Best Gaming Laptops Over $1000

Laptops are an interesting market. Tons of trashy cheaper options exist made from plastic and the parts that probably got rejected on the factory floor, yet advanced gaming laptops have only recently come into there own. They’ve shrunk in size, solved huge heating issues, put full-scale GPU’s inside, and even made the battery last for more than two hours with heating up to the temperature of thermite. Today’s modern gaming laptops are lighter, faster, and better than we could have dreamed even five years ago. The catch though? They are pricier. It’s not cheap to get desktop performance on the go. We’ve created a guide for those willing to spend a bit more to get that dream laptop as well as an in-depth technical guide on what you need to make that laptop check off the wish-fulfillment box. We have just a handful of picks for those pushing roughly a grand and those who want a bit more power and are willing to pay. Laptops like desktop PC’s are fairly customizable so you should note many of these options are going to have some additional customization as well.   

OUR TOP PICK – AORUS 5 (KB) GAMING LAPTOP

[2020] AORUS 5 (KB) Gaming Laptop, 15.6-inch FHD 144Hz IPS, GeForce RTX 2060, 10th Gen Intel i7-10750H, 16GB DDR4, 512GB...

• The thinnest 15-inch gaming laptop in its class: about 1-inch thick, weighs less than 5-lbs, and offers a full-area colored backlit RGB keyboard with 15 different color effects
• 15.6-inch 144Hz IPS Anti-Glare Display (72% NTSC): Housed with extremely thin bezels for an astounding 81% screen-to-body ratio

Last update was on: September 14, 2024 3:06 pm

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The Build

• GeForce RTX 2060 6GB
• I7 10750H
• 16 GB RAM
• 512 GB SSD
• 15.6 FHD Display @144Hz

Our Thoughts

The Aorus 5 is one of the models here that is above $1000 but probably checks off everything you’d need in a gaming laptop out the door. The GPU allows 1080p gameplay above 60fps for AAA titles. You even get that new fancy oft-marginalized Ray-Tracing technology. The screen is fantastic and can hit high fps which is really useful for us competitive players. You can even connect three monitors to it externally at once which just seems like an awful idea. I normally use two and I can’t imagine being efficient at four. I mention it though because this is in the range of a 1440p capable machine so having it plugged into a really nice gaming monitor like a 2k Acer Predator. (I’ll personally vouch for that monitor as it’s the one I am writing on, just make sure you don’t get a light leak!). This isn’t that pricey and is a phenomenal gaming laptop. It’s also pretty light as far as gaming laptops go, clocking in at around 4.85 lbs. One on our list is 8.5 lbs which basically should come with a free gym membership. Like all gaming laptops, there is some play in the build and you can increase things like SSD space. That’d be my recommendation as that is one of the first things to fill up and it’s a pain to install one in most laptops!   

BEST 1440p GAMING LAPTOP – HP OMEN 17 (2020)

OMEN 17 Gaming Laptop, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070, Intel Core i7-10750H, 16 GB DDR4 RAM, 512 GB PCIe NVMe SSD,...

• REALISTIC GRAPHICS: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (6 GB GDDR6 dedicated). The all-new NVIDIA Turing architecture with breakthrough ray tracing technology brings the future of laptop gaming with incredible realism and performance. Power the latest games in 1080p and up to 144fps for fast, smooth gameplay. VR and Mixed Reality-ready. 17.3-inch diagonal Full HD, IPS, anti-glare, WLED-backlit, 300 nits, 100% sRGB (1920 x1080) display with 144Hz refresh rate; 80% screen to body ratio, dual monitor support ( 1 HDMI 2.0a, 1 Mini DisplayPort, Thunderbolt 3 with SuperSpeed USB Type-C )

Last update was on: September 14, 2024 3:06 pm

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The Build

• RTX 2070 8GB
• I7 1070H
• 16GB RAM
• 512 GB SSD
• 17.3″ 1080p @ 144hz

Our Thoughts

Listen… I don’t trust HP. Similar to Dell, I’ve seen my share of cheap laptops that ran screaming for the hills or broke simply from being placed in a backpack. But Dell and HP are known for making an array of both cheap and high-quality products, which is why I was a bit surprised to find this version of the Omen. It fits a unique niche which is the “I want to play games at 1440p and dabble in 4K” niche. Like the aforementioned Aorus, the Omen is a beast but when it comes to 2K, the addition of the 2070 really brings that smoothness and stability you want. You can even be bold and run 4K content but a lot of modern AAA games will have you dangerously close to 30fps which is a big no-no for us with trained gaming eyes. This is a great laptop and has that additional power for those who want it without a huge cost increase. The biggest problem is the weight. We really have to hand it to the Aorus on it’s lifestyle and diet, this chunker weighs in at over 7lbs. It’s a good model and really if you think 1440p is your comfort zone, we definitely recommend it.  

THE “I HATE MONEY, TAKE MINE” GAMING LAPTOP- AORUS 17X YB

[2020] AORUS 17X (YB) Extreme Gaming Laptop, Smallest+lightest+Coolest in Class, 17.3-inch 240Hz IPS, RTX 2080 Super Max-P, Intel i9-10980HK, 32GB...

• The most compact, lightest, and coolest running 17-inch gaming laptop in its performance class with OMRON mechanical switch keys, housed in an ultra-durable, Falcon-inspired CNC aluminum chassis
• 17.3-inch FHD 240Hz 3ms IPS Anti-Glare Display (100% sRGB, 72% NTSC): Housed with extremely slim 3mm bezels for an astounding 89% screen-to-body ratio and Pantone Certified accuracy within Delta E

Last update was on: September 14, 2024 3:06 pm

out of stock

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The Build

• 17 inch FHD Display (1080p) @240hz
• RTX 280 Super
• Several Storage Options
• Up to 64GB RAM
• Mechanical Keyboard from Omron
• I9 – 10980HK @ 5.3Ghz or I7 – 10875H
• Ethernet and WiFi 6
• Thunderbolt – 3 Ports
• 8.5 Pounds

Our Thoughts

This laptop just hit the market recently and has probably one of the strongest builds we’ve seen in recent memory. It isn’t cheap but it has everything you could ask for as well as some killer unique features. The RTX 2080 Super is literally going to play every 1080p game well above 60FPS possibly for a very very long time. It’s the type of GPU you put in a 4K capable computer (Which is technically possible if you plug this in and dock it but I’d invest in a cooling pad!). This laptop is insane, it literally is everything in one device. I love the thunderbolt port which is somewhat novel but as the world moves in that direction they a becoming the go to. This laptop has one of the highest framerates on the market (They can actually go up to 300). One of the strange things we noticed is that the 2080 Super model needs multiple power supplies. It’s a laptop series that really can blow games out of the water and dare I say goes into overkill mode. Ultimately this is the type of laptop you need if you want to game in 4K but the UHD models out there are often really pricey or don’t have the beefy power required. There are a wide-range of options too meaning you can get the price lower and the parts you want.    

What’s not to like? The weight is pretty high. It’s a solid piece and may not be very fun to lug around all day wandering town. That being said, it is like a mobile gaming desktop so that alone might be what you are looking for. Additionally, no G-Sync. It’s just sad! The insane refresh rate makes it seem like a natural fit for Nvidias proprietary screen tech. At the same time, you’ll definitely want to consider picking up a dedicated 2K or 4K gaming monitor with this and giving that a go. Just make sure you’ve observed the cooling first!

Our Build Recommendations for this Guy

Most 1080p games are not going to take full advantage of the raw power in this beast so it’s reasonable to consider the RTX 2070 Super model or an i7 instead. In general, you can play 4K games really well and annihilate 2K with many of the build variations. Note that it isn’t price-gouging or outrageous, just laptops aren’t generally built to house the raw power of a desktop computer. Also the options come in Max-P and Max-Q which relates to performance, pick Max-P! 

THE “NO GAMING BUT WON’T BREAK” LAPTOP – Dell XPS 17 9700

New XPS 17 9700 17" Laptop 10th Gen Core i7-10875H up to 5.1 GHz 8 cores RTX 2060 6GB Max-Q...

5 used from $1,699.00

Last update was on: September 14, 2024 3:06 pm

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$1,699.00

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The Build

• I7 – 10875H @ 5.1 Ghz
• RTX 2060
• 32GB of RAM
• 1TB SSD
• Touchscreen

For the 4K elite Laptop crowd

It’s called a Macbook Pro… In all seriousness, I am a diehard PC Fanboy but Apple laptops are ones that don’t break easily, work well for years, and just have quality and charm. These can easily be found with Apple. As a Gaming website, we don’t pimp apple products often. While they’ve come an amazingly far way in terms of usability for gaming in the last decade, they still can’t play many titles and play them well. For productivity though, they are fantastic. They can definitely play loads of Indie games and the occasional aging shooter like CS:GO but it’s ultimately going to disappoint on the graphics and performance side.

So in comes the Dark Horse. 

Dell has realized the appeal of Apples design strategy and started producing a Macbook style laptop that has a solid aluminum shell, that apple feel and quality, and by and large it’s been filling that major gap in the PC space. 

The Dell XPS Series

These models such as the 2020 XPS 15, are highly customizable and can cost just over $1000 to several thousand like this model. We love the direction that Dell has gone with the XPS line and almost everything loveable about a Macbook can be found in them… but they also game extremely well. It’s not for everyone’s budget but consider building a Dell XPS if you want a thin Macbook style laptop. 

Our Thoughts

This is a gorgeous laptop. It’s very thin and unlike our gaming laptop brethren (The Aorus 17X YB) manages to nail the feeling of a portable laptop for both business and games. The irony is that by dropping the GPU quality a little bit, this will do very well at 2K and make 1080p as smooth as coolwhip. The downside is that the 4K UHD screen is a beauty with tons of room but probably not a lot of 4K gaming experiences that’ll feel smooth. You can though game comfortable at 1440p so worst-case scenario, bump a resolution down and your eyes will still weep with glory at the beauty of this. These are really great options for artists and creators as well since the screen is touch capable. The jury is out on Windows 10 and touch but if you edit video, use photoshop, and hate OSX. This is your get out of Apple free card! 

The XPS series is not cheap but it is probably the best laptop out there. We would say due to versatility. It has that sleek aluminum build that we love from companies like Apple, and comes in at 5.53 lbs. That’s way less than the beefier cousins that have been coming onto the scene. If that’s still too much money or too heavy, the Dell XPS 15 9500 may scratch that itch at a way cheaper price point while still maintaining that 4K screen. 

TECHNICAL GUIDE

What to look for in a gaming laptop…

Unlike a desktop, once you buy a gaming laptop, there is a good chance you won’t be able to upgrade it. Even models that promise some level of upgradability failed to really hit the market and find themselves now a niche or shut-down. It’s just not feasible to design a cheap, tight, upgradeable laptop. And that’s ok. What does matter is making sure you hit the minimums that you know you want. For instance, buying a 720p monitor with an excellent laptop will have you feeling pretty sad and looking for an external monitor at which point it’s just a self-defeating mobile desktop. 

Here are some really important factors to consider when making this decision. 

The Two most important things…

Weight and GPU. The GPU will get your games running well and the weight… well, if your laptop breaks your arms and you don’t feel comfortable lugging it around, it’ll be a glorified desktop. Other factors aren’t as important because those two things dictate the quality of your mobile experience the most. We’ll explain more below. 

Battery Life

Gaming laptops have notoriously short battery lives. Some are so short that people buy an additional battery for long trips! A GPU and CPU running in modern AAA games just draw a ton of power. No way around that. With that in mind though, it’s an expectation of the laptop you buy. Shoot for 7 or 8 hours but expect 3-4 while gaming. We don’t really need to drag out the battery life in our reviews because it’s not a helpful thing. Some last longer but ultimately you need to plan around needing power as a gaming laptop user.  If you want to game on the go but can’t find an outlet, then a gaming laptop is most likely going to run into issues.   

Weight

Some slim Gaming laptops are AMAZINGLY light compared to years prior. While some will weigh a good amount (Thus making them way less mobile), there are some options that don’t seem that different from a normal laptop. It heavily increases price and often isn’t as powerful as what can be done in a beefy laptop build. It’s just another thing to consider as lugging around a 20-pound object with a huge power supply is so much more challenging but will probably save a fair amount of cash.   

Monitor Type

This isn’t something that first-time buyers always understand or realize but most laptops actually have poor quality monitors (They don’t even hit 1080p) and gamers want 2K or even 4K options. More so, some newer technology like HDR, glass or non-plastic screens, and G-SYNC/FreeSync all play a huge part in your decision. Most likely you will be unable to find a 4K Gaming laptop with a killer screen that also is under $5000. Those are starting to arrive though like this one here that didn’t make our current list because it’s usually out of stock. Amazing laptop. If you can actually buy it. The monitor is super important, at a minimum get FHD better known as 1080p and assume a true gaming setup like 1440p or 4K is just going to want a huge 27’’ monitor anyways.

What to look for in a screen

The best screens will offer a higher framerate (Such as 144Hz) and some sort of smoothing technology like G-Sync. Many say this is preferred to a shift in resolution but ultimately it depends on how you value things. If you want crystal clear gameplay with few jagged edges, you’ll want to consider 2K or 4K solutions but these have to be beasts of a machine for today’s demanding games. G-Sync is far easier to find on those external monitors we mentioned earlier. Some proprietary solutions like Razer have been catering to this demographic with stupid gorgeous thin machines that demand your money. 

GPU

Probably the most important aspect of your gaming laptop, the GPU is what will really dictate the quality and effectiveness of your laptop when it comes to gaming. Recently (within the last 3-4 years) laptops shifted from a confusing naming model. Companies wanted to make money by pumping out high-quality GPU products but would have a much worse mobile version that you’d find in laptops. For instance, a less powerful GPU such as the 970 would add an M designation and be the 970M. This would appear to be a top-notch GPU but underperform. This has shifted to full-quality GPU solutions in gaming laptops now but it’s important to be aware that you need to check and see if the GPU is a full quality version. Max-Q and Max-P refer to the power distribution and sometimes a Max-Q option just doesn’t cut the mustard accordingly with a bit of a downgrade. 

RTX options or equivalent

Ray-Tracing is finally hitting the primetime with newer and easier devkits coming out and mainstream titles like Minecraft using it in spades. Consider if this is something you value or want as it’s not something you can easily add later on. We didn’t put any non-RTX GPU options here because they’re the best product and you get the best bang for the buck. It’s important to make sure you have RTX capable gear though if tech like that warms your heart.  

CPU

The processor is not the most important component when gaming but it does matter, especially in some modern AAA Games like Assassins Creed. CPU products on mobile may have a similar designation as the Desktop version but are often not as powerful. This gets doubly confusing in that manufacturers offer numerous versions that don’t really say how good or bad they are. For gaming on a desktop, midtier processors like your friendly i5 are ok but we’d recommend considering an i7 or Ryzen 7 equivalent for laptop Gaming. If budget is a problem though, pour your money into the GPU. It’s near impossible to test all the different i5 and i7 variants and have a good standard for you as the consumer. We do know that a killer GPU with a decent i7 will be way faster in games than a killer CPU with an old GPU so we tend to think of the CPU as important but not the foundational part.

RAM

RAM is one of the few things that you can upgrade fairly easily in a variety of laptops. That being said, you’ll probably never need more than 16GB so look for a laptop with that amount, and then you are basically worry-free.

SSD

SSD’s are the best option for laptops. They’re not mechanical so the laptop is far more resistant to shock and won’t break as easily. They also are faster and can shave minutes of load time off of games. That being said, make sure it is larger (Preferably 1 TB). Most SSD combos with laptops are tiny and might be as small as 240GB. This isn’t for gaming. That’s for office work. You’ll fill up 80GB with windows and might not even be able to install ARK: Survival Evolved. It’s just a terrible thing to be hamstrung that way. These can be changed depending on the laptop with minimal effort but you’ll definitely want an SSD and perhaps if you need to compromise a larger storage HDD.

Cooling

Laptops can get pretty hot, especially during a round of Apex. To prevent this, all laptops have some sort of cooling and some have unique solutions designed for a gaming laptop. Poor design or placing your laptop on the wrong materials may cause permanent harm to the laptop or just make games slow-down (As heat increases, some parts perform at a lower speed to limit heat). This can be solved with a laptop docking station or cooling pad but a good google search and some fan care goes a long way. If you get a gaming laptop, make sure to test it in some situations that make it spicy hot. That’ll help you adopt a strategy for dealing with high temps and whatnot.  

F.A.Q.

What about a Macbook?

Macbooks, love them or hate them, are probably the best mobile answer for multimedia design and editing. They are sturdy, they are absolutely dependable, and they will fail you as a gaming platform. While OSX can run more games than ever before, it’s still just not favored as a platform and far more expensive. If you MUST use this laptop for work and keep it for years to come, and gaming is secondary, perhaps pursue it. But if you want the best gaming experience, Windows is your homeboy. Also did you read this article? The Dell XPS 17 is gunning for Apple’s market and the jury seems pretty sold on it being a legitimate possibility.   

What if I want to change my GPU or CPU out?

Good luck… Laptops aren’t designed for that currently. There are a couple of weird solutions like an external GPU cage (Razer sold those at one point) but realistically, what you buy is what you get. You’ll be stuck, so if you don’t like it, all that cost is sunk cost. If the difference is $100-$200 between your dream laptop and compromising, it is usually better to earn that extra dosh and wait. That’s because you’ll probably be stuck with what you buy for the next 4-5 years.

Finally, Read reviews!

Desktop PC’s rarely have issues comparable to laptops because they usually a bunch of parts put together, stamped with a brand like Dell, and sent to market. Laptops are designed often in-house and are pretty proprietary still. That means a manufacturer may release a laptop with a glaring flaw or issue and it’ll manifest itself in the whole product line. You don’t need to read every one-star review and believe it represents the product but make sure to read a couple and look for patterns. Did they all have fan failure? Did they all see the battery burst into flames (This has actually happened regularly with some builds), does the monitor frequently go black? The community is often great at discovering these flaws and helping you make an informed case. Just don’t get too picky. There is always someone who broke it somehow and wants the company to pay. There are also sometimes old reviews that only represent an old problem since fixed by hardware or software updates to the models available on the market. Research away and use your wits! We aren’t trying to pull wool over your eyes at World’s Best Gaming which is why we don’t claim to have blown loads of dosh on these laptops and test-drove them ourselves. We do though put in hours or research and know the market to the degree that you can be comfortable. This year, I’ve personally built 7 desktops with a variety of Ryzen, RTX, GTX, Intel parts and need to know the best, the cheapest, and the most important combinations. So we can look at a laptop and know “Ahh, that’s a sweet build!” What we can’t always know is how a laptop really will perform when thousands of them are released and there is a flaw or two like Dell’s exploding batteries. I can exclaim though that OMRAN keyboards rock and so that AORUS 17X is trying to take my money like Gabe Newell during a steam sale. 

Thank you for joining us at WBG!

Buying a new laptop is pretty thrilling but having it arrive and weigh 16 pounds with a 3-hour battery life can put a damper on that enthusiasm. Some laptops are so bulky and die so quickly, they quickly get turned into poorly designed desktop computers. We picked winners and know that our choices won’t make you feel that way. Remember, it’s the GPU that makes or breaks your system and probably next the weight. You’ll do fine if you follow our tech guide! As always, thanks for checking out content at WBG and keep coming back for more articles on all things PC Gaming