Best Gaming Laptops: The Definitive Guide

These are the top five best gaming laptops on the market, chosen from hundreds of models.

The Breakdown

ASUS is well-known for their high-quality products and superior customer service. With the purchase of the ASUS ROG GL753VW, buyers are guaranteed peace of mind. This laptop comes stock with 16 gigabytes or GB of RAM, allowing it to handle multiple resource-intensive programs at the same time without slowing down and won’t need upgrades as frequently as other models.

The row of function keys at the top of the keyboard make tweaking various settings quick and easy, and the customizable Smart Gestures for the trackpad rival a standard computer mouse in convenience and utility. There’s also some options for the backing of this laptop’s case. This can be great for gamers who dislike brush-metal designs on computer hardware or think smooth plastic feels cheap. Enjoy all the ASUS ROG GL753VW has to offer at an affordable price point.

The Breakdown

Many of the laptops on this list stretch the definition of the word “portable,” but the Razer Blade really is. This machine is thin and lightweight, which is makes it perfect for gaming while traveling. Although it’s smaller than average, the 14-inch display on this model contains a higher pixel density than other laptops, allowing for resolutions greater than 2K. In addition, this machine is touchscreen, making it ideal for running Windows 8 or Windows 10 with enhanced touch-based functionalities.

Coupled with a quad-core processor with a speed of 2.6 gigahertz or GHz, the Razer Blade can handle a great deal of tasks at the same time. This laptop’s CPU supports hyper-threading, meaning it can easily run virtual machines and emulators, while providing excellent streaming support. The Razer Blade’s keyboard has a backlit display, which can change colors and match moods, making it ideal for low-light environments. At just over four pounds, this laptop is a lightweight, yet extremely powerful portable gaming rig.

The Breakdown

The display on the MSI GT72S Dominator Pro allows for 4K resolutions, providing truly awe-inspiring visuals on games that support it. The built-in speakers are surprisingly loud, producing high-quality audio from a deceptively small package. With the addition of a Blu-Ray drive, the MSI GT72S Dominator Pro can also serve as an excellent portable movie player.

With flawless fan placement and design, this machine was built around having proper airflow. MSI also went with a powerful Skylake processor for this build instead of Intel. This ensures an enormous amount of support in the future, meaning more updates and driver support. Expect the MSI GT72S Dominator Pro to handle powerful graphics and processor-intensive activities in stride. This laptop has impressive capabilities and will be at the forefront of portable gaming machines for years to come.

The Breakdown

The folks at Alienware really knocked it out of the park with the AW17R3. With an aluminum coating and an expert finish, this really feels like a piece of alien technology. Considering it can be upgraded to store 16GB of DDR4 RAM, this model will be able to keep up with intense gaming requirements for years to come. Coupled with its impressive GTX970M graphics card, this laptop meets the requirements to run virtual reality games.

The base resolution on the Alienware AW17R3 is 4K – nearly double the resolution rate of standard HD gaming, meaning some games can be upscaled and rendered in native 4K resolution for extra in-game detail. The quad-core processor runs at 2.6GHz, the standard rate for most modern gaming laptops. However, the four cores of this high-end CPU can be clocked up to much higher rates, so it can handle the boosts that come with 4K gaming. Enjoy a seriously stunning on-the-go gaming experience with the Alienware AW17R3!

The Breakdown

The ASUS ROG G701VO-CS74K is a high-value pick for several reasons: it has a speedy processor, a powerful graphics card, a Blu-Ray burner and a large solid state drive, or SSD. Having ample RAM and a graphics card designed for powerful 3D modeling programs, this laptop is more than capable of running virtual reality games in stunning resolution with smooth frame rates, such as the HTC Vive.

This laptop comes stock with 64GB of RAM: no memory upgrades are necessary, or will be necessary for quite sometime. In addition to having impressive interior components, this laptop has a great exterior as well. The entire shell is made of copper titanium and the keyboard is extremely functional. If you’re looking for the best of the best gaming laptops, look no further, the ASUS ROG G701VO-CS74K is it.

Best Overall Gaming Laptop

The ASUS ROG G701VO-CS74K shatters most expectations of gaming laptops and is one of the best machines on the market, hands down. Its components are high-end and comparable to some of the most intimidating desktops out there, and the internals are based around modeling and rendering, making it fully capable of handling intense, high-performance games.

With its speedy graphics card, top-of-the-line processor and ludicrous 64GB of memory, don’t be surprised if this machine outperforms your friend’s custom-built desktop that they’re so proud of. If you’re passionate about video games and are looking for a new laptop to handle all your needs, the ASUS ROG G701VO-CS74K is a great pick up.

Best Gaming Laptop For The Money

When it comes to getting the best gaming laptop for the money, the ASUS ROG GL753VW offers a number of handy features at a low barrier of entry. The price point is incredible for the hardware included, making it ideal for people looking to dip their toes in the world of computer gaming. It also makes sense for hardcore gamers looking to get a gaming laptop for travel and LAN parties.

The high-quality construction and customer support from ASUS ensure that issues are rare and easily resolved. In addition, the impressive tank-like design provides solid durability and envious looks from those around you. If you want an ideal gaming laptop on a budget, the ASUS ROG GL753VW is it.

“This laptop sports a GTX960M (not the 4GB model, but the 2GB) which is more than fine to play most any game at high-ultra settings, including, but not limited to: Elite:Dangerous – Horizons, Fallout 4, Call of Duty Black Ops 2 & 3, Guild Wars 2, and others.” -Verified Amazon Customer

Gaming Laptop Buyer’s Guide

There hasn’t been a better time to get into PC gaming then now: there’s tons of new and retro games that are widely available at terrific prices with cutting-edge graphics, superior online support and active modification communities.

There’s a lot of factors to consider when choosing a good gaming laptop. Depending on the type of games you like to play and where you play them, there’s certain features you may want to prioritize. This guide is meant as a quick reference for good gaming laptop features and components in order to help you choose the best gaming laptop for your needs.

HDD/SSD: There are a few different types of storage for laptops. Hard drives are cheap, reliable and can store a lot of data. Hard disk drives, or HDDs, are commonly found in budget laptops or machines with at least a terabyte of storage. On the other hand, solid state drives or SSDs are significantly faster, smaller types of data storage. Many high-end laptops come with a smaller SSD, sometimes to supplement a larger HDD. The advantage of using both types in one machine is the storage and stability of the hard drive coupled with the speed of the solid state drive.

CPU/GPU: Two of the most important components to look at when picking the best gaming laptop are the central processor or CPU and the graphics processor or GPU. For many laptops and some budget gaming laptops, the central processor handles all GPU duties as well as CPU duties, which is fine for casual use but is terrible for modern gaming. An ideal gaming laptop has a powerful CPU and a decent separate graphics card.

Optical Drive: Modern gaming and networking is handled through cloud storage and digital copies of software. This has rendered disc-based storage such as DVD and CD-ROM obsolete in some aspects, so many laptops no longer contain disc drives of any kind in order to save space or cost. Many users can get along fine without an optical drive, but gamers and people interested in upgrades will want at the very least the opportunity to install a disc drive. This allows for easy driver and OS upgrades, as well as providing legacy support for older games.

Emulating: With computers as powerful as they are today, they can easily run emulations of older video games. Many websites sell emulated copies of classic games and some programmers have made entire virtual consoles that can run raw data ripped from old game cartridges. Some aspects of video game emulation are mired in ethical and legal ramifications, but a machine that is friendly for emulating can easily be outfitted with thousands of classic games, running exactly as they were when they were first released.

Keep these terms in mind when comparing prices and features to find the best gaming laptop that fits your needs!