7 Best Laptop for WOW in 2024 [No Lags]

Stepping into the captivating universe of World of Warcraft requires not just your skills, but a powerful gaming laptop. And if you’re unsure which one to pick, you’re in the right place.

Whether you’re a professional playing in esports competitions or a casual gamer, a laptop with decent to excellent processing setup with a powerful graphics card and a brilliant display is important. After all, you can’t compromise with visuals & performance as you navigate through the world of Azeroth.

Selecting an ideal laptop, however, isn’t as simple as it looks. There are plenty of “so-called” best options in the retail space, but researching takes so long that you end up dropping the idea altogether.

But then, today, I took it upon myself to curate a list of laptops good for playing WOW. Whether you play on it for hours and need the best experience or a reliable machine, you have options to select from.

System Requirements

Specification	Minimum	Preferable
Processor	Intel Core i5 or AMD Ryzen 5	Intel Core i7 or AMD Ryzen 7, or equivalent
RAM	4GB	16GB
Graphics	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760, AMD Radeon RX 560 or Intel UHD 630	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 or higher
Storage	256GB SSD (100GB free space)	512GB SSD or higher
Display	14-inch Full HD VN	15.6-inch Full HD IPS
Battery	Up to 4 hours	Up to 6 hours
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 5, USB-A	Wi-Fi 6, USB-A, USB-C, and/or HDMI

With that out, let’s jump to the reviews!

1. Best Overall: ASUS ROG Strix G16

Asus ROG Strix G16 is the top laptop to consider for your ultimate World of Warcraft experience. Priced below $2000, this beastly machine houses powerful components that breeze through the gameplay at any setting.

Performance & Gaming Experience

The ROG Strix G16 features a Core i9 processor with 24 cores (9 performance and 16 efficiency cores), an Nvidia RTX 4070, 1TB PCIe SSD, and 16GB DDR5 RAM.

In my Geekbench 6 benchmark test, it achieves a multi-core score of 17846, while a 31472 on Cinebench R23, bettering my top recommendation by a margin. While the benchmarks are intriguing, I wanted to spend some time playing WOW.

I set all the details maxed out at FHD resolution, and it maintained 165 FPS while online, even when a lot of action was happening on the screen. Besides, stress testing it at 1200p for 15 runs, the game averaged at 90.6 FPS, which is great.

What’s best about the laptop is it didn’t heat up much despite playing on it for hours, even with the charger plugged in. During the stress test, it averaged 53.6 Celcius, which is a touch more than normal but didn’t affect the temperature anyway.

Asus G16 bolsters a Full HD 16-inch IPS panel with a 165Hz refresh rate, which is decent, but gaming machines within 2000 USD mark generally feature a 2560 x 1600 or 2560 x 1440 display, which is standard.

But its fast refresh rate with good color reproduction and details come good when playing WOW. The greens and red popped, and the lands of Zangarmarsh appeared mystical. Brightness can be a concern, especially in bright outdoors or well-lit indoors, but inside, things were good and fast.

Moving onto what’s important as well, the keyboard. As with its predecessor, Asus includes a full-size backlit QWERTY keyboard layout and additional top hotkeys, which are programmable.

It offers around 2mm of key travel, and the soft finish on the keys makes it easy to type on. Even during gaming/typing, my fingers swiftly moved through the keys, and I could use it for hours.

The touchpad, however, didn’t feel big considering the 16-inch real estate. But it’s glass-covered and allows me to glide easily when gaming or in everyday apps.

Battery Life

Battery life, as with most gaming laptops, is mediocre at best. Despite the company’s claims of 6 hours of life, I could play games for up to 4 hours and 21 minutes on a single charge. So try keeping your charger on the side when entering a tournament with your friends or even in a professional league.

Ports & Connectivity

Asus didn’t skimp on its port setup. Its right side houses two USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A ports, while on the left, there’s a Thunderbolt 4 port, an Ethernet port, a USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C port, an HDMI 2.1 port, a power port, and a 3.5mm audio port. Although it misses an SD card slot, it’s a rare sight in most laptops.

Conclusion

Overall, ASUS ROG Strix G16 tops the list courtesy of its powerhouse processing ability, excellent graphics and smooth gameplay sessions. However, it comes at a price. But for the specs and performance it offers, it’s totally worth it.

2. Best 17-inch Laptop: MSI GE76 Raider

Next on my list is yet another gaming beast, the MSI GE76 Raider, packed with powerful hardware and a better processing setup than my previous pick, so you don’t have to compromise on experience.

Besides, its large display and exclusive cooler boost technology make it an ideal choice for those who prefer playing WOW on a large screen.

Performance & Gaming Experience

The GE76 Raider I tested here is packed with a 12th Gen Intel Core i9 processor, 32GB RAM, and an Nvidia RTX 3060.

All these things combined, this thing tore through my benchmark suite, with a multi-core test score in Geekbench 6 and CineBench R23 test stays at 12,103 and 15,453, respectively. It knocked most of its competitions out of the park basically.

But it’s not just the CPU that’s impressive. Its RTX 3060 is capable of blisteringly fast speeds, too. With WOW running and the graphics maxed out (including ray tracing), we could constantly see framerates hovering around 120 FPS without FSR and DLSS running. That’s how powerful the laptop is.

Not only WOW, as of now, there isn’t any game for which you can’t crank up the graphics and let it ride.

Display meanwhile looks incredible. While it’s just a 1080p IPS panel, the colors, thanks to MSI’s exclusive color boost technology, are bright and accurate.

The various shades of trees (golf, emerald, and crimson) at Silvermoon City come alive, and it’s a riveting experience when fighting it out with the humanoid factions, undead, elementals, and others.

Brightness, however, can be an issue for those who wish to play the game anywhere at any time. A max brightness of 400 nits isn’t great in bright sunlight or indoor well lit conditions.

But thanks to its size, you get a full-sized keyboard with a numpad. Although I don’t prefer a numpad, especially in gaming laptops, it sure is a bonus who work a lot with numbers alongside.

Besides, the keyboard with a lot of travel, is comfortable to type on. Besides, I liked the big touchpad that responds to the clicks well, fingers glide through, and registers all Windows gestures.

Battery Life

As with my previous recommendations, you won’t see a massive change/improvement in MSI GE76, and things get worse when you’re playing WOW or any other games at ultra settings.

In my gaming test, the laptop just falls short of four hours, which means you can’t take it to work without the power cable. Forget that, you can’t even binge an entire Netflix show on a single charge.

Ports & Connectivity

The Port setup is great as well and includes everything one might ask for. There’s a Thunderbolt 4 port, two USB Type-C 3.2 Gen2 ports, two USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 1, one USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 2 port, and an HDMI port. It also has an SD card slot, which is missing in most laptops in this range.

Conclusion

MSI GE76 Raider comes as a great choice for those looking for a beast with a large display to play WOW at ultra settings. The manufacturer has done most things right, be it port setup, color reproduction, and vividity in display coupled with a powerful processor, but is lackluster in terms of brightness and battery life.

3. Best Display Quality: GIGABYTE AORUS 15X

Gigabyte Aorus 15X goes toe to toe with ASUS ROG Strix G16 in terms of sheer performance and display, despite being priced lower than it.

It packs in the same chipset, RAM, and in turn, the entire processing setup to deliver an unmatched experience in playing World of Warcraft. Despite packing something powerful, it’s sleek and easy to carry around.

Performance & Gaming Experience

I recently got my hands on Aorus 15X, and trust me on this, it didn’t disappoint a bit. The combination of a powerful Core i9 processor and an ever-popular Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU blew me away for performance.

Aside from incredible benchmark test results, the gameplay was smooth even at ultra settings, recording 140 FPS on average, and I never missed a single piece of action.

Besides, the 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD storage means ample space is empty to save gameplay progress and other relevant data. The game loads up in no time, making multitasking easier than ever.

The Auros 15X has a 15.6-inch IPS panel with a 2560 x 1440 resolution and a heady 165Hz refresh rate, which means gameplay is fast and smooth. It further uses an anti-reflective coating panel to let you work in bright sun without hurting your eyes.

Apart from WOW, although the brightness is lacking compared to its competitors, the display was enough for running Revit and other CAD software.

Besides, I was impressed by its color reproduction and details, which trend more to the cartoony side than ultra-realism graphics. The colors were effervescent in the diverse environments of WOW, be it the peaks of Storm peaks in Northrend, Stranglethorn Vale, or the mystical lands of Zangarmarsh.

Moving on, Gigabyte includes a full-sized keyboard with a numpad. The keys have enough travel distance and are comfortable on my hands to seamlessly move through the map, target enemies, or chat with my clanmates.

The touchpad, as well, is large and features a smooth glass surface. It was easy to use and recorded all the gestures, even the multi-finger ones.

Battery Life

The 15X bolsters a 99Wh battery that could last up to five hours and 20 minutes in my tests. My tests consist of web browsing, video streaming, and playing games while connected to the WiFi with a display brightness of 150 nits.

That’s a touch better than my previous recommendation but not great enough to take you through a day of work.

Ports & Connectivity

Gigabyte has infused the laptop with one Thunderbolt 4 port, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, one HDMI 2.1 port, a 2.5 GbE Ethernet port, a Mini Display port, and a combo audio jack. You can connect an external keyboard or a mouse for convenience, which many gamers do.

Conclusion

I was looking forward to testing this gaming laptop with the WOW, considering the power it beholds, and it’s safe to say I was impressed with it.

The laptop had a strong showing in my productivity tests, with a Core i9 processor and an RTX 4070 GPU. The brightness isn’t as great as my previous recommendations, but it fares well in my tests.

4. Best from Dell: Dell G16 7630

Dell G16 is a mid-range device that prioritizes function over form. It serves well if you’re looking for the biggest pixel-pushing bang for your gaming buck.

Beneath the grab, it boasts a powerful CPU-GPU duo, putting it at the head of a midrange gaming pack. And this is one of the lightest gaming laptops running these kinds of components I’ve had on the test bench.

Performance & Gaming Experience

Dell G16 comes as a strong midrange performer, posting strong results in my gaming and graphics tests. With Geekbench coming at 17846, while Cinebench posting a multi-core score of 31472, it’s already off to a good start. It beat even the top pick on my list, which is much ahead of my expectations.

Now playing WOW, it threw in a consistent 130+ FPS in the top graphics settings, and this obviously is a powerful machine. The consistency of these scores makes it a top contender for playing WOW.

The 16-inch display of G16 offers a QHD+ (2560 x 1600) resolution that’s a notch above what the FHD panel offers at this price, which adds a bonus point to its overall score. And a 16:10 panel instead of 16:9 means you have more real estate to get a broader view of the area and the map.

Its 165Hz refresh rate is pretty standard for a laptop of this price which results in smooth visuals, and I found the display’s brightness ample. With a peak brightness of 460 nits, it is far better than most mid-range laptops with 250-300 nit panels most budget models seem to host.

I wasn’t heavily impressed by the keyboard. The only nod to gamers is a bold lettering and outlining of the WASD keys, otherwise, it’s a pretty standard. The keys feel mushy and aren’t as snappy as I wanted them to be. It also misses a numpad — essential if you also use a laptop for accounting.

But to accommodate the venting on top, the keyboard deck is pushed down, leaving not much space for the touchpad. The touchpad’s click response is a touch mushy, and it might take some time to get used to it, so you’re better off using a separate mouse.

Battery Life

To test the laptop’s battery life, I played the game on ultra settings and set the brightness at 250 nits and audio at 80%. Its battery lasted around five hours and 17 minutes in my battery rundown test, which is on par with my top pick.

Ports & Connectivity

The Dell laptop has a decent selection of ports, but I would easily trade a Thunderbolt 4 port with the three Superspeed USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports it has. Aside from that, it has a USB 3.2 Gen 2 with display support, an HDMI 2.1 port, and a 3.5mm audio jack. That’s enough for most of my available connections.

Conclusion

Look-wise, Dell G16 doesn’t have much on offer, with mostly plastic design, which is both bulky and boring. The vibrant and color-accurate display lends the laptop utility beyond gaming, adding more to its versatility.

Besides, I was impressed by the gameplay experience with it, but it’d be great if it included a Thunderbolt port for faster data transfer.

5. Best from Razer: Razer Blade 15

Willing to take your World of Warcraft playing experience to the next level? Then, not many are better than the Razer Blade 15.

Be it a dazzling display, powerful processor, ample memory, or a power-packed graphics card, the laptop has everything you want and more. All of it takes its performance to the next level while maintaining a premium portable design.

Performance & Gaming Experience

On paper, with a 13th Gen Core i7 processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU, the Razer Blade 15 seems to have every ingredient to become a top gaming laptop. In real-time tests, staying on par with my expectations, the laptop came out on top.

In my gaming benchmark tests, Razer Blade managed a multi-core score of 9,327 on Geekbench 5 and 12,878 on Cinebench R23. These numbers are great enough to comfortably see you through the next five years of gaming and potentially more if you don’t see any major graphical breakthroughs.

In World of Warcraft, the laptop achieved a score of 147 frames per second at ultra settings, pretty much thrashing its competition. The three-figure frame rate score in such a demanding title in ultra settings is a signatory for the amount of raw horsepower baked into this machine.

Playing games on a 240Hz display shows how far we’ve come, probably peak for the PC. A QHD display delivers absolutely beautiful graphics at 2560 x 1440 pixel resolution, making it one of the most gorgeous-looking devices.

That crazy high refresh rate makes for smooth and rich visuals on your World of Warcraft, with simply the best HDR contrasts. Besides, at a maximum brightness of 500 nits, it tops even high-end desktop monitors in terms of overall quality, but its glossy surface can be a pain, especially under bright lights.

Playing games like World of Warcraft needs a good keyboard, as most keys are in use, and I am impressed by what Razer Blade 15 has to offer. Enough travel distance & tactile feedback, and felt solid under my fingers, so I didn’t miss any enemy hits and could breeze through the missions.

Besides, its precision glass trackpad feels firm to the touch with decisive clicking action and is highly responsive to Windows touch gestures. I didn’t even feel the need for a separate mouse to play the game.

Battery Life

Unlike its larger counterpart, Razer Blade 17, it performed well in my battery test. Playing the WOW at ultra settings until the battery runs out and the machine shuts down, the laptop gave me 4 hours and 38 minutes of life, which is on par with most gaming machines I have tested.

Ports & Connectivity

Razer Blade 15 has ample ports for your connections. On the left side, there’s a USB 3.2 Gen 2 and a 3.5mm audio jack for people still using wired headphones, while the right side houses an HDMI port, an SD card reader, and a Thunderbolt 4 port, which supports superfast data transfers.

Conclusion

Razer Blade 15 sets high expectations and delivers in most parts as well. Be it the killer design, excellent display, and, most importantly, a powerful processing setup that breezes through WOW in ultra settings in a breeze. Its battery life is somewhat of a setback, but that’s a norm with most gaming PCs.

6. Best Value for Money: Acer Nitro 5

Now, presenting you with a mid-range yet highly reliable WOW-friendly laptop, Acer Nitro 5. It’s packed with delicious internals that can handle triple-A gaming, which blew my mind. The best part is all of the power is squeezed into a slim chassis.

Performance & Gaming Experience

The Nitro 5 combines a 12th-generation Intel Core i7-12650H CPU with a 16GB DDR5, 1TB SSD, and the RTX 4060. The CPU might not be the latest, but its six performance cores and four efficient cores can tackle up to 4.7 GHz clock speed, so you’ve got more than enough performance to play World of Warcraft.

Adding more demanding ray-traced effects and the frame rates plummet to 71 FPS at 1080p, which on turning on the DLSS 3, boosted the frame rates back to 110.45 FPS, at which the gameplay was pretty smooth with no serious judders or lags.

After reviewing the QHD+ display of Dell G16, the 15.5-inch FullHD panel of Nitro 5 did seem a touch underwhelming.

That said, the low resolution with a power-packed GPU with ray tracing on, makes the game still look good at 1080p, and a 144Hz refresh rate still gives you a fighting chance. And the colors of mystic scenes in the game look vivid and detailed.

I was, however disappointed with its maximum brightness levels set at 247 nits. It’s not bright enough to play high-paced games like WOW in direct sunlight or too near the window on a sunny day.

Moving on, the keyboard seems identical to its previous version, with square, flat, and chiclet keys. The keys, as usual, have a touch soft typing action with no bounce, which makes gaming and typing more comfortable. I could seamlessly play through the chapters and respective missions.

Underneath the keyboard, there’s a comparatively large touchpad that isn’t made of plastic rather than glass, but considering the price, it feels smooth and accurate.

Battery Life

Coming from its previous versions, Acer hasn’t improved much on the battery life. Playing the game at ultra settings, it ran for up to four hours and 15 minutes on a single charge, which isn’t great considering the standards of mid-tier offerings.

Ports & Connectivity

Unlike its battery life, I found its port setup enough for most accessories. There’s a USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 2 port with display support, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, an HDMI 2.1 port, an Ethernet port, and a 3.5mm audio jack.

There’s also a Thunderbolt 4 port with fast data transfer and charging, which is a rare sight on laptops in this price bracket.

Conclusion

Overall, Acer Nitro 5 comes as a great sub $1000 gaming laptop that comes on par with most top-end devices in terms of performance.

The display isn’t as bright but the scenes and colors look vivid and bright, and an ample port selection with a Thunderbolt 4 port is a rare sight in most mid-range laptops. But the battery life was disappointing, reason why it’s ranked in sixth spot.

7. Best Budget Option: HP Victus 15

If you’re in the market for an inexpensive way to embark on your gaming journey with WOW and aren’t concerned about playing with full power, HP Victus 15.6” is the one for you.

Balancing some solid components under the hood and a 144Hz display up top, there’s some nice horsepower out there. Despite that, it comes as one of the lightest gaming laptops out there.

Performance & Gaming Experience

It comes with a 13th-gen Core i5 H-series processor and an RTX 3050 GPU, which can handle most games at high settings, including WOW.

While playing the game at 1080p (at medium settings), I was impressed with how smooth the gameplay was. It averaged at around 71 FPS most of the time, only 55 FPS during intense action.

But unlike my previous recommendation, turning DLSS on isn’t an option, which potentially lessens the burden on CPUs and improves the frame rates. It’s reserved for higher-generation GPUs.

What’s a bit concerning is that the laptop somewhat heats up (averaged at around 84 degrees Celsius) when engaged in hours of playing at 60% brightness and 100% sound. That performance didn’t drop much, but it potentially impacts the lifespan of internal components, especially CPU, GPU, and battery, over time.

Barring an inferior performance to Acer Nitro 5, it hasn’t improved or degraded the display department. The usual FullHD display with a 144Hz refresh rate. Played World of Warcraft at medium settings, and the game still looked gorgeous.

I appreciate the color reproduction and brightness, besides the anti-glare effect that worked decent when gaming or streaming content.

But as typical to these laptops, brightness isn’t high, and the screen doesn’t look great when playing outdoors or indoors in a well-lit environment.

Moving on, the keypad and the touchpad of Victus 15 felt good enough. With the keypad, the feedback was nice, and I could play through the game or type very fast at 65 wpm and a 3% error rate.

Besides, the touchpad was pretty spacious and had a responsive clicking mechanism. Scrolling through the tabs was seamless, and I didn’t need a separate mouse.

Battery Life

In my battery test, where I played through the game at 180 nits of brightness, the HP Victus 15 for up to 5 hours 11 minutes. That’s on par with most gaming laptops so you probably need to keep a power brick or stay up close to the power plug.

Ports & Connectivity

Victus hasn’t however compromised in this department and has pretty much everything a user might need. Be it one USB-C, one USB-A, an HDMI slot, a 3.5mm audio jack, an SD card slot, or RJ45 port, it has it all.

Conclusion

Overall, the HP Victus 15.6″ has a lot going for it, considering the price it comes in. Packing a mid-tier gaming configuration, it keeps pace with the World of Warcraft gameplay in 1080p at high settings.

But with a budget laptop, you must make some trade-offs. The display is a bit lackluster, and the webcam could be better, reason it’s ranked lower in the list.

Frequently Asked Questions

Wrap Up!

World of Warcraft is not a very high-end contemporary title that needs a laptop with a balanced set of features to have a decent gameplay experience. If you still can’t figure out which one to opt for, choose one from the best in each category:

• If you want the best gaming experience, opt for the best, i.e., Razer Blade 15.
• If you don’t have the budget for my top pick and don’t want to compromise with the experience much, go for the Dell G16 7630.
• And for the cheapest segment, the HP Victus 15 comes as an ideal choice.

With that comes an end to my guide. Just figure out your budget and choose one that delivers an all-around experience. I’ll see you in another such guide.