Gaming experience is very pleasurable for the hard core gamers and even occasional gamers spends hours on gaming with friends and also want to play without friends on frequently basis. It may be easy decision for a regular gamer to buy a most suitable gaming laptop within the budget while knowing the specifications required for playing favorite games. But, an occasional gamer have to make online research and go through couple of articles to get the basic idea.
We are going to share a list of best gaming laptops under 1200 dollars which are capable of running all latest games at ultra settings, on 1080p resolution while maintaining higher than 60 FPS. Most of the laptops in the list are even available under 1000 dollars. We will also share the gaming benchmark of each laptop, so you can make a buying decision accordingly.
Acer Nitro 5
Acer Nitro 5 is one of the most successful gaming laptops which earned good reputation for Acer’s brand. Its display performance delivers pleasurable gaming experience and player lives in the game. Its 15.6” Full HD screen and 144Hz refresh rate produces vivid image quality; screen seems very rich and vibrant.
Its graphic side is powered by NVIDIA GTX 1650 Ti card which can run a game like “Red Dead Redemption 2” on ultra settings. Acer Nitro 5 is also powerful for upcoming games and the only compromise would be playing them on medium / high settings instead of Ultra settings.
Its 8GB RAM decently handles the temporary memory of these games and allows smooth gaming experience. Hardly any game requires 16GB of RAM, then why should go for extra RAM slot. Furthermore, this amount of RAM is very capable of handling you’re multitasking and can easily perform daily routine tasks from streaming to word-processing.
Acer Nitro 5 gets its processing power from 10th Gen Intel Core i5-10300H which meets higher benchmarks for smoothly running high-end software like “PhotoShop” and “Adobe Premiere Elements”, Intel Core i5-10300H quickly processed all photo-editing and video-editing related data. You must know that these two activities consumes highest amount of processing speed.
You may not find its 256GB SSD enough for storing personal, gaming and work data. If this is the case can plug-in 1TB HDD because its slot is provided to add up the internal capacity.
This laptop provides wide range of connectivity options, including one USB 3.2 Type-C Gen 2 ( 10Gbps ), one USB 3.2 Gen 2, two USB 3.2 and one HDMI port. All is well when any laptop offers Type-C port and Acer Nitro 5 does.
ASUS TUF Gaming Laptop
Asus and Acer are fastest growing brands in laptop industry and offering good value for money in order to compete with the bigger brands like HP and Dell. Asus launched this laptop to aggressively capture market and introduced such a power laptop.
Its 15.6” Full HD display looks more amazing with 6.5mm narrow bezels which improve the viewing experience and user does not distract from the screen. Its 1080p resolution allows playing the game on 1080p and enjoying more pixel density. The image quality is way better on 1080p resolution and graphics looks more realistic.
This laptop offers AMD Radeon Rx 560X graphic card which is powerful enough to run all these games at ultra settings like “Assassin Creed Valhalla”, “Red Dead Redemption 2”, “Marvel’s Avenger”, “Forza Horizon 5” and many more. There are no as such overheating issues with this GPU and successfully running the game while maintaining the temperature.
A smooth gaming experience is also depended upon powerful processor which you also get on this laptop. Its AMD Ryzen 5 3550H processor can perform many functions better than the GPU to improve the gaming experience, such as AI functionality of your opponent. Overall, FPS and Adventures games requires more Cores & Threads of the processor and AMD Ryzen 5 3550H offers 4 Cores and 8 Threads.
You can perform multi-tasking by fully utilizing its 8GB RAM on laptop. All these hardware GPU, CPU and RAM are highly consistent with each other and capable of achieving optimal performance, no hardware will be under-utilized.
Hard core gamer is most likely extend the storage capacity on this laptop, because originally offering only 256GB SSD. This laptop has a 256GB PCIe NVME SSD.
Its connectivity options are MicroSD card slot, USB Type-A and Type-C. A user can easily connect with the laptop through these sources for data transferring.
This laptop makes no compromises on even single specification and a good choice among all gaming laptops available under 1200 dollars.
ASUS TUF FX706LI Gaming Laptop
Only One thing can make big difference on gaming laptop, its bigger screen size. High frame rates and large screens multiplies the gaming experience and gamer can actually enjoy the game as it is supposed to be. This laptop has 17.3” screen plus 144Hz FHD Display which hard core gamer can dream of in this price range. Its Screen resolution 1920 x 1080 also lets you to watch all Netflix content on 1080p resolution as meant to be.
Its Quad-Core i5-10300H processor can be a decent solution for processing most complex data on photo-editing and video-editing software. You can also perform high-end video editing projects on this laptop, one of the most heavy duties tasks. The maximum clock speed requires by the latest games is around 4.0 GHz, its maximum speed is up to 4.5 GHz.
This gaming laptop takes its graphic-side processing power from NVIDIA GTX 1650 Ti 4GB GDDR6, powerful enough to run all upcoming games by 2023 on higher frame rates. This card delivers extraordinary performance and do not require the user to buy expensive cooling fans and a standard one will do a lot.
This machine has 8GB RAM which is pretty much compatible with Processor and GPU, stores all temporary memory and do not let both hardware having too much burden of gaming data for processing which is frequently repeating over the time. User can also upgrade the RAM from 8GB to 16GB for better performance, extra slots are provided.
A user who is not used to be storing junky data will find its 512GB SSD more than enough to store gaming and personal data. SSD performs better in retrieving the data for the user and improves the user experience for a gamer.
In the list of laptops available under 1200 dollars, this one is going to be better choice considering its 17.3” screen size and 144 Hz refresh rate. Furthermore, Processor and GPU both are powerful enough to run games like “Red Dead Redemption” at high settings.
MSI GL65 Gaming Laptop
MSI is recognized as leading brand in Gaming Laptops, they specifically target this niche to strategically compete with other laptop’s brands like Dell, HP, Apple and others which having ten to twenty times more business capital than MSI.
MSI built this laptop to aggressively target the market of gaming laptop and offered amazing features in this price range.
This gaming laptop has 16GB RAM which stores all the game related data to get accessed on immediate basis without choppy frame rates and overall poor performance. No need to upgrade the RAM for better gaming performance on this laptop in future. The most heaviest duty task on laptop can be performed is high-end Video Editing which requires 16GB RAM, now one can have idea the power of this much RAM.
This gaming laptop has a processor which other brands offers in its expensive laptops, Intel Core i5-10300H can achieve processing speed up to 4.5 GHz which only required for performing heavier duty tasks. Mostly latest games do not even require more than 4.0 GHz processing speed.
They offered you NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 graphic card which meets impressive benchmarks and fulfilling the demand of all games which are GPU intensive. This card can run all your games on high settings and even upcoming games but not all.
Its 15.6” screen is neither too big nor too small, but should be enough for enjoying the high-end graphics and intensity of gameplay. Its Full HD display and 1080p resolution is all a gamer expects to have a better display performance.
They introduced “Cool and Powerful”technology which maintains the temperature of the system, so that it works smoothly and achieve full efficiency. This technology features 2 Fans and 6 heat pipes, which gets the airflow out and even CPU running on maximum does not get the system overheated.
MSI is already leading in gaming laptop niche and launching this one to remain a leader. Having NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650, Intel Core i5-10300H and 16GB RAM by paying less than 1200 dollars is an amazing deal.
Lenovo Legion 5 15 Gaming
Lenovo designed this gaming laptop for all the games will be released till 2024 and still available under $1200 price. This laptop does not compromise in any area and meets all intensive requirements of latest games.
GPU plays most critical role in optimized graphic performance; they chose NVIDIA RTX 3050Ti which categorized as high-range card used for rendering ultra quality graphics. In the benchmark test, it was running all latest games at Ultra settings on 1080p resolution while maintaining the high FPS.
Its AMD Ryzen 7 5800H helps in achieving best performance in data processing without creating heating issues. Its 8 cores divide the each type of data for processing and helps in achieving highest efficiency without system go slow. These 8 cores can process most complex data and perform all heavier duties like video editing and game development.
You get 16GB DDR4 RAM which mostly users do not find on laptop in this price range. Multi-tasking is not an issue at all and going to run even more than five applications simultaneously without lagging issue.
Its 15.6” Full HD display and 1080p resolution is not going to dramatically boost viewing experience for the gamers and they will enjoy it as supposed to be. Its display delivers full color clarity for full-fidelity gaming. Furthermore, its thin bezels are going to distract you from the screen which further improves gaming experience.
Lenovo Legion 5 15 is a gaming laptop available under 1200 dollars without compromising on specifications. You can only expect 16GB RAM on a gaming laptop which should be more three to five hundred dollars more expensive. They introduced NVIDIA RTX 3050Ti graphic card which have become a choice of hard core gamers. Lenovo launched this machine to successfully target this niche which demands value for money.
Dell G15 Gaming Laptop
High refresh rate is critical for competitive gaming experience and get more refined images. Dell G15 gaming laptop offers 120Hz display which is good for super-fast online games like PUBG, Overwatch, Doom Eternal, Dirt 5 and other fast-paced games. Its 15.6” Full HD screen is also good for enjoying Netflix and YouTube streaming.
Its processor Intel Core i5-10500H is supported by 6 Cores which achieves maximum processing speed up to 4.5 GHz. Mostly latest games do not require higher than 4.0 GHz and It is also capable of smoothly running all upcoming games. Core i5-10500H impressively meets the all gaming benchmarks and also good at processing other type of complex data such as photo-editing and video-editing which are considered as heavy duty tasks.
Its 16GB RAM is powerful enough to store all temporary data on its storage to reduce the burden on processor and overall improves the system efficiency. You will get best gaming performance on this laptop by fully utilizing its 16GB RAM.
A gaming laptop must be having ample storage capacity to store all big sized games in its internal storage instead of buying external storages. This laptop comes with 1 TB SSD which can let you store all your games in same hard drive.
This is going to be highly user-friendly laptop taking its connectivity options such as 1 USB 3.2 Gen, 2 USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, 1 Type-C USB 3.2 Gen 2 Thunderbolt 3 port. Furthermore, this laptop also offers Wi-Fi 6, HDMI and Bluetooth.
Overall, this gaming laptop is very good choice available under 1200 dollars which offering powerful hardware and best display performance. This machine can run all latest games at Ultra / High settings on 1080p resolution without compromising FPS.
The Role of Every Specification In Better Gaming Experience ?
We will discuss the role of each and every specification in order to improve gaming experience.
GPU
Graphic Card is the most crucial component of a gaming system and even plays more critical role than CPU. Though, all these components / hardware requires the coordination of other components to achieve own highest efficiency. GPU is mainly responsible for producing and rendering the graphics in the form of images, video and animation. It performs the all calculations on graphics side as only capable hardware.
All latest games require more powerful GPU to produce realistic graphics and gameplay. But, CPU is responsible for other types of tasks and nothing to do with graphics.
NVIDIA GTX 1650 Ti or AMD Radeon Rx 560X are the best graphic cards, you can get on a laptop under 1200 dollars.
CPU
CPU is critical for its own given tasks which GPU cannot perform. CPU is responsible for processing the Artificial Intelligence, environment and simulations. For Instance, Cities Skylines, Civilization 6, Total War and Far Cry 5 are highly CPU intensive games. These are the types of games which have more gaming data to process to proceed in the game. For Example, when the cities starts growing in the game “Cities Skylines”, it puts more strain on the processor.
RAM
RAM also have its important role in better gaming experience, but extraordinary faster RAM is not going to make any useful difference. RAM stores the most repeated gaming data on its storage and CPU can easily access it from RAM, instead of constantly pulling it from internal storage which is highly inefficient.
If you get appropriate amount of RAM for gaming, will not suffer from choppy frame rates and overall bad gaming experience. Furthermore, faster RAM also loads the game quickly and no need to wait for couple of minutes.
A laptop available under 1200 dollars must be having minimum 8GB RAM. There are highly competitive gaming laptops available in market offering 16GB RAM in same price tag.
SSDs
The only role of SDDs in better gaming experience takes less time in game loading. The average data transfer speed of SSD is 400 Mbps, whereas HDD only have 170 Mbps. Furthermore, SSD is also better than HDD in open world games, because these games require more pulling of data from storage to maintain the gameplay. It is recommended to go for SSD and not HDD if already having low RAM.
You should be expecting SSD over HDD on a gaming laptop under 1200 dollars.
Refresh Rate
Higher refresh rate have substantial impact on the gaming experience, especially in specific genre of games First-Person-Shooting, Adventure and Racing. A buyer has to read from the description about refresh rate. The monitor screens are available in four different refresh rates 60Hz, 120Hz, 144Hz and 240Hz. A laptop’s monitor screen offering 240Hz refreshes the displayed image 240 times per second, whereas 60Hz monitor only refreshes the displayed image 60 times per second.
