Gaming becomes more popular every year and the stay-at-home orders surrounding the pandemic brought an entirely new group of gamers into the past time. In fact, a study by USAToday found that 2/3 of Americans played video games during the pandemic; many saying it helped relieve stress. Children also used video games to break up the boredom as sports, play dates, and even school took away their social outlets. Seven billion players enjoy video games (35% of the world’s population), with Asia representing the largest market. And, the US wasn’t alone in its obsession with video games and esports, according to Statista, with Latin American leading a surge. So, if you’re new to gaming or know an avid gamer looking for a new computer that delivers the power to keep up with today’s popular games, then we have what you need. Gaming laptops are relatively expensive, but you don’t have to break the bank to own a good device that makes your gaming more enjoyable. Here’s a review of the five best AMD laptops for gaming to keep your wallet happy and still give you great performance on games like Fortnite or Overwatch. Which of these 5 AMD laptops for gaming will work best for your budget? Check out what we found below*:
The gaming industry
Big changes are afoot in the gaming industry, probably a function of the massive growth in players and the amount of time spent on various gaming platforms. At Shenandoah University, where I have my real job, we offer several majors and minors, as well as certificates, in eSports fueled by increased demand for coaches and game organizers. We also have an eSports team that competes in several games. High schools, not to be left out, are starting their own competitive eSports teams. Of course, the growing gaming trend is led by millennials and Gen Z, while women are starting to find a home in the industry.
There are video games for every taste and many players enjoy a few different platforms. Common categories of video games include:
- Strategy
- Sports
- Simulations
- Roleplaying
- Action
- Idle
Video games today are far more interactive and include realistic characters unlike games of old, such as Pong and Frogger. It’s this enhanced graphic design in today’s games that requires something more than your work laptop. Specifically, you need a graphics card able to produce 3D graphics using 64-bit, in contrast to older games built on 8-bit cards that only displayed 256 colors. These graphics cards provide improved rendering and faster speeds than old graphics cards.
In addition to enhanced graphics, today’s video games use actors to produce realistic actions that mimic the way people move and voice actors to embody the characters. As a side note, this is how my actor made money during the pandemic when studios were shut down.
And, instead of games running on specific gaming platforms, such as the Nintendo 64 (for 64-bit graphics), many of today’s hottest games are housed in the cloud and run on your laptop so you’re not tied to a specific gaming console or waiting for popular games to adapt to your chosen console.
I hope this brief discussion of the capabilities needed to run and enjoy today’s gaming helps you understand what you’re looking for in a gaming computer. Read on to discover the 6 best AMD laptops we found for gaming.
1. Dell Alienware AW17R3-7004SLV-PUS
Lenovo did a lot of work with gaming laptops, and the new Lenovo Y50 is a great example of the power they bring to gaming in recent years. This laptop packs in a GTX 860M 4GB GPU for great graphics performance, a full 1080p display powered by an NVidia graphics card, and a nice i7 4700 HQ CPU. That means you get great performance and video quality in the same device. All this in a slim 17″ chassis makes it one of the best AMD laptops gaming for under $1000.
2. Asus G750JX-DB72
This is arguably one of the most feature-rich desktop replacement (gaming) laptops that you can buy right now for around the $1K mark. This laptop features all bells and whistles you expect from a gaming computer. You have a powerful 3D Optimus NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M GPU with 4GB GDDR5 VRAM powering the 17-inch 1080p display to provide video quality and speed. All this and comes with up to 32GB RAM that you can expand via two free DIMM slots if you need more capacity. The laptop features a 1TB HDD along with 128 GB M.2 SSD for super-fast storage speeds and an amazing backlit keyboard for those late-night gaming sessions.
3. MSI GE62 Apache Pro-003
MSI offers one of the best value packages in the market right now when it comes to the performance per dollar ratio. Their products are known for their affordability but offer great hardware specifications, so you get a decent amount of hardware without breaking your bank account. MSI GE62 is powered by Intel Core i7 6700 HQ (2.6-3.5GHz), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M 2GB DDR5, 8GB DDR4 RAM and 1TB HDD + 128GB SSD.
4. Lenovo Y510p 80NV00W3US
Lenovo was quick to refresh their laptop line up with the latest hardware to keep up with the competition, and this new model is a very capable gaming machine that can run just about any game at 1080p resolution on high settings without breaking a sweat, thanks to its powerful 1TB Hybrid Hard Drive storage and 16Gb of DDR3L memory. It also features an Intel Core i7 processor for better graphics than the previous Y500 model, as well as USB 3.0 ports for faster file transfers/boot times.
5. The Razer Blade Pro
The Razer Blade Pro is the only laptop on the market designed for PC gamers, allowing them to take their gaming experience with them. This gaming laptop has an incredibly thin 17mm form factor that allows it to be brought anywhere and everywhere but still packs in some of the most impressive hardware available today. The main downside to owning a Razer Blade Pro is its price tag, which starts at $3,700 and goes up depending on your choice of components.
6. MSI GE62 2QD Apache
MSI GE62 is a great laptop if you are looking for something that combines power and portability into one machine. It features an i7 processor, 8Gb of RAM, 1TB HDD + 128GB SSD, NVIDIA GTX 960M 4GB DDR5 GPU and 15.6 inch anti-glare full HD display (1920 x 1080) with beautiful widescreen aspect ratio for gorgeous visuals.
Conclusion
So, for my money, these are the best AMD laptops for gaming. So which AMD laptop is right for you? Hopefully, this list helped to make your decision easier as each one caters to a different audience depending on their need and budget constraints. As far as price goes, they all fall under $1000, with most of them coming under the $900 mark, except for the Razor Blade Pro.
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*Note, I was not compensated for this review.
