If you’re looking for the best gaming laptop but have a limited budget, you may be disappointed by just how many zeroes are in the prices you find.
There are gaming laptops that offer much better deals if you’re willing to compromise a little on specs or size. To make things much easier for you dedicated shoppers, we’ve gathered a list of our top gaming laptops under $1,000.
Based on our time with the product and the hundreds of laptop we’ve reviewed, our pick is the versatile Dell G7 15, which takes a balance approach to using your $1,000 for all its worth.
Dell G7 15 Gaming Laptop
Dell’s G7 15 is the perfect example of a gaming laptop that’s aimed at a more cost-conscious section of the market while still having everything a great gaming computer needs.
The G7 sits at the top of Dell’s G-series of gaming laptops, so it features the best build quality, image quality, battery life, and design. Though it’s still rather chunky by today’s standards, it doesn’t look like a laptop from ten years ago as the G3 does.
Though it can configured to over $2,000, the $900 model gives you a quad-core 9th-gen processor, 8GB of RAM, and a GTX 1650 for graphics. With those components, you’ll be able to play most modern games at Medium settings at the system’s native 1080p. The laptop also comes with a 128GB SSD boot drive and a 1TB SATA drive to store your games. A configuration of the G5 currently sells for the same price, coming with an older-looking design but a larger SSD.
Asus ROG G531GT
If you’re willing to add some heft to your gaming laptop, the ROG G531GT provides an excellent set of specs for the money. Despite often coming in under $1,000, the G531GT features a six-core Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. Those are exactly the sort of specs you should be looking for in a modern laptop.
This ROG also comes with the same GTX 1650, which you’ll find is the standard for gaming laptops at this price range. The G7 is slimmer and sleeker, but this ROG’s extra RAM and storage provide some extra value.
Asus TUF FX505DT Gaming Laptop
If you’re looking to go as cheap as possible, the 15-inch Asus TUF gaming laptops are where you want to look. For as little as $650, you’ll get the same GTX 1650, 8GB of RAM, quad-core processor, and 1080p screen.
It’s not the prettiest or sleekest laptop in the world, but for raw value, it’s hard to beat the TUF FX505DT. You can even squeeze in an upgrade to a GTX 1660 Ti and keep it just under $1,000, which you won’t find anywhere else on this list.
Acer Predator Helios 300
The 15-inch Predator Helios 300 has a been a best-seller on Amazon for one very good reason. It’s a powerful system at a surprisingly low price.
The Helios 300 comes with a baseline of a GTX 1660 Ti (unless you opt for the older-generation, GTX 1060 model), which also comes with 8GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 120Hz 1080p screen. This comes in right under the $1,000 price point, and should give you excellent performance in most games.
At 0.91 inches, it’s not exactly thin. But the trimmed bezels around the display look modern, as does the blue backlit keyboard.