A gaming Chromebook with an Nvidia RTX graphics card? Sign me up
Game on Chrome
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‘Chromebooks aren’t for gaming!’ So goes the eternal refrain of tech journalists like myself when asked (for the millionth time) what laptop a family member should buy for their games-obsessed kid.
But that could finally be about to change!Googlehas been pushing the notion of ‘gaming Chromebooks’ for a while now, and I’ve beenthoroughly unconvinced.These Chrome-powered laptops, like the otherwise pretty solidAcer Chromebook 516 GE, don’t actually run games locally, instead relying on cloud-based game-streaming platforms such asGeForce NowandXbox Game Pass.
Don’t get me wrong, I like Google’s affordable laptop brand - I’m writing this very article on one of thebest Chromebooks- but cloud gaming is still in its infancy, inaccessible for many due to subscription fees and high internet speed requirements. That’s why Google’s latest scheme intrigues me: a plan to bringNvidia’s power RTX graphics cards to a pair of new Chromebooks.
RTX on
Let’s not get carried away - we’re not going to be seeing a Chromebook packing the mighty flagshipRTX 4090anytime soon (probably never, in fact).
Instead, as reported by9to5Google, it looks like Google has an internal prototype codenamed ‘Hades’, that will come with the more affordable (and technically as-of-yet-unannounced) RTX 4050 and a 13th-generationIntelCPU with DDR5 memory. More specifically, the Chromium Gerrit code repository details two different Chromebooks codenamed ‘Cora’ and ‘Zeus’ – though which laptop manufacturer is actually making these is anyone’s guess.
Gaming on Chromebooks has been a long-term goal for Google, with the search engine giant implementingPlay Storesupport and working with Valve to get the popular PC gaming platformSteamup and running on Chrome OS.
Without a dedicated GPU, though, gaming performance has been limited at best. Although I’ve championed the potential ofgaming on integrated graphicsin the past, and there’s no denying the impressive power ofAMD’s newZ1 APU(as seen recently in theAsus ROG Allygaming handheld), the fact is that integrated GPUs just aren’t up to scratch compared to the discrete graphics cards found in thebest gaming laptops.
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The RTX 4050 likely won’t be one of thebest graphics cardsaround, but it should be perfectly capable of running all thebest PC gamesnatively – at 1080p at least, which is fine since most Chromebooks don’t have high-resolution displays. Even for more premium Chromebooks, Nvidia’s latest generation of GPUs can make use of the niftyDLSS 3 upscaling techfor better performance at QHD and above.
All Chromed up
It’s beena bit of a tough year for Nvidiaso far, and criticism has been rampant about the high price of Team Green’s more powerful cards. With Intel’s Arc GPUs rapidly improving and AMD stepping into the handheld gaming space, it’s good to see Nvidia taking steps to make gaming more accessible via its own GPUs.
Putting RTX cards in Chromebooks is a big step forward for Nvidia, and it looks like Google is taking the partnership very seriously too. Several new features have been spotted via the Chromium database, all of which should help turn ‘Cora’ and ‘Zeus’ into more competent gaming machines.
They’ll be equipped withnewer, faster DDR5 RAM– which, notably, appears to be unsoldered, a rarity among Chromebooks. This means you’ll be able to upgrade your RAM simply by opening up the chassis – a useful feature for a gaming laptop asRAM requirements for games keep climbing.
On top of this, there are two new power-related features designed with gaming in mind. The first is upgraded power range support (up to 240W) on at least one USB-C port, and the second is a clever way for the Chromebook to run directly off mains power when plugged in, ‘bypassing’ the battery entirely to improve thermal performance and preserve your battery’s health.
It all sounds very promising, although I have to question exactly who these are aimed at, just as I did back when the original‘gaming Chromebooks’arrived. Historically, Chromebooks have been lightweight, affordable laptops targeting younger (or simply less tech-savvy) users. While kids might love to game, the stats show that they favor phones and consoles over PCs – and they’re typically not the ones making the buying decisions when it comes to laptops, either.
At the end of the day, as much as I like the idea of my favorite Chromebook (the awesomely modularFramework Laptop Chromebook Edition) getting boosted with better gaming capabilities, I’m not entirely sure who – other than me, of course – would buy it.
Christian is TechRadar’s UK-based Computing Editor. He came to us from Maximum PC magazine, where he fell in love with computer hardware and building PCs. He was a regular fixture amongst our freelance review team before making the jump to TechRadar, and can usually be found drooling over the latest high-end graphics card or gaming laptop before looking at his bank account balance and crying.
Christian is a keen campaigner for LGBTQ+ rights and the owner of a charming rescue dog named Lucy, having adopted her after he beat cancer in 2021. She keeps him fit and healthy through a combination of face-licking and long walks, and only occasionally barks at him to demand treats when he’s trying to work from home.
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