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shrike82 posted:Got the GPD Win Max 2 through IGG. If you've never heard of GPD, they're a Chinese boutique gaming handheld outfit. I think these are very cool and my brain loves tiny stuff like this but I know I'd stop using it in a few days. I just play games that run ok on an Intel iGPU on a 13" laptop with an 8bitdo controller I chuck in my bag when I travel. I've been replying Baldur's Gate for the 100th time most recently on planes. My eGPU experience also taught me that I don't want to play FPS games on anything less than a 24" screen anyway.
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May 14, 2024 10:09
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strong bird posted:is there an up to date post with general recommendations and things to look for/avoid? What games do you typically play on it? What is more important, portability/battery life or pure processing power? I'm guessing this will be the best deal for you right now. This is a great price but will only be around for about a week, I'd guess. The memory is expandable eventually, if you'd like. https://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo...p?skuId=6534469
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May 14, 2024 14:05
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Btw, a bunch of gaming laptops are popping off on sale. kinda unusual for this time of year so it makes me think model refreshes are being anticipated. If you're good with a 4000 series GPU now might be a really good time to buy.
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May 14, 2024 14:52
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Is AMD going to be making high-end laptop GPUs in the coming years? Microcenter only has a single SKU available, and Bestbuy has a few more but nothing I'd buy. It seems really weird to me that they basically ceded the last year or two to Nvidia. I think I'm going to more-permanently transition to Linux so I was a little shocked at the current state when I went looking for replacements for my 4080.
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May 14, 2024 15:22
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Tiny Timbs posted:Is AMD going to be making high-end laptop GPUs in the coming years? Microcenter only has a single SKU available, and Bestbuy has a few more but nothing I'd buy. It seems really weird to me that they basically ceded the last year or two to Nvidia. In short: no. AMD isn't leaving the market but by all indications they are trying to refocus on delivering both a good-enough iGPU/ low end experience and a smaller number of competitive value-priced desktop GPUs, but them leaning on chiplet GPUs for the higher end means that they're going to be less power efficient and thus less competitive in the laptop space. Also as I understand it they're making more money on CPUs and have every reason to focus their efforts on CPUs still, as they are still only about 20% of the very lucrative server market and would like more of that.
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May 14, 2024 15:37
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Twerk from Home posted:In short: no. AMD isn't leaving the market but by all indications they are trying to refocus on delivering both a good-enough iGPU/ low end experience and a smaller number of competitive value-priced desktop GPUs, but them leaning on chiplet GPUs for the higher end means that they're going to be less power efficient and thus less competitive in the laptop space. Yeah its this.
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May 14, 2024 15:58
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Lenovo cancelled my refurbished Thinkpad order  Edit: I got a higher end one with a better screen for $200 more. meh big boi fucked around with this message at 20:29 on May 14, 2024 |
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May 14, 2024 17:17
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Anyone in the market for a solid sub-$1000 gaming machine, Best Buy has this Legion Slim with a 4060 for $850. link It's a Ryzen 5 instead of 7, but six zen 4 cores should handle gaming tasks fine. This machine has a FHD panel instead of WQXGA display found in most 16in Legions, but I think those are all still over $1000
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May 15, 2024 14:27
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im still shopping around but I saved those links. thanks. as far as cooling goes, are those cooling mats with 2-4 fans snake oil or are they actually effective compared to just making sure there's clearance for air intake under the laptop with a stand or just propping it up?
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May 15, 2024 16:38
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strong bird posted:im still shopping around but I saved those links. thanks. I think some are better than others, but generally I think they can knock a couple degrees off your max temps. Personally, I use a lapdesk that has no fan and stuck something under the rear of my machine to lift it up a bit and open up the space underneath. It hasn't melted down yet.
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May 15, 2024 17:14
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Whenever I play any sort of real game on one of my laptops they run hot. I’ve played around with the various options from using Lego brick separators to prop up the back (worked fine but it’s definitely a rinky dink solution) to various cooling pads. I think at minimum you want to raise the back up so some air flows underneath, 5-15 degrees, and cheap little bump risers or Lego brick separators will do this. There are $10-12 metal stands that can lift the back much higher and airflow moving around your laptop helps a lot, but then your device is at an angle. This may or may not bother you. I think the appeal of some slightly nicer cooling pads that have some fans is you can keep your laptop flat on the desk but still get some air flowing underneath a little better. Whether or not that’s worth it to you is really preference. Probably more important than a cooling solution is to open up the chassis every year or so and do a through cleaning and make sure no dust has collected/cooked onto any of the fans or heat sinks. Yiggy fucked around with this message at 17:55 on May 15, 2024 |
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May 15, 2024 17:53
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Re: laptop cooler talk https://www.amazon.com/IETS-Powerful-Turbo-Fan-Infinitely-13-17-3inch/dp/B09D6J56NS  Kind of tempted to pick one up for shits and giggles.
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May 15, 2024 18:01
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strong bird posted:im still shopping around but I saved those links. thanks. It depends on the alternative. If your desk is a soft particle board desk, or even worse a couch, it'll make a big difference. In my experience, a decent cooling pad will give you more time before thermal throttling, which can be a big deal for some. It also depends on whats inside it. A 7540 and a 4060? Its going to be pretty thermally efficient in general so the impact may just be a few degrees after an hour. A 13900 and a 4080? Any help you can get it will go a long way. Personally I think if your going to have a dedicated spot, a $20 pad is probably worth it if you're going to be gaming for stretches on it.
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May 15, 2024 18:03
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Turning on your ceiling fan, or investing in something like a Vornado 660 will drastically improve airflow in the general vicinity of your workstation area, and amplify the effects of propping the back up with hot wheels cars or whatever is handy since you're no longer dependent solely on convection to move the air around We have like, at least 4 x Vornado 660 they are amazing devices, accept no substitute for room fans and deserve the title "whole room air circulator"
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May 15, 2024 20:54
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I bought a small vornado fan when I went to college and 20 years later the thing still runs perfectly. It was probably on for at least 10 years straight because I grew to need its noise.
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May 15, 2024 22:20
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I called out the 660 model specifically because at I and II settings it's virtually silent. III and IIII move an alarming amount of air but it's audible even across the room I bought a medium model and it's significantly louder, even on the lowest setting. I returned it for another 660 ("large") physically they're pretty similar in footprint but it's a big step up in quality When my daughter was born she got the $$ white model to match all her white nursery furniture
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May 15, 2024 23:19
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I have a Vornado brand foot fan with heater and it is probably about 20 years old and it is amongst my most prized possessions.
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May 15, 2024 23:22
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Looking for suggestions for a laptop with the following features:
We were initially looking at the Surface Go line up but the best reviewed, Surface Go 2, is four years old and we're looking for something a little more recent. Is there any other models/brands we should look at? Use cases: email, browsing, zoom, web browsing, general business uses. Very light gaming. Away all Goats fucked around with this message at 03:35 on May 16, 2024 |
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May 16, 2024 03:33
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Does this look like a good buy? I need a Windows tablet. https://www.ebay.com/itm/166294430117
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May 16, 2024 03:49
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Away all Goats posted:Looking for suggestions for a laptop with the following features: I was at Costco yesterday and they had a i5-1235u 16gb surface pro 9 for $9xx  Might be worth looking locally? I really like my pros. I've got 2 of em. Beef Eater posted:Does this look like a good buy? I need a Windows tablet. https://www.ebay.com/itm/166294430117  The N4100 is pretty anemic. It'll chug pretty bad when doing background stuff like big updates. I'd be personally looking for an N95/N100+ if possible. slidebite fucked around with this message at 15:02 on May 16, 2024 |
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May 16, 2024 05:28
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Looking at Dell refurbs because there's some good coupons at their outlet store atm (e.g., 45% off items priced $499 & up) https://www.dellrefurbished.com/coupons But when googling the models I was interested in, I saw the same issues my current Inspiron suffers from. Crucially, that they get freaking hot and loud.
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May 18, 2024 19:07
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Does Best Buy not tell you the memory config? All I'm seeing on their listings is total system RAM, but not whether its dual channel.
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May 18, 2024 19:30
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Rinkles posted:Does Best Buy not tell you the memory config? All I'm seeing on their listings is total system RAM, but not whether its dual channel. Even if they did it's best not to trust it (goes double for Amazon listings). Even worse to ask a worker there. Just narrow it down a bit and look up the model on the manufacturers site or notebookcheck.net.
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May 18, 2024 20:13
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trip report from the laptop mines: i ended up getting a refurbished lenovo legion pro 5i for just under 1k USD altogether from the lenovo outlet website, which seemed like a good deal, though I dont know the actual sale price of this model because theres 500 versions of every model and whoever thought they should have a series called Legion Pro 5 and Legion 5 Pro should be institutionalized https://www.lenovo.com/us/outletus/en/p/laptops/legion-laptops/legion-pro-series/legion-pro-5i-gen-8-(16-inch-intel)/82wkx029us i like the way it looks, build quality seems good (though i have nothing to compare it to), good amount of ports for what I need, it works great in the games I tried, the screen is very nice compared with my older TN monitor. the keyboard is comfortable enough to type on. i like basically everything about it except that its quite simply too loud i knew the fans would be more active than a full PC but i guess i just didnt anticipate them having to spin up and down so frequently under load, and how loud the higher speeds would be. i worked myself into a shoot thinking i wanted a laptop against both my better judgement and the advice of my peers. i dashed my ship against the treacherous rocks of the gaming laptop. the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i (or whatever model it really is) has bested me i requested the RMA so im presenting myself for ridicule in appreciation for the help in the thread. youre stronger gamers than me 
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May 19, 2024 08:13
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Did it really come with an i9-13900HX for a CPU? Given that Intel lists that CPU as having a maximum turbo power of 157W, I can see it getting very hot and loud depending on how Lenovo configured it and what you were using it for.
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May 19, 2024 14:07
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I have a Legion 5 Pro with an AMD CPU and the fans barely ever spin up when I'm not running a game, to the point where I'll go into Task Manager to see if some service is doing something. You haven't mentioned your usage so far, but if you were expecting a gaming laptop's fans to not run while gaming, I don't know what to tell you.
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May 19, 2024 16:20
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That in particular is a cpu which pulls more power than most off the shelf desktops. It's never going to be quiet. I'll second the recommendation for an AMD system if decent performance without fan noise is a desire. My current primary personal system has a 7840hs. At full load it makes noise but not much and in general use it's silent.
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May 19, 2024 17:50
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AMD CPU's are great in the mobile space. They retain a lot more of their maximum performance under lower power thresholds than the 12-14th gen Intels so while the new ones (especially zen4) can consume ridiculous Intel levels of power, it's not necessary. Less power consumption, less heat production, happier laptop cooling. I really think Intel needs to move off of their 10nm++++(?) process and join the modern era.
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May 19, 2024 21:10
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kinda wish there were laptops with the steamdeck APU (4c/8t) - they're even more power efficient than the AMD laptop chips at typical workloads (<=10W)
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May 19, 2024 23:24
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shrike82 posted:kinda wish there were laptops with the steamdeck APU (4c/8t) - they're even more power efficient than the AMD laptop chips at typical workloads (<=10W) Are they actually? It's pretty hard to find good controlled CPU benchmarks of the steam deck, but in terms of efficiency I'd bet on zen4 every time, especially the newer ones with 4c.
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May 20, 2024 19:59
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Mental Hospitality posted:AMD CPU's are great in the mobile space. They retain a lot more of their maximum performance under lower power thresholds than the 12-14th gen Intels so while the new ones (especially zen4) can consume ridiculous Intel levels of power, it's not necessary. Less power consumption, less heat production, happier laptop cooling. I really think Intel needs to move off of their 10nm++++(?) process and join the modern era. They have, Meteor Lake is on Intel 4 which is decidedly smaller than the Intel 7/10nm, and uses TSMC 5nm for the GPU.
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May 21, 2024 00:18
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https://x.com/concept_central/status/1792650547625148507 lol microsoft taking apple's lead on ram/ssd pricing
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May 21, 2024 00:23
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my eyes popped out when i saw the keyboard + pen was 450 that's somehow more than the ipad keyboard and pen
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May 21, 2024 00:50
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Hasn’t the Surface line always fancied itself the Apple of PCs, which extended to their pricing?
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May 21, 2024 00:56
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It's so weird seeing PC makers copy the worst parts of Apple. See: the new Dell XPS capacitive touch top row.
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May 21, 2024 01:07
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buffbus posted:It's so weird seeing PC makers copy the worst parts of Apple. See: the new Dell XPS capacitive touch top row.
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May 21, 2024 02:05
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I don't mind the track pads so much. Like, I main use a mouse on a tiny pad right next to the trackpad, but I will still occasionally find myself swiping and touching on the pad and its, kind of handy. A newer one even has a right and left click built in, I never thought I'd like track pads but I've gotten so used to swiping on a handhelds/phones, and after awhile you get used to the pinch zoom, double tap, etc. etc. They got me alright.
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May 21, 2024 02:26
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MeruFM posted:my eyes popped out when i saw the keyboard + pen was 450 Well, the $350 keyboard is one with a battery in it that can be used disconnected from the Surface. I think it's using some super fancy reinforcement to limit flexing (which is funny considering the name is the Surface Pro Flex Keyboard). Not that it excuses the price much, but the standard Surface Pro Keyboard is $140 (with pen, $280). I just do not give a poo poo about this copilot stuff at all. It doesn't help me in my personal life and there's no way in hell work would allow stuff like Recall be enabled. I mean poo poo, they disabled teams recording transcriptions. bull3964 fucked around with this message at 03:12 on May 21, 2024 |
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May 21, 2024 03:10
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Speaking of that, another weird copy is haptic trackpads. I've been using one of the new Dell Precision 5690s and it has the false "Taptic" touchpads but...it actually still has movement. Like there's zero reason for that design when there's plenty of space for it to move and it still does recede into the chassis when pressed. It's a really nice device though, just weird in some ways.
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May 21, 2024 03:12
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Twerk from Home posted:They have, Meteor Lake is on Intel 4 which is decidedly smaller than the Intel 7/10nm, and uses TSMC 5nm for the GPU. You're right, I forgot Intel moved to a 7nm process for the CPU parts of Meteor Lake and 5nm for the GPU. Few more years and they'll hit process parity with last years Phoenix APU's. I guess it's not fair to dog on the new Meteor Lake parts. I think they're genuinely good processors and probably the first Intel chip in the mobile space that I'd be happy with, especially in something like a 2-1 where it must both perform and be efficient and have a decent iGPU. I just like Zen4 a tiny bit more in gaming rigs because most Intel based gaming laptops are using 14th gen Raptor Lake refresh parts (save for a few, the new Asus Zephyrus G14/16 comes to mind), and they just don't appeal to me personally due to their power appetite and how poorly they scale at lower power limits. Edit: AMD and Intel are both guilty of turning the mobile landscape into an absolute clusterfuck when it comes to branding. You have AMD 6000 series chips with zen 3, 7000 series chips with zen 2, 3, or 4. 8000 series chips which are refreshed zen 4 7000 series chips. iGPU's that are sometimes better in 6000 series than some 7000 series. Intel will sell you a cutting edge 14th gen cpu which is a 13th gen CPU but also there's another CPU that has less numbers but is arguably more advanced in "Core Ultra" which are Meteor Lake but there's also just "Core" cpu's which are U-series Raptor Lake refreshes. Just a terrible time for the average consumer to actually know what they're getting. Mental Hospitality fucked around with this message at 03:47 on May 21, 2024 |
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May 21, 2024 03:43
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