9 Best Gaming Laptops with NVIDIA RTX 2060 to Buy in 2021 For AAA Gaming on the Move
Gaming laptops have come a long way and are available in multiple price tiers and configurations. The core component of any gaming laptop, apart from the processor itself, is the GPU. A powerful GPU must help drive high frame rates at higher resolutions, but since we are talking about laptops, such a GPU must also be power efficient.
The GeForce RTX 2060 is the entry-level model in NVIDIA's latest Turing series that offers excellent gaming performance without putting a dent in your wallet. It also comes with support for ray tracing and some of NVIDIA's AI tech that dynamically improves each rendered scene's quality.
Laptops featuring the RTX 2060 were made available early this year, and we find well-known models from most OEMs now featuring this new GPU. As long as you are fine with playing at FHD at high or ultra settings, the RTX 2060 should serve you well. Also, RTX 2060 is one of the powerful lineups in the NVIDIA GPU offerings.
With that information, here's a look at the 9 best gaming laptops powered by the NVIDIA RTX 2060 that you can lay your hands on this year.
1. Acer Predator Triton 500
The Acer Predator series targets the enthusiast gaming market, and the Triton 500 offers a good feature set that would please most gamers without breaking the bank. The base configuration offers the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 and can be configured up to the RTX 2080 MaxQ. The overall design of the Predator Triton 500 will appeal to many. It has a gamery look but also makes for a good laptop for work or school. The chassis is all-aluminum and helps in making the laptop easy to carry around. Port selection is fair enough for a laptop of this size. You get a Thunderbolt 3 port, mini DP, HDMI-out, Ethernet, and three USB 3.1 ports. The display uses a 144 Hz panel that should help with smooth frames, but you might have to dial down the game settings if you plan to run the latest AAA titles on the RTX 2060 close to that frame rate. Details are clear, but the brightness could be better. The Predator Triton 500 comes with a good keyboard that offers adequate travel and is RGB backlit.
The performance of the Triton 500 should be adequate for most modern tasks such as gaming and content creation. Games such as Rise of the Tomb Raider can easily hit 60 fps at 1080p high settings. You can also use the Turbo Boost feature to crank up the CPU's speeds and the GPU, which should offer some good fps boosts as well. Older games such as GTA-V and Hitman should be able to touch the 80 fps mark at 1080 high easily. The Core i7-8750H needs no introduction and can easily help sail through the most demanding tasks. There aren't too many issues with the laptop, but you might have to manually request a custom BIOS from Acer Support to unlock the full 2666 MHz RAM speed.
- Pros: Excellent performance for the price; 144 Hz panel
- Cons: Default BIOS supports only 2400 MHz memory clock
2. Asus ROG Strix Scar II Gaming
Asus's ROG series has been hugely popular with gamers of all budgets, and the ROG Strix Scar II Gaming is no exception. The ROG Strix Scar II offers an impressive spec sheet for the price, including a 144 Hz FHD IPS panel, an RTX 2060, and a Core i7-8750H Hexa-core CPU. The design of the laptop is distinctly gamery and allows for efficient heat dissipation. At 2.4 kg, it is not the lightest laptop out there, but the heft is understandable considering the powerful components and the large 17-inch screen. Like most gaming products, Scar II has plenty of RGB effects that can be fully controlled via Asus's Aura Sync software. The display has good colors and visibility, and the 144 Hz refresh rate helps in offering smooth visuals, provided you set your game settings accordingly.
Gamers can rest assured that Scar II can run just about any modern game, including Battlefield V, Hitman 2, or PUBG. With the RTX 2060, you can also use basic ray-tracing effects, provided you are willing to sacrifice a few fps drops. Asus says that the Scar II has a HyperCool Pro cooling system that comes with an anti-dust feature. The laptop offers three power management modes — silent, balance, and turbo that can be selected depending on the load. It is possible to extract at least 6 to 7 hours of battery life if run in the silent mode without any games. Overall, the Asus ROG Strix Scar II is one of the best RTX 2060 laptops you can buy for great gaming on the go.
- Pros: Good gaming performance; Good port placement
- Cons: High emissions
3. MSI GE75 Raider
The MSI GE75 Raider is one of MSI's best gaming offerings. The base specs start with an NVIDIA RTX 2060 but can be configured up to the RTX 2080 and the Core i9-8950HK if your budget permits. Like most other MSI laptops, the GE75 Raider is well made and offers a robust design. The GE75 Raider comes with a SteelSeries keyboard for good tactile feedback. It is not a mechanical keyboard but offers a similar feeling while typing or gaming. The keyboard is fully RGB backlit, and individual lighting zones can be customized via the SteelSeries Engine software. The RGB lighting extends to the USB ports as well. The trackpad is spacious and supports Windows Precision drivers. The GE75 Raider's screen sports a 144 Hz refresh rate display but, unfortunately, does not support G-Sync even on the RTX 2080 models. However, the display covers a good 72% of the NTSC color gamut, which means excellent color reproduction. Wireless connectivity is handled by the Killer 1550i card that offers neat network prioritization and packet handling features to minimize latency during online gaming.
With such a configuration, the performance of the MSI GE75 Raider is not a concern at all. The CPU performance is in-line with most other gaming laptops of its class, and so is the gaming performance. However, battery life is a serious concern with this laptop, and you will often find yourself reaching out for a charger. Temperatures are fine, but fan noise can get really loud under gaming. Still, the MSI GE75 Raider offers a lot of hardware for the money and is an easy pick if you can forgive some of the shortcomings.
- Pros: Proven gaming performance; SteelSeries keyboard
- Cons: High emissions; Poor battery life
4. Razer Blade 15
The immensely popular Razer Blade 15 gets an upgrade to NVIDIA's RTX GPUs this year and also comes in a new white color scheme. The aesthetics of the Razer Blade make it seem like an Apple MacBook Pro on steroids, and that's precisely what the laptop aims to be. You get all the goodies of using a Razer laptop, including Razer synapse, a high-refresh-rate screen, and top of the line hardware. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 2060 can drive 100+ fps in games if you get the settings right so you can make full use of the 144 Hz panel. Connectivity options are good although, you will miss out on the RJ-45 Ethernet port.
Those buying the Blade 15 laptop with RTX 2060 will certainly be drawn towards the higher-specced versions with the RTX 2070 or RTX 2080. However, considering the thin chassis, it will be difficult to make use of the higher-end GPUs' full potential as the system generates a lot of heat and will inevitably throttle under load. The cooling is aggressive, which also generates a lot of noise. Pricing is another major factor, and the competition has started offering competing models at good prices, making the Razer Blade 15 somewhat of a novelty in this age. That being said, the latest Blade 15 has much-improved thermals than the previous generation making it one of the best RTX 2060-powered laptops to buy.
- Pros: Thin and light chassis; Relative good gaming performance
- Cons: Expensive; High thermals
5. Asus ROG Strix Hero II
The Asus ROG Strix Hero II and Scar II can be thought of as identical twins with not much of a differentiator between them. The Strix Hero II gets an upgrade to the NVIDIA RTX 2060 GPU and a 15.6-inch full HD 144 Hz panel. The keyboard offers good tactile feedback and gets N-key rollover support, which means multiple keystrokes at once can be registered. The whole keyboard is RGB backlit with transparent WASD keys for extra emphasis on gaming. The touchpad is good, but users would be more interested in using a gaming mouse than relying on the touchpad since this is a gaming laptop. Port selection is good, but Asus does not include a Thunderbolt 3 port. This shouldn't be much of an issue considering that the internals is already very powerful, but those who'd like running GPUs higher than the RTX 2060 in an enclosure might find it to be a disadvantage with this laptop. Cooling the Core i7-8750H and the RTX 2060 is handled by five heat pipes that are shared between the CPU, GPU, VRMs, and VRAM. A fairly large 66 Wh battery is also present.
One of the main complaints with respect to the ROG Strix Hero II is the high fan noise, even at idle. The issue has been largely resolved with recent BIOS updates, so it shouldn't be much of an issue now. While not really designer-grade, the display is excellent for movie watching and gaming with a 92% sRGB coverage. Performance in most games is excellent as expected, and you can easily push above 60 fps in most modern titles at Ultra settings. Dialing down the settings a bit will help in achieving higher frames. CPU-performance is excellent as well, so number crunching will not be an issue. There is a lot of competition for the Asus ROG Strix Hero II, but given the combination of features and good pricing, we feel that this is one of the best Asus gaming notebooks with RTX 2060 in the market.
- Pros: Good choice of components; Upgradeable
- Cons: High fan noise even at idle
6. MSI GE63 Raider
The MSI GE63 Raider offers a very competitive mobile gaming solution under $2,000 thanks to the Core i7-8750H Hexa-core CPU and the NVIDIA RTX 2060 GPU. The GE63 Raider offers a 15.6-inch 144 Hz display. If you need a larger 17.3-inch screen, the MSI GE75 Raider might be worth a look. The specifications are more or less the same, so only the screen size is a differentiating factor. Coming to the laptop itself, MSI has focused a lot on the design in this iteration with thinner screen bezels and brushed metal for the lid and interior. The hinges are also stronger this time around. You get a SteelSeries chicklet keyboard that offers an almost-mechanical typing and gaming experience and per-key RGB illumination. The touchpad uses Windows Precision drivers, but gamers will be best served with a dedicated gaming mouse.
Performance in synthetic and real-world benchmarks is as expected, but there is still scope for much better scores and lower emissions if the CPU is undervolted. Nonetheless, the cooling is well designed, albeit the noise levels are a bit on the higher side for a gaming laptop. The MSI Dragon Center app allows for fan noise tuning and overclocking, so you can use the settings that fit your usage the best. Battery life is not too good, so you'll find yourself hunting for a charging port often. Also, there is no Thunderbolt 3 port available, which is a negative. Still, you get a lot of laptops for the price making the MSI GE63 Raider one of the best RTX 2060 gaming laptops in the market.
- Pros: Good internals; Easy upgradeability; Good performance
- Cons: Higher fan noise levels; Poor battery life; No Thunderbolt 3 port
7. HP Omen 15
The HP Omen series has been an underdog in the gaming laptop world due to the popularity of offerings from Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, etc. Still, HP has very competitive gaming laptops as well. The latest Omen series gets an upgrade to the NVIDIA RTX-series GPUs and the latest 8th generation Intel Coffee Lake-H CPUs for a great gaming experience. You also get options for a 240 Hz display or can opt for the 144 Hz panel to save some money as the RTX 2060 doesn't really output so many fps anyway. At a thickness of 1.02 inches, the Omen is not too bulky but, at the same time, will not break any slimness records like the Razer Blade 15 or the Alienware m15. Port connectivity is good with all common ones except for Thunderbolt 3.
Although HP offers an improved cooling system in this iteration compared to the last generation, users have reported throttling issues, which prevents the Core i7-8750H from being used to its full potential under load. Undervolting is an option, but it is not exactly a straightforward process and does require some technical know-how. If you can overlook some of the nitty-gritty issues, the HP Omen 15 is one of the best value gaming laptops with RTX 2060.
- Pros: Good gaming performance; 240 Hz panel option
- Cons: Throttling at heavy load
8. Gigabyte Aorus 15 W9
The Gigabyte Aorus 15 W9 was launched at CES this year with the 8th generation H-series Coffee Lake CPUs and the NVIDIA RTX 2060 GPU. The Aorus 15 W9 is more or less similar to the Aorus 15 X9 that is based on the higher-end RTX 2070. The new Aorus 15 series features a display with thin bezels and an overall excellent build quality despite some flexing on display and the palm rests. The laptop offers a decent port selection, although the lack of Thunderbolt 3 might be bothersome. The chassis is easy to service, and opening up the back panel offers easy to access upgrade paths for storage, RAM, and Wi-Fi. The FHD 144 Hz panel offers excellent viewing angles and good color reproduction, while the keyboard is RGB backlit and offers good tactile feedback for both typing and gaming.
Given the hardware combination, overall gaming performance is excellent, with little room for complaints. The spacious chassis also allows for more efficient cooling, and the CPU doesn't throttle drastically under load. However, the RTX 2060 does work at a lower than rated turbo boost even though it is not a MaxQ version. Still, the graphics performance is up there with other RTX 2060 notebooks, and you can very well play beyond FHD resolutions as long as some settings are dialed down. Fan emissions are on the higher side, and they are audible even when idle. There is also no option to use NVIDIA Optimus as the integrated GPU in the Core i7 processor has been disabled fully by Gigabyte. Due to this, battery life takes a drastic hit and tops out at less than 3 hours at best. However, the Aorus 15 W9 is still a formidable RTX 2060 gaming laptop as long as you can overlook some of the cons.
- Pros: Excellent gaming performance; Good quality display
- Cons: Poor battery life; No NVIDIA Optimus support; High fan noise
9. Alienware m15
No discussion about gaming laptops can possibly go without mentioning Alienware. The Alienware m15 is one of the best gaming laptops out there and has recently got a spec bump to the latest Intel CPUs and NVIDIA RTX GPUs. The Alienware m15 is thinner than the regular Alienware 15, which makes it a portable powerhouse. Most aspects of the Alienware experience are available, including a full size four-zone RGB backlit keyboard. Compared to most other laptops in this list, the port selection is really good. Although you don't get a Thunderbolt 3 port, you still have a dedicated Alienware Graphics Amplifier port through which you can connect external GPUs.
Gaming and productivity performance are on similar lines as other such gaming laptops in this list, so your purchase decision will mostly be influenced by budget and aesthetics. Cooling issues have been reported, but in this case, the issues mostly present themselves when overclocked. At stock speeds, the Alienware m15 is relatively silent when compared to other laptops in its class.
- Pros: Good aesthetics; Great gaming performance
- Cons: None as such
So that was an overview of some of the best gaming laptops powered by the NVIDIA RTX 2060 GPU to buy in 2021. Remember that while the RTX 2060 should be able to play most games comfortably at 1080p, gaming at higher resolutions will require some sacrifice in texture quality. We hope that this article has addressed your needs. Feel free to let us know if you have any questions.