If you need a new high-end laptop for gaming, in this post, we’ve rated and reviewed five of the best gaming laptops under $2,000 to help you find an option that will meet your needs.
Five to ten years ago, a laptop that was powerful enough to provide a solid gaming experience would have costed you at least a couple of thousand dollars. Nowadays, you can find gaming laptops for under $1,000 that will deliver enough performance to max out just about any game on a 1080P monitor.
And, for a couple thousand, you can get a machine that will not only max out any game you throw at it, but that will also give you a high enough framerate to where you can take advantage of the higher refresh rate displays that newer high-end gaming laptops are coming with.
In this guide, we’ve picked five of the best gaming laptops under $2,000 across a range of categories. We’ve made selections for the best option under $2,000 overall, the top 17-inch gaming laptop under $2,000, a solid value option (it comes in at about ~$1,600), the top pick with an AMD CPU in it, and the top 4K gaming laptop under $2,000.
A Quick Look at the Best Gaming Laptops Under $2,000
|
|
NAME | SPECS | RATING | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
TOP PICK
|
 |
Acer Predator Triton 500 |
|
/10 | |
|
17-INCH
|
 |
Alienware m17 R3 |
|
/10 | |
|
VALUE
|
 |
MSI GS75 Stealth |
|
/10 | |
|
AMD CPU
|
 |
Sager NP7958F1 |
|
/10 | |
|
4K SCREEN
|
 |
MSI Creator 15 |
|
/10 |
*To read our overview on the gaming laptops listed above, click the “Read Review »” link.
1. Acer Predator Triton 500 15.6″
Our favorite gaming laptop under $2,000
For our top pick, we chose the Acer Predator Triton 500. At just under $1,800, the Triton 500 has the best combination of hardware out of the laptops on this list.
It comes with an Intel Core i7-10750H processor, an NVIDIA RTX 2070 GPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. It also sports a 15.6-inch 1080P G-Sync display with a crazy 300Hz refresh rate. That CPU-GPU-RAM combination will be more than enough to push games to a high enough framerate (on max settings) to take full advantage of the 300Hz screen.
While there are other options on this list that come with a better processor, or more memory, or a larger screen, or more storage, the Triton 500 is one of the only sub-$2,000 gaming laptops that comes with an RTX 2070 Super GPU. And, as most games today are more GPU-dependent than they are CPU-dependent, that makes the Triton 500 the best option purely for gaming.
As for the processor, the i7-10750H is an excellent processor, and it will be more than adequate enough for gaming. Other options on this list do come with slightly more powerful CPUs (the i7-10875H or the Ryzen 9 3900), but the in-game performance difference between the i7-10750H and them will be negligible.
The bottom line, though, is that the combination of hardware that the Acer Predator Triton 500 offers makes it currently one of the best gaming laptop options under $2,000. If you need a laptop that will perform almost as well in gaming performance and will also offer better performance in CPU-intensive tasks (design work, video processing/editing, spreadsheets, etc.) then you might want to check out one of the other options below.
2. Alienware m17 R3 17.3″
The top 17-inch gaming laptop option
If you’d prefer a bigger screen, one of the best 17-inch gaming laptops under $2,000 is the Alienware m17 R3. The Alienware m17 R3 has the same CPU (Intel Core i7-10750H) and the same amount of RAM (16GB) as the Acer Predator Triton 500 listed above.
However, it comes with a slightly weaker RTX 2070 (non-Super) GPU. While the RTX 2070 won’t provide as much in-game performance as an RTX 2070 Super, it will still be plenty powerful enough to max out any game you throw at it.
The Alienware m17 R3’s 17.3-inch display comes with a 1920 x 1080 resolution and a 300Hz refresh rate. However, it doesn’t come with NVIDIA’s G-Sync technology. The m17 R3 does come with a larger 1TB SSD, though.
So, there are tradeoffs between the Alienware m17 R3 and the Acer Predator Triton 500 that are worth considering. Do you want a larger display or more storage? Go with the m17 R3. Do you want more GPU performance (and, thus, a higher framerate in gamers) and/or NVIDIA’s G-Sync technology? Go with the Acer Predator Triton.
3. MSI GS75 Stealth 15.6″
The best value gaming laptop under $2,000
While it’s typically true that the more money you spend on a computer, the more performance you get, and the better your experience will be, in some price ranges, you can save money and still get a system that will give you all of the performance you could ever need. In our opinion, that is the case with the MSI GS75 Stealth.
The GS75 Stealth comes in at just over ~$1,600 and comes with an Intel Core i7-10875H processor, an NVIDIA RTX 2060 GPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. It also comes with a 15.6-inch 1080P display that has a 240Hz refresh rate.
The combination of the i7-10875H and the RTX 2060 will be more than enough power to max out any game you throw at it. You won’t get as high of framerates as you would have if you opted for an RTX 2070 laptop, but you won’t be struggling with your framerate either.
So, if you want to save a couple hundred dollars without having to sacrifice your in-game experience too much, then the more affordable MSI GS75 Stealth might be the best option for you.
4. Sager NP7958F1 15.6″
Top AMD gaming laptop under $2,000
While AMD’s processors have trailed Intel’s processors in terms of pure gaming performance for many years now, their newer processors are starting to close the gap. And, with games relying so much on the GPU now, the performance difference in gaming scenarios between AMD and Intel CPUs has become insignificant regardless.
What AMD processors do bring to the table, though, is much better multi-threaded performance. This doesn’t offer a big difference in games, but it does help with CPU-intensive tasks like video editing/processing, streaming gameplay, graphics design work, etc.
So, if you’re looking for a gaming laptop that is also well-suited to handle those kinds of tasks, the Sager NP7958F1 might be worth checking out. It comes with an AMD Ryzen 9 3900 processor, an NVIDIA RTX 2070 GPU, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. It also has a 15.6-inch 1080P 144Hz display.
Ultimately, the Sager NP7958F1 isn’t going to provide quite as much in-game performance as one of our top options listed above. However, it will still be able to handle any game you throw at it and it will serve as a good workstation laptop as well.
5. MSI Creator 15.6″
Best 4K gaming laptop under $2,000
Another sub-$2,000 laptop option that will work well for gamers who need to use their laptop for other important tasks is MSI’s Creator 15. The Creator 15 sacrifices a little bit of GPU power and a high refresh rate display to bring you a higher resolution 4K screen.
Along with its 4K screen, the MSI Creator 15 comes with an Intel Core i7-10875H processor, an NVIDIA RTX 2060 GPU, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD.
The RTX 2060 will be powerful enough to run any game on the 4K display. However, you probably shouldn’t expect it to maintain a super high framerate on max settings in more demanding titles.
So, the bottom line is, if you want a 4K display, pretty good gaming performance, and a laptop that can serve you well for other purposes (work, school, content creation, etc.) then the MSI Creator 15 is worth checking out. For pure gaming performance, though, you’d probably be better off with one of the options listed above.
Which sub-$2,000 gaming laptop is right for you?
There are a ton of different gaming laptops under $2,000 that are worthy checking out. We’ve listed five sub-$2,000 gaming laptops across a range of categories and pricepoints to give you a diverse list of options to choose from.
So, whether you’re looking for the best laptop purely for gaming, a solid 4K option, or a gaming laptop that can double as a workstation, there is a system listed above that should fit your needs.
