Recommendations For Asus Gaming Laptop - Medium Price Range

Okay, I realize this isn't enough information to get great recommendations, but I am a little lost having been out of the gaming lappy market for a while. My current gaming rig, and aging Toshiba Qosmio X70, with a GeForce 770m, an i7 current at the time in 2012, and all the bells and whistles, went for about $2K. That was back when Toshiba was still making gaming rigs. Anyway, I also own an older Qosmio X505 I purchased way back in 2009ish on a Lightning Deal on Amazon for a surprisingly cheap $1.3K. Both computers still work well and play older games.

Fast forward to now, and I am trying to make heads or tails out of the current machines from MSI, ASUS, Sager, etc. I am NOT married to buying an Asus, by the way, but I came here because, to be honest, when I bought the current Toshiba I own now, the X70, it was between that model and...if I remember correctly, I think it was an Asus G75 I want to say? Anyway, Asus makes great gaming lappys, and so do other people.

But......since this is the Asus forum, let's start there. A few things:

1. I don't have an exact budget in mind. I am open to spending a little more if it buys big performance increases.
2. I think I want to stick with Intel paired with a GeForce GPU.
3. I am pretty certain...make that very certain, that any of the xx50 GPUs are "gaming" in name only. I am going to assume, and correct me if I am wrong, that an xx60 should be my bare minimum. Meaning 1660, 2060, etc for a lappy.
4. What is the cost approximately to jump up to the xx70 cards in a laptop? I have a 460m in the older Qosmio, but the X70 has a 770m, which allowed me to play some new games at lower settings until even just a few years ago. While the 460m was really not cutting it even a couple of years later. It just didn't have the same "future proof" I got with my X70 with the 770m.
5. I didn't put an exact budget number down, because I want to be flexible. I may need to spend more to get just a drop more future proofing. So my guess is the extra few hundred or more to go to the xx70 card would be an example of the most bang for the buck in terms of spending more? Meaning, I don't think you get as much increase going from an xx70 to an xx80 as you do going from an xx60 to an xx70, or even an xx50 to an xx60.

I also DO NOT know the newer models in the Asus gaming lines. So I would need a starting point. I would assume that my starting point for looking would be a barebones entry-level gaming laptop, that is serviceable, can play most games (not necessarily maxing out the settings) and generate 4K, say to an external monitor I currently use with my Toshiba. I would assume, having looked on Amazon (haven't gone to XoticPC yet) that my starting point for even decent gaming, would have to be about $1,500.00?

Thanks everyone!

 

Okay, sorry to bump this, but the thread was viewed over 450 times lol and not a single response in almost 2 months. I will try one more time and then I give up on this forum I once really enjoyed. Can anyone make any recommendations here?

Thanks!

 

Lenovo Legion 5i. upgradeable and easy to do so.
Alienware area 51m. Upgradeable and easy to do so.
MSI GE 66 raider. Its from 2020. Perhaps get a used one at a good price.
Alienware m15 r4, or an Acer Predator Triton. Fairly upgradeable. The downside of the Acer Predator is it goes from 1500.00 to like 1900 with no in between price. Several versions are sold out.

Another is an HP Omen laptop. I have no idea how easy it is to change out components, but my friend has one and its really nice. They are almost always sold out though.

Go small? I just bought a Razer and its small. Why? It's a lot cheaper than its larger siblings. I plug into an external monitor and use an external keyboard and mouse anyways. It churns through everything I throw at it. Downside is it is virtually non-upgradeable.

My advice: Get the laptop with the best gpu you can afford and if possible, save on the other things now and pick them up later. OR, get the best GPU laptop from 2019, research if you can upgrade other components (owners will have threads on it) and go from there. Requires a little more legwork but often worth it.

 

I had completely forgotten about this thread.I was casually looking a month or two ago, but my new laptop endeavors are a little more serious now. I am thinking of going a little higher in price and quality, but I am not looking to spend upwards of $4K to $5K to get a beast with a 3080ti, the hottest CPU, and all the bells and whistles. I am thinking of staying with the mobile version of a 3070 or even a 3060, 2070, or 2060. A few things I need, and some I prefer:

-I prefer an Intel CPU, over Ryzen, but I don't think that should be a deal breaker.

-I would l really ike to get a 1TB SSD. This I would pay extra for, because that would literally be the first thing I upgraded right out of the gate. So why buy a machine with 512 GB only to immediately yank it out and replace it, right?

-I would like a mass storage drive, preferably 7200 RPM, but if not, I am all right with no mass storage and I can just buy one aftermarket later. So long as the lappy has space for at least two additional drives in addition to the boot drive it comes with,

-I would prefer an i7, but that is absolutely NOT a deal breaker. For gaming and even video rendering, which I do for my band's shows, even an i5 should be more than enough. Hell, I think an i3 would probably be fine for gaming and basic video creation, but I could be wrong.

It has to be at least 17.3". I won't even consider a lappy with a smaller screen. My OLD Toshiba Qosmio X505 (which I am typing on right now) has an 18.4" screen. I would love another one that size. Hell, that I would even consider paying several hundred dollars extra for. The problem is none of the mainstream gaming laptops are larger than 17.3 anymore. I think I would have to go to XoticPC and have one configured from Sager or another more boutique lappy manufacturer, and at that point the prices get a lot higher. So I would say I'm stuck with 17.3 for the immediate future.

-Good speakers would be a plus, but I will probably not get that. Referencing my Qosmio, this thing to this day has literally the best built in sound I have ever heard on a laptop in the thirty years I have owned one. This thing is 11 years old and is still an absolute beast. However, I can accept the fact that I will probably have to take what I get and like it, particularly since I am probably going to limit myself to between $1.5K and a little over $2K, and would prefer a little lower than the $2K price point. But I will spend the $2K+ if I absolutely have to.

 

As you learned with your Qosmio X70, while the x70M tier Nvidia GPU is more expensive, it almost always offers the best balanced of price to performance to longevity. Given how long you keep laptops, going with the 3060 doesn't seem like the wise decision.

If you're looking for an ASUS with an Intel CPU, the Strix S17 is the one you want. It pretty much has everything you could ask for or need.

 

Thanks for the response, @Kevin I pretty much agree with everything you said. There is a nominal price difference between lappies with the 3060 and 3070, but to be perfectly honest, I think that the jump from the 3060 to the 3070 gives the most bang for your buck. I did a bunch of research since posting that above almost 2 weeks ago, and I think you are 100% right. I keep these units way too long to skimp on a 3060. Since my current lappy is still plugging along...lol barely, I am going to wait until Black Friday to see if I can score a gaming rig with a 3070, unless this one dies between then and now lol. There are a few on Amazon, and I also agree with you that Asus seems to be the way to go. They aren't priced that bad, either. I have seen them with 32GB, 1 TB SSDs, and even a Ryzen 9 seems to be a good choice, regardless of my personal preference for Intel. It does seem like choosing a Ryzen CPU reduces the price for what at least appears to be equivalent CPU power. Staying with a 3070 keeps me around the $2K mark depending on if I wanted to skimp on RAM (16GB vs 32 GB), SSD size and make, etc.

 

Being this close to Black Friday, it makes a lot of sense to wait for a deal.

I can understand preferring Intel, I myself have that bias. It also doesn't help that AMD took the liberty of skipping out on the modern standard of PCIE 4.0/Thunderbolt 4, which has future-proofing implication we haven't yet seen. That said, there is no denying that AMD's lower wafer price on the Ryzen CPUs allows the laptops equipped with them to hold a significant price advantage over the Intel-based platforms.

It's a choice to make.