by Laptops running Nvidia’s super-fast RTX 4090 graphics are so expensive it makes us sad (opens in a new tab). But what is this? An RTX 4090 laptop for well under $3000? Not exactly chump change, but far more affordable than the $4,000 to over $5,000 we’ve seen so far.
There is inevitably a catch. If you want a vaguely affordable laptop with Nvidia’s finest RTX 40 series GPU, it’s going to be a generic whitebook system rather than something purpose-built from one of the big brands.
That said, you can have an RTX 4080-powered laptop from both Asus and Lenovo for reasonable money. Hold that thought. First, let’s clear out the cheap RTX 4090 laptop.
The machine in question is the CyberPower Tracer VII Edge. Equipped with an Intel Core i9 13900HX CPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD, you’re looking at $2,851 (opens in a new tab)or not far off half the price of the MSI beast Dave just reviewed (opens in a new tab).
OK, you don’t get mini LED backlighting. But the 17-inch screen is still clipped at 240Hz. It’s all built into a Clevo clone-style chassis available from several laptop retailers. But when most big-brand RTX 4090 laptops are over $4000, it’s hard to argue with the value proposition here.
Speaking of big brands, the Asus RoG Zephyrus laptops are among our absolute favorites. So it’s nice to see the RoG Zephyrus 16 with a QHD 240Hz Nebula HDR display and an RTX 4080 showing up at Best Buy for $2,699 (opens in a new tab).
For a bit more, there’s also the Lenovo Pro 7i Gen 8. It’s pretty much a dead ringer for the Asus ROG Zephyrus 16, with its 16-inch 240Hz display and the same Intel Core i9 13900HX processor and the aforementioned RTX 4080 mobile graphics. all for $2,749 (opens in a new tab).
Not cheap enough? How about the MSI Katana 15.6-inch 144Hz laptop with an Intel Core i7 12650H CPU, 16GB, a 1TB Samsung SSD (from when they used to be a good thing…) and RTX 4070 graphics, all for $1565 from AVAdirect (opens in a new tab)?
It will certainly be interesting to see exactly how all these new mobile GPUs from Nvidia stack up. We already know that the RTX 4090 is an absolute beast. But while $2,851 is a lot cheaper than we’ve seen in the past, it’s still a lot of money. So laptops built around the likes of RTX 4070 or even RTX 4060 mobile GPUs are going to be more relevant, more of the time.
