Latest from PC Gamer in Gaming-laptops

Name: Upscaled gaming performance
Creator: PC Gamer

Asus ProArt P16 (H7607) RTX Spark laptop review

dave.james@futurenet.com (Dave James) — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 16:08:45 +0000

If you don't talk to me about the price, I will tell you the Asus ProArt P16 is an unbelievably good gaming laptop. It is beautifully slim, runs incredibly well gaming on battery, and has an absolutely stunning 16-inch OLED screen. And its Arm-based SoC is almost entirely transparent when it comes to running pretty much anything on Windows 11.

But this is no mere Snapdragon device, this the RTX Spark; Nvidia's first foray into the world of full Windows SoCs. It's pairing a relatively beefy RTX Blackwell GPU with a whole bunch of Arm CPU cores, and doing so with lots and lots and lots of LPDDR5X memory. Y'know, for AI.

Which, er, is why you might not want to ask about that price. Memory's expensive, and these RTX Spark laptops—of which the Asus ProArt P16 is, in my opinion, the most desirable—are likewise brutally priced. I have the 64 GB version, with the top Nvidia N1X SoC inside it, and it will set you back $4,400.

It is that price both for AI and because of AI, and is being sold as the 'One PC' that can do everything. It can game, it can run creative apps, and it can slam through local AI workloads like no other laptop before. But where you're probably expecting me to trot out the old 'jack of all trades, master of none' line here, that's not really the case. There are tradeoffs, sure, but it's really, really good at the lot. And did I mention it was pretty?

The real question here, however, is whether a PC gamer ought to be considering this machine for their next laptop. And if it's just to play games on, this would not be my first choice, however good a device I think it is. The performance, for an Arm-powered laptop, is impressive in terms of the experience, but not faultless. While Microsoft is working hard on Prism and opening up support for every anti-cheat software going, it is not complete. And checking against my back-of-the-napkin list of the 15 biggest PC games around right now you're looking at around half of them not being playable. Yet.

Buy if...

✅ You're a creator or local AI head who games on the side: If you're after an almost workstation style thin and light machine, but also want to play after dark, the ProArt P16 will cover all bases

Don't buy if...

❌ You just want a gaming laptop: There are other thin and light gaming machines that will cost a fraction of what this does, but perform as well in-game.

❌ You have to ask the price: These are machines for the very well-off PC user.

Asus ProArt P16 - Features

CPU	Nvidia RTX Spark N1X
Cores	20 total (10 Arm Cortex-X925 + 10 Arm Cortex-A725)
GPU	Nvidia Blackwell RTX
Cores	6144 CUDA cores
Memory	64 GB LPDDR5X RAM
Storage	1 TB NVMe M.2 SSD
Screen	16-inch 3K OLED 100% DCI-P3 120 Hz Touchscreen
OS	Microsoft Windows 11 Home 64-bit
Colour	Nano Black
Warranty	ASUS 12 Month Collect & Return Warranty
Price	£3,900 \| $4,400

There are many like it, but this one is mine: The 20-core N1X chip, with 10 performance and 10 efficient cores, and the 6144 CUDA core GPU component. This version also comes with a 1 TB SSD (for a $4,400 spec? 😬 I know) and 64 GB of LPDDR5X-9400 memory.

This version of the ProArt P16 is rocking the 16-inch 2880 x 1800 touchscreen OLED display, while there is also a 3840 x 2400 OLED screen available (both 120 Hz) if you go for one of the even pricier models. That one's a touch brighter, but this 1800p OLED will still output at 500 nits, with a 1100 nit peak HDR output, so it's no slouch.

The paucity of storage is a definite disappointment for something at this price—look lower down the stack and you'll still be paying $2800 for the 24 GB version with just a 512 GB SSD. And I honestly do not see the point in that one except for all concerned to be able to say RTX Spark laptops "start from $2800". There is, however, a spare PCIe Gen5 SSD slot in the rear of the machine, which is easily accessible once you remove lots of torx screws.

Future

The keyboard would be a genuinely lovely thing for this device if I wasn't regularly getting additional keystrokes I did not ask for. I've had to keep deleting the extra spaces this thing keeps adding into my copy. There. I just had to kill another one. It's annoying.

What isn't annoying at all, though, is the glorious, massive haptic touchpad Asus has jammed onto this thing. It quite literally takes up half the width of the device. It's great to the touch, and impressively responsive as your digits glide across its surface. Mmm. Smooth.

It's meant to have a webcam, too, but I cannot for the life of me find out how to turn the damned thing on. I'm assuming that somewhere in there a ribbon cable has become ejected because the device sees nothing. This is what I mean by some quality control issues...

Asus ProArt P16 - Value

Haha. Hahahahahaha. Hahahahahahahahahahahaha.

C'mon. This is the mid-range ProArt P16 for $4,400. Any sense of value left the station a loooooooong time ago.

Asus ProArt P16 - Sound

(Image credit: Future)

This is a very pleasant surprise. The up-firing speakers set either side of the ProArt P16's keyboard are really, really good. Obviously that's still really, really good for laptop speakers, and they're are never going to replace your bookshelf speakers, but for clarity and, yes, even bass they do incredibly well.

And they're loud enough that they can largely overcome the sound coming out of the vents on the ProArt P16 when it's running in full performance mode. It does get rather chatty when the silicon is running at full throttle, and when you're talking about a system that's going to max out its GPU component when running both games and local large language models, that's probably going to happen quite a lot.

The pleasing thing, however, is that knocking things down to the Balanced preset in the ProArt Creator Hub (essentially a reskinned Armoury Crate) means that your performance only drops by a few percentage points but the fan noise drops by a whole hell of a lot. It's not silent—you have to dip into Whisper mode for that—but this is the preset you're going to want to spend most of your time running in.

Asus ProArt P16 - Performance

(Image credit: Future)

Somewhat inevitably, performance is a mixed bag of chips when it comes to the RTX Spark. For one, this is a first-gen product from Nvidia, fusing essentially off-the-shelf Arm cores with its own GPU cores, so broad, mature support was never going to be 100% there from the get-go. For another we're talking about games especially that are being run through the Microsoft Prism emulation layer in order for them to run at all on the Asus ProArt P16.

But even taking all that into account I think the gaming performance of this device is pretty damned impressive. The general suggestion ahead of the launch was that the 6144 CUDA core version would deliver gaming performance at a similar level to the RTX 5070 mobile GPUs. It has more cores than the mobile silicon, but is running at a lower clock speed and with a lower power budget, too.

Take a look at the relative 1080p gaming performance of Cyberpunk 2077 and Metro Exodus Enhanced Ed. running on the RTX Spark versus the 100 W Framework 16 or 115 W Razer Blade 14 and you can see where it doesn't quite match up to the GPU performance of the more thirsty graphics parts.

1 / 3

1080p gaming performance

Testing the relative gaming performance of different laptops across multiple games.

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Asus ProArt P16 | RTX Spark

Framework 16 | RTX 5070 100 W

Razer Blade 14 | RTX 5070 115 W

Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p RT Ultra) Data
Product	Value
Asus ProArt P16 \| RTX Spark	36 Avg FPS, 27 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 \| RTX 5070 100 W	43 Avg FPS, 33 1% Low FPS
Razer Blade 14 \| RTX 5070 115 W	45 Avg FPS, 28 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Asus ProArt P16 | RTX Spark

Framework 16 | RTX 5070 100 W

Razer Blade 14 | RTX 5070 115 W

Baldur's Gate 3 (1080p Ultra) Data
Product	Value
Asus ProArt P16 \| RTX Spark	42 Avg FPS, 24 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 \| RTX 5070 100 W	69 Avg FPS, 41 1% Low FPS
Razer Blade 14 \| RTX 5070 115 W	65 Avg FPS, 38 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Asus ProArt P16 | RTX Spark

Framework 16 | RTX 5070 100 W

Razer Blade 14 | RTX 5070 115 W

Black Myth: Wukong benchmarking tool (1080p High) Data
Product	Value
Asus ProArt P16 \| RTX Spark	66 Avg FPS, 42 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 \| RTX 5070 100 W	64 Avg FPS, 55 1% Low FPS
Razer Blade 14 \| RTX 5070 115 W	65 Avg FPS, 56 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Asus ProArt P16 | RTX Spark

Framework 16 | RTX 5070 100 W

Razer Blade 14 | RTX 5070 115 W

Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (1080p Ultra) Data
Product	Value
Asus ProArt P16 \| RTX Spark	75 Avg FPS, 29 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 \| RTX 5070 100 W	82 Avg FPS, 51 1% Low FPS
Razer Blade 14 \| RTX 5070 115 W	84 Avg FPS, 50 1% Low FPS

But when you look at the power draw at those levels it becomes far more impressive. At 1080p in Metro, the Asus laptop is drawing an average of 43 W during the run, while the Razer machine is sitting at 97 W. That's well over double the power, but only running 12% faster in terms of frame rate.

It's also worth noting that we're talking about a GPU that has access to much more memory—albeit with lower memory bandwidth—than the 8 GB GDDR7 that the RTX 5070 mobile can draw on.

There are also times where there is genuine performance parity, too. Running the Black Myth Wukong benchmark and you can see there's a level of parity with the higher power Blade's GPU, even at the same native resolution when you throw upscaling into the mix.

System performance

Measuring the relative performance of the different laptop chips in terms of power and thermals.

Avg GPU freq. (MHz)

Avg GPU power (W)

Asus ProArt P16 | RTX Spark

1906

Framework 16 | RTX 5070 100 W

2421

Razer Blade 14 | RTX 5070 115 W

2589

GPU stats Data
Product	Value
Asus ProArt P16 \| RTX Spark	1906 Avg GPU freq. (MHz), 43 Avg GPU power (W)
Framework 16 \| RTX 5070 100 W	2421 Avg GPU freq. (MHz), 77 Avg GPU power (W)
Razer Blade 14 \| RTX 5070 115 W	2589 Avg GPU freq. (MHz), 97 Avg GPU power (W)

Where there is a clear difference, however, is when it comes to games that are CPU-bound. Baldur's Gate 3 is one game we use as a benchmark specifically because it highlights the performance differences between processors—on the desktop side it's a test which shows the dominance of AMD's 3D V-Cache technology and on mobile you'll see where Intel's CPUs still have performance to offer gamers.

And Baldur's Gate 3 really struggles on the RTX Spark in relation to the other machines. There are two reasons for this; the first being that emulation has an impact on CPU performance rather than GPU performance, so CPU-bound games will suffer more than GPU-bound ones. And second, the CPU cores themselves aren't exactly leading-edge silicon when it comes to single-threaded gaming performance.

System performance

Measuring the relative performance of the different laptop chips in terms of power and thermals.

Avg GPU freq. (MHz)

Avg GPU power (W)

Asus ProArt P16 | RTX Spark

1906

Framework 16 | RTX 5070 100 W

2421

Razer Blade 14 | RTX 5070 115 W

2589

GPU stats Data
Product	Value
Asus ProArt P16 \| RTX Spark	1906 Avg GPU freq. (MHz), 43 Avg GPU power (W)
Framework 16 \| RTX 5070 100 W	2421 Avg GPU freq. (MHz), 77 Avg GPU power (W)
Razer Blade 14 \| RTX 5070 115 W	2589 Avg GPU freq. (MHz), 97 Avg GPU power (W)

This is also highlighted in the Cinebench 2024 benchmarks, which show that, while the multi-threaded performance is fine with 20 cores to spread across, the single-core performance is well behind the competition.

Asus ProArt P16 - Aesthetics

(Image credit: Future)

Golly, this is a pretty laptop. I know I very much have 'a type', but the ProArt P16 is absolutely nailing the sleek black MacBook aesthetic that works for me. There is a subtle 'ProArt' logo on the lid, just shiny black against the matte black brushed aluminium, and one more etched logo on the bottom left corner of the frame.

And it's also incredibly slim, too. I thought the Blade 14 and Asus Zephyrus G16 were slimline little things, but the ProArt chassis takes it even further. It's super slight, but the brushed aluminium frame makes it perfectly rigid, while remaining lightweight.

But because it's a 16-inch machine, and one without a numpad—which might be a cause for concern for some creatives—the keycaps on the board are wide, so it feels comfortable to type on. I'm also into the big ol' trackpad Asus has used, too, and that OLED panel really makes the whole thing shine.

There is one other thing that has surprised me about the looks of the ProArt P16. After just over a week of solid use there is but a small amount of finger-grease on the spacebar (just because I have to keep hitting the damned thing to try and stop it sticking), but other than that the chassis is remarkably lacking in fingerprints. Normally, this sort of machine is an absolute fingerprint magnet, to the point where you'll want to be carrying around a microfibre cloth in your back pocket just so people don't think you're gross when you whip the laptop out in public.

Instead they may just question your insatiable need to polish up your notebook.

Asus ProArt P16 - Software

(Image credit: Future)

The main piece of software to talk about is the OS. Now, this isn't Windows On Arm; that's been effectively retired. This is just plain ol' Windows 11, that just so happens to be running on Arm. And it's impressively transparent as I said earlier. It's slick and feels exactly like running Windows on any other x86 laptop I've used. The only places where you'll notice the difference is in games where they need another level of anti-cheat support the Arm platform doesn't yet offer.

The ProArt P16 does come with a lot of other software, too. You get the aforementioned ProArt Creator Hub, which allows you to alter the power/fan presets, and then there's the MyAsus software where you can register your device and run diagnostics if anything goes wrong. Though I will say it didn't help me track down what was wrong with the webcam because it didn't register its existence, either.

Then you get StoryCube, a piece of software designed to help collate and classify the media on your device using AI. And MuseTree, an app designed for ProArt machines to quickly get you producing AI-generated video and images using local models. You will have to download some extra files/models to actually get up and running, but then you'll be able to run the FLUX.2 model to make your AI dreams a reality.

It's totally offline, so you don't necessarily have to worry about draining reservoirs of water or slamming the energy reserves just to mess around generating a picture of a gaming PC made entirely out of potato, but whether it's really something creatives are going to want to incorporate into their workflows… I am unconvinced.

Given that storage space is at a premium with these RTX Spark machines, I could do without any extra applications installed on my PC, which means there is a bit of cleanup you're going to have to indulge in to claw back the space taken up with pre-installed stuff. But it is all at least relatively unobtrusive. I mean, there's no McAfee pop-ups determined to bug you every 20 minutes unless you sign your life away for some AV cover of dubious virtue.

Asus ProArt P16 - Battery life

Battery life

Testing gaming battery life using PCMark 10's dedicate gaming battery life test.

PCMark 10

Asus ProArt P16 | RTX Spark

Framework 16

131

Razer Blade 14 (2025)

134

037.575112.5150

Battery life (minutes)

I'll be honest, this is one of the real disappointments with the RTX Spark as a laptop platform. The battery life is really not great. With a 99.9 Whr battery inside it, and a relatively power-sipping, efficient platform, I was expecting the battery life to be a lot better than it actually turns out to be.

My expectation was that with an energy efficient Arm SoC I would be happily slapping the lid shut on the ProArt P16 and then flipping it open again ten hours later and it would spring back into life with barely a scratch on the battery capacity. That was effectively my experience from running a Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge and its Qualcomm Snapdragon chip, and I was hoping to see it replicated.

But no dice. I'm seeing definite power drain when the system suspends, much in the same way as the x86 Ryzen chip in my Blade 14 does.

And then in use it chews through the battery surprisingly quickly, too. I used the PCMark 10 CLI to run the Gaming Battery Life test, which loops 3DMark FireStrike tests until the battery runs dry, and I only got a paltry 86 minutes out of it. That's less than an hour and a half, when the Blade 14 and Framework 16, both with RTX 5070 GPUs, will easily top 130 minutes each.

Now, that is an emulated test, so not quite perfectly set up for this platform, but it's not been inconsistent with my experience actually using this device unplugged. When running a local AI model on Hermes Agent, for example, I've regularly had to plug into a power source while it churns through a tough problem (or sometimes what I thought was a simple one) because running the memory and the GPU at 100% have drained the battery very quickly.

The same is true for gaming, which feels odd given that in Balanced Mode it's running at a total SoC wattage of just over 40 W, and that shouldn't slam through the battery as quickly as it seems to. You can run in Whisper Mode, which cuts the power draw down by a healthy amount again, but then you are running at well under 1000 MHz on the GPU side and it does make gaming a little tougher on the eye.

Nvidia's RTX Spark makes for an impressive Arm-based gaming laptop but not one I'd recommend you buy just for PC gaming

dave.james@futurenet.com (Dave James) — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 13:35:06 +0000

Well, here it is, Nvidia's all-in-one silicon, the RTX Spark. This is an SoC that's being promoted as the everything chip; the processor that can be all things to all people. It's a creator's chip, it's an AI-lover's chip, and it's a gamer's chip.

But all three of those kinds of people do need to have one thing in common: they need to be rather well off, because this is also an expensive chip. I spoke about it when the pricing first came to light last week, while I was at the launch event for this Windows-based tech. Even the cheapest of the RTX Spark machines coming our way will cost $2,700, and that will only get you the weaker cores, a paltry 24 GB of unified memory, and a 512 GB SSD.

That is certainly a limitation, but also completely expected in a time where all things PC cost a ludicrous amount of money, especially devices which are locked into requiring a colossal amount of memory to do their main task. Which, let's be honest here, is AI.

The unified memory architecture (UMA) of the RTX Spark is perfectly suited to providing a ton of memory for system resources, but also to be able to switch that over to supporting the GPU when it comes to smashing through local AI workloads which fill up the GPU's memory pool. It's the perfect time for Nvidia to release something like this, because local AI is set for a bit of an explosion in popularity (especially when the cloud services start charging real money for their services), but it's also the worst time because this sort of memory-heavy hardware is expensive.

But here it is in front of me, an RTX Spark laptop that looks for all the world like the slimline MacBook-esque Razer Blade machines I've loved for years. But this is no Blade, this is an Asus ProArt P16 and it's a stunner. Thinner than the Zephyrus G16 with a sleek aluminium body and a 64 GB, 20-core RTX Spark N1X chip inside it.

(Image credit: Future)

From the get-go I can say that this is not a platform I can really recommend to the average PC gamer

I've only been using it a short time, and there is so much to it and so much that is going to change over the next few months that I'm only really going to scratch the surface here. But today I'm going to go over the architecture and the gaming performance, and maybe I'll give you a little bit about my adventures in agentic AI as a palate cleanser later on.

Yet, even having spent under a week with an RTX Spark as my daily driver, I think from the get-go I can probably say that this is not a platform I can really recommend to the average PC gamer. It's too expensive and we're better served by the gaming laptops already on the market. But, it is an absolutely fascinating, and genuinely impressive platform, and could be a real glimpse at the future of PCs and laptops as a whole.

Nvidia RTX Spark - architecture

(Image credit: Future)

I've been waiting for this moment for a long time. The promise of an all-Nvidia gaming laptop has been a tantalising prospect for years now; even before the company tried to buy Arm itself there were rumours of an SoC that would combine Arm cores with Nvidia's powerful GPU silicon.

AMD's had its own APUs for the longest time, and Intel has been running every facet of a laptop since the dark ages. So it's no surprise Nvidia wanted a piece of that pie.

And with Qualcomm taking the initial Windows-on-Arm hit with its Snapdragon Elite and Plus chips, letting the OS evolve around the early teething troubles, the time is now ripe for Nvidia's platform to come to fruition.

Actually, there is no Windows-on-Arm anymore as Microsoft is ditching the suffix and just calling it Windows, because Microsoft is all-in here, too. To be honest, I think that's largely down to the push for local AI and the fact Linux is generally where that lives right now—including the DGX Spark, which was the first desktop home of the N1X chip that's running the RTX Spark. But Microsoft is also helping on the gaming side, making the Prism emulation layer more robust on an Arm platform and also committing to bringing all the anti-cheat apps over that Linux currently doesn't have.

Though Epic is working on the Linux side of that right now.

Nvidia RTX Spark configurations
	RTX Spark N1X (5120-core GPU, 18-core CPU)	RTX Spark N1X (6144-core GPU, 20-core CPU)
CPU cores	18 total (9 Arm Cortex-X925 + 9 Arm Cortex-A725)	20 total (10 Arm Cortex-X925 + 10 Arm Cortex-A725)
Maximum performance-core clock	3.9 GHz	4.0–4.1 GHz
Maximum efficiency-core clock	2.8 GHz	2.8 GHz
GPU architecture	Blackwell RTX	Blackwell RTX
CUDA cores	5,120	6,144
Streaming multiprocessors (SMs)	40	48
RT core generation	Fourth generation	Fourth generation
Tensor core generation	Fifth generation	Fifth generation
Unified memory type	LPDDR5X	LPDDR5X
Memory interface	256-bit / 16-channel	256-bit / 16-channel
Memory interface speed	Up to 9,400 Mbps	Up to 9,400 Mbps
Peak memory bandwidth	Up to 300 GB/s	Up to 300 GB/s
NVLink C2C bandwidth	600 GB/s bidirectional	600 GB/s bidirectional
Display interface support	HDMI 2.1a; DisplayPort 2.0 over USB4	HDMI 2.1a; DisplayPort 2.0 over USB4
Process technology	TSMC 3 nm (both dies)	TSMC 3 nm (both dies)
Configurable SoC TDP	45–80 W	45–80 W

The Nvidia RTX Spark SoC packs in all the Nvidia good stuff alongside a whole slew of, what appear to be, relatively off-the-shelf Arm cores. This is all packed in alongside up to 128 GB of unified LPDDR5X-9400 memory.

First the GPU side. This is exactly the same as we've already seen drop in the DGX Spark machine launched around this time last year; it's an RTX Blackwell-based chip, sporting 6144 CUDA cores across 48 SMs. Effectively, that's the same core configuration as the desktop RTX 5070 GPU, the GB205, although with a chunk less L2 cache, and a necessarily slower clock speed.

(Image credit: Future)

This is one of the reasons that, despite having the same configuration as the desktop RTX 5070, Nvidia is tempering performance expectations by suggesting it will be more akin to the performance of the mobile RTX 5070 (which has fewer SM) in actual gaming performance.

Aside from the cache difference, and the overall difference in attached system memory (LPDDR5X not GDDR7) we can assume that the layout of the Blackwell SM remains the same as it has done since the architecture first launched. There are still 128 CUDA cores per SM and I would expect 192 fifth gen Tensor Cores and 48 fourth gen RT Cores, as there are in the DGX Spark's chip.

The 256-bit memory interface and slower memory means you're getting 300 GB/s of memory bandwidth, against the 672 GB/s the desktop RTX 5070 configuration can offer on its 192-bit bus. But these are slightly apples vs. oranges comparisons because of the platform the RTX Spark is sitting in, the unified memory architecture (UMA) it's surrounded by, and the CPU companion it has.

Nvidia

Which, although Nvidia is calling it a Grace CPU, and custom-made with MediaTek, does still just sport some off-the-shelf Arm cores. But a lot of them, to be fair. There are 10 'performance' Arm Cortex-X925 cores and 10 'efficient' Arm Cortex-A725 cores and they mark the peak of Arm's 2024 lineup.

As far as we know, however, there hasn't been any additional work done with these cores to help bolster the necessary emulation to be able to run the x86-focused workloads that are going to be thrown their way. This is the step Apple has taken with its own Arm cores, making sure they're designed from the ground up to take care of such things.

There is also a second, cut-down RTX Spark SoC. That comes with 5120 CUDA cores across 40 SMs (so a commensurate reduction in Tensor cores and RT cores, too) and with 18 Arm CPU cores, meaning one less of each of the performance and efficient cores.

Nvidia RTX Spark - Gaming performance

1 / 3

1080p gaming performance

Testing the relative gaming performance of different laptops across multiple games.

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Asus ProArt P16 | RTX Spark

Framework 16 | RTX 5070 100 W

Razer Blade 14 | RTX 5070 115 W

Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p RT Ultra) Data
Product	Value
Asus ProArt P16 \| RTX Spark	36 Avg FPS, 27 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 \| RTX 5070 100 W	43 Avg FPS, 33 1% Low FPS
Razer Blade 14 \| RTX 5070 115 W	45 Avg FPS, 28 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Asus ProArt P16 | RTX Spark

Framework 16 | RTX 5070 100 W

Razer Blade 14 | RTX 5070 115 W

Baldur's Gate 3 (1080p Ultra) Data
Product	Value
Asus ProArt P16 \| RTX Spark	42 Avg FPS, 24 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 \| RTX 5070 100 W	69 Avg FPS, 41 1% Low FPS
Razer Blade 14 \| RTX 5070 115 W	65 Avg FPS, 38 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Asus ProArt P16 | RTX Spark

Framework 16 | RTX 5070 100 W

Razer Blade 14 | RTX 5070 115 W

Black Myth: Wukong benchmarking tool (1080p High) Data
Product	Value
Asus ProArt P16 \| RTX Spark	66 Avg FPS, 42 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 \| RTX 5070 100 W	64 Avg FPS, 55 1% Low FPS
Razer Blade 14 \| RTX 5070 115 W	65 Avg FPS, 56 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Asus ProArt P16 | RTX Spark

Framework 16 | RTX 5070 100 W

Razer Blade 14 | RTX 5070 115 W

Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (1080p Ultra) Data
Product	Value
Asus ProArt P16 \| RTX Spark	75 Avg FPS, 29 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 \| RTX 5070 100 W	82 Avg FPS, 51 1% Low FPS
Razer Blade 14 \| RTX 5070 115 W	84 Avg FPS, 50 1% Low FPS

The performance I've been getting out of this slim little gaming laptop has been impressive. Especially when you consider the power it's drawing to get mighty close to (and sometimes matching) the performance of gaming laptops whose GPUs alone are running to 115 W of power.

The Metro Exodus Enhanced benchmark is the one we've been consistently using for gaming performance metrics because we can easily loop the test runs to provide a more long-term understanding of what happens over a gaming session. And, looking at the numbers the RTX Spark in this Asus ProArt P16 laptop is demonstrating, you can see what an efficient piece of silicon this is.

We ran a triple loop of the Metro Exodus Enhanced benchmark at top 1080p settings and while the RTX Spark machine was demonstrably slower than the other RTX 5070 systems I'm comparing it against, it's running at a fraction of the power draw. At 75 fps it is behind the 115 W RTX 5070 in the Blade 14 at 84 fps, but the chip is running almost 700 MHz slower and drawing down an average of 43 W over that run compared to 97 W for the Razer laptop.

System performance

Measuring the relative performance of the different laptop chips in terms of power and thermals.

Avg GPU freq. (MHz)

Avg GPU power (W)

Asus ProArt P16 | RTX Spark

1906

Framework 16 | RTX 5070 100 W

2421

Razer Blade 14 | RTX 5070 115 W

2589

GPU stats Data
Product	Value
Asus ProArt P16 \| RTX Spark	1906 Avg GPU freq. (MHz), 43 Avg GPU power (W)
Framework 16 \| RTX 5070 100 W	2421 Avg GPU freq. (MHz), 77 Avg GPU power (W)
Razer Blade 14 \| RTX 5070 115 W	2589 Avg GPU freq. (MHz), 97 Avg GPU power (W)

The other side of that is that, because it's such an efficient setup pulling the plug out of the side of the thing isn't going to slam the frame rate. You're still going to get within a percentage point of the same performance whether you're plugged into the wall or not.

Keep this thing in Performance mode and I've seen the frame rate change by maybe a couple of fps, but nothing that's really more than could be explained by statistical variance. Nvidia says that you will get around 99% of the performance from the battery you get from the plug, and that bears out.

But even on Balanced power mode, in the ProArt Creator Hub (a reskinned Armoury Crate), while the power draw drops to 30 W and the GPU clock speed to 1572 MHz, I only saw Metro's benchmark drop by maybe five frames per second on average.

That's not to say there aren't issues here, because at full power you're still not going to be gaming for hours. I measured under an hour and a half running the Fire Strike benchmark on loop via the PCMark 10 CLI. Which is not really what I'd hoped to see from an efficient Arm-based system.

This is still a gaming laptop that wants to be plugged in for the most part, maybe not for performance but definitely for longevity.

Battery life

Testing gaming battery life using PCMark 10's dedicate gaming battery life test.

PCMark 10

Asus ProArt P16 | RTX Spark

Framework 16

131

Razer Blade 14 (2025)

134

037.575112.5150

Battery life (minutes)

The other inevitable issues surround emulation. This is not an x86 system and while Microsoft's Prism layer is very good for the most part, there are problems with running games on an Arm system that will be familiar to anyone who's spent any time playing games on Linux. Yes, the hoary ol' chestnut of anti-cheat.

The good news is that Microsoft is working hard on this, presumably with the aim of stopping defectors from entering the sunny uplands of Linux gaming, and a ton of anti-cheat providers are already running on RTX Spark and Windows (formerly on Arm). From everybody's favourite, Denuvo, to BattlEye and EAC, a host of multiplayer games can be played from day one.

But there are still some notable exceptions, the main one for me being EA's Javelin. I like me some Battlefield, and I've been playing a lot of FC27 recently, too, for I am a football-liker. These are currently games not compatible with RTX Spark, nor is the F1 24 benchmark we run across our gaming laptop suite, either. Javelin is expected to be updated and added to the list of supported anti-cheats next year, but for right now, you're out of luck.

CPU performance

Testing the straight CPU performance of the relative laptop silicon.

Multi-core index score

Single-core index score

Asus ProArt P16 | RTX Spark

1018

Framework 16 | Ryzen AI 9 HX 370

1158

105

MSI Crosshair 16 HX | Core Ultra 9 275HX

1320

134

Razer Blade 14 | Ryzen AI 9 365

1054

115

Cinebench 2024 Data
Product	Value
Asus ProArt P16 \| RTX Spark	1018 Multi-core index score, 72 Single-core index score
Framework 16 \| Ryzen AI 9 HX 370	1158 Multi-core index score, 105 Single-core index score
MSI Crosshair 16 HX \| Core Ultra 9 275HX	1320 Multi-core index score, 134 Single-core index score
Razer Blade 14 \| Ryzen AI 9 365	1054 Multi-core index score, 115 Single-core index score

Compressing (GIPS)

Decompressing (GIPS)

Asus ProArt P16 | RTX Spark

156.362

135.541

Framework 16 | Ryzen AI 9 HX 370

108.822

128.355

MSI Crosshair 16 HX | Core Ultra 9 275HX

121.787

130.822

Razer Blade 14 | Ryzen AI 9 365

103.17

107.975

7zip 24.07 Data
Product	Value
Asus ProArt P16 \| RTX Spark	156.362 Compressing (GIPS), 135.541 Decompressing (GIPS)
Framework 16 \| Ryzen AI 9 HX 370	108.822 Compressing (GIPS), 128.355 Decompressing (GIPS)
MSI Crosshair 16 HX \| Core Ultra 9 275HX	121.787 Compressing (GIPS), 130.822 Decompressing (GIPS)
Razer Blade 14 \| Ryzen AI 9 365	103.17 Compressing (GIPS), 107.975 Decompressing (GIPS)

Overall index score

Duration (Sec)

Sec/image

Asus ProArt P16 | RTX Spark

1505

66.404

4.15

Framework 16 | Ryzen AI 9 HX 370

1789

55.9

3.49

MSI Crosshair 16 HX | Core Ultra 9 275HX

1508

66.27

4.14

Razer Blade 14 | Ryzen AI 9 365

1704

58.67

3.67

Procyon Data
Product	Value
Asus ProArt P16 \| RTX Spark	1505 Overall index score, 66.404 Duration (Sec), 4.15 Sec/image
Framework 16 \| Ryzen AI 9 HX 370	1789 Overall index score, 55.9 Duration (Sec), 3.49 Sec/image
MSI Crosshair 16 HX \| Core Ultra 9 275HX	1508 Overall index score, 66.27 Duration (Sec), 4.14 Sec/image
Razer Blade 14 \| Ryzen AI 9 365	1704 Overall index score, 58.67 Duration (Sec), 3.67 Sec/image

The other issue is also CPU related, though not 100% emulation based. Those Arm cores, even the X925 'performance' cores are not the same as the x86 chips from AMD and Intel right now. Multithreading is fine, but the real problem is single core performance. Take a look at the Cinebench scores and you'll see what I mean.

With a single core score of 72 it's well behind the other chips in the test. Those this benchmark will, of course, be emulated and that is going to impact the outcome, but it highlights where the limitations lie with Nvidia's approach to the SoC. Translate that into gaming terms and the Baldur's Gate 3 benchmark above highlights this perfectly.

This is a game we use to benchmark the gaming performance of a system's CPU because the end-game in the city really demands a lot from your processor. That's why you'll see the MSI Crosshair 16 HX topping the benchmarks here, with its grunty Intel processor. And down the bottom is the RTX Spark with its Arm cores chugging along some 43% slower in terms of frame rate.

Nvidia RTX Spark - Early impressions

Future

I can't really give a solid verdict on the RTX Spark having only had it in my hands for less than a week. But I can certainly give you my first impressions. And they are that the platform delivers a really great device. The Asus ProArt P16 is an absolute delight to use, and the performance it delivers is genuinely impressive.

If this were the same price, or even slightly more than an RTX 5070 gaming laptop, then it would be an easy thing to call this the future of mobile gaming machines. It comes in a thoroughly enjoyable form factor, performs admirably, and it would be a real toss-up for me as to whether I would rather this or the Razer Blade 14.

But it's not. This is a $4,400 machine, and while you can't currently pick up Blade 14 right now, you can get really lovely RTX 5070 gaming laptops for a lot lot less.

So, it can't be a solid recommendation for a dedicated PC gamer.

A glimpse into a future where the x86 hegemony of hardware has well and truly been put to rest

For less than the price of this middle-range RTX Spark laptop, you can pick up a very well-specced RTX 5090 laptop that comes with 24 GB of very fast GDDR7 VRAM. And that will really do the business when it comes to local AI. Yes, you can go and buy a 24 GB RTX Spark for $2,700, but that would be the same overall memory pool as a standard 16 GB laptop with an RTX 5070. Or even RTX 5060 for that matter. That's not going to get you real access to good local AI models to take advantage of what makes the RTX Spark special.

And there are things that do make it special. If you could stretch to the 64 GB version I have here, and you do far more than game on your device, it does become almost that do-everything laptop. You absolutely can play games on this at high frame rates when you're done doing serious work things, but you can also slam through beefy local AI models, but you also have both the GPU and memory power to run through practically any creative task you put your mind to. And Windows (formerly 'on Arm') is now so transparent that almost every application you might use to do that is fully supported on the OS.

This is my daily driver now, and I'll be spending a lot more time with it to give a more considered take down the line, combined with a whole lot more gaming benchmarks. But for now, and for a very specific audience, this is a hell of a machine. For the rest of us? Well, it's a glimpse into a future where the x86 hegemony of hardware has well and truly been put to rest.

This is the first 32 GB RTX 5070 Ti gaming laptop I've seen for under $1,500 in months

Andy Edser — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 10:16:07 +0000

Gaming A16 Pro | RTX 5070 Ti (115 W) | 32 GB DDR5: was $2149.99 now $1449
I haven't seen an RTX 5070 Ti lappy drop this low in months, never mind a 32 GB one. The GPU has been reigned in slightly with a 115 W power limit, and the CPU is a six Performance core, four efficient Intel model. But both should still perform well for gaming, and the chassis design is rather svelte, too. Plus, you can't argue with the DDR5 loadout for the cash.

What is this, 2025? It appears so, as I've just stumbled across an honest-to-goodness 32 GB gaming laptop with an RTX 5070 Ti for $1,450 at Walmart. Hells, I wasn't finding them this cheap over the October Prime Day sales.

What's wrong with it, then? Well, not a whole lot. The RTX 5070 Ti has been limited to 115 W, which isn't the full-fat spec but should still be reasonably powerful. Gaming at the full 1600p resolution of its 165 Hz screen will require a bit of DLSS assistance in very demanding games, but that's pretty much the case with all high resolution laptops these days.

Join us on WhatsApp for daily deals, direct to your phone.

And the CPU isn't exactly a powerhouse, being the six Performance core, four Efficient Intel Core 7 240H. It should still do just fine for gaming, though. Raw productivity performance won't be this lappy's strong suit—but it's far from a snail in that regard, either.

I keep double-checking that RAM spec. 32 GB gaming laptop deals have died a death recently, as the memory crisis continues to wreak havoc upon the market. I find the odd RTX 5060 machine with God's own RAM loadout for reasonable money, but RTX 5070 Ti models? They've gone the way of the dodo, for the most part.

Plus, you get a proper-sized 1 TB SSD. You'd be surprised how many otherwise-great lappys I find with 512 GB drives these days, which is seriously tight for a modern gaming machine. This one's got plenty of room for a few big games installed at once, alongside a Windows install and your usual apps.

It's quite a handsome beast, too. We've been impressed by Gigabyte's recent chassis designs, and this one looks grown-up enough to be pulled out in an airport lounge without attracting too much attention.

Okay, so this lappy isn't a complete fire-breather when it comes to the specs sheet. But while most 16 GB RTX 5070 machines are soaring off into the $1,600+ range, I reckon it's a very smart buy indeed.

👉See all the Walmart gaming laptop deals here👈

Microsoft seems very excited about its new magnetic USB Type-C charger for the Surface Laptop Ultra, but it don't impress me much

Jess Kinghorn — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 15:13:03 +0000

Microsoft has just unveiled what it's calling the "most powerful Surface devices ever." Both powered by Nvidia's RTX Spark SOC, the Surface Laptop Ultra and Surface RTX Spark Dev Box are both available to pre-order now. Both Surface devices are slated for an October 16 release, the same day as a suite of other RTX Spark laptops.

Like the rest of the fleet, these will cost a pretty penny too, with the Surface Laptop Ultra starting at $2,599 and the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box going for $5,999. However, the Surface Laptop Ultra comes with something the rest doesn't: 'Magnetic Connect,' a new magnetic USB Type-C charger.

The Corporate Vice President of Surface, Brett Ostrum, wrote, "The included charging cable attaches magnetically to the right-side USB-C port and releases easily. The port remains fully functional for video, data, and other USB-C devices."

According to Microsoft, the Magnetic Connect is a world first. However, in principle, it's very similar to Apple's MagSafe connectors. My snarkiness aside, it's worth mentioning that MagSafe uses a proprietary cable, whereas the Magnetic Connect does not, and that fits it a bit more cleanly into the 'world first' claim.

Interesting to note, too, is that the design of the Magnetic Connect may have been influenced by recent changes to EU regulations. New rules seek to stem the tide of charging cable-related e-waste by requiring "all new devices sold in the EU must now support USB-C charging." This regulation was introduced in 2024, and originally only applied to portable devices. But as of April this year, the EU common charger rules have been rolled out to laptops as well.

Still, it's a weird thing to highlight in the announcement for a very powerful, very expensive laptop—excuse me if I struggle to muster up a sufficient level of excitement for a charger that magnetically snaps to the side of my Surface device.

Obviously, as a PC gamer, I'm most interested in the apparently RTX 5070-like gaming performance of an RTX Spark machine. But gaming isn't the sole focus of this machine; for that money, it really needs to be all singing, all dancing, so Microsoft also highlights that the Surface Laptop Ultra can "run AI models exceeding 120B parameters locally, with up to 1 petaflop of AI performance."

At $2,599, it's a pricey bit of kit for sure and touting "the world’s first built-in magnetic USB-C charging on a laptop" does little to dull the sting of that price tag. Worse still, with 128 GB of unified memory inside this bad boy, there's no ignoring that the AI industry and the resulting memory crisis are perhaps one reason this Surface is as expensive as it is.

I'm genuinely surprised this $1,200 RTX 5070 gaming laptop deal is still running

Andy Edser — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 10:48:30 +0000

Nitro V 16 | RTX 5070 (85 W) | 16 GB DDR5: was $1299.99 now $1199.99
Good lord, it's an RTX 5070 gaming laptop for the same price I used to find them. This Acer Nitro V 16 is a solidly specced machine, what with its 10-core Intel CPU (six Performance, four Efficient) and Nvidia's mid-range graphics card sitting in its tidy-looking frame. The GPU has been power limited to 85 W, but it should still do very well with a 1200p screen. It's a shame about the small SSD, but for this price, in this market? I'll take it all day long.

October Prime Day has finished. Or has it? I logged in this morning expecting to find most of the deals done and dusted, but lo and behold, this RTX 5070 gaming laptop for $1,200 is still available.

I would have bet good money on this one ending with the event, even if Amazon didn't put a "Big Deal Days" tag on it. But no, the best gaming laptop deal I've found in weeks is still there, waiting for its new owner.

RTX 5070 gaming laptop deals are a very rare thing at this point. Well, good ones, anyway. Most of the mid-range lappys I've found recently (even over the sales) have been listed for over $1,500, so this one represents excellent value. And yes, it comes with some caveats. But for this price, I think they're all pretty easy to put up with.

We're curating all the Prime Day PC gaming deals still running right here.

Let's list them again, shall we? First up, this machine has a power-limited 85 W RTX 5070 mobile chip. But it's been combined with a 1200p, 180 Hz screen, so it shouldn't struggle with demanding games at native res—particularly when DLSS and frame generation enters the equation.

Secondly, it's got a 10-core Intel CPU with six Performance cores and four Efficient. That might sound a little weak in a world of many-cored laptop CPUs, but it's still plenty fast enough for gaming. It's perhaps not the best for heavy productivity tasks, but still. I really wouldn't consider it a major drawback.

But the biggest fault on this otherwise-tempting machine is the SSD size. 512 GB is pretty tiny for a modern gaming laptop, which means you won't be able to install lots of games at once alongside Windows 11 and your usual apps.

I would, however, point you towards our SSD deals page. Yes, large capacity drives are much more expensive than they used to be, but we're still finding fast-as-you-like 1 TB Gen 4 drives for $175 or so. Stick one of these in the second M.2 slot (it's an easy job for anyone who knows which end to hold a screwdriver), and you've got a lappy with tons of storage for less than any other RTX 5070 gaming laptop I can find right now.

Despite the drawbacks, I still think this machine is very good for the cash. And it appears this deal is going for a little while longer—so if you're late to the party, you haven't missed out on the cake.

Now we know the prices of the new RTX Spark laptops and they're as expensive as I'm sure you feared

dave.james@futurenet.com (Dave James) — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 02:42:32 +0000

RTX Spark laptops will range from $2,600 all the way up to $7,000.
Pre-orders open now.
Release date is October 16, 2026.

It is the best of times, it is the worst of times to unveil a whole new line of agentic and local AI-focused laptops. The new RTX Spark laptop hardware is going into a slew of big name, big brand notebooks, with pre-orders opening up now and, with the level of unified memory necessarily inside them, the pricing is getting on for prohibitive.

But it was always going to be that way. These are laptops built for AI processing and they need a ton of memory, and AI is the big thing right now so we need laptops that are designed from the ground up to run the best local models beautifully. But we're also at a point where AI is the big thing right now and that has sucked up all the available memory manufacturing making producing new PC hardware uncomfortably expensive.

There's a certain ouroboros-like feeling around these new machines, where they're designed for a world that is specifically making systems like them harder to make and sell to normal humans without seven figure incomes.

The new machines come with two flavours of Nvidia N1X processor; either the 20-core, 6144 CUDA core'd design, or the 18-core, 5120 CUDA core version. And with those Arm-based SoCs, sporting Nvidia GPU components, you're getting varying levels of un-upgradeable, soldered-on unified memory, from 24 GB all the way up to 128 GB.

(Image credit: Microsoft)

And, if we take the entry-level version of the new Microsoft Surface Ultra laptop as an example, that 24 GB config, with the 18-core N1X will run you about $2,600. With a 512 GB SSD inside it. That is a lot of money for an Arm-based laptop relying heavily on emulation—at least right now—with not a lot of internal hardware, especially when the noise around RTX Spark is about its utility as a local AI beast.

24 GB of unified memory, shared therefore between CPU and GPU, doesn't feel like it's going to be able to get you access to the best local models, and that 512 GB SSD isn't going to be able to house too many of them, either. This is a slightly apples vs oranges comparison, I'll grant you, but a laptop with an RTX 5070 Ti and 16 GB of RAM is going to have a greater pool of memory to draw from, and you can pick one of those up for around $1,000 less than the cost of the cheapest Surface Ultra today.

To be honest, I would find it really hard to make a case for the lowest-spec Sparks right now, even though I know local models are getting ever more efficient and capable within memory-restricted environments. But if I'm dropping serious money right now specifically on a laptop that's positioning itself as being designed for local AI compute, I want to know I've got a pool of memory that's going to be solid for its lifetime. And it needs to be because there is no upgrading that memory once you've configured your purchase.

Those models might be getting more efficient, but I'm still going to want to be running as close to a frontier model as I can get on my local hardware, and that is always going to need a big pool of the memory good-stuff.

(Image credit: Asus)

But that's not to say I would necessarily find it impossible to be positive about the pricier models. And they do get expensive. The fully kitted out Asus ProArt P16, with 128 GB unified memory and a 2 TB SSD will run you $7,000 😱 But the 64 GB version is a more reasonable $4,500 and you could have a whole lot of local AI-based fun with that bad boy. And the ProArt P16 is rather gorgeous, looking for all the world like a very serious Zephyrus G16. If you wanted the 64 GB Surface Ultra that comes in at $4,300, for comparison, too.

That starts to feel a lot more reasonable—obviously within the context of this whole f'd up world of AI-generated PC hardware pricing—when you think about the fact a Blade 16 with an RTX 5080 and 64 GB RAM will set you back $4,700. Premium hardware is painfully expensive across the board.

I will admit, though, I'm really excited about getting my hands on an RTX Spark laptop and giving it a run around the block. I know gaming is not the main focus, more a pleasing byproduct and definite boon for the AI builders to kick back with when they've hung up their agentic hat for the day. But we're expecting RTX 5070-level gaming performance out of these machines (they have more cores, but lower power budgets and more limited memory bandwidth owing to the unified LPDDR5x memory) with the expectation that will be the same case whether or not they're plugged into the wall for power.

I've played games on them at shows, but I will be fascinated to see how things look when we throw the full PC Gamer benchmarking suite at one.

(Image credit: Future)

That's intriguing all by itself, but I've also spent a lot of time over the past year messing around with local AI models and I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens when I jam ComfyUI and Unsloth desktop on there, too.

But pricing is obviously a pain point, as it is for any system right now, whether high-end or no, and these first-gen devices are going to be a tough sell to a wider audience rather than the already-invested AI builder crew. But this has the potential to be a big turning point for the industry.

Not only do we have Microsoft entirely dropping the 'On Arm' suffix for its Arm-focused OS, and not only do we have a mainstream Arm SoC, but it's one that's also tied to a meaningfully powerful, effectively discrete GPU component.

And not only that but Windows' new Hybrid Intelligence toggle has the potential to bring a whole lot of AI processing that was once shunted into the cloud—taking up datacenter capacity unnecessarily for drawing a flyer for your band or a kid's birthday party—and making it local without the end-user having to really think about it.

That has the potential to ease the datacenter burden and maybe, just maybe ease some parts of the memory crisis itself. So, if you were trying to be positive, maybe this ouroboros could be about to spit out its own tail.

The gaming laptop I'd buy with my own cash this Prime Day is... this Asus, even though it's got a teeny weeny little SSD

Andy Edser — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 16:03:09 +0000

TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5070 (115 W) | 16 GB DDR5: was $2224.99 now $1599.99
Ah, one of my favorites. This Asus has a properly powerful RTX 5070 with a 115 W limit, a 16-core, 32-thread AMD chip with serious grunt, and a 1200p, 165 Hz screen that should give the GPU little trouble. The downside? It's got a teeny tiny SSD. We're finding deals on those too, so I'd be sticking a 1 TB drive in this beastie at the earliest opportunity.

The October Prime Day sales (or Big Deal Days, as Mr Bezos keeps trying to insist) are beginning to wind to a close. Still, we expect quite a few deals to keep going, so there's no massive rush. But it's time for me to pick the gaming laptop I'd buy with my own cash, and I'm sticking with this Asus TUF Gaming A16 for $1,600 at Best Buy.

I've picked this machine out before (in a different spec) because I like it so much, although that particular deal is currently sold out. And yes, the RTX 5070 version isn't as cheap as it used to be during sales events. But the RAMpocalypse is in full swing, gaming laptop pricing has gone through the roof, and this is still a lappy with a hefty discount that my heart truly desires.

For a start, this model has a hugely powerful AMD Ryzen 9 8940HX CPU with 16 cores and 32 threads. That's massive overkill for a gaming laptop, but I happen to be a big fan of that kind of redundancy, particularly as someone who edits multimedia gubbins on the regular.

We're curating all the best Prime Day PC gaming deals here

This one's also got an RTX 5070 mobile GPU with a proper power limit, being a 115 W version. Asus has the cooling and power delivery figured out with its TUF lineup of machines, as our Zak found when he reviewed the RTX 5050 version of the Asus TUF Gaming A16 very recently.

Excellent cooling (and a spacious-yet-svelte chassis design) means the graphics chip gets to breathe, unlike a lot of 85 W RTX 5070 lappys I'm finding right now.

Future

Above: The RTX 5050-equipped Asus TUF Gaming A16 we recently reviewed.

So, it should go like hell when it comes to gaming performance. That's balanced out nicely with its 1200p, 165 Hz screen, which shouldn't give the GPU too much trouble. Smooth frames in demanding games? I reckon so, yeah. Especially with a bit of DLSS, wherever needed.

I'm sure you've already spotted the downside, though. This is a $1,500+ gaming laptop with a tiny 512 GB SSD, which is unfortunately far too common these days. You could put up with it if you keep an eye on your install sizes, but a 1 TB drive would improve this lappy considerably.

We're finding deals on those at the moment, believe it or not. And yes, buying one would mean spending more cash on top of a gaming laptop that is still, with a discount, more expensive than it used to be. But that's just the state of affairs right now (and probably for a long while to come), so this machine still offers more bang for your buck than most.

Which is why it's stolen my heart once more. Yes, times are tough out there, folks—but in a market full of turmoil, this Asus lappy still shines through the muck.

I've rounded up the six gaming laptop deals under $1,500 that are worth your time this Prime Day

Andy Edser — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 15:10:20 +0000

October Prime Day always throws up some great deals sooner or later, but holy moly have good prices on gaming laptops been hard to find this year. Both in terms of machines I can recommend for their value, and stock in general. Most RTX 5060 lappys are now priced the same as RTX 5070 machines in 2025, and I guess we all have to get used to that fact.

Anyway, I've rounded up the six gaming laptop deals I'd stand behind for under $1,500, saving you the trouble of sorting through the listings yourself.

We're curating all the best Prime Day PC gaming deals here

I spend hours every week hunting for the best discounts on gaming laptops, and the rest of the year testing them. Each of these machines has genuine merit for the price in this topsy-turvy market, and gets the PC Gamer seal of approval for being better than the rest.

Oh, and my personal highlight? It's this Acer Nitro V 16 with an 85 W RTX 5070 mobile for $1,200 at Amazon. Try as I might, I can't beat it in terms of the gaming grunt you get for your cash. But all of the lappys below represent great value compared to the rest right now—so let's see what we've got, shall we?

Prime Day gaming laptop deals for under $1,500

Lenovo

LOQ | RTX 5050 (100 W) | 16 GB DDR5 | 512 GB SSD

Key specs: RTX 5050 (100 W) | Core i5 13450HX | 15-inch | 1080p | 144 Hz | 16 GB DDR5 | 512 GB

Acer

Nitro V 16 | RTX 5060 (75 W) | 16 GB DDR5 | 512 GB SSD

Acer

Nitro V 16 | RTX 5070 (85 W) | 16 GB DDR5 | 512 GB SSD

Gigabyte

Aero X16 | RTX 5060 (85 W) | 32 GB DDR5 | 1 TB SSD

Acer

Nitro V 16S | RTX 5070 (85 W) | 16 GB DDR5 | 1 TB SSD

Lenovo

Legion 5i | RTX 5060 (100 W) | 16 GB DDR5 | OLED | 1 TB SSD

The deals in full

LOQ | RTX 5050 (100 W) | 16 GB DDR5: was $1174.99 now $998.99
Ordinarily, an RTX 5050 gaming laptop for nearly $1,000 wouldn't be particularly special. However, this one has a 100 W GPU power limit, which means it should be reasonably punchy when paired with a 1080p display. It's a shame the RAM is limited to a single module, but in terms of gaming performance the lack of dual channel shouldn't affect it much, as we found when we reviewed an RTX 5060 model late last year.

Key specs: RTX 5050 (100 W) | Core i5 13450HX | 15-inch | 1080p | 144 Hz | 16 GB DDR5 | 512 GBView Deal

Nitro V 16 | RTX 5060 (75 W) | 16 GB DDR5: was $1629.99 now $1149.99
If you're shopping for a gaming laptop anywhere near the $1,000 mark, SSD sizes can unfortunately suffer. This Acer lappy has a 512 GB model, which is pretty small, and the GPU's 75 W power limit is a touch low. However, it's still the cheapest (good) RTX 5060 gaming laptop I can find, and it should perform well with its 1200p, 165 Hz screen. If you're watching your pennies, this is a good price for this particular machine.

Aero X16 | RTX 5060 (85 W) | 32 GB DDR5: was $1299.99 now $1224.99
This is a power-limited RTX 5060 machine—but you do get 32 GB of DDR5 for your cash, which is increasingly rare in 2026. The processor is decently beefy, too, although you will need to lean on upscaling to make the most of its 1600p 165 Hz screen. If you want 32 GB of RAM in a gaming laptop, this is about the cheapest I'd consider.

Nitro V 16S | RTX 5070 (85 W) | 16 GB DDR5: was $1649.99 now $1401.99
This is one of the cheapest RTX 5070 machines we can find right now that we'd actually want to buy ourselves. It comes with a modern AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 chip, 180 Hz 16-inch IPS display, 1 TB SSD, and 16 GB of DDR5. We've seen a few RTX 5070 laptops going for less over recent months but right now, this is one of the best in terms of value. Especially as it's the slim Nitro design, which should slip pretty easily into a reasonably-sized backpack.

Legion 5i | RTX 5060 (100 W) | 16 GB DDR5 | OLED: was $2299.99 now $1499
While this is still a lot of money for an RTX 5060 machine, there are two main points to consider. One, it's got a 100 W GPU power limit, which is better than most. And two, it's got a 165 Hz OLED display, which means you get some of the best screen tech around crammed within a 15.1 inch frame. The CPU is plenty punchy, and it's also got a proper 1 TB SSD. The RTX 5060 will need a fair bit of DLSS help to push pixels at 1600p resolution, but this lappy is still well worth considering for the cash.

I've found an RTX 5070 gaming laptop for $1,200 in the Prime Day sales. This is not a drill.

Andy Edser — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 14:57:48 +0000

The gaming laptop market is incredibly tough right now. The memory crisis has priced most machines out of sensible consideration, and while I'm still pulling out some very good Prime Day gaming laptop deals regardless, it's hard going out there.

But this? This RTX 5070-equipped Acer Nitro V for $1,200 at Amazon? My goodness, my eyebrows nearly came off the top of my face. I though deals on this particular lappy were done and dusted—but no, it's made a comeback, riding in like Gandalf on his white pony to save the day.

Now, there are a few caveats to be aware of before we all get too excited. For starters, it's got a 512 GB SSD. That's positively tiny for a modern gaming machine, so you'll need to be careful with how many games you install at once.

We're collecting all the best Prime Day PC gaming deals here

It's also got a power-limited RTX 5070, 85 W to be precise. However, the good news is that it's paired with a 1200p, 180 Hz screen. That means even a mild implementation of Nvidia's mid-range graphics chip should have no trouble pushing plenty of frames in demanding games. There's always DLSS and frame generation to give it a hand, too.

What else, what else. The CPU is an Intel Core 7 240H, a 10-core chip with six Performance cores and four Efficient. That might sound a little small potatoes in 2026, but it's a nippy little beastie that should do just fine. I'd happily game on it, put it that way.

I suppose the chassis is a tad dull, although Acer Nitro designs are much, much better than they used to be. It's downright restrained compared to the older models, and I've passed around one of these in my hands with a smile on my face. It's nice, is what I'm saying. Budget, but still nice.

But the main thing I can't get over is the price. I'm finding RTX 5060 machines (with the same power limit, no less) for more cash than this right now. On discount. With extras thrown into the bundle, like a crappy USB hub you won't use.

This is the best deal I've found so far this Prime Day, and I hope it sticks around for a while yet. It makes my gaming laptop recommendations so much easier to deal with. Want bang for your buck on a budget? Buy this one. Just be prepared to stick another SSD in it somewhere along the line.

👉Shop all the Amazon Prime Day gaming laptop deals here👈

This proper-spec RTX 5060 gaming laptop offers a beefy 16-core AMD chip for reasonable cash in the pre-Prime Day sales

Andy Edser — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 15:44:32 +0000

TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5060 (115 W) | 16 GB DDR5: was $1599.99 now $1349.99
We reviewed the RTX 5050 version of this TUF A16 very recently, and came away hugely impressed. This one has a proper 115 W RTX 5060, a 16-core AMD chip with genuine grunt, and a 1 TB SSD. That's pretty impressive in its own right, given that many lesser-wattage RTX 5060 machines with 512 GB of storage are far more expensive. It's got a lovely chassis, too.

It wasn't long ago that RTX 5060 gaming laptops could be found for under $1,000, or somewhere near it. These days I'm regularly finding low-wattage versions for $1,500+ on discount, a sign of our memory crisis-afflicted times.

This Asus TUF Gaming A16 caught my eye this morning, though. While the $1,350 price tag might seem steep for an RTX 5060 machine, it's actually pretty reasonable in the current market—especially as it's got a seriously beefy 16-core AMD CPU from the previous generation.

Plus, the GPU wattage is the full-fat 115 W spec, which is more than I can say for 90% of laptop deals I'm finding right now. Pair that with a 1200p, 165 Hz screen, and you've got yourself a great set of components for gaming, alongside a CPU that's more than capable of munching down on any productivity task you can feed it.

We're curating all the best October Prime Day PC gaming deals right here

"Ah, but it'll have a 512 GB SSD," I thought to myself as I read the listing. Nope, it's got a proper 1 TB drive. The chassis looks to be a good 'un, too, as our Zak found when he reviewed the RTX 5050 Asus TUF Gaming A16 recently. He liked it a lot—and I'm willing to bet he'd put his stamp of approval on this RTX 5060 version as well.

Future

Above: The RTX 5050-equipped Asus TUF Gaming A16 we recently reviewed.

Really, the only major downside (other than the fact that this used to be RTX 5070 laptop deal pricing) is that you only get 16 GB of DDR5, not 32. Ah well. You can't have everything these days, can you? And as our Nick found earlier this year, 16 GB is still perfectly fine for gaming.

In this sort of market, I reckon this is one of the better gaming laptop deals I've seen in a while. And while I'm still disappointed by the lack of discounts on RTX 5070 machines at this point (roll on Prime Day itself, which officially kicks off tomorrow), I think I'd be very happy if I picked up one of these instead.

There's nothing you or I can do about the current pricing situation when it comes to gaming laptops, although I do expect more discounts on other machines over the next few days. Right now, though, I'm sorely tempted by this one. How about you?

Can someone pinch me, I think I just found a decent gaming laptop deal for under AU$1,900

shaun.prescott@futurenet.com (Shaun Prescott) — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 03:47:53 +0000

LOQ 15IRX10: was $2599 now $1879
i7-13650HX | 16GB RAM | 1TB SSD | RTX 5060

This is a rare good deal on an RTX gaming lappy, especially when you look at the competition: it's AU$20 cheaper than what JB Hi-Fi is currently selling it for, but most other retailers don't get within spitting range (or at least, they do only with the 512GB model). This thing will play anything you throw at it, albeit not at high settings if it's very recent. It's a 15 incher with a 1080p panel and a 144Hz refresh rate, and our review was quite glowing.View Deal

If you hit Amazon in October 2026 expecting to find an outstanding price on gaming laptops, RAM or SSD storage, you've probably just awakened from deep freeze. Or at least, that's what I thought before noticing this Lenovo LOQ laptop.

It's currently going for AU$1,879, down from AU$2,599.

Let's look at the specs:

An Intel Core i7-13650HX CPU (a good mid-range CPU but as Zac Storey mentioned recently, loud)
An Nvidia RTX 5060 GPU (obvs not a 5070, 5080, or a 5090, but perfect for a 1080p or 1440p gaming with recent blockbusters)
16GB RAM (people thought this was getting to be not enough RAM before the RAM crisis kicked in; the RAM crisis has proven them wrong)
1TB SSD (a good amount indeed, considering other retailers are selling similarly specced laptops with a 512GB SSD)
It has a 1080p display with a 144Hz refresh rate (which is well-suited to this config)

Zac Storey reviewed the AMD version of this laptop. His sample had a 512GB SSD rather than a 1TB. Nevertheless, he gave it a solid 81 / 100. "It's so refreshing to be able to just game at your native resolution on a laptop at this price point, without having to worry about dialling the graphics preset down, or swapping around resolutions and getting stretched pixels or worse," he wrote.

The only retailer coming within spitting distance of this price is JB Hi-Fi, who has it for AU$1,899. Granted, you'll need to be a Prime member to enjoy Amazon's AU$20 advantage, but signing up for that is free for the first month, and there's no shipping charges either. Meanwhile, The Good Guys is selling a lower specced version (512GB SSD, i5-13450HX CPU) for the same price as JB Hi-Fi.

In other words, if you're looking for an entry level gaming laptop or, indeed, any kind of laptop, this is a steal at present.

Asus TUF Gaming A16 gaming laptop review

Zak Storey — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 15:21:13 +0000

The ask this month was a simple one. Take a trio of mid-range(ish) laptops, the Asus TUF Gaming A16, the Lenovo Legion 5, and the MSI Katana 15 HX. Benchmark the crap out of them, run them as a daily driver for a spell, research the bejesus out of them, and then see which one croaks under the pressure. A, dare I say, qualitative and quantitative group test of sorts, split across three separate reviews. Akin to the old printed tech mag days of yore.

It's been fun, inciteful, and frustrating at times, and as this is the last review of the bunch, let me tell you, if this was Maximum PC or PC Format, it's here that I'd be waxing lyrical about how the winner of this month's arduous journey, is, without even a modicum of doubt, the Asus TUF Gaming A16.

Truly, its implementation is a thing of beauty. It's an expertly balanced laptop that satisfies not only the needs of the professional, but that of the gamer as well. Its blend of hardware, style and pricing has put the TUF on the right path to claim its very own slot in our best gaming laptops buying guide, and with good reason.

That's not to say it's perfect, I have my quibbles with it, don't get me wrong, but what Asus has managed to achieve here, on a budget is nigh impressive. The form factor, the design, the performance, the screen, the ports, all of it hits the marks that matter, and smooth over the wrinkles that the others introduce.

It's a thing of beauty, again all for a price that slides under what you'd expect Asus would charge for something like this. If you're after a new laptop and find this thing on sale during Black Friday and the next few months, and it sits in your price bracket, I'd highly recommend it.

Buy if...

✅ You want a well rounded gaming laptop: Everything on the TUF A16 is remarkably well balanced, the hardware spec blended with that 1920x1200 screen is an absolute treat. If you want to game, or work on it, present or stream, you can do it all without fear.

Do not buy if...

❌ You're looking at a futureproof purchase: Although it's good today, 16 GB of DDR5 and an RTX 5050 err on the conservative side. If you're looking to keep this running long into the future, frame rates may begin to stutter as you approach the three to four year mark.

Asus TUF Gaming A16 - Features

(Image credit: Future)

Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 260 PNG
Cores	8
Threads	16
Boost clock speed	5.1 GHz
Graphics	Nvidia GeForce RTX 5050 8 GB
RAM	16GB (2x8GB) DDR5-5600 MT/s
Storage	1 TB Sandisk WD PC SN5000S SDEQNSJ-1T00-1002 - PCIe 4.0
Display	16.1-inch IPS level
Resolution	1920 x 1200
Refresh	165 Hz
Battery	90 Whr
Power brick	240 W
Weight	2.2 kg
Dimensions	354.0 x 269.0 x 25.7 mm
Price	£1,260 / $1,550 (US model features 512GB SSD, higher res)

Asus TUF Gaming A16 - Value

Future

The top line specs here don't exactly shout "premium" from the rooftops, I get that. RTX 5050 and an AMD Ryzen 7 260 are hardly ground breaking, but it's how Asus has integrated the cooling and power delivery into this mixture that really breathes life into the thing. So many manufacturers skimp out on that latter part, and leave consumers with RTX 5070 and 5080s choked on low TGPs and it severely impacts market credibility. Asus has done the opposite here, and allowing that RTX 5050 to run at full tilt under a 115 W TGP delivers some exceptional performance without necessarily breaking the bank.

The CPU ain't half bad either. Although like most of the laptops we have under review currently, it's a little long in the tooth, AMD's Ryzen 7 260, is an eight-core, 16-thread beastie, that produces some respectable numbers under load, all while keeping the heat down in the process.

It also comes with 16 GB (2x 8GB) of DDR5 at a comfortable 5,600 MT/s. Although it's not exactly insanely high-end by modern standards it does mean you can swap that out at a later date with a higher capacity kit without much worry. And, for once, we're not looking at a single-channel memory setup that some manufacturers (ahem… Lenovo…) like to proclaim as "consumer friendly".

(Image credit: Future)

The rest of the spec list equally fails to disappoint. That RTX 5050's been matched with a 1920x1200 "IPS-level" 16-inch display fluttering along at a smooth 165 Hz, and it's a beaut too. Brightness is great, the colours really pop, and there's minimal ghosting or latency issues here as well. Is it as vibrant or as high refresh as an OLED model? Well, no, but for those after a versatile screen that gets the job done well, it's more than good enough. Pixel density too, isn't half bad either, just a fraction above that of a 32-inch 4K desktop panel, and the reduced pixel count significantly helps that RTX 5050 hold its own at native.

On the connectivity front, aside from WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.4, the TUF also comes 3x USB Type-A, 2x USB Type-C, a 3.5mm audio jack, HDMI out, and full ethernet as well, along with a dedicated power port too. Oh and there's a 1080p webcam, but that's fairly standard affair at this point.

The keyboard's not exactly anything to write home about, it's just a standard chiclet RGB affair, but it'll do, and the sizable trackpad lends itself well to light desktop work (I did once know a guy who used to raid in WoW Cataclysm with a trackpad, and it still makes me shudder to this day).

All told, it's a reasonable spec. But in all honesty, while it is a well put together system, that $1,500 price tag is too much, and it's going to need some hefty discounting to make it a genuinely budget-friendly machine.

Asus TUF Gaming A16 - Sound

(Image credit: Future)

Let's talk audio quick before we get onto the good stuff (performance), because for once, I'm actually excited to talk about laptop speakers. Because these things absolutely slap.

At max volume there's minimal distortion, and a healthy chunking of bass reverberating along underneath. Watching Sung Jin-woo slap the metaphorical crud out of Beru in Solo Levelling, as Howl plays in the background is as epic as it can ever be. Treble's smooth, mids are there too in abundance, and honestly I was genuinely impressed. In heavier bass moments in certain music genres there's fractional disturbance and vibration, but the moments are fleeting.

Fan noise on the other hand is chonky. Not quite as potent as the Lenovo Legion 5, but notably sitting in between it and the MSI Katana (which is arguably too quiet, and hamstringing its own cooling as a result).

Asus TUF Gaming A16 - Performance

(Image credit: Future)

Okay, on to the good stuff, and there's an interesting tale here with performance. I've already alluded to it heavily with the MSI Katana 15 HX review, but its a tale of the plucky little RTX 5050 that could, that's what I'll say.

1 / 4

1080p gaming performance

Running games at a normalised resolution to compare frame rates at the same level

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Asus TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5050 115 W | Ryzen 7 260

Lenovo Legion 5 | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 13650HX

MSI Katana 15 HX | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 14650HX

Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p RT Ultra) Data
Product	Value
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260	31 Avg FPS, 21 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX	29 Avg FPS, 15 1% Low FPS
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX	32 Avg FPS, 21 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Asus TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5050 115 W | Ryzen 7 260

Lenovo Legion 5 | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 13650HX

MSI Katana 15 HX | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 14650HX

Baldur's Gate 3 (1080p Ultra) Data
Product	Value
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260	63 Avg FPS, 31 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX	63 Avg FPS, 36 1% Low FPS
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX	50 Avg FPS, 27 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Asus TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5050 115 W | Ryzen 7 260

Lenovo Legion 5 | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 13650HX

MSI Katana 15 HX | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 14650HX

Black Myth: Wukong benchmarking tool (1080p High) Data
Product	Value
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260	48 Avg FPS, 40 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX	49 Avg FPS, 42 1% Low FPS
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX	46 Avg FPS, 39 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Asus TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5050 115 W | Ryzen 7 260

Lenovo Legion 5 | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 13650HX

MSI Katana 15 HX | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 14650HX

F1 24 (1080p Ultra High) Data
Product	Value
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260	54 Avg FPS, 43 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX	58 Avg FPS, 47 1% Low FPS
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX	60 Avg FPS, 46 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Asus TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5050 115 W | Ryzen 7 260

Lenovo Legion 5 | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 13650HX

MSI Katana 15 HX | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 14650HX

Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (1080p Ultra) Data
Product	Value
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260	59 Avg FPS, 24 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX	72 Avg FPS, 26 1% Low FPS
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX	65 Avg FPS, 22 1% Low FPS

Let's just compare the top-line real quick. Because between this and the MSI, it's a real showcase as to what good cooling in laptops can do. So, Asus: RTX 5050, 115 W TGP. MSI: RTX 5060, 115 W TGP. Average GPU temp for Asus: 60; average GPU temp for MSI: 77. Average clock speed for Asus: 2,680 MHz at 75 W; MSI: 2,305 MHz at 68W.

The reason that matters is that in every single benchmark I ran these two laptops at, both running at 1080p on Ultra, the Asus was either close, or significantly beat its red dragon shaped counterpart. It lost out in Metro Exodus by 6 fps, F1 by 6 fps, Cyberpunk by 1 fps, but beat it in Baldur's Gate 3 by 13 fps, and Black Myth Wukong by 2 fps.

Creator and system performance

Testing the non-gaming performance of the laptops.

Compressing (GIPS)

Decompressing (GIPS)

Asus TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5050 115 W | Ryzen 7 260

82.31

119.91

Lenovo Legion 5 | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 13650HX

66.83

113

MSI Katana 15 HX | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 14650HX

100.46

105.57

7zip 24.07 Data
Product	Value
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260	82.31 Compressing (GIPS), 119.91 Decompressing (GIPS)
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX	66.83 Compressing (GIPS), 113 Decompressing (GIPS)
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX	100.46 Compressing (GIPS), 105.57 Decompressing (GIPS)

Multi-core index score

Single-core index score

Asus TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5050 115 W | Ryzen 7 260

920

102

Lenovo Legion 5 | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 13650HX

956

105

MSI Katana 15 HX | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 14650HX

832

112

Cinebench 2024 Data
Product	Value
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260	920 Multi-core index score, 102 Single-core index score
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX	956 Multi-core index score, 105 Single-core index score
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX	832 Multi-core index score, 112 Single-core index score

CPU (samples/min)

GPU (samples/min)

Asus TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5050 115 W | Ryzen 7 260

79.28

930.53

Lenovo Legion 5 | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 13650HX

89.16

1085.56

MSI Katana 15 HX | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 14650HX

77.88

1044.62

Blender 4.2.0 (junkshop) Data
Product	Value
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260	79.28 CPU (samples/min), 930.53 GPU (samples/min)
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX	89.16 CPU (samples/min), 1085.56 GPU (samples/min)
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX	77.88 CPU (samples/min), 1044.62 GPU (samples/min)

Overall index score

Duration (Sec)

Sec/image

Asus TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5050 115 W | Ryzen 7 260

1285

77.79

4.862

Lenovo Legion 5 | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 13650HX

1412

70.81

4.425

MSI Katana 15 HX | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 14650HX

1349

74.11

4.632

Procyon Data
Product	Value
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260	1285 Overall index score, 77.79 Duration (Sec), 4.862 Sec/image
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX	1412 Overall index score, 70.81 Duration (Sec), 4.425 Sec/image
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX	1349 Overall index score, 74.11 Duration (Sec), 4.632 Sec/image

CPU performance too demolished the Katana in multi-threaded Cinebench scoring 920 versus 832, and only coming second due to the Lenovo Legion 5's impressive 956 figure on that front. That further tells us that whatever MSI's doing in its cooling profile, it's not enough and its causing both its CPU and GPU to throttle. Just goes to show folks, you can have a shiny chip on paper that's theoretically better than the competition, but if it ain't cooled right, it's just a name.

Overall, in isolation, the TUF does well across the board. Particularly when taking advantage of DLSS and frame-gen. 82 fps in Cyberpunk at Native, 66 fps in BG3, 68 in Black Myth Wukong, 116 in F1. All comfortable numbers and then some. Dial the settings in a bit more and you'll likely hit that sweet 165 fps spot too with a bit of effort.

System performance

Testing power and thermal performance of the laptops.

Avg CPU (°C)

Max CPU (°C)

Avg GPU (°C)

Max GPU (°C)

Asus TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5050 115 W | Ryzen 7 260

Lenovo Legion 5 | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 13650HX

MSI Katana 15 HX | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 14650HX

Gaming temperatures Data
Product	Value
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260	71 Avg CPU (°C), 87 Max CPU (°C), 60 Avg GPU (°C), 85 Max GPU (°C)
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX	76 Avg CPU (°C), 91 Max CPU (°C), 81 Avg GPU (°C), 85 Max GPU (°C)
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX	77 Avg CPU (°C), 95 Max CPU (°C), 77 Avg GPU (°C), 82 Max GPU (°C)

Avg GPU freq. (MHz)

Avg GPU power (W)

Asus TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5050 115 W | Ryzen 7 260

2680

Lenovo Legion 5 | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 13650HX

2678

MSI Katana 15 HX | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 14650HX

2305

GPU stats Data
Product	Value
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260	2680 Avg GPU freq. (MHz), 75 Avg GPU power (W)
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX	2678 Avg GPU freq. (MHz), 85 Avg GPU power (W)
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX	2305 Avg GPU freq. (MHz), 68 Avg GPU power (W)

Max CPU temp (°C)

Max GPU temp (°C)

Asus TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5050 115 W | Ryzen 7 260

Lenovo Legion 5 | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 13650HX

MSI Katana 15 HX | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 14650HX

System temperatures Data
Product	Value
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260	95 Max CPU temp (°C), 68 Max GPU temp (°C)
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX	99 Max CPU temp (°C), 74 Max GPU temp (°C)
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX	96 Max CPU temp (°C), 75 Max GPU temp (°C)

Asus TUF Gaming A16 - Aesthetics

Future

From a visual perspective, the TUF A16 is positively dull. But it's a good thing. It's crisp, clean, squared off. There are no odd shapes, or weird bevels, or obscene logos and RGB littering everything. It's subdued, understated, a true sleeper machine. The only inkling it might even be slightly "gamery" comes in the form of the TUF logo and shield etched into the lid, and even then you can't really see it unless the light hits it just right.

The bezels are thin, and it just looks and feels great, with a soft-touch satin finish. Like all of these laptops I've tested recently, it's a bit of a fingerprint magnet, but aside from that, there's little to complain about. Perhaps the keyboard could be a bit more mature, but it's nowhere near the Katana's level of "trust me bro, I'm a gamer".

Asus TUF Gaming A16 - Software

(Image credit: Future)

Armoury crate… eugh… I still don't like it. It's there, you can use it. It has profiles, for extra performance, or battery saving (all our results are based on the high-performance mode, which does add a significant performance boost to the overall figures), but it's clunky to install, and load, and about the only downside to this beautiful machine.

As with all of these three laptops, there's pre-installed Mal… I mean aftermarket antivirus. Highly recommend you uninstall that pronto, and dodge the free trial expiry that comes along with it. Windows Defender will comfortably handle all of your AV needs.

Asus TUF Gaming A16 - Battery life

(Image credit: Future)

As for the battery life it's one of the best I've seen at this price. 112 minutes puts the other two to shame, nearly doubling what the Lenovo Legion 5 managed. But then that's to be expected really, particularly given it's got a 90 WHr battery under the hood, and it charges rapidly too, with an included 240 W battery bank.

Battery life

Testing the long term gaming life of the laptops using the industry standard PCMark 10 gaming test.

PCMark 10 Gaming test

Asus TUF Gaming A16

112

Lenovo Legion 5

MSI Katana 15 HX

MSI Katana 15 HX B14W gaming laptop review

Zak Storey — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 15:21:11 +0000

"A union divided cannot stand," reads a famous quote from a famous man. But only now can we finally know why Abraham Lincoln said what he said. There's no shadow of a doubt in my mind he was (in this journalist's opinion), predicting the rise and fall of MSI's Katana 15 HX B14W 2026 edition. Clearly irate with the apparent division it has between its US and UK pricing. This thing is, no word of a lie, $500 more expensive in the US, and that's even before we add sales tax into the equation. Best gaming laptop? Not in the land of the free, that's for damn sure.

In ol' blighty, in the realm of the surprisingly good cooking and cheap dental care, it's a whole other story. What you get for a meagre £1,300 first looks quite solid. And although, yes, that's probably three days of heating this coming winter, if you forgo the soothing warmth of your radiators for a bit you can net yourself an RTX 5060, Core i7 14650HX, and 16 GB of (gloriously dual-channel) 5,600 MT/s DDR5 RAM, all paired nicely with a crisp 2560x1440 "IPS-level" display flickering along 165 times every single second.

For that outlay, I wouldn't blame you in thinking that this is a surprisingly tempting proposition, especially as Black Friday is right around the corner. But it's not without fault, and there's some curious side-effects as a result of the cooling design, that you need to be aware of before you pull the trigger and tell grandma to grab another coat to keep warm.

Buy if...

✅ You're after a cheap UK deal for a versatile laptop: It's not the ultimate gaming machine, no, but MSI's packed a lot of solid quality hardware in here, and for just shy of £1,300 it does beat out the competition spec for spec.

✅ You're a big fan of DLSS: That RTX 5060 does lead the field when it comes to ray tracing performance compared to its competition at a similar price point.

Do not buy if...

❌ You're not a fan of the "gamer" aesthetic: It's big bold and ostentatious, with a hexagonal screen bezel, and overall body design. Everywhere you look, it clearly states itself as "for the gamer", so if you're taking this into a business meeting, look away.

❌ You want a CPU and GPU combo that's fully unlocked: The Katana 15 HX technically has a 115 W TGP, but it often taps out at half that, with flailing clock-speeds as a result, we suspect due to CPU bottlenecking.

MSI Katana 15 HX - Features

Future

Processor	Intel Core i7 14650HX PNG
Cores	8 Performance, 8 Efficient
Threads	24
Boost clock speed	5.2 GHz
Graphics	Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 8 GB
RAM	16 GB (2x8GB) DDR5-5600 MT/s
Storage	1 TB Samsung MZVL81T0HFLB-00BTW PCIe 4.0
Display	15.6-inch "IPS-Level"
Resolution	2560 x 1440
Refresh	165 Hz
Battery	75 Whr
Power brick	240 W
Weight	2.4 kg
Dimensions	359 x 262 x 25.5 mm
Price	£1,299 / $1,799

So, we've covered the basics already, chunky GPU that kinda pairs nicely with the 2560 x 1440 "IPS-level" display, 115 W TGP which should give the card a bit of leg room to clock-up nice and high. Should. You get WiFi 6E, and Bluetooth as standard. As well as three USB Type-A ports, a USB-C, Ethernet, 3.5 mm audio, and HDMI out too. That's not a huge amount of connectivity; you may need a USB hub or dongle if you're going to spin this up as your main rig with a few extra periphs, but it's a comfortable enough experience if you're on the move, and I've seen worse recently. Razer's Blade 16, doesn't even come with ethernet and that thing costs a staggering five grand or thereabouts (although to be fair it is very good).

The SSD is a bit underwhelming mind you. It's one of Samsung's… well, I'm not going to reel off the serial code because it's one of those cryptic OEM-only designations that makes no sense to any human that reads it, but in short its an OEM PM9C1b, PCIe 4.0 SSD, that should top out at 7 GB/s on the read and 5.7 GB/s on the writes. It's based on Samsung's in-house Piccolo controller, and taps into 236-layer TLC V-NAND, it's not too dissimilar to the 990 Evo Samsung launched a couple of years back at this point. So y'know, eh…

As for the chip, that's Intel's Raptor Lake Core i7 14650HX. Again a little dated, but you do get eight performance cores and eight efficient cores for fully 24 threads, and a max turbo clock speed of 5.2 GHz at full tilt. But it's hot, real hot, and that is I think the biggest issue that the B14W currently has. Certainly if we compare it to something like Asus' TUF Gaming A16.

MSI Katana 15 HX - Value

(Image credit: Future)

Alright, yep let's talk value. Ahem... It's a bit of a double-edged sword. Something that ironically a traditional Katana isn't, and it's mostly dependent on which part of the globe you sit. If you're in the US $1,800 for this kit-out is absurd. Particularly when you have laptops like the Lenovo Legion 5 available for a near identical spec, but with a far better OLED screen for less than that.

And it's that screen that really lets down the whole affair. MSI has it listed as "IPS-level", and to be frank, it doesn't look anything like an IPS. I've got it sat next to two separate IPS monitors right now, and the brightness is dull, the contrast underwhelming, and the color difference between the three genuinely astounding. If you'd have told me this was a TN panel, I'd believe you, and even then go "man, it's a bit rough by modern TN standards, aint it?" Like yes, it's great it's got that 165 Hz refresh rate, and a 16:10 aspect ratio, and a pixel density that puts 4K 32-inch monitors to shame, but it just absolutely pulls you out of the immersion when you see just how dull it looks by comparison to most modern offerings.

That's almost excusable at the £1200 - £1300 mark, and unconscionable at $1,800 (I have seen this cheaper during my time testing, but let's not assume it's always on offer). Even so, it just leaves a bit of a sour taste in your mouth, particularly when compared to that A16, or the Lenovo Legion 5.

MSI Katana 15 HX - Sound

(Image credit: Future)

I'll talk more about this momentarily, but the fans are not particularly that noisy under load. They are spinning and going at what I assume is full-tilt, but compared to the likes of the Lenovo, it's a whole other ball game. Dare I say, you don't need a set of noise cancelling headphones to drown out the sound of this thing.

As for the speakers, they're ok. Bass is a bit muted, there's not a lot of breadth to the soundscape (perhaps unsurprising given the form factor), but clarity is up there, and there's no tinniness in the upper trebles. If you're listening to Blood in the Bayou by River Lume and Spearfisher, you can hear every single note of the banjo as clear as day. Yes it does lack the warmth and thrum you'd expect from a full setup, but again, it's two tiny tweeters.

MSI Katana 15 HX - Performance

(Image credit: Future)

Things don't fair particularly better in the performance department either. Although yes it does have a dual-channel RAM setup (thank god, because I don't think I could cope if it didn't), CPU performance is woefully under par compared to even the Core i7 13650HX in the Legion 5, and in-game things get considerably less impressive, even though it has that 115W TGP.

1 / 4

1080p gaming performance

Running games at a normalised resolution to compare frame rates at the same level

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Katana 15 HX | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 14650HX

Lenovo Legion 5 | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 13650HX

Asus TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5050 115 W | Ryzen 7 260

Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p RT Ultra) Data
Product	Value
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX	32 Avg FPS, 21 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX	29 Avg FPS, 15 1% Low FPS
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260	31 Avg FPS, 21 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Katana 15 HX | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 14650HX

Lenovo Legion 5 | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 13650HX

Asus TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5050 115 W | Ryzen 7 260

Baldur's Gate 3 (1080p Ultra) Data
Product	Value
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX	50 Avg FPS, 27 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX	63 Avg FPS, 36 1% Low FPS
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260	63 Avg FPS, 31 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Katana 15 HX | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 14650HX

Lenovo Legion 5 | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 13650HX

Asus TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5050 115 W | Ryzen 7 260

Black Myth: Wukong benchmarking tool (1080p High) Data
Product	Value
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX	46 Avg FPS, 39 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX	49 Avg FPS, 42 1% Low FPS
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260	48 Avg FPS, 40 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Katana 15 HX | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 14650HX

Lenovo Legion 5 | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 13650HX

Asus TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5050 115 W | Ryzen 7 260

F1 24 (1080p Ultra High) Data
Product	Value
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX	60 Avg FPS, 46 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX	58 Avg FPS, 47 1% Low FPS
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260	54 Avg FPS, 43 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

MSI Katana 15 HX | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 14650HX

Lenovo Legion 5 | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 13650HX

Asus TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5050 115 W | Ryzen 7 260

Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (1080p Ultra) Data
Product	Value
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX	65 Avg FPS, 22 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX	72 Avg FPS, 26 1% Low FPS
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260	59 Avg FPS, 24 1% Low FPS

Take it into Cyberpunk 2077, at 1080p with ray tracing dialed up to Ultra, and it runs only a single frame per second faster than the TUF Gaming A16. Which would be fine, if it wasn't for the fact that laptop's running an RTX 5050, not the more powerful RTX 5060. In fact the Katana behaves almost as badly as Lenovo's memory starved RTX 5060 does.

Things do improve when you turn the DLSS fun times on of course, and at the screen's native res. we saw exactly that, with the frame rate shooting up from 20 fps to 64 fps. But then logically that makes sense as we're shifting more of the load away from the CPU and onto the GPU with those interpolated frames.

And it's definitely the CPU that's the crux of the issue here too. Jump into Baldur's Gate 3, and there's an even larger discrepancy between it and the TUF. At 1080p again, the MSI managed just 50 fps, versus that plucky little RTX 5050's 63 fps. In fact you can go down the entire list of benchmarks, and at every single 1080p level, the Asus TUF Gaming A16 is either close, or beating it. For a lower model GPU, and a card that scores lower in every synthetic test we can run. It's astounding.

Creator and system performance

Testing the non-gaming performance of the laptops.

Compressing (GIPS)

Decompressing (GIPS)

MSI Katana 15 HX | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 14650HX

100.46

105.57

Lenovo Legion 5 | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 13650HX

66.83

113

Asus TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5050 115 W | Ryzen 7 260

82.31

119.91

7zip 24.07 Data
Product	Value
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX	100.46 Compressing (GIPS), 105.57 Decompressing (GIPS)
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX	66.83 Compressing (GIPS), 113 Decompressing (GIPS)
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260	82.31 Compressing (GIPS), 119.91 Decompressing (GIPS)

Multi-core index score

Single-core index score

MSI Katana 15 HX | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 14650HX

832

112

Lenovo Legion 5 | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 13650HX

956

105

Asus TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5050 115 W | Ryzen 7 260

920

102

Cinebench 2024 Data
Product	Value
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX	832 Multi-core index score, 112 Single-core index score
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX	956 Multi-core index score, 105 Single-core index score
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260	920 Multi-core index score, 102 Single-core index score

CPU (samples/min)

GPU (samples/min)

MSI Katana 15 HX | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 14650HX

77.88

1044.62

Lenovo Legion 5 | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 13650HX

89.16

1085.56

Asus TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5050 115 W | Ryzen 7 260

79.28

930.53

Blender 4.2.0 (junkshop) Data
Product	Value
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX	77.88 CPU (samples/min), 1044.62 GPU (samples/min)
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX	89.16 CPU (samples/min), 1085.56 GPU (samples/min)
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260	79.28 CPU (samples/min), 930.53 GPU (samples/min)

Overall index score

Duration (Sec)

Sec/image

MSI Katana 15 HX | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 14650HX

1349

74.11

4.632

Lenovo Legion 5 | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 13650HX

1412

70.81

4.425

Asus TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5050 115 W | Ryzen 7 260

1285

77.79

4.862

Procyon Data
Product	Value
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX	1349 Overall index score, 74.11 Duration (Sec), 4.632 Sec/image
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX	1412 Overall index score, 70.81 Duration (Sec), 4.425 Sec/image
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260	1285 Overall index score, 77.79 Duration (Sec), 4.862 Sec/image

That hypothesis on the chip is drawn entirely from observing both the temperature testing, and the GPU clock-speeds. Of the three budget laptops I've tested here, the CPU ran the hottest both on max and on average, and the GPU clocked in the lowest at 2,305 MHz, only drawing on 68 W of total graphical power. Telling.

System performance

Testing power and thermal performance of the laptops.

Avg CPU (°C)

Max CPU (°C)

Avg GPU (°C)

Max GPU (°C)

MSI Katana 15 HX | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 14650HX

Lenovo Legion 5 | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 13650HX

Asus TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5050 115 W | Ryzen 7 260

Gaming temperatures Data
Product	Value
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX	77 Avg CPU (°C), 95 Max CPU (°C), 77 Avg GPU (°C), 82 Max GPU (°C)
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX	76 Avg CPU (°C), 91 Max CPU (°C), 81 Avg GPU (°C), 85 Max GPU (°C)
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260	71 Avg CPU (°C), 87 Max CPU (°C), 60 Avg GPU (°C), 85 Max GPU (°C)

Avg GPU freq. (MHz)

Avg GPU power (W)

MSI Katana 15 HX | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 14650HX

2305

Lenovo Legion 5 | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 13650HX

2678

Asus TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5050 115 W | Ryzen 7 260

2680

GPU stats Data
Product	Value
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX	2305 Avg GPU freq. (MHz), 68 Avg GPU power (W)
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX	2678 Avg GPU freq. (MHz), 85 Avg GPU power (W)
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260	2680 Avg GPU freq. (MHz), 75 Avg GPU power (W)

Max CPU temp (°C)

Max GPU temp (°C)

MSI Katana 15 HX | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 14650HX

Lenovo Legion 5 | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 13650HX

Asus TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5050 115 W | Ryzen 7 260

System temperatures Data
Product	Value
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX	96 Max CPU temp (°C), 75 Max GPU temp (°C)
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX	99 Max CPU temp (°C), 74 Max GPU temp (°C)
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260	95 Max CPU temp (°C), 68 Max GPU temp (°C)

MSI Katana 15 HX - Aesthetics

Future

From a visual standpoint, this is very much a gaming laptop. It's not bad, but if you're a grown professional that blends a bit of work in the day, and gaming in the evening (or on your lunchbreak, who am I to judge on whether or not you fancy some midday WoW Forever dopamine), it might not be the best fit. You've got that hexagonal shaped bezel lining the display, housing the integrated webcam. The same design language along the base near the trackpad. Bold ostentatious keycaps, some of those semi-transparent—for the WASD, and power keys, along with some gaudy arrow keys as well—and it does all feel a bit plasticky too.

It's a shame because, there's no need for it in the modern era, not really, when the humble square and rectangle exist. It's not particularly abrasive, but if you're in the middle of a presentation and the new hire zones out staring at the RGB rainbow gliding across your keys, you can blame it on that, and not your 23 slides on the implementation of the new agentic optimised structured data markdown system you're rolling out for site content in Q3 2027.

MSI Katana 15 HX - Software

(Image credit: Future)

Perhaps suprisingly, MSI's software suite is genuinely impressive. It's one of the better ones out there once you get past the myriad terms and conditions, scroll boxes, and update windows. There's multi-profile setups, mystic light control, hardware monitoring, GPU switches, recovery modes, all in a singular centralised hub, that doesn't feel that intrusive. You can live without it of course (the profiles don't seem to do that much from my own testing), but it's there for those that really want to tinker and dive into the software settings.

As always these things come with pre-installed after market antivirus (that yet again stopped me from installing the pre-requisite benchmarks and games I needed), and as always I recommend uninstalling that pronto to free up system resources. Windows Defender is still one of the best native antivirus platforms out there, and as long as you're clued up and internet savvy, you shouldn't have any major issues relying on just that.

MSI Katana 15 HX - Battery life

(Image credit: Future)

As for the battery, in an amazing twist of fate, that slightly dull screen doesn't exactly help on the battery front. In PC Mark's gaming benchmark—at 50% brightness, with WiFi disabled—the Katana netted just 71 minutes from 100% down to 3% charge. That's not a lot, and only slightly better than Lenovo's Legion 5 (which scored 64 minutes).

I've got beef with that, particularly because the TUF Gaming A16, has somehow crammed in a 90 WHr battery, in the same form factor, kept the entire device cooler, runs the GPU at higher frequency, performs better, and does it for a similar price (if not cheaper in the States). That's the problem. Is 71 minutes enough if you're stuck on a train without a socket? Maybe, but it could be better, and that's the theme for the entire review. It could be better. Should be better.

Battery life

Testing the long term gaming life of the laptops using the industry standard PCMark 10 gaming test.

PCMark 10 Gaming test

MSI Katana 15 HX

Lenovo Legion 5

Asus TUF Gaming A16

112

Lenovo Legion 5i Gen 10 gaming laptop review

Zak Storey — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 15:21:08 +0000

"I'm sure you'll enjoy reviewing this single-channel Lenovo laptop," Dave joked, as we ended a call discussing the new PC Gamer benchmark database. I laughed, as you do, because it's one of those things that I've written about extensively in recent months, (and moaned at PC Gamer, a lot more about besides), and one I hoped I wouldn't see here today. Because, you know, it's mildly insane. And yet… Here we are. Oh... oh boy.

I'm actually reviewing a slew of mid-range laptops currently. This, the MSI Katana 15 HX, and the Asus TUF Gaming A16. And you know what those other two plucky little lappies have? Well, you've probably already guessed, 2x 8 GB of DDR5, both running at 5,600 MT/s. Not so with Lenovo's Legion 5. This wee beauty comes in with just a single 16 GB stick running at a "rapid" (that's sarcasm) 4,800 MT/s. The gaming equivalent of buying a Porsche 911 GT3 RS, and fitting it with a diesel engine from a 1997 Peugeot 106 (an exaggeration, yes, but I'm just so passionate about RAM channels this feels like an almost personal betrayal to me).

Now the logical assumption here is that, for a gamer, this has minimal impact on the overall result, right? You're not going to see any issue at all, because most of your performance comes from the GPU, and its VRAM doing its job. The likelihood of CPU bottlenecks, particularly at 2560x1600, is fairly muted. In short, doing the tasks that this little laptop was designed to fulfill should be a doddle with or without the extra channel bandwidth. Heck, it might even make it into the best gaming laptop buying guide, Lenovo probably said, (11 years of journalism folks).

And, that's kinda true, but the problem is, that in those moments that the RAM bandwidth bottleneck suddenly becomes a thing. It's a problem. A big bloody problem. And not of the same caliber as your GPU getting a little too hot and clock speed falling off by a couple 100 MHz. As soon as that channel saturates, that Peugeot 106 engine blows a head gasket.

Buy if...

✅ You want a beautiful crisp OLED display on the cheap: Gaming? Tick. An aesthetic delight? Tick. The most beautiful screen you've seen for sub 1.5K? Also tick.

Do not buy if...

❌ You're likely to play games at high frame rates, or do memory intensive tasks: The lack of a 2x8GB RAM setup is no bueno for anything even mildly bandwidth sensitive.

Lenovo Legion 5i - Features

Future

Processor	Intel Core i7 13650HX
Cores	6 Performance, 8 Efficient
Threads	20
Boost clock speed	4.9 GHz
Graphics	Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 8GB
RAM	16GB (1x16GB) DDR5-4800 MT/s
Storage	1 TB Kioxia LS KBG60ZNT1T02 PCIe 4.0
Display	15.1-inch OLED
Resolution	2560 x 1600
Refresh	165 Hz
Battery	80 Whr
Power brick	245 W
Weight	1.9 kg
Dimensions	344.9 x 255.35 x 19.95 to 21.54 mm
Price	£1,348 / $1,499 (US model features Core i7-14700HX)

RAM beef aside, the Lenovo Legion 5's notable feature list, outside of the usual bells and whistles, and AI strapped moniker, is fairly slim. The big selling point, without question, is the 15.1-inch OLED display. That beautiful piece of engineering, that graces the 5's sublimely slim form factor.

With some serious pixel density thanks to a 2560x1600 res. (sitting at a suave 199.93 PPI), it cranks out an impressive 165 Hz refresh rate. And the colors, oh my days, the colors on this thing are exemplary. It's one of the few laptops I keep coming back to, and keep gaming on time and time again, throughout the last month, because the display is just that gorgeous to look at.

In fact, every time I flick the lid up, or pop my finger on the power button, I'm genuinely amazed by how vibrant and smooth it looks. Power Wash Simulator 2 has never looked this good, and don't even get me started on Sort Them Ducks.

There's more to it than just a fancy screen though, as it comes with support for twin M.2 SSDs, and features WiFi 7 straight out of the gate. The port selection is fairly solid too, with wired ethernet running alongside dual USB C and twin USB 3.2 Type A as well, along with an HDMI out.

Lenovo Legion 5i - Value

(Image credit: Future)

Back to the screen for a second though, and why that impresses on me so much, is that the price is so damn tight. Particularly for the modern AI age. £1,348 in the UK. That nets you that 20 thread chip, a decent RTX 5060 (actually running at a reputable power wattage for once), a solid PCIe 4.0 SSD, and of course you get all of those bells and whistles I mentioned above, with arguably the best-looking screen I've seen in the past six months.

Unfortunately, the US market no longer sports the exact spec that I have here, but its closest kin, comes in at a still respectable $1,499 (when not on offer), and features the slightly more modern Core i7 14700HX as well, which nets you some additional cores for an extra eight threads overall.

Lenovo Legion 5i - Sound

(Image credit: Future)

I've been quietly surprised by just how good the speaker setup is on the Legion 5 too. There are two small tweeters situated within the bottom edge of the trackpad, on either side facing outwards, that give it a surprising amount of depth in the audio, and there's a comfortable amount of bass output as well here, somehow. Maybe Lenovo could lend its sound engineers out to MSI, for like a play date or something.

Is it tinny? Well, yeah, a little. It's not exactly going to hold up compared to your Audioengine A2+ wireless units or anything of the sort. But if you're strapped in a pinch, and feel like ditching those pesky headphones, it does a respectable job of handling itself in that situation.

System performance

Testing power and thermal performance of the laptops.

Avg CPU (°C)

Max CPU (°C)

Avg GPU (°C)

Max GPU (°C)

Lenovo Legion 5 | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 13650HX

MSI Katana 15 HX | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 14650HX

Asus TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5050 115 W | Ryzen 7 260

Gaming temperatures Data
Product	Value
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX	76 Avg CPU (°C), 91 Max CPU (°C), 81 Avg GPU (°C), 85 Max GPU (°C)
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX	77 Avg CPU (°C), 95 Max CPU (°C), 77 Avg GPU (°C), 82 Max GPU (°C)
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260	71 Avg CPU (°C), 87 Max CPU (°C), 60 Avg GPU (°C), 85 Max GPU (°C)

Avg GPU freq. (MHz)

Avg GPU power (W)

Lenovo Legion 5 | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 13650HX

2678

MSI Katana 15 HX | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 14650HX

2305

Asus TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5050 115 W | Ryzen 7 260

2680

GPU stats Data
Product	Value
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX	2678 Avg GPU freq. (MHz), 85 Avg GPU power (W)
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX	2305 Avg GPU freq. (MHz), 68 Avg GPU power (W)
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260	2680 Avg GPU freq. (MHz), 75 Avg GPU power (W)

Max CPU temp (°C)

Max GPU temp (°C)

Lenovo Legion 5 | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 13650HX

MSI Katana 15 HX | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 14650HX

Asus TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5050 115 W | Ryzen 7 260

System temperatures Data
Product	Value
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX	99 Max CPU temp (°C), 74 Max GPU temp (°C)
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX	96 Max CPU temp (°C), 75 Max GPU temp (°C)
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260	95 Max CPU temp (°C), 68 Max GPU temp (°C)

As for the fan noise. Well, it's a slim-line gaming notebook with a 115 W RTX 5060 in it, and a hot as heck Core i7 13650HX at its heart. The max CPU temp under load was 99 degrees, and in gaming you're looking at temps of 81 C on the GPU and 76 on the CPU on average. That's a polite way of saying "she's a bit loud", but in a loving way.

Lenovo Legion 5i - Performance

(Image credit: Future)

Right then, performance. Let's talk about the obvious memory shaped elephant in the room first, shall we? Lenovo's single-channel RAM setup. The argument (as with all major manufacturers who take this route, and I can quote this verbatim at this point), is that it allows the end-user to increase the amount of RAM later, simply by adding another memory stick themselves. Yeah, I suppose, if you're willing to do that, can afford to, and can find one that comfortably matches for compatibility's sake. For everyone else, though, it has some particularly wanton side effects in specific applications that genuinely matter.

Creator and system performance

Testing the non-gaming performance of the laptops.

Compressing (GIPS)

Decompressing (GIPS)

Lenovo Legion 5 | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 13650HX

66.83

113

MSI Katana 15 HX | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 14650HX

100.46

105.57

Asus TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5050 115 W | Ryzen 7 260

82.31

119.91

7zip 24.07 Data
Product	Value
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX	66.83 Compressing (GIPS), 113 Decompressing (GIPS)
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX	100.46 Compressing (GIPS), 105.57 Decompressing (GIPS)
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260	82.31 Compressing (GIPS), 119.91 Decompressing (GIPS)

Multi-core index score

Single-core index score

Lenovo Legion 5 | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 13650HX

956

105

MSI Katana 15 HX | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 14650HX

832

112

Asus TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5050 115 W | Ryzen 7 260

920

102

Cinebench 2024 Data
Product	Value
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX	956 Multi-core index score, 105 Single-core index score
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX	832 Multi-core index score, 112 Single-core index score
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260	920 Multi-core index score, 102 Single-core index score

CPU (samples/min)

GPU (samples/min)

Lenovo Legion 5 | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 13650HX

89.16

1085.56

MSI Katana 15 HX | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 14650HX

77.88

1044.62

Asus TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5050 115 W | Ryzen 7 260

79.28

930.53

Blender 4.2.0 (junkshop) Data
Product	Value
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX	89.16 CPU (samples/min), 1085.56 GPU (samples/min)
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX	77.88 CPU (samples/min), 1044.62 GPU (samples/min)
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260	79.28 CPU (samples/min), 930.53 GPU (samples/min)

Overall index score

Duration (Sec)

Sec/image

Lenovo Legion 5 | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 13650HX

1412

70.81

4.425

MSI Katana 15 HX | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 14650HX

1349

74.11

4.632

Asus TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5050 115 W | Ryzen 7 260

1285

77.79

4.862

Procyon Data
Product	Value
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX	1412 Overall index score, 70.81 Duration (Sec), 4.425 Sec/image
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX	1349 Overall index score, 74.11 Duration (Sec), 4.632 Sec/image
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260	1285 Overall index score, 77.79 Duration (Sec), 4.862 Sec/image

File compression in particular suffers the most, scoring the lowest out of our three models here, with just 66.83 MB/s on compression, versus the 82.31 touted by Asus's TUF Gaming A16, or the 100.46 brought to bear by the Katana. That's a drop of 33.5% in performance alone there on the latter.

It's gaming, however, that's most fascinating. The two standouts being the 1440p Cyberpunk results. With Ray Tracing Ultra and no DLSS or Frame Gen, the numbers are telling. The Katana averaged 20 fps, with minimums clocking in at 15. The Legion, just a meager 11 fps on average, with 3 fps on the minimums. A staggering drop. That's further pressed home by the fact that Lenovo did that with significantly higher GPU usage too. Average power draw was 85 W with a clock speed of 2,678 MHz, versus the Katana's 2,305 MHz and 68 W draw. Ouch.

1 / 4

1080p gaming performance

Running games at a normalised resolution to compare frame rates at the same level

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Lenovo Legion 5 | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 13650HX

MSI Katana 15 HX | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 14650HX

Asus TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5050 115 W | Ryzen 7 260

Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p RT Ultra) Data
Product	Value
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX	29 Avg FPS, 15 1% Low FPS
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX	32 Avg FPS, 21 1% Low FPS
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260	31 Avg FPS, 21 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Lenovo Legion 5 | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 13650HX

MSI Katana 15 HX | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 14650HX

Asus TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5050 115 W | Ryzen 7 260

Baldur's Gate 3 (1080p Ultra) Data
Product	Value
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX	63 Avg FPS, 36 1% Low FPS
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX	50 Avg FPS, 27 1% Low FPS
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260	63 Avg FPS, 31 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Lenovo Legion 5 | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 13650HX

MSI Katana 15 HX | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 14650HX

Asus TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5050 115 W | Ryzen 7 260

Black Myth: Wukong benchmarking tool (1080p High) Data
Product	Value
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX	49 Avg FPS, 42 1% Low FPS
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX	46 Avg FPS, 39 1% Low FPS
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260	48 Avg FPS, 40 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Lenovo Legion 5 | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 13650HX

MSI Katana 15 HX | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 14650HX

Asus TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5050 115 W | Ryzen 7 260

F1 24 (1080p Ultra High) Data
Product	Value
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX	58 Avg FPS, 47 1% Low FPS
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX	60 Avg FPS, 46 1% Low FPS
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260	54 Avg FPS, 43 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Lenovo Legion 5 | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 13650HX

MSI Katana 15 HX | RTX 5060 115 W | i7 14650HX

Asus TUF Gaming A16 | RTX 5050 115 W | Ryzen 7 260

Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (1080p Ultra) Data
Product	Value
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX	72 Avg FPS, 26 1% Low FPS
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX	65 Avg FPS, 22 1% Low FPS
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260	59 Avg FPS, 24 1% Low FPS

Now yes, two very specific niche cases, but the drop there is near enough 50% all because memory bandwidth gets chewed up by high textures, and no upscaling. If you're a fan of playing AAA games at native res on that beautiful OLED, even with the GPU rip roaring along far faster than the competition, you're still going to see an overall drop in performance. Particularly if RTX is involved and DLSS is off. The answer, of course, is to shift to DLSS where you can, and offset those texture sizes, but still, it's a decision that's taken out of your hands entirely.

It's a shame because otherwise by almost every other measure, it's a fine solid laptop, that delivers performance (particularly in older titles) that's genuinely decent. Just the decision to skimp out on dual-channel to save a few bucks, costs it, and when you hit that bottleneck you seriously know about it. I just can't understand what the logic is here either, particularly when competitors, such as Asus and MSI, aren't doing that even on their budget models.

If it's a cost thing, you're saving what $50 maybe at most as a manufacturer per unit, and if it's a "the user can upgrade later", then you're justifying worse performance, and forcing the consumer into unpaid finicky labor to get the performance that the Legion 5 actually should be delivering from the outset.

It's dumb. I don't like it.

Lenovo Legion 5i - Aesthetics

Future

Ignoring my vendetta against any manufacturer that ships single-channel systems, the good news is the Legion 5 is absolutely stunning. It's sleek, slim, all black, with a clean RGB keyboard. There's minimal "gamification" here, and it's elegantly designed across the board, with a clean hinge, and no maddening RGB logos, or silly mascots anywhere.

Compact, is the word I'd use, and although that does lead to some particularly noisy fans from time to time, and some toasty temps, none of it will affect your day to day.

The only downside (when you're not staring at that beautiful screen) is that it is a bit of a fingerprint magnet. If you've got even a smidge of grease on your fingertips, say, from an overly large bag of prawn cocktail crisps (US: chips), it can turn into a mess quite quickly.

Lenovo Legion 5i - Software

(Image credit: Future)

As with all Lenovo Legion laptops, do bear in mind you will need to set the Legion App to its gaming mode to get the best performance out of it when plugged in. It does boost frame-rates by around 10-15% across the board, and nets you that higher GPU power usage and clockspeeds listed here as a result. That does get disabled by default when you unplug the thing, at which point you sit in balanced mode for better battery life.

It also comes with McAfee as standard (or at least our UK edition did), so get to work uninstalling that pronto. It actively stopped a fair few of our game installs, and honestly in this journo's opinion, Windows Defender is more than well equipped to handle the dangers of the modern age.

Lenovo Legion 5i - Battery life

(Image credit: Future)

As for the battery life, yeah, not so good either. It's the second shortest span I've seen on PC Mark's gaming test, managing just 64 minutes, only "beaten" by Acer's Predator Helios NEO 16S AI, with its 53 minutes. So don't expect this to hang on for long once the charger's unplugged.

Lenovo did equip the Legion 5 with a respectable 80 WHr pack, but I suspect that the OLED panel, even at 50% brightness, is sucking up a lot of juice regardless.

Battery life

Testing the long term gaming life of the laptops using the industry standard PCMark 10 gaming test.

PCMark 10 Gaming test

Lenovo Legion 5

MSI Katana 15 HX

Asus TUF Gaming A16

112

Product	Value
Asus ProArt P16 \| RTX Spark \| 1880p	18 Avg FPS, 13 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 \| RTX 5070 100 W \| 1600p	18 Avg FPS, 8 1% Low FPS
Razer Blade 14 \| RTX 5070 115 W \| 1800p	7 Avg FPS, 3 1% Low FPS

Product	Value
Asus ProArt P16 \| RTX Spark \| 1880p	36 Avg FPS, 22 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 \| RTX 5070 100 W \| 1600p	67 Avg FPS, 37 1% Low FPS
Razer Blade 14 \| RTX 5070 115 W \| 1800p	61 Avg FPS, 30 1% Low FPS

Product	Value
Asus ProArt P16 \| RTX Spark \| 1880p	38 Avg FPS, 26 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 \| RTX 5070 100 W \| 1600p	72 Avg FPS, 62 1% Low FPS
Razer Blade 14 \| RTX 5070 115 W \| 1800p	63 Avg FPS, 55 1% Low FPS

Product	Value
Asus ProArt P16 \| RTX Spark \| 1880p	46 Avg FPS, 17 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 \| RTX 5070 100 W \| 1600p	54 Avg FPS, 39 1% Low FPS
Razer Blade 14 \| RTX 5070 115 W \| 1800p	49 Avg FPS, 35 1% Low FPS

Product	Value
Asus ProArt P16 \| RTX Spark \| 1880p	18 Avg FPS, 13 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 \| RTX 5070 100 W \| 1600p	18 Avg FPS, 8 1% Low FPS
Razer Blade 14 \| RTX 5070 115 W \| 1800p	7 Avg FPS, 3 1% Low FPS

Product	Value
Asus ProArt P16 \| RTX Spark	54 Avg FPS, 34 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 \| RTX 5070 100 W	75 Avg FPS, 58 1% Low FPS
Razer Blade 14 \| RTX 5070 115 W	62 Avg FPS, 43 1% Low FPS

Product	Value
Asus ProArt P16 \| RTX Spark	62 Avg FPS, 37 1% Low FPS
Framework 16 \| RTX 5070 100 W	72 Avg FPS, 62 1% Low FPS
Razer Blade 14 \| RTX 5070 115 W	63 Avg FPS, 55 1% Low FPS

Product	Value
Asus ProArt P16 \| RTX Spark	75 Avg CPU (°C), 83 Max CPU (°C), 67 Avg GPU (°C), 70 Max GPU (°C)
Framework 16 \| RTX 5070 100 W	65 Avg CPU (°C), 73 Max CPU (°C), 68 Avg GPU (°C), 71 Max GPU (°C)
Razer Blade 14 \| RTX 5070 115 W	79 Avg CPU (°C), 85 Max CPU (°C), 78 Avg GPU (°C), 81 Max GPU (°C)

Product	Value
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260 \| 1200p	27 Avg FPS, 19 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX \| 1440p	12 Avg FPS, 4 1% Low FPS
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX \| 1600p	20 Avg FPS, 15 1% Low FPS

Product	Value
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260 \| 1200p	66 Avg FPS, 35 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX \| 1440p	58 Avg FPS, 31 1% Low FPS
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX \| 1600p	47 Avg FPS, 20 1% Low FPS

Product	Value
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260 \| 1200p	47 Avg FPS, 30 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX \| 1440p	34 Avg FPS, 24 1% Low FPS
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX \| 1600p	31 Avg FPS, 20 1% Low FPS

Product	Value
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260 \| 1200p	51 Avg FPS, 41 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX \| 1440p	30 Avg FPS, 22 1% Low FPS
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX \| 1600p	37 Avg FPS, 31 1% Low FPS

Product	Value
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260 \| 1200p	56 Avg FPS, 23 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX \| 1440p	50 Avg FPS, 35 1% Low FPS
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX \| 1600p	49 Avg FPS, 33 1% Low FPS

Product	Value
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260 \| 1200p	68 Avg FPS, 58 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX \| 1440p	52 Avg FPS, 45 1% Low FPS
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX \| 1600p	50 Avg FPS, 43 1% Low FPS

Product	Value
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260 \| 1200p	116 Avg FPS, 99 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX \| 1440p	61 Avg FPS, 73 1% Low FPS
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX \| 1600p	84 Avg FPS, 72 1% Low FPS

Product	Value
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260 \| 1200p	4764 Overall index score, 4625 GPU index, 5751 CPU index
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX \| 1440p	5962 Overall index score, 5357 GPU index, 5776 CPU index
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX \| 1600p	5415 Overall index score, 5357 GPU index, 5776 CPU index

Product	Value
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260 \| 1200p	5508
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX \| 1440p	7059
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX \| 1600p	7059

Product	Value
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260 \| 1200p	1974 Overall index score, 338.34 Avg bandwidth (MB/s), 91 Access time (ųs)
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX \| 1440p	2243 Overall index score, 388.87 Avg bandwidth (MB/s), 81 Access time (ųs)
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX \| 1600p	2243 Overall index score, 388.87 Avg bandwidth (MB/s), 81 Access time (ųs)

Product	Value
MSI Katana 15 HX \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 14650HX \| 1600p	64 Avg FPS, 35 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion 5 \| RTX 5060 115 W \| i7 13650HX \| 1440p	64 Avg FPS, 32 1% Low FPS
Asus TUF Gaming A16 \| RTX 5050 115 W \| Ryzen 7 260 \| 1200p	82 Avg FPS, 51 1% Low FPS

Latest from PC Gamer in Gaming-laptops

Asus ProArt P16 (H7607) RTX Spark laptop review

Buy if...

Don't buy if...

Asus ProArt P16 - Features

Asus ProArt P16 - Value

Asus ProArt P16 - Sound

Asus ProArt P16 - Performance

1080p gaming performance

Native gaming performance

Upscaled gaming performance

System performance

System performance

Asus ProArt P16 - Aesthetics

Asus ProArt P16 - Software

Asus ProArt P16 - Battery life

Battery life

PCMark 10

Nvidia's RTX Spark makes for an impressive Arm-based gaming laptop but not one I'd recommend you buy just for PC gaming

Nvidia RTX Spark - architecture

Nvidia RTX Spark - Gaming performance

1080p gaming performance

Native gaming performance

Upscaled gaming performance

System performance

Battery life

PCMark 10

CPU performance

Nvidia RTX Spark - Early impressions

This is the first 32 GB RTX 5070 Ti gaming laptop I've seen for under $1,500 in months

👉See all the Walmart gaming laptop deals here👈

Microsoft seems very excited about its new magnetic USB Type-C charger for the Surface Laptop Ultra, but it don't impress me much

I'm genuinely surprised this $1,200 RTX 5070 gaming laptop deal is still running

Now we know the prices of the new RTX Spark laptops and they're as expensive as I'm sure you feared

The gaming laptop I'd buy with my own cash this Prime Day is... this Asus, even though it's got a teeny weeny little SSD

I've rounded up the six gaming laptop deals under $1,500 that are worth your time this Prime Day

Prime Day gaming laptop deals for under $1,500

The deals in full

I've found an RTX 5070 gaming laptop for $1,200 in the Prime Day sales. This is not a drill.

👉Shop all the Amazon Prime Day gaming laptop deals here👈

This proper-spec RTX 5060 gaming laptop offers a beefy 16-core AMD chip for reasonable cash in the pre-Prime Day sales

Can someone pinch me, I think I just found a decent gaming laptop deal for under AU$1,900

Asus TUF Gaming A16 gaming laptop review

Buy if...

Do not buy if...

Asus TUF Gaming A16 - Features

Asus TUF Gaming A16 - Value

Asus TUF Gaming A16 - Sound

Asus TUF Gaming A16 - Performance

1080p gaming performance

Native res. gaming performance

Native res. gaming performance

Synthetic gaming performance

Creator and system performance

System performance

Asus TUF Gaming A16 - Aesthetics

Asus TUF Gaming A16 - Software

Asus TUF Gaming A16 - Battery life

Battery life

PCMark 10 Gaming test

MSI Katana 15 HX B14W gaming laptop review

Buy if...

Do not buy if...

MSI Katana 15 HX - Features

MSI Katana 15 HX - Value

MSI Katana 15 HX - Sound

MSI Katana 15 HX - Performance

1080p gaming performance

Native res. gaming performance

Native res. gaming performance

Synthetic gaming performance

Creator and system performance

System performance

MSI Katana 15 HX - Aesthetics

MSI Katana 15 HX - Software

MSI Katana 15 HX - Battery life

Battery life

PCMark 10 Gaming test

Lenovo Legion 5i Gen 10 gaming laptop review

Buy if...