GoKawiilBest Budget Gaming Laptop (Image credit: Tom's Hardware)
Gaming laptops can be pricey, and in the past few years, they have only gotten more expensive. The components inside laptops have gotten more expensive, the market below $1,000 has effectively been decimated, and finding a good deal is harder than ever. But we're still testing, and while the goal posts of what defines a budget gaming laptop may be a bit more expensive than they used to be, there are still ways to save.
At Tom's Hardware, we test many gaming laptops every year at a range of prices with different features and parts, so we know what to expect at every price point, no matter what your budget. While even the budget gaming laptops may not be cheap, we can still point out where you get the most for your money. We thoroughly benchmark all of the best budget gaming laptops in numerous games, extensively measuring gaming performance under a wide range of graphical conditions to suss out the best cheap laptops on the market.
Most gaming laptops under $1,500 will use Nvidia's GeForce RTX 5050 and RTX 5060 graphics cards. Many of them will use the latest Intel Core Ultra or AMD Ryzen mobile processors, though sometimes you'll still find last-gen options. Above $1,500 (which, unfortunately, is still on the low end with all-new components these days), you should have the latest. That being said, don't cut corners so far that you settle for 8GB of RAM or just 256GB of storage. Those are outdated specs for gaming laptops.
With a budget gaming laptop, you'll be able to play most games — even graphically intensive ones — on medium or high settings, if not better. If you're playing lighter games, like esports, you should still be able to achieve high frame rates.
Best Budget Gaming Laptops You Can Buy
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Best budget gaming laptop overall
1. Acer Nitro V 16S AI Best budget gaming laptop overall Our expert review: Specifications CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 260 GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Laptop GPU Display: 16-inch, 1920 x 1200, IPS, 16:10, 180 Hz Weight: 4.55 pounds Today's Best Deals View at Amazon View at Newegg Reasons to buy + Variety of ports, including microSD + Large, bright, and colorful display + Fast storage performance Reasons to avoid - Gaming performance at 1080p could be better - 720p webcam - Loads of bloatware
The Acer Nitro V 16S AI is, as of this writing, typically selling around $1,500. This laptop is great for those who are willing to trade off some gaming performance for a bright and colorful screen and a ton of ports, including a microSD card slot.
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