1 day ago
1
ARTICLE AD BOX
You have to be careful with budget laptops. They all have flaws and compromises, and you have to be aware of the trade-offs. With budget gaming laptops, that's even more true.
These machines aren't thin, quiet, or overly powerful. Many times, they have low-quality screens and keyboards. But there are a few that stand out, managing to walk the tightrope while keeping the price low. These gaming laptops aren't perfect, but they're all under $1,000 and offer a solid gaming experience for the money if your budget is tight.
For more laptop picks, check out our Best Gaming Laptops, Best Windows Laptops, and Best Laptops guides. Make sure to read our comprehensive guide on How to Choose a Gaming Laptop.
Best Cheap Gaming Laptop
There is only one gaming laptop selling for under $1,000 that doesn't make any significant trade-offs to the experience of using a modern laptop. That's this one, the Lenovo LOQ 15 (8/10, WIRED Recommends). It comes with an Nvidia RTX 5060 laptop graphics card, for one thing, meaning you get solid frame rates in games, without needing to depend on image upscaling through Nvidia's DLSS technology or frame generation. The advantage in performance over RTX 5050 laptops, like the MSI Cyborg A15 (see below), is substantial—anywhere between 11 and 40 percent depending on the benchmark. I was impressed by the performance across a suite of games, even though the system gets undeniably loud under heavy load.
The display is even more surprising, though. So many gaming laptops under $1,000 (and cheap laptops in general) use dim, crummy-looking screens with terrible colors. Sorry, not sorry. But the LOQ 15 looks fantastic by comparison. It's still only 1920 x 1080 resolution, but the colors are more vibrant, covering 100 percent of the sRGB color space. It can also be cranked up to 347 nits of brightness, which is bright enough as long as you're not gaming by a window. The significantly better screen makes the LOQ 15 a far better option as a laptop that can be used for school or work just as enjoyably as it is for gaming. On that note, I love the clicky keyboard, which feels tactile and fast to type on. Even the touchpad has a smooth, responsive surface.
If you want to go cheaper, Lenovo offers an RTX 5050 model that uses the same CPU. At the time of writing, this brought the price of the LOQ 15 to just $780. You get the same good display and keyboard, with less performance.
Specs Display: 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080 at 144 Hz Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 250 Graphics Card: RTX 5050 or 5060 RAM: 16 GB or 32 GB Storage: 512 GB or 1 TB Thickness: 0.94 inches at its thickness Cheapest Gaming Laptop Worth Buying
Occasionally, a product gets so heavily discounted that it makes some of its unsavory elements more acceptable. That's true of the Acer Nitro V 16 (7/10, WIRED Recommends). The display is bright enough and has a fast refresh rate of 180 Hz, but the colors are an issue. As I saw in my tests, the color accuracy and gamut are wildly off, resulting in some funky, desaturated color. It's not enough to ruin the gaming experience entirely, but it's a serious downgrade from the Lenovo LOQ 15. I like that this is the only option in this guide with a more modern, 16:10 aspect-ratio screen. That gives you more screen space and thinner bezels.
The other big issue with the Acer Nitro V 16, however, has to do with the power supply. It only comes with a 135-watt charger rather than a larger 180-watt brick that most RTX 5050 laptops have. While the smaller power brick is nice, it means you can't run intensive games in Turbo mode without draining the battery—even while plugged in. The default Balanced mode doesn't have that problem; it's problematic for long-term battery health, and it just feels wrong. I've been told that the updated 2026 model will fix this problem, but it's not available yet.
Even with those issues, the price is undeniable. You won't find a cheaper gaming laptop that's this powerful, which gives it an upper edge for anyone looking to save as much as possible. There's also a 15-inch model with a 16:9 aspect ratio, an RTX 5050, and an Intel processor. It's slightly more expensive, though, and has a 16:9 aspect-ratio display.
Specs Display: 16-inch, 1920 x 1200 at 180-Hz Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 240 Graphics Card: RTX 5050 or 5060 RAM: 16 GB Storage: 512 GB Thickness: 0.96 inches
Another Cheap Gaming Laptop to Consider
The MSI Cyborg A15 has a lot in common with the Lenovo LOQ 15. It's the only other gaming laptop with an RTX 5060 currently selling for under $1,000. That alone makes it worthy of mention, though the LOQ 15 has two major upgrades over the Cyborg: the higher-quality IPS display and the higher-resolution webcam. Unfortunately, MSI cut some corners with the Cyborg A15, especially with its 720p webcam. The Cyborg A15 even comes with one less USB-A port.
Still, there's a lot to like. The touchpad and keyboard are both nice, and if you like a colorful machine, the Cyborg gives you three-zone RGB backlighting. It's also a more portable design, with a smaller footprint and thinner chassis—even slightly lighter.
Availability is tough on this one right now, though. I tested the RTX 5050 model, which is available only via preorder at the moment. While this configuration is over $1,000, it comes with a terabyte of storage. Fortunately, cheaper versions are available with the more powerful RTX 5060, even under $1,000.
Specs Display: 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080 at 144-Hz Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 240 or Ryzen 7 250 Graphics Card: RTX 5050, 5060, or 5070 RAM: 16 GB or 32 GB Storage: 512 GB or 1 TB Thickness: 0.94 inches at its thickness
Performance Comparison
What You Should Look For in a Cheap Gaming Laptop
Most cheap gaming laptops share a lot in common. They're all usually between 0.8 and 1 inch thick and tend to have bare-bones gaming-capable hardware. Here are some of the key specs to look for:
Display: 15-inch or 16-inch display. Depending on the aspect ratio, they'll have basic displays with a standard 1920 x 1080 or 1920 x 1200 resolution. You won't find higher-resolution panels on gaming laptops under $1,000. Also, take a look at the refresh rate. 144 Hz is the standard, but the higher the better for less motion blur and smoother animation. While OLED and mini-LED are more common in higher-end gaming laptops, all budget-oriented options use LED IPS.
CPU: The latest processors from Intel and AMD will all be here, and in the budget tier, the differences aren't as significant as in higher-end options. For AMD, that's usually either the Ryzen 5 220 or Ryzen 7 250. Intel's latest gaming chips in this price range are Intel Core Ultra 5 225H or Core Ultra 7 240H. While Intel has announced its next-gen Core Ultra Series 3 chips, these still haven't come out just yet.
GPU: We're currently in Nvidia's RTX 50-series graphics cards, which came out at the beginning of 2025. In gaming laptops under $1,000, you'll be stuck with either the RTX 5050 or 5060. These likely won't be replaced until at least 2027, so it's safe to buy these for now.
Memory: You want at least 16 GB of RAM, and that's typically what you'll be stuck with in budget gaming laptops. Many gaming laptops let you upgrade RAM yourself later, though with the price of stand-alone memory these days, it might not be a bad idea to configure it with 32 GB upfront.
Storage: Gaming laptops start at 512 GB, and that will be enough for most. Upgrading to 1 terabyte isn't a bad idea, though, whether that's configured up-front or doing it yourself later. You can always store games on an external hard drive, but with the size of games these days, the more storage you have the better.
What About Older Gaming Laptops?
The laptops above are the cheapest gaming laptops you should buy, but as you'll discover with some research, there are some even lower-priced options out there—some as low as $500 or $600. Most come with older graphics cards and processors, meaning you're getting a dip in performance. This is especially true if you buy something like an RTX 3050 or 2050. The RTX 50 series is the latest version, which came out at the beginning of 2025. The RTX 40 series was announced in 2023, meaning anything older than that is well over three years old. I wouldn't recommend anything that old, especially not if it was already budget-oriented. I haven't seen anything cheap enough that would make me think you shouldn't go with one of the RTX 50 series options above instead.
Take a look at this older version of the Lenovo LOQ 15, which has an RTX 3060 (and a different design) and is currently selling for $550. That's only $50 more than the Acer Nitro V 16 with the RTX 5050, which is more powerful, comes with more VRAM, and has multiframe generation. It's clearly the better purchase and will last you longer before you feel the urge to upgrade.
Other Cheap Gaming Laptops to Consider
There are a few other affordable gaming laptops I haven't tested yet that are worth considering. Asus and Dell both have RTX 5050 options, but neither is under $1,000. The Asus ROG A14 is out there, but I can't find a version cheaper than $1,270. Meanwhile, the Alienware Aurora 16 starts at $1,200 at Dell.com but is currently on sale for $899 at Walmart. It's definitely on my list to test next, as Alienware generally has great build quality.
If you're willing to spend a bit more, you'll find gaming laptops over $1,000 with more memory and storage, higher-quality displays (sometimes even OLED), thinner chassis, and most importantly, more powerful CPUs and GPUs. At the time of writing, the cheapest RTX 5070 gaming laptop came in at $1,500 when on sale. That goes up to $1,879 for the most affordable RTX 5070 Ti gaming laptop on sale. That should give you an idea of how performance scales up from what is considered “budget.” Read our Best Gaming Laptops guide for more high-end picks.
How We Test Budget Gaming Laptops
Here at WIRED, we test budget gaming laptops the same way we test high-priced ones. Gaming comes first, and we run a series of in-game benchmarks to establish a baseline that can be compared apples-to-apples, including titles from different genres like Cyberpunk 2077, Marvel Rivals, and Monster Hunter: Wilds. This spits out a score, yes, but while it's running, we pay attention to factors like fan noise, internal temperatures, and surface temperatures. We also test the game in more realistic scenarios to get a feel for how all the elements of the system come together, including the screen. We also use other CPU and GPU benchmarks like 3DMark Steel Nomad and Cinebench to evaluate performance.
Speaking of the screen, we use a colorimeter to test the breadth and accuracy of the colors, the peak brightness, and the contrast. These are all important and contribute to the overall experience of using the laptop both in and out of gaming. We also test battery life in local video playback. This is not so much for gaming, but more to see how well it works for other work or for school. We also test out the speakers and webcam to see how they hold up.
Lastly, we handle these laptops to get a sense for durability, build quality, and usability. That means typing on the keyboard, swiping on the touchpad, opening and closing the hinge, carrying it from place to place, and applying pressure to the lid and palm rests. Add in the included specs, price, and configuration options, and it comes together in something that I'd either personally recommend or not. For budget-oriented devices, price is given more weight in this evaluation. If one gaming laptop costs more than another, it needs to add something that offers a qualitative benefit.
English (US) ·