Laptops built for gaming tend to have hardware and features that are geared towards improving your gaming experience. These include powerful GPUs and processors, high refresh rate displays, decent RAM and storage, and more. However, all of these features also come at a premium, so as you reduce your budget, certain compromises need to be made. That being said, the ₹60K to ₹80K price range is a pretty solid entry level for gaming laptops, where the number of compromises you need to make as a customer is steadily decreasing over the years. The competition was pretty tight for this year's Digit Zero1 Award for the best performing gaming laptop in the ₹60K-80K price range, with only a few points of difference in performance and in value for money. That being said, our Zero1 winner and Best Buy ended up going to the same laptop with the runner-up following close behind.
Price: ₹76,539
Our Digit Zero1 Award winner and Best Buy Award winner this year for the best performing gaming laptop in the ₹60K-80K price range goes to the Lenovo Ideapad Gaming 3. Over the years, Lenovo has really upped their game in the gaming laptop department, offering more and more value for money options as the years go by. Powered by an Intel Core i5-12500H, an NVIDIA RTX 3050Ti, and 16GB of DDR4 RAM, the Lenovo Ideapad Gaming 3 offers a solid config for an entry level gaming laptop that can tackle most modern games you throw at it while offering decent framerates. Furthermore, you get a 15.6-inch FHD display with a refresh rate of 120Hz, which is great for competitive gamers who enjoy fast-paced games like Valorant or CSGO. An unexpected surprise was the colour accuracy of the Lenovo Ideapad Gaming 3 at 98.1 percent sRGB coverage and an average brightness of around 330 nits, which sets the Lenovo Ideapad Gaming 3 up as a solid entry level creator laptop as well. As for gaming, you should have no trouble getting 60+ FPS on most modern AAA titles as long as you're playing on medium settings and the laptop should also be able to handle high settings comfortably for slightly older titles. The only downside to the Lenovo Ideapad Gaming 3 is the overall build quality, which at this price range is expected, since compromises need to be made somewhere. Other than that, you can't really complain about the performance this laptop can churn out at this price point.
Price: ₹76,990
The Gigabyte G5 MD features almost similar specs to IdeaPad Gaming 3. This includes the NVIDIA RTX 3050Ti and the 16GB of DDR4 RAM. However, it features an 11th gen Intel Core i5-11400H processor, which is where it falls behind the IdeaPad Gaming 3 which features a 12th gen processor. The difference in processor scores during our benchmarks is very evident. That being said however, the Gigabyte G5 is no slouch by any means when it comes to gaming performance. Thanks to similar GPUs, the G5 gaming benchmarks scores are very similar to those of the IdeaPad Gaming 3. Both scored near identical in most real-world gaming benchmarks, but the IdeaPad Gaming 3 always inched slightly ahead in everything. However, we will say that the G5 handles heat and throttling a lot better than the IdeaPad Gaming 3, so that's something to keep in mind. They're both also very similarly priced, but with the IdeaPad Gaming 3 simply performing better in most aspects, it won out on the Best Buy Award as well. The G5 also falls short on the display, which is not as bright or colour accurate as the Gaming 3, however that's not all that important in a gaming laptop. What is important is that the 15.6-inch FHD display comes with a refresh rate of 144Hz, which is great for an entry level gaming laptop. You should have no trouble handling most modern titles at low to medium settings, and older titles at high or even ultra. Games like Valorant or CSGO will be able to fully utilise the 144Hz display on this laptop, even at high settings. Considering all of the above, the Gigabyte G5 MD is our Digit Zero1 Runner-up for the best performing Gaming Laptop in the ₹60K to ₹80K price range.