How much faster is desktop vs laptop gaming machine

From a technical standpoint, I'd say the gap is increasing between laptops and desktops. I think that desktop graphics cards are getting to the point where they are so powerful it is increasingly harder to reproduce that performance for notebooks. The gap will probably only grow. However, like anothergeek mentioned, new games don't demand cutting edge specs like they used to. Even the most demanding games have fallen within the boundaries of notebooks. A desktop will always be able to play games better, but the advantage of having all that extra power, in my opinion, is diminishing.

 

In a way I think you're right. Plus I think people are over the fantasy that 100fps is required to game. For the most part, 30-40fps are more than adequate.

Now all we need to do is get people over the notion that native resolution is required. Try playing a game at 1280x800 on your 1920x1200 screen. It's ok, it looks nice. Crank up the AA to 4x and you will be hard pressed to see the difference. If you do then you're only looking at the graphics and not the game. This can garner a good 15-20% fps improvement if you really need it!