I’ve been playing the game since 2016 on several kinds of rigs which include low-end laptops and pentium desktops and let me tell you like every blizzard franchise, the game was pretty scalable and ran no problems on each of these set ups.

Unfortunately…

Having partaken in the Beta release, I cannot say the same if you want the best laptop for Overwatch 2.

The game mechanics are MUCH faster with maps cosmetics being a bit more detailed.

You don’t need to sing up for Beta to come to this conclusion. Just head over to the official site’s hardware requirements which is published by Blizzard.

If you have access to Beta though, try launching Overwatch 2 and the previous version on the same computer (Overwatch 2 Beta has been out since June 28 but probably over now), if you don’t just wait till Oct 4.

Or you can watch all the overwatch 2 benchmarks found on my youtube channel and other channels:

Basically….

• You’ll need a 1050GTX – like GPU (the modern equivalent being a MX450) to have fun on Low settings at 1080p resolution (~60fps).
• A 1060 GTX – like GPU such as the 1660Ti or the more modern  equivalent, a 3050Ti RTX,  to kick ass in hero shooter multiplayer mode aka PvP on Overwatch 2 on Epic Settings. 
• If you want to play Overwatch 2 in PvE mode to complete missions, then you can go as low as MX350 or even a Intel Xe integrated graphics.

Now…

If you can’t afford a dedicated GPU but only an integrated GPU, the game isn’t necessarily going to look terrible or like a PSX game with jagged edges, polygons and so on. It’ll still be playable and look cool (the game is insanely scalable) but you will have to some framedrops here and there which will smooth out as you spend more and more time in a match. Obviously all on low settings (the benchmark video showing this is in the last section) . 

As for epic settings 60fps …

I’d say you need to spend at least 650 bucks where 800-900 bucks will get you a 3050Ti and a 3060RTX (75 and 100 fps respectively).

Lastly…

If you want the best laptop for overwatch 2 …that is…something that can hit +150fps on Epic Settings even with a high-mobility gunner hero like Soujourn on a map like New York City…you will then need a 3060RTX laptop running at 130W which should cost you ~1300 bucks.

Anyways…

We’ll go through all kinds of options here I will also show you benchmark videos of how the game performs under different hardware (some recorded by myself) when available (again beta is closed so our benchmarks are limited, Season 1 is out on Oct 4 though)

Top 5 Best Laptops For Overwatch 2

When you shop for a laptop for Overwatch 2 from this list remember that the game has changed drastically in terms of speed and mechanics so it’s always wise to go out of your way to get at least a recent mid-range dedicated GPU (1650GTX , 3050Ti, 3060RTX).

If you have a budget under 550 bucks it is going to be impossible to get a mid-range dedicated GPU but integrated graphics and dGPUs from the MX Series will work fine as long as you set everything to low.

1. Lenovo Ideapad Gaming 3

Best Laptop For Overwatch 2 – 3050Ti

  AMD Ryzen 5 5500H

  8GB DDR4

   RTX 3050Ti 4GB vRAM

  512GB NVMe SSD

  15.6” 120Hz FHD IPS

  4.8 lbs

  2 hours

GPU: 3050Ti RTX

The performance shown above isn’t particular to this model. You can get the exact same performance out of every laptop with a 3050Ti and a Ryzen 5 because all 3050Ti  GPUs found on every laptop DO NOT HAVE A MUX Switch and ALL of them run at the same wattage. So you don’t have to be picky when buying a 3050Ti just buying the cheapest literally. This is why I bought and benchmarked Overwatch 2 on the Lenovo Idepad Gaming 3.

Another good options would be the Acer Nitro 5 shown later.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600H

However, that’s only assuming you get the exact same CPU. Apparently, Overwatch 2 is just like the previous version is VERY multi-threaded which means it runs faster with CPUs that have more CORES OR better multi-core perfomance.

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600H has both, better multi-core performance and 2 more cores, than your average Core i5 CPU. Thus it will perform slightly better than the Acer Nitro 5 which has a Core i5 10300H and obviously slower than those 3050Ti laptops with a Ryzen 7 or Core i7.

RAM: 8GB vs 16GB RAM

I’ve upgraded this model to 16GB RAM but you don’t necessarily have to.

Yes, it has improved my performance most likely by about 10fps especially since I made them Dual-Channel (check my post on Dual-Channel if you don’t know what that means). 

I’m sure you’ve noticed the RAM BAR below the FPS counter being ~11GB. Overwatch 2 doesn’t NEED that much RAM, the game will run just fine with 8GB RAM but if you increase the RAM it’s definitely going to make good use of it (hence it’s taking up ~75% of it). If you make it 8GB but dual-channel, it will also get you an increased performance gain (slightly below 10 fps though).

Display: 120Hz  vs 60Hz

I’ve recorded the video for 120Hz displays so if you have a desktop or a phone running at 120hz or more you should be able to notice the difference between a 60Hz display and 120Hz (use other benchmarks on youtube to see the difference). The 120Hz display is not going to bump up your gaming at all but it just looks nicer.

Ports: x3 USB + 1HDMI port + Display Port

There isn’t anything wrong with the ports on this model, it’s just that the USB port is on the right side so if your mouse movements are big (low sensitivity settings) you’re going to bump into the USB connector of your mouse. So either up the sensitivity (mine is pretty high) or buy a mouse with a thunder bolt port which you can connect to the left side of this laptop .

Price

This laptop is on a deal. It’s only 730 bucks which is +50 more bucks than the average 1650GTX laptop which we’ll discuss next, so grab it while you can. The performance jump is HUGE and I would say if you want to play competitively on Overwatch 2, it is a MUST at this point.

Best alternative: Acer Nitro 5 (3050Ti Model)

Worth 3050Ti Laptop Alternatives:

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2. Lenovo Legion 5 Pro

The Best Gaming Laptop For Overwatch 2

  AMD Ryzen 7 5800H

  16GB DDR4

   RTX 3060RTX 130W 6GB vRAM

  256GB NVMe SSD

  16” 165Hz FHD IPS

  6.55 lbs

  2 hours

Hands down the best laptop for overwatch 2 and the best laptop with a 3060RTX on-board. Now surely you’ll find several 3060RTX laptops at the same price or even as low as 800 bucks but this one is special I will explain why soon after we check out the benchmarks:

Performance:

The above numbers are for the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro running the previous version of this game. Since we don’t have benchmarks of the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro on Overwatch 2, we can get a sense of what the Legion Pro 5 will perform on Overwatch 2 by looking at the following 3060RTX model:

GPU: 3060RTX 130W vs 85W

Don’t be dissapointed by the two digit framerates here. That’s not what you’re going to get out of the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro when running Overwatch 2.

The benchmark running Overwatch 2 has a 3060RTX running only at 85W.

The Lenovo Legion 5 Pro featured here has a 130W. The extra power will make a huge difference in performance ( I suggest you read my article on GPU TGP or wattage above to see it for your self).

Another reason why you’re definitely going to get about the same performance as the first benchmark on the Lenovo Legion 5 pro is the fact that you ALSO have a MUX Switch on this laptop which further increases framerates by 15-20%.

Lastly, the 3060RTX laptop with the Core i5 in the video is running the game at 1440p resolution which is  far more hardware demanding so even that laptop should get you into the 130s at 1080p on Overwatch 2.

CPU: Ryzen 7 5800H vs Core i5 11400H

Now the Ryzen 7 5800H is definitely a bit weaker than the Core i7 11800H but it’s a LOT faster than the Core i5 11400H on the video so again this is yet another reason why you should be abel to hit at least 150fps on Overwatch 2. 

Remember we are not picking the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro for the Ryzen 7 5800H but because of the high wattage 3060RTX + MUX Switch.  If you can find a Core i5 11400H with the same GPU specs by all means grab it should have the exact same performance AND it should be cheaper but it is very unlikely you’ll find one, the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro is as cheap as it’s going to get for a laptop with this much GPU power.

Display: 165Hz + 16 inch Screen + QHD Resolution

All 3060RTX laptops will either have a 120Hz or a 144Hz/165Hz so it is not surprising the Lenovo Legion has one too. What should be surprising is the fact that it is a 16” display, yes it weights a little more but you have no idea how difficult it is to find a 17 or 16 inch display with a 3060RTX at this price and what a BIG difference it makes for competitive gaming. The Acer Predator Helios 300 only has a 15” display and its 17” version is several hundred dollars more expensive.

The main advantage of a big display is that it is far easier to for the GPU to run at full power therefore output more framerates ALL the time because there’s plenty of space around it to keep temperatures low and for air to easily dissipate thus it will last you quite a long time despite having to run at full power all the time, this is extremely crucial when buying this much power as most laptops without a great cooling system will die out after a year when pushed to the limits on a regular basis, this is not going to happen with a 16-17 inch gaming laptop like the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro.

3060RTX Laptops Prices & Alternatives:

Note that the wattage of these laptops are not all running at 130W, they vary from 85W to 130W.

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3. ASUS ZenBook 14

Overwatch 2 Budget Laptop

  AMD Ryzen 5 5500U

  8GB DDR4

   MX450 2GB vRAM

  512GB NVMe SSD

  15.6” 60Hz FHD IPS

  4.8 lbs

  5 hours

This is the cheapest laptop for Overwatch 2 I can recommend simply because it has a dedicated GPU.

Performance:

Unfortunately, I don’t have benchmarks for this specific laptop but since it has a more recent generation CPU & and a 2GB vRAM dedicated GPU, it should perform better than the most powerful integrated GPU found on laptops which I have benchmarks for:

You can also buy the Core i5 10th or 11th generation laptops similar to the laptop on the video  (which should sell for about 450 bucks) but trust me you will get far better performance if you add 80 more bucks and buy the MX450 laptop featued here.

GPU: MX450 > 1050GTX !

The MX450 is the most recent and powerful GPU is the MX series and actually faster than the more expensive 1050GTX.

Now you’re not going to be playing the game at epic or even ultra settings with the MX450 especially in Overwatch 2 as one of the new support heroes that move all aroudn the place (that’s going to lag tons), you may get way with ultra settings if you choose of the tank heroes (Junker Queen) if you set render scale to 50 but why even bother be limited by settings.

I suggest you play the game at medium settings so you can hit competitive framerates way beyond 60fps. Low settings if you want to play as a damage hero like Soujourn.

If you can’t even afford the MX450, I suggest you take a look at the Core i5 and Ryzen 5 models with integrated GPUs and settle with low settings for all heroes.

Those are going to be the cheapest laptops for Overwatch 2 you’ll find.

There’s no point on grabbing MX350 or MX250 laptops because they’ll perform just as well as the cheaper model featured in the video running Overwatch 2 (Core i5 + inte Xe) which will leave you plenty of money left to acquire items like new skins through the battle pass or gameshop .

CPU: Ryzen 5 5500U

Another reason why to keep looking hard for a MX450 if you are on a budget is the CPU, MX450 laptops are always paired with either 11th Core i5 CPUs or 5th gen Ryzen 5 both equally powerful but way more powerful than previous generations.

Now if you have the choice (whether you are buying a laptop with an integrated GPU or the MX450) I’d pick the Ryzen 5 because as I’ve said many times before the game SEEMS to be heavily multi-core so you’ll definitely extra significantly more framerates out of it. This is especially important if your budget is under 500 bucks.

Now if you happen to dual-channel the CPU with 8GB RAM as go I over in my post here: dual-channel ram for gaming . You will increase framerates by 5-10fps more just like the guy did in the video. He chose to place x2 8GB RAM sticks to make it 16GB RAM. 

Display: 60Hz

All laptops with 2GB vRAM GPUs like the MX450 and MX350  will only have a 60Hz display for the simple reason that they are not likely to hit +100fps unless you set settings to low or medium for most games. Plus it is pretty expensive to fit a 120Hz display on a laptop so don’t try to look for one and just settle with a 60Hz display if you’re on a budget.

Alternative Links and MX Laptops:

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4. Acer Nitro 5

Best Laptop To Run Overwatch – Ryzen 5

  AMD Ryzen 5 5600H

  8GB DDR4

   1650GTX 4GB vRAM

  512GB NVMe SSD

  15.6” 144Hz FHD IPS

  4.37 lbs

  4 hours

Before I wrap it up I want to go over 1650GTX laptops which may depending on the time of the year sell for as low as 600 dollars (only 50 bucks more expensive than the MX450) especially if they’re older models.

You can subtract ~15fps for each of the following benchmark videos if you’re interested in Overwatch 2 (it still comes out in October 4).

Performance:

1650GTX laptops are the next cheaper yet powerful alternatives to high Epic settings with +60fps. There are two types: Ryzen 5 and Core i5 we’ll go through the best choice which is the Ryzen 5 models.

Testing the game on PvP Mode ( 5 vs 5 ) teams with a tank, healer and 3 damage roles on a crowded arena as shown in the video above, you’ll get an average of:

GPU: 1650 GTX 

The 1650GTX of this model and pretty much every other 1650GTX model lacks a MUX Switch so there’s no point to look or ask for one. They will all have the same performance. They also operate at the same wattage so as long as you get ANY 1650GTX GPU on a laptop you can expect to have almost the same performance as you’ve seen in the video above.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600H

What seems to make a difference though is the multi-core CPU.

Again Overwatch 2 (is even more multi-threaded) takes good avantage of multiple cores otherwise we just can’t explain the enormous FPS difference when testing a AMD Ryzen 5 against a Core i5 which we’ll go over next. 

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600H has 2 more cores and keeps clock frequencies nearly the same across all cores so if Overwatch 2 is indeed as multi-threaded as we think then yes choosing a Ryzen over an Intel Core (without taking into account the 12th gen Intel Core CPUs released) will be the better choice.

Display: 144Hz 

The Acer Nitro 5 here is a little more expensive than most 1650GTX for two reasons: it has a 144Hz display.

The 144Hz is definitely going to come in handy when you play the game on Ultra Settings you’ll be nearing 120fps out of Combat mode. However, for Overwatch 2 you aren’t likely to go past 100fps on Epic Settings so if that’s what you have in mind feel free to grab any 1650GTX laptop with a 60Hz display if they are cheaper of course.

1650GTX + R5 Alternatives:

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5. Lenovo Ideapad 3i

Best Laptop For Overwatch 2 – Core i5

  Core i5 11300H

  8GB DDR4

   1650 GTX 4GB vRAM

  512GB NVMe SSD

  15.6” FHD IPS 60Hz

  4.96 lbs

  4 hours

The most COMMON laptop with dedicated GPUs you’ll find is the 1650GTX with a Core i5. There are literally HUNDREDS of models they’re all good laptops for overwatch 2 but be sure not to pay more than 700 bucks for ANY of these. 

Performance: 

The laptop we have tested is the Lenovo L340 shown below, not the one featured here.  I recommend the Lenovo L340 if you are on a budget and the one featured if you can afford it.

GPU: 1650 GTX

Although the Lenovo L340 I tested has a sort of a “MUX Switch”(it has no OPTIMUS but the effect is the same ~20% increased dGPU performance if you read my post on MUX Switch),  it is still outperformed by laptops without a MUX Switch.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600H = Core i5 11300H

This just tells you how important the role of the CPU is for this game (at least if we are talking about laptops with 2GB vRAM & 4GB vRAM GPUs) and that actually makes sense if you pay attention to how the game looks, the graphics aren’t intensive so it’s going to be more CPU demanding than your average laptop.  Thus I advice against older-generation CPUs if you want to get the best bang for your buck for Overwatch 2 especially in PvP Mode UNLESS they’re much cheaper.

Display: 60Hz

Unfortunately, most Core i5 11300H are sort of expensive so in order to cut down prices you may have to look for a 60Hz display on a laptop which should significantly reduce the price. Otherwise you may be paying more than 700 bucks for which you might as well buy any of the 3050Ti laptop models I’ve suggested in the first review of this post.

1650GTX + Core i5 Alternatives:

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Picking The Best Laptop for OverWatch 2

Other integrated GPUs:

Modern:  AMD Radeon Vega 3 . Intel HD 620 Intel Iris 620. Intel Xe (Core i3 laptops with Intel Xe are “nerfed”).