Why you shouldn’t buy a laptop based on its specs alone

When buying a laptop, we tend to think that there is no stronger indication of how it will perform than the spec sheet. We put so much emphasis on this in our quest to find the fastest, most efficient and best graphics product to suit our needs.

But in doing so, it’s easy to make a common blunder: spending a lot of money on a laptop with specs that look great, only to have the device not live up to expectations.

I see it all the time in my role as a laptop reviewer. But more than that, I often see big differences in performance between laptops with the same specs. So… why aren’t specs the best indicator of performance? And how can you really tell if a laptop will perform well?

Further reading: Best laptops of 2024: Premium, budget, gaming, 2-in-1 and more

Why can laptop performance vary so much?

Lots of factors come into play to vary performance – even between laptops with the same specs. A few important factors are variations in CPU and GPU power and differences in laptop size and thickness (design).

To address the first point and take GPU powers as an example, laptops with discrete video cards often have different TGPs or total graphics power settings. These powers vary because OEMs like Nvidia and AMD allow laptop manufacturers to set them anywhere within a defined range. For example, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 graphics card can be set to TGPs anywhere between 40W and 140W.

That manufacturers can do this is generally a good thing, as it gives them plenty of room to find the right power setting for a particular laptop model—one that suits the laptop type, power supply, display, battery, and cooling. hardware.

A higher TGP is generally better because it allows the laptop’s GPU to run at higher clock speeds, which means faster performance. In two gaming laptops with the same video card, the one with the higher TGP will quite often produce a higher average fps in games compared to the other.

That’s a bit of a generalization, but you get the gist. To complicate matters, lower-end graphics cards with high power can sometimes outperform higher-end graphics cards with low ones.

In Nvidia GPUs, the Dynamic Boost setting can also make a difference. If this is turned on, it adds extra power to the graphics card for some tasks, which again can change performance results between models and more.

How does laptop size affect performance?

The impact of a laptop’s size and thickness on performance has to do with thermal headroom, or how much internal space the laptop has to keep under thermal control to prevent throttling (slowing down processing tasks).

It’s often the case that larger laptops have more room for cooling hardware and therefore heat dissipation than smaller ones – meaning they can fit more fans, vents and cooling chambers, or else they just have larger components with greater cooling capacity.

This can allow them to reach higher clock speeds and stay running at those speeds longer than smaller, thinner laptops. In smaller laptops, designing and implementing efficient thermal systems requires extensive research and development and careful selection of each part to prevent overheating. Often the hardware has to be loosened or meticulously designed to fit.

IDG / Matthew Smith

In our PCWorld reviews, several tests give us an indication of a laptop’s performance capabilities. In our gaming laptops, for example, the 3DMark Time Spy benchmark and gaming benchmarks indicate how well a laptop will handle graphics-intensive tasks.

In addition, a coding test we designed in-house using the free utility HandBrake gives a picture of how well it can prevent a laptop from throttling. In this task, large laptops often do better than smaller laptops with the same specifications.

Further reading: Best gaming laptops of 2024: What to look for and the top-rated modelS

A quick comparison of the performance results of the 14-inch Acer Nitro 14 and the 16-inch Acer Nitro V16 shows the size-related performance differences.

Although these two laptops have matching AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPUs, the larger Acer Nitro V16 is the clear winner of the two, outperforming its smaller sibling in both S models.Hadow of Tomb Raider game benchmark and PCWorld HandBrake test (see below).

So how can you tell if a laptop will perform well?

Despite what I said about power and size, you can’t tell how a laptop will perform until it’s properly tested. For this reason, I urge you to read our PCWorld laptop reviews, where you can find the results of our extensive performance tests, before you pull the trigger and hit the purchase button on a laptop.

Our reviewers have done all the hard work for you by meticulously testing both CPU and GPU performance. You can also find performance comparisons with other laptops to make choosing between different brands much easier when it’s time to decide. Happy laptop hunting!