Best gaming laptops for under $1,000
Trying to find a good deal on a gaming laptop isn’t easy right now with the increased demand for inexpensive laptops for working from home during coronavirus closures. You might also consider refurbished or open-box gaming laptops from Best Buy, Micro Center, Woot and others.
Older laptops with Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 10series GPUs are still around, but the deals aren’t as good as they once were.
Laptops with an entry-level GTX 1050 Ti card normally start around $700 if you can find them. That chip gives you enough graphics performance to play the newest demanding games at low-tomedium settings.
Spending between $800 and $1,000 (or a little more) will get you a laptop with a newer GTX 1650 or 1660 Ti or an older upper-midrange Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 for a great gaming experience. Plus, with the 6GB version of the 1060, you can experience a little of the ray-tracing effects available with the pricier RTX cards.
Dell G515
Dell’s G-series gaming laptops are cheaper than those from its Alienware division, but still capable of playing the latest AAA titles. There are three separate models — the G3, G5 and G7 — available in 15- and 17-inch sizes. The 2018 G3 15 was slimmer in design than the G5 and G7, which were styled more like a gaming laptop. The 2019 G3 leans more toward the G5 and G7 design, too. The midrange G5 15 hits the mark with an excellent price-to-performance ratio, build quality and design.
Lenovo Legion Y545
The Legion Y545 currently starts at $860, but depending on the deals Lenovo has for it, the price can be as low as $800 for a good middle-of-the-road configuration. Our system performed really well with its Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti and ninth-gen Core i7 hitting more than 70fps for Far Cry 5 and Shadow of the Tomb Raider tests.
However, it does look a little more like a traditional gaming laptop. Lenovo’s Legion Y540 is more streamlined in appearance and is available in both 15- and 17-inch sizes.
Acer Nitro 5
The 17.3-inch Acer Nitro 5 brings something extra to entry-level gaming laptops, and not just a larger display. The screen is certainly a big part of its
appeal, though: Most sub-$1,000 gaming laptops have 15.6-inch displays, and the Acer’s larger screen lets you get lost in whatever world you’re in.
If you’re looking for a bit more oomph, but still at reasonable prices, check out the redesigned Predator Helios 300 with ninth-gen Intel processors and
Nvidia RTX graphics and a smaller, thinner body. The previous iteration is available with a 15.6-inch full-HD IPS display with a 144Hz refresh rate, an Intel Core i7-8750H CPU, Nvidia GTX 1060 GPU with 6GB of memory, 16GB of system RAM and a 256GB NVMe SSD on Amazon for $1,089.