Laptop Megathread: Your laptop doesn't have Haswell? More like Hasbeen~

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > Laptop Megathread: Your laptop doesn't have Haswell? More like Hasbeen~

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VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

doomtuba posted:

I just got a Sony Vaio Pro 13 today and the thing is amazing. I obviously haven't had it long enough to test the battery life extensively, but for my light tasks (Internet, Word and music) I've used it for a couple of hours nonstop setting it up and it's still only down to 77%. On the reviews it gets around 7-8 hours under normal usage apparently which is more than good enough for me! The 12 hour MBA is insane, but I consider battery life a hygiene factor. It needs to hit a minimum, and anything after that is gravy. The screen is sharp and looks awesome, the keyboard has been great and the trackpad is really good (as far as Windows machines go) after updating the drivers. I am very pleased with my choice so far. I got the base model with the i5 processor and 4 GB of RAM.

I just looked at the 11 inch model of that, and it's almost perfect, except they don't offer a processor option with the GT3 GPU configuration. Anyone know if the laptop I'm looking for exists yet? (probably not I'm really picky)

-Small; 11.6" is ideal, up to 14" acceptable
-under 3 pounds
-IPS panel with a minimum resolution of 1080p
-haswell with GT3 GPU configuration

I've seen a few things that are almost there, but nothing perfect. Am I out of luck? I don't care what it costs.

# ¿ Jul 3, 2013 01:12

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# ¿ May 12, 2024 17:13

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

Naffer posted:

You should take a look at this Anandtech article:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7072/intel-hd-5000-vs-hd-4000-vs-hd-4400

The quick summary is that the 5000 in the low power packages used in the MacBook air barely outperforms the old Ivy bridge 4000 in most benchmarks, even though it's more than twice the GPU on paper. It's limited by power usage when part of the lower-power chips. That's probably why you're going to see a lot of 4400's out there and few 5000's. I suspect that the reason Intel gave the Iris 5100 chips a different name (when they really differ only by allowed TDP) is that the GT3 GPU configuration is really power constrained in the 17W chips and will perform much better in the 28W chips.

Hmm, I guess decent GPU performance in a 15 watt package was too much to hope for. Maybe I'll jump on the sony after all. Thanks everyone!

# ¿ Jul 3, 2013 05:31

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

Any rumors on an x230 refresh / x240? I'm thinking if they could shoehorn one of the 28 watt GT3 haswells, it could be very appealing, and given the current gen is using 35 watt parts, it doesn't seem THAT far fetched...

# ¿ Aug 17, 2013 18:50

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

It looks like Sony quietly released non touch screen versions of both pro models. Anyone know if those will be matte?

# ¿ Aug 31, 2013 23:58

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

I thought there was supposed to be a 1080p option. Regardless, looks like they did go ahead and move to ulv for the x240, and not even a gt3 gpu option. Feeling pretty good about caving and getting a refurb x230 instead of waiting.

# ¿ Oct 22, 2013 23:43

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

Quick question, has anyone put an M.2 SSD in the lenovo T440p? What's the longest size it'll take? I want to put an intel 530 into one, but it's 80mm long and I have thus far been unable to figure out what will fit in the slot.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2014 23:52

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

RoyalScion posted:

Is there an ultra book ish form factor laptop with a 35w/45w TDP processor? The XPS 15 is a bit large for me screen size; I'd like something around 13 inches.

Currently I'm using a laptop with an i5-5200U processor and I've been unimpressed with its computing performance.

It looks like someone bought Sony's laptop business and is putting out 13 inch 2.6 lb vaios with 28 watt skylake parts. I have no idea how it handles the heat, but I'm severely tempted to get one myself 'cause they're the parts with the good graphics and edram cache. Starts at $1500, but I'm definitely drooling over them.

# ¿ Apr 16, 2016 20:30

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

Anyone have thoughts on the razer blade 14 versus the aorus x3v6? I'm having a lot of trouble deciding between the two since there are no real reviews of the Pascal refreshes to speak of.

The aorus looks to have a marginally better processor and the 3200x1800 screen is cheaper than the 1080p razer, but I couldn't game at that resolution anyways and the razer looks less.... dumb. It's there anything to suggest one might handle the heat better than the other?

# ¿ Nov 21, 2016 23:00

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

Shrimp or Shrimps posted:

The Razer Blade is generally known to throttle, get very hot (there's a video out there of it running at 95c on Overwatch), and has poor thermal management. You may see temps in the high eighties to low nineties at normal gaming loads, and if you do synthetic loads, you'll thermal throttle your machine.

For the Blade, they also implemented a custom throttling technique that you need to use Throttlestop to turn off. If you don't, you are not actually getting the full power out of your 1060, but only about 85~90% (for reference, see 3DM scores and game benchmarks). There's been no official word on why they did this, and whether it's safe to turn it off or not. Many users on the Razer forums are reporting turning it off and getting full power without a rise in temperatures.

Nobody knows about the Aorus X3 V6 yet because there don't seem to be many reviews and nobody actually seems to *have* one yet, and if they do, they haven't been posting temps or doing vid reviews etc.

However, with that said, any laptop under an inch and with a 14 inch screen, if it doesn't have a massive chassis (which these don't), is going to handle temps poorly without a doubt. The 1060 is a hot chip, and it has a more concentrated heat output than, say, a 970m it replaces, which makes it more difficult to cool.

Your 14 inch options are the two you mentioned and the MSI GS43VR. There is also the Aero 14 but it's not out yet and will almost certainly have thermal issues. The Alienware 13 is also on pre-order, and nobody knows about its temps and whether it suffers from the same CPU heatsink uneven mounting issues the 15 and 17 do.

The Blade and MSI have tons of reported throttling and running at high temps, for more information on those, visit their respective forums on Notebookreview.com. And as I said, nobody knows about the Aorus, but my bet is under any kind of heavy dual CPU+GPU load, it will throttle.

All 14 inch options will be loud at load.

Despite all these drawbacks, I'm leaning toward the X3 myself. Given it's a similar price to the blade, the reason why is I expect it to handle thermals a little better due to the much thicker chassis (17mm vs 23mm), but I'm waiting for reviews.

ETA: It may also be a consideration that the blade has no upgradability whatsoever. Basically everything is soldered to the board, pretty much. The Aorus will allow you to upgrade RAM if you like, or alternatively add more storage since it has that second M2 slot.

However, the Aorus has no TB3 if eGPU is on your radar.

Another consideration is that Razer takes pride in having the worst customer support and RMA process on earth. Aorus is only marginally better, as far as I can tell. If you're in the UK, don't use Scan.

Yeah, I do realize that it's pretty impossible to dissipate ~130 watts in a 14 inch chassis gracefully. My plan is to undervolt everything as much as I can and hope for the best. I think the alienware is too heavy to consider, but I'll give some thought to the msi and the Aero - I do like 1440p as a middle ground between 1080 and 1800.

Thanks for the input!

# ¿ Nov 22, 2016 03:33

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

s.i.r.e. posted:

Not quite, speaking as a 1080p Blade owner my laptop has never hit the 95C that it did in that one video and it definitely won't ever in Overwatch. I haven't even gone above 82C with Throttlestop off and an overclock via Afterburner on Battlefield 1 on maxed out settings.

While the temps won't get that high so the computer still remains cool to the touch on most of the keyboard area (don't touch around the power button though) it definitely doesn't perform at the level of other GTX 1060 equipped laptops. So the laptop won't burn itself to the ground even if you try it to, but you won't get the most out of the 1060 chip, though, at 1080p it's going to haul rear end for most high-end games.

Though that's the price you pay for such a slick form-factor and it really is a drat well-built machine.

Have you tried undervolting the gpu or cpu, and if so have you noticed significant temperature and noise improvements?

# ¿ Nov 22, 2016 14:28

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

s.i.r.e. posted:

I've never done so before so I don't know how but I'm willing to test it if I can figure out how. Any guides on doing so?

I can't speak to the quality, since I've never done software under volting, but first one I found that references the blade is here. http://www.ultrabookreview.com/10167-laptop-undervolting-overcloking/

I would say don't try it just to test unless it's something you're interested in doing anyways and are comfortable with since changing voltage can impact system stability.

# ¿ Nov 22, 2016 23:36

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

So I went and bought the razer blade. A couple of thoughts in case anyone else is on the fence:
*It's very pretty. I have to admit, this was one of the things that swayed me away from the aorus. If it wasn't for the logo in the middle, I would actually not be embarrassed to be seen in public with this.
*Construction feels really solid. No flex anywhere when I pick it up.
*It's actually quite well balanced. I'm coming from an x230 and was expecting to have to adjust to the extra pound of weight, but honestly it doesn't really feel any harder to pick up with one hand.
*Two things I don't like about the keyboard - travel is very short, and the shift mode characters are tiny and under the regular characters. Hope you have the position of | memorized, cause you aren't seeing that poo poo in the dark.
*Fans are always on and always audible, but at idle it's very unobtrusive and doesn't bother me.

Naturally, as soon as I got my hands on it I started fiddling with stuff. Out of the box, small FFT prime 95 was.... something. After a 10 minute run, hottest core averaged 85C and peaked at 93C. Fans ramp up to "hurricane," and clock speeds swing between base and turbo. Note that I didn't actually see any throttling below the base clock of 2.6, but it definitely could not maintain the 3.1 4 core max turbo under the load. I honestly didn't feel comfortable running it longer than 10 minutes.

After that I used XTU to undervolt. I'm currently running a -0.185 mV core offset and the results are dramatic. A 10 minute small FFT run now yields peak and average temperatures of 75C on the hottest core. Fans don't hit full speed and it's not unpleasant at all with no headphones, and the chip is sustaining 3.1 max 4 core turbo clockspeeds the entire time. I haven't seen any signs of instability yet, so I'm going to keep pushing voltages down.

Sorry if this doesn't belong here, but if you're considering a blade, or really any of the 14" form factor gaming laptops, and you're comfortable with undervolting and have time to tweak it looks like there are some impressive results to be had.

Edit: Oh, one final gripe is that it exhausts out the bottom - if you're like me and you like to use laptops in bed, you're going to have to constantly remind yourself to put a book down instead of resting it directly on blankets. That is all.

VorpalFish fucked around with this message at 18:15 on Nov 24, 2016

# ¿ Nov 24, 2016 18:11

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

Fusion Restaurant posted:

It looks like it has a 970m and is >$2000 tho? Would a blade be better given that it has the 1060? Also, Im generally confused why it seems like the aero is giving so much more for decently less $.

You're looking for the x3 v6, which is a refresh with the 1060. Still over 2k though.

# ¿ Dec 12, 2016 17:10

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

Fusion Restaurant posted:

Hmm, does look a bit better specs than the Blade in exchange for looking worse.

I actually just realized that Gigabyte has now released their Aero 14" w/ the 1060. Based purely on specs this seems like a better deal?

I can either get similar specs to the Razer for $400~ less, or get way better (1 TB SSD vs 256 GB, 32 GB RAM vs 16, 1440p v 1080p) for the same price if I go with the Aero.

My only concern is (1) that the aero has insane thermal throttling or is otherwise too good to be true and (2) only xotic pc sells them right now, and I'm not sure how good they are.

Unfortunately, as far as I can tell there are no good reviews for the pascal versions of these laptops, so you have to kind of extrapolate based on what you can find on the older models. The bottom line is heat, noise, and throttling are going to be challenging for laptops with this kind of hardware in 14" form factors even with a really good design. I can only speak to the razer since I bought one and haven't touched the other two., but it's been great so far. I would say it's definitely worth looking in to undervolting the processor whichever one you end up buying. It made a dramatic difference for me.

# ¿ Dec 13, 2016 06:03

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

Dr. Fishopolis posted:

Anything with a 1070 in that form factor is gonna have heat issues, it just goes with the territory. Like the previous blade, it's a Real Nice Laptop with Real Bad Support. If you're not handy with laptop repair, good luck when something goes wrong because Razer don't give a poo poo.

I have a 2016 blade that's still trooping along without issue, but it's also been disabled completely by windows updates twice now, and it took Razer 2 or 3 weeks to fix the issue both times. It's, imho, the only decent looking thin/light laptop with that much power crammed into it, but heat, noise and wacky drivers are gonna be par for the course.

I've had no problems with my 2016ish blade 14 and I expect it'll last me until tsmc 7/Intel 10, but I don't think I'd want a 1070 in something this thin. It's already right on the edge of acceptable with a 1060.

Is the heat dissipation substantially better in the 15?

# ¿ Dec 21, 2018 18:18

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

Hadlock posted:

My X230 has been dead silent since day 1

CPU Thermals improved dramatically between the years X220 and X230

I would imagine X250 is even better

I was gonna say, I can't speak to the other generations but I had an x230 with a 35w tdp chip and it was super quiet. Unless the newer gens have seriously regressed on cooling, they all use 15w parts now and should be pretty quiet...

# ¿ Mar 25, 2019 16:40

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

Shrimp or Shrimps posted:

Honestly I'm disappointed that there are no more 14" laptops with decent dGPUs anymore. The Aorus X3 had a 1060 and good thermals, and the Razer Blade used to be 14" albeit with thick bezels.

If we could get a slim-bezeled 14" or even 13" laptop that wasn't afraid to be an inch+ thick with a 1650 level GPU, I'd be a day-one purchaser.

15" is way more than you think it is if you plan on in-bed usage etc. I basically never use my 15" Aero 15, which has similar footprint to an XPS15 but slightly heavier, on anything but a desk or maybe the coffee table.

It's not fun to try and use the thing lounging on the couch or whatever, you've got to have decent sitting posture or it'll slip off one side.

E: I know I've banged this drum before, but the Sony Vaio VPC-Z1 was really an awesome laptop. It had a 13.3" screen with slim bezels, was about an inch and a quarter thick at the backside, had a GT330M which at the time could play UE2/3 games admirably (like 200 hours of Tribes:Ascend on that thing for me) and it was small enough to be easy to use while lying down on a sofa / in bed.

I'd love to have a modern day equivalent that isn't the Soldered Book 2 for a gazillion dollars.

I'm 1000% with you. I currently have a blade 14 and my only real gripes are that it's a little too wide and a little too heavy (and the awful logo on the back I guess). When I bought it there were like 3 vendors making this form factor and then it seems like everyone abandoned it at the same time for 15". It's a shame cause it looks like tsmc7/Intel 10 are about to make it possible to go a bit lighter and nobody wants to make them anymore.

# ¿ Jul 21, 2019 16:54

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

Re: undervolting gpus, I found that having afterburner running prevents my cpu from ever hitting idle clocks. Anyone else run in to that?

# ¿ Jul 24, 2019 15:16

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

The United States posted:

3) Some beefier quasi-ultrabooks like the Razer Blade Stealth 13 use the discrete NVIDIA GeForce MX 150/250 but only the 10w mobile part so they only have about twice the power of the high end integrated Iris Plus/Ryzen Vega but for a lot of people this could be just enough of a boost to play certain games. I can't find any real info on how the 10w compares to the 25w part.

I believe the stealth specifically uses the 25w variant, no?

# ¿ Aug 5, 2019 14:43

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

Kin posted:

Cheers, i'll see if i can pop into a store soon to find out.

I just looked up the stats for my UX305

0.48 inches thick and a 12.8 x 8.9-inch footprint | 2.6lbs

The XPS 15 is

0.66 inches thick and a 14.06 x 9.27-inch footprint | 4.6lbs

So, size wise it's only, what, an extra 1.26 x 0.37 bigger from a footprint perspective than what i'm used to, so might not be that much of a dealbreaker after all.

I don't actually think I compared the XPS13 i had with the UX305 but thinking about it, it was actually pretty small for a laptop.

I will say that although it doesn't sound like a huge difference, for some people that's a massive difference in the real world. If you can, I'd definitely try hands on with both. After 3 years with a laptop that's 4 pounds and almost 14" wide I know I'm never going that big again.

# ¿ Aug 25, 2019 02:44

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

Statutory Ape posted:

Why aren't the good Intel graphics more common, are they just expensive? Or is it thermals and thus probably cost again

Right now the best intel graphics are limited to 10nm ice lake based skus. Comet lake is another 14nm refresh. Notably, what they're calling 10th gen includes both comet and ice lake but only comet lake will have a 6c/12t option, so you have to pick between that and better graphics.

# ¿ Aug 27, 2019 16:10

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

Shrimp or Shrimps posted:

The 1650 in that chassis is best dGPU in that size class, and the only nearest competitor is the Surface Book 2 w/ 1050 dgpu, but that's got a fanless CPU which throttles pretty hard.

That's 1080p 60hz @ medium-high triple-A gaming.

Looking forward to the reviews and thermal tests. Wonder if they've ported the vapor chamber from the Blade 15.

Frankly it would be nice if we could get the i7/1650 with a 256GB SSD for less cash moneys and then upgrade the SSD ourselves, but alas.

Holy crap, that's awesome. That plus a 1440p144 screen with vrr is basically the perfect laptop.

Given intel gen11 graphics are supposed to be vrr capable, is it possible we could finally have optimus and adaptive sync coexisting?

# ¿ Sep 4, 2019 14:19

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

Shrimp or Shrimps posted:

G-Sync means no Optimus, which means the dGPU is always activated, which means low battery life. They could just put in a bios mux switch actually, Asus and a couple of others did that.

That would in fact be the best possible thing for any laptop so it can switch between Optimus and *sync.

That's actually what I was speculating/wondering about though: the gen11 igpu in ice lake supports vesa adaptive sync. Optimus doesn't work with gsync because to do optimus you have to pass the dgpu frame through the igpu - now that the igpu can do vrr would optimus and gsync or adaptive sync (since nvidia does adaptive sync now as well) be possible with optimus rather than a hardware mux.

I'm aware the blade stealth doesn't have vrr this was more of a speculative question.

# ¿ Sep 4, 2019 16:38

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

DrDork posted:

There are 15" laptops with the 1650 MaxQ in it that still have throttling issues. I would be real surprised if it was a full-fat one.

Given that even the max-q is +10w tdp on the outgoing mx150, I'd be shocked if it wasn't. That being said, 1650 maxq is still very impressive performance in that form factor.

# ¿ Sep 25, 2019 18:43

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

bull3964 posted:

Well, the CPU is -10w tdp from the outgoing though.

So, overall the total TDP of the graphics model remains the same with 10w shifting from the CPU to GPU (if in Max-q config).

Max-P would add another 15w to the package. We know that Razer made chassis changes for this new model. It's slightly thicker and the number of heatpipes has been increased.

The question is, did they improve the cooling at the same total TDP as the outgoing model so that higher clocks could be maintained longer or did they improve cooling to try to cram another 15w of TDP into the chassis?

Edit:

I think Oculu's announcement around the Quest today has pushed me toward the MAG-15. I have both a Rift and a Quest and the fact that you will be able to use the Quest (and its inside-out tracking) on Rift software with just a USB-C cable makes having a notebook with a beefy GPU a HELL of a lot more appealing since I'll be able to setup VR pretty much anywhere.

Oh, I didn't realize they choose ctdp up on the old 8565u. Even so, adding another 15w in a chassis that size seems really iffy, even if it is slightly thicker.

# ¿ Sep 25, 2019 22:04

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

Duck and Cover posted:

Okay everyone talk me out of getting the 4k Razer Blade Stealth. Yes yes I know 4k is overkill for 13 inches but I want the glossy display.

Get it! (And then post about the thermals and noise cause I want one real bad but I'm probably waiting for a hardware refresh)

# ¿ Oct 15, 2019 13:15

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

Shrimp or Shrimps posted:

It is fairly annoying that Razer doesn't list it as Max Q and that all the news sites (and even some early reviews) don't bother to clarify, either. I was surprised D2D waited so long in his video to say it as it's kind of the centerpiece of the GTX stealth.

Notebookcheck (and that tech tablets video which I somehow never came across) had it as Max Q from the day it was announced, but for ages they were the only one and there was some speculation because of the 100w brick.

It's scummy when manufacturers aren't clearer about this, and incompetent when tech "news" websites and channels don't report it.

Razer does list their 2070 and 2080 options as max q, so its clearly omitted in the Stealth to generate hype and misinform customers who don't do their due diligence.

You're right they absolutely should be up front with it, but I do not understand how people expected anything else given the size of the chassis.

# ¿ Oct 25, 2019 17:30

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

Just for another data point, my 2016 blade 14 is still running okay 3 years later. I recently had to repaste the CPU and gpu, as well as replace the battery. I got some serious battery bulging on the original lipo battery which is apparently pretty common with this model and a little annoying given I have much older laptops that never developed this issue.

Was about $80 on Amazon for a knock off battery and the replacement was pretty easy so it probably won't scare me away from the brand. My next laptop will probably be a stealth refresh unless someone makes something better in that form factor when I'm ready to buy.

# ¿ Dec 7, 2019 22:25

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

DancingShade posted:

Hearing you on radio FM. When this happens that's all I'm going to buy and refresh every few years as needed.

It's also why I'm hoping AMD brings out better notebook CPUs because unlike Intel they at least put some effort into their integrated GPUs.

The G7 igpu variant in ice lake is as fast as any mobile igpu AMD makes, and rumors suggest they're pushing for similar improvement with tiger lake, so I'd say this is no longer true.

# ¿ Dec 9, 2019 14:47

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

bull3964 posted:

It's kinda pointless to price compare with Razer which I'm sure we both agree about. MSI had the privilege of being the only thing in the 14 inch category with a GPU so they got to set their own price (along with it being a superlight.)

I'm looking at something like the GX502 for comparison. The same(ish) Blade 15 config MSRPs for $200 more and is compromised a bit in performance (MQ graphics instead of MP, 512gb SSD instead of 1tb.) I also think their GX502 line is a bit more premium than this these are GA model devices, but who knows how much weight that holds.

From the way Asus has the specs on their site, it looks like the 120hz screen FHD option is going to be a premium over the 60hz WQHD with (of course) the 60hz FHD panel being on the bottom

So, I'm going to guess a $1300 stripper model is going to be either the 4300 or 4500 with 8gb of ram and the FHD 60hz panel with a 256gb SSD.

It's also important to note that while these are getting the 4800H as the top processor, it's going to be a modified 35w variant instead of the full 45w. It will be interesting to see how much that affects performance (i'm going to guess lower clocks when there's multiple threads going but single threaded performance will be similar.) It may be that a lower TDP won't matter that much on a 8 core chip unless you are stressing all 8 cores.

It's unclear yet if the 180w adapter is required to use the GPU at all or just to keep the battery from draining. Can AMD chips switch back to integrated graphics like optimus if they have a dGPU?

The GX502 isn't a reasonable comparison; it's almost a full pound heavier and 1.5" wider. The kind of person looking at the prestige 14, the G14, or the blade stealth isn't going to cross shop a 13.5"+ wide 4+ pound laptop, they're going to spend the 2k because portability is that important to them.

Gaming performance in a very small form factor justifies the premium.

Edit: I should add it justifies the price if the cooling is adequate without producing ungodly noise.

VorpalFish fucked around with this message at 19:19 on Jan 8, 2020

# ¿ Jan 8, 2020 19:13

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

bull3964 posted:

Not a comparison to this actual laptop, but a comparison on how Asus prices their stuff VS the competition.

I'm just saying the pricing for this model is entirely reasonable given that the only competition which exists is the blade stealth and prestige 14. Of those, the prestige 14 is cheaper, but the reviews I've seen suggest the cooling isn't good, and the G14 is the only option for 120hz and VRR.

Honestly, 2k is potentially a steal for what it is, assuming the cooling is good and ryzen 2 is as good in mobile apus as it is in desktops.

Edit: zen2 not ryzen 2. That's what I get for phone posting

VorpalFish fucked around with this message at 20:53 on Jan 8, 2020

# ¿ Jan 8, 2020 20:39

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

For those interested in ultraportable gaming, the announced asus g14 could be interesting. It's bigger than the blade stealth (like 12.8x9 and 3.6 pounds), but if you can live with the extra size it will have options for a low power 2060 variant, 8c16t zen2, and a 1080p144 panel with vrr. A lot will hinge on how good the cooling is though.

# ¿ Feb 9, 2020 01:14

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

Ashrik posted:

I've been checking almost every day since CES2020 for the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 to have its price announced and for places to begin taking orders. I believe that, unlike the MSI Prestige 14, this one will actually be widely reviewed.

I'm pretty sure I watched some prestige 14 reviews. I believe consensus was the cooling is insufficient.

# ¿ Feb 9, 2020 14:51

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

Doh004 posted:

Speaking of which, my Razer Blade Stealth just came in and it's very nice. Will keep throwing things at it and see how it handles it, but so far it's extremely snappy and feels good.

Did you get the 1650 model? I'd be interested in impressions, particularly on noise under load.

# ¿ Feb 14, 2020 17:27

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

CFox posted:

You gotta get up to the Intel 10XXX processors before the iGPU gets better.

Not just any 10xxx either, ice lake has the good igpu. Look for the "G7" suffix.

# ¿ Mar 12, 2020 15:44

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

kaworu posted:

Big laptop stuff

I mean it seems to me like you're basically the ideal candidate for gaming desktop + laptop unless you're actually playing games in bed...

# ¿ Mar 24, 2020 14:20

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

bull3964 posted:

Looks like I was right about the embargo dropping monday.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/30/21197761/asus-rog-zephyrus-g14-review-gaming-laptop-specs-features-price

I'm sure more reviews will show up as the day progresses.

Looking pretty good, especially the battery for a gaming notebook.

The review also seems too imply, without outright stating, that the $1449 model DOES have the 120hz screen.

So, it seems like the configs at launch shake out to be:

4900HS 1tb/16gb 2060 Max-q 120hz $1449
4800HS 512gb/16gb GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q 120hz $1299
4800HS 512gb/8gb GTX 1650 60hz $1049

If the cooling is good, that pricing is way lower than I expected given the form factor. I was gonna try to hold out for a 10/7nm gpu update but that's mighty tempting.

# ¿ Mar 30, 2020 15:54

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

bull3964 posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiv1USXl9PE

Gaming benchmarks of the G14.

I'm torn, I love most everything about it, but it certainly doesn't represent the best performance for the money because of that RTX2060 MAX-Q. It's still the most powerful compact gaming laptop though.

I mean if your priority is max performance for money, ultraportable is not the product class you're shopping. I don't think it's reasonable to expect something that size you be the value king; you pay a premium for the form factor.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2020 15:00

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

bull3964 posted:

Oh absolutely. The thing also has some pretty amazing battery life for an gaming notebook as well.

It's a fantastic all rounder. If you were just going to have one device, it's a very good one device to have. I would certainly take the G14 over something like an XPS 15 at this point. It stomps it in performance, won't overheat, has the same premium construction, and gets just as good battery.

I was looking at this from a lens of where I should spend my money (if at all). I don't need a gaming notebook, I just love gadgets. I don't know if $1449 on this or $1699 on a MAG-15 is a better choice for me.

Unless you must have something really small, the mag-15 should get you better gaming performance at least if you spec the 2070mq.

The way I look at it, the choice is between the g14 and the blade stealth 1650 if you're considering anything else. The prestige 14 hits the dimensions but imo the lack of cooling makes it not viable. Everything else on the market is like an inch+ bigger footprint.

If you don't need the portability I don't see why you wouldn't go MAG15 or wait for one of the bigger zen2 based offerings that are undoubtedly coming. You'll probably get a faster gpu at a similar price point and probably better screen options as well.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2020 18:42

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# ¿ May 12, 2024 17:13

VorpalFish: Mar 22, 2007; reasonably awesome^tm

Nevermind next gen parts, I would be fairly shocked if one if the oems didn't pair it with a 2070/80 in a a larger chassis.

Find that hard to believe.

# ¿ Apr 6, 2020 12:59

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