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The best new gaming laptops, ranked

Here are the best current gaming laptops we've tested in the CNET Labs, from dual-GPU big-screen monsters to slim mainstream laptops that sneak in discrete Nvidia graphics.

Dan Ackerman

Dan Ackerman leads CNET's coverage of computers and gaming hardware. A New York native and former radio DJ, he's also a regular TV talking head and the author of "The Tetris Effect" (Hachette/PublicAffairs), a non-fiction gaming and business history book that has earned rave reviews from the New York Times, Fortune, LA Review of Books, and many other publications. "Upends the standard Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg technology-creation myth... the story shines." -- The New York Times

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Joseph Kaminski Senior Associate Technology Editor / Reviews

During my almost twenty years at CNET, I handled benchmark testing/methodologies for both Mac and PC systems and, sometime after, integrated testing for micro-mobility (e-bikes, electric scooters and EUCs), which is a passion of mine. Transitioning from a BMX background to this field was seamless. Despite testing numerous products, each new one brings the same excitement as my first.

See full bio

Dan Ackerman

Joseph Kaminski

Aug. 26, 2019 10:33 a.m. PT

1 of 41 Sarah Tew/CNET

Meet the fastest, most powerful gaming laptops we've tested

When reviewing a gaming laptop or desktop, we run preset tests using several games, including Far Cry 5, Metro: Exodus and others, along with standard benchmarks such as 3DMark, which is designed to test a computer's 3D graphic-rendering capabilities.

For this list, we're ranking the laptops in descending order of 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra scores, but the real-world game scores (presented as the number of frames of animation per second the laptop can render) match these very closely. Note that these scores are specifically for the exact configurations of each laptop we tested, and almost all can be configured with a wide range of options.

2 of 41 Sarah Tew/CNET

Alienware Area-51m

GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 6,337

Read full review

3 of 41 Sarah Tew/CNET

Origin PC Eon-17X

GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 6,228

4 of 41 Sarah Tew/CNET

Acer Predator Triton 900

GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 5,719

Read full review

5 of 41 Joseph Kaminski

Origin PC Eon-17X (2018)

GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 5,330

6 of 41 Sarah Tew/CNET

Asus ROG Zephyrus GX701

GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 5,299

7 of 41 Sarah Tew/CNET

Razer Blade Pro 17

GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 with Max-Q Design

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 5,003

8 of 41 Origin PC

Origin PC EVO 16S

GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 with Max-Q Design

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 4,667

9 of 41 Sarah Tew/CNET

Acer Predator Triton 500

GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 with Max-Q Design

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 4,642

10 of 41 Sarah Tew/CNET

Origin PC Evo16-S (mid 2019)

GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 with Max-Q Design

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 4548

11 of 41 Sarah Tew/CNET

Lenovo Legion Y740-17

GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 with Max-Q Design

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 4,472

12 of 41 Sarah Tew/CNET

MSI GS75 Stealth 8SG

GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 with Max-Q Design

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 4,464

13 of 41 Sarah Tew/CNET

Razer Blade 15 Advanced (2019, OLED)

GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 with Max-Q Design

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 4,330

14 of 41 Origin PC

Origin PC Evo 15

GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 4,262

15 of 41 Sarah Tew/CNET

Alienware m15 (2019, OLED)

GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 with Max-Q Design

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 4,235

16 of 41 Sarah Tew/CNET

HP Omen X 2S

GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 with Max-Q Design

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 4,106

$900 at Amazon

Read full review

17 of 41 Sarah Tew/CNET

Acer Predator Helios 500

GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 4,102

18 of 41 Sarah Tew/CNET

Asus ROG Zephyrus M GM501

GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 3,954

19 of 41 Joseph Kaminski

Asus ROG Strix Scar II

GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 3,938

20 of 41 Sarah Tew/CNET

Lenovo Legion Y740-15

GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 3,851

21 of 41 Sarah Tew/CNET

Alienware m15

GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 1070 with Max-Q Design

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 3,369

22 of 41 Sarah Tew/CNET

Asus Zephyrus GX531GS

GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 1070 with Max-Q Design

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 3,435

23 of 41 Sarah Tew/CNET

Razer Blade (15-inch, 2018)

GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 with Max-Q Design

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 3,431

24 of 41 Joseph Kaminski

Digital Storm Equinox

GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 with Max-Q Design

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 3,413

25 of 41 Aloysius Low/CNET

MSI GS65 Stealth Thin

GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 with Max-Q Design

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 3,342

26 of 41 Sarah Tew/CNET

Lenovo Legion Y545

GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660Ti

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 3,066

Read full review

27 of 41 Sarah Tew/CNET

Razer Blade 15 (2019)

GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 with Max-Q Design

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 3,362

28 of 41 Sarah Tew/CNET

Lenovo Legion Y7000P-1060

GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 2,716

29 of 41 Sarah Tew/CNET

Asus ROG Strix Hero Edition GL503V

GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 2,657

30 of 41 Sarah Tew

Razer Blade 15 RZ09-0270

GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 with Max-Q Design

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 2,593

31 of 41

HP Pavilion Gaming Laptop

GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050Ti

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 2,318

32 of 41 Sarah Tew/CNET

Samsung Notebook Odyssey

GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 2,259

33 of 41 Lori Grunin/CNET

Lenovo Legion Y730-15

GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050Ti

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 1,899

34 of 41 Joseph Kaminski

Acer Nitro 5

GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050Ti

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 1,873

35 of 41 Sarah Tew/CNET

Dell G5 5590 (2019)

GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 1867

Read full review

36 of 41 Sarah Tew/CNET

Dell G5 15 (2018)

GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050Ti

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 1,851

37 of 41 Lori Grunin

Lenovo Legion Y530

GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050Ti

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 1,825

38 of 41 Lori Grunin

Asus ZenBook Pro 15

GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050Ti

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 1,753

39 of 41 Sarah Tew

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme

GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050Ti with Max-Q Design

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 1,641

40 of 41 Sarah Tew/CNET

Dell XPS 15, 2-in-1 (2018)

GPU: AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL Graphics

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra: 1,627

Read full review

41 of 41 Sarah Tew/CNET

Full results are below for gaming laptops tested 2018-2019.

Laptops with the best battery life: See the top laptops and two-in-one PCs with the longest battery life.

Fastest gaming laptops, ranked: All the most-powerful gaming laptops tested in the CNET Labs.

More news and reviews for PC and Mac laptops, tablets and desktops.

Rank	System Name	3DMark Fire Strike Ultra score	Graphics card
1	Alienware Area-51m	6,337	Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080
2	Origin PC Eon-17X	6,228	Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080
3	Origin PC Eon17X (2018)	5,330	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080
4	Asus ROG Zephyrus GX701	5,299	Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 with Max-Q Design
5	Origin PC EVO 16S	4,667	Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 with Max-Q Design
6	Lenovo Legion Y740-17	4,472	Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 with Max-Q Design
7	Acer Predator Triton 500	4,642	Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 with Max-Q Design
8	MSI GS75 Stealth 8SG	4,464	Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 with Max-Q Design
9	Origin Evo 15	4,262	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070
10	Acer Predator Helios 500	4,102	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070
11	Asus ROG Zephyrus M GM501	3,954	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070
12	Asus ROG Strix Scar II	3,938	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070
13	Microsoft Surface Studio 2	3,893	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070
14	Lenovo Legion Y740-15	3,851	Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 with Max-Q Design
15	Alienware m15	3,669	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 with Max-Q Design
16	Asus Zephyrus GX531GS	3,435	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 with Max-Q Design
17	Razer Blade 15	3,431	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 with Max-Q
18	Digital Storm Equinox	3,413	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 with Max-Q
19	MSI GS65 Stealth Thin	3,342	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 with Max-Q
20	Razer Blade 15 (2019)	3,362	Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 with Max-Q Design
21	Lenovo Legion Y7000P-1060	2,716	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060
22	Asus ROG Strix Hero Edition GL503V	2,657	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060
23	Razer Blade 15 RZ09-0270	2,593	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 with Max-Q Design
24	HP Pavilion Gaming Laptop (15-c0042nr)	2,318	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
25	Samsung Odyssey 850XAC	2,259	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060
26	Lenovo Legion Y730-15	1,899	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
27	Acer Nitro 5	1,873	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050Ti
28	Dell G5 15	1,851	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
29	Lenovo Legion Y530	1,825	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
30	Asus ZenBook Pro 15 UX580G	1,753	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050Ti
31	Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme	1,641	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050Ti with Max-Q Design
32	Dell XPS 15 9575 2-in-1	1,627	AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL Graphics