So something pretty big is about to happen in the laptop industry. The price points across the board are going to start moving downwards. I have received confirmation from three different OEMs that they are expecting to launch laptops with AMD's Ryzen 12nm processors and NVIDIA Turing graphics for as low as $1099. If you are on the market for a laptop, it is a good idea to wait a few months now.
OEMs will be launching AMD 12nm Ryzen laptops with NVIDIA GTX 1660 Ti and RTX 2060 graphics for as low as $1099 MSRP
Now at the time of this writing, I have heard of the following group of OEM brands that will be rolling out this new pricing level of gaming laptops: Acer Nitro, ASUS TUF FX, HP Pavilion and/or Omen. The reason behind the pricing decline is simple, AMD's 12nm Ryzen mobility series is a cheaper alternative to Intel's mobility lineup and this allows for more flexibility while allocating budget to the GPU. AMD is providing all manufacturers (with the popular exception of MSI, as they refuse to consider AMD on account of their relationship with Nvidia) with the ability to pair NVIDIA's GTX 1660 Ti and RTX 2060 GPUs with its Ryzen mobility processors at a reduced cost and an accelerated launch period.
- The expected MSRP that these OEMs will be offering for an AMD Ryzen 3000 Series 12nm mobility CPU and GTX 1660 Ti combo will start from $1099.
- The expected MSRP for an AMD Ryzen 3000 series 12nm mobility CPU and an RTX 2060 will be $1299.
Now it goes without saying that these are probably going to be the barebone specced configurations. Realistically, you will want to add $100-200 in speccing out the build properly but considering how good entry level CPUs usually are, this will be more than adequate if you just want an affordable laptop that can game. The jewel in AMD's lineup is going to be the Radeon 3750H which is going to be the part you will want to get.
Since the processors are based on 12nm, they will be more power efficient than the 14nm variants. The same goes for the Turing GPUs which are based on TSMC's 12nm FFN (FinFET NVIDIA) and will be more power efficient than older 16nm parts. All in all, you are getting a laptop that is cheaper, more powerful in gaming and lasts longer for the same basic MSRP. Once secondary OEMs like TongFang and Lenovo catchup, I have no doubt that you will be able to see the same basic configuration for $999 during promotional events.
An NVIDIA Turing 1660 Ti is nothing to sneeze at in terms of gaming and should be able to play just about everything at 1080p resolution at high settings. Considering the standard resolution for most laptops was 1366x768 in the past, I am even betting that this is going to result in the standard for mainstream panels eventually shifting to 1920x1080. Now the question that remains is how soon can you get your hands on these laptops? Well, sooner than you might think. I have more information in the pipeline, so stay tuned!
