
The trend of gaming laptops continues to dominate new sales in the market, but the issue is that the top-end models come with steep price tags compared to desktops. Take your machine over to your friend’s house for a session without having to haul around a desktop system. Today’s gaming laptops offer an immersive experience similar to desktops while remaining portable. The introduction of Nvidia’s Pascal architecture in 2016 was a real game-changer for the industry, leading to the development of compact, mobile GPUs like the GeForce GTX 1080, GTX 1070, and GTX 1060.
Good budget gaming laptop Pc#
Good budget gaming laptop series#
These affordable Nvidia GeForce RTX 30 Series gaming laptops are ready to take on almost any gaming task. When it comes to the top cheap high-spec gaming laptops, our favourites are undoubtedly the Gigabyte G5, MSI Katana GF66, and the Dell G15. Thankfully, we’ve discovered seven winners - each boasting features to make your gaming endeavours more successful - and enjoyable. Renowned for being pricey, we weren’t sure we’d be able to find gaming laptops worth their salt, for under £1,000. Honestly? Going into this one we were worried.

Good budget gaming laptop software#
Besides these components, gaming laptops often feature other nifty but pricey hardware and software - for example, faster refresh rate monitors, the latest Windows 10/11 OS, cooling systems, a rugged chassis and backlighting.īottom line: anyone who takes gaming seriously needs a proper gaming laptop. It’s not optional.Ī fast CPU that clocks top speeds is also ideal. A dedicated/discrete graphics card, such as an AMD or Nvidia GPU, is considered necessary for many of the newest games. Gaming laptops feature dedicated graphics cards and are worth the money if you intend to play any intensive games. Rendering game visuals is one of the most intensive tasks a PC can do. Large screen means it’s quite heavy and bulky You don’t want to be left unable to use your tools! Also, make sure that it offers plenty of port connection types - including USB-A (preferably faster 3.0), USB-C, micro-USB, HDMI, 3.5mm audio and Thunderbolt. Be sure your laptop has enough inputs to handle your demands. Gaming accessories such as headsets, mice, external drives, mics and the like, can take up a lot of ports. Secondary hard drive storage space can also help your laptop run faster, especially if it is an SSD-type drive. The best cheap gaming laptop should feature at least 8GB of RAM, with 16GB and over being ideal. Or, rather, the more RAM, the faster your games will load and run. RAM is the primary memory your laptop uses to quickly access critical data, such as game startup files. Faster refresh rates of 120Hz, 144Hz and 240Hz are ideal when gaming, as these offer more accurate, smoother visuals and less tearing, ghosting and lag. Most standard monitors offer a 60 Hz refresh rate, equalling 60 refreshes per second. A faster monitor refresh rate is important for gaming due to the ever-changing nature of game visuals. Faster monitor refresh rateĪ refresh rate is the number of times your monitor refreshes the image on your display per second. Check your game designs and editing software specs for an idea of the graphics card you need.

As such, the best way to save on a gaming laptop is to opt for a model with a GPU just sufficient enough for your needs. However, the more powerful your GPU (graphics processing unit), the pricier the laptop. A dedicated GPUĪ dedicated graphics card is a must for any gaming PC - be it a cheap gaming laptop or not. Models such as the 10th and 11th-gen i5, i7, and i9 Intel CPUs are ideal for gaming, as are AMD Ryzen 5, 7, and 9 CPUs. Opting for a newer-generation CPU is important for gamers, as older-gen CPUs tend not to be supported by the latest software and games. A new generation CPUĪ CPU (core processing unit) is one of the basic hardware components in any laptop. See below for the most crucial elements to consider when purchasing your gaming laptop.

If you want to cut down on costs, it's best to look for one that includes only the bare basics of what you need. Not all gaming laptop features are an absolute necessity. Photo: Pexels Five important features to look for in a cheap gaming laptop
