Many gaming enthusiasts are looking for laptops that can handle gaming and streaming at the same time. It’s essential to find a laptop with enough power to game on high graphics settings while also having a machine capable of streaming your games live without lag.
At A Glance: Our Top 5 Picks For Gaming Laptops For Streaming
In this post, we’ll be taking a look at the best gaming laptop for streaming and what you should be looking for when purchasing one.
The Studio Genie is dedicated to helping streamers and YouTubers or anyone looking to have their own home studio. The author, Felicity Martinez, have been helping out streamers and YouTubers for years.
The goal is to provide a free resource for anyone looking to build a quality home studio. The reviews below are a result of hours of research and analysis. We provided the pros and cons and ranked each product to help you make a quick decision.
QUICK OVERVIEW: Our Top Picks for Gaming Laptops for Streaming
IMAGE | PRODUCT | |
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OUR TOP PICK | ACER PREDATOR HELIOS 300
| VIEW ON AMAZON → |
RAZER BLADE 15 BASE
| VIEW ON AMAZON → | |
LENOVO IDEAPAD L340
| VIEW ON AMAZON → | |
ASUS TUF F17
| VIEW ON AMAZON → | |
ALIENWARE M17 R3
| VIEW ON AMAZON → |
Do You Need a Dedicated Streaming Laptop?
Looking to start streaming your gaming? A computer that shuts down or can’t handle streaming and high-resolution gaming simultaneously is a waste of time, money, and resources. Gaming laptops are the ideal solution to prevent such an undesirable experience.
Pros of Having a Dedicated Streaming Laptop
A Better Gaming Experience
You’ll get a better frame rate per second on your gaming PC or laptop since fewer processes will run on it.
Good Streaming Experience
Owning a dedicated laptop for streaming purposes helps increase the quality of live streaming and better images.
Organization
One of the hard drives’ significant benefits is keeping the streaming separate from your gaming computer. This also means that your hard drives will be separated and organized.
Cons of Having a Dedicated Streaming Computer
Cost
Having a gaming laptop that offers an efficient and powerful gaming experience can be costly. However, it’s the less expensive option than purchasing two separate laptops to cover your needs of streaming services or for playing games on both computers simultaneously.
Space Consumption
Two different laptops or computers will consume more space than if you have one laptop.
Audio Quality is Reduced
This happens when there are too many laptops. When streaming with more laptops, there are more sounds generated, thereby leading to low audio quality.
The Best Gaming Laptop For Streaming
We’ve researched which laptops will work well for you according to your budget level or what specs matter most, like size, weight, and processing power.
1. Acer Predator Helios 300
Processor and GPU
This laptop has a lot of exciting features. Inside the clunky shell is an Intel i7 10th generation processor with 6 Cores, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 GPU, and overclocking capabilities, running at speeds up to 2.6 GHz.
Internal Memory and Storage
This laptop has a Random Access Memory of 16GB Dual-channel built upon a ROM (Read Only Memory) of 1TB of NVMe SSD. This memory capacity is sufficient for streaming purposes and for your gaming experience.
The Display
The Acer Predator Helios has a massive screen that enables efficient live streaming and a fantastic gaming experience. The 17.6-inch full-HD IPS display allows you to open different windows. A bigger screen size gives you additional space to open more windows without any discomfort.
Battery Backup
The battery backup can last up to a duration of 5 hours and 50 minutes.
Pros
- The large screen enables a good gaming experience.
- It has a big storage capacity of 1TB.
- Has a fast refreshing rate of 144Hz.
Cons
- It weighs 6.39 lbs, so it’s quite heavy and not very portable.
2. Razer Blade 15 Base Gaming Laptop
Razer has not only focused on the high-end gaming experience with their new Blade 15 Base model but also connectivity. Here are its outstanding specifications:
Processor and GPU
This laptop is installed with a 6-Core 10th Gen Intel Core i7 processor and has an upgraded 5.0 GHz Turbo Boost which aids in the smooth running of the processing system.
Internal Memory and Storage
The Razer Blade 15 Base Gaming laptop has a huge 16GB RAM built upon a 512GB SSD ROM. Though the ROM has a low capacity, it offers a considerable amount of gaming power.
Display
The Razer Blade 15 Base has a large, high-resolution display that allows for smooth gameplay. The 120Hz Full HD screen provides an immersive viewing experience with insanely fast visuals while playing or streaming games.
Battery Backup
With a full battery charge, the battery backup power has a 6-hour battery life so you don’t have to worry about the power supply.
Pros
- It’s sleek and light.
- Built to last through hours of gameplay.
- The screen resolution allows you to enjoy full-screen action.
Cons
- The memory storage is low.
- Limited screen quality.
3. Lenovo Ideapad L340 Gaming Laptop
Processor and GPU
The Lenovo Ideapad L340 is equipped with a 9th Gen Intel Core i5 processor, which is coupled with NVIDIA GeForce GTX and combined with an 8GB DDR4 RAM and 512GB NVMe SSD, which makes your video game experience better.
Display
The Lenovo Ideapad L340 laptop has a 15.6-inch display screen that provides crisp graphics for the user’s visual enjoyment. With 2400MHz speed, this computer gives you an enjoyable and all-around excellent viewing experience.
Battery Backup
It has a long battery duration of about 6 hours. This is a whopping duration for a laptop not plugged into an AC plug. This is an excellent choice to take your gaming experience to another level.
Pros
- Good value for money
- Portable design
- Long-lasting battery
- Extremely light
Cons
- Low memory storage
- Click pad is pretty loud
4. Asus TUF F17
Processor and GPU
This laptop is perfect for those who are looking to game and stream on a budget. The Intel Core i5 processor coupled with the Ryzen 7 3750H makes this computer excellent at multitasking, and able to handle anything that comes its way while still being affordable.
Internal Memory and Storage
Asus TUF F17 comprises 8GB DDR4 RAM with a 256GB SSD (PCIe) storage unit. Though the RAM is a bit on the low side, it has an option for you to expand the memory storage successfully. So, it’s not a restraining factor to your gaming capabilities.
Display
The laptop screen is 17.3 inches wide, with an IPS display which enables a full-HD outcome. This feature enlightens and sharpens the graphical user interface.
Battery Backup
This laptop’s battery backup is very reliable and can last up to 3 hours while gaming without being plugged into a direct current.
Pros
- Budget-friendly option.
- Self-cleaning capabilities.
- Expandable memory storage.
- Built for extreme durability.
Cons
- Low memory quality.
- Mid-range gaming laptop.
5. Alienware m17 R3
Benefits
The Samson Meteor Mic USB Studio Microphone is compact, stylish, simple to use, and highly recommended for podcasting.
The large condenser diaphragm of the Samson Meteor Mic captures nuances and vocal details, and brings out the richness in your voice.
The mic has headphone out for real-time monitoring, with volume control, as well as a microphone mute button.
It is not only compatible with USB computers and devices, but, with optional additional cables, you can use this microphone with Android devices, or iPhones and iPads.
Drawbacks
This mic does not have a pop filter.
The microphone doesn’t have a gain adjustment, so you can’t adjust the recording volume during the session. The on-mic buttons can also be a bit fiddly to adjust, and the sound of messing with the knobs (including the mute button) and connectors is picked up by the microphone.
Extra Features
The Samson Meteor Mic has an innovative desktop tripod that folds flat for storage, but can also be easily mounted to a boom arm or other microphone stand.
It comes with a carrying pouch and a USB cable.
Buying Advice
The Samson Meteor Mic USB Studio Microphone is a compact, convenient USB microphone that will capture the quality, richness, and nuances of your voice.The Alienware m17 R3 is considered one of the most powerful gaming and streaming laptops on the market today because of its outstanding performance.
Processor and GPU
This laptop is perfect for gamers who are looking to break the limits of performance. The Intel Core i9 processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX graphics card make this gaming laptop one of a kind with its 8GB GDDR6 VRAM!
Internal Memory and Storage
The 2TB SSD on this laptop allows you to install any game without worrying about storage space. Plus, the memory can be expanded with an extra 500GB because of its 512GB PCie M2 SSD and 32 GB UHD RAM.
Display
The 17.3-inch gaming display offers a UHD display with excellent graphics performance and a maximum refresh rate of 60Hz. The brightness is 500 nits, much higher than the usual 300 nit range usually seen in mid-range laptops for gamers.
Pros
- The screen is big and bright, with stunning crispness.
- Fast and reliable wifi.
- Sleek design.
Cons
- This is the most expensive gaming laptop on our list.
- Poor battery life.
Buyer’s Guide
Although many laptops can easily play and stream simultaneously, it’s essential to know which ones provide the best performance and quality.
The best gaming laptop for streaming should be powerful enough to handle a demanding game while simultaneously live-streaming. A fast GPU, Wi-Fi port, and heat management are critical when picking one out of the many devices on the market.
It would help if you had an excellent camera and a responsive microphone to stream. Without one of these, your experience will be subpar at best. You also should have good internet connectivity speeds for the streaming not to lag or get choppy during the broadcast.
The Core Features of a Good Streaming Laptop
RAM
Live streaming can be quite a taxing task for your computer to handle. Not only will it put a lot of pressure on the Random Access Memory, but the processors as well, which is why having higher RAM means better performance when you’re live streaming.
RAM capacities range from 4GB to 32 GB, and you must have enough RAM for the stream. For streaming, we recommend 8GB and 16 GB depending on your budget because this will make playback smoother with minor buffering issues.
If all of your games are installed, and you never want to stream AAA game content, 8GB is a good option. On the other hand, if you’re worried about running out of space on your phone or having trouble streaming high-quality video from sites like Twitch, then 16GB or 32GB will be better for meeting both needs.
CPU
If you want to stream at a high quality, your CPU must have enough power and speed. For example, if you’re streaming in 1080p resolution (a pretty standard HD), then the processor needs to be robust, or else there might be some lag.
The higher number of cores your processor has, the more power it will have to process and stream video games.
GPU
The GPU is a vital tool for any gamer or streamer. Dedicated GPUs are perfect for enthusiasts, but integrated graphics can handle all the processing efficiently and at an affordable price tag.
For the best gaming and video streaming performance, it’s essential to acquire a discrete graphics card. An excellent example of this is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Graphics Card that can handle AAA games and high-quality videos with no problem.
Storage
The storage capacity on your laptop is essential. You might think it doesn’t matter because you don’t download many files, but the truth is that SSDs and HDDs are very useful for speeding up computer use in general.
If you want to save money and don’t care too much about speeds, go for HDD, but if your priority is speed, then SSDs are the way to go.
Display
The display resolution of a laptop is vital for gaming. A minimum full-HD, high definition (HD) screen with an ultrahigh-definition (UHD), 4K or higher pixel density will produce crisper graphics and smoother gameplay. Gamers should also look for laptops with fast refresh rates to ensure the most fluid video possible.
Wi-Fi Port
Your laptop is worth nothing to you if it doesn’t have a fast WiFi port. Without this, your streams will be jittery and uncomfortable for the audience viewing them. For gamers, in particular, this requirement cannot go unmet.
Importance of Choosing The Right Hardware
As we mentioned earlier, unlike videos that are later recorded and uploaded on platforms like YouTube, streaming broadcasts are live, and we need the PC to do all the tasks simultaneously.
If the computer doesn’t have enough capacity for all the tasks, it will begin to have glitches and distortions in the image or sound. For this reason, choosing the correct hardware is so important.
Remember that there are three main elements for good streaming. They are the CPU, the GPU, and the storage. A medium level of importance would be the motherboard and RAM.
You can make other combinations, but always keep in mind that any fast-paced game requires a powerful CPU and a GPU that supports these games.
Final Thoughts
Streamers know that their success is dependent on the quality of equipment they use. A laptop for streaming should deliver a consistent, lag-free stream with high resolution and without any visual or audio glitches. The best gaming laptop for streaming will also have powerful graphics cards so you can edit your videos in post-production while still broadcasting live video.
These are just some of the things we’ve considered when compiling our list of the top 5 gaming laptops for streaming; if this sounds like something you would benefit from, look at what these devices offer to see which one might work best for you!
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