We rated and reviewed six of the best gaming laptops under $500. These are not great long-term solutions, but if you need a cheap gaming laptop that can run non-demanding games, these budget-friendly laptops should work.
Here’s the cold hard honest truth: you’re not going to find a great gaming laptop under $500. If you need a more serious gaming machine and you can’t spend more than $500, you’d be much better off getting a gaming desktop (check out this $500 gaming PC build). If you absolutely need a laptop that will serve you well for gaming, though, you’re going to want to spend a little more. (Check out our post on the Best Gaming Laptops Under $1,000 for higher-performing options.)
However, if you are a casual gamer, or you mainly play non-demanding games, you should be able to get by with a $500 gaming laptop.
At this price range, you can still find a budget-friendly laptop that will allow you to play games like League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, Minecraft, Hearthstone, etc.
So, if you need a gaming laptop under $500 and you can’t go with a desktop instead, the options below are your best bets.
Table of Contents
1. Quick-Look: The Best Gaming Laptops Under $500
2. Top Pick: Lenovo Ideapad 15.6″
3. Runner-Up: Dell Inspiron 15 15.6″
A Quick Look at the Best Gaming Laptops Under $500
If you just want a quick look at our top three selections for the best gaming laptops under $500, check out the table below.
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|
NAME | SPECS | RATING | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
TOP PICK
|
 |
Lenovo Ideapad |
|
/10 | |
|
RUNNER-UP
|
 |
Dell Inspiron 15 |
|
/10 | |
|
CHEAP
|
 |
Acer Aspire 3 |
|
/10 |
*To read about the laptops in the table above, click the “Read Review »” link to jump to our overview on that laptop. You can also keep scrolling to check out our Honorable Mention picks.
Best Gaming Laptop Under $500:
Lenovo Ideapad 15.6″
This Lenovo Ideapad is our pick for the best gaming laptop under $500 currently available. The laptop comes with an AMD Ryzen 5 2500U processor with Vega 8 integrated graphics, 12GB of DDR4 memory, and a 128GB SSD. It also comes with a 15.6″ 1080P display and Windows 10 Home. And, it weighs in at just under 5 pounds.
A case could be made for our Runner-Up pick listed below, the Dell Inspiron 15, as it essentially offers the same specs as this Lenovo laptop (for the same price) with the only difference being that the Inspiron has a 1TB hard drive and 8GB of RAM, versus the Ideapad’s 128GB SSD and 12GB of RAM.
So, if you need more storage, the Inspiron listed below might be the better option for you. However, the extra RAM and the faster SSD help make the Lenovo Ideapad the best option under $500 as of right now.
In terms of in-game performance, with the Ryzen 5 2500U and the integrated Vega 8 graphics, this laptop will be able to easily handle non-demanding esports titles (like Fortnite, League of Legends, Dota 2, Rocket League, etc.) on medium-to-higher settings with a high framerate. It should even be able to play some more demanding titles on lower settings with a playable framerate as well.
Ultimately, if you’re strapped for cash, but you need a laptop that will allow you to play your favorite games, the Lenovo Ideapad is probably your best bet. However, if you opted for a desktop instead, you could build an affordable gaming computer that will be able to run pretty much anything on higher settings on a 1080P monitor.
Our Runner-Up Pick:
Dell Inspiron 15 15.6″
Our Runner-Up pick is as about as good of a sub-$500 gaming laptop as you’ll find. As we pointed out above, the Dell Inspiron has essentially the same specs as the Lenovo Ideapad. It comes with an AMD Ryzen 5 2500U CPU that has Vega 8 integrated graphics on it. It also has a 15.6″ 1080P display, too.
However, rather than coming with a smaller SSD, the Inspiron 15 comes with a larger 1TB hard drive. While the SSD that the Lenovo Ideapad comes with will offer faster boot and load times, 128GB isn’t a ton of storage in this day and age. So, if you’re on the fence between the two and you don’t think you could live with just 128GB of storage, then this Dell Inspiron might be the better option for you.
Although, the Lenovo Ideapad does come with 12GB of DDR4 RAM versus the Inspiron’s 8GB of RAM. For the most part, 8GB of RAM will be enough for the kinds of games that these two laptops can play. However, the extra RAM that the Ideapad comes with defintiely doesn’t hurt.
Ultimately, the SSD and the extra RAM push the Ideapad slightly ahead of this Dell Inspiron laptop, but both options will offer similar in-game performance.
Ultra-Cheap Laptop for Gaming:
Acer Aspire 3 15.6″
If you’re looking for an even more affordable laptop, the Acer Aspire 3 is an option worth considering. The Aspire 3 comes with an AMD Ryzen 3 2200U processor that has Vega 3 integrated graphics on it. It also comes with a 1TB hard drive and 8GB of DDR4 RAM.
Perhaps the main reason why this Acer Aspire laptop is such a good value for its price is due to the fact that it comes with a 15.6-inch screen that has a resolution of 1366 x 768. While the 1366 x 768 resolution won’t provide as sharp of an image as a 1080P display, the lower resolution screen on this laptop will mean that it will actually have an easier time running games.
The higher the resolution, the more work the GPU has to do in rendering images. So, the lower resolution display actually makes this laptop better able to run games. And, while you could get a 1080P laptop and scale the resolution down through the display settings, the 1080P panel would drive up the cost of the laptop.
So, from a value standpoint, if you’re working with a really strict budget, it would make sense to consider opting for a lower resolution screen so that you can get better performance in your games. Because, afterall, none of the options on this list will offer ideal gaming performance as is. So, your main goal should just be looking for something that can deliver you as many frames per second as your budget permits. And, the lower screen resolution will definitely aid in that.
The HP laptop listed below is a decent alternative option that you might want to consider. It comes with an SSD and an Intel processor (with Intel integrated graphics) and will offer similar in-game performance to this Acer laptop—although, it does come with a smaller 14″ screen.
NOTE: As an alternative option, for a similar price you could build a $400 gaming PC that would be able to handle pretty much any game on a 1080P monitor on at least medium settings.
Honorable Mention #1:
Dell Inspiron 3000 15.6″
Dell’s Inspiron 3000 is probably the best option on this list if you require a lot of storage. The Inspiron comes with 8GB of DDR4 memory, a 2TB hard drive, and Windows 10 Home.
And, its Intel Core i5-7200U and integrated Intel HD 620 graphics are good enough to push most games on at least lower-to-medium settings on its 1366×768 screen.
However, in terms of in-game performance, the Vega 8 integrated graphics on the Ryzen 5 2500U that is found on our top two picks on this list will offer similar-or-better performance on a 1080P display. So, whereas this Dell Inspiron 3000 might serve well for running non-demanding games on a 1366 x 768 laptop, the Lenovo Ideapad and Dell Inspiron 15 will be able to run most games on a higher resolution display.
Ultimately, though, no $500 gaming laptop is going to give you an ideal gaming experience. So, if you mainly play non-demanding games, the Dell Inspiron 3000 might make sense as an option if you require the larger 2TB hard drive.
Honorable Mention #2:
HP 14-CF0014DX 14.0″
Another ultra-cheap sub-$400 laptop that could work for light gaming is the HP 14-CF0014DX. Like the Acer Aspire 3, the HP 14-CF0014DX comes in at ~$460. However, unlike the Acer Aspire 3, this HP laptop opts for an Intel Core processor (an i3-7100U) instead of an AMD processor.
The i3-7100U comes with Intel HD 620 integrated graphics which are onpar with the Vega 3 integrated graphics that come on the Ryzen 3 2200U processor found in the Acer Aspire 3.
And, since this HP laptop also comes with a 1366 x 768 display, both this laptop and the Acer Aspire 3 should perform fairly similarly in games. This laptop does come with a 128GB SSD, though, whereas the Aspire 3 comes with a 1TB hard drive. So, if you need more storage, this HP laptop might be the better option.
Although, if screen size is important to you, just note that this HP laptop only comes with a 14″ display, whereas all of the other options on this list come with a 15.6″ display.
Honorable Mention #3:
ASUS VivoBook 15.6″
Our final Honorable Mention pick is the ASUS VivoBook. Suprisingly, the VivoBook comes with the best processor out of all of the laptops on this list. However, its main downfall is that it relies on Intel HD 620 integrated graphics to try and run games on a 1080P display.
The Intel HD 620 graphics can’t compete with the Vega 8 graphics found in the top two laptops on this list and so this ASUS laptop will struggle to run games on its 1080P display. Of course, you could always just scale down the resolution so that you get better performance while gaming.
Still, though, this laptop comes in at just a bit above $500, which makes it the second most expensive option on this list. And, for ~$40 less, you could land either of the top two laptop options on this list. So, if it were my money and I was looking for the best gaming laptop under $500, I’d go for the less expensive Lenovo Ideapad or Dell Inspiron 15 instead.
Is A Gaming Laptop Under $500 Worth It?
I’ve said this throughout this post and I’ll say it again: if you’re a gamer and you only have $500 to spend on a computer, your money would get you a whole lot more performance if you built your own gaming desktop or you got a prebuilt gaming PC.
However, a lot of gamers need the mobility that a laptop offers for various reasons (school & work). So, if you’re someone who is working with an extremely tight budget and you need the mobility of a laptop, but you still want to be able to play games, I’d recommend looking at the top two options on this list.
The other options would only be okay if you are a very casual gamer and you will primarily stick to playing non-demanding games.
Me says
As good as these are, most are now over 500 dollars now, is there an updated list somewhere?
Amber says
Hello Brent,
Thank you for you informative list here. My child is 13 and she has decided she wants a gaming laptop. What would you recommend for beginners?
David John says
This article is very helpful and very uniquely describe this category.I am very happy after read this great article about this category.I am very thankful to you.
Michael Egbert says
Please suggest me a laptop with 12 GB RAM?
sarah animes says
it would help me a lot while going to market to buy a laptop for my husband on his 35th Birthday.