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Behind us are the days when gamers thumbed their noses at laptops, which couldn’t hold a candle to desktop PCs at the time. A lot has changed over the last decade, though, and today’s mobile GPUs can easily tackle the latest games. There are even plenty of great laptops for casual players and those on a budget. Whether you enjoy games like Fortnite or Minecraft or you’re after a beefy battle station for enjoying new AAA releases like Elden Ring and Halo Infinite, this list of the week’s best gaming laptop deals can scratch that itch and save you some money.
Today’s best gaming laptop deals
Equipped with fantastic hardware, this beefy ROG Zephyrus 14 gaming laptop will handle all your gaming needs with ease.
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The MSI GF63 is the perfect entry-level laptop for gamers on a budget. It boasts superior graphics, fast performance, and hi-res audio in a thin and light package.
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With this gaming laptop, you’ll have all the space you need for your library and more than enough power to run AAA titles for years to come.
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It’s not as gaming-focused as its larger siblings, but if you want a sleek and powerful duty-grade laptop that can still game, the 13-inch Razer Blade Stealth gives the MacBook a run for its money.
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It’s well-known that MSI makes gaming laptops that punch well above their weight, and the excellent MSI Sword is one of the best ways to try one of the new RTX 30-series GPUs.
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The Asus TUF is one of the best budget gaming laptops thanks to its great hardware, solid build quality, and smooth 17-inch 1080p display that’s a great size for gaming at home or on the go.
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The HP Pavilion is a great mid-level gaming laptop. With this CPU and GPU combo, you’ll be able to play today’s games while also easily tackling projects for school or work.
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With what might be the best new higher-range GPU for the money, this gorgeous Acer Nitro 5 gaming laptop will handle the latest games for years to come.
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If you’re looking for a bigger gaming laptop that’s beefy enough for modern gaming but isn’t overkill for your needs and budget, it doesn’t get much better at this price than the MSI Katana GF76.
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Sporting one of Nvidia’s new 30-series GPUs, this MSI gaming laptop is one of the most capable machines you’re going to find for this price.
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This gaming laptop blends power with a gorgeous display. You can’t go wrong with its beefy GPU and boosted RAM. The 4K screen is just icing on the cake.
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Whether it’s editing videos or playing high-end games like Red Dead Redemption 2, the 16-inch 1440p Asus ROG Strix gaming laptop has you covered.
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Score a very worthy discount on the high-end Gigabyte G5 15-inch gaming laptop. With hardware like this and a 144Hz display, this thing could be the last PC you’ll need for years to come.
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This new HP Victus 16-inch gaming laptop is a fantastic mid-level option for the price, offering all the performance you need with a RTX 3000-series GPU and a 144Hz display at an affordable price.
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This laptop is a great option for a gaming upgrade. With its spacious 16-inch display, GTX graphics, and Ryzen processor, it will be able to handle all but the most demanding of titles.
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At this price, the Acer Nitro 5 laptop is perfect for gamers who aren’t ready to jump on the RTX bandwagon yet.
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Want a gaming laptop that won’t hold you back? The Razer Blade 15 is a great choice. With its great specs and premium build quality, it’ll give you the edge and last for years.
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This 15-inch MSI gaming laptop comes with a powerful RTX 30-series graphics card and a 144Hz refresh rate display. That’s a winning combination for gaming laptops, all for a solid price.
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Effortlessly play the latest games on the highest settings with this gaming laptop, which packs cutting-edge hardware and a smooth 165Hz display to match.
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How to choose a gaming laptop
The two main considerations when choosing a good gaming laptop are naturally going to be what you’re willing to spend and which graphics card you want (considering the GPU is what actually makes a laptop a “gaming laptop”), and these two are closely linked as your budget is going to determine what graphical performance tier you can afford. However, don’t overlook some of the smaller things that you might personally want in a gaming laptop – convenience features such as programmable button macros, customizable RGB keyboard backlighting, and so on – so that you don’t jump on that great deal only to end up with something that doesn’t actually meet your needs. For more detailed hardware analysis, read on.
What makes a good gaming laptop?
A good gaming laptop should first and foremost be affordable, but you don’t want to go for the first deal you find that simply happens to meet your budget. You can expect to pay at least $600 (usually closer to $700) for a gaming laptop with a dedicated graphics card, although you can find a few that have AMD APUs with built-in Vega graphics for less than that. Also bear in mind that Nvidia recently released its new line of 16-series GPUs which have completely replaced the older 10-series graphics cards as the entry-level and midrange GeForce GPUs. In 2020, you’re better off avoiding older laptop models with these 10-series cards and sticking with the best modern GPUs ones, as the price is about the same and they will generally come with more up-to-date CPUs as well.
In the budget-friendly price brackets, the most powerful graphics card you’re likely to find in a gaming laptop right now is arguably the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 or AMD Radeon RX 5600M, although you can expect to spend nearly your full budget for a laptop with this kind of graphical horsepower. If you’re going cheaper, though, then you’ll see cards in the GTX 16-series and RX 5000-series, pretty much all of which are still very capable of running modern titles at 1080p/60fps at good to high in-game settings.
For memory, 8GB of RAM should be the bare minimum (unless you’re going really cheap), and 16GB is a better mark to aim for in a modern gaming system. A higher refresh rate of 144Hz on the laptop display will also ensure a smoother experience when playing at higher framerates, but that’s something that you’ll typically find on gaming laptops sporting nicer GPUs like the GTX 1660 Ti or RTX 2060. That’s one of the sacrifices you’ll make with a gaming laptop, but if you know what to expect, you shouldn’t end up disappointed.
Should I get a gaming laptop or a gaming PC?
The primary difference between a gaming laptop and a gaming PC is portability. If you want a gaming computer to set up at a battle station, never to be moved again, then you should probably spring for a gaming PC deal instead. Since gaming PCs are bigger, they can hold more hardware, use bigger fans, and be easily customized. Laptops have the advantage of moving with you. To that end, a gaming laptop can be more than just a gaming laptop. You can take it to lecture classes for notes or use it as a work computer.
Are gaming laptops good for work?
A gaming laptop is still a laptop and can do everything that a laptop computer can do — that includes work. In fact, even a gaming laptop can offer some advantages: Faster processors and increased RAM will make all of your non-gaming software run noticeably faster, and graphical work such as video editing and rendering will go much more quickly with a dedicated graphics card. Even if you mostly use your PC for work first and only light gaming, it might be worth it to shell out a little more cash for a gaming laptop for the better hardware you’ll be getting.
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