Of course! All the classics! :D

And it better run DOOM or it's going back. :P

Laptop upgrade complete! Congratulations! May all your games run at max settings with buttery smooth frame rates. Enjoy the new Alienware!

Ooooooh, Intel Arc graphics. Intel is finally getting good, almost don't need a dedicated card any more. I heard the next iteration of Arc iGP is supposed to be up to 60% faster than the current one.

Nice system for the price, I hope it gives you many years of enjoyment.

Wait....you didn't build one?

I hate to startle people, but isn't more convenient to buy the pieces and build your own, as well as customize it?
If there's anything to take away, it is that consumers face an uphill battle.

The title says "laptop"...

AMD's integrated graphics has also been quite good, and is what I've been using. It's worked well enough for every game I've actually been interested in playing.

Well, the laptop showed up today and I've already encountered my first hurdle.

Windows 11

Before you can do anything, it wants you to make a Microsoft account and sign in with an internet connection. But I found a neat little trick to get around it in a "How to install Windows 11 Guide" from this link here.

https://www.elevenforum.com/t/clean-install-windows-11.99/#step16

Basically, upon booting up and seeing the Win11 setup screen, press "Shift + F10" on the keyboard to open a CMD prompt.
Then type this command: OOBE\BYPASSNRO
The computer will restart and when it comes back you can make an offline account. Yippee! Now to install some games. :D

Sounds like your older machine would be enough for my requirements. It's true that I let many hardware generations pass me by. You do seem to sport a quick upgrade cycle ;)

Actually I plan on riding my new laptop out for while. Haha

I'm planning on overwriting whatever version of Windows comes with the laptop I end up getting with Linux.

Or, if I decide to go with the Framework, I'm going to get the DIY edition, which doesn't come with Windows installed, and will not even be buying (or otherwise acquiring) Windows for it.

So far the computer has ran every game I've thrown at it on Ultra settings very well. However, the CPU seems to frequently get to 100 degrees Celsius on most games. And when it does, the fans sound like a jet landing on an aircraft carrier. Now I ran all these games with stock settings, drivers, and dell bloatware running (i.e. Alienware Command Center). I'm wondering if a clean install of Windows 11 with only the essential drivers installed may make the CPU from getting so hot because I don't think it should be getting that hot. We'll see.

1. Portable (not mobile), ie. I can easily move my gaming rig even inside my home if I want to move it to e.g. to the living room or bedroom or whatever. If I e.g. decide to bring my laptop to the living room in order to play it on a 65" OLED TV, no problem. Or move it to the bedroom in order to play on a smaller monitor there.

Make no mistake though, most of the time I use my laptops like a desktop, ie. it is on a desk connected to a monitor and external keyboard + mouse.

2. Related to that, I have quite often taken my gaming laptop also to our summer cottage, or abroad if we have spent there a month or so. You know, for rainy days or if I otherwise get bored there.

3. When friends come over, it is easier to hide a laptop than a full desktop.

4. I can easily keep my older laptops even if I buy a new one, for example give my older gaming laptop to one of my sons while I buy a newer one for myself.

We currently have four or even five laptops in the household in pretty active use, they all are capable of playing at least some kinds of games, at least older ones. Only one is fast enough for e.g. Cyberpunk and such.

I used to have two desktop PCs when I decided to keep my older one while buying a new, but that just took far too much space. Having several (older) laptops around is much easier.

I still prefer a laptop(s) even at home, as it is much easier to move them around also in the household. Like if I decide now I want to use it in the living room (even connected to my TV) because my wife is sleeping in the bedroom (she goes to sleep long before me as she needs to wake up at like 4:30AM to get to work in time, while I sleep several hours longer), or in the bedroom as there is too much commotion in the living room at the moment.

My only desktop is some very old 1-core AMD desktop running Windows XP. Its main purpose at the moment is to run Mechwarrior 3 without physics problems and such.
What next? Buying a car in parts and building/painting it yourself is easier than buying a complete car from a car dealer, or ordering it online from Tesla?

Why a laptop? Normally for all the reasons one expects: space and portability. It's also a boon in areas which might have the occasional power outage. Sure, you can buy a bulky backup power unit for your power-hungry PC even if it is just enough to allow you to shut down gracefully, but a laptop? Plenty of juice to do something for many minutes, worry-free.

On the go often? Not in my case. It sits here on my desk unless I absolutely have to move it. Which when I do need to use it elsewhere at a pinch it is 10000% easier to move than porting everything to another desk in the house and running power leads all over the place.

More bang for your buck with a desktop? Absolutely. A PC has a longer usable life span, especially for persistently hard use. They have way better cooling systems due to airflow, and the lack of size restrictions means you're getting the real McCoy chipsets, not the cut down (inferior) mobile versions jammed into the laptop cases.

Not to mention, cleaning the components of a PC is far FAR easier than trying to blast lint and dust out of a damn gaming laptop. Especially the high-end models with more impressive heatsink assemblies.

And sometimes... it's just easier to walk into a store and walk out with your next device which will last the next 5 years if you're lucky. Not everyone has the skill, patience, nor access to knowledgeable friends to build a PC from scratch, and in certain places PC stores doing such builds (or selling branded products) are disappearing. So a laptop is, if you're willing to accept you won't play everything top-notch, a reasonable alternative for the less avid gamer.

What kind of FPS are you getting, or are trying to achieve?

If you have some 540Hz gaming monitor and are also trying to get 540 frames per second from all your games running at Ultra settings, I am not surprised if your GPU runs hot.

That is one of the reasons why I am fine with the idea of playing all my games at max 60 fps (even with vsync on), and also in "mere" 1920x1080 resolution. That is fast and sharp enough for me, and my GPU (nor CPU) doesn't have to run at 130% overdrive all the time.