The Best Gaming Laptops for Any Quest

Picking the right gaming laptop can be a delicate balance. The raw power you typically find in gaming desktops takes a lot of power, 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, but if you want to play on the battery more, then balancing power with efficiency should be a priority for you.

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, 16 GB of RAM is a safe bet for most. If you want the power to play new AAA games, consider stepping up to 32 GB of RAM. 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).
• GPU: Similar to CPU, there are a lot of models out there that can get overwhelming to keep track of. Nvidia has a wide range of 40-series GPUs, while AMD competes 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. 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.
• Display refresh rate: Gaming is one of the few areas where getting more than 60 frames per second can have a tangible benefit. Gaming laptops can range from a moderately fast 120 Hz, all the way up to 300 Hz. All those extra frames will also increase processing and battery power though, so you'll need to consider how much power you need, and how often you plan to play while away from a charger.