How to Choose the Right Gaming Laptop (2025): What You Need to Know

Gaming laptops used to beryllium beautiful straightforward. They were powerful but heavy and unwieldy. These days, you person options. There are gaming laptops that prioritize capacity astatine each costs and others that hone successful connected thinness, cost, aliases design. Heck, location are moreover gaming tablets and 2-in-1s.

That breadth of choices intends choosing a gaming laptop successful 2025 isn't simple. While picking immoderate action from our Best Gaming Laptops guide is simply a bully spot to start, you still mightiness not extremity up pinch a gaming laptop perfectly suited for your needs. Having tested galore gaming laptops successful complete a decade of reviewing products, I'll break down each constituent of these spendy machines to lead you successful nan correct direction, arsenic good arsenic explicate what to expect from nan awesome laptop brands.

What Size Gaming Laptop Should You Get?

This is simply a awesome spot to commencement erstwhile shopping for a gaming laptop. When we talk astir “sizes” of these machines, we're usually comparing show sizes, measured diagonally. You'll often spot 3 sizes crossed brands: 14-inch, 16-inch, and 18-inch.

16-inch is nan happy medium. Though they are ample laptops, they springiness nan powerful gaming hardware capable abstraction for nan thermals to breathe. Having a larger surface is surely not a bad point either. These 16-inch gaming laptops replaced nan 15.6-inch gaming laptops of nan past, which utilized a 16:9 facet ratio screen. With a fewer exceptions, astir modern displays usage a 16:10 facet ratio show pinch thinner bezels. 16-inch laptops tin beryllium bladed for illustration nan Razer Blade 16 aliases Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 aliases heavy for illustration nan Lenovo Legion Pro 5 aliases Asus ROG Strix G16.

14-inch and 18-inch gaming laptops are much niche, but still person circumstantial usage cases wherever they are bully solutions. 14-inch laptops are a newer development, tending to beryllium highly portable and compact. The 2 superior standouts are nan Razer Blade 14 and nan Asus ROG Zephyrus G14, but location are different models for illustration nan Acer Nitro 14, Asus TUF A14, HP Omen Transcend 14, and others.

18-inch gaming laptops are nan nonstop opposite. They're excessively large for bags, excessively dense to comfortably recreation with, and are often rather thick. These are gaming laptops meant to chiefly beryllium near astatine a table aliases workstation. Why bargain them? Well, if you scheme to mostly crippled astatine home, you mightiness not mind nan other heft. The 18-inch surface gives you tons of surface existent property to crippled on. This is particularly bully if you aren't playing connected an outer monitor. Some of nan notable options are nan Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 aliases MSI Titan 18 HX AI.

How to Navigate Performance

There's a batch to see erstwhile it comes to performance, but nan spot to commencement is pinch graphics cards. A gaming laptop needs a discrete GPU to beryllium fresh for 3D gaming, and typically, that intends choosing from thing successful Nvidia's RTX lineup. The latest options, nan RTX 50-series, person been launching passim 2025, which see nan RTX 5090, 5080, 5070, 5070 Ti, 5060, and 5050. Nvidia will person you judge that multi-frame procreation is nan logic to bargain a caller laptop pinch 1 of these GPUs, though successful my testing, that hasn't ever proven true. Either way, nan characteristic is location to play pinch sloppy of which GPU your laptop has.

As you'd expect, capacity and value standard measurement by step. I won't database retired each nan specs for these graphics cards, but location are a fewer important things to cognize erstwhile deciding. The RTX 5090 (24 GB), 5080 (16 GB), and 5070 Ti (12 GB) each received further VRAM complete their predecessors successful nan RTX 40-series, whereas nan RTX 5070, 5060, and 5050 are each stuck pinch conscionable 8 GB. That intends for definite crippled performance, nan upgrade from nan RTX 5070 to nan 5070 Ti is bigger than nan 5060 to nan 5070. It's besides important to retrieve that these laptop GPUs do not correspond pinch nan desktop versions successful position of specs.

The different captious spec that is often forgotten astir is nan magnitude of powerfulness going to nan GPU. For example, nan RTX 5060 tin tally astatine 115 watts for nan maximum magnitude of performance, which is what you'll spot successful a laptop for illustration nan Lenovo Legion 7i Gen 10. Some cheaper gaming laptops, specified arsenic nan Gigabyte Aero X16, tally that aforesaid RTX 5060 astatine a max of 85 watts. That severely limits nan capacity you tin expect retired of it. This spec is not ever intelligibly branded connected retailer pages, truthful make judge to cheque pinch nan shaper earlier buying.

Beyond graphics, your CPU matters successful capacity too. Intel and AMD some person a beardown position successful gaming laptops, and you'll find options for them dispersed retired crossed different laptop lineups. The latest procreation of chips you'll spot successful 2025 gaming laptops are nan Intel Core Ultra Series 2 H aliases HX chips, and AMD has its third-gen Ryzen AI chips, specified arsenic nan Ryzen AI 9 365 aliases nan Ryzen AI 9 HX 375. Across some AMD and Intel, “HX” successful these chips refers to a higher-wattage CPU, up to 55 watts. Although it's a spot rarer, we're besides seeing immoderate gaming laptops adopt nan Ryzen 9 9955HX3D, which is nan absolute king of gaming capacity correct now. Meanwhile, Intel's latest chips are a spot much commonly utilized and get you amended artillery life.

Should you bargain older gaming laptops that are now connected discount? Well, I wouldn't urge buying thing pinch a GPU older than nan RTX 40-series. Remember: these GPUs person been astir since 2023, truthful you're perchance purchasing thing that's a mates of years old. If you tin find a bully discount connected a high-end 2024 gaming laptop, I won't extremity you. I conscionable haven't recovered galore options that are discounted heavy capable to beryllium worthy it.

How Much Memory and Storage Do Gaming Laptops Need?

You won't find galore caller gaming laptops pinch little than 16 GB of RAM anymore, thankfully. That's go nan caller modular for moreover nan cheapest gaming laptops. In fact, galore companies are now moving to 32 GB, mostly because of really memory-intensive modern games tin be. The 1 objection to that norm that I've recovered is nan HP Victus 15, nan company's cheapest model, which starts pinch only 8 GB of RAM, paired pinch an RTX 5050.

The value of upgrading RAM, however, varies wildly from institution to company. Razer charges a whopping $300 to spell from 16 GB to 32 GB, while Dell charges conscionable $100. That's besides what Best Buy charges to upgrade nan Asus ROG Strix G16 from 16 GB to 32 GB.

Unfortunately, immoderate of these gaming laptops nary longer fto you easy upgrade nan representation yourself, arsenic it's soldered to nan motherboard. But galore still connection it, specified arsenic nan aforementioned ROG Strix G16, Alienware 16 Aurora, MSI Titan 18 HX, and others. That intends you tin acquisition cheaper, faster RAM yourself and upgrade it yourself. It's mostly nan thinner gaming laptops for illustration nan Razer Blades that usage soldered RAM.

For storage, 512 GB is still nan standard, though immoderate higher-end gaming laptops person moved to 1 terabyte arsenic nan guidelines configuration. Razer did that pinch its Blade gaming laptops a fewer years back. Remember: modern games are perfectly monolithic these days, and while you'll nary uncertainty beryllium utilizing external storage astatine immoderate constituent for your crippled collection, having a terabyte of soul retention tin beryllium ace helpful. Most gaming laptops will let you to easy upgrade nan retention yourself, though, and often connection a 2nd quiet M.2 slot. Like pinch RAM, this is simply a overmuch cheaper action than configuring it successful your laptop acquisition up front.

What Kind of Display Is Best?

Do not underestimate nan value of your gaming laptop's display. Unless you scheme connected exclusively utilizing it while plugged into an outer monitor (in which lawsuit you should astir apt bargain aliases build a desktop PC), nan show of your gaming laptop is nan model done which you acquisition nan world of your games.

Outside of nan size, which we already discussed, location are 3 superior considerations pinch a gaming laptop's screen: resolution, refresh rate, and sheet type. Gaming laptops these days travel successful either 1920 x 1200, 2560 x 1600, aliases 3840 x 2400. Occasionally, you whitethorn tally crossed a 16:9 facet ratio surface pinch an old-school 1920 x 1080 resolution, too. More pixels mean a sharper screen, which makes a large quality successful games. But much pixels besides mean much capacity is required to get precocious framework rates astatine that resolution. You tin ever driblet nan solution successful a crippled to get higher framework rates, but that besides intends you're paying for other pixels that you're not using.

Refresh complaint is arsenic important. The bully news is that each modern gaming laptops person a refresh complaint of complete 60 Hz, which is nan modular for non-gaming laptops. From there, you'll spot 120 Hz and 144 Hz arsenic nan caller baseline, pinch options up to 240 Hz, 360 Hz, aliases moreover 500 Hz. Laptop manufacturers thin to do a bully occupation of offering show resolutions and refresh rates due to nan magnitude of capacity you tin expect from nan laptop, but sometimes you'll person a prime of a higher solution aliases a higher refresh rate.

The past important information pinch a gaming laptop's show is nan sheet type, which is progressively a very breathtaking facet of these devices. While IPS is still nan standard, higher-end gaming laptops person begun to adopt Mini-LED aliases OLED. Not only are these panels much colour meticulous and vivid, but they besides let for vastly amended HDR performance. Many of these panels, including nan OLED ones, tin deed complete 1,000 nits of highest HDR brightness, really bringing nan lighting successful games to life. If you haven't gamed successful HDR connected a gaming laptop before, you're successful for a treat. The champion portion is that, dissimilar effects for illustration ray tracing, it doesn't costs immoderate other capacity to bask nan benefits. OLED besides offers amended consequence times, offering much responsive gaming.

What Are nan Top Gaming Laptop Brands?

There was a clip not truthful agelong agone erstwhile Lenovo didn’t person overmuch of a beingness successful nan world of gaming. That began to alteration successful 2016 pinch nan motorboat of nan Lenovo Legion PC gaming brand, which would, complete time, summation a batch of ground. Lenovo is now up to nan 10th procreation of immoderate of these devices crossed nan Legion and Legion Pro lines of laptops. It offers some Intel and AMD versions of these devices, which scope from $1,340 up to complete $4,500.

Legion laptops don’t ever person nan flashiest aliases thinnest designs, but they often connection awesome capacity for nan price. And because Legion laptops don’t pursuit nan ultra-thin designs for illustration Asus and Razer, they often person beardown thermals.

To capable successful nan little extremity of nan fund spectrum, Lenovo launched nan LOQ (pronounced “Lock”) subbrand successful 2023. This was to switch nan aged “IdeaPad Gaming” marque that Lenovo had backmost successful nan day. For now, LOQ laptops only characteristic lower-end GPUs: nan RTX 4050, 4060, 5050, and 5060. One quirk pinch nan LOQ gaming laptops is that, dissimilar astir of nan competition, they still usage a 16:9 facet ratio display, giving them little surface and a ample bottommost bezel. Still, they’re 1 of nan fewer gaming laptop brands correct now that are offering nan latest RTX 50-series GPUs successful designs nether $1,000.

My favourite Lenovo gaming laptop correct now is nan Lenovo Legion 7i Gen 10, which has a glorious OLED surface and a really clean, all-white design.

On nan surface, Asus has conscionable 2 lines for its gaming laptops: ROG (Republic of Gamers) and TUF. But don’t you worry, ROG has grown insanely huge, encapsulating 3 different gaming laptop sub-brands: ROG Zephyrus, ROG Flow, and ROG Strix. Let’s break those down.

ROG Zephyrus is nan company’s flagship gaming laptop brand. Asus has pared backmost nan number of laptops successful this statement successful caller years, focusing connected nan immense fame of nan ROG Zephyrus G14 and G16. These gaming laptops are immoderate of nan thinnest you tin buy, while still offering high-end OLED screens and graphics up to an RTX 5090. Perhaps taking inspiration from Razer, ROG Zephyrus laptops characteristic a clean, minimalist creation that makes them awesome arsenic hybrid devices that tin double for activity aliases schoolhouse conscionable arsenic good arsenic for gaming.

ROG Strix is Asus’s performance-focused subbrand. This is wherever nan company’s thicker, much accepted gaming laptops are found. Pricing tin scope widely, arsenic it includes affordable options for illustration nan ROG Strix G16 pinch nan RTX 5050, which starts astatine conscionable $1,300.

TUF Gaming is nan company's entry-level gaming laptop subbrand. These TUF gaming laptops utilized to beryllium immoderate of nan astir affordable gaming laptops you could buy, but they’ve gone up successful value complete nan past fewer years. There aren’t immoderate Asus gaming laptops nether $1,000 that characteristic nan latest RTX 50-series GPUs, though you tin find plentifulness of older models for little connected Amazon aliases Best Buy.

Dell’s gaming laptop lineup is reasonably sparse these days. All of Dell’s gaming laptops autumn nether nan Alienware brand, which nan institution acquired backmost successful 2006. Alienware has been done galore cycles of reinvention pinch its gaming laptops, but successful 2025, there’s really only 4 laptops successful nan stack correct now: nan Alienware 16 Aurora, Alienware 16X Aurora, Alienware 18 Area-51, and Alienware 16 Area-51. I for illustration nan simplicity of nan caller lineup, which focuses connected what Alienware has ever been known for: its brash, gamer style and higher-end performance.

The Alienware 16 Aurora is nan company’s effort to scope a cheaper demographic, starting nan laptop astatine conscionable $1,100 correct now for an RTX 5050 configuration.

HP's Omen gaming marque has been astir for complete a decade, but it really feels for illustration nan institution has started to build immoderate momentum astir it complete nan past fewer years. Interestingly, HP breaks down its options into 3 categories of thickness and performance. Omen Max is nan chunkiest astatine almost an inch thick, and supports up to an RTX 5080. Omen 16 is nan mediate ground, capping retired astatine an RTX 5070. Omen Transcend, which offers a 14-inch model, still supports up to an RTX 5070, but brings nan thickness down to 0.7 inches. There are 16-inch size options disposable crossed each 3 subbrands; however, nary of nan laptops are arsenic bladed arsenic immoderate of nan competition. There's besides an Omen 16 Slim, which blurs nan lines a bit.

Apart from Omen, HP besides launched its “Victus” subbrand successful 2021, which represents its budget-oriented options. HP only has a fewer configurations of nan HP Victus 15 and Victus 16 disposable correct now.

• Razer is solely committed to PC gaming, dissimilar galore of nan laptop brands connected this list. Its Blade gaming laptops person go iconic successful nan manufacture for their minimalist aesthetic. Like galore companies, Razer has a Blade 14, Blade 16, and Blade 18, which each person an identical design, but standard up successful position of size and performance.
• MSI has made rather a sanction for itself successful nan gaming space, particularly pinch its high-end, performance-focused, monster gaming laptops for illustration nan MSI Titan HX. Beyond Titan, MSI has a mind-boggling magnitude of different options, though, including nan Raider, Stealth, Vector, Katana, Sword, and its budget-oriented Cyborg series. There's a batch to excavation into.
• Acer's Predator statement has its ain fanfare astir it. Predator Helios is its high-end, performance-driven statement pinch tons of options crossed 14-inch, 16-inch, and 18-inch sizes. Triton is its thin-and-light sub-brand, but it hasn't been updated successful 2025 truthful far. The institution besides has its Nitro fund brand, which comes successful 14-, 15-, and 16-inch options and pinch support up to an RTX 5070.

Beyond these champion brands, you besides person PC gaming companies that person dipped into gaming laptops, specified arsenic Gigabyte, Origin, and Maingear. Just enactment distant from nan no-name brands that person celebrated listings connected Amazon contempt lacking discrete graphics cards—like this.

Gaming connected Non-Gaming Laptops

While there's an full ecosystem of laptops marketed toward gamers, that doesn't mean you can't play games connected different devices. Laptops pinch dedicated graphics cards tin often play games conscionable arsenic good arsenic gaming laptops, but they're often targeted much astatine creatives who request amended graphics to tally imaginative applications. These see laptops for illustration nan Dell 14 Premium, Acer Swift X 14, and nan Asus ProArt P16.

If you're buying a laptop chiefly to play games, though, I wouldn't urge 1 of these. They usually don't support nan higher-tier GPUs for illustration nan RTX 5080 aliases 5090, and you won't get super-fast refresh rates beyond 120 Hz. If you're much of a casual gamer and conscionable want a high-end laptop that tin do it all, these are bully options. They're particularly bully if you despise nan “gamer” artistic and want thing a spot much subtle.

I should mention that integrated graphics person improved tremendously successful caller years. In particular, Intel's latest Core Ultra Series 2 chips pinch Intel Arc person respectable integrated graphics. You'll still request to driblet down nan settings (and possibly nan resolution) to execute smoother framework rates, but I've been amazed by really good lighter games for illustration Fortnite aliases Marvel Rivals play connected nan best laptops I've tested, for illustration nan Dell 14 Plus aliases Lenovo Yoga 9i, which some usage nan Core Ultra 7 256V aliases 258V. Again, I would ne'er urge personification bargain a laptop for illustration this conscionable to play games on, but they can technically play games. Heck, I moreover happily played Baldur's Gate 3 connected a MacBook Pro past year.

Read our guideline connected How to Choose a Laptop to study more.

Where to Buy Gaming Laptops

Buying straight from nan shaper is ever nan safest measurement to go, whether that's Asus, Dell, HP, aliases Lenovo. But if you're hunting for nan champion deal, arsenic you should be, you'll request to cheque astir astatine third-party retailers. Best Buy has nan champion action of gaming laptops, and does a bully occupation of weeding retired listings from chartless brands, too. It has immoderate really bully deals, too.

Amazon is similar, though I'd counsel you to tread a spot much carefully. Searching for “gaming laptops” tin lead you to immoderate seemingly inexpensive gaming laptops that you really shouldn't buy. Stick to nan sanction brands, and you'll beryllium OK. On Amazon, you besides request to watch retired for nan “Renewed” label, which indicates that it's refurbished. Lastly, make judge to cheque nan seller erstwhile shopping connected Amazon and double-check that you're buying from nan manufacturer.

Aside from nan large two, I'd besides urge checking retired Newegg and Walmart, some of which sometimes person decent deals connected gaming laptops. Walmart has nan aforesaid problem arsenic Amazon pinch junky, super-cheap listings, and moreover Newegg keeps listings up for illustration this. Calling this a gaming laptop is wildly misleading.

If you're lucky, there's a Micro Center adjacent you (or thing similar), which is simply a awesome spot to spell and play astir pinch nan latest gaming laptops truthful you tin get a due consciousness for them earlier dropping a wad of cash.