HP has introduced a gaming laptop that is sleeker and, at first glance, looks less like a traditional gaming machine. Many competitors opt for gaudy, bulky designs meant to signal immediately that a device is built for gaming. By contrast, the Victus by HP keeps its design understated while still offering all the necessary features.
The HP Victus 16.1-inch Gaming Laptop ships with a 230-watt power adapter and a wide range of I/O ports, including three USB-A 5 Gbps ports, one USB-C 5 Gbps port, an HDMI 2.1 output, an AC pin for the adapter, a headphone jack and a collapsible RJ-45 Ethernet port. Ventilation is a priority, with exhaust along the left side and half of the bottom panel covered by a ventilation grid. For the best cooling performance, users should elevate the laptop or place it on a cooling pad.
The Victus features a 1080p display, which may disappoint some gamers, though it offers a 144 Hz refresh rate and response times as low as three milliseconds. It also includes a full keyboard with a numeric keypad. One small drawback is the typeface on the keys, which can be distracting while typing. The trackpad is smooth and responsive, though for gaming use, a mouse is practically essential.
Getting to the internals, the HP Victus 16.1-inch Gaming Laptop can be configured with a range of specifications depending on the model. For this review, I tested a version running Windows 11 Home with an AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS processor, Radeon 780M graphics, 16 GB of DDR5 RAM and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU. It also included 1 TB of storage, which is well-suited for anyone who works with large media files and enjoys gaming.
For performance testing, I divided my assessment into three categories: enhanced performance (pushing capabilities beyond that of a typical laptop), gaming and content creation. This approach allowed me to evaluate the laptop’s strengths across different types of use cases.
Starting with enhanced performance, I connected the Victus to a triple-display extension for multitasking. With a total of four screens, including the laptop display, I streamed a YouTube video on one, kept a muted Twitch stream running on another, wrote this review on the third and monitored Discord chats on the fourth. Given the high specifications, I expected smooth performance, and the laptop delivered—handling everything without lag or slowdown.
“From No Man’s Sky to Fortnite, and from Grand Theft Auto V to A Plague Tale: Requiem, I pushed the graphics settings to their limits and still had a smooth experience across the board.”
For gaming, I tested the HP Victus 16.1-inch Gaming Laptop with titles of varying graphical demands. From No Man’s Sky to Fortnite, and from Grand Theft Auto V to A Plague Tale: Requiem, I pushed the graphics settings to their limits and still had a smooth experience across the board. The screen’s resolution may have played a role, since running games only at 1080p—even at up to 144 frames per second—was not a particular challenge for the RTX 4060.
I spent extra time with A Plague Tale: Requiem, as its rat-swarm sequences put a heavy strain on most GPUs. With all settings at Ultra, I noticed only brief moments of lag when the screen was filled with rats. I could have reduced the refresh rate specifically for those scenes to eliminate the issue, but the minor glitches were infrequent enough that I left the settings as they were.
For content creation, use cases vary. Streaming is often top of mind for a gaming laptop, and in my tests, the Victus handled it well. During a 4K test stream in OBS, even when triggering additional elements through external services such as StreamElements, the laptop showed no dropped frames—even in a busy “just chatting” format.
It was with the HP Victus 16.1-inch Gaming Laptop that streaming tests became more complex. Running a stream on a single screen is rarely practical. One display is needed to monitor OBS and confirm stability, and another to keep an eye on chat. While it’s possible to use a phone or tablet for this, I prefer to take advantage of a multi-display setup when available. I reconnected the laptop to my triple-monitor array and set up a stream.
I kept the same alerts from my earlier “just chatting” test stream and built out a full-screen camera scene using the onboard camera. It’s no Elgato Facecam 4K, but with proper lighting, it works in a pinch—especially for travel when carrying extra gear isn’t ideal. I also tested the onboard microphone. It was serviceable, but far from broadcast quality. As expected, a dedicated mic remains essential.
Since the laptop’s display maxes out at 1080p, I streamed at that resolution with a 60 frames-per-second cap. Playing Fortnite at “Epic” settings, performance was generally solid with unlimited framerate enabled. However, there were noticeable dips in demanding moments, such as spawning in, jumping from the battle bus or during heavy motion sequences.
“The Victus rendered at a respectable pace, never froze, and, thanks to its large display, was easy to navigate.”
I lost a lot of frames in the stream while gaming, particularly when other elements were running on screen at the same time. The next step was to find balance by reducing the game’s settings until the stream could keep up. Most of the adjustments were minimal: I lowered the framerate to 120 frames per second, set view distance to “far” and changed textures to “high.” These tweaks did the trick, producing a smooth stream without compromising the viewing experience.
Editing is another major task I rely on in a performance laptop. I tested the HP Victus 16.1-inch Gaming Laptop with DaVinci Resolve Studio, the same program I use on both my PC and my regular laptop, an M4 MacBook Air. Overall, the Victus performed well. While I have yet to find a Windows machine that matches the MacBook for editing efficiency, the difference here wasn’t so large as to make the system impractical. The Victus rendered at a respectable pace, never froze, and, thanks to its large display, was easy to navigate.
Benchmarks for the HP Victus 16.1” Gaming Laptop were decent, but are also a reminder to the less experienced that GPUs for PCs and laptops are not created equal. Looking at the processor, first, the single-core score on Geekbench 6 was 1581, which was equal to an i5 8600K, but is just over half the score of the Ryzen 7 9700X (3352) and way down the list overall, but is more than sufficient to take on everyday tasks.
“The HP Victus 16.1-inch Gaming Laptop is a solid choice for gaming, content creation and productivity.”
The multi-core score on Geekbench 6 came in at 8,555, which places it alongside the Ryzen 7 3800XT (8,543) and about half of the Ryzen 7 9700X (16,992). That result is strong enough to be confident that the HP Victus 16.1-inch Gaming Laptop can reliably handle multitasking and demanding workloads without causing headaches.
The OpenCL GPU score for the HP Victus 16.1-inch was less straightforward. The Victus scored 91,685, which is lower than the GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU. Still, the number doesn’t reflect my actual experience, as I ran into no performance issues. Benchmark scores can be misleading in isolation, so it’s important to compare them with user experiences that align with your intended use.
The closest configuration I found to this review unit was listed on HP’s website for $1,699.99 US. At that price, the performance is respectable, but the screen resolution remains a disappointment. For this price point, I expect a gaming display to offer at least 1440p.
Overall, the HP Victus 16.1-inch Gaming Laptop is a solid choice for gaming, content creation and productivity. If editing is your only priority, I would recommend investing in a MacBook instead. But if you want a system that does more, the Victus delivers strong performance without the premium price tag of top-tier competitors.
