The Best Rated MSI Gaming Laptops For Every Budget

Even though they lack the power of full-sized PCs, laptops are still quite popular with people who want their own gaming computer. Many different brands make lightweight yet portable gaming-focused laptops, and MSI is a prime competitor among them. Its most popular products center around devices loaded with RTX graphics cards and displays with high refresh rates. Even with the lower power consumption and lesser cooling of laptops, this allows modern titles to run well and look good at the same time.

MSI is among the most reliable laptop brands out there, and it boasts this title partially thanks to its wide selection of devices. From those on a restricted budget of under $1,000 to hardcore enthusiasts with cash to spare, there aren't many people who will have difficulty finding their own perfect model. But not every laptop is made equally, which is why this article will focus on those with the top ratings from consumers on storefronts like Amazon, Best Buy, and Micro Center, organized by price range.

A lot of MSI laptops on Amazon fall under the same listing, causing them to share the average rating of 4.4/5 stars across over 1,000 reviews. Of these, the MSI Thin A15 is probably the lowest-end laptop you can get. Priced at around $625, the Thin A15 includes a Ryzen 7 7535HS and an RTX 2050, essentially mixing an especially competitive processor with a not-so-competitive graphics card. Still, you can expect it to perform better than laptops with other non-RTX cards, and it's far from the worst choice at this price point.

Because of how Amazon's "style" system works, you're able to pick and choose a variety of other MSI laptops with similar pricing. A version of the Thin A15 with an "AI" label includes a far more modern processor and graphics card while still managing to fit within the budget at a price of around $950. There's also the GF63 which falls between both A15s in terms of performance, providing an Intel-based processor rather than one from AMD. If you're trying to be especially careful with your money, though, the basic A15 with the RTX 2050 will still keep up well with the average gamer's needs.

Compared to its counterpart with the extra "A" in front of its number, the MSI Thin 15 isn't all that different. While it's nearly $300 more and has an Intel processor that isn't much stronger than the Ryzen 7 7535HS, it makes up for this with a more capable RTX 4050 graphics card and double the RAM capacity. The better graphics card will be much more important in the long run, especially since it's a gaming laptop, as modern features like Frame Generation are designed for more up-to-date hardware. This is the biggest boon to Nvidia officially bringing the RTX 40-series GPUs to laptops, with those extra features easily allowing cheap laptops like the Thin 15 to stay compatible with newer titles.

While this iteration of the Thin 15 isn't exactly a gaming laptop you can buy for the price of a PlayStation 5 Pro, it's still a fine option under $1,000. It also happens to boast a decent average rating on Best Buy at 4.3/5 stars. The added benefits of being lightweight and portable make the price well worth it compared to gaming consoles, even if its full performance is a bit lacking. But if you're willing to go a bit further with your budget, you don't have to sacrifice a smaller size for greater power.

The MSI Katana 15 takes a massive step up from the previous budget laptops, managing to hit nearly 400 reviews on Amazon while retaining an average over 4 stars. Though it's priced at around $1,400 normally, it manages to justify the cost with help from the RTX 4070, blowing away every other option offered by the lower-priced Thin models. There's more to it than simply having better performance, though, with the Katana 15 featuring a 1 TB SSD and a 1440p display. It doesn't even lose out on refresh rate, actually gaining a bit by going from 144Hz to 165Hz.

There are some other nice-to-have features offered by the Katana 15. It's the first laptop in this list to offer an RGB keyboard, providing some end-user customization, and it can also take advantage of improved cooling to further increase gaming performance. Some might wonder whether laptop coolers actually make a difference, but in this case, many MSI fans seem pleased with the results of this feature. It's not exactly fully-loaded with groundbreaking features, but the Katana 15 will still provide a great mid-range experience.

We previously ranked the older iteration of the MSI Bravo 15 as one of the best affordable gaming laptops of 2022. But as time has gone on and costs have gone down, the current version's price point of around $1,000 might not seem as attractive at first. After all, its specs are remarkably similar to the Thin 15, featuring the same graphics card, display, RAM, and even SSD. Its CPU is the same Ryzen 7 from the basic A15 model, as well, leaving its effective strength somewhere between both of the cheaper laptops.

In spite of all this, the Bravo 15 has something the Thin models don't. It's able to keep its performance up with much better cooling, having two fans as opposed to the Thin laptops only having one. When it's possible that where you work on your laptop might be killing it slowly due to dust and debris impacting cooling performance, the Bravo 15's extra fan will do wonders for its longevity. This is likely why the Bravo 15 also boasts an exceptionally high rating on Best Buy, with over 200 reviews at 4 or 5 stars.

Jumping up to a price of around $1,550, the Katana finds itself with an upgraded version known as the MSI Katana A15 AI. As the name implies, this laptop comes included with MSI's own specialized artificial intelligence, designed to improve software performance and fine-tune hardware for increased power. Some users have mixed opinions on how well the AI can handle their needs, but it's a helpful tool for those looking to squeeze out more frames per second wherever they can. It's also powered by an even better Ryzen 9 8945HS processor, so you can expect to get better performance compared to the cheaper Katana no matter what.

Most of the other specs from the Katana A15 are very similar to its cheaper counterpart. Outside of the better processor and AI branding, the only other major difference is the fact that it has 32GB RAM instead of 16GB, which could be helpful if you tend to have many programs open while gaming. If you're questioning whether AI is the future or just passing hype, you might not feel the new features of the A15 are worth the extra cost. But these upgrades do make the laptop objectively better, which is a sentiment shared by buyers giving it an even higher average rating than the Katana 15 on Amazon.

If you want to have at least one top-of-the-line component in your laptop without going above $2,000, the MSI Vector 16 HX might be the best choice for you. Unfortunately, it falls short in overall gaming performance thanks to only having an Nvidia RTX 4060 GPU and 16GB RAM. Where it makes up for this is in its processor: the extra-powerful Intel i9 14900HX. There are nearly no other processors able to match its overall strength, making this laptop a bit more suited towards productivity rather than gaming.

That's not to say the Vector 16 HX doesn't have some extra gaming-centric features of its own. On top of its 1440p display, it boasts an extremely high refresh rate of 240Hz, which is the fastest you'll find in any laptop on this list. It also has plenty of other essentials like Wi-Fi 7 and a decent selection of USB ports, including a Thunderbolt port. It also increases its RGB keyboard capabilities to be on a per-key basis, which is a trend only shared by the laptops beyond its price range. The trade-offs might not be worth it to gamers, but other buyers can find a lot of use out of this "gaming" laptop.

The MSI Stealth A16 AI+ isn't too far off from the Vector 16 HX, hitting the $2,000 threshold with double the RAM capacity and its own RTX 4070. It also doubles down on the AI integration found in the Katana A15, to the point where its CPU is a Ryzen chip with "AI" in its name. It fully integrates the artificial intelligence systems used by both MSI and Microsoft, utilizing Copilot and other automated settings to improve your experience while gaming or simply browsing the web. Simply put, this is the price range you want to be in if you're a hardcore AI enthusiast.

Of course, there's more to the Stealth 16 than artificial intelligence. On top of being one of the thinnest gaming laptops you'll find, it has a number of extra quality-of-life features like a fingerprint sensor and an additional slot for another SSD. It's able to match or outdo the Vector 16 HX in just about every way outside of its CPU power, and when considering how its price is only a couple hundred dollars more, the value of this laptop is pretty difficult to beat.

At around $2,700, the MSI Stealth 18 really tests the definition of "affordable." Most of its specs are pretty similar to the Stealth A16 AI+, down to the display, memory capacity, and even most of the AI features. Even the Intel Ultra 9 185H is pretty comparable to the Ryzen AI processor. But it manages to have all this alongside an RTX 4080, providing it with enough power to completely outdo even some of the most powerful gaming laptops of 2023.

An extra $700 might seem like a tall order just to go from a 4070 to a 4080. But when looking at how the cards perform inside laptops, there are some pretty massive differences. The laptop 4080 can sometimes achieve more than double the performance of the laptop 4070, and since you can't easily upgrade graphics cards in these devices, that performance hit will vastly change your experience with newer titles. Even with its staggering price, this laptop managed to hit over 1,000 reviews with an average rating of around 4 stars — and when considering its capabilities, it's not hard to see why.

The MSI Titan 18 HX is what you get when you just want to spend as much as possible, with a base price of a staggering $5,000. On top of the 14900HX, this laptop also comes with the most powerful graphics card out there, the RTX 4090. It includes two 2TB SSDs and 64GB RAM, as well as a 4K 120Hz display and an expansive port selection that even includes a memory card reader. You might be spending close to everything you have, but in return, you're getting just about everything you can from a laptop.

This laptop takes things further even beyond its base performance, going as far as to include a built-in mechanical keyboard and even an RGB touchpad. Even its camera goes above and beyond with a full HD resolution of 1080p. The only thing you'll compromise on is refresh rate since it only goes to 120Hz, which is still pretty close to the baseline of 144Hz from previous monitors. If this is the laptop you decide to stick with, you're likely to never need a new one for years unless it gets damaged.

If 4K isn't as important to you as high refresh rates, you'll likely want to abandon the Titan in favor of the MSI Raider. Comparatively, its major downsides are a 1440p display instead of 4K, a slightly less powerful processor, and only a single 2TB SSD instead of two. But it makes up for these shortcomings with a faster 240Hz refresh rate while retaining the ever-powerful 4090, and it manages to do this at a base price of around $3,700. Even if money is no object to you, the overall value of the Raider is arguably far better than the Titan.

At these higher price points, picking out the "best-reviewed" laptops is difficult due to fewer people being able to afford them. This version of the Raider only has one rating on Amazon, for example, though it managed to get five stars from it. For the most part, many MSI laptops have managed to avoid major criticisms from buyers — including the Raider and its alternate models. The company has a reputation for its laptops lasting a long time, so even when spending so much money, you can feel confident that your MSI gaming laptop will last you a long time.