The best gaming laptops are diverse, with varying components and materials. The right one for you may have different parts and a different price than someone else. They go from high-end components to slim, efficient machines to cheaper laptops made of plastic.
Sure, a high-end PC that costs several thousand dolloars might have the highest-end graphics and a top-notch display, but most of us can’t afford a rig like that. Our picks for the best gaming laptop are often high-end models (we’re an enthusiast site, after all), but most come in various configurations at various price points. For those on a tight gaming budget, we’ve have dedicated pages for the best gaming laptops under $1,500 and the best gaming laptops under $1,000.
Intel recently dropped the 14th Gen “Raptor Lake Refresh” chips for desktops, the rumors have been more quiet for laptops. Intel’s “Meteor Lake” Core Ultra chips are also on the way, plus whatever else AMD may be cooking in both CPUs and GPUs. Apple’s M3 Max has some graphics power, but not enough games yet for us to get its MacBook Pros on the list.
Thankfully, there are more gaming laptop options now than ever, from budget-friendly to desktop replacements. Some come with full-size Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics cards, while others go for the more efficient designs (Nvidia formerly called these “Max-Q”) that enable thinner chassis and (sometimes) quieter fans.
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The quick list
The Best Gaming Laptop
MSI may have skipped the jump to an 18-inch display on its flagship laptop, but we were still impressed. Between the powerful performance of its Intel Core i9-13950HX and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 and its stunning Mini-LED display, this laptop is one of the most powerful and eye-pleasing performers we’ve seen to date.
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Best Thin and Light Gaming Laptop
The Asus ROG Strix G16 is catching up to Razer in powerful, portable gaming laptops well. The Strix G16’s Core i9-13980HX and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 provided great performance in a 0.89-inch thick chassis. Is the design as sleek as Razer’s Blades? No, but at $1,999.99 when we tested it, Asus is also competing on price.
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Best 17-inch Gaming Laptop
This laptop takes advantage of its size by using plenty of ports, including Thunderbolt 4, multiple USB Type-C and Type-A ports, an SD card slot, HDMI 2.1, Ethernet and a 3.5mm audio jack. There’s also a giant touchpad (which is funny since most gamers use mice) below the Raider’s most comfortable keyboard.
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Best Budget Gaming Laptop
The Acer’s Nitro line has often a place on this list, mixing build quality, performance, and low pricing to create a reasonable product. The Nitro 16, replacing the old Nitro 5, delivers the entry-level power of an RTX 4050 and a Ryzen 5 7640HS, but with some niceties, you can get for under $1,000.
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Best Budget Gaming Laptop Alternative
The $999 model features a Core i7-13620H and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 and offers strong 1080p performance. It includes 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, which is nice to see, as those are often some of the first specs to get cut for a budget PC. Its 144 Hz refresh rate will be a boon for esports players. We also appreciate the quality of the speakers for the price.
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Best All-AMD Gaming Laptop
For on-the-go gamers, thin laptops like Asus’ ROG Zephyrus G14 are particularly appealing. The Zephyrus uses an AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS and an AMD Radeon RX 6800S, as well as the company’s proprietary features like SmartShift and SmartAccess Memory, to deliver the best performance possible from AMD’s hardware.
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Best Gaming Laptops 2023
The Best Gaming Laptop
MSI may not have adopted an 18-inch display on its flagship laptop, but in our testing, we were still enamored. A mix of powerful performance from the Intel Core i9-13950HX and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 provided for one of the most powerful gaming laptops we’ve seen to date.
And that 17-inch, 16:9 display is no slouch. MSI has added Mini-LED technology, so the 4K 144 Hz display looks incredible. It’s not OLED, but in our tests, it often looked almost as good, with extremely high scores on both our light meter (511 nits) and our colorimeter (161.6% sRGB, 114.5% DCI-P3).
Add in a Cherry MX mechanical keyboard that’s an absolute pleasure to use (alongside per-key RGB backlighting to keep it looking good), and you get some luxury you don’t see in most gaming laptops (even if MSI doesn’t use the mechanical switches for the number keys or arrow keys).
The battery life, at under 4 hours on our tests, makes the Titan a true desktop replacement. But if you’re willing to bear the expense of these top-end components and don’t plan on unplugging too much, you have one heck of a system in the Titan.
Read: MSI Titan GT77 HX review
Best Thin and Light Gaming Laptop
The Asus ROG Strix G16 is catching up to Razer in powerful, portable gaming laptops well. The Strix G16’s Core i9-13980HX and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 provided great performance in a 0.89-inch thick chassis. Is the design as sleek as Razer’s Blades? No, but at $1,999.99 when we tested it, Asus is also competing on price.
We also appreciated the Strix’s battery life — it lasted for 8 hours and 49 minutes on our battery test, as well as the RGB keys with 2 millimeters of travel.
The laptop’s lid is aluminum, but the rest is plastic. In our time with the laptop, not once did we think the ROG Strix G16 felt cheap.
Perhaps the biggest issue we had is that our unit had a 1920 x 1200 touch screen. The RTX 4070 should power that no problem, but in this price range you often see 1440p (or, in 16:10 screens like this one, 1600p) display panels.
Read: Asus ROG Strix G16 Review
Best 17-inch Gaming Laptop
17-inch laptops may not be the biggest around anymore, but they can still deliver a balance of power and immersion. The MSI GE78 HX Raider is a powerful laptop (we reviewed it with an Intel Core i9-13950HX and RTX 4080) with a 17-inch screen sporting a fashionable 16:10 aspect ratio and 2560 x 1600 resolution and 240 Hz refresh rate.
This laptop takes advantage of its size by using plenty of ports, including Thunderbolt 4, multiple USB Type-C and Type-A ports, an SD card slot, HDMI 2.1, Ethernet and a 3.5mm audio jack. There’s also a giant touchpad (which is funny since most gamers use mice) below the Raider’s most comfortable keyboard.
MSI redesigned the laptop for this year, and it’s less subtle than it previously was. It has a racecar look with blacks and reds. Underneath the wrist rest, there’s an RGB light bar that shows each individual bulb, giving it a bit of a retro aesthetic.
Read: MSI Raider GE78 HX Review
The Best Budget Gaming Laptop
The Acer’s Nitro line has often a place on this list, mixing build quality, performance, and low pricing to create a reasonable product. The Nitro 16, replacing the old Nitro 5, delivers the entry-level power of an RTX 4050 and a Ryzen 5 7640HS, but with some niceties you can get for under $1,000.
Our $999 review unit included a 1920 x 1200, 165 Hz display with G-Sync support, which is great for esports gaming. It’s nice and bright at 371 nits on our light meter, and covered 91% of the DCI-P3 color gamut.
We also appreciated that the laptop offered 8 hours and 24 minutes of battery life on our test, which beat other laptops in i’s class — some by multiple hours.
The webcam isn’t amazing, and Acer has a habit of putting too much bloatware on laptops that you’ll spend some time uninstalling. But getting USB 4 under $1,000, alongside a solid screen and decent performance for the price makes this a great choice for someone whose budget it set at $1,000.
Read: Acer Nitro 16 Review
Best Budget Alternative
The MSI Katana 15 is among our favorite gaming laptops for those with just $1,000 to spend. We tested a $999 model with a Core i7-13620H and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 offering strong 1080p performance, though you may have to turn down some settings in some games.
Even under $1,000, you get 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, which is nice to see, as those are often some of the first specs to get cut for a budget PC. Instead, the chassis is made of cheap plastic, but the internals should get the job done.
The display isn’t the most colorful, but its 144 Hz refresh rate will be a boon for esports players. We also appreciated the quality of the speakers for the price.
Read: MSI Katana 15 Review
Best All-AMD Gaming Laptop
If you’re a PC gamer on the go, a thin PC like the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 may be up your alley. The Zephyrus uses an AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS and an AMD Radeon RX 6800S, as well as the company’s proprietary features like SmartShift (to move power between the CPU and GPU) and SmartAccess Memory.
For the latest update, Asus added a webcam, which was a glaring omission on previous models. The all-AMD model has also moved to a taller, 16:10 aspect ratio.
On our battery test, the Zephyrus ran for over 10 and a half hours, suggesting you could last all day on this notebook when you aren’t gaming.
It is, however, a bit pricey. The Zephyrus starts at $1,599.99, while we reviewed it with the top-tier specs at $2,499.99.
Read: Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 review
Best 18-inch Gaming Laptop
18-inch gaming laptops are in vogue, with tall 16:10 screens mixed with some of the most postful components on the market. The Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 is expensive, but with an Intel Core i9-13980HX and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090, it’s ready for the most intense games with serious graphics.
The 2560 x 1600, 240 Hz display gives you some options, including prioritizing gaming at high resolution, or turning that down and playing esports at high frame rates. Considering how powerful the system is, some games will play at high resolution and high refresh rate.
The Strix looks like a gaming machine, if that’s your aesthetic, with logs of RGB and aggressive logos. While Asus includes a webcam here, it’s only 720p, which is a shame considering how everything else on this system is high-end.
Beyond the performance, we also appreciated this system’s speakers, which are loud and detailed, and the fact that its display was bright at 402 nits on our lightmeter.
Read: Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 review
Best 16-inch Esports Machine
For under $1,500, you can get a 16-inch esports machine with a screen that also allows for high-resolution, intensive titles. The 2560 x 1600 display goes up to 165 Hz, which is fast enough for esports at 1080p, while the high resolution will make action games look great. Sure, some gaming laptops have faster displays, but they’re often more expensive.
The “i” in 5i Pro stands for Intel. We tested with an Intel Core i7-13700HX along with Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4060. Our system also had 16GB of DDR5 RAM and a 512GB SSD.
This model has an improved 1080p webcam over previous generations, which is good for working as well as gaming. We found that its SSD was fast in our testing, and it offered competing gaming performance. That being said, you may want to consider one of the best gaming headsets because there’s plenty of fan noise and the audio quality isn’t the best.
Read: Lenovo Legion Pro 5i (Gen 8) Review
The Best Dual-Screen Gaming Laptop
For when one screen isn’t enough, the Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 offers two, powered by AMD’s top-end Ryzen 9 7945HX and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 40890. The second screen, dubbed ScreenPad Plus, provides a bit of extra real estate for chat apps or guides while gaming, and lifts up in order to increase ventilation.
The main mini LED screen, at an incredible 684 nits of brightness on our light meter, looks excellent with HDR games and shows. It’s matte, while the ScreenPad Plus is glossy, but that’s a minor issue.
With shiny purple and blue lines, Asus eschews the standard RGB on the lid, and it looks refined and unique because of it. Now if only Asus could refine the placement of the keyboard and mouse, which have been awkward for a few generations now. You’ll have to decide if that second screen is worth the effort.
Read: Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 Review
Gaming Laptop Shopping Tips
Finding the Best Gaming Laptop
While many of the best gaming laptops come with a 1080p display and high refresh rates, some include 4K screens, so you can pick between fidelity and resolution. Several gaming laptop go as fast as 360 Hz. There are also an increasing number of 2560 x 1440 display options, giving you an option other than 1080p or 4K. Additionally, some more expensive, premium options include OLED for deeper blacks and more vivid colors.
There is more choice than ever in components, too. While Intel is still a popular option, AMD’s Ryzen processors are becoming more common. On the GPU side, Nvidia’s RTX GPUs are in most laptops, though AMD is slowly starting to pair its own graphics cards with hits CPUs for what it calls an “AMD Advantage.” (We’re not seeing AMD GPUs with Intel CPUs).
The latest technologies in processors include Intel’s 13th Gen “Raptor Lake” processors, which use a hybrid design with Performance and Efficient cores, and AMD’s Ryzen 7000 CPUs. We should see a bunch of laptops with both of these sets of chips as the year progresses. Other trends we expect to see are more laptops with a 16:10 aspect ratio, which also means larger screens in some cases.
Nvidia’s RTX 40-series has started to hit desktops, and were announced for laptops in January. They’ll range from the RTX 4050 all the way up to the RTX 4090 (the first time a xx90 has been on mobile).
To help you find the best gaming laptop, we’ve compiled a list of the best models we’ve tested and reviewed recently. For much more on how to narrow down your list of best gaming laptop considerations, check out our best gaming laptop buyer’s guide. But here are a few quick tips to get you started down the road to the right portable gaming rig for you.
While many gamers may go to desktops to get the most performance for their money, try lugging a tower, monitor and keyboard around in your backpack. When you need a powerful rig you can take with you, there’s no substitute for a gaming laptop.
The picks on this list should be ready to run Windows 11 if it didn’t come preinstalled already.
- Focus on the GPU: Most games are dependent on the GPU, and those aren’t upgradeable. If you splurge on a powerful GPU now, you’ll be gaming comfortably for a few years.
- You can upgrade some parts later: While the best CPUs for gaming and GPUs are almost always soldered down, most gaming laptops let you replace the RAM and storage, so you can buy cheaper now and add more memory and a bigger best hard drive or SSD down the road. Thicker, more powerful laptops are often easier to upgrade than thinner ones, so be sure to do some research before buying. (We include this information in our reviews).
- Battery life will probably be bad: Very few gaming notebooks get 8 hours or more on a charge, and you need the power supply to get the best gaming performance anyway. However, we’ve seen some strong times from AMD’s Ryzen processors, and Nvidia suggests its improved Optimus technology may help turn the tide. For peak gaming performance, however, you’ll want to be sure to be plugged in while playing.
Discounts on the Best Gaming Laptops
Whether you’re shopping for one of the best gaming laptops or another model that didn’t quite make our list, you may find some savings by checking out our lists of Dell coupon codes, HP coupon codes, Lenovo coupon codes, Razer promo codes or Newegg promo codes.
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