How Much Money Should You Spend on a Gaming Laptop?
I hate it when I spend money on things I don’t need, and this is easy to do with gaming laptops as they can get expensive fast.
Entry level gaming laptops start from about $500, while top of the line models can easily exceed $5000 – 10x the cost!
How much can you comfortably afford to spend on a new gaming laptop? Only you can decide this – but here are my thoughts on some different price ranges.
Entry Level to Low-End
Honestly the entry level stuff at $500-600 for RTX 2050/3050 is worth avoiding if you can. You get so much more in terms of build quality and better performance by increasing the budget to around $700-800. We’ve had some great RTX 4060 deals for this price on models like Lenovo’s LOQ (my favorite budget gaming laptop).
Mid-Range
At $1000 or so you can either stick to a budget model like an ASUS TUF but boost the GPU up to an RTX 4070 with the right sale, or look at more premium laptops with better screens and design with the 4060. The 4070 is around 20% faster in games, so this comes down to personal preference.
Upper Mid to High-End
Higher end 4070 laptops like the ASUS Zephyrus M16 or Lenovo Legion Pro 5 push things up to $1300-1500, while higher end models like the Legion 7i are often in the $1600-2000 range.
But good RTX 4080 laptop deals have been seen for $1750, so you’ve got to pick between better performance or better build quality and features. Well, best case we’ve had $1500-1600 4080 deals, but that was MSI’s GP68HX which has a low quality screen.
Anyway, the 4080 is around 55% faster than the 4070 in games and can absolutely be worth stepping up to if you can afford the extra performance. Plus it boosts the VRAM from 8GB to 12GB, which will give it more longevity.
High-End
By the time we get up to the RTX 4090, which seems to start from around $2100-2500 on sale depending on the laptop it’s in, diminishing returns are well at play. The 4090 is around 20% faster than the 4080 in games, but usually costs a fair bit more.
The 4090 boosts the VRAM up to 16GB and actually does a good job of running modern games at 4K high settings, even without FSR or DLSS – an impressive feat for a gaming laptop.
Find The Sweet Spot
Sometimes it’s worth spending more for the next tier up if you can afford it, but other times it’s not. The sweet spots seem to be RTX 4060 for $800-900, RTX 4070 for $1000-1300, and RTX 4080 for $1750-1900.
18 Comments
Ryan
Hey Jarrod,
Regarding the topic of new laptops and value for money, I noticed you haven’t done a metabox review in years. I know that your older videos definitely influenced my initial purchase with this particular clevo rebrander (and the business location being only 10mins down the road…).
I’m just curious if there’s any reason you no longer review their products? They still seem to have the best bang for buck, and I can testify to the much improved chassis builds these days (my last was the excellent PD-50-PNN-Ultra). Would love to see a review on their newest Prime-xr at any rate.
Anyway, keep up the great content. You’re my go to for a no BS review ever since I found your channel.
Cheers.
Jarrod
Unfortunately they are only sold in Australia and Australia accounts for 2-3% of video views. A review takes 1-2 weeks of our time, so it just doesn’t make sense for us to cover when the majority of our audience will have no interest. Yeah they’re still good value locally, that’s why we have some deals from them on the https://gaminglaptop.deals/australia page, we just don’t have the capacity to review them anymore when we have the option of doing other models that more people want to know about.
Allen Francis
I’ve never spent more than $400 on a quality laptop before as a freelance. I’m now in the market to get a gaming rig and I see that to get a quality one might cost $1,000+ because of the computing power and how fast they heat up. Thank you for this article but it is making me rethink my choices.
Marcelo
Hey Jarrod, sorry for just dropping a message, I’ve been following your channel for some time since I’m doing some research for my first gaming laptop, and between a lot of post and comments I’m kinda scared about my choices.
I really liked the Lenovo LOQ and then saw all the things about the dead mobos, then looked at Acer Nitro and then saw a lot of comments about the build quality in general, and the same about other affordable models like HP Victus and stuff.
I’m really lost about what to look for, since I live in a country with really bad warranty protection (3 months max by law and they just kinda say they’ll talk with the manufacturer and then you’re screwed without a machine for the time, IF they actually get it repaired) and buying from the US and having it shipped is an option but it kinda makes it hard to send back if anything goes wrong.
I really don’t want to screw up since it’s the only big purchase I can make for quite a while, I’ve saved and made a big effort for this budget since the currency here is not that strong, but a good laptop would help me be able to work on my field (music production and recording, I also teach) and be able to game in the off time.
I saw a lot of good options like the Legion, I really like them, but it kinda goes way over my budget (about 850usd), are there any recommendations you can make at that price range? Is buying a Legion of past years, like 2022 a good option if they drop in price with the passing years, are they still available cheaper with the passing years? What about your experience with the LOQs that you showed on your review? I was also thinking about waiting for Black Friday, but still, between all the options and the pros and cons you read on Reddit, I’m lost.
Again, sorry for just sending a message like this, but if you have any recommendations or info that could help me, I’d really appreciate it. Thank you in advance.
Jarrod
Unfortunately I am not in a good position to comment on long term use. In most cases I only use a laptop for a few weeks to make the review before it gets sent back, but also my experience is one single data point and not very useful for me to say something like yes the laptop did not die for me (expected outcome in most cases). Best bet is to get on reddit and see what is happening to the majority, keeping in mind people only complain when they have issues, most people don’t post when everything is going well. Basically there’s no real way to know, Lenovo claims that they have not had an increase in warranty requests for LOQ series though, it may simple be normal failure rates we are seeing just more people talking about it because they sold more of them than others. Overall I still think LOQ series is good.
Jamie
How you doing jarrod. quick question whats the best rtx 480 gaming laptop for under $3000 Dollars. In your opinion.
Abdel Latif Hamdan
Heyy Jarrod,
I have been looking for a PC for a week now, and (very quickly) stumbled upon your channel.
The least I can say is that it help me TREMENDOUSLY, and I have now bought a mid-range PC for a great deal during the prime days (yesterday, october 8th, on amazon DE).
Note : I’m not from Germany, but France and cyrrently in Spain 🤣.
Anyway, I got the Acer Nitro V16 (ANV16-41, 2024 model if I’m not mistaken) with these specs:
– Ryzen 7 8845HS
– RTX 4060 (85W)
– 1 TB SSD
– 16 GB DDR5 RAM (5600 Mhz)
– Windows 11 already installed (yes it also a bit of an argument for me)
I got it for 900€ (+16 delivery fees to france), which I think is a great deal.
Now I have seen that since yesterday, on your website offering the best deals (when selecting a country amongst germany, canada, us etc.) this exact amazon offer appears in second place when choosing <1000€ deals, which is a positive for me.
I wanted to know, since you still didn't review this PC on your channel, and that I am lacking good review videos on youtube of this model (maybe due to how recent it is), what do you think of this laptop for the price I payed it for, and if yoh could compare it to the HP OMEN 16-xd0000ns
– AMD R7 7840HS
– 16GB RAM
– 4060 (120W)
That I could have got for the same pric (but were too late on amazon FR).
I want to know if there is actually a very big difference, since I also watched your video (and others) about clmparing the 4060 wattage perfomances, and that it stabilizes in the higher wattage (meaning its not worth paying much more for a 115w 4060 instead of a 75w for example) AND also because the acer cpu is i think newer and evenly performant (with a few execptions).
(Sorry for the very lengthy message 😅)
Love from France!
Abdel Latif.
Jarrod
Omen is a higher quality machine with better build quality, but at the end of the day the CPU is the same just with a different name and the 4060 will perform much the same in games, only a little better.
PinkyMan
Hey Jarrod, I’m planning to buy a new gaming laptop recently and would like to ask for your recommendations (with budget & without budget) , these are my options
– Asus TUF Gaming A15
– Asus TUF Gaming F16
– Asus ROG Zephyrus G14
– Lenovo Legion 5i or 5i Pro
Jarrod
Typing out all the differences would take ages, but basically G14 if portability is the priority, Legion is better than the TUFs, AMD TUF if you want better battery life over the Intel one.
Sandro
Hello, i am pretty new to your community. I decided to buy new laptop and watched your videos, but i still couldnt decide between hp victus 15 (2023) and lenovo loq 15. I would chose hp vistus with ryzen 5 8640h/hs +rtx 4050. I dont use it for gaming but for other tasks like Cad, crypto, multitasking etc. 16gb ram +512 ssd. Will i be able to upgrade the ssd and ram in the future if it gets too toght ? What about battery power ? It has 70watt battery as far as i know.
Huge thanks for thehelop help !
Jarrod
LOQ is a better machine in my opinion. Both laptops have upgrade options for memory/SSD, but check my review videos on YouTube for those models as I show the insides and talk about what can be changed. If we have tested those specific configurations, we will have our battery data here: https://jarrods.tech/list-of-laptop-battery-life/
Abdel Latif Hamdan
Hey Jarrod!
I just bought an Acer nitro v16 (2024) and I’ve been hearing that Acer isn’t the best brand in the last decade not only because of their laptop quality but apparently also for customer service.
I just wanted to make sure if it’s the case or no, because I saw many reviews for this laptop I just bought and they seem to be very good so what’s the deal with Acer ?
Are they still as bad as people say or are they good again, at least equally to the other brands.
Because I saw you also reviewed Acer laptops on your channel (nitro 5, helios), so I don’t know what to think.
Thanks
Keep it up! I love your channel and your work.
Jarrod
Haven’t heard of that, but people say that stuff for every brand so I wouldn’t pay too much attention to it to be honest. A decade is an extremely long time in this world, anything can vastly improve over that period.
Ikki M.
Hi Jarrod, hope you’re doing well.
I’ve been watching your videos because a friend you helped a few years back highly recommended you (says thanks btw).
And I was hoping you could help me decide with my first gaming laptop, please.
These are my options (prices are converted from local currency, not US-based):
(1) 1420$ – DELL G15 1555 G155530012U HMF30 – i7-13650HX – 64GB – 512GB SSD – RTX4060 – 15.6″ FHD
(2) 1650$ – Dell G15 5530 G155530013Uv7 – i7-13650HX – 64GB DDR5 – 2TB SSD – RTX4060 – 15.6″ 165Hz FHD
(3) 1575$ – Dell G16 7630 G167630005Uv6 – i7-13650HX – 32GB DDR5 – 1TB SSD – RTX4060 – 16″ 165Hz QHD+
Thank you very much.
Jarrod
They’re basically the same in terms of CPU/GPU which is the most important thing to consider, as these can never be upgraded. RAM/storage can be upgraded any time, so ultimately it depends on how much RAM/SSD space you want it to come with. Purely in terms of value the cheapest one will perform the same in games as the most expensive, just depends if you need the extra RAM at the expense of less storage space.
IKKI M.
^ I just found that the seller has different configurations (16-64 RAM and 1-2TB SSD) for both models, with the G16 (QHD+) costing 75-150$ more for the same config (higher config = larger diff.), so I guess the real comparison is between G15/G16 and FHD/QHD+?
Jarrod
G15 and G16 aren’t that different, 16 has a slightly bigger screen. RTX 4060 graphics can run games at QHD+ but of course FHD is easier. There might be other differences in the screens like brightness/colors that would probably be more important when choosing.