If your gaming laptop is starting to spark and sputter (hopefully not literally), then a new one is in your cards. Fortunately, you don't have to spend a fortune on a capable machine. One of the lesser expensive options right now is MSI's GF65 Thin, which is on sale for $899 on Newegg today.
You may not expect much for under grand, and while there are definitely some corners that were cut, this is an overall good value for they money. To begin with, it is a 15.6-inch laptop with a 120Hz display, powered by an Intel Core i5 9300H CPU (4C/8T, 2.4GHz to 4.1GHz, 8MB L3 cache) and a GeForce RTX 2060 GPU.
It also has 8GB of DDR4 memory and 512GB of NVMe SSD storage. I'm not stoked about the amount of RAM, and neither was Jacob in his review of a similar configuration. However, user reviews on Newegg indicate it is fairly easy to pop open and upgrade the RAM and storage (you can get a 16GB kit for just over $50 these days).
The bigger decision is the GPU, and whether it makes sense to buy a laptop now or wait for the RTX 30 series to mosey on over to the mobile space. It really depends on your needs, and budget. Best guess (and it's only a guess) is that it will be well into 2021 before we see laptops with mobile RTX 30 series GPUs, and who knows where pricing will land initially.
If you can wait, by all means, do so (especially with Black Friday deals around the corner). But if not, this is a good price for a relatively fast gaming laptop, with some upgrade potential to boot.
Alternatively, check out our roundup of the best gaming laptops and cheap gaming laptop deals, for other options.
