Best gaming laptops 2024:- How much should you spend on a gaming laptop?
Gaming systems have higher components than regular consumer laptops, so their prices will be higher, but the range across the category is huge: from under $4,000 to $4,000 and up. Gaming laptops start at $750 and can go up to around $1250. So, you get a system that can run games in Full HD (1080p) with the settings turned off in most titles, or at maximum quality settings in simple games. The storage might be a hard drive, or more likely a modest-capacity solid state drive (SSD). An SSD drive has always been preferred as the boot drive, and nowadays, hard drives have mostly been converted to secondary drives in larger laptops.
Do you want something better? Midrange systems give you smoother gameplay at high or maximum settings on a better quality 1080p screen (which will support higher refresh rates; more on that in a moment), and should add support for VR headsets. These models will range in price from about $1,250 to $2,000.
Best gaming laptops 2024 Deals
- Dell G15 Ryzen 5 RTX 3050 256GB SSD 15.6″ 120Hz Laptop — $779.99 (List Price $984.98)
- Alienware m15 R4 Intel i7 RTX 3070 512GB SSD Laptop — $1,349.99 with code 50OFF699
- MSI Sword Intel i7 RTX 3050 Ti 512GB SSD 15.6″ Laptop — $995.00 (List Price $1,299)
- Asus TUF Gaming Intel i5 RTX 3050 Ti 512GB 17.3″ Laptop — $899.00 (List Price $1,099)
- Alienware m15 R6 Intel i7 RTX 3070 1TB SSD 15.6″ Laptop — $2,099.99 (List Price $2,499.99)
Meanwhile, high-end systems should ensure smooth gameplay in 1080p with graphics details maxed out, always on a high refresh screen. It may even allow you to play in 4K resolution, if your monitor supports it. The high-end model should also be able to run a VR headset and support additional external monitors. These devices tend to come with fast storage components like PCI Express solid-state drives, and are priced more than $2,000, often closer to $3,000.
Some laptops in this class support QHD (2560 x 1440 pixels) or 4K displays, a hard drive to supplement the SSD, and ultra-efficient cooling fans as optional extras. Thanks to recent developments, an increasing number of them are becoming rather thin and portable. With laptops at this level, you’ll either pay a premium for high-end performance in a thinner chassis, or you’ll pay for as much power as possible in a denser chassis.
Put the GPU first: graphics are key
The main feature that makes or breaks a gaming laptop is the graphics processing unit (GPU). We don’t consider a laptop a gaming laptop unless it has a discrete graphics chip from Nvidia or (less commonly) AMD.
Quick Course for Beginners: In general, the higher the number in a GPU’s thread, the more powerful it is. For example, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 will generally produce higher frame rates and graphics quality than the RTX 3070, and so forth, while the number “30” indicates the generation. Nvidia is currently the dominant player in this field, currently producing discrete mobile GPUs based on the “Ampere” microarchitecture. Ampere GPUs are sold under the GeForce RTX 30-Series name (i.e. RTX 3070 or RTX 3080) and were originally launched on laptops in early 2024.
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