First – GPU!
Games are all about awesome graphics. The more they look real, the better the gaming experience.
Nonetheless, this kind of graphics requires some good processing power. This is why, if you want to buy a laptop for gaming, you need to choose one that has a dedicated graphic card.
If you get one with integrated graphics, it will eat up from the power of the main processor, so your games will slow down and possible refuse to run. Dedicated graphic cards are a bit more pricey, but they are worth every penny, so try to make and effort in this direction.
Cards that are currently worth considering are : GeForce GTX 850, GeForce GTX 860, GeForce GTX 870, GeForce GTX 880, GeForce GTX 950, GeForce GTX 960, GeForce GTX 970, GeForce GTX 980 and last but not list AMD Radeon R9
Second – CPU
The CPU has a direct influence on the way all programs on your laptop run, games included. In order to have a good gaming experience, you need at least an i5.
If your budget allows, I would suggest you get an i7. Speaking about dual core versus quad core, you might be fine with a dual core processor, but there will be games that will frustrate you, as they require four cores to run smoothly.
Besides, if you think your computer needs to run other programs in the background as well, you can see that it makes sense to get a quad core from the very beginning. This is how you can ensure the running of all processes without taking from the gaming power of your laptop.
Gaming is about speed. If a game doesn’t move smoothly, you are going to be very frustrated and wish you have never played at all.
As the prices go down constantly in this industry, it is perhaps better to wait a little longer and get a quad core instead of going for the dual core and not be able to enjoy your games to the full.
Right now to enjoy best gaming experience on laptops only processors worth getting are Intel Quad core i7 you can also think abut AMD A10 and i5 but if you can get i7 go for it.
RAM Is Also Important
Luckily, RAM got quite cheap lately, so you surely can afford the minimum recommended 8 GB RAM for a gaming laptop.
While this would suffice for most games on the market, you should consider getting 16 GB RAM, which may be required to play games coming next couple years.
Fortunately in most laptop you can add more ram or replace existing one whit bigger one in a future so this is not a big problem.
Some Other Considerations
The processing power is important, but there are also other things you need to take into account before making your purchase. For instance, you need to decide whether you want to use your laptop with an external monitor.
In this case, if you already have the monitor, check what kind of connection it has, so that you can buy a laptop that has the same type of plug. If you buy your monitor too, my advice is go get an HDMI connection, because it offers a very good image quality, even if you decide to connect your flat TV to your computer for watching movies or playing games.
Although you can plug in all sorts of extenders and multipliers, it’s good to consider from the start how many USB ports you need. I would get three, as I like to use a mouse and an external keyboard and I want one port free for charging my phone.
Moreover, I would make sure one of these is USB 3.0, because I also have an external hard drive which is USB 3.0 and I want to take advantage of that.
Last but not least, it is wise to prepare a little for the future when you buy your gaming laptop. New games appear every year, requiring more and more power, so it’s better to be prepared, so that you don’t have to buy a new laptop every two years or so.
Check out some of our Recommended Gaming Laptops
We have put together the following lists based on the best performed gaming laptops in the following price brackets: