Which Budget Gaming Laptop Should You Buy?

Introduction

First, let's define "budget". This number varies person to person of course, but the laptops we will be covering in this article can regularly be found for under $1,000 either at their normal price or on sale. We capped the MSRP at $1,299 since most laptops can be reliably found for $200 off.

This price range allows for reasonable performance by having at least 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, and dedicated Nvidia graphics. The criteria is eliminating a lot of better and more expensive gaming laptops that may occasionally fall into this price range like the ASUS G14 or Legion Slim 5. If you see a huge sale on laptops like those you should definitely snatch it up. One thing we found throughout our research was how much nicer these laptops can get by spending just a few hundred more. If you are looking to find those big sales, we list them here on our website under the "Crazy Deals" tab up top. You can also check out our recommended gaming laptop list here.

Since many of those are out of the budget for your average gamer, here's our list of contenders. Take note that our Predator Helios Neo 16 is the 2023 model which is still available for sale.

• Acer Nitro V 15
• Last Year's Acer Predator Helios Neo 16
• ASUS TUF Gaming F16
• HP Victus
• Lenovo LOQ 15
• MSI Cyborg 14
• MSI Katana 15

If You're a Hardcore Gamer

Let's get your biggest question out of the way first. Which laptop (or laptops) from our roundup are best for you to buy if you care about performance most of all? Firstly, there are a number of different configurations available to consider. For example, the ASUS TUF F16 sometimes goes on sale with an RTX 4070 and drops into this price range. If you can get one of these with an RTX 4070 being fed decent wattage, it’s going to outperform any models with lower-tier graphics. In fact, our Katana does actually have an RTX 4070, but right now this configuration is way above our price range at $1,300 on sale, so it’s out of the running for any graphics accolades here.

CPU Performance

In Geekbench, which tests a variety of common performance tasks, the Predator Helios Neo 16 performs at the top of the pack along with the TUF F16. They both have the i7-13650HX chip from Intel’s most powerful range. Interestingly enough, the Katana performs similarly even though its chip is from Intel’s lower but still powerful H series range. That has 4 less efficiency cores.

In Cinebench, which tests the performance when maxed out, the Neo and TUF are still the best of the bunch, but the rest of the rankings have moved around. The HX chips perform the best overall, but they do draw more power to achieve this result. If you’re wondering which laptop to avoid in terms of CPU performance, that would be the Victus with its older 12th gen chip. It is technically available with a 13th gen chip, but not in the price range.

GPU Performance

More important than CPU performance in a gaming laptop is how well the graphics card performs. Something to consider when looking at these graphs is how the GPU is fed different wattage by each manufacturer. That means that two RTX 4060s can perform very differently based on how much power they are being given. Many of these 4060s are being fed more wattage than the Katana’s 4070, and even perform somewhat similar. At the other end of the spectrum, the Cyborg’s 4060 is underfed, and performs nearly identically to HP’s Victus which only has a 4050 in this price range.

For Timespy, the TUF and the LOQ are the best performers if we eliminate the Katana as we mentioned.

Timespy Results

In Cyberpunk, the Katana and the TUF are neck and neck with 95 and 94 fps respectively. The LOQ and Predator Helios Neo aren't trailing too far behind either. This supports what we said earlier about higher wattage GPUs being very impactful. Also, it’s important to remember that when running games at this lower resolution, you are likely seeing the CPU’s performance as more of a factor in dictating overall performance.

Cyberpunk FPS - DLSS Disabled

The Cyborg's performance throughout this section is pretty disappointing. Even when we enabled Nvidia's DLSS frame generation, it only gets X FPS.

Cyberpunk FPS - DLSS Enabled

Now, benchmarks are helpful tools but do not always give you a realistic picture of how it actually feels to game on a device. Because of this, we also played some competitive eSports titles like Valorant, League, and Fortnite. We took those notes into careful consideration before declaring a winner for best performance.

Taking all of these factors into account, we think the ASUS TUF Gaming F16 is the best buy for a hardcore gamer, with the Predator Helios Neo coming in at a close second. The LOQ also does quite well, if you'd like a third best option.

If You Prefer a Quiet Laptop

Unfortunately, a lot of gaming laptops like the TUF are quite loud in their highest performance modes which may be a non-negotiable for some gamers. If this is you, the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 is your best buy. In both our real-world gaming and benchmark tests, it consistently delivered the best performance with the least fan noise. Lenovo's LOQ and Acer's Nitro V 15 were particularly loud and annoying in comparison, if you're wondering which ones to avoid. The Victus was a contender for being the quietest based on our benchmarks, but it was louder during actual gameplay and its performance was much worse.

For all of these laptops, we highly recommend running them on their default performance mode rather than their highest modes if you are sensitive to fan noise. You aren't making huge sacrifices in performance but getting a much more comfortable experience. For example, the TUF sees a nearly 10 decibel difference between its two modes, which actually makes it one of the quieter ones when run on it’s default mode.

If You Can't Stand Warm Laptops

On the other hand, if you are always sporting those headphones and the fan noise isn’t your first concern, you’ll still get the best experience with the Predator Helios Neo. The whole keyboard temp remained under 41 during our gaming sessions. The Victus does really well again here, and even stays under 30 Celsius on its left side specifically, which is great for those of you who are right handed. Unfortunately, the Victus performs really badly which means it doesn’t have to cool itself as well as the Neo does.

If You Hate the "Gamer" Aesthetic

I personally get frustrated with the fact that if I want a laptop that prioritizes gaming, I usually have to deal with loud or obnoxious-looking design choices. The best option for you is by far the HP Victus with its slick blue color and its relatively minimalistic laptop design. This was the standout thing about this laptop. It's also nice and quiet for taking it to school with you if that's what you're looking for. On the flip side, if you’re into the more obvious gamer aesthetic the Helios Neo looks incredibly sharp.

If You Need a Good Keyboard

Next, one of the most important factors in and out of gaming is a laptop’s keyboard. The LOQ, Victus, Predator Helios Neo, TUF, and Katana all had comfortable keyboards, and there wasn’t much difference between them. My personal favorite was the LOQ but it had noticeable deck flex. This goes for the Neo and the Victus as well. Therefore, if you care about a sturdy keyboard deck, we’d suggest the TUF or Katana. As the Katana does have a non-standard keyboard though, you may miss press keys when gaming. This leaves us with the TUF as the best buy for shoppers like you.

If You Have an External Monitor (and Everything Else)

For this section we decided to use a checklist of 6 items that we felt best represented what a good port selection looks like in a laptop like this. The best buy is the Predator Helios Neo based on that checklist, but here's all the info so you can make your own decision on this one.

If You Want the Best Screen

This one also goes to the Predator Helios Neo with its 16-inch display. It has a resolution of 1920 by 1200 with a refresh rate of 165Hz and brightness in excess of 400 nits. It is a matte screen like all of these, and it has the widest color gamut of the bunch. Our runner up is the Cyborg which has an even brighter screen at over 500 nits, but it does not have a wide enough color gamut for professional color work. This may or may not matter to you as a gamer, but what will matter is its display size. The 14-inch panel of the Cyborg is significantly less immersive when gaming than a larger 15.6 or 16 inch one.

Overall, displays were one of the most disappointing aspects on some of these laptops. What is the point of putting in a high refresh rate display when all the colors are wrong like on the Victus or if it’s too dim to use like on the Katana?

If You Need a Portable Gaming Laptop

If you require the maximum portability from your machine, the 14-inch screen on the Cyborg becomes a positive. It is by far the lightest, at 3.6 lbs without its charger and 4.6 with it. So, it wins for you if you're a gamer on the go. In fact, even though it does not support USB-C charging, which is immensely disappointing, its combined weight with its charger is still less than the laptops that do. For example, its weight with its charger is less than the Nitro without a charger. Of course it’s not the only 14-inch gaming laptop out there, but it’s the only one we regularly found under $1,000.

If its under-fed GPU is a deal breaker for you, we’d suggest you wait for a prior year's G14 or Legion Slim 5 14 to go on sale. Your other option is to purchase a heavier laptop from this list. The Nitro and TUF are the runners up here. They have much better performance than the Cyborg and they offer that all important USB-C charging, so those are the ones we’d recommend even though they both weigh significantly more.

If You Need Long-Lasting Battery

Whether you’re a student or anyone who’s frequently on the move, this section is about shoppers like you. The winner in this category is ASUS’s TUF Gaming F16. It has the same large 90 watt battery as the Neo and ties with that laptop in our 4 hour video play back test over Wi-Fi with the screen dimmed to 200 nits. Many of these laptops died during that test. The reason we are giving the win to the TUF is because the Neo’s performance while on battery is halved. Acer does not allow the Neo to run it on its performance mode while on battery, so it becomes irrelevant that it lasts longer than the TUF during such tasks.

If You Want to Make Minimal Compromises

This leads us to our final section for the buyers who don't want to give up the best experience just because they're on a budget. You may be noticing a pattern emerge throughout this article where a number of these sections are highlighting either the ASUS TUF or Acer Predator Helios Neo, and that's because we found them to offer the most for their price. Our overall top pick ended up being the 2023 Predator Helios Neo 16. If you've only got $1,000 to spend we feel this laptop offers you the best value. This is a great example of a prior year's model still being available and able to give you the most bang for your buck.

That wraps up our recommendations for this article, so thank you for reading and we hope this helped inform you about these budget gaming laptops. Go do something awesome with your day and we will catch you later!