15 Best Gaming Laptops Under $2,500 – [Latest Picks]
Looking for the best gaming laptops under 2,500 dollars?
After tons of research, I’ve gathered a few laptops that I think fit the budget and give you the maximum performance you can get for the $2,500 price in a gaming laptop.
Once I feel that these laptops are outdated, I’ll update the list once again to the best gaming laptops under twenty-five hundred dollars.
Let’s take a look at these powerful gaming laptops.
Best Gaming Laptops Under $2,500
ASUS ROG ROG Strix G15
This one is the best gaming laptop under $2,500 as per my research. However, if another one comes up and beats it, I’ll make sure I feature that here instead.
Wait…
If you don’t like anything from the list below, come here and check these out as well. These are the best-selling gaming laptops right now that people are buying like hotcakes! 🍰
These may not be under the $2,500 budget range per se but surely are among the best gaming laptops available in the market today.
Table of Contents
Best Gaming Laptops Under $2,500 in 2021
If you want the best gaming performance from the CPU as well as the GPU, I’d recommend that you stick towards the top of this list and find one you like. Because as you keep going down, the performance starts to decrease for the money.
1. ASUS ROG ROG Strix G15
- 8-Core AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX
- RTX 3070 8GB
- Read Full Specs.
“Just got the system, and on day one very happy. Normal setup. Running the same high-end required game I normally do, and wow what an upgrade. Transfer servers often, and it can take a min or so to upload on to a new server. Not with this system! Less than 30 sec. The graphics are another huge upgrade, my old system makes the colors seem washed out now. Been running the game for a couple of hours and can’t even hear the fans. Very happy.”
This laptop adds to Asus‘ line of gaming laptops with the ROG Strix G15. Gamers and eSports enthusiasts will benefit from the RTX 3070 GPU, and those who create content will enjoy AMD Ryzen 7’s high performance, which is better than anything from Intel at this price point.
Besides its great screen, amazing thermal performance, superb keyboard, and great keyboard layout, the G15 offers decent battery life for gaming laptops as well.
As a result of its low price, this machine isn’t as feature-rich as many others. It’s also slightly thicker and heavier than others. I would like to see a little improvement in the build quality as well.
These problems aren’t dealbreakers, though – especially if you’re playing in mainstream gaming and eSports – and in both of these areas, the G15 shines.
2. HP OMEN Gaming Laptop
- AMD R9-5900HX 8-Core
- GeForce RTX 3070 8GB GDDR6
- Read Full Specs.
“I wanted a laptop with the RTX 3070 video card. I looked at a bunch of different options in person, but the Omen laptops just struck me as better quality. While I do intend to use this for gaming among other things, I wasn’t interested in the gaming laptop appearance and the look of the Omen 15 really appealed to me.”
It has a 16 Inches display with AMD Ryzen 9 5900 HX Processor with GeForce RTX 3070 graphics card with 32GB of memory and 1TB of storage on a Windows 10 laptop.
The laptop is powered by an AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX processor and has 32GB RAM and 1TB SSD storage.
In the case of this notebook, the graphics card is an unknown Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070. To keep it alive, it has a lithium-ion battery with four cells that weigh about 1.5 kilograms.
3. ASUS ROG Strix Scar G17
- 8-Core AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX
- GeForce RTX 3070 8GB GDDR6
- Read Full Specs.
“This is a pretty nice beast of a gaming machine. It has excellent thermals, even while under heavy load. In Battlefield 5, for example, neither the CPU nor GPU goes above 85C, and there’s no thermal throttling to speak of. The RTX 3060 in this laptop has a 115 TDP. The 3060 is roughly on-par with the RTX 2070 FE, which is honestly pretty impressive.”
While the ROG Strix G17 is probably not as good as Asus’s top-tier Scar 17 models, it still offers performance, screen, and inputs at the same level. My favorite rubber dome keyboard on this series is the Scar 17’s optical-mechanical alternative.
Here you lose some features, including QHD display, quad-speakers, the lid’s custom-made materials as well as RGB elements that were once included.
The speaker system has dual bottom-firing speakers and an always-on ROG logo on the lid, as well as plastics and metals that are more durable and less likely to scratch.
While the 3070 configuration of the Strix G17 makes it more affordable, it still offers good performance. Compared to Scar 17 G733QS (and RTX 3080), the Strix G17 G712QR is approximately 10% slower in workloads and games heavy on CPU, but slightly faster in workloads that benefit from the 3080 GPU’s additional VRAM.
The laptops also produce pretty much the same amount of heat since they have similar fan profiles and thermal designs, and since they take advantage of Optimus and so do not use MUX switches, performance is affected.
4. ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15
- AMD Ryzen 9 5900HS 8-Core
- NVIDIA RTX 3070 8GB GDDR6
- Read Full Specs.
“The pairing of a top-end AMD CPU with a high-performing NVidia GPU has finally come. This year’s ROG Zephyrus G15 is easily the best gaming laptop I’ve ever used, and it may be one of the best laptops available today.”
A near-perfect combination of performance, battery life, and design make the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 one of the most popular gaming laptops currently available.
While playing on the same kinds of desktop-grade hardware as the best desktop replacements on the market (for a high-end gaming laptop), this laptop also features an elegant design that’s not the same old Decepticon aesthetic that has plagued gaming hardware for quite some time.
Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 offers some of the highest frame rates on the go, thanks to its Ryzen 9 5900HS processor and Nvidia’s new RTX 3060, RTX 3070, and RTX 3080 GPUs.
It is unheard of for a high-end gaming laptop to be able to maintain battery life comparable to Intel Evo-certified Ultrabooks. Even though Lady Dimitrescu is unlikely to be able to slice you to ribbons for hours without an outlet, she will still at least be able to try a few times before the battery runs out.
Both speakers on each side of the ROG Zephyrus G15 keyboard are top-firing, so the keyboard sounds great as well. For those who plan to work and play on their new ROG Zephyrus G15, a separate camera is required. Gigabyte Aero 17 is essentially a gaming machine, unlike the ROG Zephyrus G15 that is primarily a gaming machine.
5. ASUS TUF 2021
- Intel Core i7-11370H
- GeForce RTX 3070 8GB GDDR6
- Read Full Specs.
“Purchased this for my son who is in the military. He loves being able to game during any downtime that he is granted. He said it is a great computer for gaming.”
As USB-C laptops continue to become slimmer, the Asus TUF Dash F15 complements this trend well, although there are some inherent limitations to being slim.
In particular, Nvidia’s next-generation RTX 30-series cards might not perform at the same frame rate on thicker machines. Its gaming benchmarks showed the Dash F15 trailing the Alienware M15 R4. Overall, its gaming performance resembled an RTX 20-Series Super card.
In terms of performance, it mimics the performance of the less expensive Acer Predator Triton 300, which includes an Intel Core i7-10750H and RTX 2080 Super Max-Q GPU. It is good for gaming at a good price; however, it doesn’t offer any significant upgrade over last-gen systems.
Compared to pricey rivals, the Dash F15 performed exceptionally well with the new Intel H35-series chip. However, the Dash F15 can’t compete with 10th generation CPUs, even though it has a quad-core 11th generation chip.
Dash F15’s performance conundrum hasn’t been resolved to Asus’ satisfaction. Nevertheless, if you’re looking for a lightweight laptop with a powerful screen and robust components that can handle high-end gaming with a good frame rate for the price range, the Dash F15 may be the right choice.
Choosing the Best Gaming Laptop Under $2,500
Price
There are a lot of gaming laptops that cost more than $2000. Expensive ones also have powerful graphics cards and high resolutions screens, which might make them better for gaming at first glance. However, if you’re not using your laptop solely for games then the features on these expensive models may not be worth the extra money because they won’t offer you much more.
For instance, if you’re going to be using your laptop for tasks like writing or web browsing then an expensive gaming laptop with a high-resolution screen may not make the best choice because they can’t do those things at their full potential. If you have no idea how these features will affect how well your computer does in each situation, then you may want to just get the cheapest one that will meet your needs.
CPU
Because the current market’s top-leading processors are from AMD’s Ryzen line-up, I made sure that the top gaming laptops under $2,500 had the best processors in them. Which is why you’ll see that most of the top gaming laptops here feature the Ryzen processor.
GPU
Pairing the most powerful Ryzen CPUs with the most powerful Nvidia’s GPU was a no-brainer! So, I went ahead and found gaming laptops that feature the Nvidia RTX 3,000 series GPUs, more specifically the Nvidia RTX 3070 at the very least, so you get the best graphics and gaming performance for the hefty price you’re paying.
RAM
The amount of RAM you need is an important decision when buying a laptop. If your computer uses Windows, then it will take advantage of that memory to run more programs at once without slowing down the system. It can also help with how many windows are open and how big they are on-screen. The most common size for laptops today is at least four gigabytes of RAM.
If you’re a gamer, then it’s usually best to get at least 8GB or more because most games require that much for the graphics card and programs to run smoothly. Other than how many windows are open, how big they are on-screen, how fast your internet is, and what else you use your computer for, how much RAM you have is one of the most important decisions when buying a laptop.
Design
Some people care about how their laptops look and how they personalize them. Other people don’t seem to care as much – though if someone is showing off their new computer at an event then maybe this matters! The design doesn’t really affect how well your laptop will perform, it is simply how you want to look at your laptop.
Battery Life
– Gaming laptops have shorter battery life because they require more power for the graphics card.
– There are two main types of gaming notebooks: desktop replacement and portable laptops. Desktop replacements use a larger, higher voltage processor that is not efficient when in standby mode whereas portables will switch to low-powered processors before going into standby or hibernation mode.
– The higher power consumption is the result of how graphics cards work and how they use system memory.
– For a desktop replacement notebook, while playing games it will require more cycles per second to maintain frame rates because there’s no limit on how high game frames can reach. With portables, if you’re only in an area with Wi-Fi, the device will go into a low power mode.
– Gaming laptops are optimized for rendering graphics and gaming performance while portables are what’s called “thin and light.” This is how manufacturers can achieve longer battery life with less powerful hardware.
– The type of laptop you want depends on how much power and screen real estate is important.
– Many gamers will opt for a desktop replacement because it’s the only way to experience their hardware fully without the limit of the battery running out on them.
FAQs about the Best Gaming Laptops Under $2,500
Any CPU from the Ryzen’s 5,000 series is a good option for now. As new processors launch, I’ll update this list and feature the most powerful gaming laptops with the most recent and powerful processors.
At the very least the Nvidia RTX 3070 GPU is what you should aim for when buying a gaming laptop for under $2,500. Because when researching, I came across many laptops from the previous generation graphics cards featuring the RTX 2,000 series GPUs, which I wouldn’t recommend you to buy. Get these newer RTX 3,000 series ones.
As much as possible! The more RAM you have, the less you’ll have to worry about multitasking and the games that require large amounts of RAM. However, if you really want a number, at least try to get 32GB of RAM, but if you can’t, the 16GB is fine as well. Just make sure your Graphics Card is the most powerful component of your gaming laptop. (Which I made sure it is for this list.)
