Save money for more games with an RTX 3050 gaming laptop priced at just $700

The Acer Nitro 5 gaming laptop front on, open, on a blue background. — (Image credit: Acer)

Picking a budget gaming laptop can be hard when there are so many to choose from. If your price range tops out at $700 the temptation is to go for a previous-generation graphics card, but there's no need to be so extreme.

I know you want to be thrifty, but why go for an RTX 20-series laptop or (god forbid) a GTX 10-series laptop when there are deals like this floating around? This deal's only around for today, so act fast if you want to get your hands on this Acer Nitro 5 gaming laptop for $700.

Alright, so it's not top of the line, and you'll need to tweak the graphics settings a bit in some of the more intensive games of today, but it just goes to show what you can get for your money if you're smart: a 6-core, 12-thread Intel CPU that's only last generation, and a gaming GPU that'll see you through on middle 1080p settings most of the time.

The SSD might be a little disappointing size-wise, but there's hardly an issue otherwise. 16GB of RAM is more than enough when it comes to gaming, and it should see you through general multitasking for work or school.

The cherry on top is that 144Hz refresh rate monitor, which means you can make the most of high frame rates, or just enjoy a slick screen experience even if you can't hit 144 fps with the RTX 3050 GPU.

Welp, now you know it's possible to pick up a still startlingly relevant gaming laptop for way below the $1,000 mark, and one that's packing a current-gen Nvidia GeForce 30-series GPU, too.

Having been obsessed with game mechanics, computers and graphics for three decades, Katie took Game Art and Design up to Masters level at uni and has been writing about digital games, tabletop games and gaming technology for over five years since. She can be found facilitating board game design workshops and optimising everything in her path.