Get festive with some fast Intel-powered gaming laptops and PCs this holiday season

This holiday season, we know many of you will be on the lookout for a gaming laptop, gaming PC, or new components to upgrade your gaming rig. If so, Intel's got you covered.

This year there are some fantastic Intel-powered laptops, CPUs, and GPUs to choose between, from smaller entry-level machines to larger powerhouses. Intel Core 13th Gen CPU-powered laptops in particular offer not just stellar gaming performance but strong multithreaded application chops, too.

Whether it's an Intel Core 12th Gen CPU boasting Intel's first implementation of its Performance Hybrid architecture, a new Arc GPU, or a 13th Gen Intel Core-powered gaming laptop that balances gaming prowess and workload efficiency, there's something Intel for everyone this year.

Intel Core 13th Gen-powered laptops offer impressive portable performance 

These days, gaming laptops can offer great performance for the price, and this is certainly true when it comes to those laptops powered by Intel's latest mobile CPU generation.

13th Gen-powered laptops offer a blend of raw performance for gaming, thanks to their Performance-cores (P-cores), but also great efficiency and multitasking chops thanks to their Efficiency-cores (E-cores). This balance of performance and efficiency delivered by Intel's Performance Hybrid Architecture is perfect for the gamer on the go.

ACER Predator Helios 16 Gaming Laptop

ACER's Predator Helios 16 is a great example of portable Intel performance. For a gaming laptop, it looks the part aesthetically, and it plays the part under the hood. Throw in its $100 discount and you have a great high-end Intel-powered offering.

Under its sleek, black, minimalistic chassis and overhanging screen bezel, the Helios 16 houses some very capable components. First and foremost, the Intel Core i7-13700HX  stands out with its eight P-cores which can Turbo boost up to 5GHz. Games love fast, single-threaded-oriented CPUs, and the Helios 16's 13700HX delivers that in spades.

Combine this with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 (mobile) GPU and 16GB DDR5 RAM, and you have a damn impressive gaming rig.

Of course, we can't forget its 240Hz screen, for all you high refresh rate gamers. This screen's Mini LED technology is simply phenomenal and makes the Helios 16 stand out from the typical gaming laptop crowd. So, thankfully, all the frames this machine can churn out shouldn't go to waste.

Gigabyte AORUS 15 Gaming Laptop

This Gigabyte AORUS 15 gaming laptop is quite similar to the Helios 16 above, but a little cheaper for a little less performance. Its Intel Core i7-13700H laptop CPU sacrifices a couple of P-cores compared to the 13700HX, but otherwise this laptop shares roughly the same specs, with an RTX 4070, 16GB DDR5 RAM, and a 1TB NVMe SSD.

Its screen is a little smaller, opting for a traditional 16:9 resolution, and it only reaches 165Hz. "Only," as in, "This is only a Porsche, not a Ferrari"—165Hz for gaming is still pretty amazing.

Given the specifications and its powerful and versatile Intel CPU and NVIDIA GPU, we might expect some pretty hefty battery drain. But, in fact, its 99Wh battery life is pretty impressive for a gaming laptop, meaning more time cracking headshots and less time reaching for that charging cable.

So much for the laptop's guts. Looking to the outside, we find a plethora of ports, including 2x USB-C ports (of which one is Thunderbolt 4). And, like the Helios, it keeps its design subtle, barring its dazzling RGB lighting, and sports a large glass touchpad.

For $150 off, if you're looking for an Intel-powered laptop that's a little cheaper than the Helios 16 but with almost as much gaming horsepower, the AORUS 15 is a great deal.

MSI Katana 17 Gaming Laptop 

With the MSI Katana 17 we're getting into mainstream gaming laptop territory, and this one's a great option for all you competitive gamers and content creators out there.

The first thing to note is that this thing has a pretty damn big display at 17 inches on the diagonal, making it great for productivity work, multitasking, or… well, just about anything that requires a lot of screen real estate.

While this screen only reaches 1080p resolution, it can crank up to 144Hz. Combine this with its whopping 32GB RAM (speed 5200MHz RAM, no less), 10-core 13th Gen Intel Core i7 CPU with 4.9GHz boost clock, and its RTX 4070 GPU, and you have a cracking portable Intel-powered option for gaming, productivity, or content creation.

Intel Core 13th Gen-powered PCs look great under the Christmas tree 

Laptops are great, and all, but does anything quite beat the feeling of booting up a bona fide gaming PC for the first time? Seeing those RGB fan lights flash on through your side panel, and witnessing your monitor spark into life?

And yes, a gaming PC does look great under a Christmas tree, too.

If you want a PC that lives up to the excitement of unwrapping it, though, you can't go wrong with one that's powered by a 13th Gen Intel Core CPU. These CPUs are jam-packed full of cores and threads, and many of these cores can Turbo boost up to eye-watering speeds.

MSI Aegis R 13 Gaming PC 

This Aegis R 13 gaming PC is certainly a contender for "great under a Christmas tree".

Although we're dying to start with the specs, we can't help but start with the deal on this thing–it's currently on offer for $400 (25%) off. For just $1,199, you have everything you need (though minus a display) to get yourself up and gaming very comfortably in modern games, and with enough leftover juice to double as a professional workstation.

Let's talk about just how much of an all-in-one package you're getting with this PC. First, it comes with a mouse and keyboard and built-in WiFi, meaning the only extras you should need to get up and running are a monitor and some speakers or headphones. Plus, it comes with 2TB of (fast PCIe 4.0) storage–Windows 11 install included–meaning you should have more than enough storage for most gaming, professional, and content creation workloads.

But, of course, it's also a gaming PC. And on this front it excels, too, thanks to its 16-core Intel Core i7-13700F CPU with a Turbo clock of 5.2GHz and its RTX 4060 Ti GPU. The Aegis R 13's Core i7-13700F CPU handles multi-threaded as well as single-threaded workloads with ease, combining performance with efficiency. Combine this with its GPU and 32GB RAM, and this PC becomes a true powerhouse for gaming as well as work. 

Intel Core i7-12700K and Arc A770 Bundle 

Intel hasn't forgotten about the DIY PC builder, either. If you're more of a DIY-er, you might be looking to build or upgrade your PC rather than buying a fully-built PC or gaming laptop. In which case take a look at this Core i7-12700K and Arc A770 bundle.

This bundle represents not just performance but innovation. The Intel Core i7-12700K represents Intel's initial foray into its Performance Hybrid Architecture, an architecture that utilizes P-cores and E-Cores to allow for efficient delegation of different kinds of tasks to different kinds of cores. And the Intel Arc  A770 GPU represents Intel's success in breaking into and securing a foothold in the GPU market.

Of course, novelty and innovation aren't the only benefits of this CPU-GPU combo. The Intel Core i7-12700K is a powerhouse in its own right, for both gaming and productivity tasks, thanks to its 12 CPU cores and 5GHz Turbo boost clock. And the Intel Arc A770 is a deft hand at gaming, too, especially considering driver updates keep improving its performance in some DX11 and DX12 games.

For a $50 saving, then, this CPU-GPU combo is a great festive Intel pick if you're looking for a new basis for your gaming rig–whether that's updating your current one, or starting afresh.