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The ideal laptop for gaming. How to play on a laptop without lags

Find the best gaming laptops to suit your needs.

If you had asked us to find the best gaming laptop a few years ago, we would have simply looked for a machine with an Intel Core i7 processor, discrete graphics and 8GB of RAM. However, a lot has changed in the last few years, with the best gaming laptops now coming in all shapes and sizes. Since finding the best gaming laptop is harder than ever, we've rounded up our favorites for you.

There are plenty of good gaming laptops that look like your parents' laptops, but you shouldn't ignore them. With Max-Q laptop graphics unveiled at CES 2019, you really have to pay attention. Some of the best gaming laptops of 2019 don't look like gaming laptops—just take a look. Don't worry, though, the market is still full of bulky gaming laptops that are worthy of your desktop.

note: Not all are designed for gaming.

So, no matter what kind of games you prefer to play and what budget you can afford, you can find a gaming monster or a cheap gaming laptop costing around 65,000 rubles, like. You will find all the best laptops in our ranking. And because we've tested every laptop ourselves, you can rest assured you're getting something worthy of your attention.

3 | MSIGT75TITAN

BEHEMOTH TO REPLACE YOUR PC


CPU: Intel Core i7-8750H | Graphic arts: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 | RAM: up to 64 GB DDR4-2666 MHz | Screen: 17.3" FHD (1920 x 1080), 120Hz, G-Sync | Memory: 512 GB M.2 SATA SSD / 1 TB HDD.

  • pros: Fantastic cooling | Mechanical keyboard;
  • Minuses: Gigantic and heavy;

While MSI's GS65 is the king of thin and light gaming laptops, the GT75 is at the opposite end of the spectrum: chunky and heavy. This is a huge gaming laptop, a true gaming PC replacement, with a full-size SteelSeries (chiclet-style) mechanical keyboard, a reliable (if loud) cooling system, and amazing speakers. Of course, they're backed up by the same quality desktop components, including a Core i7-8750H (an upgraded version with an i9 processor is also available), a GTX 1080 graphics card, and up to 64GB of DDR4-2666 GHz RAM. If you want everything a desktop has to offer in a mobile laptop form factor, the GT75 Titan is the best choice.

4 |

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Characteristics: Processor: Intel Core i7 – Core i9 | Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 (8GB GDDR5X VRAM) | RAM: 64 GB | Screen: 17.3-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) 144Hz | Built-in memory: x3 512 GB SSD (M.2, RAID 0), 2 TB HDD.

  • pros: Insane performance | Large screen;
  • Minuses: Extremely expensive;

Thin and light gaming laptops are becoming fashionable in 2018, but if you buck the trend and are willing to put up with a heavy, beastly gaming laptop that can handle every game in the industry, the ASUS ROG G703GI is your choice. There's no room for compromise here - this is a massive and expensive laptop whose size and price match its gaming performance to rival the best gaming PCs. Just don't expect to be able to take it to a coffee shop without two massive battery bricks.

5 | RAZER BLADE

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A gaming-hardened competitor to the MacBook Pro.

Characteristics: Processor: Intel Core i7-8750H | Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (8GB GDDR5 VRAM) | RAM: 16 GB | Screen: up to 15.6 inches UHD (3840 x 2160) 60Hz | Built-in memory: 512 GB M.2 SSD;

  • Pros: Beautiful design | The thinnest laptop;
  • Minuses: Steam chamber cooling | No Ethernet port;

With the new Blade 15 released earlier this year, Razer is finally catching up with the competition in what we consider the best gaming laptop. Rugged design, slim and sleek design, long battery life, thin bezels around the 144Hz display, and internals powerful enough to handle the latest games. This means you get an Intel Core i7-8750H processor paired with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Max-Q graphics card.

What sets the Blade 15 apart from its competitors are the details. Its aluminum chassis is the most durable and flex-resistant laptop we've tested recently, and by just half a millimeter, Razer's gaming laptop is the thinnest on the market. Of course, that half-millimeter difference is largely invisible to the eye - what's more impressive is the feel of the solid body, which, according to Razer, is CNC milled from a single block of aluminum. Open the lid and you'll see the touchpad, which is noticeably larger than last year's counterpart, and the keyboard is wider on both sides.

6 |

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Gaming performance in a portable form factor.

Characteristics: Processor: Intel Core i5 – Core i7 | Graphics: Radeon RX Vega M GL with 4GB HMB2 graphics memory | RAM: 8 GB | Screen: 15.6-inch 4K Ultra HD (3840 x 2160) InfinityEdge anti-glare | Built-in memory: 512 GB PCIe SSD.

  • pros: Impressive performance | Ultra-thin;
  • Minuses: Expensive even in appearance;

If you want one of the best gaming laptops, but don't want to miss out on the compact form factor craze, you need to consider the Dell XPS 15 2 in 1. Equipped with Intel Kaby Lake G-Series processors, the gaming laptop won't fall behind its competitors , running on the GTX 1050, even without a truly discrete graphics card. And when you combine this gaming machine with an attractive design, you get the best of both worlds - even if you have to put up with a noisy fan.

7 | ASUS ROG STRIX GL502

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It's hard not to love such a good gaming laptop.

Characteristics: Processor: Intel Core i7 | Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 – 1070 | RAM: 16 GB DDR4 | Screen: 15.6-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) IPS | Built-in memory: 256 GB SSD, 1 TB HDD;

  • pros: Plays in Full HD | Scorchingly bright screen;
  • Minuses: Mediocre battery life;

ASUS Strix GL502 will not be able to boast of the most innovative design, made of ordinary black and red plastic, a sort of Halloween laptop only all year round. But this is without a doubt one of the best laptops when it comes to 1080p gaming. In fact, we were able to turn up all the graphics settings in Overwatch, maintaining the 60 FPS bar throughout the entire game. Battery life takes a toll on the performance of a gaming station, but the stunning screen, remarkable performance and on-board acoustics make the laptop hands down one of the best among gaming systems.

8 |

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Great gaming laptop on a budget.

Characteristics: Processor: Intel Core i7 | Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB – 6GB | RAM: 16-32 GB DDR4 | Screen: 15.6-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) ComfyView IPS (144Hz) | Built-in memory: 128 GB SSD, 1 TB HDD;

  • pros: Powerful | Available | Battery life;
  • Minuses: Heats up under load;

The Acer Predator Helios 300 is the best gaming laptop for most thanks to its incredible value proposition. It costs a little more, and sometimes less, than budget models, but offers a GTX 1060 6GB video card, which is capable of squeezing out a full 60 frames per second from most modern games with high graphics settings. The system lacks any fancy screen features like G-Sync, although you can get a laptop with a 144Hz screen and you'll probably want to consider buying a larger hard drive to support the 256GB SSD. But these minor issues don't matter much when you see this laptop's super-affordable price tag.

The Acer Predator Helios 300 is the best budget gaming laptop you can buy in 2019, without compromising on features or compromises. Right now you will find a model with a 1060 video card and a 144 Hz panel, a 1 TB hard drive and a 256 GB SSD for 85,000 rubles, while basic configurations are available from 60,000 rubles. These are great prices for what you get with the laptop.

9 | DELLG3 15

GREAT GAMES AT A CHEAP


CPU: Intel Core i5 8300H – Core i7-8750H | Graphic arts: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 – GTX 1060 | RAM: 8 GB – 16 GB | Screen: 15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080) | Memory: 1 TB SSHD – 512 GB PCIe SSD.

  • pros: Available | Great performance for the money;
  • Minuses: No USB-C;

When you're looking to buy one of the best gaming laptops of 2019, the first thing you'll probably notice is how much you'll have to shell out. Luckily, the Dell G3 15 isn't just incredibly affordable, it's also ahead of its class with stellar 1080p gaming performance. With Nvidia GTX 1060 graphics cards, you can play all the latest games while keeping the resolution at 1080p. And the combination of blue on black looks quite attractive if you like its aesthetics.

More details:

10 |

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Thin. Easy. Powerful.

Characteristics: Processor: Intel Core i7 8750H | Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (6GB GDDR5) | RAM: 8 - 16 GB DDR4 | Screen: 15.6-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) Anti-glare LCD | Built-in memory: 512 GB SSD.

  • pros: Thin screen panels | Thin and light;
  • Minuses: Poor camera position;

The best gaming laptops used to refer to the big, bulky machines that were needed to play the best PC games on the go—not anymore. The Gigabyte Aero 15 throws tradition into the dust, equipping the latest laptop with a 6-core 8th generation Intel Core i7 processor and a GTX 1060 while maintaining the dimensions of an ultrabook. With a beefy processor, the Gigabyte Aero 15 isn't just one of the best gaming laptops - it's just as good when you need to get work done.

More details: Gigabyte Aero 15 review.

11 | ALIENWARRE 17 R5

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Performance i9 to suppress competitors.

Characteristics: Processor: Intel Core i9-8950HK | Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 (8GB GDDR5X VRAM) | RAM: 32 GB | Screen: 17.3" QHD (2560 x 1440) 144Hz | Built-in memory: 246 GB PCIe M.2 SSD, 1 TB HDD (7200 rpm).

  • pros: Ultimate Performance | 17-inch screen;
  • Minuses: West about 3 kg;

Ever since Intel unveiled its i9-8950HK, we were confident that it would find its way into the best gaming laptops of 2018, and just a month later, we were proven right. The Alienware 17 R5 is a beast of a gaming laptop with the aforementioned processors and an overclocked GTX 1080. If you want a high-performance machine and are willing to put up with the 3kg weight, this bulky laptop will eat up any games you throw at it. Just don't expect to be able to carry it in your backpack without hurting your back.

Gaming laptops have a large number of components installed: advanced hardware, a video card, a powerful cooling system, connection ports, a battery and other parts that ensure full operation of the laptop. Often there is a separate DVD or BluRay drive.

Recently, there have been two trends: manufacturers are releasing light, neat and moderately thin gaming laptops, as well as truly advanced machines filled with productive hardware. Laptops from the first category weigh about 2 - 3 kg, the weight of the second can reach 4 - 6 kg. The cooling system of a gaming laptop alone can weigh more than a standard laptop.

CPU

Laptops can be equipped with an additional slot for installing a RAM module. If it is not there, you can replace the modules with versions with more memory. You just need to take into account the manufacturer’s limitation on the maximum installed amount of RAM and the limitation on the maximum memory frequency.

HDD and SSD

Modern gaming laptops often have both a solid-state drive (SSD) and a hard drive (HDD). The operating system is installed on an SSD - the volume of such a disk is usually 128 - 256 GB, and the file storage is an HDD, the size of which ranges from 1 to 2 TB. Since some games can take up 40–50 GB, and Full HD movies can take up 8–10 GB in size, you should think about laptop storage in advance. A reasonable option would be to use an external hard drive that can hold another 1 – 2 TB of information.

Last year, GeForce GTX video cards in the Max-Q design entered the gaming laptop market. Everyone remembers that a gaming laptop entails increased dimensions and a typical representative of such a device was 5-6 cm thick. Max-Q technology from NVIDIA can significantly reduce the weight and size of a gaming laptop while maintaining high performance. This year the trend has continued, new gaming video cards GeForce RTX 2060, GeForce RTX 2070, GeForce RTX 2080 come in Max-Q design. In addition to video cards, processors have also been updated, and other components are not lagging behind in development. In this article, we will take a closer look at the details of a gaming laptop, taking into account the latest trends from manufacturers.

Video card

All gaming laptops have a discrete graphics card, mainly from NVIDIA. On modern laptops, these are video cards from GeForce RTX 2060 to GeForce RTX 2080. Laptops with GeForce GTX video cards, from 1050 to 1080 Ti, also remain in stock. And if earlier video cards were installed in stripped-down versions, with an “M” at the end of the model, for example, GTX 960M, now full-fledged versions are installed, with performance similar to that of desktop graphics cards. The latest trend is video cards in the Max-Q design, thanks to which laptops have become much thinner with almost the same power as the regular version.

The GeForce GTX 1050 video card will allow you to play most games of 2017-2018 at medium graphics settings at a resolution of 1920x1080, but not all. For example, in games such as World of Tanks, GTA V, Rainbow Six Siege, Overwatch you will get more than 60 FPS on medium settings, and in Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Battlefield V, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, Playerunknown's Battlegrounds, Destiny 2, Apex Legends, it will be possible to achieve the same result only on low settings. You can forget about maximum settings in modern games; this video card is not for them. In 2019, this video card looks even weaker; the latest new products require more resources than those possessed by the GeForce GTX 1050 - most games this year will only run on low settings.

The next model in the series - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti - will produce better results. Here games are sometimes played at high settings, sometimes at maximum. The GTX 1050 Ti video card shows itself to be 15-30% more powerful than the younger model. At high settings, the following will overcome the 60 FPS threshold: Fortnite, Star Wars Battlefront 2, Call of Duty WWII, Destiny 2, and Overwatch will even master it on ultra settings.

Previously, the best option and the average option was the GeForce GTX 1060 with 6 GB of video memory. With this graphics card, you get a comfortable 60 frames per second in the vast majority of games at maximum settings and Full HD resolution. However, starting from 2019, its performance will be lacking in more and more cases. You can buy a laptop with a more powerful video card - GTX 1070 or GTX 1080, but you shouldn’t do this in 2019, because a new line of GeForce RTX video cards has appeared.

GeForce RTX 2060 is the new king of mid-budget graphics cards. It handles all games released before and during 2019 perfectly in Full HD resolution and with ultra graphics settings. The stock of this video card will last for the next few years. In case you want to play on a laptop with a 2K or 4K display, then you will need GeForce RTX 2070 or GeForce RTX 2070.

CPU

There is not much choice among processors. Looking at gaming laptops, you see two models everywhere: Intel Core i5-8300H and Intel Core i7-8750H. The younger i5-8300H processor is suitable for laptops with video cards up to GeForce GTX 1070, while the older one will fit absolutely everywhere, it is used both on laptops with GTX 1070 - GTX 1080 or RTX 2060 - RTX 2080 video cards, and on weaker laptops designed for those who needs more computing performance with an average graphics chip.

RAM

New games require more and more RAM. 8 GB of memory will not be enough for all games, so you should choose a laptop with 16 GB of RAM, this amount is enough for gaming. You should only buy a laptop with 32 GB or more of RAM if you are involved in graphics/video processing. If your budget is currently limited and you feel that you will have to buy a laptop with 8 GB of RAM, then do not worry, you can increase the amount of RAM yourself by purchasing the required memory module and installing it next to the existing one. This procedure will not take much time and boils down to selecting the required memory module, which is the subject of many articles on the Internet, and removing the back cover of the laptop to connect the RAM.

Hard (HDD) and solid state (SSD) drives

A gaming laptop, or indeed any computer in 2019, must have an SSD drive. It operates at speeds significantly higher than a regular hard drive, so at a minimum, the operating system and programs must be installed on it. However, the high cost often does not allow installing such a large-capacity disk. Pay attention to laptops with SSD storage from 128 GB and higher. The larger the volume, the more games you can install on it, so it all depends on your budget. Usually, in addition to the SSD, a laptop also has a regular hard drive. It will store files that will not fit on a solid-state drive; take a laptop with a capacity of 1 TB or higher. Both types of drives can be changed independently, just like RAM. Therefore, you can always increase the storage capacity over time.

Display

When choosing a laptop, the display is also important, because it is what your eyes will be looking at all the time. Gaming laptops range in size from 15 inches and up, going up to 21 inches. Screen resolution varies from 1920x1080 (FHD) to 2560x1440 (QHD) and 3840x2160 (4K). To get a beautiful picture, a 15.6-inch screen in FHD resolution is enough. There are two types of display matrices: TN and IPS, the latter type has better viewing angles and a more pleasant image, but the price is correspondingly higher. It is worth paying attention to the display coating: matte or glossy. The glossy finish has better color rendering and more saturated colors, but reflections and glare are clearly visible when working on it. The matte screen has an anti-reflective coating, so you won’t see reflections and the sun shining on the laptop screen won’t bother you. One of the latest trends is laptop screen support for a frequency of 120 Hz, thanks to which the image in games will change more smoothly.

Ports and Cooling

Before purchasing a laptop, we recommend that you look at reviews of the device and make sure that the cooling of the laptop will not bother you. It is important that the cooling system is balanced and does not exceed acceptable noise limits. Also look at where the blower is directed: it should not be located on the right side of the laptop, otherwise the hot air will go directly to the mouse and your hand. Pay attention to the ports available on the laptop: make sure that there are all that you may need to connect additional devices, such as an HDMI connector for an additional monitor.

Conclusion

We hope this guide helps you choose a gaming laptop. Before buying such a serious thing that will serve you in the coming years, we recommend that you carefully study all the characteristics of the laptop that you like. Look at reviews of it, read reviews from people who have already purchased such a laptop. Pay attention to the manufacturer - we recommend choosing one of the trusted brands:

Often the main criterion for choosing any equipment is its price. We actually did just that. To be more precise, we have slightly demarcated the concept of prices for gaming laptops. But in this case it is better to start not from the cost of the device, but from its technical characteristics and the tasks for which you, in fact, want to purchase a laptop.

So today we’ll touch on the topic of productivity first.

To complete the review, we will consider several categories of laptops with different display diagonals: after all, someone will certainly decide to carry a laptop with them, and with full-size models this is not particularly convenient.

The tables below, in general, show everything we tried to write about. multibookaf. So for those to whom everything is already clear, you don’t have to waste time and immediately use the visual infographics or go straight to the catalog of gaming laptops. And to summarize, it’s good to have some summary data at hand - it’s easier to decide what exactly you need.

Let's start, perhaps, with low-power gaming laptops (at least with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760M or a 765M video card of the same family), and we'll finish the review with laptops equipped with two NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M.

Video card

For some, intuition, and for others, experience suggests that the 780M video card will be more powerful than the 770, and the latter will be better than the 765M. And with the 760M video card you can even start a series of simple gaming video adapters. The larger the number in front of the index, the better, or what? Let me explain. Again, for clarity, let’s take the results of testing the performance of 4 gaming laptops equipped with different NVIDIA GeForce GTX models - this is the simplest way to describe the performance of a particular chip. Our focus point is an indicator of real FPS growth ( Frames Per Second or number of frames displayed in one second on the laptop screen).

It’s clear that it’s not just the video card that affects the performance of laptops. Ideally, one would need to take into account not only the presence of a more expensive graphics accelerator, but also the capabilities of the processor installed on the laptop and the amount of RAM. Therefore, please take the graphs below as information for general information.

In the test, we used laptops MSI GT70 2OD-255RU, Toshiba Qosmio X70-A-L5S, MSI GS70 2OD-014RU and MSI GE40, the main parameters of which affect the performance of the laptop during gameplay are listed in the table. We did not describe the details about the filling of each model: we think that the tabular data will be quite enough.

And here, in fact, are the results of the performance test itself:

The conclusions are more than obvious. Most modern games at a resolution of 1600x900 pixels and maximum settings can only be run by the NVIDIA GeForce 780M. Although, this video card is not omnipotent: Metro: Last Light was not successful for it - at 25 frames/sec. on average, we can talk about a regular drawdown below this level (although much lower than it!).

In order not to compare all the chips on Metro, we note that it was difficult for the NVIDIA GeForce 770M to cope with Hitman: Absolution. With this video card, at maximum graphics settings, FPS drops low in other cases.

The 765M copes with games only at high settings - this video card clearly cannot handle maximum graphics. Although, high settings are not suitable for every toy on the list: for a comfortable game you will have to lower the settings even lower. By the way, the 760M is not far from the 765M: the performance of both video cards is very similar. Although, if we compare the 760 with the 780, the latter will have almost twofold superiority.

To begin with, this is enough: you can already make a choice based on the performance of the video card, but see below how other parameters of the laptop can affect it.

Low power gaming laptops (760M and 765M)

We, in fact, started with the fact that laptops below NVIDIA GeForce GTX 765M should not be considered at all (or 760M, which is also the minimum acceptable option).

These video cards will not allow you to play most modern games at maximum settings, but at high settings they will do just fine.

The first one in the review is the GE40 2OC Dragon Eyes laptop from MSI (9S7-149242-005).

Firstly, this is one of the most compact gaming laptops (this is perhaps the only model of gaming laptops to which it is legitimate to apply the word “compact” - the weight of such a “crumb” is 1.96 kg with battery, physical parameters 34 x 2.6 x 24 cm, which is quite good with a 14-inch screen).

By the way, among 14-inch gaming laptops this is an extremely rare phenomenon. Compared to the prevailing majority of 15 and 17-inch laptops, this one immediately catches your eye. If you are willing to put up with a small screen size for the sake of being able to transport your laptop frequently, then there is nothing to complain about the inferiority of the model. Its weight also speaks in favor of the laptop’s portability: 1.62 kg without a battery and 1.96 kg with it – this is also the GE40’s own record. The same Dell Alienware with the same 14-inch screen already weighs 3 kg.

We consider “Dragon Eyes” to be an entry-level laptop based on the maximum FPS allowed for adequate gameplay, although, according to the sales consultants who point you to a price of 46 thousand rubles, it will not be such.

According to good tradition, the manufacturer left us the opportunity to choose the configuration of the laptop. However, in the case of the GE40, it will only be possible to modify the hard drive.

As for the display, which was mentioned above, the screen resolution is quite proportional to its diagonal and is 1600x900 pixels. Full HD resolution, of course, would not hurt, but the GE40 has a regular screen, not a touch screen, so the picture will be easily scaled whenever the resolution is lowered.

The second laptop in this group, also 14-inch, is Alienware 14 from Dell (A14-6351).

The Alienware line, by the way, recently received updated hardware, and with it a bolder design. This 14-inch model is distinguished from the previous model by a higher resolution screen - it has the missing GE40 Full HD resolution of 1920x1080 pixels.

The graphics card in Alienware 14 is also better: GeForce GTX 765M. As for the processor, two Core i7s of the same generation work almost identically and the difference is, however, difficult to notice by eye.

Alienware 14 already weighs under three kilograms and, moreover, has a more massive body (it is 13 mm thicker than the MSI model). With such dimensions you won’t go far or for long. So in terms of transportability it is less convenient.

But this laptop has a lot of proprietary “tricks”: the manufacturer amused us most with the backlight, placing the latter on the side edges and the touchpad, and the traditional keyboard backlight can now even be customized: blinking of the keyboard will indicate a new incoming letter. But we were more interested in the ability to customize the keyboard backlighting for certain game events: for example, the color of the keyboard will smoothly change, moving from green to red, depending on the level of life of the game character. And this is not a complete list of innovations.

In the configuration listed in the table below, this will cost about 58 thousand rubles, i.e. 11 thousand more than the GE40 model from MSI (the backlight is a bit expensive, although the video card is a little better and Full HD is available).

Let's finish the initial group with the Acer Aspire V3-772G-747a161.26TMa laptop.

Acer, by and large, is a rare bird among powerful gaming laptops, and laptop models from this manufacturer with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760M chip are even more so. Although the Acer Aspire V3-772G still has such a video card. The performance of this laptop is not much better than the GE40 or Alienware 14. The same can be said for its retail price: by and large, Acer is the same GE40, only with a larger screen diagonal and Full HD. What is especially pleasing are the physical characteristics: with a 17-inch display, the Acer weighs nothing - 3.2 kg (the body thickness is 35 mm). The body of the device, made of plastic (bottom) and aluminum (lid and working panel), helped to lighten the gamebook somewhat.

Acer Aspire V3-772G received several connectors for drives, two of which are 2.5-inch, and one is mSATA. Included with a hard drive capacity of 1 TB and a 256 GB SSD is 16 GB of RAM. Such a machine costs about 45-48 thousand, although cheaper modifications can be found on sale: for example, all with the same video card, but without an SSD.

Confident averages (770 M)

In this category, MSI also presents one of the smallest and highest quality gaming laptops – the GT60 2OC (2OC-079) model with a 15.6-inch screen diagonal. Weight and thickness made it less mobile: 3.5 kg with a 55 mm case thickness is a very decent burden. This one costs an order of magnitude more than the GE40 (the approximate difference in cost is 12-14 thousand). But for the increase in the price tag, the user will get a more productive laptop, with the main difference from the 14-inch MSI model in the form of a 128 GB SSD. True, given the “weight” of most modern games, you will still have to use a terabyte hard drive.

You can judge the increased performance of the laptop by at least the Intel Core i7-4700MQ processor and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M video card with 3 GB of memory. So the vast majority of games with such parameters can be easily run on medium and even high settings.

The GT60 turned out to be more interesting not only internally but also visually than the GE40. Thus, the GT60 received a customizable backlight that allows you to divide the keyboard into three functional zones, each of which can be assigned its own color.

The second in this group of laptops is Toshiba QOSMIO X70-A-K2S (PSPLTR-00S01KRU), easily recognizable among competing laptops not so much by the manufacturer’s logo as by its characteristic design: the red edging of the body and touchpad made this laptop more attractive and aggressive in appearance.

But under the hood it has the same processor and the same video card as the MSI GT60 and the Dell Alienware 17, which will be discussed below. The internal difference between the Toshiba laptop is 2 terabytes of memory (we like this option much more than the newfangled SSDs). And, plus everything, there is already 16 GB of RAM, and 8 GB, which the top model is content with.

The glossy screen and placement of the air vent seem very controversial to us in this gaming laptop. The first, although it improves the quality of the picture, glares at the slightest hit of light, which greatly distracts from the game. And the placement of the cooling system, although it can be justified by placing the latter as far as possible from the main WASD control keys, is still far from the most successful: hot air will blow directly under the right hand lying on the mouse. Although, maybe this laptop was designed specifically for left-handed people?..

Toshiba QOSMIO X70-A-K2S, with all its advantages, does not cost as much as for a gaming laptop - about 65 thousand.

Third on the list is the Dell Alienware 17 laptop (A17-6405). This is, if you like, a version of the 14-inch version of the same series enlarged to 17.3 inches. The screen, although Full HD, does not support touch input (and neither do most of the models we reviewed, although the innovation is quite interesting). There is a matte display here that provides comfortable gaming (a tolerable sacrifice is slightly degraded image transmission). Although this is an average group, the performance of the Dell Alienware 17 is quite high. Judge for yourself: the main stuffing here is an Intel Core i7-4700MQ processor and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M video card, as well as a full 16 GB of RAM.

A 750 GB hard drive was selected as the information storage system (but the spindle rotation speed is 7200 rpm!). The Dell Alienware 17 is also equipped with a 64 GB SSD, which is most likely assigned the role of cache for the HDD.

Competitiveness is also ensured by smaller dimensions and a slightly higher price, justified by good hardware: for a little more than 73 thousand you can purchase a model with the characteristics indicated in the lower table, and the most fully equipped laptop will cost you 100-odd thousand rubles.

High Performance Gaming Laptops (780M)

Three laptops in this category are not given for comparison, but rather as possible options for purchasing a laptop with the same video card, but otherwise different hardware, and hence the difference in price.

MSI GT60 2OD is the only laptop we know of with a 780M and a 15.6-inch screen. Therefore, it is significantly lighter than other laptops in the group, although externally it is not too smaller than the latter.

The table below shows the most inexpensive configuration of the MSI GT60 2OD, which nevertheless includes a processor and video cards that ensure high performance of the machine. Our version does not have an SSD, but older versions of the laptop have not one, but two or three solid-state drives combined in RAID0.

MSI, by the way, offers a laptop with a 17.3-inch screen diagonal, which has the same 780 M video card, but a more powerful processor (for those interested, we are talking about the MSI GT70 model).

On average, the MSI GT60 2OD costs about 73 thousand, although, as we have already noted, the laptop configuration can be changed to reduce the cost.

Not only gaming laptops from Dell or Toshiba have a distinctive design; ASUS laptops also have their own personality. ASUS looks like a rather strict laptop, but you can’t tell that it is designed for a fairly young audience of users (according to statistics, the owners of gaming laptops are young people aged 16 to 23 years), who are only going to do things like play with toys pin. ASUS G750Jh weighs quite respectably - 4.8 kg. One of the most productive modifications, more than others satisfying the criterion of “cheap but cheerful” (the word “ cheap» take it somewhat figuratively, because We are talking about a group of laptops in which the cost of a gaming machine can easily exceed 135 thousand rubles): a laptop like the one in the table below will cost, on average, 80 thousand rubles. Provided that you are generous with another 17-20 thousand, one of the two available 1TB hard drives can be replaced with a 256 GB SSD, in addition to receiving +8 GB of RAM.

Optionally, such a laptop can also support three-dimensional images, if you are suddenly overwhelmed by the newfangled stereoscopic wave.

Despite the considerable power of the laptop, the cooling system in it works quite quietly (the optical drive is louder than the last one!).

Last in the review is the Dell Alienware 18 (A17-6382) - a laptop for those who feel sick at the mention of a 14-inch display. An 18.4-inch Dell Alienware 18 screen and the top configuration of such a gaming machine will cost no less than 130 thousand rubles. You can save money on its purchase, but only if you order a laptop from overseas: it definitely costs significantly less there than in Russia (as, indeed, any overseas equipment brought to us in a roundabout way). Or the second option: purchase a laptop with a similar configuration, but from a different manufacturer.

Dell Alienware 18, unlike the above models, is equipped with a more powerful CPU. The video subsystem will work noticeably faster due to the presence of two NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M video cards (of course, provided that the game was designed for this type of hardware).

So now you know how to buy a laptop for gaming, what it can be like and how much it will cost.

Finally, let us repeat that a good machine with high performance cannot be cheap: if you want to play with high or maximum graphics settings without braking, please be generous. There is hardly any point in buying anything else for gaming, but on a modest budget.

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Elizabeth

Without a twinge of conscience, I ask for “phone number” from guys and girls I don’t know well. To check whether the lock button fits comfortably under your finger and whether the autofocus works quickly :) I would like to visit MWC and conduct a live blog from the thick of things.