What is a good battery life for a gaming laptop? Well, anything under 2 hours would be an absolute fail, and above 4 hours, you’re a winner.
We’ve done some research and tried to come up with an answer.
Is Gaming Laptops Don’t Come With Great Battery Life?
The frequent answer is – No, it is not wise to expect great battery life from a gaming laptop. Let’s look at why and how you can extend the life of a gaming laptop’s battery life.
How Battery Life Affects Gaming Laptops?
There are some components and software settings that can impact the battery life and battery healthy.
- Graphics Card (GPU): High-end graphics cards like NVIDIA RTX or the latest are battery hungry. Understanding and choosing the best GPU option for your gaming requirements can save the battery life of a gaming laptop.
- Display Refresh Rate: Most of the gaming requires high refresh rates (120Hz, 144Hz, or higher) because of smooth gameplay but can drain the battery faster than standard 60Hz displays.
- Battery Capacity (Watt-Hours): The larger the battery capacity, the longer your laptop can last. A battery capacity of around 70-99 watt-hours is ideal for balancing weight and performance in a gaming laptop.
- Processor (CPU): Modern CPUs like AMD Ryzen and Intel’s 12th Gen processors are built for efficiency, which can help conserve battery power during non-gaming activities.
- Power-Saving Modes and Software Optimization: Many gaming laptops come with software like NVIDIA’s Advanced Optimus or AMD’s SmartShift, which dynamically adjusts power usage based on activity, helping conserve battery.
Some Tips for Improving Battery Life While Gaming.
While gaming laptops are not renowned for long-lasting battery performance, there are a few ways you can extend battery life:
- Reduce Brightness: Reducing screen brightness can increase battery power, especially while gaming.
- Power-Saving Mode: Setting to a power-saving or “Battery Saver” mode can save battery life.
- Close Background Applications: Close all the unnecessary applications or not required while gaming this also can save your gaming laptop battery life.
- Reduce Refresh Rate : Latest laptops usaily have high refresh rate, lowering it while gaming can save battery life.
- Advance Game Settings: Lowering the game’s graphics settings and resolution, which can extend battery life.
Which Gaming Laptops Are Considered to Have Good Battery Life?
In our recent lab test with different gaming laptops under heavy and light CPU-GPU loads and intense pressure from games like Far Cry Three, GTA 5, and The Witcher.
Here’s what we got:
The Dell G15 5515
The Dell G15 5515 (Ryzen 7 5800H/3060 86Wh) provided us with a maximum of 2 hours & 10 minutes of intense gaming duration, put in pressure with Witcher 3. For YouTube streaming, it was 12 hours using the Chrome browser on the lowest battery consumption profile.
However, technology changes dramatically if you look at a top-tier ASUS Vivobook Pro 16X (Ryzen 9 5900HX/3050 Ti) 96Wh. We saw an unprecedented 3 hour support in heavy gaming conditions with high brightness.
Moving on, the ASUS Zephyrus G16 (2024) (Ryzen AI 9 HX 370/4070 8GB) 90Wh comes with 2 solid hours of gaming juice without compromising on graphics.
Again, the media says that the average gaming backup on last year’s gaming laptops stood somewhere between 3 hours to 4 hours.
Finally
Now that we’ve reached a conclusion, we can confidently say that your gaming laptop should take you approximately 2 hours on the move under intense graphics and brightness.
