If you are running a somewhat tight budget but want to play some video games on your laptop, then you should definitely check out this list of gaming under 500 dollars. By buying a laptop that costs less than $500, it only can play LIGHT games e.g. Minecraft, Runescape, World of Warcraft, Shaiya, and those types of lower-end games, If you want to play some heavy games, you won’t be getting the same kind of high quality graphics in your gaming that you can expect form some higher end laptops. You simply cannot expect to have a good gaming experience with an Intel Core i3 or i5 processor with a built-in GPU. If you consider play playing more intense games like crysis or battlefield to be one of your main priorities, then please choose a professional gaming laptop, you can buy a laptop with an a core i7 and Nvidia GeForce 660M / AMD HD 7970M video card.
Our Recommend:
Lenovo G505s
Lenovo selected AMD APU’s Richland models to use with its new G505s series. This seems like Lenovo wants to provide inexpensive options for its gaming customers. As a result, you will find AMD APUs and GPUs as a part of the new G505 series. The platform is great for gaming.
CPUs:
The AMD A8-5550M is a mobile quad core processor that uses Richland technology. It was produced after the A8-4500M. It possesses a CPU that is higher and has graphics that perform better. It can basically be called a moderate processor. The APU includes 4 CPU cores, the Northbridge with a good DDR3 memory controller and a DirectX11 graphics unit,
Based upon certain clock rates, this model should work at a 15 percent reduced rate than the A10-5750M. Also it should perform just as well as a Core i3-2310m. Basically, it does well with its existing games and applications.
GPUs:
The AMD Radeon HD 8550G is a graphics card that exists in the AMD Richland APUs. It has certain shadercores which can promise its performance. It really does not have specific options for graphic memory. But it does share key memory with the CPU cores.
Based upon the clock rate of the 515-720 MHz, it should perform just above the Radeon HD 7604G. So, this model operates close to Radeon models that are dedicated such as the Radeon HD 7570M. Please note, If you do not have fast dual channel memory, optimal performance is reduced. So, you might want to opt for 4 GB of RAM with your laptop computer.
Acer Aspire V3-551G-X419 Laptop
This model does not cost any more than 600 dollars. But, it possesses a quad core CPU and dual graphics. This makes it seem like an affordable gaming laptop. We suggest an Acer Aspire V3-551G-X419 that has an AMD A10-4600APU. The APU has 6 GB of RAM. The GPU does not have the ability to function by itself, which is why it works with a dedicated AMD Radeon HD 7670M GPU. Your files will sit on a hard disk that has 750 GB. Also, this item has a DVD burner.
Performance
The 5516 model is a versatile notebook. You won’t have a problem doing your everyday tasks such as browsing the web, looking at YouTube and doing regular business tasks on this model. You have the ability to play games because of the CPU and two GPUs. You will be able to play Blu Ray discs. But the test model does not have this type of drive. You might want to change out the DVD burner and put in a Blu Ray drive.
The two GPUs can play these types of discs because of the video encoder, the AMD UVD3 decoder. This plays videos very well. A test video was played, which allowed for us to look at the CPU load. It stayed beneath 10%. Sometimes it went as low as 0. The same thing happened when we played YouTube videos that had the same type of high HD resolution.
Gaming Performance
You would think that this laptop would not have any issues since it has a quad core CPU and dual graphics. At moderate settings the games that we tested did pretty well at the 1366 x 768 resolution. Some of the games did pretty well at higher settings too. We have a table that shows how the dual graphics perform:
The following table is the Three best gaming laptops under 500 comparison of September 2013, we will updated the rank every month:
| Rank | # | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 |
| Lenovo G505s | ASUS K55N-DB81 | Samsung Series 3 NP355V5C | Acer Aspire V3-551G-X419 | Toshiba Satellite L875D-S7332 | |
| Picture | |
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| Size | 15.6-Inch | 15.6-Inch | 15.6-Inch | 15.6-Inch | 17.3-Inch |
| Display Resolution | 1366 x 768 pixels | 1366 x 768 pixels | 1366 x 768 pixels | 1366 x 768 pixels | 1600 x 900 pixels |
| Processor | AMD A8-5550M 2.1 GHz | AMD A8-4500M 1.9 GHz | AMD A6-4400M | AMD A10-4600M 2.3 GHz | AMD A6-4400M |
| Hard driver | 500 GB 5400 RPM |
750 GB 5400 RPM |
500 GB 5400 RPM |
750 GB 5400 RPM |
640GB 5400RPM |
| Ram | 4GB DDR3 | 6 GB DDR3 | 4GB DDR3 | 6 GB DDR3 | 6 GB DDR3 |
| GPU | Radeon HD 8550G | Radeon HD 7640 | Radeon HD 7520G | AMD Radeon HD 7660G + 7670M Dual Graphics | Radeon HD 7520G |
| Operating System | Windows 8 | Windows 8 | Windows 8 | Windows 8 | Windows 8 |
| Input/Output | 1 x USB2.0 2 x USB3.0 Bluetooth 4.0 HDMI |
1 x USB2.0 2 x USB3.0 Bluetooth 4.0 HDMI |
2 x USB2.0 2 x USB3.0 Bluetooth 4.0 HDMI |
2 x USB2.0 1 x USB3.0 Bluetooth 4.0 HDMI |
1 x USB2.0 2 x USB3.0 Bluetooth 4.0 HDMI |
| Battery | Up to 5 hours | up to 5.5 hours | Up to 4.6 hours | Up to 5 hours | Up to 4.6 hours |
| Price | $424 | $419 | $441 | $589.88 | $464.87 |