Without a doubt, the best deals in this year’s Cyber Monday have been gaming laptops. Hundreds of pounds have been hacked off various models but with so many to choose from, it is a tad tricky to know what’s really worth getting.
So, I’ve picked my favourite four deals, across a range of budgets, to show you just what’s out there. Get stuck in, so you can get gaming, and git gud.
Gigabyte G5 KF
Starting with my cheapest choice, this Gigabyte G5 is a sweet little laptop. Sure, the CPU is a little old now, but it’s a perfect match for the RTX 4060 graphics chip. Together, they’ll handle 1080p gaming in anything you care to throw at them, though some of the more graphically intense games might need a spot of DLSS upscaling to help them out.
The amount of RAM is fine, although it is only DDR4-3200. A couple of years ago that would have been pretty fast, but it’s standard fare these days. What is disappointing is the storage: 1TB SSDs are so cheap right now that it should be the norm for any laptop now.
Still, it’s a perfect example of bang-for-buck…err, sorry, punch-for-pound and with this pretty big discount, you can’t really go wrong.
Acer Nitro 16
This is a big jump in price, compared to the first deal I’ve listed, but you’re getting a whole lot more of a gaming laptop for the additional £452. Where the Core i5 12500H only has four P-cores (the eight E-cores won’t help much in gaming), this Acer Nitro sports an AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS.
That CPU has eight full cores, 16 threads, and a boost clock of 4.75GHz. It does have a lower power limit than the Intel chip, but it will still be more than good enough for gaming.
As will the RTX 4070, as this is a 140W variant, which isn’t far off Nvidia’s standard maximum value of 150W. Paired with the Ryzen CPU, 16GB of DDR5 RAM, and 1TB of fast storage, and you’ve got a fantastic gaming machine.
The only thing that somewhat goes against the Nitro or rather, the thing that isn’t helping it, is the screen. The size and refresh rate are fine, but the resolution is 2560 x 1600, which is a little high for this GPU. That means you may need to make use of DLSS upscaling more often than you’d expect.
Still, I do like panels with a 16:10 ratio, as it gives you just that bit more real estate to work on. If you ever stop gaming on it, of course.
MSI Stealth 17 Studio
Yes, it’s another RTX 4070 in my list, so why two of them? In this case, it’s the combination of the meaty Core i7 13700H processor (six P-cores, eight E-cores, 20 threads) and the large 1440p display.
The former has a power limit of 115W which helps it to sustain gaming performance, under load, but it’s real strength is the flexibility it offers. Six P-cores might not sound much for gaming but it’s enough, and those 20 threads makes it ideal for content creation.
What makes this one special for me, though, is the big 17.3-inch panel. With a 1440p resolution, it’s a nicer balance of space vs pixels than the Nitro (for my eyes, at least) and that 240Hz refresh rate will make everything super smooth.
It’s weak points are the price, obviously, and the fact that the RTX 4070 inside is limited to 80W. This is because the Stealth is designed to be slim and portable, but that’s a little low for serious gaming: The Nitro would be the better choice here. But if you want your laptop for work and play, then this one won’t disappoint.
MSI Vector GP68HX
If you want to go all-out with your gaming on the go, then this MSI Vector is a pricey but monstrous machine. For £1,800 you’re getting a CPU that boasts eight P-cores, 16 E-cores, and 32 threads: That’s more than enough for gaming but also means that this laptop will be very handy at tackling content creation tasks.
The best part about it is the GPU, as it’s an RTX 4080 will the full power limit of 175W. That does mean that the laptop will get very toasty while gaming and it’s not going to be an ultra-portable, wafer-thin system. What you will get are many, many frames per second.
Especially given that the screen only has a resolution of 1200p, so the GPU is going to easily cope with that. It’s a nice display to use, too, with my favourite ratio of 16:10 and a refresh rate of 165Hz. Not super fast, but good enough.
It might seem picky to criticise the amount of RAM but at this budget, it should really be 32GB, even if it was a slower speed. If it had more memory, it would be a fantastic laptop for content creation, but as it is, it’s merely good.
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