OMEN vs. Victus Gaming Laptops: Which is Best for You?
Gaming laptops are the ideal solution for gamers on the move who don't want the fun to stop when they're away from home. With graphics cards, processors, and laptop displays making significant leaps forward, the new generation of gaming laptops can deliver a great experience, even when running the most demanding games.
Games that you could only play on bulky consoles or desktop rigs in the past can now run on small, light, and self-contained gaming laptops. On your next trip, you can continue playing your favorite games uninterrupted.
Beyond portability, gaming laptops are great when space is a premium. If your flat or student halls would struggle to fit a desktop PC setup with a separate keyboard and monitor, you can now use a small form factor machine to keep gaming with your friends. Plus, the latest gaming laptops by HP allow you to run other intensive software, such as video editing or music-making programs.
Gaming laptops have come a long way. You no longer have to worry about GPU performance, framerates, laptop overheating, and hefty price tags for an underperforming device. Instead, the best laptops for gaming now pack real power and can match desktop performance.
HP's Victus and OMEN gaming laptops are packed with technology perfect for gamers on the go, offering a range of unique features.
What you need from a gaming laptop
First, let's start by going through three of the most important factors for laptop gaming.
GPU
Unsurprisingly, the most crucial factor for laptop gaming is the GPU and its ability to render graphics well. While your accompanying hardware will need to be balanced as well, most PC games are GPU-dependent. Make sure you find a gaming laptop with a dependable graphics card that can play your favorite games at your required settings.
Two companies dominate the GPU market: AMD and NVIDIA®. NVIDIA's latest gaming laptop offerings are the GeForce® RTX™ 30-series, and the current AMD Radeon™ GPUs range from the Radeon RX 6300M up to the RX 6850M XT. In addition, AMD plans to release a new range of laptop gaming GPUs in late 2022.
Great GPUs for entry-level gaming devices (compatible with most games on middling settings) include the NVIDIA GTX 3050 or RX 5500M. If you want a step up in GPU power, NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3060 or AMD's RX 6700M are strong options. But if you want top-tier performance with ray tracing and speedy frame rates, the best gaming laptop GPUs are the NVIDIA RTX 3070 and RTX 3080.
Display
Unless you plug in an external monitor, which removes portability and increases the size of your gaming setup, you are locked into your laptop's display. Given that you're going to be staring at it for a long time, you should choose a laptop with a great display that truly immerses you in the gameplay.
Important gaming laptop display features to consider include:
Size: Bigger screens are great, but remember, larger laptops bring additional weight, making the device less portable. While most laptop screens are 15 or 17 inches, we see many more 16-inch options that straddle the line between portability and size. Additionally, there are a smaller number of models on the extreme ends with 14-inch and 18-inch displays.
Resolutions: For a good gaming experience, go for a 1920 x 1080 Full High Definition (FHD) display or higher. 4K displays are great, but you may need to turn down the settings for some games. You'll also need a high-end graphics card to make the most of it.
Refresh rate: Most gaming laptops will have a 60 Hz or higher refresh rate display. This rate is fine for many gamers. However, to remove any motion blur, especially in fast-paced games that require quick movements, you may want to go for 120 Hz or higher. Also, it is harder to refresh quickly on larger displays containing many more pixels. Therefore, some gamers settle for 1080p to prioritize higher refresh rates.
Keyboard
A good keyboard can make all the difference, and every gamer has a different preference. Generally speaking, you should look for models with greater key travel (how far you can push a key down) and resistive actuation (the force required to push a key). Also, consider anti-ghosting or N-key rollover features that ensure all your key presses are accurately registered, even when hitting multiple keys simultaneously.
HP OMEN gaming laptops
HP's premium range of gaming laptops, the OMEN series, combines excellent build quality with powerful hardware. These laptops provide advanced cooling, the best graphics, and high refresh rates. Choosing an OMEN gaming laptop means you'll receive one of the best gaming laptop models available.
OMEN gaming laptops come in 16.1-inch and 17.3-inch, and all models deliver Quad High Definition (QHD), 2560 x 1440 screens that refresh at 165 Hz. OMEN displays allow you to see everything clearly while maintaining high frames per second (FPS) for fast-reaction games like competitive first-person shooters.
Every OMEN model also utilizes PCIe® NVMe™ TLC M.2 SSDs for faster, less energy-consuming storage.
Each screen size comes with multiple GPU, CPU, RAM, and storage options. Models include:
16.1-inch
OMEN Gaming Laptop 16-n0797nr
Graphics: AMD Radeon 680M (integrated graphics), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 (discrete graphics)
Processor: AMD Ryzen™ 7 6800H CPU
Memory: 16GB RAM DDR5-4800 SDRAM (2 x 8GB)
Storage: 1TB SSD storage
OMEN by HP Gaming Laptop 16z-n000
Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 6650M GPU
Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 6800H, expandable to AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX CPU
Memory: 16GB RAM, expandable to 32GB of RAM
Storage: 512GB of SSD storage, expandable to 1TB
OMEN Gaming Laptop 16-k0797nr
Graphics: Intel® Iris® Xe (integrated graphics), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 (discrete graphics)
Processor: Intel Core™ i7-12700H CPU
Memory: 16GB DDR5-4800 MHz RAM (2 x 8GB)
Storage: 1TB SSD storage
OMEN Gaming Laptop 16-n0747nr
Graphics: AMD Radeon 660M (integrated graphics), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 (discrete graphics)
Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 6600H CPU
Memory: 16GB DDR5-4800 MHz RAM (2 x 8GB)
Storage: 512GB PCIe NVMe TLC M.2 SSD storage
OMEN by HP Laptop 16-b1797nr
Graphics: Intel Iris Xe (integrated graphics), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti (discrete graphics)
Processor: Intel Core i7-12700H CPU
Memory: 16GB DDR5-4800 MHz RAM (2 x 8GB)
Storage: 1TB SSD storage
17.3-inch
OMEN by HP Laptop 17-ck1797nr
Graphics: Intel UHD (integrated graphics), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti (discrete graphics)
Processor: Intel Core i7-12800HX CPU
Memory: 16GB DDR5-4800 MHz RAM (2 x 8GB)
Storage: 1TB PCIe NVMe TLC M.2 SSD storage
OMEN by HP Laptop 17t-ck100
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 (6GB), expandable to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti (16GB)
Processor: Intel Core i7-12800HX CPU, expandable to Core i9 12900HX
Memory: 16GB DDR5-4800 of RAM (2 x 8GB), expandable to 32GB (2 x 16GB)
Storage: 512GB PCIe NVMe TLC M.2 SSD (4x4 SSD) storage, expandable to 2TB
HP Victus gaming laptops
The newer HP gaming laptop series, Victus, offers great everyday machines for people looking to get into laptop gaming. Victus provides excellent performance at a fantastic price point. This line is great for people who aren't worried about maximizing performance and want a reliable, user-friendly gaming laptop.
All Victus gaming laptops come with a 16.1-inch 1920 x 1080 FHD screen running at 144 Hz. More than enough pixels and frames for most gamers. NVIDIA GPUs power Victus machines, from the GeForce GTX 1650 up to the RTX 3060.
Models include:
Victus by HP 16-d1747nr
Graphics: Intel Iris Xe (integrated graphics), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 (discrete graphics)
Processor: Intel Core i5-12500H
Memory: 16GB DDR5-4800 MHz RAM (2 x 8GB)
Storage: 512 GB PCIe NVMe TLC M.2 SSD storage
Victus by HP Laptop 16z-e100
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050, expandable to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti
Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 6600H, expandable to AMD Ryzen 7 6800H
Memory: 8GB DDR5-4800 SDRAM (1 x 8GB), expandable to 32GB DDR5-4800 SDRAM (2 x 16GB)
Storage: 256GB PCIe NVMe TLC M.2 SSD (4x4 SSD) storage, expandable to 1TB
Victus by HP Laptop 15z-fb000
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650, expandable to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti
Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 5600H, expandable to AMD Ryzen 7 5800H
Memory: 8GB DDR4-3200 SDRAM (2 x 4GB), expandable to 16GB (2 x 8GB)
Storage: 256GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD storage, expandable to 1TB
OMEN vs Victus
Victus and OMEN gaming laptop series have excellent options depending on your preferences.
Want the best performance possible? Check out the high-end OMEN models powered by NVIDIA RTX 3070 and RTX 3080 GPUs. You'll enjoy graphically demanding games running smoothly at high frame rates.
Looking to upgrade your gaming possibilities and want to try a laptop for the first time? Discover the entry-level Victus models that pack excellent performance into an accessible machine.
Whatever your gaming preferences are, OMEN and Victus gaming laptops have the option to match. Plus, both series come with the OMEN Gaming Hub to easily control and adapt the laptop's functions and improve your gaming experience. For example, visualize critical system vitals such as memory, GPU, and CPU temperature and swap between three optimized PC performance controls: comfort, default, and performance.
Which will you go with?
HP's gaming laptops cover all bases to deliver elevated PC gaming in a small, portable machine. HP is also continually updating its gaming laptop options. Later in 2022, the 16-inch OMEN gaming laptop will get a new cooling system and CPU and GPU options, including the new 12th-generation Intel processors. For the Victus line, customers will see an entirely new, budget-friendly 15-inch model, bringing affordable gaming to an even smaller package.
