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日本[2019] LaptopMedia’s Golden Laptop Award – Best GeForce GTX 1660 Ti notebooks
There is no doubt that the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is the fastest mid-range GPU at the end of 2019. The performance is always there, no matter the load, but the end-prices of the laptops equipped with this GPU are much more pleasant than the RTX ones. This year we tested some very good machines configured with the GTX 1660 Ti. Let’s make a quick specs overview of the GPU first.
The GTX 1660 Ti is the most powerful non-RTX Turing GPU. The “TU116” GPU has 1536 shaders, 48 ROPs, 6GB of video memory (GDDR6), a 192-bit memory bus, and 80W TGP. The base clock is 1455 Mhz and 1590 MHz for the boost. The memory clock is 12000 MHz. That’s enough for a solid mid-range performance.
As we already said, we tested a bunch of GTX 1660 Ti-based laptops. We decided to pick the Top 3 of them – the best TU116 laptops by our opinion and tests. Let’s move forward to view our finalists.
#3 Our bronze medalist – Lenovo Legion Y540
Our bronze medal is for the Lenovo Legion Y540 – it was always a good deal during all the time this year. First, let’s start with the cooling solution of this laptop. We have three big heat pipes – one is for the CPU and the GPU, and there are two separated U-shaped ones that cool individually the processor and the graphics card. Below the pipes, there are two additional cooling plates.
The GTX 1660 Ti performs well with this Lenovo notebook – in Far Cry 5, it scores 84 FPS on Ultra details and 47 FPS in Shadow Of The Tomb Raider. Pretty good results, the max settings aren’t a problem for the TU116 and Lenovo Legion Y540.
Aside from the GPU performance, this laptop can offer more. The backlit keyboard is superb with full-sized arrow keys (good for racing games), decent key travel with nice clicky feedback. The keys of this Lenovo machine are one of the largest that we have ever seen – good.
The other key selling point is the screen (BOE NV156FHM-N4G) – it has wide color coverage, it is absolutely PWM-free, and it’s a 144Hz one – a very fast panel suitable for fast competitive games (or any game on the market).
You can check our in-depth review regarding the Lenovo Legion Y540 here.
#2 Our silver medalist – Acer Predator Helios 300 15 2019
Our silver medalist, the Acer Predator Helios 300 15 2019 is a bang for the buck for its price tag. It’s a well-build and sturdy machine with aluminum utilized on the lid and the base of the laptop. The cooling solution of this machine is decent and its design is somehow similar to the one in the Y540 – three heat pipes in total, one common for the CPU and GPU, two separated ones, and two big cooling plates below the heat pipes. If you need more cooling (maybe during hot summer) you can use the Turbo button that will cool the internal even more thanks to the higher rotating speed of the cooling fans.
As for the FPS results from our benchmarks – 83 FPS in Far Cry 5 on Ultra preset and 49 FPS in Shadow Of The Tomb Raider maxed-out.
The keyboard is superb. It has an optional RGB backlight, the keys have a long travel and decent semi-clicky feedback. We were pleased by the full-sized arrow keys – most of the gaming laptops have some really tiny ones. The panel (BOE NV156FHM-N4K) of this machine is a really good one – fast, 144Hz IPS display with accurate colors (especially with our Gaming and Web design profile). The screen is PWM-free so you can play safely for long hours without eye strain.
For a powerful gaming laptop, battery life is decent – 7 hours of Web browsing and close to 6 hours of video playback. For upgradability, we have two M.2 NVMe slots with RAID 0 support and the RAM can be upgraded up to 32 GB.
You can check our in-depth review regarding the Acer Predator Helios 300 15 2019 here.
#1 LaptopMedia’s Golden Laptop goes to the Acer Nitro 5 (AN515-54)
The gold medal goes to Acer Nitro 5 (AN515-54). Well deserved. Now, we will explain why this machine is so awesome.
This one has an aggressive look (but not too much), if you look at it from the backside while it’s opened the shape reminds us of Lamborghini cars. The lid is stable and solid and can be opened with one hand. The keyboard is another good thing in our “checklist” – the keys are generously sized, the travel and the feedback are good. It is a backlit one with highlighted WASD, arrow keys, and NitroSense button.
The cooling solution is a capable one – three heat pipes – two shared between the chips and the third one is for the GPU only. The plate above the graphics card cools the memory modules and the voltage regulators – this plate is a bulky one and has segregations.
The machine performs quite good – 88 FPS result in Far Cry 5 on Max settings and 50 FPS in Shadow Of The Tomb Raider (again, maxed-out) – much better results than the other two contenders.
For a gaming machine, the battery life is impressive – over 8 hours for both Web browsing and video playback!
The screen (BOE NV156FHM-N4K) is great – it has wide and accurate color coverage, it’s PWM-free, and you can enjoy fast reaction times with its 144Hz. Last but not least – upgradability. This Nitro 5 laptop has two M.2 SSD slots with RAID 0 support. The max RAM size is 32GB.
Good job, Acer, you’ve built a nice gaming device and the gold medal is well deserved!
You can check our in-depth review regarding the Acer Nitro 5 (AN515-54) here.
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(Acer Nitro 5) You contradict yourself: here: “The cooling solution is a capable one”, and in the in-depth review: “the graphics chip runs very hotly, while on the outside, the Nitro 5 (AN515-54) is one of the hottest devices on the market”. So, what is it?