Deeper Dive: Our Top Tested Picks
EDITORS’ NOTE
June 26, 2025: With this update, we added the Acer Predator Triton Neo 16 as our new Best Budget Gaming Laptop If You Can Spend a Bit Extra, and removed the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i Gen 9 from that slot due to availability. We also added the Asus TUF Gaming A14 as our new Best Budget Compact (14-Inch) Gaming Laptop. Since our last update, we have reviewed and evaluated eight new laptops for potential inclusion in this and our other laptop buying guides.
- Sub-$1,000 price
- Sufficient for mainstream 1080p gaming
- Long battery life
- Decent array of ports
- Middling processing speeds
- Performance mode gets extraordinarily loud while gaming
- Restrictive 512GB SSD
Our tested review unit of this system, at $949.99, is one of the best values you’ll find while staying under that $1,000 mark. Its Nitro sibling, also featured in this roundup, is an even less expensive choice for the tightest budgets, but this model doubles up on memory. You must always make some concessions in the budget tier—the processor could be faster, and we’d always prefer a larger drive—but this will get you into mainstream gaming with a little more lift.
This Nitro laptop meets the needs of many entry-level shoppers without seriously compromising performance. The system’s 144Hz screen, modern Ryzen 5 HS processor, 16GB of memory, and RTX 4050 GPU check all the boxes for a sub-$1,000 laptop, but enthusiast gamers will probably want to seek a bit more power.
Class
Gaming, Budget
Processor
AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS
RAM (as Tested)
16 GB
Boot Drive Type
Hard Drive
Boot Drive Capacity (as Tested)
512 GB
Screen Size
15.6 inches
Native Display Resolution
1920 by 1080
Panel Technology
IPS
Variable Refresh Support
None
Screen Refresh Rate
144 Hz
Graphics Processor
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU
Graphics Memory
6 GB
Wireless Networking
802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6)
Dimensions (HWD)
1.08 by 14.28 by 9.45 inches
Weight
4.6 lbs
Operating System
Windows 11 Home
Tested Battery Life (Hours:Minutes)
9:48
Learn More
Acer Nitro V 15 (ANV15-41-R2Y3) Review
- Boosted productivity and gaming performance
- High-res IPS screen with 120Hz refresh rate
- Four-zone RGB keyboard with anti-ghosting
- Wi-Fi 6E and Ethernet
- Below-average battery life
- Non-touch display limits Android app use
Gamers on a budget no longer need to deal with entry-level gaming silicon running slighter versions of their favorite PC games. Cloud-streaming gaming Chromebooks, when paired with a cloud gaming service like Nvidia GeForce Now and a fast and steady internet connection, can play some of the latest games at the highest detail settings, as if they were running on a high-end desktop GPU at home. Acer’s Chromebook Plus 516 GE follows up on the success of the first edition and remains the best option for this use case.
With functional connectivity, a fantastic 120Hz display, an RGB keyboard, and superb game streaming performance with an Intel Core i5-120U CPU, the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE is a surprisingly viable alternative to a regular budget gaming laptop. If you’re not willing to pony up for a proper gaming laptop but live in an internet-rich area, definitely consider this gaming Chromebook.
Class
Chromebook, Gaming
Processor
Intel Core i5-120U
RAM (as Tested)
8 GB
Boot Drive Type
SSD
Boot Drive Capacity (as Tested)
256 GB
Screen Size
16 inches
Native Display Resolution
2560 by 1600
Panel Technology
IPS
Variable Refresh Support
Yes
Screen Refresh Rate
120 Hz
Graphics Processor
Intel Graphics
Wireless Networking
Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2
Dimensions (HWD)
0.84 by 14.0 by 9.8 inches
Weight
3.75 lbs
Operating System
Chrome OS
Tested Battery Life (Hours:Minutes)
9:16
Learn More
Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE (2025) Review
- Lightweight, durable chassis
- Bright, vivid display
- Solid performance
- Good battery life
- Comfortable keyboard
- Twin M.2 SSD slots
- Humdrum design
- Weak audio
“Budget” is relative when you are talking about compact gaming laptops (specifically, models with screens smaller than 15.6 inches). The Asus TUF Gaming A14 stands out in that small cadre for its smart blend of price, portability, and performance. At $1,399.99 for its starter model (our test config was a bit higher), this 14-inch system delivers solid frame rates via an AMD Ryzen 7 CPU and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU—plenty of power for mainstream gaming and creative work without premium pricing. Its durable, MIL-STD 810H-rated build and light 3.2-pound frame suit on-the-go play, while the bright 165Hz display, comfy keyboard, and ample ports boost everyday usability. It lacks flashy RGB, but the A14 offers consistent performance in a compact, budget-friendly package.
This TUF is ideal for money-conscious gamers who want strong performance without the bulk or price of a high-end rig. It’s a great fit for students, frequent travelers, or anyone who needs a compact laptop that can handle modern games at respectable frame rates. Creative users and multitaskers will be able to work smart and play hard with its capable CPU, generous RAM, and bright, high-refresh display.
Class
Gaming
Processor
AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS
Processor Speed
3.8 GHz
RAM (as Tested)
16 GB
Boot Drive Type
SSD
Boot Drive Capacity (as Tested)
1 TB
Screen Size
14 inches
Native Display Resolution
2560 by 1600
Panel Technology
WQXGA
Variable Refresh Support
G-Sync
Screen Refresh Rate
165 Hz
Graphics Processor
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU
Graphics Memory
8 GB
Wireless Networking
802.11ax, Bluetooth 5.3
Dimensions (HWD)
12.2 by 8.9 by 0.78 inches
Weight
3.2 lbs
Operating System
Windows 11 Home
Tested Battery Life (Hours:Minutes)
9:28
Learn More
Asus TUF Gaming A14 Review
- Attractive price
- Suffices for 1080p gaming
- Wide selection of ports
- Lengthy battery life
- Lagging processor performance
- Limited 512GB SSD
Simply put, this is the best gaming laptop you can get while spending the least right now. The Nitro V 15 starts at $699.99, and even our superior review configuration only rang in at $849.99. Its Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU and Intel 13th Gen Core i5 processor mean you can enjoy steady 1080p gaming on this machine for comfortably under $1,000, where other budget picks sit. It sweetens the pot with plenty of ports and long battery life, making it the best pick for the tightest budgets.
Our best overall budget gaming pick will get your more power, but sometimes that’s not a saver’s goal. Minimizing compromise is key in cooking up a usable cheap gaming laptop. So while the CPU isn’t the fastest, and 512GB of storage may be a tad restrictive, that doesn’t stop the Nitro from hitting its marks for the price. Popular multiplayer titles are smoothly playable, and the latest AAA titles will run, even if you need to lower some settings. A true budget shopper, or maybe a younger gamer getting a first laptop, should be pleased with the Nitro.
Class
Gaming
Processor
Intel Core i5-13420H
RAM (as Tested)
8 GB
Boot Drive Type
SSD
Boot Drive Capacity (as Tested)
512 GB
Screen Size
15.6 inches
Native Display Resolution
1920 by 1080
Panel Technology
IPS
Variable Refresh Support
None
Screen Refresh Rate
144 Hz
Graphics Processor
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU
Graphics Memory
6 GB
Wireless Networking
802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6), Bluetooth
Dimensions (HWD)
1.06 by 14.3 by 9.4 inches
Weight
4.66 lbs
Operating System
Windows 11
Tested Battery Life (Hours:Minutes)
9:51
Learn More
Acer Nitro V 15 (ANV15-51-59MT) Review
- Excellent keyboard for the money
- RTX 4050 drives reliable 1080p performance
- Well priced
- Basic gaming-laptop display
- All-plastic construction
- Heavy for its size
Lenovo’s LOQ line represents its entry-level gaming offerings. The $949 base model comes with a snappy AMD Ryzen 5 7000-series processor, which is plenty of power on this tight of a budget. Our upgraded review configuration bumps this to a Ryzen 7 chip, but if the base model is the absolute maximum you can spend, it’s a generally effective laptop. The somewhat hefty plastic chassis hardly impresses, but you can’t have it all at this price—and know that the deal gets even better if you can snag a LOQ on sale.
If you’re shopping on a tight budget for yourself or the gamer in your life, this is one of the cheapest options that we still rate well. Yes, $949 isn’t a super-low price—”budget” doesn’t quite mean what it used to, these days—but the baseline is higher for gaming systems. Laptop prices have risen in general, and the Lenovo LOQ 15 has the right balance of pros and cons for students and others on a limited budget.
Class
Gaming
Processor
AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS
Processor Speed
3.8 GHz
RAM (as Tested)
8 GB
Boot Drive Type
SSD
Boot Drive Capacity (as Tested)
512 GB
Screen Size
15.6 inches
Native Display Resolution
1920 by 1080
Panel Technology
IPS
Variable Refresh Support
G-Sync
Screen Refresh Rate
144 Hz
Graphics Processor
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU
Graphics Memory
6 GB
Wireless Networking
802.11ax, Bluetooth
Dimensions (HWD)
1.01 by 14.2 by 10.4 inches
Weight
5.4 lbs
Operating System
Windows 11 Home
Tested Battery Life (Hours:Minutes)
5:17
Learn More
Lenovo LOQ 15 Review
- Elegant design
- Effective CPU and GPU combo
- Bright, vivid display
- Decent battery life
- Loud fans
- Slightly mushy keyboard
- Weak speakers
For those who can push their budget a little further, this laptop has a decent starting price at the top of the budget range. The 16-inch Acer Predator Triton Neo 16 started at $1,449.99 at the time of review, and if you can find one on sale now, you may be in for a deal. Our test model packed an RTX 4060 GPU, covering your mainstream gaming needs, and a 2,560-by-1,600-pixel display. This laptop is expensive for a “budget” system, so it’s not for those with a hard price ceiling, but you’ll find clear performance and feature advantages if you can spend the extra cash. Plus, you can find configurations now for as low as roughly $1,250.
This laptop hits the sweet spot if you’re a gamer shopping in that gray area between an entry-level model and a near-midrange machine. The Triton Neo 16 is not the cheapest option around, but its base model is reasonably priced for such a sharp screen and long battery life. It’s a jack of all trades with snappy parts, so value shoppers looking to borrow some features and performance from a higher price tier will be pleased.
Class
Desktop Replacement
Processor
Intel Core Ultra 9 185H
RAM (as Tested)
32 GB
Boot Drive Type
SSD
Boot Drive Capacity (as Tested)
1 TB
Screen Size
16 inches
Native Display Resolution
2560 by 1600
Panel Technology
IPS
Variable Refresh Support
G-Sync
Screen Refresh Rate
120 Hz
Graphics Processor
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060
Graphics Memory
6 GB
Wireless Networking
802.11ac, Bluetooth 5.3
Dimensions (HWD)
0.82 by 14 by 9.8 inches
Weight
4.5 lbs
Operating System
Windows 11 Home
Tested Battery Life (Hours:Minutes)
10:16
Learn More
Acer Predator Triton Neo 16 Review
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The Best Cheap Gaming Laptops for 2025
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Buying Guide: The Best Cheap Gaming Laptops for 2025
Even on a budget, we assume you want to do more than play games at low settings—you have a Steam account, and you ache to play some of the latest AAA games in all their glory. That’s where a dedicated graphics processor (GPU) comes in. It’s the starting point for getting serious about gaming on a notebook.
If you’re truly serious and insist on playing all your games at very high detail settings and the highest possible screen resolution (for most entry-level laptops, that’s 1,920 by 1,080 pixels, assuming you’re playing on the laptop’s screen and not an external display), you’re just going to have to shell out some bucks, especially if you want that laptop to stay game-viable at those settings for more than a couple of years.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
High-end future-proofing like that demands top-end graphics silicon: Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 40 series has defined most gaming laptops for the last few years, and the RTX 50 series has landed here in 2025. Getting one of the top-end RTX GPUs (like the RTX 4080, 5080, or 5090) still means big spending, though. At current prices, they are well outside the budget range, with most models containing them selling for much closer to $2,000 than $1,000.
Take comfort, though, that times have changed. You don’t necessarily need one of the top-line GPUs for steady gaming performance. With scarce compromise, you can enjoy steady gaming at 1080p in machines a notch or two down from the GeForce RTX elite.
Lower-end RTX 40-series GPUs, notably the GeForce RTX 4050 and 4060, are the most common budget GPUs, and can easily get the job done. You’ll find these GPUs in most budget gaming laptops sold today. Pricing fluctuates, but these machines are available for just under or just above $1,000, depending on the retailer and any sales. The lower-end RTX 50-series GPUs (like the RTX 5070, RTX 5060, and RTX 5050) arrived after their high-end siblings in 2025. Budget-priced gaming laptops are now an established category, not outliers, and have been embraced by the major players. We’ve tested models from Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, MSI, and a few others. And we’re always testing new ones.
Here’s how to make sense of their components—and get the most for your money.
Cheap Gaming Laptops: What to Look For, Component by Component
Our first bit of advice? If gaming’s your primary focus and your budget does dead-stop at $1,000, get the best GPU you can for the money, and let everything else follow from there. That may be at the expense of another spec or two—a little less storage or a Core i5 processor instead of a Core i7.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
Remember, most notebooks aren’t upgradable except for their primary system memory (RAM, not to be confused with graphics memory) and, in some cases, storage. You will be stuck with the screen, the graphics chip, and the processor you buy now, so evaluate these parts wisely. Stretching your budget for the next-tier-higher component can pay dividends in usable laptop lifespan.
Which CPU Should You Get in a Cheap Gaming Laptop?
Some of today’s games, especially in the strategy and simulation categories, tend to hammer the processor. That said, a maxed-out Core i7 or Core i9 CPU is less crucial for gaming than processor-intensive tasks such as video editing and media-file production work. This is because you’ll get plenty of gaming pep even from Core i5 CPUs. Intel’s 13th Gen chips launched in 2023, and as expected, they increased both power and efficiency; 14th Gen followed after, but are largely deployed in more expensive machines, though there are some exceptions.
In any recent generation, a Core i7 is a super-efficient processor that, while helpful and a marked performance difference, may be slight overkill for casual gamers stuck to a tight budget. A modern Core i5 chip will likely serve you just fine in a budget gaming laptop. Today, Intel’s 13th Gen laptop chips are found in most budget systems, with AMD Ryzen processors and 14th Gen Intel CPUs in far fewer.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
Adding to the complexity, Intel’s newest laptop chips, the Core Ultra, are here, with dedicated AI processing core clusters called neural processing units (NPUs). The first two generations of these chips, “Meteor Lake” and “Lunar Lake,” have not been common in budget gaming laptops, though their performance is decent. The same can be said, for the time being, of the 14th Gen “Raptor Lake Refresh” processors, whose “HX” chips are used in pricier high-end machines. Additional Core Ultra chips, dubbed “Arrow Lake,” launched in 2025, but they’re not really a factor in the budget gaming-laptop market yet.
Meanwhile, things are looking up on the AMD side of the fence. Previously, AMD CPUs and GPUs were rarely seen in midrange and high-end laptops, but they were ideal fits for budget laptops (because the components were value plays, to begin with). Even then, there weren’t too many laptops with AMD chips.
Today, you can get “Zen 4” architecture-based Ryzen 7000 and (more recently) Ryzen 8000 models; some have made their way down to the budget tier. AMD also offers its own NPU-bearing Ryzen AI chips (the first series being the Ryzen AI 300), but the adoption story for gaming is the same as with Intel’s Arrow Lake, for now: These are generally found only in more expensive laptops. We now see more laptops with AMD’s Ryzen 5 or 7 mobile CPUs than ever, but Intel is still more common overall. In short, Intel Core i 13th Gen (and occasional 14th Gen) plus a handful of Ryzen 7000 or 8000 chips dominate this tier.
How Much Memory Is Enough for Gaming?
Given an around-$1,000 budget, 8GB is the minimum memory you should settle for. (We haven’t seen less in a machine with dedicated graphics for years.) Some sub-$1,000 machines with dedicated graphics won’t have any more than that, but 8GB will just suffice for most moderate use and mainstream gaming. It used to be that 8GB of RAM was far more common than 16GB, but even in the budget tier these days, you’ll find many of our picks include 16GB. Given the choice, opt for 16GB if the cost difference isn’t much.
Further facets to investigate are whether the laptop’s RAM is user-upgradable later on, and what the memory ceiling is. Regardless, even if you can upgrade the memory, the laptop may have memory modules occupying both slots, which would mean replacing them when upgrading later. It’s best to get what you need up front.
How Much Storage Is Enough in a Cheap Gaming Laptop?
Even in the budget tier, laptops now default to using solid-state drives (SSDs) instead of hard drives (HDDs). We used to see a combination of a smaller SSD (to serve as a boot drive with Windows and essential programs or games) and a larger traditional HDD (to host the bulk of your library), but we stopped seeing traditional hard drives in systems some years ago. Now, any combination of dual drives is almost certainly twin SSDs. Small and midsize laptops will opt for just one SSD, while a few larger systems may run two or more drives, if you can afford it. (Note that most budget gaming laptops under a grand will be 15.6-inchers or 16-inchers.)
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
You’ll need as much storage as you can get, given how large modern game installations have become, ballooning over 100GB at times. Even more modest titles will run somewhere in the 20GB to 30GB range, while the average AAA blockbuster is often 60GB or more. Your small SSD will fill up quickly, so 512GB is the bare minimum you should aim for in a gaming laptop’s boot drive, and 1TB is much better.
The good news about the near-universal switch to SSDs? Your storage subsystem affects game load times and in-game level changes, and SSDs have much faster load times than hard drives. Not all SSDs are created equal (some have much quicker read and write speeds than others), but on average, even budget gaming laptops have much quicker drives than in the past. That can be particularly important in open-world games, where huge environments load in real time, or in multiplayer games where you’re frequently loading into different lobbies. (See our picks for the fastest SSDs.)
Optical drives are extinct on new gaming laptops at any screen size these days. If you have legacy games on disc you just can’t quit, know that you can always use an external USB DVD/CD drive in a pinch, and they cost just $20 or so.
What Kind of Display to Get in a Cheap Gaming Laptop?
Four specs should be considered when examining a gaming laptop’s display panel: the screen size, the native resolution, the refresh rate, and the panel type.
As noted earlier, 15.6 or 16 inches is the general screen size rule for most gaming laptops, costing around $1,000. This size is a good compromise in ways that extend beyond cost. Sometimes, gaming on the biggest laptop screen possible—there is a spread of 16-, 17-, and 18-inch machines these days—is the way to go. Models with this size of screen aren’t as portable, though (many weigh 5 pounds or more), and the lightest ones tend to be far from the cheapest.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
A 15-inch or 16-inch gamer still won’t be ideal for daily travel, but most are a lot more manageable than their even larger kin. Also, today’s standard gaming rigs are better suited for use in true mobile fashion—that is, off an AC power plug—than those of past years. Some hit six or more hours of battery life, albeit in everyday productivity use or playing back video; gaming will trim that number considerably. (See our picks for the laptops with the best battery life.)
As for the screen’s native resolution, 1,920 by 1,080 pixels (commonly called 1080p) is the norm in budget-priced and mainstream gaming machines. The more pixels you need to push, the more graphics power you need, and a savvy maker of gaming laptops won’t outfit a laptop with a screen whose native resolution the GPU can’t do justice. So, the scarcity of higher-than-HD screens in budget gaming machines is no accident. Not only do such screens cost more and sap more battery life, but the graphics chips found in under-$1,000 gaming rigs wouldn’t power gameplay on them very well.
Display Details: Refresh Rate and Panel Type
Like with the native resolution, you should take note of the panel’s refresh rate. If a laptop advertises its refresh rate (measured in hertz, or Hz) as a feature, it’s likely higher than the baseline 60Hz. Most ordinary laptop screens stick to 60Hz, which means they redraw the on-screen image 60 times per second and thus can display up to 60 frames per second (fps) of in-game performance. (In other words, if your graphics chip can produce 90fps in a game, you’ll see only 60 frames.)
Essentially, all new gaming notebook screens these days, though, can display at 120Hz or more. This feature initially arrived only in costly gaming laptops, but now it’s standard fare even in budget models. All our picks offer at least 120Hz, and most go to 144Hz or beyond. These high refresh rates can be beneficial for some extremely fast-paced games, particularly titles played competitively online, including stalwarts such as CS: GO, DOTA 2, and Overwatch, as well as Fortnite, Apex Legends, and Marvel Rivals.
Still, a fast screen isn’t strictly necessary unless you’re attempting to become a professional gamer or get ranked globally in a particular popular title. Plenty of gamers are still “stuck” with 60Hz displays, after all, if they haven’t bought a new PC in the last few years or are playing on a non-gaming laptop. Still, with high-refresh panels now the norm even in budget gaming machines, the lack of one indicates an older model to avoid.
Another spec to watch for is panel type. If possible, you’ll want to go for an in-plane switching (IPS) panel, as they generally offer the best off-center viewing angles and colors. Some gamers are content with cheaper twisted nematic (TN) panels, which make you settle for narrower viewing angles—but then, you’re probably seated directly in front of the screen, so that’s not an issue. TN panels can offer slightly faster response times.
A final note about touch input: Despite the undeniable convenience of touch screens for Windows, they are not the norm on gaming machines, and we don’t know of any GeForce- or Radeon RX-based gaming models in the under-$1,000 class with a touch screen. (See our picks for the best touch-screen laptops.)
What Is the Best GPU to Get in a Cheap Gaming Laptop?
The dedicated graphics chip is the backbone of any gaming computer. Even in budget gaming machines, Nvidia’s GeForce RTX line has supplanted its GTX predecessor; you will find these in most new gaming laptops.
In 2023, the laptop versions of the GeForce RTX 40-series desktop GPUs debuted, first in the expensive part of the market in machines like the beastly MSI Titan GT77. Even now, in 2025, this RTX 40 generation still represents the majority of GPUs you’ll find in new laptops, with some RTX 30-series options occasionally sticking around in the least expensive base models.
That is changing quickly, though. As mentioned, the RTX 50-series mobile GPUs are available, but Nvidia launched its top-of-the-line chips first; the lower-end RTX 50-series GPUs followed later. As a result, while lower-end options like the RTX 5060 and RTX 5050 are here, we haven’t yet tested many of these systems. As the year unfolds, we’ll see where exactly laptops with the lower-tier RTX 50 series GPUs land in terms of price and performance.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
For now, you should expect mostly the RTX 4050 GPU in this price range, plus a few RTX 4060 models, and the RTX 5050 and RTX 5060 laptops as summer 2025 advances. Despite initial guidance that some RTX 4060 models would be available for less than $1,000, current prices see most of them above that mark; the RTX 4050 is the most popular GPU in the around-$1,000 tier right now. That said, there are exceptions, and the least-expensive current options sit under $1,000. If you’ve seen an RTX 4060 laptop for under $1,000, it’s probably a good deal or a big sale worth considering. Nvidia lists laptops with the RTX 5060 starting as low as $1,099, and RTX 5050s at $999, but we’ll see where exactly our test models with these GPUs land.
So, what can you expect from these GPUs? The RTX 4050 laptops vary from one to the next, but we’ve generally found them to be capable 60fps-plus performers in mainstream and more demanding games, so long as you stay at 1080p (which is what most budget gaming laptops are limited to, anyway, if you rely on their built-in screens). That’s what has made them such a fitting pick for this category. You will likely have to turn a few visual details off (or lower the presets from maximum to high or medium, depending on the game), but that’s the compromise for the low pricing.
If you can snag an RTX 4060-based budget laptop in this range, know it’s a marked step up from the xx50 tier. This GPU class cruises over 60fps in most games and can meet that mark even in demanding AAA games. Most of the time, it won’t even require you to lower settings, though the most straining titles may need some compromise. If you can find a laptop at the “60” level for a similar price to others, it’s worth making it the priority in your decision. We’ll have a more concrete stance on the RTX 5060 and RTX 5050 soon, once testing is underway, but both should be steady 1080p gamers that are at least incrementally better than their 40-series equivalents.
With the new generations of GPUs, we have two more crucial topics to discuss: ray tracing and DLSS. The “R” in “RTX” stands for ray tracing, an advanced lighting technique that only Nvidia GPUs with the RTX moniker (and the very latest AMD Radeon RX mobile GPUs) have the hardware to perform. The GPUs at the top of the hierarchy (the RTX 4080 and RTX 5090, for example) are superior at handling this demanding work, but any RTX machine is technically capable.
The same goes for DLSS, an Nvidia visual feature that helps relieve the graphics burden at higher resolutions. Having support for it on budget laptops at all is an impressive feat and shows how this category is healthier than ever in terms of performance. With the RTX 50 series GPUs, Nvidia’s main focus was doubling down on DLSS effectiveness and AI efficiencies rather than raw power improvements, launching DLSS 4 alongside the new GPUs. This new DLSS technology is much more capable of boosting frame rates, particularly with its Multi-Frame Generation feature, which can insert more artificially produced frames alongside rendered frames than ever, greatly boosting frame rates. While you may notice some visual downsides, and enthusiasts may look down their nose at “artificial” frames, it’s a boon for budget gamers, who can turn on fancy settings or run games at high frame rates with less powerful hardware.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
Naturally, Nvidia’s full-size RTX desktop graphics cards have such a high performance potential that the mobile versions of the same name can’t hope to keep up, given the space and thermal discrepancies. (See our examination Laptop vs. Desktop GeForce RTX 4090: How Much Do Nvidia’s Top GPUs Differ in Performance?) Additionally, manufacturers can implement a given laptop GPU at a variety of peak wattages to fit a specific laptop’s design and thermal needs, often resulting in differing real-world performance, model to model, from that GPU.
This can even apply to the same GPU in two different laptops; one may push the power ceiling because the laptop is larger, while another may limit its performance to fit in a smaller chassis. We’ve found the listed TGP makes a big difference in end performance. If you want to learn more, you can read about these complicated performance nuances. However, reading independent reviews with individual performance testing for laptops is more critical than ever.
As for Nvidia’s competitor, AMD, its dedicated graphics chips are less common in budget gaming laptops (or higher-cost ones, for that matter), even as its Ryzen processor success rises against Intel. Some laptops offer AMD CPUs paired with Nvidia GPUs, and you’ll occasionally find a few among our picks. AMD announced its Radeon RX 7000 series in early 2023, but we don’t see nearly as many Radeon RX GPUs as we do GeForce RTX ones, and rarely in cheap laptops. Intel has made some small strides with its discrete Arc GPUs on desktops, but they aren’t much of a factor in the gaming laptop market. It’s mostly Nvidia’s game there.
Don’t Forget the Keyboard: Lighting and Layouts
One of the typical features that sets a gaming laptop apart is a colorful, backlit keyboard. These vary quite a bit from model to model, with more elaborate backlighting going hand-in-hand with higher prices and a higher general level of other components.
Most budget gaming laptops use single-color backlighting (often red or white) to decrease costs. The next step up is lighting programmable by zone, with three or four blocks of the keyboard independently customizable in different colors, but this is not common in budget machines. Keyboards with per-key, individually programmable lighting are the province of high-end machines only.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
Also, look at the key layout. Models with an isolated cluster of arrow keys or well-defined WASD keys get bonus points in our book. Also, because most budget gaming laptops are 15.6-inch or 16-inch models, check for a dedicated number pad to the right of the main key area if you prefer to have one, or not, for that matter. Some machines of this screen size will have one, and some won’t. (A 17-inch laptop almost invariably will, however.)
Ready to Buy the Right Cheap Gaming Laptop for You?
Throughout this article, we’ve mapped out our top-rated models to investigate. As mentioned, some configurations sent to us for testing were above $1,000; this is virtually unavoidable given today’s market. Some remain under that mark, while others rise and fall below that line depending on availability, deals, and generally fluctuating costs.
Also, note that most of these models are a single version of a machine in a varied line. So, use the linked reviews as guidelines, not absolutes, when assessing each laptop family. You may not get quite the level of performance we did if key components were downgraded to get the price below $1,000. But you should get a solid idea of the various laptops’ screens, build, and input quality from our reviews.
In addition to poring over our reviews and checking out the vendors’ sites, using the price filters at a reseller like Newegg.com can help you see different configurations at different price points. Some manufacturers offer many differently weighted versions of the same laptop (say, more storage in one config, a better GPU in another). Playing with the filters on these sites can be an illuminating exercise in give-and-take.
Want to round out your PC gaming experience? Check out our picks for the best gaming mice and headsets, as well as our picks for the best gaming laptops overall, price aside.
