Being a gamer has largely become synonymous with spending a lot of money. New PC games typically cost $60 each – and the hardware to run them properly is vastly more expensive, with high-end machines costing $2000 or more. For students and other types of financially challenged users, this kind of outlay can simply be a sheer impossibility.
Luckily, compromises are increasingly available, as in recent years the concept of the “affordable gaming computer” has become popular. It’s even extended to the mobile world, where you’ll find numerous gaming laptops available around or below the $1000 mark, an almost magic number where these types of computers begin to look almost reasonably priced.
What to Look for
How do you shop for a budget gaming laptop? It’s all about understanding what features are important and what’s not. For any gamer (and by this I mean someone who is playing immersive, graphically-intensive titles, not Candy Crush), the most vital consideration is the graphics card. Very low-end laptops include integrated graphics processing, but a gamer will need a separate, standalone GPU in order to play a modern game with any semblance of quality.
While any discrete graphics processor will provide a massive boost in video performance, gamers will need to dig into the specs to see how much they’re getting. All of the laptops in this roundup use GeForce GPUs from Nvidia, the market leader, but the systems we tested included three different variants, including the 1050, 1050Ti, and 1060 models. Each of these provides a significant performance boost above the previous generation, and you’ll find detailed benchmarks on how big that boost is in the writeups that follow.
Other key components include the CPU, RAM, and storage system. You’ll want an Intel Core i7 CPU if possible, but a Core i5 can save you a little money without sacrificing too much performance. RAM is often more important: 8GB is acceptable, but 16GB will make a noticeable difference in performance. And finally, there’s storage. It’s become commonplace to include to dual storage devices in gaming laptops – a fast but small solid-state drive (or SSD), plus a slower but larger capacity traditional hard drive, which is used for less frequently accessed files. Not every gaming laptop can include two drives, so if budget is a concern, it probably makes the most sense to prioritize the SSD and either upgrade later or use an external drive if the SSD fills up.
All the systems in this roundup feature 15.6-inch screens running at 1920 x 1080 pixels of resolution. While high-end gaming laptops often sport monstrous 17-inch screens, these are invariably priced well above the $1000 cutoff, so don’t bother looking for budget versions of these.
Finally, if portability is a major issue, don’t forget to pay attention to weight, thickness, and battery life. These are often tertiary concerns for gamers, but if you’re constantly on the go, a heavy, bulky laptop may not make a lot of sense.
Systems at a Glance
I evaluated five budget gaming systems, and found all of them to be at least worth considering to varying degrees. My top pick, the Acer Predator Helios 300, checks almost all the boxes, and is particularly distinguished by its very fast GPU. However, unless you can catch it on sale, it’s the most expensive system in this lineup.
An excellent second choice is the HP Pavilion Gaming Model 15, which isn’t as fast as the Helios 300, but which managed to keep up with the pack on most of my tests thanks to arguably the best overall configuration in the group. It’s a great all-around pick that deserves strong consideration.
Read on for detailed reviews of each of the five systems I evaluated.
HP Pavilion Gaming Model 15
While HP’s Omen line is designed for gamers with unlimited budgets, bargain-hunters can find a more reasonably-priced option that’s suitable for games in the company’s mainstream line, Pavilion, which includes this unit, appropriately called the Gaming Model 15.
Design
The HP Pavilion Gaming Model 15 certainly looks the part of a gaming rig, though it’s not overdone the way some gaming laptops can be. With beveled corners, lime green accents, thin screen bezels, and aggressive rear grillwork, it’s appropriately edgy while at the same time keeping everything fairly tight and compact. The chassis features a wide speaker grille above the keyboard, with green keyboard backlighting further upping the ante on the gamer-centric appearance. A very large touchpad fills a good chunk of the palmrest. Altogether it’s an attractive rig that has just the right level of flash and brazenness to make a statement when gaming in a group.
Features
With audio by Bang & Olufson, there’s plenty of power behind the Pavilion’s speaker subsystem. The keyboard is slim but snappy, its bright backlighting helping to make things more visible in dim playing conditions. The keyboard layout is also solid, with the exception of the half-size up- and down-arrow keys, which could prove problematic for some users. The screen is crisp and accurate in its color representation, but only average in brightness. With a thickness of 30mm and a weight of 5.3 pounds, the system is only slightly above average on both metrics – though the power adapter is svelte and quite portable compared to other laptops in this category.
Specs
This laptop is one of the more fully-loaded budget machines in this roundup, including a 2.2GHz Core i7-8750H CPU (eighth generation), 16GB of RAM, and dual hard drives, comprising a 1TB traditional drive and a 128GB SSD. Graphics on the 15.6-inch screen (at 1920 x 1080 pixels of resolution max) are powered by an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050Ti GPU. Ports include three standard USB ports, one USB-C port, HDMI output, a full-size Ethernet socket, and an SD card reader. That’s a very solid configuration that should allow any gamer to connect all his needed peripherals without having to resort to an external USB hub.
Performance
The Pavilion 15 turned out a mixed bag of benchmark scores during performance testing. Key scores are outlined in the table below. On general application tasks (including web page rendering, business productivity applications, and digital media creation work), the laptop outperformed the average of the field by a healthy 14 percent. On graphics and gaming tasks, however, it fell a bit behind, slower than the field by up to 30 percent in some tests. On the other hand, the Heaven 4.0 graphics benchmark did see the HP Pavilion 15 catch up with pack, and in hands-on gameplay the unit felt responsive and perfectly playable. Stability during testing was fine, with no notable crashes or other operational defects.
Battery
If the Pavilion has any other weak spot, it’s its battery. Its 4 hours, 3 minutes of running time on my full-screen video playback test isn’t awful, and it’s likely enough to get you from your home outlet to one at the LAN party, but it was nonetheless the worst in the roundup by a factor of a few minutes.
Conclusion
At $999 (exclusively available on Amazon), the HP Pavilion Gaming Model 15 is a compelling and affordable option for gamers on a budget. While the graphics performance is just a bit sub-par and battery life isn’t exceptional, neither of these are so bad as to be deal-breakers for most users. Great audio and video quality plus a solid hardware design are all just icing on the cake of what is otherwise a top-tier choice in the budget gaming category.
Shop Now
Asus TUF Gaming FX504GE
With its TUF series, Asus aims to combine a high-end gaming experience with both durability and affordability. The FX504GE is a more upscale configuration of the machine, yet it still manages to hit the cash register at just a penny under $1000.
Design
The biggest oddity here: “Tough” design in laptops today tends to be synonymous with a magnesium or aluminum case, but the Asus TUF is built almost entirely from plastic. (Don’t let the brushed metal look around the keyboard and palmrest fool you.) This gives it a relatively light weight (4.9 pounds), but it feels awfully flimsy, particularly for a computer with “TUF” in its name. Black all around with metallic red accents, it’s on the demure side for a gaming rig, though it offers enough in the way of flourishes to stand out somewhat from a design standpoint. The keyboard backlighting is a striking red color, and the touchpad is fairly typical in size, nearly flush with the palmrest.
Features
Asus boasts about the virtual 7.1-channel surround sound on the FX504GE, but in my testing I found audio to be on the thin side and rather one-dimensional in most of my tests. Another unique feature to the FX504GE is the inclusion of a cooling system that is designed to filter out dust (ostensibly increasing the lifespan of the machine), and the fan can even be cranked up or dialed back to silent through the use of a function key. The keyboard is fair but a bit weaker than I’d like, with relatively limited travel and, bizarrely, a placement of the arrow keys that causes them to intersect with the numeric keypad. Finally, on the plus side, at 27mm thick, it’s slightly slimmer than the rest of the field, which when combined with its weight and a smallish power brick, should make portability no problem.
Specs
The TUF Gaming FX504GE is on the lower end of the spec configuration vs. the field. While it packs a fast 2.2GHz Core i7-8750H CPU (eighth generation) and a zippy Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050Ti GPU, some of its other specs are underwhelming. The 8GB of RAM is particularly underwhelming, as is the 256GB SSD (with no standard hard drive for extra storage). The 15.6-inch screen (at 1920 x 1080 pixels of resolution max) is standard for the field (though its brightness is underwhelming). Ports include three standard USB ports (one of which runs at ancient USB 2.0 speed), a full-size Ethernet jack, and HDMI output – and without an SD card reader or USB-C, it feels awfully behind the times.
Performance
While the performance of the TUF Gaming FX504GE is far from awful, it did fall below the average score for this category on nearly all of the benchmarks I ran. A representative sample of scores can be found below. While it was just shy of the average on general application tasks (which includes web page rendering, business productivity applications, and digital media creation work), the situation was direr on graphically-intensive benchmarks, including gaming tests, where it was slower than the field by up to 20 percent. While the system was perfectly stable, certain tasks – namely web browsing – were noticeably sluggish, with Asus’s aggressive McAfee security sales pitch popups only slowing things down even further.
Battery
Battery life on the TUF Gaming FX504GE, at 5 hours, 44 minutes of running time on my full-screen video test, was very good and well above the field, which largely hovered around the four-hour mark. It’s definitely good enough for the typical gamer, who typically won’t need more than a few minutes of running time away from an outlet.
Conclusion
At $1000, the upper limit of the price range for this category, I expected better things from the Asus TUF Gaming FX504GE. Its chintzy build quality is a minor problem, but the lack of key components like a full 16GB of RAM and up-to-date ports slow things down. That said, its performance failings aren’t deal-breakers, so if the quirky design and good portability of the FX504GE really appeal to you, it’s still worth a look.
MSI GF63
MSI is a brand on the rise in the world of high-end computing, and its gaming notebooks have drawn significant attention in recent months. The GF63 is the company’s budget model, with this specific configuration just cut in price to $999.
Design
If you want best-in-breed portability but also crave affordability, MSI’s GF63 is definitely one to consider. At 22mm thick and 4.1 pounds in weight, it is by far the slimmest and lightest notebook in this comparison, a full 1.4 pounds lighter than the heaviest device on the list and 8mm thinner, too. The looks of the laptop, largely made from brushed aluminum, are gamer-friendly but otherwise reasonably clean, in large part thanks to the surprisingly narrow bezels around the LCD panel. Venting ports are visible on both the rear and the left side of the laptop, and the red-only keyboard backlighting is modest in brightness.
Features
Aside from its svelte profile, the MSI GF63 boasts little in the way of special features; they’ve largely been culled from the device to keep the weight so low. Audio is loud and clear, but the keyboard has limited travel, likely another necessary side effect of the slim design. On that note, the LCD panel is so thin that it shimmies quite a bit when the laptop is moved around, and it has a significant amount of give when the lid is opened or closed. Overall screen brightness is also unfortunately on the low side.
Specs
The MSI GF63, as tested, offers a 2.2GHz Core i7-8750H CPU (eighth generation) and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050Ti GPU, both standard for this field. 16GB of RAM provide plenty of memory capacity, as well. The only unfortunate component choice on the laptop is the inclusion of only a 1TB traditional hard drive – with no SSD installed on the machine. That slows down input/output operations considerably – and contributes to a whopping 45 second boot time (vs. about 15 seconds for the rest of the field). Port selection is fair, including three traditional USB ports, a USB-C port, and full-size Ethernet. There is no HDMI output nor is an SD card reader included.
Performance
The lack of an SSD hampers the GF63’s performance, though not as badly as expected. Its general applications benchmark score (which comprises web page rendering, business productivity applications, and digital media creation work) was the most impacted, with the GF63 clocking in at 20 percent below the category average. The laptop made up a lot of that difference on graphics-heavy benchmarks, with its best showing on the Heaven 4.0 test, where it was just 2 percent shy of the average. Users with heavy I/O needs – lots of disk reads and writes – will want to consider an upgrade to a model that includes an SSD. Detailed benchmark scores can be found in the table below.
Battery
Battery life is another weak spot on the GF63, which turned in 4 hours and 14 minutes of run time on my full-screen video playback test. As with other laptops in this roundup, that’s not atrocious, and while it’s likely good enough for many gamers, it’s still a spec worth considering if you have mobility in mind.
Conclusion
The MSI’s slim design and lightweight build are easily its best features, and gamers with a greater need for portability will want to consider the laptop, despite some issues with performance, driven by its slow, traditional hard drive. If any upgrade money is on the table, adding an SSD to the mix is a no-brainer of a place to start.
Shop Now
Lenovo Legion Y530
Believe it or not, Lenovo – the brand behind the ThinkPad, the executive’s laptop of choice – also dabbles in the gaming space. Its Legion Y530 is a gaming rig built for the ultra-budget consumer. At just $830, it’s by far the least expensive rig in this roundup. Let’s find out why.
Design
A bit of an odd beast, the Legion Y530 is immediately distinguished by an unusual ridge that juts out from the back of the laptop. There’s about an inch of space behind the hinge, where the screen folds down, giving the system a distinct – and slightly strange – appearance. That aside, the Y530 has more in common with the businessy ThinkPad line than it does with most of today’s flashy gaming rigs. Keyboard backlighting is white, not in color, and with the exception of some scalloped ridges on the sides, the Legion offers few physical flourishes. While the screen bezels are generally thin (the bottom of the screen excepted), the system feels a bit lopsided, with its center of gravity shifted heavily toward the rear of the machine.
Features
As you might expect, the Y530 is fairly limited in terms of features, though its revamped thermal optimization is successful at keeping the fan reasonably quiet even during heavy-duty gaming sessions, and the Harman Kardon speakers are good at drowning out any noise. The quirky hinge design also lets Lenovo shift most of the ports to the rear of the machine, which makes managing cables easier if you have a more complex, desk-bound setup. On the downside, the system’s webcam is located not above the display but below it, which has the unfortunate impact of making any user on a video chat look like they have a monstrous and misshapen head. Lenovo is known for its keyboard work (and the inclusion of full-size function keys is an impressive addition here), but I found typing on the Legion Y530 to be only so-so. The touchpad is small for the category, but the inclusion of separate, discrete mouse buttons may be particularly appealing to those with nostalgic tastes.
Specs
The Legion Y530 has lower-end specs than the other laptops in this roundup, which largely account for its rock bottom price tag. Instead of a Core i7 CPU, the laptop includes a slower, eighth-generation Core i5-8300H, running at 2.3GHz, coupled with just 8GB of RAM. As well, the use of a slower Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 graphics chip (vs. a 1050Ti) brings down graphics performance (see below). While the storage configuration – a 256GB SSD plus a 1TB traditional hard drive – is the most capacious in this lineup, the Y530’s relatively dim screen (15.6 inches at 1920 x 1080 pixels) didn’t overly impress. Finally, the Y530 does manage to shine in the realm of ports, which includes two standard USB ports, a USB-C port, full-size Ethernet, and a whopping two graphics output options: a full-size HDMI jack and a mini DisplayPort connector. Users looking for optimal flexibility in their inputs and outputs will find plenty to go around here.
Performance
Given the Y530’s lower-end CPU, limited RAM, and slower graphics card, I wasn’t expecting the world from the laptop’s benchmarks. However, I was surprised to find that some of the battery of tests I ran failed to complete at all, crashing during the running time. This is a slight cause for alarm, though the good news is that the machine still managed to pull out an above-average score on general applications (which includes web page rendering, business productivity applications, and digital media creation work). More graphics-intensive tests weren’t as successful, with scores 20 to 30 percent below the average on most of the tests I ran, due to the lower-end video card as noted above. A representative selection of benchmark scores can be found in the table below.
Battery
With 8 hours, 1 minute of running time on my full-screen video playback test, the Legion Y530 is a monster when it comes to running untethered from an outlet. That’s nearly double the lifespan of the worst laptop tested in this roundup, and a score that should be more than good enough for any type of user, gamer or not.
Conclusion
The Legion Y530 is ultimately a study in compromise. It’s significantly cheaper than the field, but it’s also significantly slower on graphics tests and has some troubling stability problems that might be a deal-breaker for some users. That said, if the quirky design doesn’t bother you and your budget is extremely tight, it’s at least worth a look.
Acer Predator Helios 300
First, the bad news. While Acer’s Predator Helios 300 – the entry-level configuration of its popular gaming laptop line – was available for $999 during Black Friday sales, the price (on Amazon) has since crept back up to $1159, technically making it no longer a gaming laptop under $1000. That said, it’s still instructive to see what an extra $159 over that budget will get you – or what you’ll be able to get if you wait for another sale.
Design
The Predator Helios 300 certainly looks the part, right from the start. The chassis design is moderately angular, and it’s coupled with bright red and shiny silver accents along with trim that mimics diamond plate industrial flooring. It absolutely screams gamer. Both the lid and palmrest are crafted out of brushed aluminum, while the LCD frame and bottom of the chassis are made of plastic. The spacious keyboard is backlit in red, though the numeric keypad and arrow keys collide awkwardly on the right side of the machine. The WASD keys – the most essential buttons for any gamer – are outlined in red for better visibility. One downside: At 5.5 pounds, it was the heaviest laptop in this roundup; and its 30mm thickness tied it for the largest girth.
Features
The Predator Helios 300 features Dolby Audio Premium sound, which was appropriately loud and accurate in my testing. That’s good, because you might need it to combat the Acer Aeroblade fan, which can get a bit loud when cranked up to full blast. (The fan speed is user-controllable through a custom app available in Windows.) I had a good experience with the Helios’ keyboard, but as with most laptops it was no substitute for an external one. The trackpad, slightly depressed into the palmrest, is spacious and easy to work with. Finally, there’s the screen. While it’s a standard 15.6-inch model (at 1920 x 1080 pixels of resolution), it was the brightest I tested in this category, standing out nicely against the field.
Specs
As noted, Acer’s Predator Helios 300 is (usually) a more expensive laptop, and that is almost exclusively due to one component upgrade: the inclusion of an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 GPU instead of a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050Ti or 1050, which the other four laptops in this category include. That upgrade may sound small, but it’s hugely significant when it comes to graphics capabilities, as we’ll see in the next section. Other components include a standard 2.2GHz Core i7-8750H CPU (eighth generation) CPU and 16GB of RAM. The only miss here is the inclusion of only a 256GB SSD. With no secondary hard drive, storage on the Helios is limited. Port selection is however fairly good: Three standard USB ports, a USB-C port, full-size Ethernet, and HDMI output are all included. Unfortunately, there is no card reader slot included; also note that two of the USB ports are throttled down to USB 2.0 speeds.
Performance
The Predator Helios 300 gave me some concerns in the realm of stability, though it was ultimately able to complete all the benchmarks I ran on it. As expected, it topped the board on every test I ran, besting the field by up to 20 percent on general applications (which includes web page rendering, business productivity applications, and digital media creation work) and up to 50 percent on graphics and gaming-oriented tests. Again, this is almost exclusively due to the upgraded graphics card as discussed above. A representative selection of benchmark scores can be found below.
Battery
At just 2 hours, 28 minutes of run time playing back full-screen video, the Predator Helios 300 had the worst battery life in this group. That benchmark isn’t atrocious, since the laptop’s beefed-up components suck up a lot of juice, but it’s something that mobile gamers should definitely be aware of before soldiering out to the LAN party.
Conclusion
Unfortunately, unless you’re diligent, you probably won’t find the Acer Predator Helios 300 for under $1000, though the march of time and progress will inevitably push down the price of this machine – and all the laptops on this list. That said, budget gaming laptops often require a bit more compromise than a hardcore gamer is willing to give. If you can find an extra $159 in the budget, the performance boost is arguably worth the price.
