For the best gaming experience with a budget gaming laptop, you want to make sure you get the most graphics power you can afford from the start since this can't be upgraded later, unlike memory or storage. A cheap gaming laptop with a previous-generation, entry-level Nvidia RTX 4050 normally starts at around $900 to $1,000. That chip gives you enough graphics performance to play the newest demanding games at medium settings. Spending between $1,000 and $1,600 (or perhaps a little more) will get you a laptop with a newer RTX 5060 GPU for a better gaming experience.

With the CPU, memory and storage, your choices are a little more flexible for a budget gaming laptop, especially the latter two. Because many games such as first-person shooters rely more on the graphics chip than the CPU, you don't necessarily need the fastest available. Going with a more midrange CPU like an Intel Core Ultra 5 or AMD Ryzen 5 is a safe bet.Also, gaming laptops, especially cheaper ones, let you easily expand or upgrade your memory and storage. If you're going to skimp, this is the best place to do it with the expectation you'll upgrade eventually and put your cash into the GPU

Acer makes some of our favorite budget laptops, including two of the best budget gaming laptops in its Predator and Nitro lines. Dell with its Alienware brand and HP with its Omen brand also make some great gaming laptops that we’d recommend. Asus also sells a wide range of good gaming laptops.