Finding Black Friday gaming laptop deals is not as clear-cut as we might expect. The portable gaming market is always in flux, and retailers tend to artificially inflate prices from time to time, making it difficult to know how much a gaming laptop will cost. To ease your indecision, I've compiled the following Black Friday laptop price list.

This year's Black Friday begins on November 25, with discounts running throughout November and into the big weekend, and then the following week through Cyber Monday and Cyber Week. There should be some discounts on RTX 3080-powered gaming laptops during that time, but there will no doubt be some retailers trying to get you to buy older, less relevant gear at higher prices. Thankfully, there are a few easy ways to determine if a bargain is really a bargain or an absolute dud.

One thing to remember when looking for Black Friday gaming laptop deals is that just because the discount is big doesn't mean it's a good one. Many retailers artificially inflate prices before Black Friday to make the "now" price a little more agreeable and make the discounts more attractive. We tend to check camelcamelcamelcamel (opens in new tab).

In general, you should start your search thinking around laptop graphics cards. It is the main factor in price and will determine the types of games you can play and the settings. With the 40-series GPUs moving into the portable space next year, cards with RTX 3060s should be well below the $1,000 mark this time around.

However, given that something as powerful as the RTX 4090 (open in new tab) is unlikely to appear in mobile form, there may not be much difference between the RTX 30 series and the new RTX 40 series GPUs in terms of raw power. In other words, a laptop with a high-end RTX 30 series card is definitely worth getting, even now that a new generation is expected to arrive around CES time.

However, we recommend not picking anything older than the RTX 30 series GPUs and avoid the 10 and 20 series altogether at this time. Of course, if you can find a laptop with an RTX 2080 for under $700, all the better; as for AMD, a Radeon RX 6000 series graphics card should be your target, but they are harder to find than their Nvidia equivalents.

Below is a rough estimate of how much gaming laptops with various GPUs will cost during Black Friday. But before you open your wallet for a tasty discount, double-check that nothing about the configuration is off.

What can be said about laptops is that the relationships between the various subsystems are fairly tight, and upgrade options are much more limited than on desktops. The key here is not to spend $1,500 on a gaming laptop with an RTX 3060 at its core.

When checking out a deal, it is important to take a holistic approach. Next to the graphics card itself, check to see if it has the latest CPU. Ideally, the model should be an 11th or 12th generation (the number immediately following "Core i5/i7/i9" indicates the CPU generation).

For AMD, you want a Ryzen 4000 series or later, ideally a Ryzen 5000 series chip.

Next, you need to look at the amount of memory (or RAM) offered. Ideally, 16 GB of RAM is needed, preferably two 8 GB sticks instead of one 16 GB SODIMM. Using one stick of memory on a dual-channel machine effectively halves the available memory bandwidth. A laptop with two 8GB memories will have twice the bandwidth of a laptop with one 16GB memory. Although 8GB is often the standard for inexpensive systems, it is a bit hard to recommend at this time.

On the plus side, memory is generally upgradeable. However, not all systems allow for an easy look inside the laptop, so it is worth checking the model you are looking at first.

As for storage, you'll want at least a 500GB NVMe SSD. If you're writing dream specs, a 1TB or even 2TB drive is preferable given the size of today's games, but you can usually upgrade later. This is because some laptops still have SSDs soldered in.

Whatever you're looking for, there are certainly deals to be had on gaming laptops. As Black Friday approaches, there will be some great deals to be had. Just be mindful about how much you should pay for what is being offered, and you won't make an expensive mistake. Buyer's remorse is not an emotion that should be brought into the holiday.