HP Victus 15L Desktop | Gaming PC | Review

With its CPU and GPU both stuck in the 47th percentile, this $1100 desktop isn't a great gaming rig. Its one standout feature is the 32GB of RAM, which is great for heavy multitaskers but can't make up for weak graphics. Look elsewhere for gaming, but consider it if your work absolutely demands tons of memory.

The HP Victus 15L is a desktop that tells two different stories. On one hand, it's packing 32GB of RAM, which lands it in the 71st percentile for memory, and a full 1TB SSD. That's a solid foundation for multitasking and general productivity. On the other hand, its core performance components—the AMD Ryzen 7 5700G CPU and Radeon RX 6400 GPU—both sit at the 47th percentile. That means for the price, you're getting decidedly mid-tier processing and graphics power.

At $1100, this PC is positioned as a budget-friendly gaming and work machine. The high RAM and storage scores suggest HP is targeting users who value having lots of applications open over raw speed in any single one. It's a tower, so it's not winning any compactness awards (29th percentile there), but it should be reliable, scoring in the 78th percentile for that metric.

Let's be clear about what you're getting. The AMD Ryzen 7 5700G is an 8-core APU, meaning it has integrated graphics. Pairing it with a discrete Radeon RX 6400 4GB is a bit of an odd choice, as the RX 6400 itself is a budget, entry-level card. Together, they deliver GPU performance in the 47th percentile. In plain English, you can play modern games, but you'll be turning settings down to Medium or Low at 1080p for a smooth 60fps in many titles. The CPU score, also at the 47th percentile, is fine for office work, web browsing, and light content creation, but don't expect it to blaze through video encodes or complex simulations.

The bright spot is the 32GB of DDR4 RAM. That's a generous amount that puts it ahead of most pre-builts in its price range. It means you can have a dozen Chrome tabs, Discord, Spotify, and a game running without the system choking on memory. The 1TB SSD is decent, sitting around the middle of the pack, so load times will be snappy for your OS and main applications.

At $1100, the value proposition is shaky. You're paying a premium for that 32GB of RAM and the 1TB SSD, but the engine (CPU) and graphics (GPU) are budget-class parts. In our database, you can often find systems with a stronger CPU/GPU combo paired with 16GB of RAM for a similar price. If your workflow genuinely needs 32GB of RAM open all the time—like heavy data analysis, virtual machines, or massive photo edits—this configuration makes some sense. But if you're a gamer or a general user, that money would be better spent on a more powerful processor and graphics card, even if it means starting with 16GB of RAM.

Stacked against common competitors, the Victus 15L's strategy is clear. The Lenovo Legion Tower 5i or a base-model Dell Alienware Aurora at this price will almost certainly have a more powerful GPU, like an RTX 4060 or RX 7600, but they'll typically skimp with only 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. The HP Omen 45L, its flashier sibling, would destroy it in gaming performance but at a much higher cost. So it's a trade-off: do you want better gaming frames today (go with a competitor's build), or do you want the overhead to never think about RAM for the next five years (this Victus)? For pure gaming, the competitors' builds are the smarter buy. The RX 6400 is the weak link here.

Hardcore gamers should look away. If your primary goal is playing the latest AAA games at high settings, the 47th percentile GPU performance is an immediate deal-breaker. Similarly, content creators, streamers, or anyone doing CPU-intensive work like coding compiles or simulation will find the 47th percentile CPU limiting. You're paying for RAM you might not need while short-changing the components that actually drive those demanding applications. Spend your $1100 on a system with a better GPU, even if it starts with 16GB of RAM.

We can't recommend the HP Victus 15L as a gaming PC. The Radeon RX 6400 is too much of a compromise for a $1100 machine in 2024. However, as a home office or business workstation where massive multitasking is the priority and gaming is a casual afterthought, it has a legitimate case. The 32GB RAM and good reliability scores are its saving graces. If this machine were priced around $850, it would be an easy budget pick. At $1100, you need to really, really need that 32GB of RAM to justify it.