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Over the past decade, we've seen a dramatic slowing in the rate of performance increases on PCs and laptops. Where it was typical to see a doubling in performance every couple of years back in the 90s and perhaps even in the early 2000s, if we look purely at CPU performance on laptops, the difference between the past several generations of processors has been largely academic. Sandy Bridge was a good improvement over Clarksfield, though that was mostly thanks to the much higher Turbo Boost range. Ivy Bridge on the other hand was far more about improving integrated graphics, and while Haswell offers higher performance iGPUs on certain models, the bigger change with Haswell is power efficiency.

Budget Gaming: ASUS X550LB-NH52

If you want to be able to play every game out there at maximum quality settings, you're going to need a very beefy notebook. For those that are okay with medium to high detail at 1366x768, however, the requirements are far more reasonable. What's shocking is just how much performance you can find for under $750. The ASUS X550LB-NH52 is a new model, so I can't even find any reviews from a reputable site right now, but the core design looks similar to other ASUS laptops like the N56 series, with a few tweaks. In the case of the X550LB, you get a ULT Core i5-4200U processor with a GeForce GT 740M graphics card, 8GB DDR3L RAM, a 750GB HDD, and a 15.6" 1366x768 display. The display is obviously not going to set the world on fire, but the resolution will actually be a good fit for the GPU. And with a price of just $580, you could buy your own 256GB SSD and swap out the hard drive and still come in under our $750 target price.

Alternative Gaming: Lenovo Y410p

If you're looking for an alternative budget gaming laptop, Lenovo has several options worth considering. The IdeaPad Y410p (14" wink and Y510p (15.6" wink are similar in that they're not going to have awesome battery(such as ThinkPad X200 Accu) life, but they should still last five hours or so for light use. They both sport faster GPUs and CPUs as well, with the i7-4700MQ and GT 750M GDDR5 coming in the base model. The Y510p technically falls just out of our $750 price range (even with the current sale), and sadly you don't get the 1080p display or other extras found on the higher cost models; the Y410p on the other hand comes with the i7-4700MQ and a GT 755M GDDR5, 8GB RAM, and 1TB hard drive for $729 (with the current sale pricing). The 1366x768 display also isn't quite so tiresome on a 14" laptop. If you want something larger, the IdeaPad Z710 is a 17.3" display with an i5-4200M and a GeForce GT 745M, 6GB RAM, and a 1TB HDD. More importantly perhaps, it has a 1920x1080 display. Battery(such as ASUS A32-F3 Accu) life is a bit low at only four hours, and the GPU will struggle with 1080p gaming, but for the price it's still a decent package.

Portable Gaming: Asus Transformer Book T100

Fusing a 10.1in tablet with a docking keyboard, the Transformer Book T100 swaps the Android OS of its stablemates for full Windows 8.1 and puts Intel's new Atom platform, Bay Trail, at the helm. Intel's new quad-core Atom is twice as fast as the previous generation, and even has a little gaming power at its disposal. The T100 feels nothing like the netbooks of old.

The 1,366 x 768 IPS display isn't the brightest out there, but it's great for the money; the compact keyboard turns it into a usable netbook hybrid with nine hours of battery(such as Asus n82jq-1avx Accu) life; and there's even a copy of Microsoft Office Home & Student 2013 thrown in for free. If ever there was a tech bargain to be had, the Asus Transformer Book T100 is it.

Again, this is by no means a comprehensive list of good budget laptops, and really any laptop out there is potentially just a price cut away from becoming a great bargain. Barring any severe issues (like a keyboard or touchpad that just doesn't work well, overheating problems, or really bad WiFi), most laptops are “good enough” these days. If you're after a quality laptop with a good display and a solid construction, you're likely going to need to pay for the privilege, but if you just want something that will let you take your work on the road, there's no need to spend $1500 or more on a state-of-the-art laptop. And if you have any other laptops you'd recommend, or any short-term holiday sales that you want to pass along, feel free to do so in the comments.