Which gaming laptop can run all games?

The Razer Blade 15 Advanced features the most cutting edge mobile gaming hardware money can buy. From its Intel Alder Lake 12th-generation, 12800H processor, to its NVIDIA RTX 3070 Ti graphics chip and high-refresh rate QHD screen, this is a new laptop for a new year, with a lot of new hardware. That makes it super fast but also impressively efficient with decent battery life for a laptop of this power, letting you play your favorite games at maximum settings and high frame rates for a few hours without worrying about plugging in the charger.

It features Razer's iconic Blade build quality, with a sleek finish on every surface, a minimalist chassis with thin bezels, and the classy Razer Chroma backlighting for the keyboard. Inside, it also comes with 16GB of RAM, a terabyte of fast storage, and a capable and quiet cooling solution. Other hardware options include the new RTX 3080 Ti graphics chip for even more GPU power, and both 1080p and 4K screens, perfect for juggling performance in esports titles or cranking the visuals in more atmospheric single player experiences.

Razer's Blade 15 might be the flagship of its gaming laptop range, but its smaller siblingthe Razer Blade 14is a true marvel in its own right. Also stupendously powerful and gorgeous to look at it, it's lighter, leaner and a more compact gaming laptop than its bigger brothers. If you want a decently powerful gaming machine that is way more capable than the typical 13-inch designs out there, but doesn't have the bulk and heft of the larger devices, the Razer Blade 14 is the best laptop for the job.

The combination of the new-generation AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX and Nvidia RTX 3070 Ti gives this laptop all the power it needs for high frame rate 1440p gaming on its bright and colorful QHD display. Its support for higher refresh rates means whether you're playing competitive esports games or immersive AAA experiences, you'll get a smooth and responsive game.

At under four pounds and measuring just over 12.5-inches across, this is a seriously portable gaming machine, with decent stereo speakers, an array microphone, a springy and comfortable keyboard, and a precise glass touchpad. It's an all-in-one package at a much more affordable price than its heftier cousins.

The MSI Stealth 15M blurs the lines between professional ultrabooks and gaming laptops. It retains the performance and raw capability of a gaming laptop, whilst enjoying the portability and lightweight design of an ultrabook. That does mean its battery doesn't last as long as dedicated office machines, and it doesn't have the same grunt as chunkier gaming devices with huge fins, grills and GPUs. But if you want to game anywhere with great performance without worrying about breaking your back to get it there, then this is the laptop for you.

At just 3.7 pounds, this laptop is well under the typical 4-5 pound mark of most modest gaming laptops, and at 15 inches, it offers plenty of screen space while still being easy to fit into a backpack or laptop messenger bag.

The Intel Core i7-11375H and NVIDIA RTX 3060 offer stellar gaming performance in esports and AAA games, letting you enjoy the 1080p, 144Hz screen to its fullest at an affordable price.

For gaming and school work, you need a capable GPU and a powerful processor, and few laptops can come close to the near-perfect combination inside the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14. It combines an AMD Ryzen 5900HS with an NVIDIA RTX 3060 for fantastic gaming power, and packs it all inside one of the classiest chassis money can buy.

The eight-core CPU is a powerhouse of a processor, beating out even some of the best desktop processors of the latest generations at gaming; if you use it for intensive tasks like video and photo editing, it screams ahead. It's more than enough for research and office tasks too, whatever kind of college work you have to do.

But when paired with an RTX 3060 mobile GPU, it becomes an entirely different animal. It's fantastic for both AAA games and esports play. The 120Hz display gives you a competitive edge over gamers with slower screens too, and its keyboard is both comfortable and accurate with plenty of travel for such a thin frame.

There's heaps of storage space [1TB SSD] and all the RAM [16GB DDR4] you'll need for current and next-gen games. With support for the latest Wi-Fi 6 standards, you'll have access to the fastest network speeds no matter where you want to play too. At just 3.5 pounds, this powerful little laptop won't hold you back when gaming on the go, and its sleek white paint job really helps it stand out from the crowds of RGB-lit black and silver.

The Razer Blade Advanced laptop comes in a variety of configurations, from those targeting the most high-end gaming experiences with a 4K screen, to those with a more modest price tag. But there's also a version targeted squarely at competitive esports gamers who want the highest of frame rates and the greatest competitive advantage possible. That's where this configuration comes in.

It packs the same Intel Core i7-12800H processor with NVIDIA RTX 3070 Ti graphics for massive new-generation performance in any games you play, all on a fast 1080p screen. While that might be an overkill combination for some games, it's perfect for esports where it will let you crank your frame rates into the hundreds, whatever game you're playing. With a 360Hz panel to play on, you will see the enemies coming quicker, be able to react faster, and ultimately be a more dangerous foe for anyone you face.

It also enjoys new-generation, high-speed DDR5 memory, a terabyte of super-fast NVMe PCIE 4.0 storage and comes with Windows 11 pre-installed, so you're running the cutting edge operating system to really take advantage of all this system's cores and threads.

Gaming laptops can get very, very expensive, but they don't have to be. This affordable model from MSI comes with everything you need to play your favorite esports games, and older AAA games at reasonable detail settings and comfortable, smooth frame rates. If you want to play some League of Legends, Fortnite, Rocket League or CS:GO, for instance, then this laptop is a great pick with its Intel Core i5-10500H six core processor and Nvidia GTX 1650 graphics chip.

It comes in a svelte, black chassis that is relatively lightweight and portable, with an attractive 1080p display, 256GB of SSD space and 8GB of RAM. It also comes pre-installed with Windows 11, so you're running the latest version of the operating system right out of the gate. It doesn't have a high refresh rate, so won't be quite as responsive as some gaming laptops, but for just $600, it's a lot of laptop for the money.

The $1,000 mark is the point where you start to get a seriously good gaming laptop for your moneyand that's even better if you can get it at a serious discount. In this case, the usually-$1,100 MSI GF65 easily outclasses everything else at its reduced rate, pairing an Intel Core i5-10500H CPU with the excellent RTX 3060 GPU for some impressive performance at 1080p.

That graphical power is more than enough for running modern AAA games, but it'll also let you run esports games at high frame rates. You'll be able to take full advantage of that with its 144Hz high refresh rate screen, making you play faster and more responsive than the competition.

It also packs half a terabyte of storage space, for installing all your favorite games, has 8GB of RAM and supports Wi-Fi 6 for fast networking and internet connectivity. It also weighs just 4 pounds, so is a pretty portable gaming machine if you want to play on the go.

There aren't many laptops that can offer a higher refresh rate than 300Hz, and you'll typically find these lofty displays in the most high-end of machines. That's why buying a last-generation flagship can be a great way to get yourself that high performance display and hardware at an affordable price.

The Asus ROG Strix Scar G15 was arguably the best gaming laptop you could buy in 2021, and it still holds its own in 2022. Combining an AMD Ryzen 5900HX eight core processor with an Nvidia RTX 3070 mobile graphics chip, you have all the power you need to play the latest games at the highest detail settings.

Its 1080p display may not be super high resolution, but the 300Hz refresh rate helps make the action buttery smooth no matter what you're playing. If you're a competitive gamer, too, it'll help you react faster, helping you play better and win more.

Gaming laptops at around $500 are a rare breed, especially with any kind of power behind them. This Dell Inspiron isn't some cutting edge monster of a gaming machine, but its AMD Ryzen 5 5500U CPU with its onboard Radeon Vega graphics are more than enough for basic indie game play, and hitting high frame rates in older esports games like League of Legends, Overwatch and DotA 2.

It has a bright and attractive 1080p display, 256GB of high-speed SSD storage, 8GB of [upgradeable] RAM and full support for some of the latest connection standards, like Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0 and USB-C.

Cooling in this laptop is solid, and when combined with the relatively efficient hardware, it stays cool and quiet during even heavy gaming. It also has great battery life, lasting over 10 hours of mixed usage or well over five when gaming.

This isn't a gaming laptop, but it can game and it does it well, especially for such an affordable price.

I'm a tech journalist working and living in Gloucestershire, in the UK. I ran my own PC hardware review website for many years before transitioning into freelance writing. I've covered everything from the rise of Bitcoin and the encroachment of anti-privacy laws, to tabletop wargaming and advances in virtual reality. I've written, authored, edited, and copywritten for a broad array of the most prominent publications, including Digital Trends, Lifewire, PCGamer, The Inquirer, and KitGuru. I've also written two novels, and contributed backstory and dialogue to a handful of games. I am passionate about all the cutting-edge hardware inside and out the latest gadgets, PCs, and consoles, even if I can't always afford them.