your post about optimus, i couldn’t find the disable option in Lenovo vantage.
Thanks
Jarrod
I don’t think the IdeaPad range have that as an option, the only way would be to bypass the integrated graphics by connecting an external screen to a port that connects straight to the dGPU.
Replacement Laptop Keys
Nicely covered each of the specs!! Very informative, thanks for sharing this!!
Andrew
I am in a similar situation here, I am looking for a laptop for mainly video editing/office type duties with the occassional gaming, hoping to find one that does abit of everything, but video editing/creator duties is my main focus.
I’ve come down to a couple of picks (if there is any you think I have overlooked, please mention them)
MSI Creator z17
https://www.pccasegear.com/products/59544/msi-creator-z17-core-i7-rtx-3070-ti-17in-165hz-laptop
And
Infinity M7
https://www.pccasegear.com/products/57443/infinity-m7-core-i7-rtx-3070-ti-17-3in-240hz-laptop
Which one would you suggest?
Keep up the good work, love watching your videos.
Thanks Mate.
Jarrod
Haven’t used that Infinity, but I’ve been using that same spec Z17 to do everything and edit all the videos on the YouTube channel for the last few months without any problems.