6 Cheap gaming laptops: A gaming laptop can be an interesting purchase for several reasons. You can choose to play your favorite games in different places. For example in your study or office, but also at the kitchen table or together with or with friends. A gaming notebook is not only a smart choice if you want to game. They are often a lot more powerful than the models that are not intended for this market and most models are also slightly easier to upgrade than the thinner and lighter models. This article will include Lenovo Legion Y540-15IRH, Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3i, HP Pavilion G 15-dk1955nd, Lenovo Legion 515ARH05, Acer Nitro 5 AN515-43-R84P, and ASUS TUF Gaming FX505DT-BQ613T.
They are certainly heavier. The models in this comparison of 6 Cheap gaming laptops have a 15-inch screen and weigh well over two kilos. In our comparison of 400-600 euros, we came across a less potent Huawei Matebook D with Ryzen CPU with the same screen size and weighing barely more than one and a half kilos.
Nvidia, not AMD
Nvidia is still the main supplier in the notebook market. We hardly come across laptops with a GPU from AMD’s stable. In the CPU market AMD is doing better, half of the tested models in this test have a Ryzen on board.
It is also noticeable that you do not always receive the latest technology. Some models still have a processor from the ninth generation from Intel on board and we also encounter a Ryzen 7 3750H and 5 3550H.
What stands out?
When looking at the results of these models, it is striking: the storage is small. In practice, you will soon be short of the 512 or even 256 GB large SSDs of the test models, and the quality of the screens is also disappointing.
Gaming benchmarks
Below is a selection of our game tests: If you want to browse more deeply through the tests, check out this table. You can see that 60 fps is almost achieved in the fairly heavy GTA V full hd test.
Far Cry 5 1920X1080 Ultra
Model Name | Fps |
Lenovo Legion Y540-15IRH | 57 |
Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3i | 56 |
HP Pavillion G 15-dk1955nd | 56 |
Lenovo Legion 515ARH05 | 55 |
Acer Nitro 5 AN515-43-R84P | 52 |
ASUS TUF Gaming FX505DT-BQ613T | 45 |
GTA V 1920X1080 Ultra
Model Name | Fps |
HP Pavillion G 15-dk1955nd | 56.8 |
Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3i | 56 |
Lenovo Legion Y540-15IRH | 54.2 |
Lenovo Legion 515ARH05 | 53.6 |
Acer Nitro 5 AN515-43-R84P | 50 |
ASUS TUF Gaming FX505DT-BQ613T | 45.3 |
Processor benchmarks
Below you can see a selection from our processor tests. If you want to browse more deeply through the tests, check out this table. The Lenovo Legion 5 15ARH05 (82B5007BMH) with Ryzen 5 4600H is clearly the fastest.
Cinebench R15 Multi
Model Name | Fps |
Lenovo Legion 515ARH05 | 57 |
Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3i | 56 |
HP Pavillion G 15-dk1955nd | 56 |
Acer Nitro 5 AN515-43-R84P | 55 |
ASUS TUF Gaming FX505DT-BQ613T | 52 |
Lenovo Legion Y540-15IRH | 45 |
Cinebench R15 Single
Model Name | Fps |
Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3i | 206 |
HP Pavillion G 15-dk1955nd | 187 |
Lenovo Legion 515ARH05 | 177 |
Lenovo Legion Y540-15IRH | 169 |
Acer Nitro 5 AN515-43-R84P | 145 |
ASUS TUF Gaming FX505DT-BQ613T | 131 |
Choosing among 6 Cheap gaming laptops
The cheapest: Asus TUF Gaming FX505DT-BQ163T: 699 euros
The cheapest in this test is this ASUS TUF Gaming FX505DT-BQ163T. It is a laptop equipped with a Ryzen 7 3750H. That is an older quad-core from AMD. In this laptop, the processor is combined with 8 GB of memory and a 512 GB Micron SSD. The 15.6-inch screen is Full HD and uses IPS.
The sRGB coverage of this 60Hz screen is only 65.7% and the color and gray deviation is quite large. It is not a top quality screen. The advantage of this laptop is that the memory is easy to expand and that also applies to the storage. Connector and bracket for a 2.5 inch drive are built-in. A GeForce GTX 1650 with 4 GB of memory provides the gaming performance. It’s cheap, but not the fastest. You can achieve 45 fps in GTA V, full HD ultra. The HP Pavilion G 15-dk1955nd achieves nearly 60 fps. If you go to medium, this ASUS will do.
Read about specifaction and price in your region at Amazon from here.
The fastest gaming performance: HP Pavilion G 15-dk1955nd: 829 euros and Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3i (81Y40043MH) 999 euros
This HP has a modern Intel Core i5 on board and knows how to get the best game performance. He is the fastest in most tests, although the difference is sometimes small. When you talk about gaming laptops, this is of course one of the most important points to pay attention to. You will find, like most other models that we have tested: 8 GB of RAM in this device. The storage is only 256 GB. That is very little. Fortunately, you can easily add a 2.5 inch drive.
HP has placed a dummy, which you can remove and replace with an SSD or hard drive. There is also room for an extra slice of memory. For the money, the performance is not disappointing: GTA V in full hd, ultra reaches just under 60 fps. Also here no top screen, color deviations and color volume are disappointing. If processor performance is important to you, you can also consider this Lenovo with AMD Ryzen 5 4600H on board. This Lenovo costs twenty euros more than this HP. However, the differences are only minor. It is also noticeable that the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3i (81Y40043MH) in GTA V Full HD medium is much faster than the HP, which also applies to Rise of the Tombraider Full HD Medium.
Read about specification and price here.
Long battery life: Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3i (81Y40043MH): 999 euros
This Lenovo proves that gaming laptops and battery life can go together. You can browse with it for almost seven hours without having to charge it. That is no disappointment. The basis is a tenth generation Intel Core i7 and a 512 GB SSD. A plus is the 16 GB large memory. You will find an extra m.2 slot under the 2.5 inch installation space. The WiFi comes from a WiFi 6 card from Intel.
Read more about specification of Lenovo IdeaPad here.