What are the Differences Between Desktop and Laptop Graphics Cards?

Peter Oflina
4 min readNov 9, 2022
What are the Differences Between Desktop and Laptop Graphics Cards?

Have you ever wondered what are the Differences Between Graphics Cards of Desktop and Laptop Computers?

We tried to enlighten you by briefly mentioning the differences between the graphics cards in desktop and laptop computers.

As anyone who is interested in gaming computers knows, one of the most important parts of a gaming computer is the graphics card. In short, they are also known as GPU (Graphics Processing Unit). If you want a gaming PC and get a PC with a weak graphics card, you’ll probably run into freezing problems with current games and have to lower the display quality settings. For this reason, the choice of graphics card is an issue that should be paid attention to in gaming computers.

But gaming laptops get a little more complicated than desktop PCs. Because, for example, the laptop version of a powerful graphics card like NVIDIA GTX 980 is called GTX 980M.

Many users who see this are also confused. In other words, it can be difficult to predict how the laptop version of that video card will perform. In this article, we will share with you the details of this letter M on graphics cards. So, we will try to touch on the differences between desktop and laptop graphics cards.

Differences Between Laptop and Desktop GPUs

Desktop computers have a larger area to fit the graphics card than laptops. This causes the design of the graphics cards to be slightly different. The performance values ​​of these graphics cards, which are almost the same in terms of architecture, are unfortunately not so. Because graphics cards in desktop computers have larger coolers, they can go up to higher clock speeds.

As can be seen below, AMD Radeon R9 380 model and its mobile version AMD Radeon R9 M380 are compared. In comparison, the desktop version is always ahead in terms of memory bandwidth, clock speed, pixel ratios and many other values.

If the same comparison is made for NVIDIA, let’s look at the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 and its mobile version, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M.

Again, as can be seen, due to the disadvantages we have mentioned before, the mobile version of the graphics card can perform almost half of the time compared to the desktop version.

A new graphics chip comes out almost every week. Someone who does not constantly inform himself about this can easily miss new graphics cards. We will tell you the current graphics cards that are worth your money and what the future will bring.

The Future of Graphics Cards

Not much, just a few years ago a good computer could run with a 500W power supply. As time progressed, technology improved, and as performance increased, the power requirement naturally increased. The last point of the graphics cards is the increase in the bill visibly. According to published reports, AMD will consume very high power with the RDNA 3 series.

The future of the new generation with no less power requirements was already evident. However, there is also a competition between Nvidia and AMD in terms of power consumption. In the next generation, users will also consider the wattage spent when choosing between the two brands. Therefore, the power consumption of these cards is of greater importance.

AMD Radeon RX 6700 comes with 10GB of GDDR6 memory. In addition, the new graphics card, which also offers 80 MB Infinity Cache, has reached the standards with its 16 Gbps memory speed. I think it will perform well.

In the future, perhaps there will be no need for graphics cards after computers with quantum processors.

Desktop Graphics Or Laptop Graphics Card For You?

If you are undecided about buying a desktop or laptop gaming computer, determine which games you want to play and your total budget. Because gaming laptops are noticeably more expensive than desktop gaming PCs. If portability is not a requirement for you, a gaming desktop computer and a desktop graphics card will be much more economical for you.

But if portability is important to you and you want to take your games with you wherever you go, take a good look at the graphics card of the gaming laptop you will buy. Compare its technical data with the desktop version and other competitors. For example, like the comparison we made above. Because technology has now reached different dimensions, it would not be correct to compare a video card only according to the amount of memory (GB).

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Peter Oflina

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