AMD’s new Ryzen 5 mobile CPUs are the perfect option for gamers who are looking for an inexpensive gaming laptop. In this guide, we’ve highlighted five of the best Ryzen 5 laptops currently available to help you find an option that will work for you.
We’ve taken a look at the best Ryzen 9 laptops and the best Ryzen 7 laptops and, today, we’ll take a look at the best Ryzen 5 laptops currently available.
While Ryzen 5 CPUs won’t provide quite the same performance levels as Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 9 CPUs, they typically are packaged in much less expensive laptops. And, for the most part—especially for gaming—they are powerful enough to provide ideal in-game results (assuming the laptop also comes with a quality GPU).
In this post, we’ve picked five of the best Ryzen 5 laptops across a handful of categories and pricepoints to help you find a budget-friendly gaming laptop that will suit your needs.
Table of Contents
1. Top Pick: Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3
2. 17-Inch Pick: Acer Nitro 5 41-R7FPr
Our Picks for the Best Ryzen 5 Laptops
In the table below, we’ve made selections for the top Ryzen 5 laptops, including the best Ryzen 5 laptop overall, the best 17-inch option, the best 144Hz option, a solid budget-friendly Ryzen 5 laptop, and an ultra-cheap option, as well.
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|
NAME | SPECS | RATING | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
TOP PICK
|
 |
Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 |
|
/10 | |
|
17-INCH
|
 |
Acer Nitro 5 41-R7FP |
|
/10 | |
|
144Hz
|
 |
HP Pavilion |
|
/10 | |
|
BUDGET
|
 |
Lenovo IdeaPad 1650 |
|
/10 | |
|
CHEAP
|
 |
Lenovo IdeaPad 3 |
|
/10 |
*Read more about our picks for the best Ryzen 5 laptops listed above by clicking the “Read Review »” link.
1. Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3
Our current pick for the best Ryzen 5 laptop
If you’re looking for one of the best gaming laptops under $1,000—let alone one of the best Ryzen 5 laptops—then you might want to check out the Lenovo IdeaPad gaming 3. For just under $1,000, the IdeaPad Gaming comes with an AMD Ryzen 5 5600H processor, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 GPU, 8GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD.
It also comes with a 15.6-inch 1080P display that has a 120Hz refresh rate.
While the 8GB of RAM is a bit lower than we’d like to see, the addition of theRTX 3060 GPU and the 120Hz refresh rate on such an affordable laptop is the main selling point. And, of course, you can always add an additional 8GB of RAM to the laptop for ~$50.
The combination of the Ryzen 5 5600H processor, the RTX 3060 GPU, and the 120Hz display will make for an ideal 1080P gaming experience and the higher refresh rate will serve competitive gamers well.
So, the bottom line is that, if you’re looking for an extremely powerful gaming laptop, but you don’t have more than $1,000 to spend, this Lenovo RTX 3060 laptop should be at the top of your list of options to consider.
2. Acer Nitro 5 41-R7FP
Our favorite 17-inch Ryzen 5 laptop
One upgraded alternative to the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 listed above is Acer’s Nitro 5 41-R7FP. It does come in at just under ~$1,200, so it is ~$200 more expensive than the Lenovo gaming laptop. However, it does come with some upgrades that might make that price difference worth it…
For starters, this Acer gaming laptop comes with the same Ryzen 5 5600H processor and RTX 3060 GPU that the IdeaPad listed above comes with. It also has a 512GB SSD and a 1080P display.
However, where the IdeaPad comes with only 8GB of RAM and a 15.6-inch 120Hz display, the Nitro 5 comes with 16GB of RAM and a 17.3-inch 144Hz display.
So, the Acer laptop offers a bigger screen, double the RAM, and a slightly higher refresh rate.
Are those features worth an extra ~$200 to you? If so, then the Acer Nitro 5 41-R7FP is probably the option for you.
3. HP Pavilion
A solid 144Hz Ryzen 5-based laptop
For those of you who are looking for an even more affordable Ryzen 5 laptop option, this HP Pavilion model is worth a look.
At a little under ~$850, this HP gaming laptop comes with a Ryzen 5 5600H processor, 8GB of RAM, a GeForce GTX 1650 GPU, and a 512GB SSD. It also comes with a 15.6-inch 1080P display that has a 144Hz refresh rate.
And, really, the refresh rate is perhaps the most impressive feature this laptop brings to the table, as most options in this price range don’t come with a refresh rate of over 60Hz. (Although, the even cheaper IdeaPad listed below also comes with a high refresh rate.)
The downside of this laptop, though, is that the GTX 1650 GPU won’t provide the greatest gaming experience. Of course, the GTX 1650 isn’t a terrible option and it will allow you to play most games on at least lower settings, with the ability to run non-demanding titles like Rocket League and League of Legends on higher settings.
And, really, the Lenovo laptop listed below will offer essentially the same level of performance, but for nearly ~$150 less.
4. Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 (1650)
An excellent budget-friendly Ryzen 5 laptop
This Lenovo IdeaPad laptop is perhaps one of the best ultra-budget gaming laptops currently available. At just under ~$700, it is almost $300 cheaper than the IdeaPad that has an RTX 3060.
And, really, the GPU is the main difference between the two IdeaPad laptops. Whereas our Top Pick IdeaPad comes with an RTX 3060 GPU, this cheaper IdeaPad version comes with a GTX 1650.
The GTX 1650 can’t quite compare to the RTX 3060, but it is still good enough to where it will allow you to run any game on at least lower settings, with most games being playable on medium or higher settings. While that isn’t ideal, for just $700, it’s a pretty good scenario considering the lower pricetag.
So, if you don’t have a huge budget, but you need an affordable laptop for gaming, the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 (GTX 1650 version) is worth checking out.
5. Lenovo IdeaPad 3
An ultra-cheap laptop with a Ryzen 5 CPU
If you don’t quite have enough to get the IdeaPad listed above, your best bet is to probably wait until you can afford something better. However, if that’s not an option and you absolutely need something cheaper that will allow you to play non-demanding titles (like League of Legends and Rocket League), opting for a laptop that has an APU in it is an okay route to go.
This ~$500 IdeaPad from Lenovo is a decent option to consider. It comes with an AMD Ryzen 5 3500U APU, 8GB of memory, and a 256GB SSD.
The Ryzen 5 3500U comes with Vega 8 graphics, which should be good enough to allow you to play non-demanding games on medium-or-so settings.
So, really, if all you are looking for is a cheap laptop that can handle casual gaming and serve as a personal computer for web browsing, streaming, and sending emails, this laptop should do the trick.
Which Ryzen 5 Laptop is Right for You?
While there are a lot of Ryzen 5 laptops available on the market, we chose the five options above as we felt they represented the best options in a handful of different categories. So, if you’re looking for a good recommendation on the best Ryzen 5-based laptop, check out the options listed above.
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