

You’ll probably agree when I say:

Finding the ideal gaming laptop can be REALLY hard.

Especially, if you want to find a gaming laptop for under $500.

But is it really?

In this guide, I’ll show you the gaming laptops I recommend after doing 20+ hours of initial research and almost 15 more hours since then.

So, without further ado, here are the best gaming notebook in the 500 dollar price range:

#1 Best Gaming Laptop under $500: HP 14″ Touchscreen Laptop



If you want to get the best gaming laptop under $500, you’re most likely looking for the HP 14. This 14-inch gaming laptop is fast, portable, and can run most non-demanding games smoothly.

Inside of the HP 14, you’ll find the AMD Ryzen 3 3200U processor. It’s aimed for thin mid-range laptops and has good performance to run most games and programs without any lag.

Another factor that increases the speed of the Hp 14 is the 128GB SSD. With an SSD, you don’t have to wait for long load time from games, applications, and Windows itself. The downside of the SSD is that it has only 128GB of storage, so it can fill up quickly if you install many games.

The HP 14 comes with Windows 10 S. Windows 10 S is designed to increase performance and to be easier to use, but the big drawback of WIndows 10 S is that you can only install apps from the Windows Store. If that isn’t for you, you can quickly get out of S mode by following one of the many guides there is online.

The graphics card of the HP 14 is the AMD Radeon Vega 3. It’s an integrated graphics card with great gaming performance, at least if you play non-demanding games on lower graphics settings. If you have a look at the game benchmarks on this Notebookcheck article, you’ll see two things. Some modern games will not run smoothly on this laptop. If you want to run demanding games, look for something with a better graphics card, for example, one of the best gaming laptops under $1000.

The other thing you’ll notice if you check the benchmarks is that non-demanding games such as Fifa, Rocket League, Team Fortress, Dota 2, and Sims 4 will run without any problems on low-medium graphics settings.

Summary: If you want an affordable gaming laptop to run non-demanding games, the best choice is the HP 14. It has excellent performance for the price, but you might need to get more memory down the line.

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Pros Cons Excellent performance for the price Small storage capacity Fast with SSD and 8GB DDR4 RAM No advertised fingerprint reader Can run non-demanding games without lag A few users had issues with the laptop freezing

#2 Best Graphics Card: Asus Vivobook 15

The Asus Vivobook has the best graphics card for the money, but it has a significant issue that keeps it from being the best gaming laptop under $500.

It’s a light and portable laptop with a compact design and a weight of 3.5 pounds (1.6 kg). The low weight combined with the 0.7 inches width makes it effortless to carry around. Unfortunately, the hinge feels a bit flimsy.

The keyboard has a 2° tilt for a more comfortable typing position. Other than the angle, it’s a standard backlit chiclet keyboard with 1.4mm key travel and a comfortable typing experience.

The speakers are one of the laptop’s weak points and sound distorted at high volumes. Since the speakers are placed underneath the laptop, the sound quality is bad when you have it on your lap.

The 15.6-inch 1080p display has an 88% screen-to-body ratio thanks to the thin 5.7mm bezels. The colors are accurate, and it has wide viewing angles. The biggest downside of the display is the low contrast ratio.

Just like the Lenovo above, this laptop has the Radeon Vega 8 graphics card. This graphics card is better than any integrated Intel graphics and can run the latest games on low-medium settings.

The rest of the specs is also impressive at the affordable cost. It has 8GB DDR4 RAM, a powerful AMD Quad-Core R5-3500 CPU, and a 256GB SSD. It’s fast and can run demanding programs, such as 3d rendering software, without slowing down.

This laptop, however, has a major weakness. When you plug out and run it on battery power, the RAM starts to throttle. This means it will have a significantly worse performance whenever it’s not plugged in. The graphics can also cause throttling if it gets too hot.

Summary: If you can keep the laptop cold and run it plugged in, you’ll get the best performance in any gaming laptop under $500. It’s a great product if you play games plugged in and handle the temperatures with something like a cooling pad.

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Pros Cons Powerful Vega 8 graphics card Short battery life The display has vivid colors and wide viewing angles Significantly worse performance when on battery power Powerful CPU If the GPU gets too hot, it will have worse performance

#3 Best Lightweight Budget Gaming Laptop: Acer 5 Slim

If you want to save some money and get one of the best gaming laptops under $500, get the Acer 5 Slim.

With the lowest price on the list, you’ll get excellent bang for the buck. The Acer 5 Slim comes with the same CPU and graphics card combo as the HP above. This means you can play the latest non-demanding games without any lag.

Another huge advantage of the Acer 5 Slim is the display. It’s a 15-6-inch 1920 x 1080 (full HD) screen with vivid colors. With a thin bezel design, you’ll get the most of your games.

This laptop is an excellent laptop currently rated as the winner on the list of the best laptops under $400. With the best display on the list and a powerful graphics card for the price, why isn’t the Acer 5 Slim our winner? Two reasons:

Small hard drive: The included SSD is fast and makes booting up the included Windows 10 a breeze, but with only 128GB of storage, you’ll find yourself low on space quickly.

Only 4GB RAM: 4GB ram is on the lower end when it comes to gaming laptops under $500. It’s possible to upgrade the RAM, but make sure to upgrade it to a DDR4 compatible RAM if that’s something you plan to do.

Even if the hard drive and RAM are on the lower range for the price, it’s still a lightweight, quality budget gaming laptop. With a weight of 3.97 lbs (1.8 kg), it’s quite light for being a 15-inch gaming laptop. The battery life can handle 7.5 hours, but if you are gaming, expect lower total battery life.

Summary: The Acer 15 Slim is a lightweight gaming laptop with a illuminated keyboard. It has the best screen on the list and powerful hardware for the price. However, you won’t get much RAM or storage, so you might need to upgrade down the line.

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Pros Cons Lightweight Low amount of memory (128GB) Excellent display Only 4GB RAM Powerful AMD Ryzen CPU

#4 Best Renewed Gaming Laptop under $500: Lenovo Ideapad 330S

If you instead of buying a brand new laptop go for a renewed option, you can often save some money and get better performance for the price. The Lenovo Ideapad 330S has a great screen and excellent performance for the price, but it’s not a new laptop. If you buy it renewed, you’ll get it verified to work with no major dents or scratches.

In order to keep the weight of the laptop down, Lenovo shrank the bezels, removed the CD/DVD drive, and removed some ports. It weighs 4 pounds (1.8 kg), so it’s quite light for being a 15.6-inch laptop. The laptop’s exterior has a premium grey color, and you can feel it’s a sturdy laptop when you hold it.

The keyboard is good, with a few exceptions. The up and down keys and the enter key are quite small, making them harder than usual to click. Other than that, it has nice large keys great for typing.

This laptop has one of the best laptop screens under $500. It’s IPS led display with narrow bezels, a brightness of 250 nits, and an impressive 1233:1 contrast ratio.

The hardware is also excellent for the price. It has 8GB RAM and a fast 256GB SSD. The CPU is a powerful AMD Ryzem 5 2500U CPU capable of running demanding programs such as photoshop or 3d rendering software. Gaming performance is great for the price thanks to the Vega 8 graphics card, the best graphics card you can get for less than 500 dollars.

The biggest downside with this laptop is the battery. Since the battery is just a 30Wh battery, expect around 4 hours of usage before you need to charge it again.

Summary: If you want to save some money and get better performance for the price, consider a renewed laptop. The Lenovo Ideapad 330s is the best sub-500 dollar laptop at the moment.

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Pros Cons Lightweight and easy to bring with you Poor battery life 1080p IPS screen with amazing contrast Some cramped keys Excellent gaming performance for the price Only available as renewed under $500

#5 The Budget Choice: Lenovo Ideapad 3 14″

If you don’t want to spend the whole 500 dollars and are looking for a reliable entry-level laptop that can handle some light gaming, then the Lenovo Ideapad 15 might be what you’re looking for.

It’s a sleek-looking laptop with a brushed blue all-plastic case. It has a nice look, but the exterior will attract fingerprints. This laptop lacks a CD/DVD drive and has no fingerprint reader, but it has 3 USB ports, an SD card reader, and a webcam and microphone. The webcam has a physical shutter for better privacy.

Typing and gaming on the Lenovo Ideapad feels great thanks to the surprisingly good keyboard. The keys have good key travel and clicky feedback. The biggest downside of the keyboard is that it lacks backlighting. Another thing to be aware of is the unconventional touchpad placement. Instead of a standard centered position, the touchpad is placed under the alt key of the keyboard.

Another thing that makes the Lenovo Ideapad 3 15″ look great is the thin screen bezels. The screen is a 15.6-inch TN display with a resolution of 1366 x 768. With a brightness of only 200 nits, it’s one of the dimmest screens on the list. Another issue with the screen is its poor viewing angles.

The fans do a good job of keeping the laptop cool, and you can adjust for maximum cooling by turning on “Max mode” or get less noise and better battery life by turning on battery saving mode. The battery life is good for the price, and you can get around 6 hours of light usage but considerably less when gaming.

Gaming on the Lenovo Ideapad 3 is alright if you have the right expectations. Don’t expect to run the latest games on medium or higher settings. The Radeon Vega 3 graphics card and the AMD Ryzen 3 3250U processor makes it able to run non-demanding games without lag. It has only 4GB RAM, so it will have some trouble with multitasking.

Summary: The Lenovo Ideapad 15 is a good budget option. It has decent performance and nice, adjustable fans, but the screen is a bit dim.

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Pros Cons Affordable Wierd touchpad placement Good cooling system Dim screen Runs non-demanding games with ease Poor viewing angles

#6 Poor Screen but Excellent Performance: Lenovo Ideapad 3 15″

The Lenovo Ideapad has the best graphics you can find on any 500 dollar laptop, but the screen with its dull colors brings it down to the third spot on the list.

With a beautiful abyss blue color and a brushed look, it has a pleasant look. It’s a portable laptop made of plastic with a sturdy build. This gaming laptop has almost every port you’ll need, the only thing that’s missing is a USB-C port. The downside of the design is that the material tends to attract fingerprints.

This laptop has a keyboard with good key travel, and the keys have a nice texture that makes for a great gaming experience. If you like typing in the dark, it’s not suitable since it has no backlight. The touchpad is decent, but some users had issues with its drivers. The speakers are good and have a crisp sound.

The 14-inch Full HD(1920 x 1080) display has a modern look with its thin-bezel design. The brightness of 250 nits is about average for a gaming notebook under $500. The screen’s biggest weakness is the color coverage of just 52% of the sRBG color space. The colors look dull and are nowhere near accurate.

One of the things that make the Lenovo Ideapad 3 one of the best gaming laptops under $500 is the Radeon Vega 8 GPU. This is the best graphics card you can get in any gaming laptop under $500. If you compare it against the Vega 3, you’ll see the Vega 8 has 131% higher effective speed. If you look at the Vega 8 gaming benchmarks in the middle of this article, you’ll see it will run non-demanding games such as League of Legends and Fifa 20 on ultra settings with acceptable frame rates. Moderately demanding games such a The Sims 4, Dota 2, and World of Warcraft will run smoothly on medium settings. You can even play some modern demanding games at low settings.

To match the great GPU, you’ll get a 256GB SSD, 8GB DDR4 RAM, and a powerful AMD Ryzen 5 3500U. The AMD 5 3500U is an excellent processor with a 7150 CPU mark (the Intel Core i3-8145U has only around half that score). The SSD is not the quickest SSD on the list, but it’s still faster than an HDD.

Summary: The Lenovo Ideapad 3 is a gaming laptop with an excellent bang for the buck. It has a powerful AMD Ryzen 5 CPU, Vega 8 graphics, and reliable design.

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Pros Cons Excellent AMD Ryzen 5 CPU The display has poor color coverage Best laptop GPU under $500 Prone to fingerprints Cool abyss blue color Below-average battery life (less than 2 hours when gaming)

#7 Best 2-in-1 Gaming Laptop Under $500: Lenovo Flex 14

2-in-1 laptops are often really convenient and portable, but they also usually lack the specs to run games smoothly. The Lenovo Flex 5 is both a good 2-in-1 laptop and a gaming laptop under $500 capable of running non-demanding games.

The case of the Lenovo Flex is simple but clean looking. It’s made of gray plastic and has an island-style keyboard. The keyboard is comfortable with its slight concave keys and tactile click, but it’s not backlit. This laptop weighs 3.5 pounds, so it’s quite light for being a gaming laptop but quite heavy if you compare it to other 2-in-1 laptops.

Inside the Lenovo Flex 5, you’ll find the Intel UHD 620 graphics card. If you look at the UHD 620 benchmarks, you’ll see that it can run some non-demanding games at 30+ fps on low settings. It’s not, however, suitable for anything demanding.

Like most of the laptops on this list, it has an SSD for memory. It’s a fast PCIe NVMe solid-state drive with 128GB of storage. It also comes with a reliable 8th generation Intel Core i3-8145U processor and 4GB RAM.

The screen of the Lenovo Flex is a Full HD IPS touchscreen display that responds well to gestures. With a brightness of around 220 nits, it’s alright for indoor use, but a bit dim in sunlight.

You’ll get tons of value for the money, but you won’t find this laptop brand new in this price range. The Lenovo Flex 5 is currently available under $500 as a renewed option. This means Amazon-certified suppliers inspected and tested it, and it won’t have any major scratches or dents.

Many customers thought it felt just like a new laptop. If it’s not the quality you expect, you can return it with the 90-day warranty.

Summary: The Lenovo Flex is on the top when it comes to the hardware. The lightweight design, combined with the 2-in-1 feature, makes it one of the best gaming laptops under $500. However, be aware that this is a renewed product, so you won’t get it brand new for less than 500.

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Pros Cons Fast solid state drive Shallow keyboard Can be used both as a laptop and tablet Dim display Good looking design Short charger cable (6 feet / 1,8m)

#8 Sturdy and Light: Asus Vivobook F512DA



The Asus Vivobook F512DA has the specs you’ll find in any laptop on the top of the list. However, the hard drive is one of the slowest of the best gaming laptops under $500.

This Windows gaming laptop runs Windows in S mode straight out of the box, but you can easily change to Windows 10 Pro with a few clicks.

The exterior of this 15.6-inch laptop has a smooth matte texture made of plastic. It has a compact and sturdy design and weighs 3.86 lbs (1.8 kg).

Thanks to the ErgoLift hinge, the keyboard has a 2° angle for a more natural typing position. Asus tried to squeeze in everything onto the keyboard, including a NumPad. This makes the keyboard feel cramped. Some keys, such as the arrow keys, are too small and feel mushy.

The Full HD screen is a NanoEdge display with 5.7mm bezels for a 88% screen-to-body ratio. It has poor viewing angles, and it covers only 58% of the sRBG color space, so it’s not suitable for anything that requires accurate colors. Another minor complaint about the screen is that the otherwise good brightness drops when you’re on battery power.

Like many of the other best gaming laptops under $500, it has AMD Radeon Vega 3 Graphics. This graphics card will run non-demanding games smoothly and can even run some more demanding games on low settings. The processor is the AMD Ryzen 3 3200U, a reliable AMD CPU that’s great for playing games and running demanding applications such as 3D editing software.

The storage is a 256GB SSD. Even if Asus claims it’s an NVMe SSD, it’s actuallý an M.2 SATA SSD with a read of 560 MBps and a write speed of 480MBps. This is considerably slower than other gaming laptops with NVMe SSDs but still faster than a standard HDD.

Summary: The Asus Vivobook F512DA is a good gaming laptop for non-demanding games, but there are faster laptops on the list.

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Pros Cons Compact and sturdy design Screen has washed out colors Good CPU and GPU combo Cramped keyboard Light for being a gaming laptop Slow SSD

#9 The reliable choice: Lenovo Ideapad S340

The Lenovo Ideapad S340 might not be the best gaming laptop under $500, but it’s certainly one of the most reliable budget gaming laptops.

You’ll get a high-quality keyboard with a 10-number Numpad on the side. Some of the keys have weird key shapes, like the tiny up and down arrows. As with most gaming laptops under $500, the keyboard is not illuminated.

The display is quite dull with washed-out colors and poor viewing angles. If a good screen is one of the most important things you are looking for, I would recommend another gaming laptop.

It has an integrated graphics card, the Intel UHD Graphics 620. The Intel UHD 620 will run games like Fifa, Fortnite, Sims, and Dota on low settings without lag, but that’s about how much gaming power you get. If you try running demanding games or raise the graphics quality, you’ll quickly notice lag or crashes.

Even if the integrated GPU can only handle light gaming, there are a few things that make it one of the best gaming laptops under $500:

The battery life is excellent: Expect around 8 hours of battery life from standard usage and as usual less when gaming

Fast: The 8GB DDR4 RAM combined with a fast solid state drive makes for short boot and load times. The SSD does only come with 128GB of storage, and as a gamer, you might need additional storage.

Light and durable: It’s a thin laptop with a weight of 3.9 pounds (1.8kg). This weight is about what to expect for gaming laptops under $500. The exterior of the Ideapad S340 is mostly made of plastic, but it has an aluminum finish on the lid. To make it more durable, it has carbon fiber threads weaved into the plastic. Over the 15.6-inch screen, you’ll find a webcam with a privacy shutter so you can block it when you’re not using it.

Summary: If you just need something reliable for playing non-demanding games, the Lenovo Ideapad S340 is a good option. Just be aware that it does not come with CD/DVD drive, and the small 128GB SSD means you might need to buy more storage.

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Pros Cons Long battery life Can only handle non-demanding gaming Fast Small storage Light and durable Dull screen

#10 Better graphics but higher price: Dell Inspiron i5576

You might have to go a bit over the $500 budget, but the Dell Inspiron i5576 is still a good deal with hardware stronger than you usually get for the price.

The chassis is made of plastic and has a nice silver paint finish. It has a comfortable palm rest, and the keyboard is alright. The display is a weak 1366×768 panel with bland colors. The 15.6-inch screen only covers 58.9 percent of the sRBG color gamut. But even if the display is the weakest point of the notebook, the hardware makes up for it.

The Dell Inspiron i5576 has 8 GB RAM, a 1TB HDD, and an AMD a-10 Quad Core CPU. In other words, more than enough to handle both work and gaming. The graphics card is the Radeon RX 460, a graphics card more powerful than the standard in the price range, the Nvidia GeForce 940MX. The frame rates are smooth on some of the latest games, as you can see in this video.

Another advantage of the Dell Inspiron i5576 is the battery. It has a long battery life compared to its competition and can handle a couple of hours of web surfing or gaming.

Summary: The Dell Inspiron i5576 is an all-around reliable gaming laptop that will play some of the latest games on decent frame rates, all for less than $600.

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Pros Cons Plays modern games smoothly The screen has bland colors Plenty of storage Not the best keyboard Great Battery Life Price over $500

#11 The Budget Option: Lenovo Ideapad 330

If budget is your main concern, the cheapest laptop for gaming is probably the Lenovo Ideapad 330. You might find notebooks that can run games for even less than the cost of the Ideapad 330, but they will often run them with lag due to low-end hardware restrictions.

The Lenovo Ideapad will run some non-demanding games such as Fifa, Fortnite and Sims 4 smoothly on low settings. The included Radeon R5 is an integrated graphics card, so don’t expect to be playing demanding games or running non-demanding games on high graphics settings. For full benchmarks of what frame rates to expect on different games, look at the end of this article.

The exterior of this laptop looks really pleasing with a beautiful, coral red color. When you hold it, you’ll feel it’s a sturdy laptop that you can rely on. You’ll get all the ports you’ll usually need, such as USB, HDMI, and a Micro-SD card slot. Unfortunately, there are only two USB ports. A great feature of this laptop is the included CD/DVD drive. This is something you won’t find in all laptops these days.

The 15-6-inch display has a resolution of 1366×768. It’s a decent screen and has good brightness compared to its competitors and has an anti-glare to avoid any sun glare. It also has an included webcam, perfect for any online meetings.

With a weight of almost 5 pounds (2.2 kg), it’s quite heavy for being a cheap laptop for gaming. What makes up for the somewhat heavy weight, is the fast performance. It has a 256GB SSD that will boot up the Windows 10 Home almost instantly. With 8GB of ram and an AMD A9 processor, it has the hardware to be a reliable family computer perfect for homework, shopping, web browsing, watching videos, or even light gaming.

Summary: The Lenovo Ideapad 330 is a fast budget laptop for games with a price that is hard to beat. If you want to play demanding games with good graphics, look for something else, but if you just want a cheap laptop for playing non-demanding games, it’s a good option.

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Pros Cons Fast and reliable Heavy Included CD/DVD drive Only 2 USB ports Included webcam Integrated graphics card that can only run games at low settings

What Can You Expect in a Gaming Laptop for Under $500?

AMD Ryzen CPU

In the best gaming laptops under $500, the most common processor is the AMD Ryzen 3 CPU. Another common alternative to the AMD Ryzen 3 is the 8th generation Intel Core i3-8145U. If you compare the performance between the two, you’ll see that the Intel has around 27% higher effective speed.

SSD

These days a solid state drive (SSD) is the standard storage option in the best gaming laptops under $500. Compared to a standard hard drive (HDD), an SSD will give you much faster performance. Another advantage of having a solid state drive instead of a regular hard drive, is that it will consume less power, which leads to longer battery life.

Battery life

Since most of the best gaming laptops under $500 focus on energy-efficient components, such as integrated graphics cards, they will generally have better battery life than more high-end gaming laptops. More expensive gaming laptops often have just around 2 hours of battery life on high load. Gaming laptops under $500 will usually handle 5+ hours before you need to plug it in.

Full HD Display

In a gaming notebook for around 500 dollars, you should expect a full HD display. Full HD or 1920 x 1080 resolution will make a big difference both when playing games and for productivity. When it comes to size, the most common screen size is a 15.6-inch display. However, you can often find laptops with smaller screen sizes in the 500 dollar price range.

The right GPU

There is one thing that will make or break your next gaming notebook for less than 500 USD:

The graphics card. The graphics card is the difference between playing your favorite game on low with lag vs. a smooth gaming experience.

Gaming laptops under $500 have an integrated GPU. This means you won’t be able to play the latest games with high frame rates. If you want to run demanding games at glorious 60 FPS, then a gaming laptop under 500 won’t be enough. For that, a gaming laptop under 1000 is your best choice.

There is a massive difference between low-end integrated graphics cards and the GPUs you’ll find in the laptops on this list. We have specifically selected laptops that can run games smoothly.

Conclusion

You are now just a few clicks away from your new gaming laptop under $500 so, if you haven’t already click on check price after any of the summaries to see more about the notebook on Amazon.

Sure, you won’t be able to play the latest AAA games on 60 fps on high settings with these laptops.

But if you want to enjoy some less demanding games or are happy with playing the demanding games on low, then one of the gaming laptops under 500 above is just for you.

Enjoy your new gaming laptop under 500.