As mobile CPUs and GPUs continue to improve, gaming laptops can do more, freeing you from your desk. There is more potential to push the boundaries of gaming and creativity on the go, with more pixels than ever before. With so many great laptops on the market today, CGMagazine is here to pick the best gaming laptop 2023 to make sure you get the best gaming device at the best price.
This list has been compiled through hands-on testing, research and analysis of customer reviews and ratings. CGMagazine’s team of experts also took into account the unique needs and requirements of different users, looking at gaming capabilities as well as battery life. Our winner has the best combination of all the features, making it the best gaming laptop 2023.
Here are CGMagazine’s Nominees for Best Gaming Laptop 2023:
Alienware M15 R7 Gaming Laptop
Writer: Joe Findlay
Score: 7.5
Price: 2159.99
Touring around the Alienware M15 R7, you notice some nice things right away. A lot of the ports, including the power, HDMI Out and an additional USB port, are on the back of the laptop. As a peripheral-happy boy who often outputs his laptops to extend to additional monitors, I was happy to see this because I hate when my laptop looks like a spider with cables flowing out from either side of the machine.
Gaming on this bad boy was a dream. On my PC, I am able to play most games at max specs and still output a frame rate that matches my monitor’s capabilities, but this monitor’s 360Hz refresh rate is beyond any of my monitors. With that in mind, I was still able to max out the settings on games like Fortnite, Apex Legends and GTA V and still crush 60 frames per second. Fortnite actually averaged over 300 fps consistently.
The Alienware M15 R7 Gaming Laptop is an incredibly powerful gaming laptop but it is not without its flaws. Build quality was hurt to make room for more powerful components, its heavy weight, its huge power supply and its loud fans are not deal breakers, but they are still flaws. Despite any flaws, though, it is a machine that cannot be ignored
HP Victus 16-e0010ca Gaming Laptop
Writer: David Walters
Score: 7.5
Price: 1249.99
The Victus 16-e0010ca is a hefty machine, weighing in at very nearly 2.5 kg (5.5 lbs). Transportation of the laptop in the long term could end up being very cumbersome for those of us that need to take their device on the go. You’d be better served leaving it at home on the desk, if only to save your back/shoulder from carrying it around. Combined with being 2.35 cm in thickness (over a full inch) makes the HP Victus 16-e0010ca tough to slide into a bag on the go.
The screen on the HP Victus 16-e0010ca is a 1920×1080, IPS anti-glare display with a brightness rating of 250 nits. A laptop at the price point that this one is at is not going to have a 4K display and I wouldn’t expect it to. Unfortunately, the colours did not seem any more vivid or vibrant than any other display I have seen. The best thing I found about the screen was the 178-degree viewing angle, meaning I could set up a movie on Netflix while folding and putting away the laundry and not miss a scene.
Weight and charging time put me off using this as a daily gaming laptop, but the Victus 16-e0010ca has a place in the gaming market and can do well there.
MSI Raider GE76 (12UHS UHD 4K)
Writer: Clement Goh
Score: 7
Price: $4199.99
MSI’s latest gaming laptop, the MSI Raider GE76, touts the best performance a gamer can expect from their laptop. But its cutting-edge mix of a 12th Gen Intel Core i9 and 3080ti comes with heavy costs. Users willing to put down over $5000 CAD are guaranteed to be satisfied. The Raider GE76 does a firm job of showing premium price for power. But its steep cost does little to bring forth solutions for battery life, hardware optimization and more inherited issues from MSI laptops before.
Users can appreciate the MSI Raider GE76 laptops ability for UHD 4K gaming that works. A strong 12th Gen i9 and 3080 Ti combo are unmatched against cheaper options. But MSI’s desktop replacement focus does more to inconvenience buyers wanting a laptop in the first place. Gamers will be more than satisfied with a laptop that can break max settings for years to come. But it comes at a cost of quality-of-life including weight, portability and underwhelming battery life.
At a ludicrous cost, the MSI Raider GE76 gives users a true 4K gaming experience that works while overlooking much-needed optimizations for audio, battery life and portability.
WINNER Best Gaming Laptop 2023: MSI Titan GT77 (12UHS) Laptop
Writer: Clement Goh
Score: 8.5
The MSI Titan GT77 aims to give users a big laptop that can do it all. Its gargantuan size is reflected by some powerful specs manufacturers have to offer in 2022. A number of these design choices for the biggest and baddest laptop around funnel into the ideal desktop replacement. MSI isn’t a stranger to pairing top-of-the-line CPUs and GPUs together to top on-paper specs each year. Unapologetically, size seems to be the least of the Titan GT77’s worries as it focuses on hardware first.
At over $6000 CAD, Titan GT77 users will happily get the best gaming performance money can buy. Its 3080 TI option is a worthy pairing for the 5GHz-capable i9. Nvidia’s flagship 3080 TI does an impressive job of running high fidelity PC games anywhere. While the mobile version of the 3080 TI packs a 1640MHz boost clock with 16GB of GDDR6 VRAM. The high-powered GPU gives the GT77 an added edge for next-gen games ported to PC. MSI has also made the laptop ready to handle ray tracing and large scale open worlds that are fit for desktop PCs. Through gaming, the Titan GT77 really starts to show its ability to phase out the older desktops for users.
MSI’s $5000+ Titan GT77 gaming laptop more than shines with a 17.3-inch 4K display, 12th Gen Intel i9 and 3080 Ti. Despite its impressive ability to play 4K and 2K games, MSI’s improvements still buckle under a weaker sound system, battery drain and lack of portability.
