Fallout 76 is Bethesda's take on what the highly popular post-apocalyptic title looks like, and it seems to be having a massive revival thanks to the franchise's titular show on Amazon Prime. The title itself was released in 2018 but has seen a series of updates, including Wild Appalachia, Nuclear Winter, Wastelanders, The Legendary Run, and One Wasteland For All to name a few.

With over 18 major updates across the years and a 19th planned down the line in addition to the relatively new Atlantic City High Stakes Bundle and the Fallout 1st subscription in play, Fallout 76 is a title that has endured even as it sees a significant increase in its player base lately. This makes for an important question for most gamers: What are the laptops one can get to navigate a nuclear wasteland without having to deal with the fallout (pun intended) of a bottlenecked laptop in 2024?

  • Acer Nitro 17 Gaming Laptop AN17-41-R7G3
    Acer Nitro 17 Gaming Laptop AN17-41-R7G3
    The Best Overall Gaming Laptop For Fallout 76
    $1394 at Newegg
  • ASUS TUF Gaming F15
    ASUS TUF Gaming F15(2023)
    The Best Budget Gaming Laptop For Fallout 76
    $835 at Walmart
  • Razer Blade 18 (2024)
    Razer Blade 18 (2024)
    The Best Premium Gaming Laptop For Fallout 76
    $4500 at Newegg
  • ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 2024 (RTX 4060)
    ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 2024 (RTX 4060)
    The Best Compact Gaming Laptop For Fallout 76
    $1600 at Best Buy
  • best gaming laptop pc deals
    MSI GF63 Gaming Laptop
    The Best Entry-level Gaming Laptop For Fallout 76
    $649 at Walmart
  • ASUS ROG Strix G16 laptop
    ASUS ROG Strix G16 (2024) G614JVR-ES94
    The Best Mid-Range Gaming Laptop For Fallout 76
    $1650 at Newegg
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The Best Gaming Laptops For Fallout 76

Last year's version of the 17-inch Acer Nitro Gaming Laptop remains very relevant even in 2024. It packs a power-efficient octa-core Ryzen 7 CPU and a mid-range Nvidia RTX 4060 GPU that delivers adequate performance to run Fallout 76 maxed out on its QHD 165Hz display without making compromises.

Acer's offering also offers fast DDR5 RAM and a spacious 1TB SSD, making for a viable contender for users looking for a balanced, but well-endowed gaming option for Fallout 76 along with all of its subsequent gameplay updates this year. It does have a small edge over the competition, however, offering both, a gigabit ethernet connection for low-latency gaming and excellent Wi-Fi 6E connectivity in addition to BT 5.2 out of the box.

It offers excellent cooling, a full-sized RGB keyboard with 4 zones, and plenty of ports on offer, making for a well-rounded alternative to most of its peers that focus exclusively on internal hardware even as it trades at a respectable price tag just below $1200 at multiple stores. For its price tag, it isn't the most powerful gaming laptop on offer. But thankfully, it doesn't have to be either given Fallout 76's modest hardware requirements.

For more budget-conscious users looking to step into the wasteland with friends or solo, the ASUS TUF F15 Gaming Laptop delivers the goods and then some, even as it limits itself to a sub-$800 price tag making for a great value-centric offering in 2024.

It houses a middle-of-the-road 12-core Intel Core i5 13500H CPU and an entry-level RTX 4050 GPU that can keep up with Fallout 76's needs on the targeted FHD display that offers a refresh rate of 144Hz with ease. Its performance is also complimented by a dedicated MUX switch under the hood in addition to excellent cooling and a larger battery than most of its budget-centric peers.

The TUF F15 does however, as a result, command more heft than some of its newer alternatives, and the RTX 4050, while adequate for Fallout 76 could prove to be a bottleneck for users looking to play newer titles such as Bethesda's Starfield for example.

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The first words that come to mind when describing the beefed-up 2024 take on the Razer Blade 18 is "overkill" for most users and tech reviewers. This is not necessarily a bad thing for power gamers and those who want to have the option to do much more than just see the wasteland in all its glory.

The Razer Blade 18 combines Intel's highest-end laptop CPU, a 14th generation Core i9 with Nvidia's fastest mobile GPU for a powerful, yet balanced offering for users wanting to game, create or run various workloads alike. The desktop replacement tier that the Blade 18 caters in and excels at, sees it add a gorgeous display and excellent audio in tow for what is arguably one of the best ways to enjoy Fallout 76's world as intended - albeit with an exorbitant entry fee.

For users looking to get a more compact option when it comes to exploring a post-apocalyptic future, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14's 2024 iteration brings a powerful processor and plenty of upgrades under the hood to claim the spot of the best compact option for gamers wanting something easy to carry around and set up with limited desk space in play.

It packs an AI-enabled Ryzen 9 8000 series CPU that offers 8 cores and 16 threads and a powerful integrated GPU (Radeon 780M), fast PCI-E 4.0 storage, and DDR5 RAM in a chassis that is slim and weighs only 1.5kg all-in, making it a great portable powerhouse for gamers across the board.

What sets it apart from the competition is ASUS's decision to include a 3K OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate that offers clear blacks, infinite contrast, and extremely low response time, all of which makes it an excellent contender for titles such as Fallout 76, which offer a rich narrative and a map that is arguably much better distributed and detailed compared to its single-player predecessors.

For users looking to play Fallout 76 at a respectable frame rate while spending the bare minimum on what one can call a respectable gaming laptop in 2024, the MSI GF63 Gaming Laptop is poised to deliver strong performance for its price. It offers an excellent entry-level CPU and GPU combination that can play most esports titles at high settings and current games at medium-high presets on its FHD IPS 144Hz display.

It also packs in twice the recommended RAM for Fallout 76 and a relatively generous SSD allocation for its sub-$600 price tag that should allow users to handle Fallout 76's large install size that borders close to 100GB currently with ease. It does compromise when it comes to battery life, packing a less-than-ideal 51 hr battery, which means sessions when gaming on the go will be limited and challenging to pull off for most gamers wanting to immerse themselves in Fallout 76's world.

For users aiming at getting a more balanced gaming laptop for Fallout 76, the ASUS ROG Strix G16's 2024 version comes in plenty of SKUs, but the one that offers a 14th-generation Core i9 CPU and an RTX 4060 seems to be one of the best fits for the job at hand. Bethesda's Creation engine is generally seen as being more CPU bound than GPU bound based on user feedback and maxing out the CPU while pairing it to a decent GPU seems to be the right way to go.

On the display side, ASUS offers a 240Hz QHD display with a 3ms response time, making for an excellent experience. ASUS also throws in 16GB of RAM and a large 1TB SSD into the mix to make it a better all-round option versus some of its alternatives. The G16 also uses liquid metal to aggressively keep temperatures low.

The G16 isn't perfect when it comes to laptops, however. It comes with a higher amount of bloatware preinstalled that can impede performance for power users and enthusiasts and its middling battery life has users feeling it could do more given its standing as a premium gaming brand. It does offer decent value for money and a high-end current-gen CPU along with an excellent display that make its good outweigh the bad by a clear margin, making it a relatively easy recommendation in 2024.

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FAQ

Q: How Much RAM Does Fallout 76 Need?

Bethesda states that Fallout 76 needs 8GB of RAM as both its minimum and recommended spec. Users have however pointed out that it can get RAM-hungry fairly fast in the middle of more crowded situations or at higher graphics presets. It is recommended therefore to aim for at least 16GB of RAM if possible to play Fallout 76 based on user feedback.

Q: What Is Fallout 76's Install Size On PC Currently?

At the time of writing, Fallout 76 takes up as much as 95GB of free space when installed via Steam on PC.