The moment you hear the name Alienware, it is quite normal to expect a machine that costs way too much. Probably around Rs 5 lakh and definitely over Rs 2 lakh. But, in 2026, things have changed. Earlier this year during Computex, Dell introduced us all to a budget-friendly Alienware and instantly grabbed attention. Now I have been testing this laptop for a week and have been using it as my daily driver to both play games and work. The laptop comes with an AMD Ryzen 7 chipset, Nvidia’s RTX 5050 laptop GPU, and a 512 GB SSD. On paper, this looks like a pretty decent combination to handle modern AAA games easily. But, does it? Let’s find out.
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007 First Light is the kind of game that can quickly put a gaming laptop through its paces. There is plenty happening on screen, and getting the right balance between graphics and frame rates is important if you want the game to look good without compromising on smoothness. Thankfully, the Alienware 15 handled the game rather well.
I started at 1080p resolution with the graphics set to medium. The game delivered a stable 60 fps, and honestly, I did not feel the need to push the settings any further at first. The game already looked great and the experience was perfectly smooth.
But, because I wanted to see how much more performance I could squeeze out of the laptop, I turned NVIDIA DLSS on, set DLSS Super Resolution to Performance and enabled 2x frame generation. The frame rate immediately jumped to around 130 fps. I then pushed the graphics settings to high and still managed around 120 fps, making for a very playable experience.
Things got more interesting when I switched to ultra graphics. This put more pressure on the GPU (it only has 8GB of VRAM) and the laptop became slightly warm after around 15 minutes of gaming. However, performance remained smooth with no noticeable stutters. As for frame rates, they hovered between 95 and 115 fps.
I then pushed frame generation to 6x and started getting over 200 fps constantly. Now remember, this is a laptop that costs under Rs 1.5 lakh, so seeing those numbers in a demanding AAA title was super impressive.
Control Resonant is a very different game. Remedy’s action-adventure game is not just about shooting enemies as a big part of its appeal comes from the atmosphere, lighting and visual effects. This is why ray tracing and path tracing can make such a noticeable difference here.
At 1080p resolution with medium graphics, ray tracing and path tracing set to medium, I initially got around 30 fps without DLSS. The game was playable, but it did not feel smooth. Turning off ray tracing and path tracing pushed the frame rate to around 50 fps, and the experience became much smoother.
However, that also took away from what makes Control Resonant look so good. The game’s atmosphere benefits heavily from its lighting and reflections, so I wanted to see if the Alienware 15 could handle the effects without sacrificing too much performance.
So, I enabled DLSS frame generation at 2x while keeping ray tracing and path tracing at medium. This brought the frame rate to around 55 fps, making the game much more comfortable to play.
Then I went a step further. I switched frame generation to 4x, increased the graphics settings to high and pushed both ray tracing and path tracing to high. The game looked even more gorgeous, and I was getting around 95 fps, with the frame rate occasionally touching 100 fps.
For me, this was probably the most interesting test because Control is the kind of game where simply chasing the highest frame rate isn’t the point. You want those lighting effects and visual details, and the Alienware 15 managed to deliver them while keeping the game quite playable.
Resident Evil Requiem is another game where visual quality plays a major role. Horror games rely heavily on shadows, lighting and atmosphere, so lowering the graphics settings too much can take away from the experience. I wanted to see whether the Alienware 15 could maintain a good balance between visuals and performance here.
I started at 1080p with shadow quality set to maximum, particle lighting enabled and texture quality set to high. With DLSS turned off, the game managed around 35 fps. It was playable, but the experience felt jittery and was nowhere near as smooth as I wanted it to be.
I then enabled 2x frame generation and set upscaling to Performance. This brought the frame rate to around 50 fps and made the game noticeably smoother. However, after playing for a while, I noticed that the frame rate would drop, so I decided to make a few more changes.
I then lowered shadow quality and texture quality to medium, kept frame generation at 2x and switched the upscaling setting to Ultra Performance. The result was a massive jump in performance. The game reached around 170 fps and the experience felt super smooth. For me, this was the sweet spot to experience the game in all its glory.
In a nutshell, the Alienware 15 may not have the same brute force as some of the more expensive gaming laptops I have tested, but that does not mean it cannot handle demanding AAA games. Across 007 First Light, Control and Resident Evil Requiem, the laptop showed that it can deliver a strong gaming experience without crossing the Rs 1.5 lakh mark.
What do you think of this laptop? Let us know and keep watching this space for more such updates.
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