Hunting for gaming laptop deals over the past few months has been like wandering through the desert and occasionally spotting a small oasis among the dunes. RTX 4070 and RTX 4080 machines are all but gone (for reasonable prices, anyway), and the latest glut of RTX 50-series laptops have been mostly too pricey to recommend. Well, scrap that for now, because I've found tasty discounts on RTX 50-series gaming laptops up and down the stack—and Amazon Prime Day hasn't even technically begun yet.
👉Shop all the early Prime Day deals on Amazon👈
Oh, only one of my picks here is listed on Amazon, you understand. That's because all the other major retailers take this opportunity to drop their prices over the Prime Day period, which means that trusty gaming laptop-stalwart Best Buy has got the drop on most of the lappy deals early this year.
I've found a budget RTX 5060 Alienware machine (who knew such a thing existed?), an RTX 5070-equipped Asus that I've personally got my eye on, and two MSI Vector laptops with seriously powerful higher-end RTX 50-series GPUs to choose from. Oh, and an RTX 5090 laptop for a cent under three grand, would you believe.
I haven't been able to find anything under $1,000 just yet, but give it time, I reckon. Still, now's a great time to go laptop shopping, so let's take a look in my big bag 'o deals.
Quick links
- RTX 5060 - Alienware Aurora 16 | $1,050 @ Best Buy
- RTX 5070 - Asus TUF A16 | $1,400 @ Best Buy
- RTX 5070 Ti - MSI Vector 16 HX AI | $1,750 @ Best Buy
- RTX 5080 - MSI Vector 16 HX AI | $2,300 @ Best Buy
- RTX 5090 - HP Omen Max 16 | $3,000 @ Amazon
Alienware Aurora 16
Starting off on the budget end of the spectrum, there's this Alienware Aurora 16 for $1,100. What? Ey? Is it dogs-liking-cats reverse day? Nope, this is an RTX 50-series equipped Alienware laptop for close to a grand, although you will have to make some caveats for the price.
For a start, the 1600p screen is going to make that 85 W TGP mobile GPU work for its money, so you're going to be relying on DLSS 4 and Multi Frame Generation help to make the most of the display's 120 Hz refresh rate. And the CPU, while being one of Intel's more modern chips, only technically has six Performance cores to play with. It should still be fine for gaming, though, and it's very difficult to argue with the hardware you get here for the cash.
What's especially encouraging to see in such a budget machine is the RAM and SSD loadout, 32 GB and 1 TB respectively. I've become a little sick of writing "you might want to upgrade the XXX in future" in my laptop deal posts, but this one? It's pretty well equipped from the off.
It's worth mentioning, though, that if you'd prefer a lower resolution screen better matched to the RTX 5060's talents (and with a higher 115 W TGP to play with), this Asus TUF F16 for $1,160 is also well worth a look. Yeah, 1200p isn't the prettiest, but at a 16-inch screen size it'll still look great, and that gruntier-spec GPU should have an easier time of making the most of it.
Asus TUF A16
Mmmm, I fancy this particular laptop for myself. We're dealing with a 1200p screen again, but this time it's paired with a 115 W RTX 5070, which should have no problem making the most of that 165 Hz panel, particularly with Multi Frame Gen engaged.
Plus, we've been very impressed with the new chassis designs of Asus TUF lappys. I reckon this is a downright handsome gaming laptop, and the keyboard is even lit up red (the correct RGB setting) by default. We all know red wunz go faster, right?
The eight-core, 16-thread AMD chip on offer here is a bit beastly, too, considering the very reasonable price. You also get 32 GB of DDR5-5600, alongside a proper 1 TB SSD. In fact, other than a higher resolution panel, I'd say you want for very little here. I'll take high frame rates over high resolution any day, though, especially for $1,400.
MSI Vector 16 HX AI
Oh, we like the MSI Vector 16 HX AI. We like it a lot. It's not without its drawbacks, mind. The chassis is rather plasticky, and it can sound a bit like a jet engine when pushed to its absolute limits. Drop it down from the Maximum fan setting to Balanced, however, and it behaves itself very nicely indeed.
Our Dave had a play around with the RTX 5080-equipped model (featured below) and came away very impressed with the performance on offer for the cash. The RTX 5070 Ti version, however, should still have plenty of guts, and for $1,750 makes for a potent gaming machine.
This is the cheapest RTX 5070 Ti laptop I've seen so far by a country mile—and while its panel is once again a 1200p unit, it's decently quick at 144 Hz. I'd say this is a pretty overpowered machine for that resolution, which is a good thing if you ask me. It's going to be very unlikely to struggle pushing pixels at that res for quite a long time, so there's a good dose of peace of mind on offer here.
Once you upgrade the SSD, of course. 512 GB? Really, MSI? Still, it'll get you started at least.
MSI Vector 16 HX AI... again
Now we're into serious performance territory. As mentioned above, my beloved hardware editor-in-chief took a long, hard look at this exact specification of MSI Vector 16 HX AI, and called it good. That's a man who's tested more laptops than you've had lukewarm lunches, so I'd take that as high praise indeed.
I had a brief play around with this particular machine myself, and while the chassis is unimpressive, the rest of the laptop is pretty stellar for the cash. You get the 175 W variant of the RTX 5080, which gave our benchmark sheets a bit of a shake-up when slotted into the Vector. It's a rip-roarer of a mobile gaming GPU and one that shouldn't have much issue with the 1600p panel on offer here.
Speaking of panels, a 240 Hz refresh rate is a lovely thing once you've got Multi Frame Generation at your fingertips. Oh, and the CPU is a high-spec 24 core (eight Performance, 16 Efficient) Intel unit, too, so it's not like this lappy is lacking in the component department.
Yep, this machine represents a hefty chunk of performance for $2,300. Like the RTX 5070 Ti version above, though, be prepared for the fans to get offensively loud without some software tweaking.
HP Omen Max 16
And for my final trick... yep, it's an RTX 5090 gaming laptop for $3,000. Now, before you go thinking I've stuck pencils up my nostrils and headed for the hills, I know this is a massive amount of money. And I know that the RTX 5090 inside this particular laptop is unlikely to be all that much faster than the RTX 5080 in the MSI Vector above.
That being said, this is the first time I've seen the price of an RTX 5090 machine (technically) start with a two, so I reckon it's worth pointing out here. You get a speedy 240 Hz 1600p display, 32 GB of RAM, a mega Intel CPU, and the knowledge that none of your buddies will have one. Probably.
That's really the main reason to buy an RTX 5090-equipped laptop, anyway: bragging rights. Still, should you be looking for one that's less than the rest, this is the most well-priced Nvidia mega-GPU machine I've found to date. It's all glowy and pretty, too. What, like image doesn't matter? Give me a break.
👉All of Best Buy's gaming laptop deals are right here👈
👉All of Amazon's gaming laptop deals are right here👈
👉Check out our list of guides👈
1. Best gaming laptop: Razer Blade 16
2. Best gaming PC: HP Omen 35L
3. Best handheld gaming PC: Lenovo Legion Go S SteamOS ed.
4. Best mini PC: Minisforum AtomMan G7 PT
5. Best VR headset: Meta Quest 3
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