this
Gaming laptops are mostly hot garbage, and you certainly won't find a cheap one. Steam Deck is the most efficient hardware if you want gaming on the go.
this
Gaming laptops are mostly hot garbage, and you certainly won't find a cheap one. Steam Deck is the most efficient hardware if you want gaming on the go.
>Cant play Nintendo Switch games anymore >Proton required to play any games >cant run most games >windows breaks down vs other alternatives >frame of 20 or less >Worthless machine for A.I >Cant use common office tools >Control by a corporate entity
Acer sounds way better to be honest
>shop for used laptops
That is the absolute worst advice you can give someone for shopping laptops. Laptops already have a much shorter life expectancy because of overheating problems, buying used laptops might as well be flushing money down the toilet. Sure you can extend the life of your laptop if you take good care of it but reality is the vast majority of morons out there don't take their laptops apart to clean them and do shit like laying them on blankets.
I already tell people to avoid gaming laptops but at least with new ones you have some kind of warranty and you know how well your components were looked after.
op asked for the best budget laptop and I told him. He can learn to disassemble it and clean/repaste if he needs to. Frick giving more money to manufacturers, frick buying cheap new laptops which are practically ewaste straight from the factory. Shop for a used high end machine, I just got some Asus model for $250 with a sixth gen i7 and a gtx980m and replaced the hdd with an ssd and reinstalled windows. Runs everything I need and was dirt cheap.
Bought one a few years ago.
Even if you don't game too much on them, it's actually insane how much better they are compared to the lightweight memes in terms of every day use.
Space for fans and copper lamellar make it so that your laptop doesn't actually melt from just watching youtube.
Wtf?
You are kinda fricked.
Nvidia will drop the 10 series's and laptop's with a 2060 you can't get new anymore.
I would just skip this gen or find a cheap used 2060~70
Ideapad gayman 3 and cheap cooling pad, got it for 850 in my third world shithole, in us its even cheaper afaik, around 500-600 usd. I upgraded from 920m 4 gb dell craptop and I love it, finally got to complete doom 2016 and eternal. 4gb vram is shit honestly, but it's miles better than my previous one and nowadays these lenovos come with 6gb vram cards which is decent.
I move around a lot so portability is a necessity, if you just want to sit at home and play vidya then build a pc instead, you'll get better performance for your money bro
My Dell G5 with a RTX 2060 died on me after some 4 or so years of very heavy usage.
The thing's cooling assembly really wasn't up to snuff for that GPU CPU combo.
I was eyeing an Acer with a RTX3070 ti 140w, which is around the perofrmance of the best RTX 4060 laptops, but my boss says he might be able to get me an Alienware with a RTX4070 for cheap, so that would be dope, even if I hate the dell firmware and software.
If you are in a forst world country, buy the cheapest notebook with a RTX 4060 and decent cooling and you might be good for a while.
No I would just go for the 3070 and call it a day.
But personally I barely play games anymore.
Any amount of money is just a waste.
Cyberpunk looks good but its not worth 5k
>128bit
Not as much of an issue as you might think. As somebody who has been in the hardware game for a while, I did think that too for a long, long time too.
Back in the day when gddr was much slower that might have been a problem, but not as much anymore.
See Hardware Unboxed videos on the matter for more details.
Don't buy a laptop unless you actually move around enough to actually take advantage of its portability
otherwise it's just a piece of shit that will break faster with shit cooling
I use an acer 8200H + 1050 gtx, applied thermal paste + bought a usb fan and basically I overclock it. Can play most games but it's slightly unstable and it costed me only 200$ for everything.
I have a Lenovo legion.
It's very solidly built and has a strong ventilation.
I have had it since 2021, cost me around 850 euros, it still works great.
Whatever you do, don't buy Lenovo, they do a bunch of scummy shit
For example, their charging ports designed to kill the mobo if they break, or they refuse to turn on if one of the ports don't work, even if the one works perfectly fine
Get a desktop if you want to play the latest releases. If you don't care for modern slop, then cheap laptops like HP victus 15 or ASUS tuf A15 are more than fine for older titles
>gaming
>laptop
It's not 2010 anymore
>budget
>gaming laptop
no matter what you buy it will always be more expensive and less powerful than it's tower equivalent because of portability.
Lenovo has this LOQ gaming laptop, some of them come with Intel arc graphics, see if you can get a good deal on those
>Intel arc graphics
Steam deck
this
Gaming laptops are mostly hot garbage, and you certainly won't find a cheap one. Steam Deck is the most efficient hardware if you want gaming on the go.
>Cant play Nintendo Switch games anymore
>Proton required to play any games
>cant run most games
>windows breaks down vs other alternatives
>frame of 20 or less
>Worthless machine for A.I
>Cant use common office tools
>Control by a corporate entity
Acer sounds way better to be honest
The best laptop is the one you don't buy.
Laptops are useful for jobs who in a constant business trips and rarely at one place.
shop for used laptops, you can find a gtx1080 laptop these days for like $400. Check Mercari.
>shop for used laptops
That is the absolute worst advice you can give someone for shopping laptops. Laptops already have a much shorter life expectancy because of overheating problems, buying used laptops might as well be flushing money down the toilet. Sure you can extend the life of your laptop if you take good care of it but reality is the vast majority of morons out there don't take their laptops apart to clean them and do shit like laying them on blankets.
I already tell people to avoid gaming laptops but at least with new ones you have some kind of warranty and you know how well your components were looked after.
op asked for the best budget laptop and I told him. He can learn to disassemble it and clean/repaste if he needs to. Frick giving more money to manufacturers, frick buying cheap new laptops which are practically ewaste straight from the factory. Shop for a used high end machine, I just got some Asus model for $250 with a sixth gen i7 and a gtx980m and replaced the hdd with an ssd and reinstalled windows. Runs everything I need and was dirt cheap.
The only caveat I would mention for op is that he keep it around 2016-2017 and try to find one with a 10 series GTX card at the very least.
Bought one a few years ago.
Even if you don't game too much on them, it's actually insane how much better they are compared to the lightweight memes in terms of every day use.
Space for fans and copper lamellar make it so that your laptop doesn't actually melt from just watching youtube.
hp omen
Rog ally
They don't make cheap gaming anything anymore
Last one was MSI thin gf
I see those but they always come with a fricking 3050 and sell for $1000 here
Wtf?
You are kinda fricked.
Nvidia will drop the 10 series's and laptop's with a 2060 you can't get new anymore.
I would just skip this gen or find a cheap used 2060~70
Ideapad gayman 3 and cheap cooling pad, got it for 850 in my third world shithole, in us its even cheaper afaik, around 500-600 usd. I upgraded from 920m 4 gb dell craptop and I love it, finally got to complete doom 2016 and eternal. 4gb vram is shit honestly, but it's miles better than my previous one and nowadays these lenovos come with 6gb vram cards which is decent.
I move around a lot so portability is a necessity, if you just want to sit at home and play vidya then build a pc instead, you'll get better performance for your money bro
Lol you so stupid that thing won't run anything next year.
With 6gb you might have had a chance but 4 is dead.
6gb laptops cost a shitton here, I'm broke and I needed something asap. Works for me tbh I don't play quadruple A gaas slop, mostly indies
My Dell G5 with a RTX 2060 died on me after some 4 or so years of very heavy usage.
The thing's cooling assembly really wasn't up to snuff for that GPU CPU combo.
I was eyeing an Acer with a RTX3070 ti 140w, which is around the perofrmance of the best RTX 4060 laptops, but my boss says he might be able to get me an Alienware with a RTX4070 for cheap, so that would be dope, even if I hate the dell firmware and software.
If you are in a forst world country, buy the cheapest notebook with a RTX 4060 and decent cooling and you might be good for a while.
4060 is a meme GPU nothing will run well on 128bit
That thing is planned obsolescence
Going from a mobile 4060 to 4070 isn't worth it either. Your best bet is going all the way to a 4080.
Laptops with that cost like $2500 though
No I would just go for the 3070 and call it a day.
But personally I barely play games anymore.
Any amount of money is just a waste.
Cyberpunk looks good but its not worth 5k
I find this opinion rather out of touch in a thread about budget gaming.
I have a laptop with a 1070 and would not waste money on a 4060 I'll wait
A laptop with a 1070 is completely adequate in reference to op.
>128bit
Not as much of an issue as you might think. As somebody who has been in the hardware game for a while, I did think that too for a long, long time too.
Back in the day when gddr was much slower that might have been a problem, but not as much anymore.
See Hardware Unboxed videos on the matter for more details.
Don't buy a laptop unless you actually move around enough to actually take advantage of its portability
otherwise it's just a piece of shit that will break faster with shit cooling
I use an acer 8200H + 1050 gtx, applied thermal paste + bought a usb fan and basically I overclock it. Can play most games but it's slightly unstable and it costed me only 200$ for everything.
Including the laptop?
If yes that's good.
But you can do the same with getting a used deck
Yup, including 2 sticks of 2666 8gb memory. Not the greatest, but it gets the job done. Plus I had to seriously clean it with isopropyl alcohol.
For your reference
Colorfire MEOW R15, 8845HS RTX 4070, 7499 CNY ~ $1040
Legion 7 5900HX RTX 3080 ~ $1,350
Legion 5 Pro I9 14900HX RTX 4060 ~ $1,380
Gaming laptop prices have dropped a lot after COVID ended
How are these budget options?
There are no budget gaming laptops. If you can't afford new ones consider buying used ones
The handhelds killed the 500~600$ laptop's.
They use to be 1650s or 2050s but now the new starting place is 1k.
>500~600$
Maybe on black fridays. x50 / xx50 were aways $700+.
I have a Lenovo legion.
It's very solidly built and has a strong ventilation.
I have had it since 2021, cost me around 850 euros, it still works great.
I don't like the bios and spyware those have
Whatever you do, don't buy Lenovo, they do a bunch of scummy shit
For example, their charging ports designed to kill the mobo if they break, or they refuse to turn on if one of the ports don't work, even if the one works perfectly fine
I got one such Nitro with 8th gen i5, GTX 1050ti and 12GB RAM for 150€ last year.
Easy 1080p 60fps in older stuff and e-sports shit, even without FSR and such.
Currently playing LaD7, having good time.
Get a desktop if you want to play the latest releases. If you don't care for modern slop, then cheap laptops like HP victus 15 or ASUS tuf A15 are more than fine for older titles
Get an M2 mac laptop.
Lenovo LOQ 15