Best
laptops for playing Minecraft
Windows Central
2021
The best laptops for playing Minecraft don’t need to be particularly powerful or expensive, which is part of the reason the game is so accessible. It allows players the freedom to experiment in endless blocky worlds, gather resources, build shelters, and eventually create complex automated machines. If you’re looking to upgrade your laptop or start exploring what the game has to offer, we’ve rounded up a bunch of the best Windows laptops for playing Minecraft.
Good price, good performance:
Acer Swift 3 (AMD Ryzen 7 5700U)
Editor’s pick
This affordable laptop is powered by AMD’s 5000-series Ryzen Mobile CPUs, bringing excellent performance at a great price. This model includes an 8-core Ryzen 7 5700U, 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM, and a 512GB SSD. The FHD display is sized at 14 inches for a nice mix of size and portability, and there’s a decent port selection for connected external gaming accessories. For playing Minecraft and handling productivity work, the Acer Swift 3 (AMD) is a great choice.
Taller display:
Lenovo Legion 5 Pro (16-inch)
Staff pick
The Lenovo Legion 5 Pro has a 16-inch display with 16:10 aspect ratio, QHD+ resolution, and 165Hz refresh rate that makes games look gorgeous. Not only that, the combination of AMD Ryzen 5000 Mobile CPUs and NVIDIA RTX 30-series GPUs is one of the most potent we’ve ever seen. If you want to enjoy Minecraft to its full extent, this is a great way to go.
Ultimate performance:
Alienware m15 R6 gaming laptop
If you’re interested in the Java Edition with custom shaders or the Bedrock Edition RTX enhancements, something like the Alienware m15 R6 with NVIDIA RTX 30-series dedicated GPUs and 11th Gen Intel Core H-series CPUs will offer the performance necessary to get the game looking as good as possible. It’s also cut out to handle just about any other game when you’re not in a Minecraft world.
Budget option:
HP Laptop 14z
If you’re on a tight budget or want to get a laptop on which the kids can play Minecraft, HP’s Laptop 14z doesn’t get much better for the price. It has a 14-inch display with up to FHD resolution, up to 16GB of DDR4 RAM, 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD, and an AMD Ryzen 7 5700U CPU with Radeon integrated graphics. Ports are varied for connecting accessories, and there are six colors from which to choose. Prices start quite low and scale up with extra performance.
AMD hardware:
HP OMEN 15 (15.6-inch)
Love AMD and want the latest hardware? The HP OMEN 15 brings up to a Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU with 8 cores, 32GB of DDR4 RAM, 1TB M.2 PCIe SSD, and dedicated NVIDIA RTX 3070 Laptop GPU. It will easily run Minecraft with RTX ray tracing or shaders enabled, and other games will look great too on the 15.6-inch FHD or QHD display with up to a 165Hz refresh rate.
The best around:
Razer Blade 15 gaming laptop
If you’re just looking for the absolute best gaming laptop around, all things considered, you can’t go wrong with the Razer Blade 15. It was recently refreshed with 11th Gen Intel H-series CPUs and paired up with RTX 30-series Laptop GPUs. You still get the best design around, Chroma RGB lighting, tons of ports, and top-of-the-line gaming displays with refresh rates and low response times. You’ll pay more for these PCs, but they’re worth it if you have the budget.
If we’re making some suggestions
Any of the above laptops in our collection will run Minecraft without issue, though if you’re still wondering where to turn, we can offer further guidance. If you want a reliable laptop that’s equally capable of handling productivity work as it runs Minecraft, Acer’s Swift 3 is an excellent choice.
It has a 14-inch FHD display with an IPS panel, and it’s all built into a slim chassis. The keyboard is backlit, and it has a Precision touchpad. A built-in fingerprint reader resides in the palm rest. Performance hardware is enough to keep up with Minecraft and standard productivity work thanks to an AMD Ryzen 7 5700U CPU, 8GB of LPDDR4 RAM, and a 512GB NVMe SSD. AMD has improved its integrated graphics with its 5000-series Mobile chips, so you should have no issues running Minecraft at a smooth frame rate.
The Acer Swift 3 will handle a standard game of Minecraft. Still, if you’re looking to play Java Edition with some of the best Minecraft shaders or want to get in on RTX upgrades to the Bedrock Edition, a more powerful gaming PC is recommended. Enter the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro, a laptop capable of handling whatever games you throw its way.
Models start with an AMD Ryzen 5 5600H CPU, 8GB of DDR4 RAM, 256GB M.2 PCIe SSD, and NVIDIA RTX 3050 Laptop GPU. There are plenty more configurations available, and you can go up to an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H CPU, 32GB of RAM, 2TB M.2 PCIe SSD storage, and an NVIDIA RTX 3070 Laptop GPU. Perhaps the best part is the 16-inch display with a taller 16:10 aspect ratio, boosted QHD+ resolution, and stellar color.
It will handle all versions of Minecraft, and it will also be up to the task of running modern AAA games. Be sure to have a look at our roundup of the overall best gaming laptops for far more options.
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