Low-end gaming laptops are always a delicate balance. Starting at $899.99 ($1,199.99 as tested), HP’s Victus 15 gaming laptop maintains that poise: It gives budget-minded gamers a practical entry point into PC gaming without suppressing performance too much. With an AMD Ryzen 7 8000-series processor and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 graphics chip inside, our test model handles 1080p esports titles with ease. Also, the laptop features a decent build, a comfortable keyboard, and surprisingly long battery life for its price. While Acer's Nitro V 15 edges ahead in raw performance, the Victus 15 holds its own, particularly if you catch it on sale, thanks to its brighter display and more generous storage.

Configurations: Options for AMD or Intel Processing

The Victus 15 comes in many configurations, including built-to-order ones, available directly from HP, with older GPU options. HP has three basic configurations; our $1,199.99 test model is the Victus 15-fb3025nr, which includes a Ryzen 7 8845HS, a GeForce RTX 4050, 16GB of memory, and 1TB of solid-state storage. The RTX 4050 stops at 50 watts (W), but our benchmarks will show that the GPU is fully capable of modern 1080p gaming.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

The $899 base model is less impressive. It swaps in a still-capable Ryzen 5 8645HS but drops the GPU to an elderly RTX 2050. It also cuts the RAM to 8GB, which will fall short for many modern games. Finally, HP sells an RTX 4050 model with an Intel Core i5-13420H processor for an ill-advised $1,149.99.

Our test unit is priced solidly in the RTX 4050 category, especially if you see it on sale for just $849.99, which was the case at the time of this review. Comparable models include the MSI Cyborg 15 and Acer Nitro V 15, which are listed for $859 and $839 at Newegg, respectively. They have similar specifications but half the storage (512GB).

In the middle of testing, HP rolled out new Victus 15 models featuring Ryzen AI and Intel “Arrow Lake” Core chips, plus newer RTX 5050 and 5060 GPUs. These should deliver faster performance, but they sometimes have higher base prices, like the AMD options starting at $1,119.99. To HP's credit, the updated Intel models start at $999.

Design: Budget Gaming That Doesn’t Feel Cheap

The Victus 15 makes a decent first impression, providing a sturdy plastic chassis that feels durable. Our unit’s Mica Silver finish (with Performance Blue available on select models) lends a clean, understated appearance, although it hasn’t been updated since our first review of a Victus 15 in 2022. The thick bottom display bezel gives it a less modern appearance due to the traditional 16:9 screen aspect ratio. Despite this, the laptop maintains a respectable look—HP's minimal branding features only a Victus logo on the lid and below the display. You'll find no external lighting, though that’s hardly expected in an entry-level machine.

Measuring 0.93 by 14.1 by 10 inches, the Victus 15 is trimmer than the Acer Nitro V 15 (1.1 by 14.3 by 9.5 inches) but half a pound heftier, at 5.1 versus 4.6 pounds. It’s about as portable as a budget gaming laptop gets.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

While the Victus’ port selection is modest, it covers the essentials: one USB Type-A port on each side, a 3.5mm audio jack to the left, and a USB Type-C, an HDMI output, and an Ethernet jack on the right. (All USB connections here transfer data at 5Gbps.) Power comes via a barrel connector at the left rear corner. Internally, our model features a MediaTek networking card with Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 radios.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

HP backs the Victus 15 with an industry-standard one-year warranty. Besides the usual Windows 11 default apps, HP also includes its Omen Command Center. While it doesn't provide many configuration settings, due to the laptop's fundamental nature, it does display system vitals, provides several performance modes (Eco, Quiet, and Balanced, the last being the default used for all testing) and includes a network booster. The HP Support Assist app is also available for support access and software updates. Several unwanted apps, such as a McAfee antivirus trial, are pre-installed, but these are removable.

Display, Audio, and Inputs: Game-Ready, Daily-Use Friendly

For the price, this laptop provides a decent balance of everyday usability and gaming features. Its 1,920-by-1,080-pixel screen outshines the panels on many budget laptops with impressive brightness. Though color fidelity isn’t its strong suit—reds tend to skew orange, and overall tones appear subdued—it still delivers a satisfactory picture for games and streaming. The 144Hz refresh rate also ensures smooth gaming when using frame-generation and resolution-scaling techniques.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

The built-in speakers add to the laptop’s entertainment appeal, delivering respectable clarity and loudness for personal use. While they lack branded audio tuning and don’t come with an EQ customization app, HP includes a DTS Headphone:X license, which can improve the listening experience when paired with compatible headphones.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

HP’s keyboard features bright white backlighting, though customizable models include different color options. The keys have a comfortable travel distance and enough actuation pressure to let you know precisely when they register. I had no trouble reaching my top typing speed in the MonkeyType typing test. Layout-wise, I always appreciate a full-size numeric keypad, a properly arranged arrow cluster, and handy shortcuts: Fn+F11 to disable the touchpad, and Fn+F12 to turn off the Windows key.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

Beneath it, the amply sized touchpad provides smooth tracking and reasonably quiet clicks. Meanwhile, above the display, the blurry 720p webcam reminds us of this laptop’s budget status. It lacks a privacy shutter, and biometric features are also absent, though these are not common on a budget gaming laptop.

Performance Testing: Modest Specs for Solid Play

To recap, our Victus 15 test configuration features an AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS processor (eight cores, 5.1GHz turbo), an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 graphics chip rated for 50W, 16GB of dual-channel RAM, and a 1TB SSD.

Similar Products

Our Current Picks for The Best Cheap Gaming Laptops for 2026

MSI Katana 15 HX

4.0 Excellent

Buy It Now

Read Our Review

Acer Nitro V 16 AI

4.0 Excellent

Buy It Now

Read Our Review

HP Victus 15 (2025)

3.5 Good

Buy It Now

Read Our Review

Acer Nitro V 15 (ANV15-41-R2Y3)

3.5 Good

Buy It Now

Read Our Review

Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE (2025)

4.0 Excellent

Buy It Now

Read Our Review

In our benchmark comparisons, the Victus will primarily face off against the Acer Nitro V 15 featuring a Ryzen 5 7535HS and an RTX 4050 rated at a healthier 75W. As we haven’t tested other truly budget gaming laptops recently, the other three all utilize the GeForce RTX 4060. These include the Dell G15 ($1,659 as tested), the Gigabyte G6X 9KG ($1,349 as tested), and the nearly ultraportable HP Omen Transcend 14 ($1,699 as tested). The Dell and the Gigabyte use older but still powerful Core i5 HX-class chips, while the Omen Transcend uses a more modern Core Ultra 7 H-class chip.

Productivity and Content Creation Tests

Our primary overall benchmark, UL's PCMark 10, tests a system in productivity apps ranging from web browsing to word processing and spreadsheet work. Its Full System Drive subtest measures a PC's storage throughput.  Three more tests we use are CPU-centric or processor-intensive: Maxon's Cinebench 2024 uses that company's Cinema 4D engine to render a complex scene; Primate Labs' Geekbench 6.3 Pro simulates popular apps ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning; and we see how long it takes the video transcoder HandBrake 1.8 to convert a 12-minute clip from 4K to 1080p resolution. 

Finally, workstation maker Puget Systems' PugetBench for Creators test utility rates a PC's image editing prowess with a variety of automated operations in Adobe's seminal image editor, Photoshop 25.

The Victus demonstrated potent performance throughout our testing suite. It vied for the top position alongside the Gigabyte in PCMark, with none of the others in contention. It also did well in the storage test, finishing ahead of the Acer and Omen models. While it wasn't quite as powerful as the Core HX-powered Gigabyte in the CPU tests, the Victus' Ryzen 7 chip held its ground, which is commendable given its lower wattage rating (35W compared with 55W for the Core HX). It also significantly outperformed the Acer's older Ryzen 5. All told, expect potent general productivity performance for the price.

Gaming and Graphics Tests

We challenge all gaming systems’ graphics with a quintet of animations or gaming simulations from UL's 3DMark test suite. The first two, Wild Life (1440p) and Wild Life Extreme (4K), use the Vulkan graphics API to measure GPU speeds. The next two, Steel Nomad's regular and Light subtests, focus on APIs more commonly used for game development. And we turn to 3DMark Solar Bay to measure ray tracing performance in a synthetic environment.

Our real-world gaming testing comes from the in-game benchmarks of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Cyberpunk 2077, and F1 2024. These three games—all benchmarked at the system’s full HD (1080p or 1200p native) resolution—represent competitive shooter, open-world, and simulation games, respectively. Each game runs at two sets of graphics settings per resolution for up to four runs total on each game.

We run the Call of Duty benchmark at the Minimum graphics preset—aimed at maximizing frame rates to test display refresh rates—and again at the Extreme preset. Our Cyberpunk 2077 test settings aim to push PCs fully, so we run it on the Ultra graphics preset and again at the all-out Ray Tracing Overdrive preset, both without DLSS or FSR. Finally, F1 represents our DLSS effectiveness (or FSR on AMD systems) test, demonstrating a GPU’s capacity for frame-boosting upscaling technologies. The ability of these frame-rate boosts changes with the version of frame generation tech available, with DLSS 2 and 3 stitching in one AI-generated frame for every originally rendered frame, and the latest (DLSS 4) inserting up to three additional frames.

In the synthetic 3DMark tests, the Victus trailed well behind the Nitro, underscoring the advantage of having 50% more GPU wattage on tap. However, neither could match the performance of the Dell, Gigabyte, or Omen, all of which utilized the more powerful RTX 4060. In real-world gaming tests, the Victus closed the performance delta with the Acer, trailing by only a few frames per second in F1 24 and Cyberpunk—likely thanks to its more modern CPU kicking in. Nevertheless, the RTX 4060 laptops maintained a clear lead.

Overall, the Victus’ numbers suggest it’s a dependable choice for entry-level 1080p gaming, though demanding titles like Cyberpunk 2077 will likely require dialing down the settings for the smoothest performance. The Victus’ cooling fans were audible but not annoying while I tested, and well-behaved at idle. The chassis remained impressively cool to the touch, both top and bottom.

Battery Life and Display Tests

We test each laptop and tablet's battery life by playing a locally stored 720p video file (the open-source Blender movie Tears of Steel) with display brightness at 50% and audio volume at 100%. We make sure the battery is fully charged before the test, with Wi-Fi and keyboard backlighting turned off.

To gauge display performance, we also use a Datacolor SpyderX Elite monitor calibration sensor and its Windows software to measure a laptop screen's color saturation—what percentage of the sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3 color gamuts or palettes the display can show—and its 50% and peak brightness in nits (candelas per square meter).

The Victus showcased impressive battery life for a gaming laptop, lasting more than 12 hours on a single charge. The Acer came in second, just shy of 10 hours, while the Dell and Gigabyte models couldn't reach 8 hours. With its more petite 14-inch frame and down-tuned components, the Omen Transcend 14 was in a league of its own.

Although the Victus' display didn't produce better color coverage than the Acer and Gigabyte, it managed superior brightness, especially compared with the Acer. With a 144Hz refresh rate, this screen is hard to criticize for the price. Achieving better color coverage would require spending significantly more, as the Dell and HP models demonstrated. It's also important to note that HP has dramatically improved the Victus' screen brightness since our 2022 review, which showed a peak brightness of just 252 nits.