An inexpensive gaming laptop is a concept that does not have clear and clearly defined boundaries, because any seller in the store who is more or less interested in their benefits will say that you have the most gaming laptop in front of you, if that will affect your decision to purchase. Such things happen all the time, so the theoretical aspect should not be discounted, so as not to be in the place of such an unlucky buyer.
So, let's try to figure out how to choose an inexpensive gaming laptop and what, in fact, it is. The article will take into account the opinions of experts and reviews of ordinary owners of these devices.
First, let's analyze the main technical and price parameters that characterize the concept of a gaming laptop.
Price
The most inexpensive gaming laptop cannot cost less than 40 thousand rubles. In 90 cases out of 100, such a device is suitable for modern games exclusively at low settings. To take something cheaper than this bar simply does not make sense: the task is simple - to play modern games, and those gadgets that cost 30, 20 or even 15 thousand will be suitable for office work and toys of three or five years ago.
Cheaper models, perhaps, have a good processor and a set of RAM, but they are probably endowed with a mediocre video card or a slow hard drive. This also includes such important indicators as the type of matrix on the screen, pixel density - that is, everything that makes the game pastime better and better.
Of course, someone can object and exclaim that for 40 thousand rubles you can collect such a stationary unit that will run and fly both along and across all the most top games - and will be completely right. But the task is different - to buy a good inexpensive gaming laptop, but you won’t put a stationary computer in a bag, you won’t take it to another corner in one minute, and you won’t use it in nature.
So, the first and one of the most important points for choosing an inexpensive, but still gaming laptop - the price is not less than 40 thousand rubles.
CPU
Gaming laptop is inexpensive, but powerful, it should not be on processors such as "Atom", "Celeron", "Pentium" or "Kore" i3-XXXX. The same applies to AMD models with a lower limit based on A10. It is also worth noting the presence of new technologies like ULV processors, which are widely used in premium models of ultrabooks: they are designed for larger laptops.
These types of chips can be easily identified by the latest letter U at the end of the technical index of the device, for example, Intel Core i7-4800U. Such processors cannot be called “weak”, and an inexpensive gaming laptop with such a chip will certainly please you.
RAM
This is clearly not a gaming device if it has less than 8 gigabytes of RAM on board. Only 4 or even 2 GB have very mediocre and office "hard workers." Gaming applications have always been considered the engine of progress in the computer world, and therefore their hardware requirements are so high. The type of RAM is only DDR3 or DDR4 with a frequency of at least 1600 MHz - the rest is not worth your attention.
Video card
An inexpensive gaming laptop must be equipped with a discrete graphics card, and not lower than the GeForce 670M from NVIDIA or a similar one from AMD like the "Radeon 8870M." As an alternative, you can consider SLI or CrossFire technology with support for two more or less powerful cards, but this is rarely found in laptops.
Naturally, it should be borne in mind that the technical characteristics of desktop video cards and mobile graphics accelerators are not identical, so the comparison "directly" is inappropriate here. But, on the other hand, laptops simply do not have such a chic assortment of video accelerators as their "older" brothers, so you won’t have to rack your brains over this or that choice.
Display
An inexpensive gaming laptop cannot have a resolution of less than 1366 by 768 pixels. Even such an outdated format is almost impossible to meet today. The low resolution, of course, unloads the graphics accelerator, but the pleasure of games in this case is reduced by an order of magnitude.
As for the matrix, in the case of expensive models, you can focus on versions with a TN-scan - it is often bundled with an inexpensive gaming laptop. Reviews of the TN-matrix, of course, are not always positive, but nevertheless the premium models have very good color rendition and good viewing angles, and the response time is shorter than that of the IPS-scan, which affects the processing of dynamic scenes.
Dimensions
Before you is clearly not a gaming laptop, if it is thin and lightweight - an exception is a few units, but they cost a lot of money. Everything that is useful, powerful and nimble that is “crammed” into a gaming laptop simply cannot weigh a little and have modest dimensions, so keep this in mind when you weigh the device on your hand and evaluate its “thinness”.
So, we denote the most distinguished models in terms of price and quality, which are worth paying attention to. They can rightly be called good gaming laptops.
MSI GE40 2OC Dragon Eyes
The Dragon Eye model is one of the smallest gaming laptops. The device has a diagonal of only 14 inches, which automatically makes the laptop a black sheep among 15 and 17-inch gadgets. Of course, from the point of view of comfort and gaming preferences, I would like a diagonal and more, but for travel and other frequent movements, this model is perfect. This includes a relatively small weight - about 2 kg - and the dimensions corresponding to the display.
This model can be called an "entry level" igrobuk, but not in terms of evaluation by sellers and marketers, but in terms of FPS in games. Experts clarify that the “Dragon Eye” lags behind the top models by about 5-7 FPS (with an average picture of 40 fps).
There are several modifications on sale: a version with one standard laptop hard drive for 40-45 thousand rubles and with an enhanced “raid” on two high-speed SSD-type drives, but already 10 thousand more. The model has an optimal resolution for its diagonal of 1600 by 900 pixels, although a Full HD scan would clearly not hurt, since the screen is not touch-sensitive, and the device can afford it.
Acer aspire v3
Eiser is not often found among powerful gaming machines, but with a powerful discrete solution from NVIDIA represented by the GTX 760M, it rightfully takes its place in the segment. The model has similar performance with the previous participant, but with significant differences - the screen of the new Aspire is equipped with 17-inch characteristics and Full HD resolution. All in the same comparison with the “Dragon Eye”, the V3 turned out to be noticeably heavier (3.2 kg) and slightly thicker (35 mm).
The laptop case is made mainly of aluminum, and only the bottom has a plastic base. The filling also inspires confidence: a high-speed 256 GB SSD complete with an HDD-terrabyte and 16 GB of RAM on board. All this pleasure costs about 50 thousand rubles, but, as an option, you can find it cheaper, for example, with an ordinary HDD or with a reduced amount of RAM. Experts, however, advise you to purchase a basic model without any reduction factors.