We rated & reviewed six of the best gaming laptops under $500. These are not great long-term solutions, but if you need a cheap gaming laptop that can run non-demanding games, these budget-friendly laptops should work.
Here’s the cold hard honest truth: you’re not going to find a great gaming laptop under $500. If you need a more serious gaming machine and you can’t spend more than $500, you’d be much better off getting a gaming desktop (check out this $500 gaming PC build). If you absolutely need a laptop that will serve you well for gaming, though, it would be best to spend a little more.
Check out our post on the Best Gaming Laptops Under $1,000 for better-performing options.
However, if you are a casual gamer, or you mainly play non-demanding games, you should be able to get by with a $500 gaming laptop.
At this price range, you can still find a budget-friendly laptop that will allow you to play games like League of Legends, Roblox, Dota 2, Minecraft, Rocket League, etc.
So, if you need a gaming laptop under $500 and you can’t go with a desktop instead, the options below are your best bets.
Table of Contents
1. Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 15.6″ (Top Pick)
2. Acer Aspire 5 14.0″ (Runner-Up)
3. Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 15.6″ (Over Budget)
Quick Look: Cheap Entry-Level Gaming Laptops
If you just want a quick look at our top three selections for the best gaming laptops under $500, check out the table below.
|
|
NAME | SPECS | RATING | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
TOP PICK
|
 |
Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 |
|
/10 | |
|
RUNNER-UP
|
 |
Acer Aspire 5 |
|
/10 | |
|
OVER-BUDGET
|
 |
Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 |
|
/10 | |
|
RENEWED
|
 |
Dell Precision M7720 |
|
/10 | |
|
CHEAPER
|
 |
Acer Aspire 3 |
|
/10 |
*If you click on the “Read Review »” links you will jump to our overview on that specific laptop. You can also keep scrolling down see our thoughts on our Honorable Mention picks.
1. Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 15.6″
The best gaming laptop for $500
This Lenovo IdeaPad laptop is probably the best option under $500 right now. It comes with an AMD Ryzen 5 7530U processor, 8GB of DDR4 memory, a 15.6-inch 1080P display, and Windows 11 Home edition.
With the Ryzen 5 7530U processor and the Vega 7 graphics it comes with, this Lenovo laptop will offer enough performance to play most games on at least lower settings.
You can expect to run non-demanding games like Minecraft, Rocket League, Valorant, and League of Legends on this laptop on max settings with no problems. For more demanding games, you’ll have to turn the settings down (and possibly the resolution as well), but at least you’ll be able to play.
Ultimately, like most of the options in the sub-$500 price range, this laptop won’t be an ideal option for serious gaming. We highly recommend spending at least ~$100 more and getting something like the gaming-oriented Lenovo laptop listed below. If you can’t up your budget and you just need something to let you start gaming, though, this laptop should do the trick.
2. Acer Aspire 5 14.0″
Our runner-up selection
Another budget-friendly laptop option that will work fairly well for light gaming is this Acer Aspire 5. This laptop comes with an Intel Core i5-1335U processor, 8GB of DDR5 memory, and a 14.0-inch 1200P (1920×1080) display.
There is no dedicated GPU in this Acer laptop. Instead it relies on the Intel Iris Xe graphics that are integrated on the i5-1335U. In terms of CPU performance, the i5-1335U is a more powerful processor than the Ryzen 5 7530U found in the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim. However, Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics aren’t quite as strong as AMD’s Vega 7 integrated graphics.
But, the Iris Xe graphics are still good enough to where you can expect similar gaming performance. Like the IdeaPad Slim, this Aspire 5 laptop should be able to handle most games on at least lower settings, but would be better geared towards playing non-demanding titles.
In the end, with slightly weaker graphics and a higher pricetag, the Acer Aspire 5 trails a little behind our top pick. If the price were to drop on it significantly, that may make it the better value option. But, for now, it’s relegated to our runner-up pick.
3. Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 15.6″
Our “spend a little more” pick
If you can find just another $100 to spend, you can land a true budget gaming laptop in this Lenovo IdeaPad. This laptop comes with a Ryzen 5 66000H processor, a dedicated NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 GPU, 8GB of DDR5 memory, and a 15.6-inch 1080P display.
The combination of the Ryzen 5 6600H and the RTX 3050 will offer excellent 1080P gaming performance. Instead of having to play more demanding games on lower settings with a low framerate, you should be able to run most games on at least medium settings with 60 FPS+.
That makes for a night and day difference between the two laptops listed above.
The bottom line is that, with such a tight budget, the options are so limited that it might just be better to wait until you can afford something that will give you the performance you deserve. In this instance, spending a little more to get this Lenovo laptop would increase your in-game experience tenfold.
4. Dell Precision M7720 17.3″
The best ‘renewed’ option
Another route you can go if you’re not willing to spend over $500 is to check out some of the Renewed options on Amazon. Basically, these are refurbished laptops that have been inspected and tested, and have been found to be in good working condition.
Right now, this renewed Dell Precision laptop will offer better performance than the two options at the top of this list for the same price. It should be noted, though, that the Precision line of laptops are geared towards graphics designers as they typically feature workstation-grade GPUs.
However, workstation GPUs will still work fine for 1080P gaming. And, the NVIDIA Quadro P4000 in the laptop is no exception. The P4000 will offer performance comparable to NVIDIA’s GTX 1060. That’s good enough to be able to run anything at 1080P with a playable framerate.
The other positives for this Dell laptop are that it comes with a whopping 32GB of RAM and a larger 17.3-inch display.
Ultimately, if you’re willing to take on some risk in choosing a refurbished laptop, you can get a much better gaming experience than if you were to opt for a brand new system. And, the good news is that Amazon offers a 90-day guarantee on all of their Renewed products. So, if something is wrong with the laptop, your purchase will be protected.
5. Acer Aspire 3 15.6″
An even cheaper sub-$500 laptop
If your gaming demands are really light you could get by spending even less. Perhaps you only play League of Legends and you need a cheap laptop that will run it. In that case, this ~$460 Acer Aspire laptop will save you some money and meet your demands.
It comes with an AMD Ryzen 5 7520U processor with Vega 7 integrated graphics, 8GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 15.6-inch 1080P display.
The CPU is a little bit weaker than the Ryzen 5 7530U found in the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim at the top of this list, but the real-world difference between the two will be minimal. And, you get the solid Vega 7 integrated graphics as well.
So, you should be able to run non-demanding titles with no problems on this laptop. But if you get bored of League of Legends (or a similar non-demanding title) and you want to jump into a more graphics-intensive game, just know that this laptop may not be up to the challenge.
Is A Gaming Laptop Under $500 Worth It?
I’ve said this throughout this post and I’ll say it again: if you’re a gamer and you only have $500 to spend on a computer, your money would get you a whole lot more performance if you built your own gaming desktop or you got a similarly-priced prebuilt gaming PC.
However, a lot of gamers need the mobility that a laptop offers for various reasons (school & work). So, if you’re someone who is working with an extremely tight budget and you need the mobility of a laptop, but you still want to be able to play games, the options on this list should at least get your feet in the door.
