Let’s face it. Gaming rigs can be expensive, sometimes costing up to $4,000 or more depending on the hardware inside. If you’re looking for a more budget-friendly option, you’ve come to the right place. Best Buy’s currently selling the HP Victus gaming laptop for just $599.99, which is a savings of $300. My jaw actually dropped when I saw this price/ I don’t see many sub-$700 gaming laptops out there in the nether, so this is a pleasant surprise. Let’s dive right into the details then.
The HP Victus features an Intel Core i5-13420H CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 GPU, 8GB of RAM, and 512GB of SSD storage.. That’s a decent amount of power, especially for a budget machine. You should be able to run most games on the Medium to High graphics preset. However, for more intensive titles, we’d definitely recommend scaling the graphics back a bit. Gameplay should also be smooth thanks to the 15.6-inch 1080p display and its 144Hz refresh rate. According to reviews on Best Buy, it’s a superb value. Sign me up!
Author: Ashley Biancuzzo, Associate Editor, PCWorld
Ashley Biancuzzo manages all laptop and Chromebook coverage for PCWorld. She's been covering consumer tech since 2016, and her work has appeared on USA Today, Reviewed, Polygon, Kotaku, StarWars.com, and Nerdist. In her spare time, she enjoys playing video games, reading science fiction, and hanging out with her rescue greyhound.