We’ve benchmarked budget gaming laptops to help you get the most for your money.
- The Best Gaming Laptops Under $1,500
- 1. Asus ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition
- 2. Asus TUF Gaming F15
- 3. Acer Nitro 5
- 4. HP Victus 15
- What to Expect From the Best Gaming Laptops Under $1,500
- Best Gaming Laptops Under $1,500: Bottom Line
- Discounts on the Best Gaming Laptops Under $1,500
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Though inflation is making many of life’s staples more expensive, a glut in stock and poor overall sales mean that gaming laptops are, if anything, getting cheaper. Today, you can find a system with a high refresh rate display, a speedy SSD and a GPU that’s good enough to play 1080p games at relatively-high settings for less than $1,500 and, in some cases, far less than $1,500.
Each year, Tom’s Hardware benchmarks and reviews scores of gaming laptops, across a wide variety of price points, brands and configurations. This experience gives us insight into what type of performance and functionality you should expect when your budget is less than $1,500, and which systems deliver the most in that price range.
We’ll get into this in more detail in the “What to Expect” section further down the page, but with one of the best gaming laptops under $1,500, you should be able to run games smoothly at 1080p with high or possibly ultra settings. With those that cost under $1,000, you’ll have to turn down the settings or resolution.
The Best Gaming Laptops Under $1,500
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
1. Asus ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition
Best Gaming Laptop Under $1,500 Overall
Specifications
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX
GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6800M
Display: 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080, 300 Hz
Weight: 6.61 pounds / 3 kg
Reasons to buy
+
Strong performance
+
10+ hours of battery life
+
Stays cool to the touch
Reasons to avoid
–
No webcam
–
Mediocre SSD speeds
–
Display could be brighter
When we reviewed the Asus ROG Strix G15, it was just over $1,500. Recently, it’s dropped a bit with the same AMD Radeon RX 6800M, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB storage drive that we reviewed it with.
The Strix G15 Advantage Edition showed both strong gaming and productivity performance on our tests, competing with laptops using Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3060 and RTX 3070 in our suite of games. For example, as you can see in the chart below, the Strix G15 achieved a significantly higher frame rate in Borderlands 3 at Badass settings than the RTX 3060-powered Alienware m15 R5 with RTX 3060, and it tied the Razer Blade Pro with RTX 3070.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
2. Asus TUF Gaming F15
Best Gaming Laptop Under $1,500 for esports gaming.
Specifications
CPU: Intel Core i7-12700H
GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060
Display: 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080, 300 Hz
Weight: 4.41 pounds / 2 kg
Reasons to buy
+
Strong 1080p gaming performance
+
Solid productivity performance
Reasons to avoid
–
Webcam and speakers could be better
–
Display is a bit washed out
To get real power, you typically have to toe that $1,500 line without a sale. We tested the Asus TUF Gaming i7-12700H at $1,499.99 with a Core i7-12700H, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060, and for the added price you’ll also get a 300 Hz display, which is great for esports gamers that need the highest possible frame rates.
In our benchmarks, the TUF Gaming F15 beat comparative laptops on tests like the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark (highest settings, 74 fps), the Grand Theft Auto V benchmark (very high settings, 90 fps), and the Red Dead Redemption 2 benchmark (medium settings, 59 fps).
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The laptop also did well on most of our productivity tests, suggesting this is a decent workhorse when you’re not playing games, too.
There are improvements to be made here. We didn’t love the webcam or speakers, though you could supplement them with one of the best gaming headsets or an external webcam.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
3. Acer Nitro 5
Best Gaming Laptop Under $1,000
Specifications
CPU: Intel Core i5-12500H
GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti
Display: 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080, 144 Hz
Weight: 5.51 pounds / 2.5 kg
Reasons to buy
+
Affordable
+
Design has been refined
+
Decent gaming performance for the price
Reasons to avoid
–
Display is a bit washed out
–
Tons of bloatware
For a few years, we’ve held up the Acer Nitro 5 as the gold standard of budget gaming notebooks. We’re still fans. Acer has redesigned the chassis to make it a bit more subtle — goodbye, red and black!. It still has RGB lighting, but the angles are less aggressive and it could fit in while gaming with friends or at a coffee shop.
We tested a Best Buy-exclusive $899.99 model (opens in new tab) with a Core i5-12500H and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti, which offered solid performance as long as you’re willing to turn down the settings in some games. For example, when we played Far Cry New Dawn at Ultra settings (1080p), the Acer Nitro 5 bestrf the Asus TUF Gaming 17, which we also tested with RTX 3050 Ti graphics, by a comfortable margin. It was a tad behind the RTX 3060-powered MSI Pulse GL66.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
If you’re willing to spend a bit more, you get the Nitro 5 with an RTX 3060, which should offer a nice increase in gaming performance, starting at around $1,449.99 (opens in new tab) from Acer directly.Acer does include a lot of bloatware on the Nitro 5, so you’ll have to spend some time removing the extras you don’t want.
We also liked the ability to upgrade the NItro 5 down the line. There’s an empty 2.5-inch drive bay, and Acer includes a SATA cable in the box so that you can add a hard drive or SSD later on, to make room for games. Not too many laptops include room for extra, affordable storage.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
4. HP Victus 15
No Frills Sub-$1,500 Gaming Laptop, Starts Cheap
Specifications
CPU: Intel Core i5-12450H
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650
Display: 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080, 144 Hz
Weight: 5.04 pounds / 2.29 kg
Reasons to buy
+
Strong entry-level gaming
+
Solid productivity performance
+
Inexpensive for a gaming laptop
Reasons to avoid
–
Display could be better
–
Lots of preinstalled software
–
Single-channel RAM in our review unit
The HP Victus 15 can get really cheap, partially because HP stocks a $799 base model with the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650, which isn’t the most recent GPU (which happens to be the one we tested). But for $799 when paired with an Intel Core i5-12450H and a 1920 x 1080, 144 Hz screen, you may be willing to turn the settings down on your favorite games. (You can, of course, scale up the specs for more money.)
Still, the Victus achieved playable scores on our demanding benchmarks in most games, faltering only in our hardest titles. Keep in mind that all of its competitors had much more powerful graphics cards but also cost quite a bit more.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
What to Expect From the Best Gaming Laptops Under $1,500
- GPU: Your gaming laptop’s graphics card has the single biggest impact on its ability to deliver smooth frame rates with sharp details. For less than $1,500, the best graphics card you can normally find is the AMD Radeon RX 6800M or the Nvidia RTX 3060, though you will only see those on a few models in this price range, depending on sales. Otherwise, the next level down is the Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti or Radeon RX 6700M. If you’re spending less than $1,000, expect an RTX 3050.Of all of these, the RX 6800M is the best performer in most cases, followed by the RTX 3060. Both cards can deliver smooth 1080p gaming at high or ultra settings or solid frame rates with ray tracing enabled. The RTX 3050 Ti can provide reasonably smooth performance at 1080p, but we wouldn’t recommend it for ray tracing. For the RTX 3050 (non-Ti), expect to either play at less than the highest settings in 1080p, drop down to 720p resolution or settle for significantly lower frame rates.
- Screen: Gaming laptop screen sizes range between 14 and 17 inches, though 15 inches is the most common. Expect 1080p resolution and a refresh rate between 120 and 165 Hz on the best gaming laptops under $1,500. Those are all fine numbers since the system won’t be powerful enough to play at higher resolutions or frame rates that outpace those refresh rates. Look for subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) differences in color quality and brightness.
- CPU: Don’t be too picky about the CPU, as the GPU is much more important for gaming in this price range. You can usually find Intel Core i7 or AMD Ryzen 7 6000 CPUs on sub-$1,500 systems, though you may find the best deals on laptops with chips that are a generation old – Intel 11th Gen Core or Ryzen 5000 series. You will also see some Core i5 and Ryzen 5 CPUs on cheaper systems, and those should be more than adequate for most people.
- RAM: Expect to find 16GB of DDR4 or DDR5 RAM, which is more than adequate for everyone, in the best gaming laptops under $1,500. As you drop down to less than $1,000, you will see some models selling with 8GB of RAM. If you buy an 8GB model to save money today, strongly consider upgrading the RAM with after-market DIMMs, which should cost you $40 to $80.
- Storage: The best gaming laptops under $1,500 will likely come with 500GB NVMe SSDs that offer strong performance, but only enough storage space for a few games. Many sub-$1,000 models will have a mere 256GB drive, which is barely enough for the operating system and may not be enough for space-gulping AAA games. In either case, consider upgrading with a secondary drive or new primary SSD, either of which should cost less than $100 for 1TB.
Best Gaming Laptops Under $1,500: Bottom Line
There are noticeable differences even between gaming laptops with similar key specs. Two systems with the same graphics card and CPU may have some performance differences based on how good their cooling systems are, something you can’t tell just from reading a spec sheet or looking at the laptop in a store. A cooler-running system can jump up to and maintain higher clock speeds, which allow for higher frame rates.
Raw performance shouldn’t be the only factor in choosing the best gaming laptop under $1,500 for you. You also need to consider the design, feel of the keyboard and touchpad and screen quality. All of those things vary a fair amount between models, so it pays to do some research before pulling the trigger.
Discounts on the Best Gaming Laptops Under $1,500
Whether you’re shopping for one of the best gaming laptops or another model that didn’t quite make our list, you may find some savings by checking out our lists of Dell coupon codes, HP coupon codes, Lenovo coupon codes, Razer promo codes or Newegg promo codes.