5 Best Gaming Laptops Under $800

by CT | Last Updated: April 20, 2021

Thanks to games like Fortnite, PUBG, DOTA 2, Overwatch, and others, gaming laptops are becoming a necessity — and more people than ever are looking for the best gaming laptops under $800.

You can choose to invest thousands of bucks in some kind of futuristic gaming rig, but you can also buy a perfectly safe gaming laptop for a relatively low price and enjoy the same great games as everyone else. There are plenty of excellent options out there for under the budget $800 that are utterly capable of managing heavy games.

You’ll find below a list of top ten gaming laptops on the market right now for $800 or less, followed by a Buyer’s Guide at the end.

Best Gaming Laptops Under $800

1. MSI GV62

Powerful Graphic Card

MSI is one of the prime makers in the e-sports experience, with many professional games supporting MSI laptops for individual and competition use. Talking about GTX 1050 Ti. Many of the other laptops on the list highlight the approved GTX 1050, but the Ti is definitely the next level up.

Benchmarks and real-world analyses have shown that the Ti can offer better graphical accuracy and faster frame rates than the regular 1050 on all common games. So if visuals are your primary concern while gaming, this is the laptop to buy and it’s one of the only options in the system right now that comes with a 1050 Ti for less than $800.

If you’d like to take your first step on the MSI stairway with an entry-level gaming laptop, the GV62 is an exceptional place to start. Provided with an eighth formation i5 processor and a GTX 1050 Ti graphics card, this is easily one of the most dominant gaming machines on the list.

What else can GV62 cover? Well, 8GB of RAM comes as standard and the laptop is also fitted with a 1TB hard drive to cache your gaming library. It doesn’t have an SSD, which could be seen as a flaw, but it does come with 16GB of Intel Optane Memory, which actually works in a comparable way to an SSD by advancing variation and shot moments on the games and forms you use most often.

Gamers will also experience this device’s clean style and cooler boost technology that prevents the laptop from getting too hot while running graphically intensive games. The Nahimic 3 audio system is very impressive as well, assuring that the GV62 can offer both the sort of top-level optical and audio experiences that modern gamers desire. The battery life is a little dull and maxes out at around 4 hours, so gaming on-the-move will be confined to this device, but it’s a strong machine overall with a lot of opportunities.

Also check: Gaming Laptops under 700

2. Dell Inspiron 15

Good for VR Gaming

VR is definitely going to be a big part of the future of gaming, and if you want to experiment some VR games for yourself, this Dell Inspiron is a strong pattern to choose. It was devised and optimized with Windows Mixed Reality headsets in memory and can, therefore, run capacity of VR games without any compatibility issues or other obstacles, although it can cause a bit loud sound on certain games.

Fitted with a seven generation i5 processor and a GTX 1050 with 4GB of dedicated memory, this Dell gaming laptop can run loads of non-VR games on unusual settings too, offering smooth frame rates and effective performance levels on plenty of modern hits. In short, if you’re looking to play a mixture of simple and AAA games on your laptop and need a budget machine that can manage almost anything you throw at it, this is a definite choice.

One of the individual features of this laptop is the addition of a hybrid hard drive. Most laptops come with either a standard hard drive for highest storage or a solid state drive (SSD), which is usually much smaller but offers faster file transfers and load times. The combination drive here provides a decent balance between the two, with 1TB of storage for all your games and 8GB of faster memory for speedier boot-ups and processes.

This Dell Inspiron 15-7000 also stands out for its engaging outlook. The high accuracy 15.6″ screen can be enjoyed from any angle and the beautiful red pattern along the base is an eye-catching touch. Unfortunately, the only flaw is about speaker audio that doesn’t match with its beauty to some extent, but that’s a small price to pay for such an impressive collection of technical specifications.

3. Dell G3

Fast gaming laptop under $800

Proceeding with Dell, the G3 is another surpassing gaming laptop you can buy RN for less than $800. Why Dell G3 preferably of Inspiron? For beginners, the G3 gives, eighth generation processor. It’s an i5, fairly than an i7, but it still offers better production than older-generation i7s. Alike the Inspiron, the G3 also comes with a GTX 1050 graphics card with 4GB of dedicated memory and 8GB of RAM overall.

More like Inspiron, the G3 extends 1TB of regular hard drive area as well as a 128GB SSD which is an overall enhancement above the Inspiron’s hybrid hard drive, with the G3 offering much more area on that SSD for lightning-fast file transfers and almost quick boot-up times. The appearance of the normal hard drive is a great bonus and secures you’ll have plenty of space for your game library without needing to invest in external storage.

The anti-glare display offers cool visuals and bright colors, giving a better opportunity for a wide range of view, whereas the rest of the looks of this laptop feels so unusual. Dell is a well-known brand known for a very high standard and this is a secure laptop in general, but it feels considerably central to the perception while some users have complained about the manual, which highlights very flat keys that takes time to get used to.

Low price laptops have to make a few reductions in order to attain its highly acceptable price tag, and in the case of the G3, it seems like Dell took a few choices with the design and overall build quality. If appearances don’t interest you too much, this laptop offers a lot of value for you to kill your lavish time with your coffee mug, excellent display, and games on your laptop.

4. Acer Aspire

Ultra-Powerful CPU & GPU

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• Lots of Storage
• SSD (Faster File Transfer)
• Very Thin for Portability

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• Weak Battery
• Not the Strongest GPU
• Simplistic Design

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The next one on our list is Acer. The Aspire 7 is a simple-looking but extremely efficient entry-level gaming laptop with best of best design tech specs including a seventh generation i7 processor and GTX 1050 graphics card, but when it comes to its memory that only contain 2GB of dedicated memory with the GPU. Therefore can’t offer the same sort of gaming performance as devices like the MSI GV62 or Dell G3.

One of the big pleasures out of this laptop is its storage options. Alike the G3, the Acer Aspire 7 offers 1TB of regular hard drive space and an additional 128GB SSD for your system files, at the same time helping the laptop load up very quickly and reducing file transfer on your favorite games and applications. It is quite rare to discover a decent gaming laptop with a hard drive and SSD so the Aspire 7 definitely survives out in the storage section.

You wanted additional protection for your files so here is it for you this device also allows a fingerprint reader to help you keep your laptop fully secure and the trackpad is quite easy to use.

The study of the Aspire 7 is very simple; If looks again don’t matter you the most than it is a better option because basic black finish all around the framework ensures that this device isn’t particularly eye-catching, but appearances are fanciful and this might not be such a big issue to you. Positively, this laptop is less than an inch thin when closed, offering excellent portability.
One of its shortcomings is its battery life. Despite the maker claiming that the laptop can run for 8+ hours, many users have claimed that the laptop won’t be able to play games for much longer than a few hours on a single charge due to its comparatively weak 4-cell battery. As long as you’re keeping it charged, the Aspire 7 is a good all-around laptop.

5. ASUS TUF FX504

Entry-level powerful gaming laptop

Most importantly, the ASUS TUF FX504 is a great-looking laptop. Slim trim, lightweight, measuring just 0.98 inches when wrapped up and considering in at only 5.07 pounds overall, it directly catches the eye with its sharp edges and attractive keyboard design. The build quality on this device is extremely compelling, especially studying it’s one of the cheaper entries on our list, so if you’re the sort of gamer who wants their hardware to different and unique, this laptop will put a smile on your face.

Equipped with an eighth generation i5 processor and GTX 1050 GPU, the ASUS TUF can run games like PUBG and Fortnite at 60 structures per second with ease and will be able to handle more perfect AAA games on medium settings. It doesn’t have the same firepower as a laptop like the MSI GV62 with its GTX 1050 Ti video card, but it’s a safe option and offers a lot of value at this price point.

The TUF doesn’t come with an SSD, with ASUS choosing to install a 1TB hybrid hard drive on this particular model instead. The hybrid storage system suggests better file transfer speeds than a regular old hard drive, but it still pales in comparison when put side-by-side with an SSD. Badly, that’s one of the settlements you’ll have to make in order to enjoy the blistering performance of the i5-8300 CPU.

Other downsides to this laptop include a trackpad that can take some time getting used to and sometimes has some trouble figuring out exactly how you want to scroll and click, as well as a relatively weak battery. Overall, however, the ASUS TUF is one of the best value gaming laptops out there right now. It makes a couple of discounts to achieve its low price tag but exceeds in areas like aesthetics and processing power.

Gaming Laptop Buyer’s Guide

Experiencing to purchase a laptop can be quite terrifying for the very first time, especially when you are not too familiar with all of the technical terms. The initial action is to figure out your budget and preferences.

Are you willing to pay more for a better set of features and specs?

Or would you prefer to keep charges low and find the affordable device that meets your requirements?

Here are some factors keep in mind while shopping for your next gaming laptop.

Price

This is what matters the most. If you’re looking for a gaming laptop for less than $800, the price is definitely going to be an essential portion to think about. Gaming laptops can range minimum from $500 all the way up to $3,000 and more. Generally, the price and quality of laptop are inversely proportional to each other, but as previously mentioned, it’s completely possible to find good quality gaming laptops with modest hardware at a comparatively low price. The point is to remember that gaming laptops are most often a long-term investment. And If you want to practice it certainly for several years, it’s worth increasing your budget a little. The more you pay, the better presented your laptop will be to handle the latest games.

Screen Size

The sizes of laptop layouts can fluctuate quite extensively, but when it comes to gaming laptops, most screens will measure up at 15.6 inches. 14 inch and 17.3-inch displays are also available, but 15.6 is generally regarded as the ideal size to play games and watch movies while also assuring that your device stays comparatively lightweight and comfortable to move around.

GPU

Also known as the video or graphics card, For gamers, this is the most important features of a laptop which is the component that effectively determines how good your games are going to appear. Mostly laptops included in the list below are provided with the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 graphics card, which is a reliable entry-level gaming GPU. If you like to play esports games like Fortnite, DOTA 2, CS: GO, and other names, this card can get them running on the healthiest settings at 60 frames per second. It can also run most modern AAA titles on comparatively high settings too. The card is possible in both 2GB and 4GB variants, with the last being the obvious alternative.

CPU

The CPU, or processor, works in combination with the GPU to power up games and perform all other processes on your laptop. Good gaming laptops need Intel Core i5 or i7 processors of the seventh or eighth rank.

RAM

RAM allows the laptop to perform complicated tasks collectively without slowing down or freezing up. The more RAM in your device, the more effectively you’ll be able to do with it, and many modern games need a proper amount of memory, so a good gaming laptop has to have at least 8GB of RAM.

Additional Features

Some laptops have different characteristics to offer like storage options, fingerprint locking, backlit keyboards and many more. If you’re stuck between two different laptops, their additional features might help you choose between them.

If you want to get a slightly cheaper computer, check out the best gaming laptop under 700 dollars. 

CT loves marketing, entrepreneurship, and learning about the latest tech. She blogs about laptops has always been a nerd at heart from the young age of 8 when she got her first computer. She now owns multiple machines and spend 10-15 hours a day on them learning about tech and working from home.