How to Know If a Laptop is Good For Gaming

Do you want to know if your laptop is good for gaming? Well, this blog post will tell you how. Read on to find out more.

We’ll go over what makes a laptop “good” or not for gaming, and offer up some tips on how to find the best one for your needs.

So you’re looking to buy a new laptop but aren’t sure if it will be good enough for gaming. I don’t blame you. There are so many models out there that it can be hard to decide which one is right!

Luckily, this article should help narrow things down by giving you three key factors that make laptops great (or terrible) when playing games on them: graphics card, RAM, and processor speed. We’ll also discuss shortly other factors such as storage display, battery life, and keyboard.

How to Know If a Laptop is Good For Gaming or Not?

You really need to check the laptop’s stats such as how many GB of Ram, what kind of graphics card, how powerful the processor is, how big of a hard drive it has, and how much memory (RAM) does it have.

So let’s look at the key factors one by one.

GPU – The Graphics Card

The graphics card is the most important factor. If you want your games to look good then you need a GPU that supports DirectX 11.

These days, most gaming laptops have at least an Nvidia RTX 2060, RTX 2070, RTX 3070, or better graphics cards. These are powerful enough to run games at 1080p resolution on the highest settings.

There are lot of brands out there that sell laptops that can perform well for gaming like Dell Alienware, Asus ROG, Razer Blade, and Lenovo Legion.

The most popular and best graphics card is NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 that can run all the latest games on ultra-high graphics on high resolution.

RAM – The Memory

The more RAM your laptop has, the better.

If you are playing games that require a lot of memory then it is important to have at least 8GB of DDR4 RAM in your laptop.  You can even go for 16GB DDR4 if you want ultra-smooth performance.

Nowadays, almost all gaming laptops have DDR4 memory type. The best graphics card you can get is Nvidia RTX 3070 with 16GB of RAM.  It should run all the latest titles without any lag at 1080p resolution and ultra-settings.

CPU – The Central Processing Unit (Processor)

Most gamers prefer a powerful processor for better gaming experience.

The latest i5 or Intel i7 processors (9th Generation) can easily handle all the latest games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, PUBG: Mobile Lite, Devil May Cry 5, and more without any lag or issues.

Also, check how many cores does the laptop has because more cores mean better performance.

If you want a laptop that can run games smoothly then consider getting an i7 9th Gen processor with 16GB of DDR4 RAM and NVIDIA RTX 3070 graphics card to play AAA titles at the highest settings.

Here are the best CPU for gaming.

  • AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
  • Intel Core i5 11600K
  • AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
  • Intel Core i7 10700K
  • Intel Core i9 10900K
  • Intel Core i7 9700K
  • AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
  • Intel Core i5 10400F

Not only it provides enough performance for gaming but also efficient for productivity tasks like rendering videos, 4K video editing, etc.

The maximum core count of a mobile CPU is 10; the high-performance 2nd Generation Intel Xeon E3-1535M CPU (10 core) is one of them.

Storage – The Hard Drive

The next thing to keep an eye on is how much storage your laptop has. It’s always nice to have a lot of storage, but it’s also important how quickly you can load the system up again after shutting down.

Type of Storage – SSD vs HDD

You should try to get either an SSD (Solid State Drive) or a hybrid drive.

Solid State Drives (SSD) load your computer much faster and enables it to boot up incredibly fast.  However, they don’t have as much storage space as regular hard drives (HDD).

So how do you solve this problem?

Well, the answer is by getting an external HDD for storing your files and apps. This way you can get both SSD speed for the OS and HDD space for your files, documents, and other stuff.

If you want a laptop that runs fast then get an SSD because it loads applications much faster than a regular HDD (Hybrid or SSHD).  Also, it is lighter in weight compared to a HDD.

The best storage for your laptop is 512GB of SSD and 1TB of HDD.

How much does a gaming laptop cost?

Famous Games With Their Basic Minimum Requirements

Please note that these are the basic requirements. Some games will play better on your laptop if you have higher specs like more powerful CPU, RAM, and better graphics card.

Grand Theft Auto 5

GTA 5 is an action-adventure game played from either a first-person or third-person view. Players complete missions—linear scenarios with set objectives—to progress through the story. Outside of missions, players may freely roam the open world.

The basic minimum requirements for Grand Theft Auto 5 are:

  • AMD FX-4100 4-Core Processor or Intel 7th Gen Core 2 Quad Q6600
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 / AMD Radeon HD 7870 (2GB VRAM)
  • 4GB RAM

The Recommend requirements for GTA 5 are:

  • Intel Core i5 4590 or AMD Ryzen 5 1400
  • Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti 4 GB / AMD Radeon RX 580 (4GB VRAM)
  • 8GB RAM

Far Cry 5

The basic minimum requirements for Far Cry 5 are:

  • AMD FX-8350 8-Core Processor or Intel Core i5 3570k Quad-Core CPU
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 / AMD R9 270 (2GB VRAM)
  • 4GB RAM

The recommended requirements for Far Cry 5 are:

  • Intel Core i7-4790 or AMD Ryzen 5 1500X
  • Nvidia GTX 1060 3 GB / AMD R9 290X 4Gb VRAM
  • 8GB RAM

The Rise of the Tomb Raider

The basic minimum specifications for Tomb Raider in order to run the game are:

  • Intel Core i3 4130 or Athlon64 X2 2.1 Ghz
  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 660/1050 2GB / AMD Radeon HD 7770
  • 8GB RAM

The recommended specs for The Rise of the Tomb Raider are:

  • Intel Core i7 4770K Quad-Core CPU or AMD Ryzen 5 1600 X 6-Core Processor
  • Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB / AMD Radeon RX 480 8GB
  • 16 GB RAM

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

The basic minimum specs for The Witcher are:

  • AMD FX-6300 or Intel Core i5 3470 processor
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 2GB / AMD Radeon HD 7850 2GB
  • 6GB RAM

The recommended specs for The Witcher 3 are:

  • Intel Core i7 3770K Quad-Core CPU or AMD CPU AMD FX-8350
  • Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB / AMD Radeon R9 920.
  • 8GB RAM

What to Look for in a Cheap Gaming Laptop?

Now if you’re a little under budget like $1000 then you will have to cut some corners.

For beginners, I would recommend getting at least an i5 processor and a GTX 1050.

The GTX 1050 is one of the most popular GPUs right now for budget gamers. It can run most games on high or ultra settings while still being relatively quiet.

What are the other specs you need to look out for?

I recommend at least 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD.

You’re going to want a bigger hard drive as well, since you can never have enough storage.

So how much should I spend on a new gaming laptop?

For the cheapest price possible you won’t be getting anything over an i7, GTX 1050, or 1050 Ti and 8GB of RAM.

For around $1000-$1500 you can get a much more powerful laptop that will run any game you throw at it on ultra settings.

Is a gaming laptop worth it?

Customizable Gaming Laptops

I’ve been seeing a lot of laptops lately that have better specs than most desktops because they are easily upgradable.

For example, if you want a laptop that can run games like Witcher 3 or any other AAA game then I would recommend buying the Razer Blade Pro.

The Razer Blade Pro offers upgradability and amazing specs while still being under $3k. The only downside is that it weighs 7 lbs and isn’t exactly portable.

But how can I upgrade my laptop?

For one, try to buy your laptop from a store that offers an extended warranty if you end up needing it. The next thing I would recommend doing is making sure you have all the parts needed to upgrade your laptop. This includes RAM, CPU, GPU, SSD drives, etc. Once that’s done, all you have to do is pay the store how much it would cost for them to do the upgrade.

How can I find out how much a certain laptop costs to upgrade?

This can be done by looking up how many graphics cards the laptop supports, how many PCI-E slots it has, how many HDMI ports and how many USB ports it has. From there, you can decide how large of an upgrade you want to do on the laptop.

If it has two PCI-E slots and two HDMI ports, then you could get a GTX 1060 6GB version for $400-$500 which is one of the most powerful GPUs that will run any game on ultra settings.

How to Choose The Best Gaming Laptop?

The first step of how to choose a good gaming laptop is how powerful its GPU is. That means you need to check how many CUDA cores does your graphics card have.

Nvidia’s GTX 1050, 1050 Ti, and 1060 have the most powerful GPUs. Next, look at how much VRAM it has. You need at least 4GB or 6GB if you’re willing to play high-end games on ultra settings.

That also means your laptop should have HDMI 1.4/2.0 ports so that you can connect your PS4 or Xbox One controller to the laptop. The next step is how many USB ports does your gaming laptop has. 2 USB 3.1 ports are good enough for most gamers today.

How much RAM do you need?

8GB, 16GB, or even 32GB of RAM is necessary if you’re a heavy gamer. You can always add more RAM to your laptop in the future if you need it. Look for how much storage space your gaming laptop has.

At least 256GB is recommended since there’s no way you’ll ever play all of your games on an SSD.

And finally check how big is the display of the laptop, how many pixels does it have and how many hours can the battery lasts.

What’s Next?

Thank you for reading how to know if a laptop is good for gaming. If you have any feedback, feel free to leave a comment.

Leave a Comment