Given the reasonable price of the Legion Pro 5i Gen 9 we reviewed, along with its broad configuration options, stable performance, and long battery life, we can comfortably recommend this model to most average gamers. You’ll find cheaper alternatives, but this Lenovo sits just above the entry-level machines as a fair value. With a speedy Intel Core i7-14650HX processor and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, this system can sustain speedy midrange gaming performance—helped by a sharp 165Hz display, a comfortable keyboard, and efficient cooling—making this Legion a worthy selection.
How to Choose a Gaming Laptop: Start With Your Budget
No surprise here: The ultimate factor in your gaming laptop purchase decision will be how much money you have to spend. Gaming systems have higher-end components than run-of-the-mill consumer laptops, so their prices will be higher, but the range across the category is huge, from under a grand to nearly $5,000. Budget gaming laptops start at around $800 and can go up to about $1,250. For that, you get a system that can play games at full HD resolution (1080p) with the settings turned down in most titles or at maximum quality settings in simpler games. Storage will likely be a modest-capacity solid-state drive (SSD); a hard drive indicates an older model best avoided. An SSD as the boot drive is always preferable.
Want something better? Midrange systems give you smoother gameplay at high or maximum settings on a better-quality 1080p screen (which will support high refresh rates; more on that in a moment), and they should add support for VR headsets. These models will range in price from around $1,250 to $2,000.
(Credit: Molly Flores)
High-end systems, meanwhile, should guarantee you smooth gameplay at 1080p with graphics details maxed out, invariably on a high-refresh screen. They may even let you play at 4K resolution if the screen supports it. A high-end model should also be able to power a VR headset and support additional external monitors. These machines tend to come with capacious PCI Express SSDs, and they are priced above $2,000, often closer to $3,000.
Still, you can easily spend more than $3,000 on a gaming laptop, with some models (particularly the 18-inchers, when fully kitted out) approaching $5,000. A big, beautiful screen often calls for a big price tag, and often gets paired with the highest-end components.
Some laptops in this class support QHD (2,560-by-1,440-pixel) or 4K screens, a hard drive to supplement the SSD, and ultra-efficient cooling fans as optional extras. Thanks to modern advancements, an increasing number of systems are even relatively thin and portable. With laptops in this tier, you’ll either pay a premium for high-end performance in a thin chassis or pay for the most possible power in a chunkier build.
Which Component Matters Most for Gaming Laptops?
While your budget will be the ultimate deciding factor, knowing which components to prioritize can be challenging. Unless you have no spending limit, you must choose where to compromise and where to double down between the graphics processing unit (GPU), central processing unit (CPU or processor), memory, storage, and display. We’ll run through the different components below, in order of where to spend your cash.
1. GPU
It’s natural to ask “What is the best GPU for a gaming laptop?” But that’s not quite the right question for your shopping search. The “best” GPU overall will always be the fastest, most expensive AMD or Nvidia has to offer, so you should ask: “What’s the best GPU for my gaming goals?” We only consider a laptop to be a gaming laptop if it has a discrete graphics chip from Nvidia or AMD (or, much less commonly, an Intel Arc GPU).
A quick crash course for the uninitiated: The higher the suffix number in a GPU series, the more powerful it is. For example, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 will generally produce faster frame rates and higher-quality graphics than an RTX 4070, and so on down the stack. The “40” denotes the generation, so the latest GeForce 40 series is preferable to the older 30 series; the GeForce RTX 4080 is the successor to the RTX 3080, and so on. Nvidia is the dominant player in the field right now, currently producing discrete mobile GPUs based on its “Ada Lovelace” microarchitecture, though some older “Ampere“-based (2021) GPUs are still available.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
Ampere GPUs sell under the GeForce RTX 30 series name (e.g., the RTX 3070), though they have been largely phased out by the 40 series. The latter launched on desktops in 2022, and laptops with RTX 40 series GPUs started to hit shelves early last year. You may still find a GeForce RTX 3050 or 3060 in a base configuration or non-gaming laptop, but it’s almost all Ada nowadays.
Unlike their predecessors, Nvidia’s GeForce 30 and 40 series GPUs carry an RTX designation rather than GTX, a plug for the ray-tracing technology that offers enhanced visuals with compatible games. This fancy real-time lighting effect looks impressive but is very demanding to run. (See our primer on PC ray-tracing.)
Combined with a rendering technique called DLSS, higher-end GPUs can push ray-tracing at higher resolutions in the latest titles. Nvidia is continuously working on this technology, and the improvements in the latest edition, DLSS 3, are a big part of the effectiveness of its 40 series GPUs. Depending on the laptop, demanding games may not hit 60 frames per second (fps) at 4K resolution, especially with ray-tracing active. But it’s much more feasible for a laptop to manage both a high frame rate and high resolution with a top-end GPU’s DLSS 3 and “frame generation” feature.
Ampere and Ada Lovelace laptop GPUs are not 1:1 performers in line with their desktop counterparts, but performance is still solid. We’ve found some sizable real-world performance variance between the same GPU in one laptop versus the same silicon in another, depending mostly on the power or wattage that laptop manufacturers allocate to the GPU. To see why this is, read our mobile Ampere testing article. This makes laptop shopping a bit more complicated than simply finding the GPU model in the spec sheet. Our hands-on testing is more important than ever.
(Credit: Molly Flores)
As for the model hierarchy, high-priced notebooks with RTX 4080 or RTX 4090 GPUs are exceptional performers at all resolutions, and the RTX 4070 is impressive in its own right. As mentioned, DLSS is a must for running ray tracing at higher resolutions, but the 40 series is much more capable in these scenarios than the 30 series. The RTX 4060 is a reliable, steady pick for 1080p laptops that won’t break the bank, and it appears in machines at either the high end of budget pricing or the low end of midrange pricing.
Nvidia is still the leading player in graphics, but its chief rival AMD is seeing an increase in adoption. A rising number of gaming laptops include Radeon RX GPUs; AMD announced its next generation of mobile GPUs (Radeon RX 7000) early last year, but we saw only a few of them throughout the year.
AMD GPUs are sometimes paired with an Intel processor, though we’re also seeing more frequent examples of AMD graphics combined with AMD processors than before. (For example, Dell and MSI sell a few AMD-on-AMD CPU/GPU machines.)
Even with all the above complexity, we can still draw some basic conclusions about graphics performance. Today, a single midrange or high-end discrete GPU will let you play the latest AAA gaming titles on a 1080p screen with high-quality settings turned on and be fine for powering VR play. The RTX 3070 and 3080 made smooth 1440p gaming the norm, and the RTX 40 series is making high-res 4K gaming on laptops much more plausible than before.
2. CPU
As you may have surmised from the GPU section, we have no one clear answer to someone asking, “What CPU do I need for a gaming laptop?” either, though there are clearer baselines. Last year, we saw the launch of Intel’s 13th Generation (“Raptor Lake”) chips and AMD’s Ryzen 7000 processors, which took over most of our picks through the year and into 2024. Our first performance tests of the Core i9 Raptor Lake chips and Ryzen 7000 “Dragon Range” chips were impressive.
Intel also launched its Core Ultra “Meteor Lake” chips with onboard AI processing, which will run in some gaming systems. However, Intel’s new 14th Gen “Raptor Lake Refresh” H, HK, and HX processors are the CPUs more likely to appear in 2024’s latest gaming laptops and will prevail in larger, more powerful gaming machines. We first saw these at CES 2024 and reviewed our first such chip with the 2024 edition of the Razer Blade 16. You’ve likely seen the hype around Copilot+ PCs and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips, but these AI processors are not relevant for gaming, at least for now.
(Credit: Molly Flores)
Most laptops included here sport Intel Core i7 processors, with the most expensive flaunting Core i9’s. Some affordable systems may settle for Core i5 chips.
In general, more cores and higher clock speeds bring better overall efficiency and much-improved performance on multithreaded tasks like media projects but are less vital for gaming. Gaming usually sees less of a boost from multiple threads than many media tasks do, but it certainly doesn’t hurt.
If you have to choose between a deluxe CPU and a high-end GPU, however, go for the graphics. For example, we’d recommend getting a Core i5 processor over a Core i7 if the money saved could go toward an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU instead of an RTX 4050. Spending your money on the GPU makes more sense if gaming is your chief concern.
(Credit: Molly Flores)
Look for Intel Core i5 processors in budget gaming systems, with Core i7 H, HQ, and HK processors in midrange gaming laptops. The H-series processors are higher-power and tend to show up in more expensive gaming laptops, while lower-power Core i7 U-series chips are designed for thinner, more portable, generally non-gaming machines. The most expensive, biggest gaming laptops for sale use Core i9 H-series processors, which are also superior for media tasks. The branch-off Core Ultra Meteor Lake processors drop the “i” structure but still have their own Ultra 5, 7, and 9 tiers, as well as designations like H series and U series.
Then you have the AMD side, which we alluded to at the start of this discussion. AMD’s chips long played second fiddle to Intel’s offerings, but these days, Intel and AMD tug back and forth for performance supremacy. Today, AMD’s Ryzen 7000 chips go toe-to-toe with Intel’s 13th and 14th Gen processors, making for fiercer competition. Any Ryzen 7000 or 13th or 14th Gen Intel H-class chips should be capable gamers under most circumstances.
3. RAM
How much memory should you get? For gaming on Windows, demand at least 8GB of RAM. (In practice, no real gaming model will come with less.) That will give you some breathing room when switching back and forth between your gameplay window and your messaging app, but we’d save researching game tips for when you’re not playing, as each successive browser tab you open eats into your RAM allotment.
A capacity of 16GB is becoming increasingly standard for all but the least expensive laptops. With this, you can have your gaming session, a messaging app, several websites, a webcam, and streaming video active simultaneously. A midrange gaming laptop should function fine with 8GB of RAM, but be aware that some new laptops are not upgradable. You may be stuck with the amount of memory you order. For an investment-grade gaming laptop, 16GB is the minimum target; for most folks who aren’t extreme streamers or multitaskers, more than that is overkill. The highest-end gaming laptops will come with 32GB or more these days, which is mostly gravy that helps you multitask and run games at the highest settings.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
4. Screen
This aspect has become increasingly complicated for gaming laptops, really boiling down to two questions: “What is the best size for a laptop screen?” and “What is the best refresh rate?”
First, regarding display size, we’re always talking about the diagonal distance from corner to corner. A 15.6-inch screen is the traditional sweet spot for a gaming laptop, though screens that measure 16 inches have started to replace them. You can buy models with larger displays, but this will almost certainly increase the weight to well beyond five pounds and put portability in question.
Multiple vendors announced 18-inch laptops early last year, including Alienware, Asus, and Razer. We reviewed the first of these, the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18, and many more have since followed. Smaller, super-portable gaming laptops, usually around 14 inches, have also become popular. And so, you’ll find more screen options than ever, including 14.5, 16, 17.3, and 18 inches.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
In terms of resolution, a full HD (1,920-by-1,080-pixel in 16:9 aspect ratio) native-resolution screen is today’s default minimum, whatever the screen size. One thing to note: Laptop makers have increasingly moved to 16:10 panels, which provide a little more vertical real estate without changing the footprint much. As such, you will see equivalent full HD resolution screens at a slightly different pixel count (1,920 by 1,200), and the same goes for other resolutions.
Larger displays can give you higher-than-1080p resolutions, but choose wisely, as a resolution of 1440p or 4K can boost the bottom line twice: first for the panel and second, possibly, for the higher-quality graphics chip you’ll need to drive it to its full potential. As mentioned, look for increasingly common G-Sync or high-refresh-rate screens (as discussed earlier) if you want smoother visuals.
Because they require the most potent GPUs for smooth gameplay at native resolution, gaming laptops with 4K screens (3,840 by 2,160 pixels in 16:9) are still an exception and still expensive. Only the most powerful and pricey GPUs can render complex game animations at playable frame rates at 4K, so a 1080p screen may be a better use of your money if all you do is play games.
Even though the RTX 4080 and 4090 can handle 4K gaming much more ably than any laptop GPUs before them, we still don’t think it’s worth the cost to seek out 4K gaming in laptops unless you can spend big. The screens do look excellent, though, especially since they’re sometimes paired with OLED technology. QHD is often a better resolution pairing for modern high-end GPUs on laptops.
(Credit: Molly Flores)
Now, to address the refresh rate question. Refresh rate is the number of times a screen refreshes itself per second and, thus, how “fast” it can display images. This will always be a relatively large number measured in hertz (Hz). Refresh rate functions alongside a video game’s frames per second or fps; the Hz limit of your screen is the cap for how many frames per second can be rendered on the display. These together determine how smooth a game looks in practice: The computer’s CPU and GPU can power a game at a specific frame rate, and your screen needs the Hz to display the images equally often.
As with GPUs, you should consider what your target refresh rate is for your gaming goals. In the past, the power of a GPU like the RTX 4070 would look like overkill for gaming at “just” 1080p, but several new factors can absorb that extra potential. A high-refresh-rate screen is now the norm in any new gaming laptop, allowing for a full display of lofty frame rates to smooth out the perceived gameplay. You’ll need a powerful graphics chip to leverage the benefits of a high-refresh panel with demanding games. You can identify machines like these by marketing lingo about, say, a 144Hz, 240Hz, or even 300Hz-plus screen. (A typical display on a laptop is a 60Hz panel, but new gaming models all have 144Hz-plus screens now.)
A 144Hz panel is emerging as the most common, but we’re also seeing some 240Hz and even 360Hz options in pricey models, all capable of displaying more than 60 frames per second (for example, up to 144fps in the case of 144Hz screens). This makes gameplay look smoother, but in many cases, only high-end GPUs can push those limits. Additionally, the aforementioned ray-tracing techniques (real-time lighting and reflection effects) are demanding to run, and as more video games implement the technology, the more you will want to flip them on.
(Credit: Molly Flores)
Because of that, you have multiple reasons to opt for a high-end GPU, even if playing games at full HD (1080p) resolution doesn’t look too demanding to you on paper. On the lower end, DLSS can also help less powerful hardware like the RTX 3050 or 4050 run or enable ray-tracing with limited downsides, so you’re not totally out of luck if you can’t afford the top-end chips. DLSS support is far from universal, but it’s appearing in more and more titles.
Nvidia’s G-Sync and AMD’s FreeSync technologies are more down-to-earth. They help increase the quality of the gaming experience and smooth out frame rates by letting the laptop screen rewrite the image onscreen at a variable rate that depends on the output of the GPU (rather than the fixed rate of the screen). Look for support for one of those technologies if you’re a stickler for perfectly rendered visuals. These technologies, collectively known as “adaptive sync,” are becoming more common, but they tend to show up in pricier machines, with G-Sync being much more common in laptops.
5. Storage
How much storage space should you get in a gaming laptop SSD? Virtually every laptop comes with an SSD as the boot drive these days, and most have eliminated spinning hard drives entirely. SSDs speed up boot time, wake-from-sleep time, and the time it takes to launch a game and load a new level. Only older laptops will still have a hard drive as the boot drive.
In large gaming laptops, it was previously common to see a small-capacity (256GB) SSD boot drive paired with a roomy (1TB or greater) secondary hard drive to store the bulk of your library. You may still find this combination, but as higher-capacity SSDs have become more affordable, SSDs have become the norm. A 512GB SSD is the new default, while some budget gaming laptops will start at 256GB, and high-end systems will include a 1TB SSD or more.
Adding greater SSD capacity will undoubtedly increase the price, but it may be necessary, given how large modern game installations can be, so shop accordingly. We recommend at least a 512GB SSD if you can afford it; even then, your library will fill up your drive fast. If you see 256GB offered, we really would suggest bumping up the capacity if you can, unless you know you only want to play smaller indie titles, perhaps. A too-small SSD can mean you’re forever shuffling games on and off the drive.
6. Battery
Given that high-end components tend to drain battery life, don’t plan on taking any of these gaming rigs too far from a wall socket very often. Gaming laptops have improved on average regarding battery life, but it’s generally not a long-lasting category. While many will now get you five, six, or seven hours, we still see more powerful laptops last only two to three hours in our rundown test. It’s also something you can’t especially tell when shopping for a laptop without looking at our reviews.
This is, of course, before even playing games on battery. Doing so will drastically run down the charge on your laptop, meaning you’ll be looking to plug in soon if you’re playing on battery power. Between the fact that you’re going to buy this laptop to play games mostly and a battery runtime that’s short even when you’re not gaming, battery power just is not one of the priorities when buying a gaming laptop. Longer is still better than shorter, and we include at least one gaming pick among our list of overall laptops with the best battery life, but it’s not a strength of gaming machines.
Buying the Best Cheap Gaming Laptop
If you’re shopping for a gaming system on a limited budget (in this case, between roughly $800 and $1,300), you must make some sacrifices. Maximizing power while staying within a limited price range is the goal, but you’ll have to accept that some components won’t be comparable with the more expensive laptops you’ll see while browsing. That said, $1,200 is a reasonable ceiling for what some buyers are ready to spend on a gaming laptop, and you can still get an effective system for that much. (Check out our side roundup of the best cheap gaming laptops.)
The main drop-off will be in the graphics since the dedicated graphics chip is one of the most expensive components in a machine and the primary factor in a laptop’s gaming prowess. The graphics chip almost single-handedly defines the class of laptop you’re dealing with, so pay attention to that part. Fortunately, even the less powerful GPU options these days are pretty capable.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
Past budget systems were equipped almost exclusively with those wallet-friendly Nvidia GeForce GTX GPUs we mentioned earlier. The GeForce RTX 3050, RTX 3050 Ti, and RTX 4050 have replaced these inside laptops for as low as $799. These are now the entry-level options.
The RTX 4050 is now the budget baseline, but you can hunt for sales for past 30-series laptops if you want to save as much as possible. Even at the entry range, with most of these GPUs, you’ll be able to play smoothly at 1080p, just not at the very highest settings in newer games, and all should be able to provide at least a decent level of VR play if that’s your thing.
Processors are the next most significant difference. In a budget model, you’ll likely get a capable Core i5 instead of a faster Core i7. Still, some of the benefits of an i7 machine aren’t a major factor for gaming but instead benefit video editing and other creative uses, so an i5 will do the job. Over the past year or two, we saw more AMD Ryzen CPUs in cheap, general-use laptops than in affordable gaming laptops, despite their adoption in some higher-end or ultraportable gaming systems.
AMD GPUs are much less common in budget gaming laptops than Nvidia ones. You’ll find more all-AMD laptops available than in the past, but few are budget machines.
Outside of the graphics card and processor, the other components should be closer to more expensive machines than you’d expect. SSD boot drives are the norm even in the cheapest new gaming laptops, though they may be small in capacity. The display will almost certainly be 1080p, as 1,366-by-768-pixel panels are now reserved only for the very cheapest non-gaming systems. The RAM will likely top off at 8GB in budget laptops, but you will find some (more ideal) 16GB laptops in this range.
What Else Do You Need to Up Your Game?
Cutting-edge ports like USB Type-C and Thunderbolt 4 are beneficial now and will only be more so down the road, but look for at least two ordinary-shaped (aka, “Type-A”) USB 3.0 ports so you can plug in an external mouse and a hard drive for your saved media files. There’s also a load of extras like RGB key and chassis lighting, software performance modes, and Ethernet ports for wired downloads or online gaming.
If you want to attach a VR headset to your rig, look for the right loadout of ports to accommodate it. You’ll need a well-placed HDMI or DisplayPort video out (it depends on the headset which one you’ll need) and enough USB ports for a possible hydra-head of cabling. Other video ports, like DisplayPort or mini-DisplayPort (sometimes implemented over a USB-C port), will be helpful if you want to play games on an external display, but they aren’t necessary if your laptop’s screen is large enough.
Which Brand Is Best to Buy a Gaming Laptop From?
Our picks run the gamut of many different brands, though we do often see the same names rate highly in our lists. Some of these are gaming specialists, and others are not. At any given time, you should expect to see some systems from the biggest manufacturers, which always sell multiple models and configurations at various price points. These primarily include Acer, Asus, Dell, and Lenovo. The last, in particular, has been serving up quite impressive value in the gaming category recently.
Some of the more specialist brands that consistently produce great gaming rigs are Alienware (a Dell subsidiary), Gigabyte, MSI, and Razer. Some of these, particularly Razer machines, come with hefty price premiums and superior quality.
Ready to Buy the Right Gaming Laptop for You?
Feeling more prepared now to buy than before? We hope so. Our detailed spec breakout of all the top-pick machines we laid out earlier should help you settle on the best gaming laptop that fits your budget and your gaming aspirations. Game on!
Ben Madilynn
