RTX 5080 gaming laptops have only just hit the market so, understandably, price cuts are rare. It’s awesome, then, that you can currently pick up the MSI Vector 16 at Best Buy for $2,274 (was $2,499).
As someone who tracks gaming laptop deals every week, I’ve been waiting for a decent discount on one of these high-end machines. Generally speaking, RTX 5080 laptops don’t go for under $3,000 unless they’re open box, so this deal is definitely worth checking out if you need a powerful gaming laptop.
Breaking down this MSI Vector, you get an RTX 5080 graphics card and a respectable Ultra 9 chipset. That should afford plenty of performance on this model’s 1600p display and insulate you from escalating requirements for a few years.
With that said, it’s not all completely plain sailing with this Vector. The miserly 16GB of RAM is a particular pain point. I’m not sure why MSI decided to ship this one with 16GB in 2025 when even RTX 5070 configurations feature 32GB right out of the box. Still, it’s a pretty easy upgrade to do at home – and cheap, too.
The cheapest RTX 5080 gaming laptop right now
This deal was first reported on our sister site PCGamer, yesterday. The site has actually been testing this model, so I’d recommend checking out their story if you want a more in-depth look at the latest MSI Vector, including benchmarks.
Generally speaking, this is a hell of a lot of laptop for the money, although it’s not the slickest or lightest in terms of design. It’s also loud, very loud, in fact, so it’s not one that’s designed for inconspicuous gaming. You do, however, get a decent 1600p display and an uncompromised 175w RTX 5080.
