Customer Ratings & Reviews

I never thought I'd be able to get a GOOD gaming laptop for under $800. Added a second hard drive easily and plan to upgrade ram as well. This is such a great deal for under $600. It powers up in seconds! Very smooth 144hz is excellent for gaming and using Windows. Even though its old, heavily modded Fallout 4 runs on Medium-High/Some Ultra settings @1080p @90-100FPS avg. Rainbow Six Siege does a decent 100-110 depending on your settings & map as well As for battery, dont expect to game on it for longer than 45 minutes. It lasts long enough for basic tasks (close to or over an hour) which is nice

Unboxing and Setup With the unboxing of the Gigabyte G5 MD 15.6 Gaming Laptop, it is clear that this is a high quality gaming computer. Solid packaging, anti-scratch covers, and a keyboard protector soon revealed a black, smooth textured laptop with the Gigabyte logo on the top. The lid and base are solid metal (aluminum I’m guessing), the sides are textured for improved grip, the bottom is vented plastic and has five solid rubber anti-slip feet. A latched hatch provides access to a removable battery. USB ports, AV ports, and a SD Memory Card slot are on the sides. I really appreciate having the HDMI, Mini-display port, and power port on the back. Vents along the side and back are for cooling and speakers. The raised, backlighted keyboard is comfortably spaced and the keys have a smooth texture. I like that the backlighting is not just around the keys, but is also through the symbols on the keys. A webcam, mic, and webcam indicator are above the anti-glare 15.6” display. A smooth trackpad with left and right buttons is comfortably placed below the keyboard. Upon power up, the keyboard backlighting will cycle through some colors. Windows 11 Home comes with the laptop. I ran through the Windows updates and removed apps I don’t need. I’m not sure why MS Office and MS OneNote come with multiple languages already installed. I spent an hour removing what I didn’t need. Gaming Configuration I’m a hard core MS Flight Simulator gamer and web developer. The Gigabyte G5 MD does not disappoint when it comes to high performance graphics. I installed the latest version of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 and updates for high quality scenery graphics. MSFS takes a lot of graphics processor power for a smooth flight experience. I configured MSFS to use “Ultra Graphics mode” which has a high level of detail for ground and cloud textures, buildings, and moving objects. Since the laptop comes with both a NVIDIA GeForce RTX and an Intel UHD graphics processors, I used the NVIDIA Control Panel to set the GeForce GPU as the default graphics processor. Then taking a flight in MSFS over the city of Seattle, the graphics are amazing! The details on the trees, buildings, clouds, water, and other moving objects is in ultra high quality and there was no perceptible lag, or freezing of the graphics. Something I’ve only been able to achieve on a high performance desktop computer before. Laptop Configuration The laptop comes with Gigabyte applications for customizing performance, hardware, and gaming. • Control Center: This is the primary access app for the customizing tools. • Power Modes: The laptop can be placed into one of these four power modes. Quiet for the least amount of fan noise, Performance for the highest performance and gaming, Entertainment for maximum viewing performance, and Power Saving for extending the length of operation on battery. • LED Keyboard: Provides the selection of colors for the backlighting, sleep timer of the backlight, and brightness levels. • Fan Speed Settings: This is a great tool for seeing the RPM of both fans, the GPU temperature, and the CPU temperature. The fan settings can also be customized for improving or reducing the cooling. • Flexikey: This is a powerful addition for any gaming computer. It provides key assignments to multiple key combinations, launching of applications, text macros, and disabling keys. It can also be used for configuration of mouse buttons. Another handy feature is the ability to gather statistics of keyboard usage. Sound and Display I’m happy to hear the amount of volume this laptop pumps out. While the built-in speakers don’t have much of a bass response, the impressive volume levels makes this a great laptop for remote video meetings or watching movies in a hotel room. That being said, the laptop comes with DTS: X® Ultra software and Codecs. When used with headphones or Bluetooth speakers, it greatly enhances the audio experience. Speaking of remote online meetings, the Dual-array microphone also comes with noise cancellation for improving spoken audio. This is one of the first laptops I have seen with dual in and out audio ports. The 15.6” 1920x1080 anti-glare display with a 144.15 Hz refresh rate is perfect for watching movies, playing ultra-high resolution games, or scrolling through massive spreadsheets. The clarity of the display is easy on the eyes. The laptop easily handled a full-length movie with a minimum of fan noise and heat. This is also the first laptop I have seen with both HDMI and Mini-DisplayPort for dual monitors. I can’t wait to try this out with MSFS in dual monitor mode. Networking I have a robust Wi-Fi network and good wireless network performance is another area where this laptop shines. Using Speedtest.net app for MS Windows, I was able to get the following performance: • Download: 200.03 Mbps • Upload: 204.44 Mbps • Ping: 4ms Hardware Configuration • Processor: 11th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-11400H Processor at 2.7 GHz, 6 Cores, 12 Logical Processors • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series GPU • RAM: 8GB DDR4 • Display: 15.6" thin bezel FHD IPS 144Hz Anti-glare Display • DLSS AI graphics rendering acceleration • WINDFORCE Cooling System with 2 47-blade fans, 4 internal chassis heat pipes, and 3 exhaust vents • Wi-Fi 6, Ethernet port, Bluetooth 5.2 • DTS: X Ultra audio with virtual 7.1-channel surround sound and two-way AI noise cancellation • 2 USB 3.2 Type-A ports • 1 USB 2.0 Type-A port • 1 USB 3.2 Type-C port • Mic-in Jack • Audio Combo Jack • SD Card Reader • Mini DisplayPort 1.4 • HDMI Port UserBenchmark.com Performance (with laptop in Performance mode) • CPU: 92% Outstanding • GPU: 74.6% Very good • Drive: 309% Outstanding • Memory: 53.5% Above average • Gaming: 91.7 Excellent Summary I am very impressed with the Gigabyte G5 MD 15.6 Gaming Laptop! This has become my primary laptop for both gaming, doing serious work, and for remote video meetings. I don’t know of any other gaming laptop with this level of performance and features at such a reasonable price. I have mixed emotions about the smooth black lid and base due to easily showing smudges. And while I’m sure the 512GB SSD helps keep the price down, I really recommend taking advantage of the extra SSD slots for adding more storage space. Overall, these are minor issues and not enough to impact my five star review. Even though my primary gaming focus is with Microsoft’s Flight Simulator 2020, the crazy performance obtained with the highest graphics settings, is very impressive. I have no doubt this laptop will perform well with any RTS or MMO gaming environment. I highly recommend the Gigabyte G5 MD as a serious portable gaming laptop!

So , runs most games great out the box , add $30 worth of 8gb of ram for a total of 16gb and it runs like a Beast. About 2-4 hours run time off cord while Gaming on Wi-Fi on high quality. 4-8 hours on standard pc usage. Can Bluetooth stream to your tv so you can chill , and kill on the big screens. Or use your BT headphones for comms. If you have pets , keep your area clean of hair or it will clog the heatsinks , an then you're gonna have a bad time with overheating. Just like with any laptop. Ran cyberpunk 2077 , Battlefield V , V Rising , Foxhole , and about 30 others perfectly , and some in surprisingly high quality. 9/10 Way surpassed my expectations. Would highly recommend for the gamer on a budget.

First off based on some of the other reviews you would think these people paid over a grand for this device. At $550 i really dont see how its a bad device or deal. Sure it has the flaws of getting a bit loud and made of plastic, which at this price seems like a non issue. I put an extra 8GB ram stick (only likr $27) in it before i ever turned it on and its running great. I mostly game on console but i needed something to run Genshin Impact on the go and even tried few things in my steam library and they seem to all run perfectly fine on medium settings. Im very impressed at this price point personally. For everyday tasks and browsing the fans don't kick up and its a good device for browsing the web. If you want higher end features and build quality feel free to go spend a lot more money but giving this laptop a bad rating for being a budget device seems silly to me.

Perfect laptop for gaming and work when you don’t have a PC around, runs any actual game on any graphics, preferably high or medium and not to mention on low graphics for the FPS boost with Nvidia boost. It makes a little of noise when running games but I usually use headphones when gaming so it doesn’t bother me at all

It’s a very nice gaming laptop, in my opinion. The price was very good when we bought it. My son uses it to game with and I have a GameSir Galileo G8 that I use to play games remotely by streaming off his computer. It’s pretty cool. I can then stream it to my tv and it’s like having a console. This computer with upgraded ram snd storage can handle most games on regular settings, but it’ll handle a lot of last gen games on ultra settings. I didn’t like that we can’t upgrade the goi but that’s no big deal anymore cause GeForce now has an app and subscription that lets you pay 20 a month to use a power gaming computer over the cloud that has a powerful graphics card to game with. There are also external graphics card boosters I think are compatible with this laptop. But you can’t go wrong with this laptop for a beginner or intermediate level gamer.

I have built many a high end gaming rig using the extremely reliable and extremely advanced computer motherboards made by Gigabyte. With all the great experiences I have had building and using Gigabyte components over the years, I was excited at the chance to try out a fully configured laptop from Gigabyte. This GIGABYTE G5 MD 15.6" FHD IPS Gaming Laptop was my opportunity. I do admit that the 2022 version of the G5 MD's specs as presented did not impress me greatly at first look. But, I know that building the best within a budget requires some trade-offs. These capitulations to price point can really look weak on paper, when compared to the higher-end gaming rigs out there. That is where carefully choosing the right components that can compensate for the areas that are lacking and masterfully configuring those components and software to enhance their overall function, performance and speed is tantamount. Gigabyte excels at this hardware / software computer wizardry, which is why I think the G5 MD is such a beautiful example of this done right. They took strong, but not top-of-the-line components such as Intel's 11th generation Core i5-11400H with 6 cores running at 2.7GHz, combined it with a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050Ti graphics card with 4 GB of GDDR graphics memory, a 144Hz refresh rate HD display and their Gigabyte laptop motherboard and their proprietary drivers and AI software to create a powerful synergy that is greater than the sum of its parts and that makes up for whatever shortcomings the configuration has. They were able to keep the price down by using 8 GB of DDR4 3200MHz (it is upgradeable to 64 GB), instead of the normal 16 GB and only putting in a 512 Gb Solid State Drive (but has 2 M.2 slots and a 2.5" drive bay which will support up to 6 TB), which are what I consider the unit's short-comings. They did load this 2022 rig with 64-bit Microsoft Windows 11 Home, instead of Win 10, which was on prior versions of this G5 MD model. They added DTS:X 3D cinema quality surround sound with virtual 7.1 channels. It touts WiFi 6 / IEEE 802.11 ax and Bluetooth v5.2. It has blazing fast data transfer rates from its USB and SD card ports. And, its approximately 3.5 hr battery is replaceable. All-in-all, I found that Gigabyte managed to create a masterpiece Gaming laptop that smoothly and easily multitasks running streaming content, high end gaming with sharp features and smooth motion, game recording, video conferencing, photo and video editing, and so on without issues and with a price point that won't put you in the poor house. What more could I ask for? (OK, more memory and storage.)

The laptop is great for all things except for the most important part of being a laptop. Portability, and that is only because this laptop gets an average 2 hour battery life. Now that the bad is out of the way the good is the graphics card is decent for an entry level gaming laptop. I am also able to monitor multiple graphs on different screen supported by this lap top for day trading. The internal storage is ok and the ram will do for gaming. I have not tried video editing yet with this unit I would be interested in seeing how that goes. Another thing I like about this laptop is the plug ins are on the back so it gives a great appearance a better functionality when using while charging. Last I will say that the sound quality is better than the last dell and chrome book I had, and the light up keyboard makes typing in the dark easy

I purchased this on sale and what a great deal. I haven’t played any games yet but the performance is amazing. I paid 550 for this originally 999.00. I only wish the battery was larger and lasted longer. I wouldn’t of paid full price though. I upgraded the ram to 16gb.

I love this laptop seems to be very fast,setup was easy ,very well built machine and i love the keyboard and very eaaasy to upgrade.I bought extra ram and installed myself really not needed but just my preface to have at least 16 gig,with that being said good quality at a great price. Thanks again to best buy for offering this deal

I absolutely love thua laptop, i use it for designing and running so many different softwares at 1 time. Its a freaking race horse. The internal storage is amazing. I have purchased two so far and about to purchase another one. My son uses his for gaming and its phenomenal!!! Buy this you will not regret it.

Excellent computer for mid level gaming. Solid build, easy enough to upgrade, and good keyboard/mouse setup.

Got this for my son for Christmas and he loves it! He doesn’t play a lot of high end games but it handles Fortnite/Minecraft. If I had to say anything negative, it does get hot and the battery doesn’t last very long but my son keeps it plugged in if he is gaming. Would recommend buying a cooling pad to put underneath the laptop or making sure it is well ventilated if you plan on heavy gaming. Overall, it is a great performing machine gaming or not.

I got this laptop this laptop for $550, for that price it is absolutely worth it. However for anyone considering purchasing this laptop at the $1000 price point, I would recommend searching for something better, you can get a laptop with an RTX 3060 around that price which is a vastly superior piece of gaming hardware. Pros: This thing is powerful. I have only been able to test one game: Warhammer 40k Darktide. Which is very poorly optimized, but still runs great on this laptop. I also ran some benchmarks, all pointing toward this as a very capable gaming machine. In my little testing I believe it’s safe to say that this laptop will run anything you throw at it, admittedly with modern and intensive games requiring a decrease in settings. With 6-cores, 12 threads, and a boost clock that consistently sits >4GHz under load, it’s not going to present a lot of problems. The 3050 TI is also very capable, allowing for the use of the essential DLSS functionality. Although, the 4GB of VRAM is unfortunate (and a downgrade from the previous generation of comparable laptop GPUs). My main game is Star Citizen which infamously runs terribly. I haven’t gotten to test it yet owing to the lackluster 8GB of memory, although I believe the game will run fine when I upgrade the memory to 32GB. The screen is also pretty nice at 1080p, 144 Hz, and decent color variance, it matches the hardware well. I also like the physical design, it isn’t crazy big and lugging it to class in a backpack has been fine for me. The casing is all plastic, but it feels sturdy. The plastic does pick up smudges like crazy, but this is a small price to pay. It isn’t a super ‘gamer’ looking laptop which is always positive for me given that I use it for more than just gaming. Overall, as long as the casing holds up it will be a functional laptop for several years to come. Cons: I did have a few issues with the laptop. The first one I got was thermal throttling and force shutting down when I put any significant load on the CPU. Resetting the laptop was a nightmare, for some reason the windows reset was broken and recovery mode didn’t work to let me reset it per Gigabyte’s instructions. I was forced to reset it from separate boot drive to return. I exchanged it for a new one that has been performing perfectly (for the most part) leading me to believe I just got unlucky with the thermal paste application/cooler seating. With the new one I also had some errors installing windows updates, causing the background update to spike CPU and memory usage way above normal idle levels, bringing down gaming performance. I was able to resolve with several hours of troubleshooting. As someone fairly knowledgeable on computers (I’ve built several and have gotten very good at basic IT practices), I can see this causing issues for those less experienced. Otherwise my two main gripes come in the battery and allotted memory. The battery is tiny, and I mean really tiny, both physically and in its abysmal 48.96 Wh capacity. In my testing I can see squeezing maybe 4 hours of life out of the machine with all battery saver modes enabled, keyboard and screen brightness turned all the way down, and very few applications running. The battery is incredibly easy to pop out so for those who may need it, you could probably buy a second one to carry around as a back up. The memory is the other issue, coming with only 8GB, it is going to need an upgrade for any significant gaming or application usage. Luckily, it is very easy to upgrade, built for both memory and storage upgrades by the end user, and SODIMM is pretty cheap at the moment: $40-50 for 16GB and $70-90 for 32GB (make sure to utilize dual channel!!!). In the end I would recommend this laptop for any price less than $600, given that it’ll run a bit more to upgrade the memory. It works really well and it is the most powerful I’ve ever owned personally, although it doesn’t quite hold up to my desktop machine that is coming up on about 6 years old now (but was built with all flagship components from that generation). I travel a decent amount and now I’ll be able to keep up with my favorite games even when I’m not at home. There may be a few aspects I have missed in this review, but I’ll try to update as the device becomes more integrated in my daily life and I push it to the bounds of its capability.

solid system. My wife is playing Hogwarts Legacy on it (which is petty demanding). I upgraded the RAM to 24 gb. The laptop has lots of good components (room for RAM and harddrive upgrades, good cooling features). Somewhat short battery life (~2 hrs). You get a lot for the price.

Great pc for my kids needs. Roblox and game pass can all run smoothly. Fans are loud and it gets hot fast so a fan base is need to help keep it cool as sitting on their lap is impossible. Fast and good storage. It basically has to live on the charger. Put with all the features thats understandable

For 550 dollars when it was on sale during Black Friday ad is on sale for the same price currently, I would definitely buy it, because you aren't going to find a better deal on a price to performance at this price, considering it comes with a 3050ti paired with a great CPU. The only thing I bought alongside it was another 8 gig stick of ram and that was that. Battery life is almost non existent outside of maybe 3 hours in non gaming tasks, and I've gotten maybe an hour of CSGO in before it gave me the low battery warning, but this laptop is definitely worth every penny whilst on sale, and I reccoment it to anyone!

First gaming computer I've ever got it works so well it's super fast and great for the steam games I play. I do leave it plugged in all the time so the battery isn't great anymore

I have been building PCs for over 20 years and this laptop at $550 is a steal. Just for the video card in it alone. On top of that add the expandability (I have added another 500 GB M2 SSD and 32 GB of RAM) and it really is nice. Yes the chassis shows fingerprints, but they wipe off and yes the battery life is pretty crappy. If you turn the back light down and turn off the backlit keyboard you can just squeak out 3.5 hours. BUT. It was $550. It's fast even with the 8 GB of RAM and fun to use. Fortnite looks and runs great on it. Plugged in, the screen is pretty bright and graphics and videos/movies run smooth.

Its super affordable, i bought this during black Friday and it only costs me 500 dollars. Also it functions pretty well with very smooth gaming experience, i will definitely recommend buying it.