I'm tracking all the best Black Friday gaming laptop deals - these are the rigs I'd buy this week

Speaking of 4K gaming laptops...

If you do know you need a 4K rig, I'd point you towards this holiday bundle on the MSI Raider 18 HX. This is actually the most powerful gaming laptop I've tested yet, posting numbers that, on average, beat everything else I've benched - including the more expensive Titan model. This is an absolutely stacked configuration, with an RTX 4090, Intel i9-14900HX, 64GB RAM and a 2TB SSD, and you're even grabbing a few extra peripherals at the same time. That $3,599.99 sale price is still lofty, but far from the position I would have expected when these kinds of machines first hit the market. You're getting performance that beat a $5,000 machine in my testing, after all.

MSI Raider 18 HX (RTX 4090) | $3,999.99 $3,599.99 at Newegg

Should you buy a 4K gaming laptop?

4K gaming laptops are still premium beasts. I've recently spent a considerable amount of time testing two UHD machines; the $5K MSI Titan 18 HX and the slightly cheaper MSI Raider 18 HX. These are the only rigs I've ever used that have provided smooth 4K framerates, and they need high-end components and massive 18-inch chassis' to get you there. Even then, performance is still heavily influenced by the individual games you're playing.

In short, you'll already know if you need to buy a 4K gaming laptop. If you're a content creator who needs as many pixels as possible, and also wants to run a few games on the side then investing in a UHD machine could well pay off. If you just want to run your PC games from a portable machine, you're going to have a much better time with a QHD panel.

The second-cheapest RTX 4070 gaming laptop deal I've seen this Black Friday

The MSI Katana has taken a $400 discount at Best Buy today, dropping that $1,499.99 MSRP down to $1,099.99. That's only $100 more than the cheapest RTX 4070 gaming laptop I've ever seen (a $999 Asus TUF A15 that put its price back up in the last few days). With a 1TB SSD and Ryzen 9 processor, this Katana is on about the same power level as that A15, albeit with a slightly more sophisticated processor. If you want to score the lowest price possible, I'd still keep an eye on that Asus TUF, but those looking to dive in sooner will still be well served by MSI.

MSI Katana (RTX 4070) | $1,499.99 $1,099.99 at Best Buy

Asus TUF A15 (RTX 4070) | $1,399.99 at Best Buy

Retailer Spotlight: Best Buy

Best Buy is often one of the first places I look when scouting the latest gaming laptop deals. The big-box store packs a good supply of more recent machines, so you know you're never going to come across old or awkwardly configured rigs. The site keeps its selection fresh with the latest releases, but keeps stock of the previous year's models for a good amount of time as well. That means it's often the best places for new buyers to look. You'll find everything from high-end Razer offerings to budget Acer and Asus releases, though the site's discounts on Dell and Alienware rigs don't often compare to those of the brand itself.

Best Buy is also one of the biggest retailers to watch over Black Friday. Its early sales are already live and the store goes fairly big with its discounts every year. Prices usually drop lower than Amazon and Walmart (and the fact that there's no third party sellers on this site certainly helps keep things safe) and the selection is kept fresher than Newegg. It also has a number of devices available open-box for far less than a new model, and its refurbished stock is often plentiful as well.

Best Buy also regularly offers free pickup, making it a go-to retailer if you don't want to wait for delivery, though shipping is free once you get into gaming laptop price territory. Extra discounts can sometimes be found through free subscriptions (most often to anti-virus or additional savings on accessories), but there are no extra coupon codes or rebates available on the site itself.

Instead, Best Buy keeps its extra savings back for its My Best Buy Plus or Total members. The subscription includes a number of free services as well as exclusive savings, early access to restocks, extended returns, and free two-day shipping.

How to pick the right specs

Whether you're buying your first gaming laptop or upgrading after a long time, it can be tricky to know exactly which graphics card or processor you should pick, or how much RAM / storage you'll need.

Graphics cards: In general, the power of your gaming laptop will be dictated by your graphics card. RTX 4050 configurations will be geared towards entry level players, RTX 4060 GPUs are made for a step up to the lower mid-range. An RTX 4070 card represents true mid-range, with RTX 4080 taking you to upper mid-range and RTX 4090 sitting at the high-end.

Processors: Processors drop a little in some RTX 4050 builds, with some kicking down to an Intel i5 or Ryzen 5 GPU, but in general you're looking for a 13th or 14th generation Intel i7 / AMD Ryzen 7 CPU when browsing RTX 4060 and RTX 4070 gaming laptops. An RTX 4080 or RTX 4090 is more likely to boost you up to an Intel i9, though. The most powerful processor currently shipping in gaming laptops is the Intel i9-14900HX.

RAM: I've already said it today, but the minimum amount of RAM you should be buying in a gaming laptop in 2024 is 16GB. That's going to be the size of your memory across the majority of Black Friday gaming laptop deals, however, more luxurious RTX 4080 and RTX 4090 rigs can double that to 32GB or even 64GB. You only need the top end of that if you're spending some serious cash on a long-term investment, though.

Storage: Most gaming laptops ship with a 1TB SSD, and some offer an additional bay for you to upgrade further down the line. Cheaper RTX 4050 and RTX 4060 machines might drop you down to 512GB SSDs, which are still worth it if you're economical with your downloads. More expensive RTX 4080 and RTX 4090 models may also upgrade you to 2TB as well.

This is the cheapest gaming laptop I'd recommend this week

Best Buy has an RTX 4050 configuration of the Acer Nitro V down to $699.99 right now, and looking at the rest of the web's budget offerings - that's as cheap as I would go this week. This is the only gaming laptop under $700 that I can see balancing power and price so well, with 16GB RAM and a Ryzen 5 7535HS processor at the helm. $699.99 is a record low that's only appeared a few times in the last few months, otherwise this model tends to stick closer to $950.

Acer Nitro V (RTX 4050) | $949.99 $699.99 at Best Buy

Personal Pick: The Alienware M18 R2 is now $900 off at Dell

The Alienware M18 R2 is the best 18-inch gaming laptop on the market right now, thanks to its combination of performance and value. You're maximizing both with this latest offer from Dell, dropping the RTX 4090 configuration all the way down to $2,899.99 (was $3,799.99). That's an astonishing offer I would have expected to see during Black Friday itself - I've struggled to find any RTX 4090 gaming laptops for under $3,000 over the last few months and considering there's 64GB DDR5 RAM and a 2TB SSD under the hood this is particularly impressive.

Alienware M18 R2 (RTX 4090) | $3,799.99 $2,899.99 at Dell

Gaming laptop displays: how slow is too slow?

The vast majority of gaming laptops will ship with a 144Hz display at the base level these days, though some models will drop you down to 120Hz. I find it's best to match your screen's refresh rate with the kinds of framerates you want to achieve. Of course, there are always going to be other factors to consider - just because your display runs at 360Hz doesn't mean you're going to be hitting 360fps. However, it's well worth pairing your GPU with a screen that's going to make the most of it.

An RTX 4050 or RTX 4060, for example, will do just fine with a 144Hz panel but could stretch up to a 165Hz option if you're running a particularly large chassis or a premium CPU / RAM combo. An RTX 4070 would benefit from 165Hz to give yourself plenty of headroom in more demanding games, meanwhile RTX 4080 and RTX 4090 GPUs will want a 240Hz panel to truly shine their best. It's not an exact science, and it's by no means a basis for overall value in a gaming laptop, but it's an easy way to benchmark the kinds of specs you should be looking for.

The resolution of your screen is the next factor to consider. A 1080p panel will be able to run much faster and could call for a higher refresh rate to take advantage of that. On the flipside, a 4K display likely won't be able to break past the kinds of framerates we see in lower resolution machines. In this case, a 120Hz screen may be all you need.

How slow is too slow? Anything below 120Hz will be too slow to be considered a dedicated gaming display. They're rare now, but there are a few budget gaming laptops out there that try to slide their weaker specs out with a 60Hz display at a particularly low price. These should be avoided - that cash is put to much better use when going towards a slightly more expensive machine.

PSA: Keep an eye on the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 9 this Black Friday

The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 9 is the best machine I've tested so far. It packs a serious punch with its display, posts the framerates to back it up, and comes in considerably cheaper than other brands' flagship 16-inchers. I've already spotted an RTX 4090 configuration coming in under $3,000 (and at the time it was the first time I'd seen such a discount), with similar discounts available on the RTX 4080 version. While both offers have jumped up the price scale a little in the last few days, I'd still keep a close eye on this one.

The previous 8th Gen model was actually the first RTX 4080 gaming laptop I ever saw at under $2,000 - a feat that hasn't been replicated too many times since last year's Black Friday gaming laptop deals. With prices wobbling on this newer model, I get the feeling we've got more of that goodness coming our way.

Both last year's offer and the deal I spotted a few weeks ago took place at Lenovo's own site, to I'd recommend staying familiar with this builder over the next few days.

Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 9 | from $2,499.99 at Lenovo

Retailer Spotlight: Newegg

Newegg launched its early Black Friday sale a couple of weeks ago, slowly building its portfolio of deals across PCs, gaming laptops, and components. This store goes a lot harder on PCs than Best Buy, Walmart, and Amazon - it's a site dedicated to the subject after all. That means you'll find a wider range of models on the shelves, with some after-market configurations up for grabs as well. While specialized, Newegg still regularly offers budget gaming laptops at a great rate, though watch out for the lesser known brands that haven't made their way through reviewers' hands yet.

I find Newegg to be particularly strong for RTX 4070 and RTX 4080 rigs at prices Best Buy and Amazon can't quite seem to reach. While the cheapest of these machines will likely come from brands like MSI (there's a massive range of Sword and Katana configurations available here that always seem to be on sale), Acer, Lenovo, and Asus regularly make an appearance as well.

Newegg doesn't only offer some of the lowest prices around, but it also likes to find ways to save you extra cash. The site likes to run its own vouchers, but they're sometimes hidden within the listing page itself. They can save you an extra 10 or 20% during major sales, just be sure to add them before checking out. In the past, Newegg has also run rebate offers which has significantly lowered gaming laptop prices. They seem to have dropped this technique in more recent months, though, I've seen far fewer in 2024 than I have in previous years.

Great for:

✅ Mid-range configurations
✅ Some budget options
✅ Extra coupon discounts
✅ Free games

Watch out for:

❌ Lesser known brands
❌ Older configurations

Top Tip: Check your RAM

If you're buying a budget gaming laptop this Black Friday, there's one spec you should be looking at above all else. Regardless of whether you're picking up an entry level RTX 4050 / RTX 4060 configuration, or dipping even cheaper down to the RTX 30-Series, make sure you're picking up 16GB of RAM.

Gone are the days where 8GB would see you through. Just a couple of years ago, most cheap gaming laptops shipped with this minimal amount of RAM and they ran just fine. Now you need 16GB to truly get the best value. Anything less will start to seriously struggle with future games, and even a considerable number of today's titles.

This is the first RTX 4080 gaming laptop I've seen under $2,000 this Black Friday

Last year's Lenovo Legion Pro discount still ringing in my ears, I've been looking for an RTX 4080 gaming laptop under $2,000 for weeks now. This morning, I found it. The Asus Predator Helios 18 is the first rig of its kind that I've seen breaching that threshold in this year's early Black Friday deals. I normally see machines like this sitting at $2,299 at their lowest, but Best Buy has the i9-14900HX configuration for just $1,999.99 right now. It's spent a good while at a $2,099 record-low, but my patience has finally paid off. This is the kind of discount I only ever expect to see on the big day itself, so it gets the early go-ahead from me.

Acer Predator Helios 18 (RTX 4080) | $2,499.99 $1,999.99 at Best Buy

Should you buy early Black Friday gaming laptop deals?

That week gap between now and Black Friday itself might feel like a long stretch, but time is going to fly. If you're wondering whether or not to dive into these early discounts, it's well worth considering your budget, how hard you want to fight for flash sales on the day itself, and the price history of the laptop you're looking at.

In general, those working with a smaller budget will be safer from extra discounts than those with thousands of dollars to spend. Cheaper gaming laptops rarely see additional price cuts on the big day - retailers want to focus their efforts on the high-ticket items for those headline-busting savings. If you're in the market for a budget RTX 4050 rig, you could only stand to miss out on an extra $20 or $30 if prices do drop next week. However, I'm expecting a handful of RTX 4080 and RTX 4090 models to see further savings of a few hundred dollars when the time comes.

Of course, the biggest offers are going to move fast and this is where things can get tricky on Black Friday itself. Retailers like Dell and Lenovo are well known for running their own, incredibly fast, flash sales on high-end configurations on the day. These deals have been so short they've run out while I've been writing them up in the past - so you certainly need to be in the right place at the right time. That said, once they're gone, they're gone. While you could save, say, $300 right now, a $500 discount might surprise you on the big day, only for it to be missed and return to full price for the rest of the year.

It's always important to check the price history of the laptop you're considering before jumping into early Black Friday gaming laptop deals. I check that all of the models featured on this page are at (or close to) record-low prices. If that's the case, and it's a fairly new discount, chances are we're not going to see much more off the final price when Friday does roll around. However, if a machine has been cheaper before, or has been at this price for some time, it's likely there are more savings waiting in the wings.

I've been scouring the web for 2024's early Black Friday gaming laptop deals for weeks now (yep, this sale starts earlier every year). With retailers switching their discounts in and out, models jumping all around the price scale, and new machines taking speedy flash sales already, things are already moving fast. I'll be taking you through the entire next week of discounts, while also running you through all the tips and tricks I've picked up along the last five years of Black Friday coverage.