Skip to main content

Don’t wait for new GPUs. It’s safe to buy a gaming laptop now

Upcoming Nvidia RTX 40-series laptops over a black and green background.
Nvidia

If you’ve been planning to buy a gaming laptop, it seems that it might be best to shop now instead of waiting for new hardware. Although rumor has it that Nvidia might soon launch three new desktop GPUs, it appears that those graphics cards are unlikely to appear in laptops anytime soon. Is there any point in waiting for the RTX 40-series refresh if you’re a laptop user? For various reasons, most likely not.

Various leakers have been sharing information about the rumored RTX 4070 Super, RTX 4070 Ti Super, and RTX 4080 Super for a while now. Considering that Nvidia is planning to deliver a “special address” at CES 2024, the general assumption is that this is when the company will officially announce the RTX 40-series refresh.

Recommended Videos

Nvidia already has a whole lineup of top-notch graphics cards available, so the refresh might seem a little unnecessary. However, the hope is that these GPUs might push down the prices of other Nvidia cards. If the RTX 40-series refresh happens, desktop users might be able to buy a better GPU at the same price, or benefit from lower prices on the non-Super models. This is why now is actually a pretty bad time to buy a desktop GPU made by Nvidia.

Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming
Check your inbox!

The same would be true, in theory, for gaming laptops if RTX 40 Super GPUs ever appear. However, according to XMG, a company that makes laptops and desktop PCs, this Super refresh might not include mobile cards.

The Alienware x14 R2 gaming laptop on a desk.
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

The company shared a road map update for XMG and Schenker laptops, giving customers a glimpse into its plans for 2024. The announcement reads: “As the year turns, we typically see a plethora of new launches in the laptop component sector. In our XMG laptop roadmap for November 2023, we provide an early glimpse as to why we are planning only minor updates for early 2024. Neither XMG nor SCHENKER have the introduction of new Nvidia graphics cards on their agenda, but some CPU refreshes for existing platforms are anticipated.”

This implies that Nvidia is sticking to the desktop segment right now, and RTX 40-series laptops are likely to stay just as expensive as they’ve always been. Perhaps the Super refresh will come to mobile GPUs eventually, but it doesn’t seem like it’ll be in the next few months.

It might be better to just shop now instead of waiting. There are plenty of Black Friday gaming laptop deals available right now, so if you find one you like, take advantage — we may not see any significant price cuts for months if XMG’s prediction turns out to be true.

Monica J. White
Monica is a computing writer at Digital Trends, focusing on PC hardware. Since joining the team in 2021, Monica has written…
Don’t wait for macOS Sequoia. This app already has its best feature
Apple's Craig Federighi introducing the new window tiling feature in macOS Sequoia at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2024.

When Apple lifted the shroud on macOS Sequoia at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June, there were a lot of headline announcements: Apple Intelligence, iPhone mirroring, a new Passwords app, plus a whole lot more. Yet it was the much more modest announcement of window snapping and tiling that really caught my eye.

For years, Windows users have been able to point to the lack of macOS window snapping as proof of the inferiority of Apple’s operating system. After all, if Apple couldn’t even get such a simple productivity feature right, what else was it failing at?

Read more
DLSS 4 could be amazing, and Nvidia needs it to be
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 GPU.

I won't lie: Nvidia did a good job with Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) 3, and there's almost no way that this success didn't contribute to sales. DLSS 3, with its ability to turn a midrange GPU into something much more capable, is pretty groundbreaking, and that's a strong selling point if there ever was one.

What comes next, though? The RTX 40-series is almost at an end, and soon, there'll be new GPUs for Nvidia to try and sell -- potentially without the added incentive of gen-exclusive upscaling tech. DLSS 3 will be a tough act to follow, and if the rumors about its upcoming graphics cards turn out to be true, Nvidia may really need DLSS 4 to be a smash hit.
When the GPU barely matters

Read more
This is our first look at RTX 50-series GPUs — and there’s one big surprise
Nvidia Blackwell chips.

Although we've heard plenty of rumors about Nvidia's upcoming RTX 50-series GPUs, we haven't seen any leaks -- until now. Clevo, a Taiwanese laptop maker, was recently hit by a ransomware attack, and some confidential slides detailing Nvidia's next-gen GPUs have made their way online.

Dominic Alvieri, a cybersecurity analyst, grabbed the slides from ransomware group RansomHub and posted them on X (formerly Twitter). The slides include timelines for Intel and AMD mobile CPUs, as well as a few details about Nvidia's next-gen graphics cards. According to the slides, Nvidia is prepping six new mobile GPUs that are slated to arrive in 2025.

Read more