You’re not just looking for a workhorse. You want a laptop that’s got game. Maybe that means frame rates, maybe even a high-refresh-rate screen for enhanced responsiveness in less demanding games. But above all, you want bang for the buck. That’s why you’re buying right now during the Cyber Monday and Black Friday period, when some of the best deals (and a bunch of predatory fake ones) show up.

These are the deals that caught my eye — the ones I might consider myself or recommend to a friend, depending on their needs and budget. Let’s start with the least expensive and go from there!

Note: We’ve refreshed this whole post for Cyber Monday, and some deals are brand-new.

The best Cyber Monday gaming laptop deals

• If you don’t need a webcam or the most potent GPUs, look no further than the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 for $899 at Best Buy (save $500). The G14 has been a contender for the best thin gaming laptop three years running, and while we felt this 2021 model was a little overpriced and ran hot in our review, it was still one of the best all-around machines you could buy, with excellent performance, design, and battery life. This one’s got a 60W RTX 3060, Ryzen 7 5800HS, 14-inch 1080p 144Hz, Wi-Fi 6, and the typical 16GB / 512GB in a 3.53-pound chassis. Want this year’s model instead? Scroll down a bit.

• The Asus ROG Flow X13 is $999.99 at Amazon ($600 off), and while it’s not the most powerful gaming machine with its 35W RTX 3050 Ti graphics, you should absolutely give it a look for portability’s sake. My colleague Monica genuinely liked last year’s model, calling it one of the most powerful 13-inchers and praising its keyboard and tall 16:10 display. This one’s a bit lower-resolution at 1920 x 1200, but it runs at 120Hz, and it’s got the newer Ryzen 9 6900HS chip, 1TB of PCIe Gen 4 storage, Wi-Fi 6E, and 100W USB-C charging in a 0.62-inch thick, 2.87-pound frame. Update: The Best Buy version is sold out online but Amazon has it at the same discount price.
• The Asus ROG Strix G16 Advantage Edition is $1,099 at Best Buy ($600 off) and offers incredible bang for the buck — its AMD Radeon RX 6800M graphics are in the same class as a low-end RTX 3070, and here you’re getting it for just over a thousand bucks. It’s last year’s model, with no webcam and a Ryzen 9 5980HX CPU instead of a newer chip. Just note that we reviewed and liked the model with the 300Hz screen, and this one’s 165Hz instead.
• The MSI GS76 Stealth is $1,199 at B&H ($550 off) with a 95W RTX 3060 and i7-11800H, which might sound a little weak, but I’m including it because it’s not only got a big 17.3-inch screen (at 240Hz, with QHD resolution!), but it also manages to be portable at 5.4 pounds and 0.8 inches thick. Port selection is also good for a thinnish laptop with a UHS-III SD card reader, ethernet, Thunderbolt 4, USB-C, HDMI, and Wi-Fi 6E, plus an RGB keyboard. Monica liked the more powerful RTX 3070 model, though the webcam’s terrible.

• The Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 is $1,199 at Best Buy ($420 off), and it’s the refreshed model of our best gaming laptop from last year — but with weaker RTX 3060 graphics instead of the RTX 3070. Still, we loved a lot of things about this machine — the excellent 165Hz screen, battery life, keyboard, touchpad — and now it’s got a webcam too. You’ll get a Ryzen 9 6900HS processor and the typical 16GB / 512GB memory and storage with this model.

• The Gigabyte Aero 16 XE5 is $1,299 at Newegg ($1,150 off). Not only does it have an RTX 3070 Ti and an i7-12700H chip, but you’re also getting a 4K OLED screen at 15.6 inches, not that 4K is necessarily the best pick for gaming. Minimalist I/O (two Thunderbolt 4 on the left, one USB-C on the right) might be a little weird, too — it comes with a plug-in hub to add ethernet, HDMI, USB-A, and mini DisplayPort. The webcam is mediocre. TrustedReviews says battery life is poor. We reviewed a more powerful config of this one.
• We called the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 “the best laptop for gaming on the go” — as long as you buy the one with AMD’s Ryzen 9 6900HS and RX 6800S graphics. Now, that exact model is on sale for $1,299 at Best Buy (save $350). It’s also got 16GB of DDR5, a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD, and a 16:10 2560 x 1600 120Hz screen. It’s one of the most well-rounded machines you can get. It’s even got a webcam this year.
• The Lenovo Legion 5 Pro is $1,399 at eBay via Antonline, with an RTX 3070 Ti and Ryzen 7 6800H driving its 16-inch 165Hz 2560 x 1600 IPS screen, plus 16GB of DDR5 RAM and a 1TB SSD. Cameron really liked an earlier version in our review, and this laptop generally gets high marks, just note that not everyone’s selling the same version this Black Friday week, with some passing off versions with lackluster screens. The only other one I’d recommend is the one at Walmart — scroll up!
• The MSI GP66 Leopard is on sale for $1,569 at Walmart with an RTX 3080. I can only really recommend it to those who value performance above all, because we weren’t impressed by its chassis, screen, or touchpad in our review — and this model has an even weaker 1080p screen with just 45 percent of the NTSC color gamut, at only 144Hz. With only 512GB of storage at this price, I’d sooner point you at other systems on this list.

• The Asus ROG Strix Scar 15 is $1,699 at Amazon or Newegg ($300 off), with an RTX 3080 in a laptop you’d actually want to touch — and $100 cheaper than its Black Friday price. That 3080 is driving a 15.6-inch 300Hz ultra-high-refresh screen at a mere 1080p, so you’ll absolutely get wild framerates in e-sports games, and we were pleased with its chassis and keyboard when we reviewed a version with earlier internal components. This one’s got a Ryzen 9 5900HX, 1TB PCIe 3.0 SSD, a fancy opti-mechanical RGB keyboard, and USB-C charging — but no webcam, no Thunderbolt, and only Wi-Fi 6.
• The Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 with a RTX 3080 is $1,699 at Best Buy ($300 off), and that’s a pretty good price for our best gaming laptop pick from last year — just know that last year’s model doesn’t have a webcam, and they probably don’t give the 3080 enough juice and headroom to make it notably better than the 3070 we reviewed. Still, an excellent laptop on clearance.
• The Razer Blade 14 is $1,799 at Best Buy ($800 off) if you sign in with a free My Best Buy account, or $1,999 at Razer, or Newegg, with an RTX 3070 Ti, AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX, and Razer’s beloved 165Hz 2560 x 1440 display with 100 percent DCI-P3 color coverage. It has one of the best screens you can get on a gaming machine and incredible power for a laptop this thin, plus Wi-Fi 6E, USB-C charging (and 3.2 Gen 2 speeds), a Windows Hello webcam, RGB-backlit keyboard, and 1TB of PCIe storage. Want a 3080 instead of the 3070 Ti? Scroll down.

• The MSI Creator 17 Professional is $1,899 at Amazon ($850 off) and while it might not be a gaming machine with its preloaded Nvidia Studio drivers and 4K display, there shouldn’t be much keeping you from pointing its RTX 3070 and 17.3-inch 120Hz, 100% DCI-P3 screen at games instead. It’s got an i7-11800H CPU, 1TB of NVMe SSD storage, Wi-Fi 6E, and a 99.9Wh battery you can charge at 100W over its Thunderbolt 4 port — with a second USB-C 3.2 Gen 2, full size HDMI, Ethernet, and a UHS-III card reader despite its 0.8-inch thick frame. Just note this specific model doesn’t seem to have the mini-LED screen, despite the Amazon listing.
• The Razer Blade 14 with an RTX 3080 is $2,099.99 at Best Buy for Nvidia’s RTX 3080 and AMD’s Ryzen 9 5900X, again with that same great QHD 165Hz display we describe above and a great array of features. It’s not the best price we’ve ever seen but close. Just know Blades tend to run hot, and this model’s more likely to be.
• If you want an RTX 3080 Ti laptop GPU in a 17-inch laptop this Cyber Monday, we’ve only seen one pick: this Gigabyte Auros 17 for $2,099 at Newegg ($400 off) with a 360Hz IPS screen at 1080p resolution, and a i7-12700H CPU. (You’ve gotta want frames and want them BIG to justify such a low res on a large screen.) It’s also got 32GB of DDR5 RAM and a 1TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD, Thunderbolt 4 and HDMI 2.1 ports, and Wi-Fi 6E. PCMag, PCGamer, and TechRadar were all pleasantly surprised by the Auros 17.