Should I wait to buy a new gaming laptop

Is it worth waiting for new gaming laptops to come out, or should you just buy now? Lets discuss when the best time to buy a new gaming laptop is!

If you need something now, youre usually pretty safe to buy now. The key exception is if there is known to be new technology extremely close to launch, then its likely worth waiting, lets dive into the details!

This is a general guide which aims to be applicable at any time and isnt specifically based on the current date.

Wait for new hardware?

Waiting for new hardware to release is probably one of the most common reasons for holding off on buying a new gaming laptop. Its a fair reason on the surface, you want to make sure you get the best level of performance for your money.

For the last few years, there have been major releases from Nvidia, AMD, and Intel about once a year. These cycles come and go. For laptops, recently products from different companies have actually tended to launch closer together.

An example of this is the AMD 4000 series CPUs launching Q1 2020, and the rumors of Intel 10th gen CPUs and Nvidia Super graphics for laptops coming out around the same time. Theres an important reason these wont launch too far apart that is worth understanding.

Story time

I spoke to a laptop manufacturer at CES 2020, who mentioned its in their own best interest for AMD/Intel/Nvidia to launch new parts at around the same time. It was implied to me that lately those companies have played better with regards to laptop component release schedules. Those companies [AMD/Intel/Nvidia] may not like it, but the fact is laptops make use of multiple components from a wide range of different companies.

Laptop manufacturers want to avoid being in the weird position of selling a product with next gen graphics but an older CPU thats just a couple of months from being updated.

We kind of saw this last year in 2019, when the Nvidia GTX 16 series laptop graphics launched very closely with the Intel 9th gen processors. This resulted in there being pretty much no gaming laptops with 8th gen CPUs and the new 16 series Nvidia graphics, or 9th gen processors with 10 series Nvidia graphics [GTX 1050 excluded which is still part of the current lineup].

From the perspective of the laptop vendor, it would really suck to have to do that. Youd have a 8th gen laptop with new GPU on the market, then what, just a few short months later people stop buying it when the 9th gen model is out?

With that knowledge, you can probably expect major CPU/GPU changes for laptops to happen at least somewhat close to each other. This was the case last year, hopefully it continues.

How long to wait?

This is a tough question to answer. Without inside information, the best you can do is try and get a rough general feeling based on rumors and how long its been since the last hardware release. If youve been planning to buy a new gaming laptop for a while, chances are you may have been following this news.

If not, it might be possible to get a rough estimate based on historical trends. The following tables offer an example of when previous popular laptop components were released:

This shows how laptop CPU and GPU releases have varied in the past. While the past is not indicative of the future, generally theres new laptop parts launched every year or so. Whether or not these are worthy improvements over the previous generation is a different conversation.

You dont have to buy new! Save money buying last gen

Just because new hardware may be releasing soon, doesnt mean you have to buy it. Chances are that what will become last gen when the new hardware launches will probably still work just fine. Its quite rare for you to need to upgrade an entire laptop after just one hardware jump. This is generally not recommended as its an expensive upgrade path, in most cases you have to replace the entire machine.

There are of course exceptions to this rule, Id say the Nvidia mobile Pascal GPUs were an example, as they offered a large performance boost over what cam before them.

Once new laptops are available, those machines that now become last gen often go on sale. This means that even if you dont plan on buying a brand new gaming laptop, you can still take advantage of waiting for new laptops to launch to find a great sale on an existing model.

Just check performance comparisons between the old and new hardware and decide if that last generation hardware is fine for you, or if you think its worth paying the extra for what ever the performance difference may be.

Many of the newer 9th gen i7-9750H laptops dont actually perform much better than the older 8th gen i7-8750H laptops. Although the 9th gen chip has slightly higher clock speeds on paper, often the power limit may be too low to permit these from being consistently hit. This is why it is important to look at more than just the spec sheet when shopping for a new laptop.

Dont fall into the waiting trap!

Ill just wait for the next new thing is a trap to avoid. There will ALWAYS be something new coming around the corner, this is the way technology works. If you fall into this trip, youll wait for something new to release, then rather than buying youll wait for the next new thing to release, and the next.

This is almost decision paralysis, rather than ever having a new gaming laptop to use and enjoy youre waiting for some future promise of better performance.

When you consider all of the time that you could have otherwise spent enjoying your new system, its really not worth it. Trust me, I know. I spent years playing the Ill just wait for this next part to come out game before finally upgrading my 2010 PC in 2017.

Sure, if something is a few months away, its worth waiting to see what happens for the previously discussed reasons. If its more than 6 months away though, consider if its worth it and if youll actually really be any better off by waiting. Does the gain of waiting beat what youd be able to otherwise do with the machine during that time?

So when is the best time to buy a gaming laptop?

If you need something now, then youre usually pretty safe to buy now as needed. The key exception is if there is known to be new technology extremely close to launch, then its likely worth waiting, either to get the new hardware, or get a good deal on a slightly older but still very capable model.