Best gaming laptop: Quick Menu
The best gaming laptop comes in all flavors, offering excellent performance coupled with a great price point. And thanks to all the Christmas sales going on right now, you can get your hands on a wide variety of gaming laptops at much better pricing.
PC gaming is graphically demanding, especially if you want to play the best PC games, and you need a discrete GPU and enough RAM to deliver an immersive experience. However, if you’re on a tighter budget, know that there are affordable options out there that won’t drain your bank account.
That’s because gaming laptops come in all sizes, specs, and designs. This means that the best laptop you’re using to play PC games can cover the gambit between more expensive options with better specs or something more budget-minded with lower-end specs. Even the best cheap gaming laptops can handle the top AAA titles, so long as you’re fine with playing them at lower settings.
If there’s a bit more flexibility in your budget, you should also consider one of the best thin and light gaming laptops if you value portability or a desktop replacement laptop if pure power is more your speed. You can also purchase laptops based on the manufacturer like the best Asus gaming laptops and the best MSI gaming laptops, if you’re particular about the brand.
We’ve been testing and reviewing gaming laptops for years now, and we can best tell you which ones are worth considering. We put together a list of some of the top choices, all of which have been thoroughly tested to guarantee their quality and performance. No matter what you need in a laptop for gaming, we have options that best fit your needs below.
And, if you’re not completely sold on whether or not a gaming laptop is right for you, it’s important to compare the pros and cons. After all, the best gaming PCs have their advantages as well. Our gaming PC versus a gaming laptop should help you decide.
The quick list
Want to cut to the chase and find out what the best gaming laptops are? Below, you’ll find a roundup of our choices, and you can jump to a more detailed review of every pick, along with our price comparison tool to help you find the best deals.
The best overall
A beast of a gaming laptop, it delivers amazing performance even under the highest settings with ray tracing enabled, as well as a best-in-class display, all in a thin and light form factor.
The best budget
If you’re on a budget, go for the Lenovo LOQ 15. It offers excellent gaming performance, a solid build, and an excellent port selection, while costing a lot less than its rivals.
Best thin and light
Despite its 14-inch display and svelte nature, the Lenovo Legion 5 Slim 14 is the best value option especially as it comes with current-gen specs.
The best lightweight
This isn’t just a durable and powerful gaming laptop – it’s also one of the most lightweight options on the market. Just be ready to pay a premium for it.
5. Alienware m17 R5 AMD Advantage
The best AMD laptop
Powered by both an AMD chip and GPU, this Alienware has tons of power. You also get effective ventilation, a 120Hz 4K screen, and decent battery life.
The best 240Hz laptop
With its touch bar and a tiny LCD display above the keys, the Voyager a1600 stands out. But it’s the beautiful 16:10 screen and its high-end specs that really count.
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The best desktop replacement
At over seven pounds, this behemoth is definitely not portable. But who cares – it’s super powerful and has a stunning 4K display with144Hz refresh rate.
The best 16-inch laptop
If you’re looking for a high-performance machine with a gorgeous and speedy display, then the Razer Blade 16 is an excellent choice on every level.
The best RTX 4000 laptop
One of the first Nvidia RTX 4000 gaming laptops we’ve tested, the Pro 7i pairs incredible performance with a stunning and fast display.
10. Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 16
The best dual-screen
Both gamers and content creators will appreciate this laptop’s dual-screen layout. The second screen is a 4K touch panel with smart stylus support.
The best gaming laptops in 2023
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Below you’ll find full write-ups for each of the best gaming laptop in our list. We’ve tested each one extensively, so you can be sure that our recommendations can be trusted.
The best gaming laptop overall
Buy it if:
✅ You want a thin and light gaming laptop: It weighs surprisingly little for its specs and can easily carry around.
✅ You want great performance: Performance scores high on every benchmark and offers solid frame rates at even the highest settings.
Don’t buy it if:
❌ You want a better webcam: The webcam in this is pretty average, especially if you plan on using it to livestream.
❌ You want a better ventilation system: It mostly stays firmly warm, but during intensive sessions, it can get pretty hot under the collar.
The slot for the best gaming laptop is a surprising dark horse, the Origin EON 16SL, with a strong balance between performance, form factor, and reasonable pricing, all of which are competitive or superior to other similar laptops in the market. Its aesthetics also set it apart from other gaming laptops, as its front plate can be completely customized to your liking.
It performs incredibly well thanks to its solid specs, which include the RTX 4000-series GPU and the 13th-Gen Intel Core i9 CPU. Both components playing so well together is why Cyberpunk 2077, a title notorious for its poor optimization, scored over 90fps in high settings and well over 60fps in the new highest setting ‘Ray Tracing Overdrive.’ The 16-inch display is QHD+ with an incredible 240Hz refresh rate, ensuring that gameplay is smooth and stutter-free.
As excellent as the Origin EON 16SL is, it does have two issues. The first is an absolutely average webcam, which requires great lighting for decent image quality. The ventilation, while solid for normal gaming sessions, isn’t perfect and can rapidly heat up on the underside during intense and long sessions.
Read the full Origin EON 16SL review
The best budget gaming laptop
Buy it if:
✅ You want good 1080p performance: This laptop is more than capable with most games available right now.
✅ You want to play competitively: The 144Hz refresh rate is perfect for providing a smooth, speedy gaming experience with those titles.
Don’t buy it if:
❌ You want excellent performance: There are some games that you can’t play with the settings maxed out.
❌ You care about portability: The battery life is better than many budget gaming laptops, but it’s not great. On top of that, this laptop is a bit on the heavy side.
Lenovo has always released great budget options for gaming laptops and the LOQ 15 (AMD) continues that tradition in full force. What’s best about this laptop is the amount of power it’s able to squeeze in for such a competitive price, making it an excellent choice for budget gamers.
Pricing is kept low by shifting focus from a sleek and sexy chassis to a more practically built one. It’s black, a bit bulky, and on the heavy side, with a port selection mainly in the back. It’s well constructed but not beautiful, and exactly what a budget gamer needs. The base model also uses an AMD Ryzen 5 7640S, which is a solid CPU that doesn’t add too much to the price, as well as the more budget-minded RTX 4050 GPU that gives excellent gaming performance without supercharging costs.
Its starting RAM is also at a reasonable 8GB which supports pretty much any AAA game, though don’t expect to be able to run many of them at max setting. The 144Hz refresh rate is a stroke of luxury for those wanting a smooth gaming experience. If you’re looking for a gaming laptop with great specs and performance, an FHD display, and a simple yet solid build that stays at an affordable price, this one’s for you.
Read the full Lenovo LOQ 15 (AMD) review
The best affordable thin and light gaming laptop
Buy it if:
✅ You want an easy-to-carry laptop: The 14-inch screen and uncumbersome weight makes this laptop extremely easy to carry around.
✅ You want great performance: For its size, the performance is great, scoring well on every benchmark an offering solid frame rates at even the highest settings.
Don’t buy it if:
❌ You want a better webcam: The webcam in this is pretty average, especially if you plan on using it to livestream.
❌ You want ray tracing: Though general performance is quite good, it doesn’t play nice with ray tracing options.
For those who want it all, the Lenovo Legion 5 Slim 14 delivers in nearly every category including size, price, performance, and aesthetic. The Legion 5 Slim 14 is an excellent budget laptop that’s ridiculously portable thanks to its 14-inch display and lightweight form factor. The pricing is especially affordable compared to most other gaming laptops on the market this generation.
The Legion 5 Slim 14 already starts with an AMD Ryzen 7 CPU that can be upgraded to a Ryzen 9, and the GPU goes up to the RTX 4060, meaning that both productivity and gaming performance are high. The latter especially, as both benchmark scores and general framerate are excellent, and we found that we could max out settings in any AAA title we tested it with. It also performed well in non-gaming benchmarks, meaning it can handle creative and editing projects just fine. Its gorgeous display supports both gaming and creative work thanks to its excellent resolution, 100%DCI-P3 color gamut, HDR support, up to 500 nits of brightness, and 120Hz refresh rate.
However, there are a few caveats to keep in mind. One is its less-than-stellar ray tracing performance – as soon as you enable it the framerate on any title plummets. Its battery life is another oddity, as it tends to be wildly inconsistent depending on what tasks are performed on the laptop. And finally, despite it being lightweight and small, it’s a little on the thicker side.
Read the full Lenovo Legion 5 Slim 14 review
The best lightweight gaming laptop
Buy it if:
✅ You want a thin and light gaming laptop: This laptop weighs surprisingly little for its specs and can fit into most bags and be carried around with ease.
✅ You want top performance: For its size, the performance is great, scoring high on every benchmark as well as offering solid frame rates at even the highest settings.
Don’t buy it if:
❌ You’re on a budget: Razer laptops are not meant for those without excess cash flow and this model is no exception.
❌ You want a better battery life: For gaming purposes, the battery life is not good in the slightest – keep this laptop plugged in unless you’re doing office work.
Sure, it might be very expensive, but the new Razer Blade 14 is just a thing of beauty; a compact, quiet, durable, and powerful gaming laptop that ticks just about every box. Top-notch internal components are joined by an incredibly bright and vivid screen, with the classic machined metal chassis that has come to define the aesthetic of the Blade laptop line.
What’s even better here is that despite its thin and light chassis, it boasts excellent gaming performance that’s comparable to similarly-specced yet less portable gaming laptops. During our usual round of testing and benchmarking, it felt like its CPU and GPU worked better in tandem, surpassing other laptops in performance with something like Cyberpunk 2077 on high settings. In Marvel’s Spider-Man, its framerate didn’t even dip below 75fps even under the highest possible settings.
Also for a thin laptop, it’s got impressive cooling. That is, even though it did heat up during intense gaming sessions in our testing, it never suffered noticeable stuttering, freezing, or slowing down, meaning that you can push it like you would other laptops without getting frustrated. You might be disappointed by the battery life, though. Rated at 10 hours, it typically hovers around the eight-hour mark when used for productivity work. Sadly, that is cut down to at most half when you’re gaming on it.
Read the full Razer Blade 14 (2023) review
The best AMD-powered gaming laptop
Buy it if:
✅ You’re a hardcore gamer: You’ll have to be hardcore to reach as deep into your pocket as you’ll need to, but this has both the looks and the AMD performance to suit those who need the full experience on the move.
✅ You’ll appreciate a big, high-res screen: The higher-spec tiers of the Alienware m17 probably offer more pixels than your games truly need – but whatever the resolution, this is a bold, beautiful panel that refreshes fast.
Don’t buy it if:
❌ You value portability: Although the m17 isn’t over-heavy it’s most at home in the home.
❌ You’re wary of AMD: You shouldn’t be, but if you’re dead set on an Nvidia card, though, a different spec of the m17 would suit you better.
The Alienware m17 R5 AMD Advantage is an excellent gaming laptop that delivers on every front. The 17-inch display is a ridiculous 120Hz 4K screen, further enhanced with Dolby Vision support. During our testing, we found that the gorgeous crystal clear image paired well with a smooth enough refresh rate for most gamers.
Its performance during our own benchmark testing was even more impressive, with eye-watering high scores on every GPU test. And when it came to testing out general gameplay performance, most games hit the highest highs in terms of framerate and more. Not only is its performance top-notch, but it also has a gorgeous design befitting the Alienware line.
The clamshell design is not only aesthetically pleasing but keeps the main vent clear and more effective at proper ventilation, something absolutely vital when it comes to high-power gaming sessions. It’s a bit heavy and bulky with a somewhat decent battery life of about six hours, but if you’re getting a desktop replacement gaming laptop then you know the deal.
Read the full Alienware m17 R5 AMD Advantage review
The best gaming laptop with fast refresh rate
Buy it if:
✅ You’re a streamer: With the touch bar, 1080p webcam, and streaming-focused software pre-installed, the Corsair Voyager feels like it’s perfectly suited to Twitch streamers
✅ You appreciate a high refresh rate: The speedy 240Hz refresh rate and 3ms response time will endear it to hardcore gamers.
Don’t buy it if:
❌ You want good value for money: It’s undeniably a very expensive purchase that we simply can’t recommend to anyone shopping on a budget.
❌ You need some peace and quiet: They’re not the loudest we’ve ever heard on a gaming laptop, but the Corsair Voyager does have some pretty noisy fans.
Corsair only broke into the gaming laptop space this August, and we have to say we’re seriously impressed with the manufacturer’s first attempt. The Corsair Voyager a1600 is a laptop that stands out from the crowd, from its big, beautiful 16:10 screen to the bar of touch buttons (and a tiny LCD display) that rests above the keyboard.
That keyboard is great too – it uses Cherry MX Ultra-Low Profile mechanical key switches, a rare sight in gaming laptops, which feel absolutely incredible to play games with. This is a fully AMD-powered gaming laptop too, with the excellent Radeon RX 6800M graphics card and a powerful Ryzen 9 6900HS processor.
One other nifty feature is seamless ‘Slipstream’ connectivity, which allows you to instantly connect compatible Corsair peripherals (say, a wireless headset or mouse) without the need for a plug-in dongle. The touch bar and included software are also geared towards streamers, so if you’re waiting for your big break on Twitch, this could be the laptop for you.
Read the full Corsair Voyager a1600 review
The best desktop replacement gaming laptop
Buy it if:
✅ You want the best gaming performance around: With an Intel Core i9-13980HX and an Nvidia RTX 4090 mobile GPU and DLSS 3, no game will put up much of a fight here, even at 4K.
✅ You want lots of customization options: With per-key, lid-logo, and accent RGB, you can really get that gamer twinkly light look exactly to your liking.
Don’t buy it if:
❌ You want something affordable: The price of this laptop puts it out of reach of just about everyone reading this review.
❌ You want something portable: Better get a donkey if you want to cart this one around.
If you’re looking for a contender for the most powerful gaming laptop, the MSI GT77 Titan (2023) has the competition beat so far. It comes with the latest in specs, including a 13th-gen Intel Core i9-13980HX CPU and an Nvidia RTX 4080 12GB Laptop GPU. During our extensive testing, we found that it managed to beat out the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i in most of our benchmark scoring when it came to GPU performance.
Its display is a ridiculous 4K resolution with a 144Hz refresh rate, and as we tested this behemoth we found that PC games never looked and moved better. The cherries on top are that this laptop comes with a Mini DisplayPort output and, according to our tests, the battery life is okay for a gaming laptop four and a half hours. It does charge fast, so that’s another positive to add.
There are some caveats we found, however. The biggest one is the sheer size of this behemoth, which weighs over seven pounds. You will never move this laptop off your desk, it’s the truest form of desktop replacement. And thanks to its size, it sounds like a jet engine. Cost is also an issue, but if money isn’t a problem then you can’t go wrong investing in this exceptionally powerful laptop.
Read the full MSI GT77 Titan (2023) review
The best gaming laptop with 16-inch screen
Buy it if:
✅ You want excellent gaming performance: The Razer Blade 16 will give you excellent performance no matter how hard you push it.
✅ You want a fast display: You’ll have a 240Hz refresh rate no matter what configuration you get.
Don’t buy it if:
❌ You’re on a budget: There’s no way around it. This thing is expensive.
❌ You want a smaller footprint: Though Razer has managed to fit a 16-inch screen in a slightly larger than 15-inch laptop body, this is still a large laptop.
If you’re looking for a near-perfect gaming laptop, the Razer Blade 16 (2023) should be your top choice. It features top-tier specs including a 13th-Gen Intel Core i9-13950HX CPU, up to an RTX 4090 GPU, and robust RAM and storage to boot. Its display can either be FHD+ or UHD+ and runs at an absolutely incredible 240Hz refresh rate, making for butter-smooth gameplay at the competitive level.
The Razer Blade 16 also features an excellent port selection that includes everything you could possibly need, something that many laptops seem to be lacking in this generation. That includes a UHS-II SD card reader for those who plan on using it for video or photo editing, making it even more flexible. And despite it being large, it still impressively fits its 16-inch display in a near 15-inch form factor, which is no mean feat for such a powerful gaming laptop.
Unfortunately, it’s a near-perfect gaming laptop because of two major pitfalls. The first is its extremely high price point, in which many of its competitors can offer most of its features for almost half the cost. The second is that this is a desktop replacement, which means it’s still on the thicker side, heavy, and comes with a terrible battery life that chains it to your AC adapter.
Read the full Razer Blade 16 (2023) review
The best RTX 4000 gaming laptop
Buy it if:
✅ You want a powerful gaming machine: The performance on this machine is beyond outstanding, able to play any PC game on its highest settings and maintain incredibly high frame rates.
✅ You want an excellent port selection: This laptop has one of the best port selections around, with four USB Type-A ports, two Type-C ports, and nearly anything else you could want.
Don’t buy it if:
❌ You want a long lasting battery: The battery life on this machine is atrocious. If you need a laptop that lasts well over two hours, this is not the product for you.
❌ You need a portable laptop: This laptop is over six pounds, an extremely hefty machine to lug around.
The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i is one of the most powerful gaming laptops we’ve tested so far, thanks to its RTX 4080 mobile GPU. When we tested it out, it delivered some incredible gaming performance, absolutely smoking through every one of our graphics-based benchmark tests with flying colors, and nearly matched our scores for the Alienware Aurora R15 gaming PC. This level of power also translates to gaming performance, with titles like Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered looking its best.
Its display is an absolutely ridiculous 16-inch WQXGA, 240Hz, 500nits screen, which means that when we took it for a gaming test drive, we found the refresh rate to be butter smooth enough for professional gamers. The screen is extremely bright with a high-definition resolution, and it also features an RGB-lit keyboard with an excellent port selection to boot.
The chassis is very bulky and heavy, as befitting of a desktop replacement laptop, with an abysmal two-and-a-half-hour battery life. This laptop was made purely for performance, with not a thought to its aesthetics, but for the performance it’s worth it.
Read the full Lenovo Legion Pro 7i review
The best dual-screen gaming laptop
Buy it if:
✅ You need a super-flexible system: The ScreenPad Plus is a nifty feature that some users will get more mileage out of.
✅ You want the best in gaming audio: The speaker array on this bad boy is powerful and the surround sound works great.
Don’t buy it if:
❌ You’re aiming to game at 4K Ultra: Although some models of the Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 do come with a 4K primary display, the internal configuration maxed out at the RTX 3080 Ti.
❌ You want good value for money: While it might be awesome in almost every way, it’s impossible to deny that this is a premium product that comes with a premium price tag.
If you’re after something a bit different — or you’re a content creator who wants a laptop for gaming too — then the Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 is an incredible (if expensive) choice. The 16:10 main display is joined by the delightful ScreenPad Plus, a secondary touchscreen that elevates out of the chassis when you open the lid, creating a laptop that’s reminiscent of a certain beloved handheld console.
Nintendo DS references aside, the Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 is also an absolute monster of a system thanks to its Ryzen 9 6900HX processor and RTX 3080 Ti graphics card, backed up by a whopping 64GB of DDR5 RAM. It’s great for gaming and watching movies, in no small part due to a set of powerhouse speakers that provide shockingly good room-filling audio.
Read the full Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 review
How to choose the best gaming laptop for you
Choosing the best gaming laptop is easy when you’ve got deep pockets or have a couple of thousand dollars to spare. It’s when your budget is more limited that getting a great gaming laptop becomes trickier.
Lucky for us, we’re getting plenty of more affordably-priced CPUs and GPUs that don’t compromise on power. The latest internals are more capable yet also cheaper than ever. That means that gaming notebooks under $1000 can be just as capable as any gaming PC while keeping things portable and space-saving.
Still, some components are more powerful or cheaper than others. While it’s no longer a hard and fast rule, AMD’s offerings are generally more affordable, which means that AMD Ryzen-powered laptops tend to be slightly cheaper.
In terms of graphics cards, Nvidia is still king when it comes to performance, although which RTX card you should go for depends on the type of gaming experience you want. The RTX 3060, for example, is a terrific mid-range contender with lots of power for 1080p gaming. However, if you want that 4K goodness, an RTX 3070 or higher is the way to go.
Consider the RAM as well. Other things to look at are the amount of storage, type of display, and type and variety of ports. Take a look at the battery life as well, especially if you plan on gaming on the go. Know that just because something is premium doesn’t automatically mean it’ll deliver a long battery life – the Alienware laptops are a cautionary tale. And, of course, since you do have to like how your gaming notebook looks, think about the design and whether or not you want RGB lighting.
Whichever one you pick however, we guarantee one of our picks below will let you dive into your favorite games, from the best cheap PC games to the best laptop games and the best PC games – all without tethering you to a desk.
Which laptop is best for gaming?
At a base level, you’re going to need a gaming laptop that runs the newest game releases, whether they’re AAA or games that require lower graphics settings. Ideally, you’ll want to pick a gaming laptop with a decent graphics card – it doesn’t have to be as advanced as the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070, which can play even the most graphically intense games at the highest settings, but you’ll want something that can play any and every game you might play.
RAM is crucial in the best gaming laptops as well, as it makes sure there aren’t performance issues within the laptop. The last thing you want is for your game to sputter or freeze in the middle of important action sequences or cutscenes, so you’ll want a gaming laptop with plenty of RAM to tackle those high-intensity games.
Screen size should also factor into your gaming laptop decision. If you’re someone who likes having the biggest screen to see as much as possible of your game, you’re going to want a bigger screen, ideally something from 16- to 17.3-inches. If you’re okay with having a standard size screen, you may be able to get away with getting a gaming laptop with a screen anywhere from 14 to 15.6 inches.
If you travel a lot you’re going to want to consider how heavy the gaming laptop is, as well as any necessary accessories you’ll need to pack. Travelling often will also mean you need to make sure your gaming laptop has a decent battery life, otherwise you’ll be trekking from outlet to outlet on your journey.
How much RAM do I need for gaming?
There are many gaming laptops that start you off with an 8GB DDR4 memory, which is the minimum these days. However, that might not be enough for a speedy performance.
If you play a lot of demanding AAA titles, at least 16GB is recommended for the smoothest experience. If you can afford to splurge, a 32GB memory will give you the smoothest, most immersive experience.
Is it worth it to get a gaming laptop?
Absolutely. Gaming PCs are no longer incomparable, thanks to mobile devices getting smaller yet also more powerful. If you need something that’s space-saving and/or portable yet powerful enough to tackle your favorite games, no matter if those are not-so-demanding games or the most graphically-intensive titles, one of the best gaming laptops is worth considering.
What is a good thin gaming laptop?
There aren’t a lot of thin and light gaming laptops out there, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find several options to choose from.
The best ones are impressively portable without sacrificing power or battery life. The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 sits at the top of that pile, with MSI GS65 Stealth and the Razer Blade Stealth following closely behind.
How we tested these gaming laptops
Testing a gaming laptop isn’t as easy as you might think. But, then again, neither is narrowing down your options and choosing the best one for you, which is why we take our job seriously. Even if that means gaming for hours on end – hey, someone’s gotta make the sacrifice, right?
In all seriousness, we put every gaming laptop we test through its paces to make sure it delivers as promised and is worth your hard-earned case. That means that on top of playing the latest and hottest games on it, noting things like gaming and thermal performance, we also run synthetic benchmarks like PCMark 10, 3DMark and Geekbench 5 as well as battery tests.
Because a gaming laptop is only as good as its peripherals, we take a look at how smooth and fast the display is, how comfortable and responsive its keyboard is, whether or not there are enough ports on hand, and how good its overall design is. We also test its webcam, in case users want to utilize it for game streaming.
We then take everything we’ve learned about the gaming laptop and compare it to its price – whether or not it’s performance and features are worth that price tag, and whether or not it offers the best value to customers.