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Are bigger gaming laptops really better? Here’s how an RTX 5080 beat an RTX 5090.
May 3, 2025
Maximum power vs. portability
When shopping for the best gaming laptops, the expectation is that when it comes to GPUs, bigger is better. An Nvidia RTX 5090 GPU should consistently outperform an RTX 5080. That’s just how the CUDA cores crumble.
But now and again, we get a system that proves the exception to the rule.
In this case, we’re talking about the MSI Raider 18 HX AI, which features the powerful combo of an Nvidia RTX 5080 GPU and an Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX processor.
Due to the Raider’s ability to leverage up to 260 Watts of power for its CPU and GPU, it easily overpowered the RTX 5090 in the Razer Blade 16 (2025) and HP Omen Max 16.
Confused? Let me explain.
More laptop equals more power and better cooling
One of the benefits of an 18-inch desktop replacement gaming laptop is that its size gives it room for a proper cooling system that can leverage as much power as possible to the CPU and GPU, which gets you the kind of performance that justifies ditching your desktop PC for a laptop instead.
The trade-off is that you don’t expect it to be portable. So if it’s more than an inch thick and weighs almost 8 pounds, we don't recommend commuting daily with it.
But returning to the advantages, we ran the MSI Raider 18 HX, Razer Blade 16 (2025), and HP Omen Max 16 through multiple game benchmarks spanning the gamut of optimized performance, older titles, and GPU-melting new releases.
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