Best gaming laptops under $1,500

Choosing the best gaming laptop, especially in the $1,500 price point, isn’t easy. There are many options in the midrange market, so it can be difficult to find the right laptop for you. Are you looking for the latest AAA games at 1080p and ray tracing? Are you looking for a notebook that can be used for both work and play?

If you’re not sure where to begin, we can help. In order to take the stress out of shopping for a gaming laptop on a budget, we’ve curated a list of excellent gaming machines that all come in under $1,500. These recommendations are based upon extensive testing and extensive experience. We are happy to show you the best options, so let’s get started.

You can read more about how we selected the best gaming laptops. Our roundup of the best gaming laptops offers even more options. best gaming laptopsOur prices are competitive at all price points. best gaming laptops under $1,000.

Last modified 11/09/2022The Asus Vivobook Pro 15OLED is our pick for the best budget option. For more information, please read our review below.

Check out our new review of The Acer Predator Triton 300 SE. Although it offers a good mix of professional and gaming features, it lacks some quality issues that make it stand out from the best. Also, take a look at our review. HP Envy 16This combines a powerful mid-range performance with its i9/RTX 3060 combo. However, its high price makes it nearly as expensive than some premium competitors.

1. HP Victus 16 (16-d0097nr) – Best overall

Pros

• Very good value
• Amazingly comfortable keyboard
• Large 16-inch 1080p display with high 144Hz refresh rates

Cons

• Budget RTX GPU
• Audio doesn’t feel quite right
• Display hinge is a little fragile

When it comes to the HP Victus 16, you’re getting a lot of bang for your buck. The 16-inch 1080p screen has a high refresh speed of 144Hz. The keyboard feels surprisingly soft and there are many configuration options. Although the laptop’s GeForce RTX 3050 Ti GPU falls on the lower end of the spectrum, it still delivers solid 1080p gaming performance. The laptop’s subtle design makes them a good choice for both work and play.

We tested the top-tier configuration which was still very affordable at $1,250. These models can be as low as $730, as we mentioned in our review. The GTX 1650 GPUs used in the cheaper models are older and do not support ray-tracing or DLSS. These laptops will still deliver decent gaming performance at lower graphics settings.

Check out our complete article
HP Victus 16 (16-d0097nr) review

2. Asus Vivobook Pro 15 OLED – Best budget option

Pros

• High productivity
• Amazing display
• Rugged design
• Battery life is amazing

Cons

• Boring aesthetics
• Unimpressive webcam 720p
• Unreliable fingerprint scanner
• Poor port selection

The Asus VivoBook Pro 15OLED is a great option for those who prefer to purchase a laptop, but still have the money for amazing peripherals. It’s a little cheaper than some of the other options on this list but still offers great performance. It comes with a Ryzen7 5800H CPU, and a GeForce RTX3050 GPU. This combination is sufficient to run your favorite games at decent frame rates while also completing all your productivity tasks. The true highlight of this laptop’s 1080p OLED display is its exceptional color accuracy and color performance. While it may not be the most attractive laptop, the VivoBook Pro 15 offers great value for money.

Check out our complete article
ASUS VivoBook Pro 15 OLED Ultra Slim Laptop review

3. Acer Predator Triton 300 SE – Most portable

Pros

• Design slim, under 4 lb
• Solid gaming and ray-tracing performance
• Backlighting of three-zone RGB keyboards
• Impressive battery life

Cons

• No G-Sync support
• No wired Ethernet

The Acer Predator Triton 300 SE is a great option for both work or play. The gaming and raytracing performance are excellent and the battery lasts surprisingly well for a gaming laptop. The battery failed to last nine hours during our battery test that looped 4K video. That’s definitely more than a full work day. The machine is also light at just three pounds. The Triton’s slim profile and good battery life make it a great work/travel laptop. The design is also subtle. You wouldn’t mind taking this into a work meeting with you, as the minimalist aesthetic doesn’t draw much attention to itself.

Check out our complete article
Acer Predator Triton 300 SE review

4. Swift X (SFX14-41G-R1S6) – Best for students

Pros

• Stellar ultraportable performance.
• Gaming laptop with RTX3050 Ti graphics.
• High-end parts have a remarkable battery life.

Cons

• Display feels cramped when it comes to creative work.
• Fan gets loud during heavy workloads.
• Poorly placed PgUp and -Down buttons

Don’t judge a laptop by its chassis. The Swift X may not look all that threatening at first glance, but under the hood you’ll find some seriously powerful components. This ultraportable comes with an AMD Ryzen 7 5800U CPU, an Nvidia GeForce 3050 Ti GPU, 512GB of SSD storage, and an Nvidia GeForce RX 3050TI GPU. In our review, the Swift managed “48 frames per second at the Highest preset” when running Shadow of the Tomb RaiderAt 1080p There are some drawbacks. The keyboard is a bit warm and the fans can get very loud under heavy loads. But if you can live with those shortcomings and you’re looking for strong CPU and GPU performance, the Swift X will definitely deliver.

Check out our complete article
Swift X (SFX14-41G-R1S6) review

5. HP Envy 14 14t-eb000 (2021) – Longest battery life

Pros

• Excellent value for money
• Amazing battery life
• Quiet fan, with no discernable performance throttling
• Thunderbolt 4 support

Cons

• A slightly quirky keyboard layout
• Webcam’s signature feature is ineffective

The HP Envy 14 makes a great choice for small gaming and content creation. The configuration we tested has an Intel Core i5-1135G7 CPU and an Iris Xe/Nvidia GeForce GTX1650 Ti Max-Q graphics. The most remarkable thing about this laptop, however, is its battery life. Gaming laptops generally aren’t known for having good battery life, so the Envy 14 really breaks the mold here. It ran for about 15 hours on one charge in our tests. The Envy 14 doesn’t produce much fan noise, either. In our review, we found that it ran “extremely quiet during both CPU- and graphics-intensive loads.”

Check out our complete article
HP Envy 14 14t-eb000 (2021) review

6. Nitro 5 17-inch (2021) – Largest display

Pros

• Strong CPU/GPU combination for the price
• With room for an additional drive, a spacious 1TB SSD is available

Cons

• Plastic chassis can be bulky
• Dim display
• Terrible webcam

If you’re looking for a decent value, the Acer Nitro 5 17 is a good option. It has a respectable graphics performance, and the port selection is quite extensive. Acer even offers the bits and pieces (i.e. screws) to swap out the storage or RAM. That said, the bulky plastic chassis won’t have anyone mistaking this for a premium product and the display is fairly dim. As with most budget gaming laptops there are sacrifices to be made. If those trade-offs don’t bother you much, then the Nitro 5 is definitely worth considering. The entry-level model starts at just over $1,400.

Check out our complete article
Nitro 5 17-inch (2021) review

7. Asus ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition – Best if you’re able to stretch your budget

Pros

• Every CPU in rival laptops outperforms it
• In conventional gaming, Radeon RX GPU is more powerful than comparable-priced GeForce GPUs.
• Surprisingly good audio quality

Cons

• No webcam
• Very bulky 280-watt power block
• Nvidia GPUs surpass Radeon in content creation and Ray Tracing.

The Asus ROG Strix G15 Advanced Edition all-AMD laptop delivers high CPU and GPU performance at a low price. It’s packing an AMD Ryzen 5900HX processor, an AMD Radeon RX 6800M GPU (with 12GB of GDDR6), 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of SSD storage. According to our review, the GPU “doesn’t outpace higher-wattage RTX 3080 laptop GPUs, but it’s a worthy competitor for conventional gaming tasks.” Unsurprisingly, the Strix G15 is one chunky machine, measuring 28mm at its thickest part. Although the additional thickness allows more space for cooling components, it’s not very portable. That said, so long as you don’t plan on taking this laptop everywhere you go, it’s a powerful gaming rig that’s well worth the money.

We understand that the $1,650 price tag isn’t “cheap” in the traditional sense, but this all-AMD laptop costs significantly less than other laptops of comparable power. If you look on Best Buy or Nvidia’s website for 3080 machines, they cost upwards of $2,200 to $3,000.

Check out our complete article
Asus ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition review

How we tested

Each Windows laptop is subject to a series benchmarks by the PCWorld team that tests its GPU and CPU performance, as well as battery life. The idea is to push the laptop to its limits and then compare it against others we’ve tested. Below, you’ll find a breakdown of each test and the reasons why we run them.

Windows laptops

• PCMark 10PCMark 10 is used to determine how well the laptop handles tasks such as web surfing, word processing, spreadsheets and so forth.
• HandBrakeHandBrake is more intense than PCMark 10 It basically measures how long a laptop’s CPU takes to encode a beefy 30GB file.
• CinebenchCinebench is a quick stress test of the CPU cores. Cinebench renders a 2D scene within a short time.
• 3DMark3DMark runs graphic-intensive clips to check if 3D performance is consistent over time.
• Video rundown: To gauge battery life, we loop a 4K video using Windows 10’s Movies & TV app until the laptop dies.

What to look for in a gaming laptop that is affordable

It really comes down to what you plan to do with your gaming laptop. Are you looking to play lightweight indie games like Stardew Valley(no shade. I love this game) Or something more visually demanding, like Cyberpunk 2077? Are you going to use it for work or play? It’s possible to get reliable performance out of a gaming laptop that costs under a grand, but you’ll need to take a hard look at the individual components. You don’t need a powerful GPU for something like Fortnite. My friends, the guts. That’s what matters.

• GPU: The thing about the GPU is that it can’t be swapped out and upgraded later, so you need to be real choosy about which one you pick, as this component will determine how well your machine runs games. Luckily, you don’t need the best of the best to get reliable gaming performance. The GTX 1650 is an entry-level GPU that’s affordable and good enough for 1080p gaming with mid-to-high graphics settings. You can expect slower frame rates with newer titles. If you’re looking for a bit more power, we recommend opting for a GTX 1660 Ti or higher, or a more current RTX 30-series GPU.
• CPU: Like the GPU, the processor can’t be upgraded either, so you’ll want to be selective. We recommend the 11th-gen Intel Core i5 and i7 processors for Intel. For AMD, you’ll want to spring for a Ryzen 4000 or 5000. A processor with at minimum four cores is fine, but six cores or greater is better.
• RAM: You’ll want at least 8GB of RAM. If you have the budget for 16GB RAM, go for it. Memory can usually be upgraded so you can always swap it for more later.
• StorageStorage can limit the number of games and apps you can install on your laptop. Storage is like RAM and can be upgraded later. You should aim for at most 512GB SSD storage and a hard drive. AAA titles can eat up a lot space. SSDs load games much faster because the data is stored on chips, not spinning disks.
• DisplayAt this price, you can expect to pay 1080p. Budget gaming laptops don’t always have the best displays, as that’s where manufacturers tend to cut corners to keep the cost low. If you’ve got a dim display, you can always pick up an external monitor to plug into.
• Battery lifeGaming laptops are generally known for their poor battery life. That’s because they use a ton of power. Because they require more space for heatsinks or other cooling components, they are heavier than other laptops. Depending on their use, they will last between four and six hours on a single battery. However, there are exceptions. During our battery test, the HP Envy 14 (pictured above) reached 15 hours.