Gaming laptops bring the best of both worlds. With the portability of a laptop and the performance of a PC, having a gaming laptop can revolutionize the way you play. Gaming laptops offer high-performance rates that can help with almost anything, be it school, animation, side projects, or gaming. While they are a tad bulkier than your standard laptop, many gaming laptops have the option for a slimmer model that can fit into most backpacks and side bags. If you are not worried about portability, you might want to check out the best budget prebuilt PCs for your gaming needs.

Some gaming laptops are designed for artists, with touch screens and a foldable interface. Others are designed with only gaming in mind, with robust fans and other cooling options to keep everything functioning smoothly. There are many choices to make when considering a gaming laptop, such as budget and workload, which is why we have some of the best picks possible to help you get started.

When looking for a new laptop, there are a couple of factors you will want to keep in mind to make sure you pick out the perfect laptop for you.

• Display: What kind of performance do you want from the display?
• Form Factor: What size of laptop do you want?
• GPU and CPU: What games do you want to play, and what specs will allow you to play those games?
• Memory and Storage: How much space do you want for a game library, and how much RAM makes sense for your needs?
• Special Features: What makes a laptop go the extra mile and be absolutely perfect for you?

The Razer Blade 16, the successor to the Razer Blade 15, received major upgrades this generation, including the switch to high-speed DDR5 RAM, an upgrade from the NVIDIA 3000 series to the 4000 series, and an extra inch added to the display for even more sweet, sweet gaming. Despite there being an increase in price compared to the previous generation, the Razer Blade 16 includes Intel's 13th generation CPUs, which completely blows their previous 12th generation CPUs out of the water in terms of performance in both single-threaded applications such as gaming as well as multi-threaded applications like content creation, thanks to improved thermals and innovation. Making them some of the best CPUS for gaming ever.

Another thing that the Razer Blade series does well, and this includes their previous generations of gaming laptops, is that they don't look "gamery", for lack of better terms. These laptops look closer to a Microsoft Surface or MacBook in terms of style, sleek and modern, without shoving a bunch of different colors in your face for accents and unnecessary edges that make the laptop stand out. Other than the Razer logo on the back, people would likely never know you even have a gaming laptop that pumps out FPS as if it were a desktop. Razer also announced the Razer Blade 18, which has an 18" display, but you are going to pay extra for only a couple more inches, not making it the best value.

The Acer Nitro 5 Gaming Laptop is a capable laptop that can help you dominate the game no matter what you play. If you like online games, the Killer DoubleShot Pro with Ethernet and Killer Wi-Fi 6 1650 can allow you to use both Wi-Fi and Ethernet at the same time, helping you prioritize different tasks for different channels. The Acer Nitro 5 Gaming Laptop is a larger laptop, but still portable in most large bags or backpacks. This makes it usable for school, work, or just gaming at home.

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The Acer Nitro 5 Gaming Laptop stays cool under pressure. With the Acer CoolBoost technology integrated right into the system, your laptop can increase fan speed by up to 10% to help cool your system when it needs it the most. With the Acer Nitro 5 Gaming Laptop, you can take control of your gameplay by using the NitroSense UI, visualizing your PC's temperature, fan speed, power plan, loading performance, and more.

The MSI Raider GE78 HX is pretty much as beefy as it comes in terms of gaming laptops. It features the top-of-the-line i9-13980HX, which is the fastest laptop CPU to date, a dedicated RTX 4080 laptop GPU, and over 64 GB of DDR5 RAM. This gaming laptop performs the best and even runs on par with some of the highest-end desktops at the moment.

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With that being said, MSI is planning to release a beefier MSI Titan version that features the RTX 4090 instead of the 4080. Though honestly, the display refresh downgrade, weight increase, and small overall performance boost aren't necessarily worth it for how pricey the Titan will end up costing. If you truly want the best of the best without necessarily overspending, then you'll really be happy with the Raider GE78.

The ASUS TUF Dash 15 Gaming Laptop is a compact yet powerful gaming laptop developed by ASUS. With an NVIDIA graphics card, the gameplay for most high-speed games is super smooth on the almost 16-inch colorful display. Using the MUX Switch, you can have the GPU communicate directly with the display at the flip of a switch. This can help improve performance and reduce latency.

RELATED: Best PC and Laptop DealsThe ASUS TUF Dash 15 Gaming Laptop is equipped with an Intel Core i7, making it powerful enough for most high-performance games. With that much speed, you can multitask through classes and projects with ease. The HD display on the ASUS TUF Dash 15 Gaming Laptop keeps up with its processor for not only high performance but little latency between the game and what you see on the screen. Need more options that won't cost an arm and a leg? Check out our picks for the best budget gaming laptops!

Whether it's gaming, work, or wanting to draw, the ASUS ROG Flow X13 does everything and more that you could ask for. This 2-in-1 laptop has the ability to run your favorite game, such as League of Legends, on it in its laptop form and then quickly flip over so you can draw your favorite character in its tablet form. Unlike other 2-in1s out on the market, the Flow X13 was designed under ASUS's ROG line, which is the gamer laptop series from them.

For gaming, you have everything from the high-end AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS to a dedicated 3050 Ti GPU to play all the latest and greatest games. This was also the first generation of CPUs for AMD to have DDR5 in. With this laptop having 16 GB of LPDDR5-6400MHz RAM, you can multitask quite well for the price. Now this may be a generation-old laptop at this point, and you'll certainly fair better in terms of performance buying a high-end gaming laptop and a high-end drawing tablet separately, but for the price to performance, you won't find another all-purpose gaming laptop like this one.

This lightweight powerhouse of a gaming laptop is the Razer Blade 14, the previous generation of gaming laptops from Razer. While the Blade 16 is crushing the competition for best overall, the Blade 14 has still found its way onto this list as the best lightweight gaming laptop, coming in at just under 4 lbs. With a Ryzen 9 6900HS, RTX 3070 Ti, and CNC aluminum frame, it's almost a mystery as to how the Blade 14 feels so light.

Truthfully, the reason the weight was significantly decreased was in part due to the lower battery capacity. The Razer Blade 14 only has a 61.6 Watt-hour battery life, or roughly 33% less battery life than the Razer Blade 16. The slightly smaller size makes for smaller keys as well, but overall, the Blade 14 can throw punches with even 5- and 6-pound laptops out on the market.

The ASUS ROG Strix Scar 15 Gaming Laptop is a powerful and appealing gaming laptop that you can use for school, work, or fun. With a bright LED light at the bottom of the base of the laptop, the ASUS ROG Strix Scar 15 Gaming Laptop is a colorful piece of hardware that has the performance to back up its looks. It runs using a 12th gen Intel Core, making it equal to most gaming rigs out there.

The ASUS ROG Strix Scar 15 Gaming Laptop has a stunning refresh rate, offering visuals faster than it can make them. Give your laptop a little boost with the MUX Switch Boost that allows your graphics card to communicate directly with your display. Show off your laptop with full RGB customizability by changing even individual key colors with a simple press of a button.

While Alienware is often known as the overpriced, name-brand gaming laptop throughout the gaming community, the new m16 laptop is quite literally the best piece of technology they've ever released when talking price-to-performance. Combining the i9-13900HX, a full-sized RTX 4080, as well as a QHD+ monitor will make this laptop quite literally one of the best-performing laptops on the market. You'll easily find this laptop competing with high-end desktop setups for around roughly the same price.

Now, the caveat to this is the fact that the m16 doesn't have a huge battery to support all of these wattage-hungry processing units. So you're going to want to carry the power brick around with you as much as possible to supplement the power draw, which only adds to the weight you're going to need to carry around, as this laptop is already over 7 lbs.

How To Pick The Perfect Gaming Laptop For You

It can be a hard task to pick out a new gaming laptop. There is a wide range of features that you have to consider when you are choosing a new laptop, from hardware specs to the display, form factor, battery life, and those special features that give that special X factor to gaming laptops. Once you break down each of those factors individually, it becomes a bit easier to make a choice.

Display

The display size, resolution, and refresh rate is hugely important to the overall performance of a laptop. If you want a bigger screen look for laptops with either a 15-inch or 17-inch option, and a 16:10 aspect ratio will give you more screen room than the traditional 16:9 ratio. 13 and 14-inch gaming laptops are harder to find, but there are options like the Razer Blade 14 which is an excellent choice.

High refresh rate displays make a huge difference for gaming, so we would recommend looking for laptops that feature at least a 120 Hz display. You can always go for a faster display, but 120 Hz is good to shoot for as a minimum. As far as the resolution goes, there is no need to get a 4K laptop display, even at 17 inches a 4K display is going to be absolute overkill.

Form Factor

Form factor and display size go hand in hand. If you want a lightweight small laptop one with a 17-inch display is not really an option. Laptops can range from slim machines you can easily slip into any backpack to desktop replacement laptops which are absolutely huge. Checking out the specs like the weight and dimensions of the overall laptop will give you a good idea of what kind of form factor you are getting.

CPU and GPU

CPUs and GPUs are the two main specs that usually sell laptops. Mobile GPUs don't always correspond to the performance of their desktop counterparts, so don't always go for the laptop that has the best GPU if it was in a desktop. After finding a laptop that fits all your other needs, we highly recommend checking out benchmarks for the games you are wanting to play and see how both the CPU and GPU handle them.

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Memory and Storage

Most high performance laptops nowadays use NVME SSDs which offer excellent speed and for the most part large storage options. With games requiring more and more storage we recommend looking at least 500 GBs of storage, but if you don't want to upgrade the storage for a while a 1 or 2 TB drive might be a better option.

Memory or RAM is similar to storage, but handles temporary storage for rapid retrieval by the CPU. So how much do you need? For most gamers 16 GB of RAM is a good point to start and handle most tasks. But if you are looking to do more multitasking 32 GB of RAM might be a better option.

We also recommend looking at laptops that have easily upgradable RAM and storage, so down the line if you do need to upgrade components or replace failing ones this is easily done and not require purchasing a whole new laptop.

Special Features Or The X Factor

Now that you have the base of what you are looking for, there is a good chance that there are still a lot of laptops to choose from. It's time for the x factor to set one laptop apart from the rest. This can be things like I/O, or special cooling options, but that is up to you, each of us have different preferences on what makes a laptop truly perfect for you.

FAQ

Q: Are gaming laptops good for multiplayer games?

Gaming laptops can definitely hold their own when gamers try out multiplayer titles, even if the laptop isn't as robust an option as a full PC. Just make sure you have a good mouse, because FPS titles demand precision that a trackpad can't keep up with.

Q: What should I consider before buying a gaming laptop?

There are a few things that you may want to think about when getting your first gaming laptop. Are you going to use it for more than just gaming? If you're considering using your laptop for school or work as well, you may want to consider getting a slimmer laptop build, something that looks professional and appealing to the eye. If you just want to use the laptop for gaming and gaming alone, a bulkier, bigger laptop may be more appropriate.

Q: What are some good accessories to buy for gaming laptops?

There are all kinds of add-ons you can get to help your laptop thrive. A fan, for example, one that attaches at the base, can help keep the laptop cool in addition to its own internal methods. Getting a good mouse can also help you game more effectively, especially if you have a dedicated desk for your gaming space.