What to Look For When Shopping for the Budget Gaming Laptop Under $500
When you’re looking for the best gaming laptop under $500, there are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind.
Graphics Card/GPU/Video Card
First, you’ll want to make sure the laptop has a dedicated graphics card. Laptop GPU is important for gaming, as it will ensure that the games you want to play will run smoothly.
The laptops that you will be able to buy within the range of $500 budget come either with Intel UHD graphics or AMD Radeon Vega, which is enough to run some games up to low to medium settings.
Don’t expect that you can get a laptop with NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX or AMD Radeon RX with this budget range, you can usually get a powerful gaming laptop under $1000.
Multi-Core and Hyper-threaded Processor Intel or AMD Ryzen
You’ll also want to make sure the laptop has a good CPU and plenty of RAM. This will ensure that the laptop can handle the demands of gaming, and that it won’t slow down over time.
Having a quad-core Intel or AMD Ryzen processor is the best choice if you want to enjoy your overall gaming experience as it will greatly reduce the lag while you are on the game because of multi-threading of your processor.
8GB RAM or 16GB RAM (Upgrade Later)
To avoid bottle necking issues with the processor and graphics, stay away with budget laptop offers with only 4GB RAM.
I personally recommend getting a windows laptop with 8GB or 16GB DDR4 RAM, then upgrade it to 16GB to maximize the laptop’s overall gaming performance as the majority of the games nowadays minimum requirement is 8GB, and if your machine comes with integrated graphics part of the RAM will be shared to this to help with rendering.
256GB NVMe SSD or 512GB SSD (Upgrade Later)
Next is you want to make sure that the laptop has a good amount of storage. This is important for gaming, as you’ll need enough storage space to store your games.
Most gaming laptop under 500 USD come with at least 256GB SSD, 512GB SSD or 1 TB of HDD storage or 256GB of Solid State Drive.
SSDs are the best way to get faster load times and overall better performance from your gaming laptop.
I strongly suggest that you can buy the base configuration of the laptop first like 256GB SSD and upgrade this part later if you have extra budget as SSDs nowadays are now cheaper compared 5–7 years ago when they were first introduced.
If you are not familiar with this technology, SSD (solid state drive) is a newer type of storage device that’s faster than a traditional hard drive.
Hard drives store data on spinning disks, which can take longer to access. SSDs don’t have any moving parts, so they can load data much faster.
That’s why SSDs are ideal for best gaming laptops under 500 dollars. If you’re looking for a smoother, faster gaming experience, then choosing a laptop with SSD as default option is a great option, but then again for budget of $500 usually you’ll just get 256GB or 512GB on the base configuration.
Game load times will definitely be faster, and you’ll be able to take advantage of the full potential of your laptop’s hardware.
Display Screen Size
The higher the resolution of the screen, the more graphics processing power needed, so for this guide I would recommend 15.6-inch with a resolution of 1366*768 and if the laptop comes with dedicated graphics. So far I haven’t found any 17 inch laptop under 500 dollars.
You’ll be able to secure a budget gaming laptop with up to 17.3-inch monitor for budget under $500.
Longer Battery Life (7-10 Hours)
Finally, you’ll want to make sure the laptop has a good battery life. This is important for gaming laptops, as they tend to be used for longer periods of time than other laptops.
What are the Best Laptop Brands Offering Gaming Laptops Under $500?
Acer Aspire 5 A515-46-R3CZ AMD Ryzen 7
Acer Aspire 5 A515 is one of the gaming laptops under 500 with 8gb ram DDR4 and powerful AMD Ryzen Processor that you can get in the market today.
- Brand: Acer
- Series: Acer Aspire A515-46-R3CZ
- Screen Size: 15.6 Inches
- Color: Silver
- Hard Disk Size: 256 GB NVMe SSD
- CPU Model: AMD Ryzen 7 3700U
- Ram Memory Installed: Size 8 GB DDR4
- Operating System: Windows
- Card Description: Integrated
- Graphics Coprocessor: AMD Radeon RX Vega 10
- Wireless Type: Bluetooth, 802.11ax
- Number of USB 2.0 Ports: 1
- Number of USB 3.0 Ports: 3
- Average Battery Life (in hours): 10 Hours
- Pricing: $470.97
HP Pavilion Gaming Laptop Intel Pentium Silver N5000
- Processor: Intel Pentium Silver N5000 1.1GHz Quad-Core Processor (4MB Intel Smart Cache, up to 2.70GHz)
- Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics 600
- Operating system: Windows 11 Home 64-bit
- Memory: 16GB DDR4 SDRAM
- Hard Drive: 512GB Solid State Drive
- Optical Drive: No
- Display: 15.6″ diagonal, HD (1366 x 768), micro-edge, BrightView, 220 nits, 45% NTSC
- Connectivity: Realtek RTL8821CE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (1×1) Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2 combo Miracast compatible; MU-MIMO supported
- Audio: Dual Speakers
- Keyboard: US English, Non-Backlit Full Size Keyboard with Numeric Keypad
- Built-in HD Webcam: HP True Vision 720p HD camera with integrated dual array digital microphones
- Media Drive: Multi-format SD media card reader
- Battery: Up to 10.5 Hours
- Color: Scarlet Red
- Dimensions L x W x H (inches): 14.11 x 9.53 x 0.78
- Weight: 3.92 lbs
- Pricing: $489
HP Laptop 15.6″ Intel Pentium Silver N5030
- Brand: HP
- Screen Size: 15.6 Inches
- Color: Silver
- Hard Disk Size: 512 GB NVMe SSD
- CPU Model: Intel Pentium Silver N5030 Processor
- Ram Memory Installed Size: 16 GB
- Operating System: Windows 11 Home
- Card Description: Integrated
- Graphics Coprocessor: Intel HD Graphics 605
- CPU Speed: 1.1 GHz
- Pricing: $469
Lenovo IdeaPad 3 AMD Ryzen 5
- Brand Lenovo
- Series: Lenovo IdeaPad 2022
- Screen Size: 17.3 IPS display
- Color: Arctic Grey
- Hard Disk Size: 512 GB SSD
- CPU Model: AMD Ryzen 5 5625U processor
- Ram Memory Installed Size: 8 GB RAM DDR4
- Operating System: Windows 11
- Card Description: Integrated
- Graphics Coprocessor: AMD Radeon Vega 7
- Wireless Type: 802.11ax
- Number of USB 2.0 Ports: 1
- Number of USB 3.0 Ports: 2
- Average Battery Life (in hours): 9 Hours
- Pricing: $479.99
Lenovo IdeaPad 3 Intel 11th Gen.
- Processor: 11th Generation Intel Dual-Core i3-1115G4 Processor (3.0GHz, up to 4.1GHz with Turbo Boost, 2 Cores, 4 Threads, 6 MB Cache)
- Display: 15.6″ HD (1366 x 768) Anti-Glare, Touchscreen, 220 nits, LED Backlight
- Graphics: Integrated Intel UHD Graphics
- Memory: 20GB DDR4 2666MHz RAM (4GB Soldered + 16GB DIMM)
- Storage: 512GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD
- Networking: 802.11AC (2 x 2) + Bluetooth 5.0
- Operating System: Windows 11 Home 64-bit
- Battery: Up to 7.3 hours; 2 Cell 35Wh Lithium-ion polymer
- Camera: 720p HD with privacy shutter
- Audio: 2 x 1.5W speakers; Dolby Audio
- Security: Webcam privacy shutter
- Keyboard: US – English
- Dimensions: 14.26 x 9.98 x 0.78″
- Weight: 4.07 lbs
- Optical Drive: None
- Pricing: $479.99
Conclusion
As a gamer, you want the best laptop that can handle the demands of your favorite games without breaking the bank.
Fortunately, there are several great gaming laptops available for under $500.
If you’re looking for the best bang for your buck, the Acer Aspire A515-46-R3CZ is our top pick. It comes with a powerful AMD Ryzen 7 3700U processor and AMD Radeon RX Vega 10 integrated graphics card, making it capable of running most games on low to medium settings.
Plus, at just under $500, it won’t break the bank.
If you’re willing to spend a bit more for even better performance, then I strongly suggest to check out my other post, highlighting the best gaming laptops under $1000 where you can get gaming laptop with Nvidia RTX which is surely can run demanding games of today without any problems or hiccups.
No matter which laptop you choose, be sure to pick up a laptop cooling pad to help keep your system cool and prevent overheating.
Trust us, your laptop will thank you!
