[Pc Games] Best graphics card for laptops in 2025: the mobile GPUs I'd want in my next gaming laptop

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For us PC gamers, the most important part of a gaming notebook is its GPU. Knowing what the best graphics card for laptops is could be the key that stops you from either spending too much on a machine that fails to perform or buying a gaming laptop without the necessary grunt to deliver the frame rates you crave.

 

But just being confident about the specific graphics chip inside is sadly no longer enough—you now need to know how much power the manufacturers are letting that GPU chow down on, commonly referred to as the TGP. And it's not always easy to tell, as each individual GPU has a range of potential power configurations and laptop manufacturers often have a habit of hiding the power spec.

 

Just know that even if your thin little gaming laptop is rocking an RTX 4090 it might still get outperformed by a significantly cheaper RTX 4080 if the TGP is right. And it's for that reason, for us, the best graphics card for laptops is Nvidia's RTX 4080. It can outperform an RTX 4090 at times, and won't necessarily break your bank account wide open to do it.

And, as prices have dropped, the RTX 4060 has become our pick as the best budget GPU for gaming laptops, because it can make sub-$1,000 notebooks shine at 1080p. Just be careful about what wattage version is in whatever laptop you end up choosing.

 

It is worth noting, however, that the RTX 50 series laptop GPUs are on their way. Our list could change somewhat if the mobile GPUs live up to their full-sized counterparts. For now, these are the best mobile graphics cards.