The 10 Best Gaming Laptops Under $1000

Welcome to our current guide to the finest deals on gaming laptops under $1000 based on critic reviews, consumer feedback and hardware power.

After trolling through the depths of the internet in search of the ultimate deals possible we’ve picked out the laptops below in order to link you up with the best gaming specs and features possible for your money in gaming laptop under $1000.

These mid-range gaming giants will pack enough punch to play modern titles on reasonable settings without leaving a hole in your pocket and can play graphics intensive games on medium to high settings as documented on our gaming laptops guide where you can find detailed benchmarks on all of the hardware listed on this page.

A Note on RAM: We strongly recommend upgrading any 8GB RAM configurations below to 16GB for best performance. This is an affordable and easy to do upgrade.

Top Picks >> Runners Up >> Honorable Mentions >>

Best Gaming Laptops Under $1000 – Top Pick

1. Acer Nitro 5 AN515-55-53E5 15.6-inch

Acer’s Nitro series once again proves that not all reliable gaming experiences need to come with an inflated price tag. Shipping with all the latest components, the Nitro 5 AN515-55-53E5 15.6-inch is a great choice for those on a tight budget and do not want to compromise on performance. The RTX 3050 is one of Nvidia’s latest GPUs, and is the entry-level card in their latest series of ray tracing cards. Coupled with the Intel Core i5-10300H and 8GB DDR4 RAM, you will get a good 1080p gaming experience, however 1440p is still slightly out of reach at higher settings at a constant 60 fps. The 256GB NVMe SSD is limiting in terms of storage, so it may be worth investing in an additional 512 GB of storage at least if you are looking to have a number of your favorite games installed on your machine. Fortunately, Acer has made the laptop easy to upgrade, so you can install your own additional HDDs or SDDs or add more RAM. See the YouTube video below of a similar machine that features a slightly newer CPU.

The Nitro 5 comes with a Full-HD 15.6-inch IPS display that is speedy at 144Hz. This is definitely one of the most attractive features of this laptop, which is guaranteed to deliver a great overall viewing experience for gaming, working, or simply enjoying other leisurely activities, such as video streaming, photo viewing or chatting with friends. The laptop is said to look and feel durable, with Acer not deviating much from their previous design choice – why change a winning formula, right? The choice of plastic didn’t change general user consensus that the design felt solid. It has a slim form factor, weighing in at 5.07 lbs and its overall dimensions are 14.31 x 10.04 x 0.94 inches. It is said to run at decent temps, however, don’t expect to do so quietly under load. The fan speed is said to get noticeably loud.

The keyboard and touchpad are said to be subpar, with the keys lacking responsiveness and the mouse pad being placed in quite an awkward position for some (to the left). The keyboard has red back lighting and it is full sized, and it comes with the latest Wi-Fi 6 technology ensuring reliable connectivity.

Specs

Summary & Score

Getting a great gaming experience in this day and age doesn’t require one to have deep pockets as Acer have shown with their latest well-priced Nitro 5 gaming laptop. It ships with all the latest components, including one of Nvidia’s latest RTX 30-series GPUs.

Ninja Score

LIMITED REVIEWS
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Acer Nitro 5 AN515-55-53E5 15.6-inch

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Best Gaming Laptops Under $1000 – Runners-Up

2. Lenovo Legion 82JW0012US 15.6-inch

The Lenovo Legion 5 15.6-inch is an excellent mid range gaming laptop that is priced slightly above $1000, however, a deal this good is too good to not include, comfortably taking our top spot for gaming laptops in this price range.

Packed with a powerful 8-core AMD Ryzen 7 5800H CPU, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, 512 GB of NVMe SSD storage, as well as Nvidia’s latest RTX 3050 Ti, it’ll handle almost anything you throw at it comfortably. With its identical look to past Lenovo Legion models, its form factor is slightly slimmer than previous models, coming in at 14.02 x 10.41 x 1.07 inches, and weighing in at 5.28 pounds, which is quite heavy. But the weight makes sense given the impressive hardware stacked inside. The 1920×1080 15.6-inch IPS display has a blazing fast 165Hz refresh rate and the viewing angles are excellent.

The impressive TrueStrike Gaming Keyboard features 100% anti-ghosting and it has 4-zone RGB along with a full tenkey. The keyboard is also said to be a pleasure to use. The battery life isn’t too bad for a gaming machine, with some noting that it can last up to 6 hours on a single charge.

While the machine is slightly pricier than the other laptops in the guide, you are getting what you paid for. Should this be slightly too expensive for you, then we would recommend checking the Acer Nitro 5 AN515-55-53E5 15.6-inch.

Specs

Summary & Score

Priced slightly above $1000, the Lenovo Legion 5 15 Gaming Laptop is too good to not include. Being suited to both gaming and resource-hogging task handling, the Legion 5 is perfect for the modern day individual.

Ninja Score

92

Lenovo Legion 5 82JW0012US 15.6-inch

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3. Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 82K20015US 15.6-inch

The Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 82K20015US 15.6-inch laptop is catered to those on a tighter budget, coming in at under $700. AMD’s entry into the market has seen more powerful laptops entering the markets that offer an excellent value for money performance. This machine, while offering a modest set of components in the form of the AMD Ryzen 5600H (6 core), 8GB of DDR4 RAM and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 GPU, can definitely hold its own. The one drawback is the little storage that it comes with. The 256GB of storage space will almost certainly fill up reasonably quickly, especially since it isn’t uncommon for games to exceed 50 GB (Call of Duty for example, requires a ridiculous 175 GB of storage space). Digit Week suggests that this laptop can run Far Cry New Dawn on high settings at 55 fps, which suggests that this laptop does pack some punch. This video looks at 22 games with the previous generation CPU, which should give you a decent idea of its gaming capabilties.

The laptop has a simple design that isn’t as aggressive as the other laptops in this guide, and its dimensions measure at 0.95 by 14.1 by 9.9 inches while weighing in at a reasonable 4.9 pounds, making it decently portable. Lenovo’s choice of an all plastic design doesn’t mean that durability takes a hit. Users have found that it does in fact feel and look sturdy. It comes with a Full-HD IPS display that has a solid 120Hz refresh rate.

The machine comes with plenty of port stock, including two USB 3.1 Type-A ports, a USB-C port, an HDMI connection, and an Ethernet port and headphone jack. The keyboard offers a decent amount of key travel for a satisfying typing experience, and the keys feature different zone lighting. The touchpad sits slightly to the left, which some aren’t very fond of, but fortunately it is responsive.

In this day and age, modest components don’t generally equate to slacking performance. And this is evident with the generally good feedback the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 82K20015US 15.6-inch laptop has received from users.

Specs

Summary & Score

At this price point, the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 functions well as both a gaming and work horse machine, even with its modest components. If you are looking to get the most of this machine, it may be worth investing and installing additional storage and an extra 8GB RAM stick.

Ninja Score

90

Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 82K20015US 15.6-inch

$679.99

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4. ASUS TUF Gaming F17 FX706LI-ES53 17.3-inch

The ASUS TUF series of gaming laptops have a durable MIL-STD-810H military standard construction. The chassis is primarily made of a durable plastic, and its lightweight build quality (5.73 pounds at 15.71 x 10.59 x 1.02 inches) means it is highly mobile, making it easy to transport from class to class or to the office. Furthermore, the case has an attractive finish and it houses a large 17.3-inch FHD IPS display that is an impressively fast 144Hz.

Under the hood you will find an Intel Core i5-10300H, a modest 8GB of DDR4 RAM, and a spacious 512GB PCIe SSD. The GeForce GTX 1650 Ti is somewhat middling, but casual gamers won’t have issues running modern AAA titles at medium settings at 1080p at 60 frames, and older titles like DOTA 2, LOL, or CS:GO will easily run at higher frames without breaking a sweat. Those looking to consume multimedia will be able to do so with ease, however, be aware that it doesn’t hold a charge for longer than an hour under load, or a reported 3 – 4 hours under casual office work or while doing light browsing. For content creators, the laptop packs plenty of power to run video editing software, however, given its upgradability, it may be worth making use of the extra memory and storage slots that ASUS have provided, as these upgrades will improve your overall experience.

It comes with a large array of connectivity options, including one USB 3.2 Type-C, two USB 3.2 Type-A ports, and an additional USB 2.0 Type-A port, making up three total inputs for your preferred peripherals. While it is said to remain fairly stable under load in terms of its temperatures, the fans become audibly noisy, which some may find annoying. However, this is common with laptops with a slimmer form factor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQGrn5Anpts

Specs

Summary & Score

The ASUS TUF Gaming F17 laptop comes with a large 17.3-inch IPS display that is blazing at 144Hz and it drives a fairly strong performance under load thanks to its decent CPU and RAM. The GeForce GTX 1650 Ti is a lower end card however, and while suited to lower setting gaming, it is great at day-to-day task handling.

Ninja Score

94

ASUS TUF Gaming F17 FX706LI-ES53 17.3-inch

$849.99

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5. Acer Nitro 5 AN515-54-5812 15.6-Inch

The Acer Nitro 5 AN515-54-581 is a breathe of fresh air for the current budget gaming landscape. Compared to the integrated graphics on competing modern laptops at its price, it’s dedicated tenth generation NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 completely blows the competition out of the water and at one the best prices available right now.

The budget gaming laptop space goes through waves as new technology comes and goes. Unfortunately, this means that quite often gamers will be left without a modern laptop offering the latest dedicated Nvidia or Radeon graphics for anything less than $1000 unless you are willing to compromise with older hardware.

Although the GeForce GTX 1650 is still a couple of generations old due to the recent release of Nvidia’s RTX 3000 series line-up, it’s value for money and superior performance over cards like the old GTX 1050 make it an attractive buy nonetheless. This is further exemplified by the fact that Nvidia skipped production of an RTX 2050 card which would have been the direct upgrade to the GTX 1650, potentially leaving a gap in the mid-range graphics market which the GTX 1650 is more than happy to fill.

Enter the latest Acer Nitro 5, a recent release which has hit the sweet spot between performance and affordable in a way that will allow gamers on a serious budget to be able to play many modern games at decent framerates and most older ones without even breaking a sweat.

The included 9th generation Intel i5-9300 CPU provides some serious CPU power with no chance of bottlenecking, and a 256GB NVMe SSD will provide uber fast loading times and lightning Windows startups. In addition, users have reported that upgrading the RAM or including an extra hard drive for additional storage is easily possible thanks to an incredibly user friendly design.

These kind of releases only come about once or twice a year of we are lucky. As dedicated budget gaming enthusiasts, the Acer Nitro 5 is impossible not to recommend as our top gaming laptop under $1000 of 2020 so far.

Specs

Summary & Score

The latest installment in the Acer Nitro 5 series provides incredibly value for money gaming hardware that will play modern games at a fraction of the price of competing laptops.

Ninja Score

84

Acer Nitro 5 AN515-54-5812 15.6-Inch

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6. ASUS TUF Gaming A15 FA506IH-AS53 15.6-Inch

The ASUS TUF Gaming A15 FA506IH-AS53 is a bestselling gaming laptop with one feature that really makes it stand out from the crowd – a 144Hz screen refresh rate. As you might know from the extremely high price of high refresh rate gaming monitors, this technology does not come cheap and is usually only found on high-end gaming laptops under $1500 or even more expensive laptops.

It’s quite a rarity to find a feature like this on a mid-range gaming laptop at this price to say the least. The only downside of course is that to make use of the higher refresh rate you’ll need to be hitting more than 60 frames per second on whatever game you are playing – and with the included GeForce GTX 1650, this will only realistically be possible for older games.

To put this into perspective, Counter-Strike GO runs at around 150 FPS on the GTX 1650, which will allow you to really experience the action like never before if you are only used to the limit of 60 FPS found on most monitors and laptop screens. On the other hand, Call of Duty Modern Warfare will only run at around 60 FPS on High / Medium settings on this card. That means you won’t really get any of the benefits of the higher refresh rate at all.

This is obviously why the trend for higher refresh rates tends to be found mainly on higher-end gaming laptops that are capable of running more modern games at 60 FPS plus. But the screen refresh rate isn’t all the A15 has going for it – other perks include a quality keyboard perfectly suited for productivity as well as gaming, longer than average battery life for a gaming laptop, and a lard 512GB SSD hard drive large enough for storing a ton of games.

Some reviewers were critical of the display being too dim and also too much preinstalled bloatware which is always a bit of a pain to remove.

Overall despite some minor shortcomings, the ASUS TUF Gaming A15 FA506IH-AS53 comes highly recommended thanks to solid user and critic reviews across the board, especially if you plan on playing older FPS games competitively.

Specs

Summary & Score

If you are a fan of fast paced FPS or other games and appreciate the value of a high screen refresh rate, ASUS TUF Gaming A15 FA506IH-AS53 is a great option thanks to its 144Hz display combined with solid performance from its Geforce FTX 1650 card perfect for FPS games such as CS GO at amazingly high frame rates.

Ninja Score

87

ASUS TUF Gaming A15 FA506IH-AS53 15.6-Inch

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7. Lenovo Legion 5 82B1000AUS 15.6-Inch

Lenovo are well known for their no frills laptops designs and are at the same time synonymous with great build quality on their machines which usually outlast the competition and have better resale value than competing brands. From the outset, the Lenovo Legion 5 82B1000AUS looks like it fits this mold very well, offering some extremely powerful hardware in combination with a premium build quality that certainly punches above its weight.

Notable in terms of hardware is the extremely powerful AMD Ryzen 7 4800H processor which competes neck on neck with some of the best desktop grade CPUs around. This is coupled with an NVIDIA GTX 1660Ti graphics card which offers excellent framerates on even the most demanding modern games at high settings. To top it off, Lenovo have included a generously sized 512GB SSD and 16GB of 3200MHz DDR4 RAM. Currently, this offers one of the most generous configurations of any gaming laptops under $1000 on the market and easily explains the Legion 5s bestseller status alone.

Moving onto the design, the 82B1000AUS comes in a relatively no-frills package compared to many competing laptops which come with more flashy design features such as RGB keyboards and fancy red decals. That aside, reviewers have praised the Legion 5 for its excellent build quality and sturdy feel, putting it in the league of many more premium game laptops in terms of build quality alone. If you are practical minded and value build quality and longevity over fancy design extras, then the 82B1000AU certainly scores extra points here.

Some additional nifty features include Legion Coldfront 2.0 thermal design for reducing heat and noise and also a well marketed Legion TrueStrike keyboard design. The feedback in terms of heat and noise have been relatively mixed thus far, but to summarize it appears that the laptop can run hot in certain conditions, but the caveat being that it is still a lot quieter than most other gaming laptops that have noisy fans.

If you value the best hardware and build quality over the fancy marketing gimmicks employed by many other brands, the Legion 5 82B1000AUS is extremely hard to ignore making it one of our top gaming laptops under $1000 of 2020 thus far no questioned asked.

Specs

Summary & Score

Although it may not have the design flare of some competing gaming laptops, the Lenovo Legion 5 82B1000AUS offers excellent performance, premium build quality and a practical design in an affordable package cementing its position as one of the best mid-range gaming laptops of 2020.

Ninja Score

92

Lenovo Legion 5 82B1000AUS 15.6-Inch

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Additional Resources

Recommended:

• PCMags Gaming Laptop Deals

If you’re gaming on a serious budget, our guide to gaming laptops under $500 may also help, or, for the more serious gamers among us, our guides to the best gaming laptops under $1500 and our top recommended VR ready laptops which feature the cream of the crop high-end machines that can rival even the most advanced desktop machines in terms of their gaming prowess.

Best Gaming Laptops Under $1000 – Honorable Mentions

8. Lenovo Ideapad L340 81LK00HDUS 15.6-Inch

Every now and then a laptop comes along the pushes the boundaries of what gaming hardware can be found in a budget gaming laptop under $1000. The Lenovo Ideapad L340 81LK00HDUS  is one of those laptops.

It features a dedicated tenth generation NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 graphics card that is capable of running most modern games at ultra high framerates. Its quad core ninth generation Intel Core i5-9300H also provides more than enough power to ensure no CPU bottlenecking.

One of the highlights of the 81LK00HDUS is it’s large NVMe SSD harddrive which can store a ton of games, improving loading times across the board. That said, one minor drawback is if you need to install an additional hard drive you will need to order a separate cable to do so.

Design wise the L340 is minimalist for a gaming laptop, perfect for blending in at work, although it also packs some stylish features to as well including a backlit keyboard and a hinge which can rotate 180 degrees.

Although reviewers had few gripes with the L349, one thing to keep in mind of you plan on upgrading is that the L340 only has one available RAM slot. That means to upgrade to 16GB you will need to buy a 16GB RAM stick and then replace the current 8GB stick entirely.

All in all, if gaming power is your aim and budgeting is your game, the 81LK00HDUS is our top recommendation of the moment. 

Specs

Summary & Score

If you are a looking for the most powerful hardware at the best price for work or play, anyone with an appetite for gaming need look no further than the Ideapad L340.

Ninja Score

88

Lenovo Ideapad L340 81LK00HDUS 15.6-Inch

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9. Acer Predator Helios 300 PH315-51-78NP 15.6-Inch

Acer are known in the gaming world for their Predator line of gaming hardware, however, most of their Predator laptops have been priced out of reach for many gamers.

The Acer Predator Helios 300 joins the Predator range as a more affordable solution with the same high-performance hardware you’d expect of laptops hundreds of dollars more pricey.

The Acer Predator Helios 300 PH315-51-78NP is the latest in a line of extremely popular Helios laptops that have received praise for their marriage of performance and affordability. Compared to it’s predecessor the G3-571-77QK, the PH315-51-78NP offers an eighth generation six core Intel processor, a 6GB GTX 1060 (compared to 4GB previously), a 144Hz refresh rate display IPS display capable of handing frame rates above 60, and a slightly updated design.

Reviewers praised the H315 for it’s excellent price to performance ratio, a 144Hz display which is usually only found on much more expensive latpops, and the solid performance of its 6GB GTX 1060 which can handle most modern games with ease even on high settings.

Despite the powerful hardware, many users reported excessive heat issues which can be very noticable, although this is a common curse among gaming laptops as manufacturers opt for more lightweight builds over proper heat dispersion. On the plus side, ASUS’s new Predator Sense control panel is capable of controlling fan speeds which is a nice bonus for those averse to noisy fans.

Overall  PH315-51-78NP comes highly recommended and recent price cuts have made this laptop nothing short of a steal.

Specs

Summary & Score

If you are a looking for a high-end gaming laptop at a budget price, the Acer Predator Helios 300 PH315-51-78NP is the best deal on the market at the time of writing.

Ninja Score

78

Acer Predator Helios 300 PH315-51-78NP 15.6-Inch

$968.00

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10. ASUS TUF TUF505DU-EB74 15.6-inch

The ASUS TUF TUF505DU-EB74 is a rare combination of gaming performance and an extremely competitive price which easily makes it one of the top gaming laptops of 2020. Stellar reviews and bestselling status at leading retailers only serve to entrench it’s spot at the top.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Mobile offers performance on par with a desktop NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1070. This is no small feat and puts the TUF505DU-EB74 on par with many mid-range desktop gaming rigs in terms of performance.

Even extremely taxing games will play at Medium to High settings so there will be no need to check system requirements for some time to come.

Coupled with the GTX 1660 Ti is a quad core AMD Ryzen 7 R7-3750H processor with a base speed of 2.30Ghz and a Max Boost speed of 4 Ghz. It is slightly faster than a desktop AMD Ryzen 5 3500U and should have no trouble giving the GPU room to work it’s magic.

Finally, the TUF505DU-EB74 includes 16GB of DDR4 RAM running at 2666 MHz, a 256GB PCIe NVMe SSDD capable of transfer speeds up to 950 MB/s as well as a 1TB HDD for additional storage.

The design is reasonably high-end albeit bulky compared to non-gaming ultrabooks, and at less than 5 pounds weight it won’t be a chore to carry around.

Battery life is the achilles heal of the TUF505DU-EB74, as with most gaming laptops. Users can expect only an hour or two of usage before running flat due to it’s power hungry hardware, and even less so while gaming.

As if that’s not enough, the final touch is the addition of a 120Hz display IPS capable of running games at over 60 frames per second unlike most 60Hz monitors.

Specs

Summary & Score

If you are looking for a value for money gaming laptop can play most modern games on adequate settings for some years to come, the TUF TUF505DU-EB74's price puts it far ahead of the pack.

Ninja Score

86

ASUS TUF TUF505DU-EB74 15.6-inch

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Laptop Gaming Accessories

Seeing as you are spending a fair chunk on a high quality mid-range gaming laptop, the last thing you want to do is skimp on accessories and not get the most out of your investment. Standard accessories for gaming laptops include a gaming mouse, a pair of headphones, a high quality pair of PC gaming speakers, and sometimes even a high quality gaming chair.  Other common accessories include a high definition webcams which are great for gaming video calls with friends or streaming on Twitch and usually provide much better video quality than on-board laptop webcams.

At the end of the day don’t let the extra expense scare you away – as long as you spend the time to find the right products for your need, the right gaming accessories can make or break your laptop gaming experience.

Conclusion

If laptops under $1000 are too expensive, you can try our under $500 gaming laptops to find what you need.  However, in this lower price range you cannot expect to find a machine fitting for some of the most modern games available and you will be limited to only playing many older games.  If you do prefer the best, try our Best Gaming Laptops article to find the best laptops available that are perfect for gaming.

Casual non-gamers will want to check out our less graphically orientated guide to non-gaming laptops under $1000 or best high-end non-gaming laptops.   If you are still tossing up your options and are considering gettina a desktop instead, our best gaming PCs guide and best cheap gaming PCs guide over at DesktopcomputerNinja have some great options that could help find some more bang for your buck at the trade off of mobility.

If you are an audiophile, our guide to the best gaming headsets on HeadphoneNinja might also be of interest to get the most immersive audio possible. After careful research we regularly update the shortlist below as soon as new top laptops hit the market to feature the latest in greatest in mid-range portable gaming glory. To complete your gaming experience don’t forget to get the right gaming chair and desk combo too – see High Ground Gaming’s gaming chair comparisons.

 More Gaming Laptops >>