Best Value Gaming Laptops

The ASUS TUF 505GT practically epitomizes value gaming laptops. Not one detail here does not contribute towards increasing the laptop's gaming performance or, at the very least, making gaming on this mobile machine a little more comfortable. Sure, its 512GB SSD storage capacity will not increase the fps count, not one bit. That being said, not being forced to uninstall every game you have just completed to make space for the new one does make this laptop a little more conducive towards gaming without annoying restrictions, right? As much as you want to squeeze every last frame from the system without overpaying, 256GB storage space these days is not enough, not even close.

Then, when choosing between CPU and GPU, most gaming rigs prioritize the second component, and they're not wrong. Generally speaking, even though we're seeing improvements, most games still heavily rely upon the graphics card and underutilize the processing unit, so choosing a more powerful GPU over a more powerful CPU makes sense.

Still, even first-person shooters are becoming better and better at putting quad-core processors to good use, managing the load between the graphics card and the processing unit almost evenly. Of course, MMOs and strategy genres have always been more reliant upon CPU, so as much as can get behind gaming systems banking on graphics cards, we're glad that this system has adopted an Intel® Core™ i7-9750H processing unit, with its tremendous 4.5GHz boost.

When you're adding the GeForce GTX 1650 GPU to the mix, the card that also epitomizes value, you get one relentless gaming machine, so tough that even the hottest titles do not have the digital cojones to bring the machine to its knees (the knees here being underwhelming frame rates). As long as you're not playing some optimization travesty like Red Dead Redemption 2, even at ultra settings, the card will give you above 60 fps, no compromises.

The Lenovo Ideapad L340 is as much about gaming as it is about seamless aesthetics, facilitating productivity and bridging the gap between you and the laptop. Still, costing around $800, the model has its limitations, this is not something that you can avoid keeping the price tag this low. First, the speakers are not great. Second, the GPU, even though pretty good relative to its cost, is nothing to write home about.

The card manages somewhere around 40 fps running the most recent Assassin's Creed iteration, nothing to scoff yet but also nothing to parade. Games like Battlefield 1 and Crysis 3, even though absolute beasts, will not be dipping below 60 fps because these games have been optimized. But those titles that have not received optimization efforts and those that have ludicrous ultra presets (not unlike the latest Tomb Raider and Ghost Recon installments) will prove a little too challenging, usually dropping the frame rates to ~30 fps. All that being said, generally speaking, the laptop does alright taming the hottest titles, even though some occasional assistance is required.

Again though, despite its gaming disposition, this laptop is an excellent mobile workstation too. Flicking between Quick and Quiet modes, the laptop will let you change both its look and feel, so you'll know when it is time to start working and when some rest is due. The 720p webcam will enable seamless video calls, while the physical shutter on this 'cam will keep private things private, so you do not have to worry about someone hacking the system and spying on you Black Mirror-style.

Working and playing in front of a screen puts its toll on your eyes. With the company's Vantage Eye Care mode, reducing blue light emission as well as adjusting the screen's tone, you can minimize eye strain and fatigue, working and gaming as long as necessary.

As much as we usually like HP laptops, this mobile machine leaves mixed feelings. Because we're reviewing laptops here from the gaming perspective first and foremost, this is not the best value gaming system we could find. No, this laptop is more well-balanced than most, offering comfortable gaming and working alike but, keeping the price tag this modest also means that you're making considerable compromises, at least on the gaming front, with the biggest compromise being the AMD Radeon Vega 8 GPU. Yes, this is an integrated graphics card, something that usually tells you that the system cannot run more demanding games, though this is not quite the case here.

While still an integrated card, with integrated GPUs' limitations, this is one tough hardware piece, usually giving you around 35-40 fps even in the hottest titles, provided you're willing to send the graphics settings down three pegs, choosing between low and medium presets. Sure, the games will not be looking great, but you'd be playing even the most recent titles like Escape from Tarkov, Doom Eternal, Hunt Showdown, NFS Heat, CoD Modern Warfare 2019, Borderlands 3, and more, all hovering somewhere around 35 fps, which is more than acceptable at this price.

The ASUS TUF FX505DT is as good at epitomizing value gaming laptops as its more expensive relative above, except that this one takes the value part at face value (pardon the pun), coming at less than $800. Because the price has been reduced, the specs have been reduced too, although the biggest, most important contributors have remained.

First (and one would argue foremost), the people behind the laptop have replaced the 512 GB SSD with the one that caps at 256 GB, an understandable decision considering that storage space does not affect the frame rate, not at all. Still, when you take into account that games these das usually weigh around ~30 GB and, at times, even above 50, you can see why some people might find the 256 GB setup a little underwhelming.

The CPU has been replaced too, trading the excellent Intel® Core™ i7-9750H for the hard-working AMD® Ryzen™ 5 R5-3550H. Again, we can see where the folk at ASUS were coming from since the former CPU offers comparable frame rates to the latter as far as most titles are concerned and the difference between the two becomes apparent only when you start streaming or executing tasks that very nothing or very little to do with gaming. Long story short, this CPU (the Ryzen one) will not bottleneck the graphics card and even usually pull its weight when you start running more CPU-intensive games (most MMOs, some shooters, some sandboxes, most strategy games).

The Acer Swift 3 is pretty swift, we will give the engineers/marketers behind this product that much. That being said, you have to put its price into perspective first since "swift" under 700 bucks and "swift" at 1000+ bucks are two separate issues. No, this mobile machine cannot compete with value gaming models that cost around and above 1000 bucks, not the biggest surprise since we're talking about two separate price brackets here.

Within its cheap price bracket, this is one capable system, starting with the 256 GB SSD setup. More often than not, budget laptops (and 650 bucks is as budget as they get, we can tell you that much) come equipped with HDDs, meaning more storage space, sure, but also meaning loading times that can put you to sleep. Using the solid-state drive, this model boots the operating system within ~5-6 seconds and, even though the exact numbers will depend on the app, somewhere around that time to boot most games and programs too.

While seldom as impressive as the more expensive models, budget gaming laptops are still gaming laptops, so it is the graphics card that defines the device's worth. Here, we're greeted by AMD Radeon RX 540, probably the most capable GPU within its class. The issue with this one is that its random-access memory is capped at 2 GB, which means that the card does not quite support the laptop's native Full HD (1920 x 1080p) resolution. No, most games start demanding somewhere around 3-4 GB around that resolution. But, provided you don't mind dialing the resolution down, the game will ensure fantastic performances at HD (1280 x 720p), running most games, from Battlefield V and The Division 2 to Monster Hunter World and the latest Tomb Raider, at around 30-50 fps, depending on the graphics settings and the title's optimization.