Apr 23, 2024 1:30 PM

The Best Gaming Laptops for All Types of Gamers

We tested the latest and greatest gaming laptops—from portable machines to an 18-inch gargantuan—so you can level up your game anywhere.

Choosing a gaming laptop is like putting together a well-balanced adventuring party. You need to look at what you plan to use it for, and what kinds of quests you'll tackle, and try to match its capabilities to your needs—without emptying your coin purse. To that end, weary travelers, we took it upon ourselves to source the latest and greatest gaming laptops from forges large and small. We gathered them in our keep and ran them through several tests to sort the god-rolls from the vendor trash. Here they are, the best gaming laptops for every kind of player.

Be sure to check out our picks for the Best Laptops, Best Gaming Mice, Best Keyboards, Best Gaming Headsets, and our favorite PC Games (as well as how to build a game library for free).

Updated April 2024: We've added the Razer Blade 14 (2023), Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024), Asus ROG Strix Scar (2024), and added an Honorable Mentions section.

Special offer for Gear readers: Get WIRED for just $5 ($25 off). This includes unlimited access to WIRED.com, full Gear coverage, and subscriber-only newsletters. Subscriptions help fund the work we do every day.

If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more. Please also consider subscribing to WIRED

Photograph: Razer
Best Overall
Razer Blade 14
The Razer Blade 14 (8/10, WIRED Recommends) blew me away when I tried it right around when Starfield came out. Razer is known for its high-end gaming laptops, and the slim, aluminum chassis on this laptop has the same luxe build quality we've liked it for in the past. But the 2,560 x 1,600 IPS, G-Sync-compatible display is what caught my attention. Even at 30 to 40 percent brightness, it felt bright and vivid, with blacks so dark it's as if the screen disappears in dark rooms. It's not quite what you'd see in an OLED display, but it was close enough that it fooled me for hours while I flew through space. Best of all, the 240-Hz panel allows for ultrahigh frame rates for the smoothest gameplay.
Inside, the Blade 14 comes equipped with the powerful AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS. There is a slightly newer version with the Ryzen 9 8945HS, but you likely won't see much of a difference in performance. You also get 16 GB of DDR5 RAM, a 1-TB NVMe SSD, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU (upgradeable to an RTX 4070). The RTX 4060 is decently powerful, but the RTX 4070 is a respectably strong GPU that can help power through even demanding games like Starfield. It also has a USB-C and USB-A port on both the left and right of the laptop, making it convenient to plug in peripherals. It comes with a full-size HDMI port too. It includes a large charging block, which you'll need for charging while playing power-hungry games, but you can charge it via USB-C if you need to top it off while working. It's pricey, but the Blade 14 routinely dips to $2,000, which is great value.
Specs to look for: AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060/4070 Laptop GPU, 16 GB DDR5, 1-TB NVMe PCIe SSD, 14-inch 2,560 X 1,600 IPS display with 240-Hz refresh rate.
$2,000 at Amazon
$2,000 at Razer
$2,000 at Best Buy
Photograph: Eric Ravenscraft
Best Gaming Laptop for Portability
Asus ROG Zephyrus G14
The 2024 iteration of Asus' ROG Zephyrus G14 (9/10, WIRED Recommends) is the closest thing I've found to a Windows laptop that feels like my Macbook Air. It has a slim, silver aluminum chassis, all-day battery life (so long as you stick to regular work), and a slender 14-inch frame. It also stands out, with a gorgeous 3K OLED display and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU (upgradeable to an RTX 4070). It comes with a 1-TB SSD, giving it plenty of room for both games and all the files you need for work.
On paper, it's pretty similar to the Razer Blade 14, though its OLED screen is slightly higher resolution at 2,880 x 1,800, and limited to 120 Hz instead of 240 Hz. However, depending on your needs, this might be a benefit. The RTX 4060 (and even the RTX 4070) can struggle to put out more than 120 frames per second for some heavy games, and there aren't many where it makes that much of a difference. Fewer frames mean less power consumed, and the Zephyrus G14 appropriately gets slightly better battery life than the Blade 14, which makes it great if you intend to take your gaming laptop with you out of the house more often than not.
Specs to look for: AMD Ryzen R9 8945HS, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060/4070 Laptop GPU, 16 GB DDR5, 1-TB NVMe PCIe SSD, 14-inch 2,880 X 1,800 OLED display with 120-Hz refresh rate.
$1,600 at Best Buy (RTX 4060)
$2,000 at Best Buy (RTX 4070)

Photograph: Eric Ravenscraft
Best Upgrade
Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 (2024)
The 2024 model of the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is a legendary beast of a machine. It has a gargantuan 18-inch 2,560 x 1,600 Mini LED display capable of up to 500 nits of brightness under normal functionality, but it can blast up to 1,100 nits in HDR mode. It's so bright that, while watching HDR videos of sparks and fireworks, it genuinely felt like lights were flashing in front of my face.
This monster packs an Intel Core i9-14000HX processor, 32 GB of DDR5 RAM, and a blisteringly fast Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 laptop GPU. I say “blistering” because this thing does get pretty hot. But it's also designed with extra ridges and ample airflow to help keep it cool, even when running the toughest games while connected to power. This is the closest thing you can get to a gaming desktop replacement. There's also a wealth of connectivity options; you might not need a USB dock at all. In addition to the usual USB-A, USB-C, and 3.5-mm headphone jack, it includes a full-size HDMI out, plus an Ethernet port, so you can take the LAN party anywhere.
Specs to look for: Intel Core i9-14000HX, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU, 32 GB DDR5 RAM, 2-TB NVMe PCIe SSD, 18-inch 2,560 X 1,600 Mini LED display with 240-Hz refresh rate.
$2,999 at Amazon (4080)
$3,000 at Best Buy (4080)
$3,000 at Walmart (4080)
$3,899 at Amazon (4090)
Photograph: Asus
If You're on a Budget
Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 (2022)
The ROG Zephyrus M16 (2022) was our previous top pick, and it's seen a small spec bump and price drop since we last featured it. This laptop might not be able to run the latest AAA games in their top fidelity, but it can get you through a busy school or work day, and still handle some gaming when you're off the clock. The M16 has an extra-wide 16:10 screen and a Thunderbolt 4 port for high-speed data transfer. The matte black design gives it a slick, Razer-esque style. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 is an older graphics card but it can hold its own in less demanding games.
Specs to look for: Intel Core i7-12700H processor, Nvidia RTX 3060 graphics card, 24 GB RAM, 1-TB SSD, 16-inch 1,920 X 1,080 display with a 165-Hz refresh rate
$1,399 at Amazon (RTX 3060)

Photograph: Acer
Honorable Mentions
Other Good Gaming Laptops
New gaming laptops are coming out all the time. Likewise, just because something is a generation or two behind doesn't mean it isn't worth picking up. Sometimes you can score a great deal by opting for last year's model.
Acer Nitro 5 for $891: This is one of the older picks on our list, but if you want a gaming laptop for under $1,000 and don't have exceptionally high demands, it's still a great option. It comes with an RTX 3060 Laptop GPU, 16 GB of DDR4 RAM, and a 512-GB SSD. It's a serviceable machine at a reasonable price.
Photograph: Hyunha Kim/Getty Images
What Makes a Great Gaming Laptop?
It's More Than Just Dancing Lights
A gaming laptop is like an enchanted sword. It can do all the usual sword things—chop, slice, cleave—but an enchanted sword can do a lot more, like talk or glow or deal extra damage to orcs. When it comes to raw power, a gaming laptop is almost always going to have the upper hand over a regular laptop. The key distinction is easy to spot: Gaming laptops all have discrete graphics cards. This is what gives your gaming laptop its extra oomph.
All laptops have graphics chipsets, usually just built into the processor so they can handle light gaming (think Hearthstone or Gwent). But a discrete graphics card (also called a graphics processing unit, or GPU) is a unit solely dedicated to rendering the visuals in your games. It's an essential component in any gaming laptop, and it's usually why they tend to be a bit pricey. Enchantments don't come cheap, after all.

Photograph: staticnak1983/Getty Images
Know Your Specs
What specs are right for me?
In 2024, gamers in the market for a laptop should aim a machine with for at least 16 GB of RAM if they can afford it. While 8 GB of RAM is still workable for those who play less demanding games or have little desire for fancy graphics, 16 GB of RAM is a safe bet for most. Consider the step-up to 32 GB of RAM if you're an avid gamer.
Outside of RAM, you'll have to decide whether you want the best processors and graphics cards around, with Intel now on its 14th-generation gaming CPUs and AMD Ryzen with the 8000 series. Nvidia has a wide range of 40-series GPUs as well. And that's before you think about your display needs, from 4K resolution options to high-refresh-rate picks.
For additional help with all the different specifications on offer, check out our guide to buying the right laptop for you.

Eric Ravenscraft is a product writer and reviewer at WIRED, based in Austin, Texas. He's guided readers on how to use technology for nearly a decade for publications including Lifehacker, OneZero, and The New York Times. He also streams on Twitch for WIRED occasionally and can be found on YouTube... Read more

Product Writer and Reviewer