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Are you a gamer? A guide for buying laptops for gaming.

Gamers purchasing laptops sometimes face the decision between buying an affordable laptop and a high-performing laptop. Understand what are the most important features for a gaming laptop to find one that fits both your needs and your budget.

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Chiang Ying-ying/AP/File
Two models display Gigabyte's AORUS X3 Plus 13.9" GTX870M Gaming Notebook, right, and X7 Plus 17.3" GTX860M SLI Gaming Laptop during a press event on the eve of the Computex Taipei, Monday, June 2, 2014. Understand what are the most important features for a gaming laptop to find one that fits both your needs and your budget.

Laptops have come a long way in the last few years, and good gaming laptops, which once sounded like an oxymoron, are now more widely available. But it's still hard to find an affordable gaming laptop or even a cheap one; the high demands on performance often conflict with the needs of portability, and it means desktops still might offer the best value.

That said, top gaming laptops can be had in a range of prices, from at least $600, to easily $2,000. Knowing the most important features for a killer system will allow you to choose a gaming laptop that fits you budget and your need for Michael Bay-level explosions in Call of Duty.

Graphics cards (GPU)

This is where you want to spend most of your money. Your basic choice is between AMD and NVIDIA, but both offer a wide range of different cards and the confusing names really don't offer much of a clue about what the best pick is. It's common to aim for better performance on desktops by doubling up and having two graphics cards, but as space is limited and heat can be a problem, this isn't an ideal solution for laptops.

Check out the performance benchmarks to help you make a decision. If you want to get a good overview, then Notebook Check provides a complete list of the top GPU options, gathering together benchmarks from various sources, and it allows you to filter by what's important to you.

Bear in mind that the performance to value ratio climbs steeply the higher you go, so an extra $50 in the mid-range might offer a real boost in performance, while it could take an extra $200 at the top for a similar bump.

Processor (CPU)

For your CPU, it's a straight battle between AMD and Intel. At the moment Intel is way ahead and nothing gets close to its top offerings. The Core i7 is the flagship, followed by the i5, but even the latest i3 outperforms AMD's series. You can check out another good benchmark comparison atNotebook Check. The later the generation, the better; Intel's 4th generation Core GPUs are named Haswell. You should always choose quad-core over dual-core for the CPU.

RAM

Aim for 8GB of RAM and you shouldn't have any problems. Bear in mind that it's easy to upgrade the RAM yourself later, and manufacturers will often charge an unnecessary premium if you customize your order for more RAM.

Drive (HDD or SSD)

Given the choice between SSD and HDD you should always go for SSD. But while SSDs have come down in price a lot lately, they are still much more expensive than HDDs, especially if you need a large capacity. It's not unusual for games to be 20GB or more and they're growing all the time. Laptops typically don't have two slots due to space restrictions, so using a small SSD as a boot drive and a larger HDD for files and content may not be an option.

The speed boost for booting up and loading games is well worth the extra cost if you have the cash. It's also worth considering that SSDs are a lot tougher and will generally survive a fall unscathed, whereas a mechanical HDD with moving parts inside could lock up and die on you.

Screen

There's an obvious trade-off here between size and portability. Bigger screens are more fun to game on, but they'll make the laptop bigger, bulkier, and more power-hungry. A 1080p resolution is going to be perfectly adequate for the foreseeable future. There isn't enough 4K content right now to justify the premium you'd have to pay to get a 4K screen, and 4K content is going to give the hardware a real workout.

Battery life

If you want to be able to have extended gaming sessions without an outlet handy, then you should read up about the battery life of your prospective new laptop. It's still not uncommon for laptops to give up after an hour of gaming on the highest settings.

Other things to consider

For the best quality sound and a really immersive experience you should probably factor in the cost of a decent pair of noise-canceling headphones or portable speakers. A few high-end gaming laptops have good speakers built-in, but it's relatively rare.

Heat is a real issue with laptops, especially gaming rigs. If you're asking the hardware to run the latest games then it's going to eat your battery life very quickly and generate a lot of heat in the process. Svelte laptops may look sexy, but generally speaking the thinner and more compact they are, the harder it is for them to deal with the heat. If you actually plan to game with it on your lap then consider getting a tray or a cooling stand.

Simon Hill is a contributing writer for DealNews, where this article first appeared: http://dealnews.com/features/gaming-laptop-buying-guide/

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