This year's Prime Day sale is going to be our first proper chance to save on the latest generation of RTX 40-Series gaming laptops. These rigs have been launching throughout the first half of the year and can hold some pretty lofty costs at the top end. With the previous generation steadily dropping its prices, though, you might be wondering whether you should buy an RTX 30-Series laptop in this year's Prime Day gaming deals.
There's some serious power in the newer machines - after all, they're largely the best gaming laptops on the shelves right now. But that doesn't mean they're right for everyone. The RTX 30-Series is still a particularly powerful set of cards, and can easily see players through the next few years of releases. With Prime Day gaming laptop deals set to drop those already trickling prices even further, there's plenty to lure you to both sides of the generational divide.
We've had our hands on plenty of RTX 30-Series and RTX 40-Series configurations in our quest to find the perfect rig, and we've been closely watching those prices the whole time. That's why we've put this guide together so that you can work out whether you should buy an RTX 30-Series gaming laptop this Prime Day, or grab a brand new 40-Series instead.
Why buy an RTX 30-Series gaming laptop on Amazon Prime Day?
With all these new machines hitting the shelves (and offering such solid value in their pricing), we're going to see some shifts in the world of RTX 30-Series gaming laptops. Amazon Prime Day is perfectly poised to take advantage of this new generation by slinging these older rigs out the door at particularly strong prices. As is the case every year, we're looking forward to some heavy discounts on last year's releases come the summer.
The RTX 30-Series lineup is still powerful as well. An RTX 3080 Ti can easily see you through anything you can throw at it and will continue to do so for years to come. Even the RTX 3060 and RTX 3070 are still impressive at 1080p and can stretch to 1440p should you really need them to. During sales events like Amazon Prime Day, the value is totally on the 30-Series' side - especially if we start seeing record-low prices on more high-end rigs.
After all, configurations aren't centered on their graphics cards. An RTX 4060 build, for example, is still going to be expensive if it's sitting alongside a top-of-the-range processor, 4TB of storage, and 32GB RAM - all while being displayed on a Mini LED QHD+ display. However, Prime Day isn't just going to net you an RTX 30-Series graphics card at a lower price point, it's getting you everything that comes with it. That means there might be more space in your budget for a boosted display, extra storage, or a fancier processor. You're more likely to get a top-of-the-range RTX 30-Series configuration for far less than a similar mid-range RTX 40-Series one.
If you're not looking to break past three figures in this year's Prime Day sale, you'll be sticking with the 30-Series anyway. It's easy to find an everyday RTX 3050 or RTX 3060 rig on sale for less than $1,000 / £1,000 - some have MSRPs under that amount after all - and this is where the casual or indie player should be looking. If you're not going to use the power of a turbo-charged graphics card there's no reason to buy one.
Of course, you likely already have a few models in mind - and not every gaming laptop is built equally. Thankfully, we're expecting premium rigs like the Razer Blade 15 and Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 SE to get involved in this year's Prime Day action as well. That means you're not just getting your actual components for less, but a premium chassis with luxury cooling, high-end display options, and plenty of extra quality-of-life features baked in.
Buy an RTX 30-Series gaming laptop on Prime if you:
Why buy an RTX 40-Series gaming laptop on Amazon Prime Day?
There's no doubt about it, there's a tangible leap in performance from Nvidia's latest generation of graphics cards. An Alienware M16 running an RTX 4060 (and Intel i7-13700HX processor) performed better across in-game benchmarks than last year's Alienware M15 R7, even though this RTX 3070 Ti GPU was two rungs above the equivalent card back in 2022. Of course, that's not hard and fast data - these are two different machines of different sizes running different configurations. It goes to show just what you can achieve with this level of spec in the new generation, though.
The RTX 4060 does struggle to keep up with the RTX 3070 Ti when it comes to Time Spy and Fire Strike scores, which is to be expected - this is a budget card competing against an upper mid-range one. However, the difference here certainly isn't as vast as one might anticipate.
Outside of real-world testing, though, the RTX 40-Series has wider power limits, which means greater efficiency overall. That each card can work just as hard as its previous generation twin, with far less power going into it.
On top of that comes the introduction of DLSS 3. While it's not used in all games yet, this offers up a massive improvement in texture quality and performance and boosts framerates using the new multi-frame generation. Even if you're picking up a cheaper processor in your laptop, DLSS 3 can help reduce bottlenecking and keep everything running smoothly.
What's more, cheaper laptops are already offering the budget RTX 4060 card in rigs that only cost around $200 / £200 more than their RTX 3060 counterparts. It's worth noting, though, that you're sacrificing other areas - the majority of the machines that fit this bill are dropping Intel's 13th generation processors for custom builds featuring a 12th Gen i5.
Amazon Prime Day may well kick 13th-generation configurations down to this same price bracket, though, and if you're after a base GPU that won't break the bank we'd certainly recommend keeping a close eye out for any $1,000 - $1,200 / £1,000 - £1,200 offers.
At the other end of the price spectrum, we've got the RTX 4090 - an absolute beast of a card that tickled 200fps and stayed comfortably at 150fps+ when we tested the Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 16. This isn't an option in RTX 30-Series gaming laptops, with the previous generation tapping out at a still impressive RTX 3080 Ti. If you're wanting the best of the best, aim to pick up one of these newer machines.
There are, of course, other benefits to grabbing a more recent machine although you'll be paying a little extra for them. The majority of rigs in this series, for example, come in larger 16-inch or 18-inch form factors, without adding too much extra footprint when compared to their 15.6-inch / 17.3-inch forebears. On top of that, you're more likely to get updated cooling tech and, if you're really pushing the boat out, a super vivid Mini LED display (especially in the case of the best Asus gaming laptops). These panels are generally only hitting RTX 4080 and RTX 4090 machines, but if you're looking to invest they make for an excellent boost in immersion.
At the moment, these top-of-the-range rigs are particularly expensive, with many running well over $3,000 / £3,000 and into the $4,000 / £4,000 territory. If you are looking to invest, though, Amazon Prime Day can easily take the edge off that bigger buy - or at least send you home with some freebies to enjoy as well. You're not going to see these rigs magically dropping to $1,000 / £1,000 but where MSRPs are heavier we tend to see bigger savings overall.
Buy an RTX 40-Series gaming laptop on Prime Day if you:
We're also getting you prepped for all this year's Prime Day gaming PC deals as well as the Prime Day monitor deals we expect to see. Or, for something more work-based, check out our guide to this year's Prime Day laptop deals.
