1. The list in brief
2. Best overall
3. Best budget
4. Best under $1,500
5. Best under $2,000
6. Best performance
7. Best battery life
8. How we test
9. Also tested
10. Find your perfect gaming laptop
11. Why trust Laptop Mag
I’ve been a technology journalist for well over a decade. And one of the things that always brings a big smile to my face are gaming laptops. They come in a multitude of sizes with a range of designs that go from understated to over the top. And speaking of over the top, many gaming laptops allow you to adjust the lighting, create macros and overclock the CPU and GPU.
But like other laptops, consumers are spoiled for choice. Do you go for broke with a $3,000 RTX 4090 rig with all the bells and whistles, or do you want something a bit more tame and cost effective? After all, 14th Gen Intel gaming laptops like the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 and G16 are coming in. What about screen size and resolution? Never fear dear reader, I’m here to walk you through the ins and outs of gaming laptops and have a list of some of my favorites.
You might be asking how I narrowed down our best gaming laptop list. A lot of testing. Over the course of a year the Laptop Mag staff reviews over 100 laptops covering every budget and use case. Each system undergoes rigorous benchmarking, testing everything from overall performance to battery life. Gaming laptops undergo an extra set of tests designed to test gaming performance, heat (or lack thereof) and endurance.
Once all the testing is done, the actual reviewing begins, where the staff adds their anecdotal experience. If the system is indeed exceptional, earning four stars or higher or our Editors’ Choice award, the system will then earn a spot in this guide. Here are the best gaming laptops right now.
Rami has been swimming in gaming laptops for most of his adult life, which is wild to think about, but excellent for you, those of which that need a new gaming rig in their life. Rami knows that budget shouldn't compromise on quality, and that you deserve the most for your coin. Extensive testing and hands-on has taught Rami which are the best gaming laptops for every budget.
The Quick List
Best Overall
The Asus ROG is large and in charge with its overclockable Intel Core i9 processor and Nvidia RTX 4090 GPU. This beefy desktop replacement can handle all your gaming needs and then some.
Best budget
The Acer Predator Triton 300 SE is proof that you don’t have to choose between performance and affordability. The laptop delivers strong gaming and overall performance in a sleek 14-inch chassis.
Best under $1,500
The Lenovo Legion 5i Pro is one of favorite gaming laptops because it offers mid-tier specs, which depending on the game, can consistently deal out high frame rates. It’s also under $1,500 which is music to our ears.
Best under $2,000
Looking for a 40 Series Nvidia GPU without breaking the bank? Then we highly recommend the MSI Katana 15 which offers a powerful Intel Core i7 CPU and RTX 4070 which delivers powerful overall and graphics performance.
Best performance
The MSI Titan 18 HX is stacked. Not only does it have a beautiful display and a mechanical keyboard, it also has a Core i9 CPU and Nvidia 4090 GPU. It’s a beast of machine that destroyed everything we put in front of it.
Best battery life
The Razer Blade 14 is the best gaming laptop for battery life, but not only that. You get powerful gaming and productivity performance, a vivid display, a sleek aluminum chassis and intense audio.
Recent updates
Updated March 7 to change our best under $1,000 to best budget, mention upcoming 14th Gen Intel gaming laptops, and tweak headline.
Best Overall
Our favorite config:
The Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 is my first taste of the new chips from Intel and Nvidia and I’ve got to say, it’s absolutely delicious. The Strix Scar 18 is an unmitigated beast, running with Intel’s 13th Gen Core i9-13900HX processor and Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4090 GPU. Both are uber-powerful and highly overclockable so you can squeeze every bit of power out of the system. Plus, the notebook has this Blade Runner vibe that I’m very much into along with its 18-inch, QHD+ (2560 x 1600), 240Hz display that serves up a beautiful picture with buttery smooth rendering.
So onto the tests. There were very few places the ROG Strix Scar 18 missed the mark. The laptop easily trounced everything we threw at it. During gaming tests, it was rare the Strix Scar 18 fell below a three-digit result. We saw a scorching 154 fps on the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla benchmark while it reached 181 and 152 fps on Rise of the Tomb Raider and Grand Theft Auto V. How about overall performance?
The 13th Gen CPU smoked the competition, scoring 19,233 on Geekbench 5.4; that’s more than double the premium gaming laptop overall performance average. This system completed our video transcoding test in just 2 minutes and 49 seconds (more than a minute faster than the MacBook Pro 16-inch M2 Pro Max, while its pair of 1TB SSDs dominated our file transfer tests.
However, all that power comes at a cost. The Scar 18’s battery life is on the short side at 4 hours and 26 minutes. Another con is the 720p webcam; we would expect 1080p at this eye-watering price. . But overall, the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 is the gaming laptop to beat and has also earned its way onto our Best Asus Laptops page.
Read our full Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 review
Best budget
Our favorite config:
The Acer Predator Triton 300 SE is a revelation. Our reviewer put it best as it sits in a “cozy spot where the company offers its best quality components packed into a relatively affordable package.” The slim, 14-inch beauty only weighs 3.8 pounds and a good grouping of ports. It’s also got a lovely, bright 1080p panel with a 144Hz refresh rate, which is ideal for gaming.
Speaking of gaming, the Triton’s RTX 3060 GPU is more than enough to handle most games on high or medium settings. The Predator Triton 300 SE consistently beat the category average on AAA titles such as Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Shadow of the Tomb Raider. For instance, during the Far Cry New Dawn benchmark, the Acer scored 73 fps which was enough to match or beat most of the competition.
The Triton’s Core i7 processor didn’t do as well on our overall performance test, scoring 5,234 which beat the category average but not any of the rival systems. On the Handbrake video transcoding test, the Acer turned in a rather slow time of 11 minutes and 36 seconds. We got a rosier picture on the battery life where the system lasted 6 hours and 41 minutes.
Other cons include weak audio and a mushy keyboard, but for the price, these are small quibbles.
See our full Acer Predator Triton 300 SE review.
Best under $1,500
Our favorite config:
Need a gaming laptop that’s affordable without making too many sacrifices? Then the Lenovo Legion 5i Pro is just the system for you. Beneath its understated yet elegant design is a laptop that’s chomping at the bit to lay waste to the big bad in whatever game you’re playing and their minion horde. Despite its office-ready appearance, the Lenovo still has some gamer cred thanks to its vibrant RGB backlighting. And it’s got plenty of ports to create a formidable battlestation.
The Legion 5i Pro marches onto our Best Lenovo Laptops and Best Lenovo Gaming Laptop pages with its last-gen RTX 3070 Ti GPU. While it’s not the latest 4000 series GPU, the Legion 5i Pro shows that the 3000 series still has plenty of punch, delivering an impressive 81 fps on Red Dead Redemption 2 and 132 fps on Grand Theft Auto V. The notebook’s 12th Gen Intel processor is also not to be underestimated as it crushed on both Geekbench 5.4 and our video transcoding tests.
As good as the Legion 5i Pro is, there are a few hiccups, namely a lackluster webcam and a sluggish SSD. However, the gorgeous 16-inch, QHD display with its 165Hz refresh rate coupled with everything I mentioned above makes the Lenovo Legion 5i Pro an absolute win of a value buy.
Read our full Lenovo Legion 5i Pro review
Best under $2,000
Our favorite config:
Why pay more for an Nvidia 4090 GPU when the 4070 GPU exists? MSI seeks to answer that question with the excellent Katana 15. A laptop that kept pace with more powerful competitors without breaking a sweat. For those who prefer a more understated look, the Katana 15 exterior is done in all black aluminum chassis with the company’s logo engraved at the top of the lid. The interior’s a lot more colorful with its comfortable, 4-key customizable RGB keyboard. It’s on the heavier side at 8.8 pounds, so you’ll need a backpack with strong straps to tote this system around.
But let’s talk performance. Our reviewer reported the Katana 15 consistently gave between 50 and 55 fps on Elden Ring at 2K resolution. The Katana also dominated on the Borderlands 3 benchmark at 99 fps (1080p, high) as well as Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (106 fps), Dirt 3 (103 fps), Far Cry 6 (94 fps) and Red Dead Redemption (72 fps). Long story short, the Katana gave a master class in gaming performance. The MSI kept up the pressure during the overall performance. The system’s Core i7 CPU hit 11,581 on Geekbench 5.5 test and smokey the competition on the Handbrake benchmark with a blistering time of 5 minutes and 4 seconds.
But there are a few places where the Katana 15 could stand for improvement. The 2 hour 48 minute battery life is abysmal in this day and age. And we wish MSI could have found a better panel compared to the dim, lackluster display its stuck with. But coming in at $1,600, it’s a much better value than the RTX 4090 systems that cost upwards of $4,000.
See our full MSI Katana 15 review
Best performance
Our favorite config:
MSI has always taken a kitchen sink approach to its flagship gaming laptops, and we’re not complaining when you get something as powerful as the MSI Titan 18 HX. This is an exorbitantly priced system even for a top-tier gaming laptop. But for that arm, leg and vestigial organ you’re contemplating selling, you get an absolute powerhouse that shrugs off almost everything you can possibly throw at it.
The Titan’s Nvidia RTX 4090 with 16GB of VRAM cut through frame rates like a hot knife through ice cold butter, smoothly and immensely satisfying. It crushed every single one of its competitors in the battle for frame rates, even its predecessor. And with its Intel Core i9-14900HX CPU and 128GB of RAM, the notebook decimated our overall performance tests. Its dual SSDs in RAID 0 configuration posted a blistering 2,664.34 megabytes per second in our file transfer test.
The thorn in this mighty beast’s paw is the 2 hours and 40 minutes of battery life. But if you’re looking for the most powerful gaming laptop on the block, you’d be hard pressed to find one better. If the MSI Titan 18 HX (2024) isn’t your speed but you still want an MSI notebook, check out our Best MSI laptops page.
See our full MSI Titan 18 HX (2024) review.
Best battery life
Our favorite config:
Who said that gaming laptops always have bad battery life? Can't be me, because the Razer Blade 14 is coming in swinging with 8 hours and 35 minutes of battery life. That's enough time to get through an entire workday before you have to go home and plug it in to get some gaming in. But battery life isn't the only massive feature that the Razer Blade 14 has going for it.
The Razer Blade 14 is packed with a powerful AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU that'll clock through pretty much every game you throw at it. Top that off with a stunning 14-inch, 2560 x 1600, 240Hz display. It's sharp as a razer, and smooth as a clean shave. Let's not forget about these bangin' speakers. It's rare for a gaming laptop to come out of left field with great audio. Oh, and of course, it's a Razer laptop, so that means we get that gorgeous aluminum chassis that's as premium as a MacBook.
See our full Razer Blade 14 review.
How we test gaming laptops
How we test gaming laptops
Why you can trust Laptop Mag Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
When we bring a laptop into our laboratory, our goal is to see how it would work if you brought it into your home or office. While we use a number of industry standard benchmarks such as Geekbench and 3DMark, we focus heavily on real-world tests that we have developed in-house.
To test endurance, the Laptop Mag Battery test surfs the web at 150 nits of brightness until the system runs out of juice. To judge pure processing power, we use a giant spreadsheet macro that matches 65,000 names with their addresses, a video transcoder that converts a 4K video to 1080p and the Geekbench 4 synthetic test. We measure graphics prowess with both 3DMark Ice Storm / Fire Strike and a series of actual game titles.
We use a colorimeter to measure screen brightness and color gamut while other instruments help us determine a laptop's key travel and ambient heat. See this page on How We Test Laptops for more details on our benchmarking procedures.
Also tested
We deliberately make our best gaming laptops list short so you don't suffer from decision paralysis. However, if you're someone you likes having all of their options open to them, we have quite a few gaming laptops that we've also tested. Get ready to go swimming.
These can range from excellent to subpar, but each have their own pros and cons. Here's our list.
How to find the right gaming laptop
How to find the right gaming laptop
When shopping for a gaming laptop, there's a lot to consider. To help you choose a system, here are five key points to keep in mind when choosing a system.
Budget: How we split cost categories
You can find good inexpensive gaming laptops for under $1,000. However, more powerful mainstream gaming laptops are often priced between $1,500-$2,000. Premium systems typically cost more than $2,000 and come stacked with a host of high-powered goodies such as high-powered specs and tricked-out software. Think of these as thresholds for how you intend to play games. Are you playing AAA games on the highest settings? Or are you just going to play smaller indie titles?
Screen Size: 15 inches is the go-to
It's very rare that you'll find a 13 or 14-inch gaming laptops nowadays as smaller bezels and lighter frames have paved the way for seriously thin-and-light gaming laptops. That means the days of chunky 15.6-inch laptops putting a strain on your back are over (almost).
From there, you have the 17.3-inch desktop replacements that like their smaller counterparts are becoming super svelte. But there are still the big behemoths that don't skimp on the specs. However, weighing upwards of 8 pounds, those big boys are made for your home gaming station.
Screen Resolution: 1080p (high refresh rates), 4K (detail), 1440p (sweet spot)
When it comes to gaming laptops displays, you want to strike a balance between frame rates and aesthetics. And in case you're planning to get a truly mobile system battery life is also deserves consideration. We recommend checking out a system with a 1080p resolution. Panel makers are now serving up screens with high refresh rate, topping out at 360Hz with a 3 millisecond response rate. But don't count out 4K screens yet as we're starting to see laptops with 4K displays with 120Hz. Keep in mind that laptops with lower resolutions tend to have longer battery life overall.
Looking for a sweet spot between the two? More and more gaming laptops are shipping with 1440p displays, which provide high refresh rates and a sharp panel to go along with it. This strikes a great balance between the two sides without charging you the premium price.
Refresh rate: 120Hz is the sweet spot
Depending what kind of games you're playing, particularly first person shooters and MOBA, you'll take anything that will enhance accuracy. Surprisingly, the higher a display's refresh rate is, the more accurate your shot become. It's a phenomenon that we've experienced first hand during many demos. And while 60Hz is passable, right now we recommend investing in a panel with at least a 120Hz refresh rate.
Intel or AMD?
A couple of years ago, the answer to this question would have been undoubtedly Intel. But AMD has made a furious comeback with its new Ryzen CPUs, which are delivering great overall performance. Thanks to the architecture in the new Ryzen chips, they're super power efficient without sacrificing productivity. The Ryzen 5000 series CPUs have consistently impressed with its performance versus battery life.
Not to be outdone, Intel's 11th Gen chips are nothing to sneeze at. Laptop manufacturers have started rolling out systems with the Intel's 11th Gen H-series Tiger Lake chips. The 10-nanometer chips are extremely powerful, but still at the low-end of the spectrum with the overclockable HK-series CPU, due to launch soon. Why do you want to invest in an overclockable processor, because with the touch of a button, you can squeeze even more power out of the system. It comes in handy when you're multitasking or playing a really demanding game.
Battery Life: At least 4.5 hours
Unless it's plugged in, gaming laptop battery life tends to be very short, especially when gaming. However, gaming laptop battery life has gotten increasing longer over the years. So much so, that anything under 4.5 hours is considered below average. But we've just reviewed our first gaming laptop that's lasted into the double digits. With results like that, we expect gaming laptops will match their non-gaming counterparts sooner than later. Our most power efficient gaming laptop ran over 11 hours and sits on our longest-lasting laptops page.
Specs: 1080p / Core i5 / 16GB are a minimum
You can spend a lot of time delving into specs, but here are the key components to think about. If you just want decent mainstream performance, go for a Core i5 CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD and a 1080p screen.
Why Trust Laptop Mag
Why trust Laptop Mag
Laptop Mag has been testing and reviewing laptops for over two decades. We test over 150 different models per year, subjecting each system to a series of rigorous benchmarks that provides a complete picture of performance, battery life and usability.
Our expert reviewers also use each product to see how it looks and feels in everyday situations. Because we see so many different notebooks, we can compare each to its direct competitors and give you an idea of how it stacks up to the average laptop in its price band.
