If you are the first one to jump into the gaming field and want to play big games, you might be looking for the best laptop for gaming. There could be thousands of reasons behind your being here as the gaming freak, and there must always be something extraordinary and powerful.
Therefore, I have assembled a gaming laptop buyers guide with some most important features and considerations to look for before buying a laptop for yourself.
The thing is, old technology laptops do not work on gaming. Your ordinary notebook will not have enough power to keep you paced with playing flawlessly. You might be the one to look for your first PC or laptop. Check out Dr Tech Reviews PC Building Guide. But whatever it is, you must be very serious about this thing.
Games usually do not run on an ordinary or any laptop with low specs. They require something extraordinary. Therefore, you must set a legit budget for having a lifetime solution, or else it would only be a wastage of money.
But do not worry, because holding your back, I will let you know that if you are going to spend bucks on a laptop for gaming, how can you make that decision worthier and something value for money.
Let’s begin the conversation.
The Ultimate Gaming Laptop Buyers Guide 2021
At first, what to consider, a PC for gaming or a gaming laptop?
The story isn’t always based on getting a gaming laptop for yourself. But many of us consider having a complete system dedicated to gaming. Considering a desktop PC and then spending your money on something like this is entirely reasonable.
However, you don’t want to stick at the same place all the time, do you? That is why some smart guys consider looking for a gaming laptop as they are much interested in portability and easy computing anytime, anywhere. And I can find one sitting just in front of me. Hey hello freak!
What does this gaming laptop buyers guide tell you?
You could not be a tech guy who knows much about the specs he should look for before buying a gaming laptop for himself. You might also not know how to gather up things and how much you need to make things right on a worth-having gaming laptop.
Therefore, considering your difficulties, here are some sorted out specifications and recommendations for you to make you choose wisely. Your day will be fruitful, and your effort will be meaningful if you have a gaming laptop with these kinds of specs. So, let’s start talking about them.
The most important to look for is the GPU:
It doesn’t matter if you do gaming or graphics or editing. You must consider this thing your top-notch requirement for a gaming laptop. These days, laptops are coming with a dedicated GPU. This means if you have one inside your gaming PC, you have no problems playing games or doing other heavy stuff you prefer.
But what GPU should I have inside my laptop?
That’s a pretty good question because you will not find only one GPU out there as there are many. However, I must make sure that we are talking here just about the dedicated GPU. You can’t think of performing games on an integrated graphics processor.
The thing is, your laptop will not give you smooth gaming performance if it doesn’t equip a dedicated GPU. You might want to play all the new and famous games like WOW, Cities Skylines, and other popular games, and this is not possible without a high setting offered by a powerful GPU.
In this case, gaming laptops are coming with dedicated NVIDIA GeForce GTX and RTX series. However, AMD is also offering some best GPUs for making your gameplay qualitative as well as considerable. But it all depends on what type of gaming you want on your gaming laptop with a dedicated GPU.
Most gaming laptops have the latest RTX 20 series GPUs with 2080 and 2070 specs that stand best for high-end gaming and other purposes. In AMD, you will find AMD Radeon RX 5000M with three different variants. But you indeed have to consider your price range and find the best laptop with a dedicated GPU under that. Therefore, let me tell you what I can do best for you.
For those who want high end (extreme) gaming:
These people have no problem with money at all, and they can buy any gaming laptop at any price to make their lives worth living. So, if you find yourself in this category, you can easily gather up to $1500 for having a laptop with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 or RTX 3060 Ti dedicated GPU.
A laptop with this kind of GPU leaves no stone unturned in providing the best quality graphics and making things meaningful during your playtime.
However, if you have more money, there is also a new and advanced NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 launched. This can give you the ever-demanded faster gaming and graphic experience on your laptop.
For those who are middle-end gaming freaks:
Do not ever think that you can do gaming only on a laptop with the latest and advanced graphic processor. That is not true.
Because even if you have $1200 to $1800, you are all good to go with a gaming laptop. This kind of laptop has NVIDIA GeForce 2060, 2070, 3060, or AMD Radeon RX 5600M. Even the MSI GF65 Thin 10UE-047 features an RTX 3060 Graphics card, and you’ll be shocked that this laptop is available at 1000 dollars price range.
These GPUs can give you not extreme performance but are better than the lowest one. You can perform non stop and get things done on time.
For those who want budget gaming laptops with dedicated GPU:
Don’t you have enough money but still want to have a laptop for gaming with a dedicated GPU? Yeah, sure, there are many of you out there. So, you don’t need to be worried about anything. Because even if you have at least $700 to 1000 dollars, you can still have a gaming laptop with a dedicated GPU, which is compulsory for playing games.
In this case, a laptop can offer you an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 or AMD Radeon RX 5500 M dedicated GPU. You can check the ASUS TUF Gaming Laptop with a similar hardware configuration. These GPUs are though small. Still, they can give you a much better experience while playing low-end gaming like Sims 4, League of Legends, and other MOBA games.
The plus point is, the GTX 1660 Ti is another excellent option to look for if you find yourself on a little low setting. But I hope you will not.
Besides the GPU, what else to look for?
Well, it’s pretty obvious that only a good GPU inside a gaming laptop will not do the job. You will have to have the latest and powerful CPU, good quality RAM, a rich display, and some other demanded factors. Therefore, let’s find what will be peaceful for you.
The blasting CPU:
For gaming laptops, you shouldn’t rely on mere things. Like considering the CPU, always go for the latest, powerful, more cores, and a high rating-boosting frequency laptop. Though you can easily upgrade a dedicated GPU, the CPU isn’t replaceable. Hence you will have to consider the best before buying.
In this case, your intentions should be on an Intel Core i7, i9 processor with the latest generations that could be 10th, 9th, or 8th. I am damn sure that you can find such a processor in a gaming laptop.
On the other hand, AMD processors are also good at giving you the productivity you want. But from my point of view, they are not as powerful or processing as these intel processors are.
So, make sure that you get a CPU with more in numbers of Cores (up to 6 cores at least), with a boosted frequency range of up to 4GHz or at least 3.5. Plus, do not forget to add a little bit of cache memory.
More RAM means more processing:
Gaming laptops are a bit more multitasking. They are like performing huge and more than one program at a single time. So, you must also be very conscious of the RAM capacity of a laptop.
In this scenario, look for a gaming laptop that has at least 16GB of DDR4 RAM. That would be enough for getting more things done at a single time. However, you can upgrade it to a slightly more level like 32GB if you consider yourself on low settings while performing extensive duty games.
What about Storage?
A gaming laptop must always come with SSD storage. A solid-state drive is one that not just becomes a blessing for offering space for keeping things and installing software. But it also enhances the working capacity of your laptop.
You can check out the best laptop under 600 with SSD.
You can have it on your desired range of storage needs like from 128GB to 1TB SSD storage or even more. But the best recommendation is, you should have at least 512GB SSD storage for having more things inside a single laptop.
What to consider best in the display?
Let me tell you one thing. Your gaming experience will ruin if you will not have a quality display. Your money will be just a waste if you will not get vibrant and immersive results while playing your favorite games. So, be sure to spend your bucks on a laptop with a rich display.
In this case, you should long for things like I am going to mention below.
First of all, the resolution and size:
While choosing a gaming laptop, or in gaming laptops, the display is often 15 to 17 inches. In only rare cases, you will find a computer with a smaller display size than this.
However, some laptops are going these days up 18 inches in display size. This means you will have a wider, brighter, and fascinating display for your gaming.
Size isn’t the only thing that matters at all. You must also have to be very strict and conscious of your display resolution.
Well, it must never be lower than 1080p. because a screen below this resolution will hurt your feelings, and you will freak out.
But you can choose a laptop with a display above this resolution. For extreme quality graphics, laptops are being offered with up to a 4K display screen, narrow bezels, IPS panels, and much more.
Should I consider the refresh rate?
Yes, screen refresh rate and overdrive response time are also significant things to consider while buying a laptop for gaming. Because these things will keep you on track while performing heavy-duty and playing your desired games.
In this sense, a screen with usually up to 144Hz refresh rate is considered one of the best displays you ever have for playing games nonstop. There is no doubt, but I will be happy for you if you find something more than this.
Don’t forget about the thermal cooling systems.
The thing is, a gaming laptop gets too hot when it starts performing according to your desires. Therefore, it must be easy for the machine to extract the heat through its system as soon as possible.
So, always look for a laptop with some good thermal cooling systems because they will allow you to feel worry-free on heating problems and perform as much as you want. Moreover, you can also buy a cooling pad separately to resolve such an issue with your gaming laptop only if it doesn’t have great cooling systems.
What else can you look for in a gaming laptop?
So, those were all highly rated and demanded specs you should, and you must have in a gaming laptop before buying it. However, you can’t run a machine without packing it or assembling it in an excellent and well-oriented body. Therefore, here are some other things you should look for before having a laptop you are already dreaming of.
- A gaming keyboard—Make sure that you’d get a laptop with a decent and high-speed working durable keyboard. It must be somewhat smooth and easy to make you type or control anything you want inside the game.
- Mouse/ keypad—Since gaming laptops offer everything in great quality, you’d get a smooth and sensitive keypad for taking control of everything on the laptop.
- But instead of this, I would ask you to buy a separate wireless or wired mouse or a joystick. This is because you will find no hassles while playing games at full speed and great controls.
- Extensive connectivity—You might have to connect your PS5 with your gaming laptop. Or you might wanna connect other devices like the joystick, a separate mouse, USB, etc.
- For this, you need a good set of connectivity ports inside your laptop. So be sure that you must have thunderbolt ports, USB ports, HDMI ports for even connecting a separate monitor, and an easy connection for the audio combo.
- This will make you talk or chat with the players inside the game if you play anything with your friends.
- Moreover, wireless connectivity like the latest Wi-Fi technology as well as Bluetooth technology also matters a lot. This will allow you to record or stream games on a bigger platform like twitch. Or else, it will enable you to play more games online.
- Other things to look for—This small list can include an HD quality webcam, a thin bezel for a wider and sleeker display. Less weight for easy portability and whatever you can get inside your laptop. So, be sure that you must have it all.
What about the battery life inside a gaming laptop?
Well, you shouldn’t assume that you’d get a high-performing laptop with good battery life. This doesn’t happen the same way. Because gaming laptops are power consumers, and that is why they consume more power while you play limitlessly.
So, maybe there could be a laptop that might offer you a battery backup of at least 7 to 8 hours. However, usually, a gaming laptop can suggest only 4 hours of battery life. And this is somewhat only in actual cases.
FAQs: Gaming Laptop Buyers Guide
Can I have a touchscreen laptop for gaming?
Touchscreens are very sensitive, and they are mostly recommended for people who want to have graphic designing on their laptops. You are a gaming guy, Bro. So, leave it and focus your intentions plus money over a great GPU, CPU, and RAM specs.
Why would you buy a gaming laptop?
Well, for this, your intentions could be to play some world-famous games. These might be to perform heavy-duty on your laptop and much more. Therefore, a gaming laptop is always best in every aspect regarding performance and productivity. However, you might have to compromise a little on battery life plus noise.
How much money should I have to buy a high-quality gaming laptop?
This sounds like you want an ultimate solution to all your performance and power problems regarding a laptop in the same machine. Right, isn’t it? So, do not worry and make sure that money is not a problem for you at all. You can easily have a heavy-duty and extensive laptop for gaming or all the rendering tasks out there in 2000 to 2500 dollars.
What famous brands are for gaming laptops?
Gaming laptops are being made and offered by many companies around the globe. However, below I am telling you about some of the most famous ones you can easily look for. These are as follows:
- ASUS Gaming laptops
- Acer Aspire series
- Dell gaming laptops
- MSI gaming laptops
- Razer blade
- Alienware
Final Verdict
This gaming laptops buyer guide includes 90% of the stuff you should consider while buying a gaming laptop for yourself. I am telling you that there are no hassles as you can do it easily. And I hope that this guide will help you a lot. So, be a good guy, decide your specs and budget, then jump into the market. I can believe that you will make a wise selection.
However, if you find yourself confused about anything, I am available 24/7 to answer your queries. You can leave a comment below regarding your problem, and I will make sure to provide you with the best solution. So, this was all for today. Take much care of yourself and let’s see you very soon on another great topic. Have a good day ahead.
