Best laptop for Minecraft: Cheap & budget gaming options (2024)

Best laptop for Minecraft: Cheap & budget gaming options (2024)
Rosa Fryer Updated on by

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Fellow Steves, it’s time to find you the best laptop for Minecraft so you can build your world.

Even though Minecraft is not as demanding as other games you might play, you still want a solid gaming laptop for a smooth experience. In the same way that a wooden pick axe isn’t going to last very long, nor will a low-performing laptop.

To help you out, we have carefully researched the best laptops for Minecraft in 2024. We also spoke to Aaron Ritchie, who is our in-house laptop expert. Aaron loves to test the latest laptops in a variety of games, and Minecraft is always in his test suite. With Aaron’s help, we were able to include a variety of laptops in our list. So, whether you’re on a tight budget or want the most high-end laptop, we have got your back.

Best gaming laptop for Minecraft

Whether it’s creating the most impressive server, living another life in survival mode, or intense PvP in Skywars, everyone deserves to experience Minecraft. If affordability is a priority then we have included a budget friendly option, as well as breaking down the cheapest laptop that can run Minecraft.

1. Best overall gaming laptop for Minecraft – Acer Nitro 5 AN515-58-57Y8 Gaming Laptop

Acer Nitro 5 AN515-58-57Y8 Gaming Laptop

Acer Nitro 5 AN515-58-57Y8 laptop with a red keyboard.

GPU

NVIDIA RTX 3050 Ti

CPU

Intel Core i5-12500H

RAM

16GB DDR4

Resolution

1920 x 1080 pixels

Display size

15.6 inches

Pros
  • Good 1080p performance
  • High refresh rate panel
  • Good value for money
Cons
  • Battery life is not the best

The best overall laptop for Minecraft has to be the Acer Nitro 5 AN515-58-57Y8. It has very good value-for-money, and it rocks Minecraft at 1080p like a walk in the park. The laptop features an i5-12500H, a 12-core CPU with a boost clock of 4.50GHz with an RTX 3050 Ti, a solid graphics card for 1080p gaming.

While the GPU and CPU combination used is not from the latest generation, it still delivers excellent gaming performance, which is more than enough for Minecraft. You also get 16GB DDR4 RAM and a beautiful IPS display that can refresh at up to 144Hz. 16GB of RAM is more than enough to support brilliant gaming and other applications simultaneously.

The Acer Nitro 5 AN515-58-57Y8 is truly an all-rounder for Minecraft. It even has a backlit keyboard, which is a very good feature because now you don’t have to search for keys when you’re playing in the dark.

2. Best budget gaming laptop for Minecraft – ASUS TUF Gaming F15 Gaming Laptop

ASUS TUF Gaming F15 Gaming Laptop

The ASUS TUF Gaming F15 laptop features a gold logo.

GPU

Nvidia RTX 2050

CPU

Intel Core i5-11400H

RAM

8GB DDR4

Resolution

1920 x 1080 pixels

Display size

15.6 inches

Pros
  • Very affordable
  • Solid 1080p performance
  • High 144Hz display
Cons
  • Poor ray tracing performance

Searching for a more pocket-friendly option? The best budget laptop for Minecraft has to be the ASUS TUF Gaming F15. Even though the laptop does not cost nearly as much as other gaming laptops in the market, it still offers excellent 1080p performance to handle Minecraft.

That’s because you get an i5-11400H with an RTX 2050. The i5-11400H has 6 cores and can clock at up to 4.5GHz. Similarly, the RTX 2050 uses its 4GB VRAM and 2048 Cores for good gaming performance. It should be noted here that the RTX 2050 can pretty much only handle 1080p gaming, and turning on Ray Tracing or cranking up the resolution will drop the FPS.

Surprisingly, this budget gaming laptop also comes with a 144Hz display, so you don’t miss out on the smooth action. Overall, if you are running low on cash and want a solid gaming laptop to play Minecraft on, the ASUS TUF Gaming F15 is a no-brainer.

3. Best high-end gaming laptop for Minecraft – MSI Stealth 17 Studio Gaming Laptop

MSI Stealth 17 Studio Gaming Laptop

A black MSI Stealth 17 Studio gaming laptop with a neon light on it.

GPU

Nvidia RTX 4090

CPU

Intel Core i9-13900H

RAM

64GB DDR5

Resolution

2560 x 1440 pixels

Display size

17.3 inches

Pros
  • Top-of-the-line components
  • Excellent color accuracy
  • Very fast panel
Cons
  • Expensive

When it comes to the best high-end gaming laptop for Minecraft, the MSI Stealth 17 Studio takes the crown. This beast is a complete overkill for playing Minecraft. It packs so much performance that it can run any AAA title at 4K without breaking a sweat. It’s no doubt a strong contender for the best 4K gaming laptop. That’s mainly because this laptop features the latest and greatest i9-13900H paired with an RTX 4090. 

Both of these are flagship components of their series. The i9-13900H has 24 cores, and the RTX 4090 has 24GB VRAM; this duo is so powerful that no matter what productivity task or game you throw its way, it can handle it all. Paired with this powerful combo is a 17.3” QHD panel that can refresh at up to 240Hz. This way, you get to enjoy the most out of your new laptop. To see what it’s up against, why not check out the best RTX 4090 laptops.

Keeping up with the impressive performance, you also get 64GB DDR5 RAM along with 2TB NVMe SSD. In short, if budget isn’t your primary concern, then you should definitely go for the MSI Stealth 17 Studio for the ultimate Minecraft experience. Its display even covers 100% of the DCI-P3 color gamut for exceptional color accuracy.

What kind of laptop is good for playing Minecraft?

Any laptop with a decent 6-core processor, 8GB RAM, and a graphics card with 4GB VRAM should be able to run Minecraft. Of course, for a better experience, going for a laptop with more storage and high-end features will provide you with better performance.

What is the cheapest laptop that can run Minecraft?

Minecraft is known for its very modest system requirements. Unlike most games that are popular today, you don’t need a metric tonne of RAM or even a standalone GPU to run the game smoothly. Because of this, if budget is a primary concern, and you are not interested in playing other, more demanding games, you can even opt to not get a gaming laptop to run Minecraft from. Something like this HP 14″ Laptop will get the job done, for both the Java and Bedrock editions of Minecraft, though, in the latter you won’t be able to enable ray tracing. If you want to go even cheaper you could look into renewed laptops.