Every laptop we have figures for

Frame rates measured by Notebookcheck.

What it asks of a laptop

At 1,920 x 1,080 on the High preset with upscaling off, Hunt Showdown is broadly manageable for a gaming laptop, but high-refresh performance is much more selective. Notebookcheck’s measured figures cover 15 laptops, ranging from 79fps on the Schenker XMG Focus 15 with an RTX 3050 Ti at 75W to 262fps on the Medion Erazer Beast X40 with an RTX 4090. The median result is 111fps.

The important distinction is between simply clearing 60fps and making effective use of a 144Hz display. Every one of the 15 measured laptops reached 60fps or better, including the RTX 3050 Ti machine at the bottom of the list. That makes the game relatively forgiving at this tested resolution and preset for laptops with the GPUs represented here.

However, the numbers separate more clearly once the target rises to 100fps or 144fps. Eleven of the 15 laptops reached at least 100fps, but only two reached 144fps: the RTX 4090 Medion Erazer Beast X40 at 262fps and the RTX 3080 Ti MSI GE76 Raider, whose 175W RTX 3080 Ti managed 181fps. There is therefore a substantial gap between a laptop that runs the game smoothly and one that consistently has the measured performance for a 144Hz-class target.

The spread also shows that GPU labels alone are not the whole story. The measured RTX 3080 laptops range from 110fps in the MSI GS76 Stealth with an RTX 3080 at 95W to 122fps in the Medion Erazer Beast X25 with an RTX 3080 at 130W. The two RTX 3070 Ti results are closer together, at 116fps for the MSI Stealth GS66 and 126fps for the Asus ROG Flow X16 at 125W. These are specific laptop results rather than guarantees for every machine carrying those GPU names.

What runs it

For 60fps: all 15 measured laptops clear the target. The entry point in this set is the Schenker XMG Focus 15, which achieved 79fps with an RTX 3050 Ti at 75W. The HP Victus 16-e0179ng, with an RTX 3060 at 95W, reached 93fps. Those figures suggest that 60fps at the tested High preset is not limited to the top GPU tiers.

For 100fps: the picture becomes more demanding. Notebookcheck’s numbers show 11 of 15 laptops at or above this level. The RTX 2070 group straddles the line: the MSI GE66 Raider and Schenker XMG Apex 15 both recorded 101fps, while the Gigabyte Aero 17 HDR XB recorded 97fps and the MSI GS66 Stealth recorded 92fps. An RTX 2070 laptop can therefore be near 100fps in these figures, but the four measured machines do not support treating it as a dependable 100fps choice.

The RTX 2080 pair both clear 100fps, with 120fps from the Asus Strix Scar 17 and 101fps from the Acer Predator Triton 500. All three RTX 3080 machines also pass the mark: 122fps for the Medion Erazer Beast X25, 111fps for the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 and 110fps for the MSI GS76 Stealth. The two RTX 3070 Ti machines recorded 126fps and 116fps.

For 144fps: only the two fastest measured systems qualify. The MSI GE76 Raider’s RTX 3080 Ti at 175W reached 181fps, while the RTX 4090 Medion Erazer Beast X40 reached 262fps. The 126fps result from the Asus ROG Flow X16 is the closest among the remaining machines, but it is still below 144fps. On this evidence, a 144Hz target at the tested settings needs considerably more than the performance shown by the RTX 3070 Ti, RTX 3080, RTX 2080 and RTX 2070 laptops listed here.

The cheapest laptop that handles it

The fact sheet does not provide prices for most of the measured laptops, so it cannot identify the cheapest laptop in this group. The only listed price is £2,688 for the MSI Stealth GS66 with an RTX 3070 Ti, which recorded 116fps. That machine handles the game comfortably at the tested settings and exceeds 100fps, but the available price information is insufficient to call it the cheapest option.

Among the measured machines without a stated price, the Schenker XMG Focus 15 with an RTX 3050 Ti at 75W is the lowest-performing system at 79fps, yet it still clears 60fps. The HP Victus 16-e0179ng with an RTX 3060 at 95W reached 93fps. Those are the specific lower-end performance results in the data, but no price comparison can be made from the supplied figures.

What this means if you’re buying

If your priority is a smooth 60fps experience at 1,920 x 1,080 High with upscaling off, the measured data is reassuring: every laptop tested reached that level. The 79fps result from the RTX 3050 Ti system is the lowest figure, so even the slowest measured configuration retains headroom above 60fps.

If you are buying for a 100fps-class experience, the safer results begin with the specific RTX 2080, RTX 3080 and RTX 3070 Ti laptops measured here, all of which reached at least 101fps. The RTX 2070 results are less consistent, ranging from 92fps to 113fps, while the RTX 3060 result is 93fps.

For a 144Hz display, the measured figures support a narrower shortlist. Only the RTX 3080 Ti MSI GE76 Raider and RTX 4090 Medion Erazer Beast X40 reached 144fps. The RTX 4090 result comes from one laptop and the RTX 3080 Ti result also comes from one laptop, so these figures describe those machines rather than every laptop with those GPUs. The practical buying decision is therefore straightforward: modest gaming-laptop hardware is enough for 60fps in this test, around-100fps performance has a much wider selection, and 144fps requires one of the two exceptional measured results.