Picking the right gaming laptop can be a delicate balance. The raw power you typically find in gaming desktops takes a lot of energy, and when you put that in a laptop, it can drain the battery fast. Similarly, the superfast refresh rates in gaming monitors can lead to even more power drain. If you plan to keep your laptop plugged in most of the time, you can lean toward more powerful hardware. If you want to play on the battery more, balancing power with efficiency should be a priority.

Size is also a factor to consider. When you’re gaming at home, you might want the largest, brightest screen you can find, but when you have to carry that screen around, the bulk and weight can be a (quite literal) drag. If you plan to travel with your laptop, you might want to think about how much heft you’re willing to lug around.

No matter what, you should expect to make some sacrifices that aren’t as common with more typical laptops. It’s not unusual for a gaming laptop to last less than two hours when you start playing games on it. And unless you have a lot of (usually expensive) power under the hood, you might not be able to play some modern AAA games at their highest level the way you would on a desktop without spending a little time fiddling with the game’s graphics settings.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed with specs and numbers when you’re shopping for a gaming laptop, but there are a few key specs you can focus on to get the best bang for your buck. For additional help with all the different specifications on offer, check out our How to Buy a Laptop guide.

• RAM: Aim for a machine with at least 16 GB of RAM. While 8 GB of RAM is still workable for those who play less demanding games or have little desire for fancy graphics, you’ll be hard-pressed to find one on offer these days. The new minimum is 16 GB of RAM, and if you intend to play new AAA games, stepping up to 32 GB of RAM is a really good idea. The speed of your RAM can also be a factor. Currently, DDR5 is the best you’ll find, but you’ll start to see DDR6 replacing it over the next few years.
• CPU: When you want the fastest processor, newer is usually better. Intel is currently on its 14th generation of gaming CPUs, and AMD Ryzen is on the 8000 series. If you want to get into the nitty-gritty, CPU benchmarks can help you get a sense of how powerful a processor is, but the best indicator is real-world testing (which we do on every laptop we feature). Soon, we’ll be getting the latest CPUs from AMD and Intel, which were announced at CES, and should be available over the coming months.
• Discrete GPU: As with the CPU, there are a lot of models out there that can get overwhelming to keep track of. Make sure whatever gaming laptop you buy has a discrete GPU—that means the graphics card is separate from the CPU. These days, Nvidia is the primary option, whether that’s the previous-gen RTX 40-series GPUs or the brand-new 50-series. You’ll be able to find a few gaming laptops with AMD GPUs out there, competing with its Radeon 7000 generation. These will often share similar names to their desktop counterparts, but most are technically running the “Laptop” version of the GPU, such as the RTX 5090 or 5080. Again, real-world testing is the best indicator of performance.
• Storage: Most laptops have solid-state drives nowadays, which are super fast and reduce load times considerably from the days of hard drives. Games can get massive, so we’d recommend at least a 1-TB internal drive, though if you can swing for 2 TB, you’ll have a lot more room for multiple AAA games. Fortunately, many gaming laptops still let you install more internal storage, so you may be able to expand that later for less money.
• Display: Most gaming laptop displays are in a 16:10 aspect ratio and start with a resolution of at least 1920 x 1200 with at least a 120-Hz refresh rate. You want something that matches the performance of the laptop’s GPU and the types of games you play. Competitive multiplayer gamers will want a higher refresh rate, while single-player gamers will benefit more from higher resolutions. There’s even next-gen display technology available, like mini-LED or OLED (even 3D!) screens that enable impressive HDR visuals and improved response times.

All of the major laptop manufacturers have gaming sub-brands these days. Just to name a few, Lenovo has Legion, Asus has ROG, Acer has Predator and Nitro, and Dell has Alienware. HP previously offered the Victus and Omen brands but will now sell under its HyperX sub-brand starting this year. These are a good place to start, especially if you’re looking for something more budget-friendly.

Asus has the most full-featured lineup, however, spanning high-powered juggernauts to gorgeous, slim models. Asus also offers some of the cheapest models with its TUF brand and some hyper-portable options in the ROG Flow line. MSI is another noteworthy brand, with dozens of models under various names denoting price and performance: Titan, Raider, Stealth, and Crosshair.

Beyond these sub-brands, let’s not forget about Razer. The company has earned its reputation for producing the most premium and well-built gaming laptops, often referred to as the MacBook of gaming laptops.

You will, however, find lots of unknown brands if you go shopping on Amazon for gaming laptops. Most are easy to write off based on specs alone, as they rarely even feature a discrete GPU. Avoid these at all costs, no matter how attractive the price is.

For years, I didn’t recommend spending under $1,000 on a gaming laptop. Today, there are a few good options though. As you can see from our picks above (and from our list of the best cheap gaming laptops), there are a few great options under $1,000 thanks to some great discounts. You can find RTX 5050 laptops for cheaper, but be careful, as some serious compromises can be taken on these budget-minded devices.

On the other side, you can spend close to $5,000 on a top-tier model, sporting the latest RTX 5090 and loads of high-end features and specs. It’s also smart to buy a previous-gen gaming laptop with an RTX 40-series GPU onboard if you’re strapped for cash, though I wouldn’t buy anything older than that.

Gaming laptops primarily come in three screen sizes: 14-inch, 16-inch, and 18-inch. There are also 15.6-inch displays in an old-school 16:9 aspect ratio, such as the Lenovo LOQ 15 listed above. The difference between these three sizes is pretty dramatic, both in terms of overall footprint and portability. Most people should buy a 16-inch gaming laptop, which tends to be the sweet spot. Many 16-inch gaming laptops still offer you the full range of performance, up to the latest CPUs and GPUs (including the RTX 5090), and even come with a wider range of display options, including OLED. Eighteen-inch gaming laptops tend to be gargantuan—not the kind of thing you want to move around much. The larger screen is great if you don’t ever intend to connect it to an external display or leave your home with it.

Meanwhile, 14-inch gaming laptops have become popular over the past few years, and they function best as a hybrid device. They tend to be sleek and minimalist, downplaying the gamer aesthetic for something more professional and buttoned-up. GPU options tend to be more limited at this size, but you can still get some surprisingly solid performance out of these laptops, depending on the configuration. They tend to get better battery life, too.

In a word, yes. OLED has a number of benefits for PC gaming. The extreme contrast of OLED allows the display to excel in HDR performance. HDR really brings games to life, brightening up highlights and deepening shadows. Now, it should be mentioned that the current OLED panels being used on gaming laptops aren’t as bright as the best OLED gaming monitors, which can hit over 1,000 nits of peak HDR brightness. But you still get the HDR effect with the brightness on offer on these OLED gaming laptops.

We’re seeing OLED available for both 14-inch and 16-inch gaming laptops, but not on 18-inch laptops just yet. OLED provides aid for more competitive gamers, offering less input lag than on IPS or Mini-LED. It’s totally worth it. Increasingly, it’s becoming more standard on premium gaming laptops, meaning you won’t always need to make the hard choice between a faster GPU and a better screen.