I Review Gaming PCs for a Living: These Are My Favorite Black Friday Deals So Far

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I'm Matthew Buzzi, PCMag's lead reviewer for gaming PCs. I've been at PCMag since 2015, so that means I’ve reviewed hundreds of gaming PCs here over the years. I take satisfaction in identifying the best-value combinations of processors (CPUs), graphics processors (GPUs), and feature sets across gaming laptops and desktops.

After poring through scores of Black Friday deals, I’ve selected three top gaming PC deals below; two laptops and one desktop from Acer, Asus, and MSI. A potent graphics chip is vital for a gaming system, and even though each of the three PCs occupy different pricing positions in their categories, all three have capable GPUs and fast processors that will satisfy the most discerning gamers.

The MSI Katana A15 AI is already a serious value made even better with this Black Friday deal. This gaming laptop's specs are closer to the midrange than the budget category, with a snappy Ryzen 7 8845HS CPU, 32GB of memory, and a 1TB solid-state drive. That's a tremendous foundation for the cost, though its 144Hz 1080p screen is the baseline. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU is a steady and competent mainstream gaming GPU not often seen at this price. The RTX 4050 (or lower) is more common at this price. Particularly at 1080p resolution, the RTX 4060 can shine with smooth frame rates at high settings—just not maxed out. For everything else, the CPU and RAM will ensure a speedy experience. Gaming hardware can be expensive, and we'd stand by this package at its normal price, so $420 off is an incredible deal. While we didn't review this specific model, a previous MSI Katana 15 model sat atop our list of the best cheap gaming laptops for several months.

For gamers seeking more than entry-level power, the Asus TUF Gaming A16 is a high-end laptop discounted down to the midrange in pricing. A laptop with an RTX 4070 GPU dropping by $500 should catch any gamer's eye; this GPU can handle high-resolution and high-refresh play in all modern games. Even better, its AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX CPU should deliver blazing-fast performance in all areas, and the 1TB SSD leaves plenty of room for games. Its 16:10 display features a sharp QHD+ resolution and a 165Hz refresh rate, enabling clear and fast gaming, and Wi-Fi 6 should keep downloads and online gaming sessions smooth. (Though its Ethernet port all but guarantees that.) The visual design is ho-hum, but that may be to your liking; we didn't review this exact model, but as we found with the smaller Asus TUF Gaming A14, this line is generally well built.

If you don't need to take your games on the go, I found a steal on this Acer Nitro 70 desktop. It's more for hard-core players than casuals, but this Black Friday discount helps broaden its appeal. The Nitro 70 isn't my favorite aesthetic, but options are limited (and often visually gamer-centric) with prebuilt PCs, and prioritizing parts and value proposition is more important. Parts-wise, the Nitro 70 delivers an AMD Ryzen 9 7900 CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU, 32GB of DDR5 4800MHz RAM, and a 1TB M.2 SSD. That's a decent value for a $2,000 PC, but taking $500 off makes it a doorbuster deal. This GPU would normally be a stretch at $1,500, and the processor enables legitimate productivity and content creation, allowing for much better multitasking and game live-streaming than a 5- or 7-tier processor from Intel or AMD.

For more bargains, visit our Black Friday deals overview page, which includes the full field of offers and more specific category-based picks.