Between €1,100 and €2,000, a gaming laptop can already pack an NVIDIA RTX 50-series GPU and a high-end Intel HX or AMD Ryzen processor — enough to game comfortably at 1080p or 1440p without approaching flagship-tier prices.

No operating system: watch out for this detail

Three of the eight laptops in this comparison — the Lenovo Legion 5 Gen 10, Lenovo LOQ Gen 10, and MSI Sword 16 HX — are sold without Windows installed, a common way to lower the listed price on Amazon. If you don't already have a Windows license, add that cost to the listed price before comparing against the options that do include it (ASUS ROG Strix G16, ASUS TUF Gaming F16, Acer Nitro V16S AI, Alienware 16 Aurora, and MSI Cyborg 15).