Best Gaming Laptop for 2024

My favorite model that has a good balance of price, weight, performance, screen and design at the moment is the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16. The model we tested is relatively pricey at $2,700, but right now it's only $2,350 at Best Buy for an upscale configuration with a 16-inch OLED screen, RTX 4080, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD and an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H. Solid configurations start at $2,000. I consider it the best general choice for gaming, but its little sibling -- the G14 -- is a little more highly rated because of its more general-use advantages, like size, weight and lower price.

The best of the budget gaming models is the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16. Acer knows how to wring performance out of every component, and this one is fast for its low-end RTX 4050 graphics, which is sufficient for 1080p gaming and a bright display.

Note that we're coming up on CES 2025 when all the laptop manufacturers traditionally refresh or reinvent their lines based on new chips from AMD, Intel and Nvidia. The new models don't usually ship until between March and June, so you may want to hit pause on your buying until after we know what's coming -- or until the 2024 models drop in price if you want to save money.

My recommendations for the best laptops are based on our benchmark-based and hands-on testing (we play games too) We continually test laptops, so we'll be updating our recommendations as we review the latest laptops.

Best gaming laptops

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2024)

Both the G16 and its smaller 14-inch sibling are excellent gaming laptops and very similar, but I chose the 16-inch, mostly for the larger screen, more powerful GPU and broader port selection. It's also a good pick for creative work, thanks to the calibrated OLED display.

Best budget gaming laptop

Acer Predator Helios Neo 16

Acer's mainstream value gaming line, a step up from the Nitro and a step below its straight Predator Helios models, this 16-inch model starts at roughly $1,000 (look for it on sale too) and squeezes excellent performance from the lower-end components, making it one of the best performers among budget gaming laptops. It's got a lot of plastic, but it's still solidly built, the 1,920x1,200 165Hz display is bright and it has plenty of ports and a 1080p webcam. We reviewed a Core i5 model, but there are different configurations for less money that should perform better which are available now.

Best performing gaming laptop

Alienware m18 R2

Alienware offered one of the first of the new 18-inch models, and with the R2 it streamlined the design. The big screen is great for gaming as well as for work, and because of all the space, it can deliver class-leading performance with lots of cooling and a ton of ports and connections, as well as be configured up with wazoo to flagship CPUs and GPUs. If you want all that power for work, it's a great desktop replacement as well.

The system starts at $1,900, but that's with an RTX 4060; if you just want to use that big screen for 1080p and some 1440p games, that's fine. If you want to play high-quality 1440p and connect to an external display for 4K, you'll probably want a more expensive model with an RTX 4080.

Best MacBook for gamers

Apple MacBook Pro 16 M4 Pro

The Mac still isn't a very popular platform for gaming. Apple has been increasingly spurring developers of high-profile games to support the company's Metal graphics programming interface to show off MacOS and iOS code-once, play both performances. Whether you're the developer on the hook or need to use a MacBook but want to play games, my recommendation is the M4 Pro or Max 16-inch for the big screen and better (M4 Pro) or best (M4 Max) GPU.

It's really expensive; our test system was priced in the ballpark of $3,500. Or if you don't care about the screen size, even the M4 Pro configuration of the 14-inch comes in at a lot less than the 16-inch. You definitely want the Pro or Max for the GPU.

Best 14-inch for gamers and creators

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14

Although the ROG Zephyrus brand is one of Asus' thin-and-light gaming lines, this particular 14-inch is targeted at creators and doesn't deliver best-in-class gaming performance. It's certainly good enough for top-quality 1080p. It features an excellent OLED display and is very well designed, it also comes with Asus' full-featured -- if a little confusing -- Armoury Crate software.

Best general-purpose laptop for gaming

HP Omen Transcend 14

Although HP categorizes the Transcend as a gaming laptop, I consider it a general-purpose laptop that's also good for gaming, partly because it lacks a lot of the performance controls I expect from gaming laptops. It can be a good value on sale, say, roughly $1,200 or less for the configuration we tested, but since it's performance-constrained, I wouldn't pay a lot for it as a mostly-for-gaming laptop. It does wrap sufficient power for mainstream use and gaming in a compact, stylish design with an OLED display.

Best budget gaming laptop for 1440p

Alienware m16 R2

Dell’s Alienware line isn't usually associated with the budget class, but Dell lowered the entry price for its second-gen m16 model to where it’s a sensible budget/midrange buy. The line starts at $1,500 for a configuration with an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, GeForce RTX 4050, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD and a single-zone RGB keyboard. Upgrading to an RTX 4060 adds $100 to the bill.

The model we tested with RTX 4070 graphics and a per-key RGB keyboard runs about $1,750. The RTX 4050 and RTX 4060 models will serve you better playing games at 1080p than 1440p, but if you're looking for 1440p on the cheap you can lower your quality settings a bit to make it work.