This is a list that portraits which best GPU you can get for each price range. This is meant for who of you who want to know which GPUs / gaming performance they can expect and search for it. There are also the price-specific recommendations (see below), but this list allows you to get the idea of what you can get across all the price range (well, up to 1600-1700$ at least).
You won’t find almost no specific models in this list – for specific models and recommendations, there are the price-range recommendations (sub 500$, 600$, 800$, 1000$, high end) and also the gaming laptops deals list.
Again, this is only a reference list to get the big picture of what gaming performance level you can get for your money with two main features – 1080p screen and Windows OS included in price. Note that other features are not mentioned here (backlit keyboard, blu-ray player, thermals and noise and so on) and you also won’t find specific recommendations – for that we have the links above.
I’ve added a relative gaming performance measures, based on average potential in several games like BF3 and Skyrim. This is not accurate as some games like specific GPU more (Nvidia vs AMD) or for some the power doesn’t really matter that much from some point and on (Minecraft). For specific game, you’ll have just have to ask (!).
I’ve chosen the 100% performance point to be around 900$-1000$ since you can get a full features laptop for this price, plus the gaming performance is adequate and will suffice to run most games, even heavy ones, on high to highest settings on 1080p resolution – games like BF3, Skyrim, BL2, Portal 2, FarCry 3 and more.
| Price range | Top GPUs + CPU | Relative gaming performance level |
1080p screen (at least for one model) |
Windows included in price (available for purchase) |
| around 1300$-1700$ | GTX 680M + I7 | 180%-200% | YES, some have a very high quality 1080p screen option | Really matters? |
| Radeon 7970M + I7 | 160%-200% (depends on specific games) | |||
| GTX 675MX + I7 | 140%-160% | |||
| around 1200$ and below | GTX 670MX / GTX 675M + I7 | 120% | YES, some have a very high quality 1080p screen option | No |
| Radeon 7970M + A10-4600M | 120%-170%: depends. Very good for extreme settings gaming | Yes | Yes | |
| around 1000$ and below | GTX 670M + I7 | 100% | Yes | No |
| GTX 660M + I7 | 85% | Yes | ||
| GT 650M (closer to 800$) + I7 | 70% | Yes | ||
| around 800$ and below | GT 650M +I5/I7 | 70% | Yes | |
| [Thin & Light] GT 640M + I5/I7 ulv | 60% | No | ||
| 7670M + AMD A6/A8 | 40%-45% | YES | ||
| around 600$ and below | [sometimes] GT 650M | 70% | No | Yes |
| GT 635M (above 600$) | 50% | |||
| 7670M / GT 630M (close to 500$) | 40%-45% | |||
| [refurbished] GT 555M | 50% | |||
| [refurbished] Radeon 7730M | 60% | sometimes (Dell 15R SE) | ||
| sub-500$ | Radeon 7670M + I3 / A6-A8 | 40%-45% | NO | Yes |
| GT 630M |
