Featuring powerful performance, beautiful screens and great keyboards, gaming laptops are a blast to own. But in many cases, they can be pretty expensive, which forces a lot of us to choose which specs we're willing to sacrifice to stay within our budget. Forum member Maq___ is searching for a gaming laptop with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 graphics card for $1,100 (880 euros).
Unfortunately, finding a gaming rig with that GPU at this price isn't easy. The GTX 1070 is a higher-end card, which demands a higher price — and that doesn't factor in the processor, display or storage. The average GTX 1070 GPU-equipped notebook starts at approximately $1,599.99. Still, Maq___ does have a few choices if they're willing to stretch their budget or make a compromise.
If Maq___'s dead set on getting a GTX 1070, the closest they can get to their budget is MicroCenter's PowerSpec 1510. Priced at $1,299, the 1510 has a 2.8-GHz Intel Core i7-7700HQ CPU; 16GB of RAM; a 256GB NVMe SSD with a 1TB, 7,200-rpm hard drive; an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 with 8GB of VRAM; and a 15.6-inch 1920 x 1080 Nvidia G-Sync display.
The system earned 4 stars and an Editors' Choice award for the great performance, vibrant display and myriad ports positioned around the chassis. More importantly, it is absolutely unheard of to get such high-end specs at such a relatively low price. There are some drawbacks, however, including the rather quiet speakers, warm temperatures achieved while gaming and lack of helpful gaming utilities. Still, for the price, the PowerSpec 1510 is practically a steal.
MORE: Which GPU is Right For You?
Another system we'd suggest is the latest Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming laptop, configured with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q GPU. Designed to focus on performance efficiency, power consumption and cooling, Max-Q cards aren't as powerful as their regular counterparts. However, in many cases, the performance differences aren't too noticeable. The model we reviewed costs $949.99, which is well below Maq___'s $1,100 budget.
The system is outfitted with a 2.5-GHz Intel Core i5-7300U processor, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q GPU with 6GB of VRAM and a 15.6-inch 1920 x 1080 display. This configuration isn't VR-friendly, so if Maq___ is thinking about hooking up an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive, they'll have to invest in a Core i7 processor. That would raise the price to $1,149, which is a little over the specified budget.
In our review, we gave the Inspiron 15 3.5 stars for having long battery life (7 hours and 5 minutes, to be exact) and offering any form of a 1060 GPU for such an affordable price. Typically, a 1060 GTX GPU-equipped system starts at around $1,299.99. We did take issue with the dim display, which wasn't as vibrant as competing notebooks' screens, and we felt that the keyboard wasn't as comfortable as we would have liked. But, like the PowerSpec 1510, the Inspiron 15 offers a surprising amount of power for a very affordable price.
Credit: Laptop Mag
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