The team here at XDA has reviewed a wide range of the best gaming laptops, and one trend is becoming common. No, it's not high-resolution displays with high refresh rates, desktop-class processors, or even mechanical key switches. Those are all fine trends, and we want them to continue. I'm talking about high temperatures while gaming or doing anything other than web browsing. The latest crop of gaming laptops have powerful CPUs that boost to high frequencies, as well as discrete graphics chips that aren't quite desktop replacements but aren't far off. However, they also have thin and slim designs, which make it very difficult to keep thermals in check. Something has to change, since running CPUs at 100C for the long term is not a good idea for their health.

Current gaming laptops are hot

Literally... well, OK, they look good too

The industry trend towards slim, aluminum gaming laptops has brought some admittedly gorgeous devices to the market, but they all hide a big issue under that shiny shell. The team here at XDA has looked at dozens of new gaming laptops lately. In every gaming laptop review that mentions thermals, the prevailing theme is that you should expect higher temperatures with these components inside this form factor. I can't even argue with that assessment because it's fundamental physics: heat has to go somewhere, and the CPUs and GPUs inside gaming laptops are getting ever more powerful. I've regularly seen laptop CPUs leap to 100C and start throttling under benchmarks and gaming loads, with screaming cooling fans desperately trying to reduce the temperatures.

It's not even a new issue. Nearly a decade ago, we had an extreme example of this when Asus released the ROG GX700, a 17-inch gaming laptop with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 inside, cooled by an external watercooling setup. The year after, the ROG GX800 increased the screen size, but it also added a second GTX980, with an even more complex watercooling system to keep thermals in check. These behemoth gaming laptops shipped in a suitcase, like you'd take as travel luggage, because it weighed nearly 25 lbs with the laptop, the cooling dock, and the 330W power supply to run everything.

The GTX 980 in those laptops had double the VRAM of the desktop version, so with 8GB to play with, it could actually outperform a similarly specced desktop PC. The watercooling system meant a 10C reduction in CPU temperatures and up to 20C reduction in GPU temperatures, so this thing could cook without cooking itself. But, it should be said that nobody should be expected to wheel around a suitcase full of cooling equipment to keep their gaming laptop cool.

And it's not just gaming laptops

Laptops running at higher temperatures than their desktop counterparts have been a thing since I've been using them. Even some of the best laptops get warm under use, as the ultrathin form factors of modern devices leave little space for thermal considerations. The best-behaved laptops are those running Arm-based processors, like recent MacBooks and anything with the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite, but that's perhaps unsurprising as they're designed for mobile-first use.

It doesn't have to be this way

Even midrange hardware is enough for gaming

Flagship gaming laptops routinely overheat and thermal throttle, so what about midrange models? We reviewed the Legion Pro 5 (AMD) and 5i (Intel) last year, with the AMD version using the Ryzen 7 7745HX and the Intel version with the Intel Core i7-13700HX. Both laptops also have Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 laptop GPUs at 140W, so these are respectable specifications, and neither laptop thermal throttled under load. They couldn't match the performance of the higher tier i9s and RTX 4080s, but they're not supposed to. The most important thing here is their lack of thermal issues, which will lead to a reduction in performance. That's something that every flagship gaming laptop I've used can't claim.

The interesting thing about the popularity of PC gaming handhelds with significantly weaker CPUs and GPUs shows that gamers can compromise when it suits them. That midrange Legion Pro 5 is around $1400 as reviewed, which is astonishing for the gaming performance it can put out. In contrast, even the most affordable RTX 4090 equipped gaming laptop on our list is well over $3,000 and will likely have the same thermal issues I've previously encountered.

I'll always champion buying gaming laptops that make sense, with a carefully considered collection of components for consistent performance. If the display is 1080p or 1440p, you don't need a powerful GPU, but you can get one if you want the FPS boost. A midrange CPU will be better overall, with superior thermal performance, and the days of wimpy dual-core CPUs with Intel i5 or i7 branding are over.

You don't need an i9 processor to edit documents

The resounding success of laptops using Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite shows that you don't need a hot CPU to get enough power to run your apps. Now, an even lower-powered version, the Snapdragon X Plus, is coming out to challenge every other CPU at the hotly contested low-to-mid price point of around $600. Qualcomm claims it gets 61% more performance than the competition in the form of an Intel Core Ultra 7 155U. That's one of the more common Ultrabook CPUs, about to be bombarded by a ton of Arm-based laptops that promise significantly better battery life. Qualcomm's chips also run cooler, so they don't require noisy fans or complex heatpipe arrangements to stay cool.

Something has to change because it's not wise running your CPU at 100C all the time

There will always be a place for halo products, with absolutely the best components inside, as a testament to what PC manufacturers can produce. I'm not disputing that, but the thermal issues with many high-end laptops can't be overlooked. Your laptop CPU shouldn't be regularly running into thermal limits and throttling, and 100C is not a healthy temperature for any computing device. Midrange gaming laptops are better suited for the levels of heat their components can produce, and they bring overall better value to the user. Meanwhile, low-powered devices like Chromebooks have shown that we don't need powerful laptops to edit documents, although the added power of some laptop chips can improve some tasks.