Best laptops for playing Minecraft 2024
Whether you want to start playing Minecraft or are looking for an upgrade, we have some recommendations.
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.
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 connecting external gaming accessories. The Acer Swift 3 (AMD) is a great choice if you're satisfied with a vanilla Minecraft experience.
The Lenovo Legion 5 Pro (Gen 7) has been upgraded with AMD's Ryzen 6000 CPUs, DDR5-4800MHz RAM, M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD storage, and a cooling system with thinner fan blades and more exhaust area. The 16-inch QHD+ display includes up to a 240Hz refresh rate, and you can get up to an NVIDIA RTX 3070 Laptop GPU. This is one of the best laptops for playing Minecraft without limits.
If you're interested in the Java Edition with custom shaders or the Bedrock Edition RTX enhancements, something like the Alienware m15 R7 with NVIDIA RTX 30-series dedicated GPUs and 12th 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.
If you're on a tight budget or want to get a laptop on which the kids can play Minecraft, the ASUS VivoBook 15 doesn't get much better for the price. It has a 15-inch display with an FHD resolution, 8GB of DDR4 RAM, 128GB M.2 SSD, and an 11th Gen Intel Core i3 with Intel UHD integrated graphics. This laptop won't beat any speed records, but it's one of the best laptops for Minecraft if you don't want to overspend.
Love AMD and want the latest hardware? The HP Omen 16 brings up to a Ryzen 9 6900HX CPU with 8 cores, 32GB of DDR4 RAM, 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD, and dedicated NVIDIA RTX 3070 Ti Laptop GPU. It will easily run Minecraft with RTX ray tracing or shaders enabled, and other games will look great too on the 16-inch FHD or QHD display with up to a 165Hz refresh rate.
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. Intel 12th Gen models are here, though you can still get older models for less money. All are paired up with RTX 30-series Laptop GPUs for optimal performance. 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.
The Dell XPS 17 (9720) is the largest of the XPS siblings, allowing for a lot of performance and screen real estate. These laptops have an unbeatable design, 16:10 display options, excellent keyboard and touchpad, and Intel's 12th Gen Core CPUs with NVIDIA RTX 3050 or RTX 3060 Laptop GPUs. It's a solid choice if you want a high-end Ultrabook for work, studies, or creativity that can also play Minecraft.
The Acer Nitro 5 is first and foremost a gaming laptop, but it costs a lot less than you might expect. It has a 11th Gen Intel Core i5-11400H CPU, NVIDIA GTX 1650 Laptop GPU, and up to 32GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD storage. The 15.6-inch display has a 1920x1080 (FHD) resolution, it has a backlit keyboard (red), and there are plenty of ports for connecting accessories.
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This collection of the best laptops for playing Minecraft will land you something that can handle the blocky world, 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 (Gen 7), a laptop capable of handling whatever games you throw its way.
Models start with an AMD Ryzen 7 6800H CPU, 16GB of DDR5 RAM, 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD, and NVIDIA RTX 3060 Laptop GPU. There are plenty more configurations available, and you can go up to 32GB of RAM, 2TB of 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, as well as our collection of the overall best Windows laptops.
Minecraft
Minecraft is a legendary crafting survival game from Mojang and Microsoft, where players can build literally anything they can imagine. It's now available through PC Game Pass.
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Cale Hunt is formerly a Senior Editor at Windows Central. He focuses mainly on laptop reviews, news, and accessory coverage. He's been reviewing laptops and accessories full-time since 2016, with hundreds of reviews published for Windows Central. He is an avid PC gamer and multi-platform user, and spends most of his time either tinkering with or writing about tech.