PC Sherdog Gaming Laptop & Review Thread (OP Updated Apr-2019)

[Unknown Pleasures]

So I got a push notification that on Tuesday 30 series mobile gpus are supposed to be announced. My current power laptop is like a i7 5000HQ series Intel processor. Any idea what typical trail between announcement and when we start seeing them being offered in laptops?

My guess is unlike desktops there isn't much of a standalone mobile GPU market.

Also, I feel bad asking this, but has AMD overtaken Intel for mobile processors?

 

[JoshTehV]

@Madmick I might be getting somewhere at last. I'm down to 2, aware of how their displays work (I think) with the cheaper one being barely acceptable and the more expensive one being very adequate. The first is a great price, around my original budget, with a compromise on image reproduction but a fair bit less so than on other machines. The second meets every need, but it's overkill and overbudget, yet unfortunately the best option I've been able to find that does everything I want. I think I should probably go with the cheaper option but do you care to opine? Is there a good value proposition in eating the extra cost since at least it's still about $400+ cheaper than all the other ones I saw that had serviceable CPUs and good display specs?

Dell G5 SE, getting a deal at $980,
https://www.dell.com/en-ca/shop/cty/pdp/spd/g-series-15-5505-laptop/ng155505_sesb_s1400e
In brief,
AMD Ryzen™ 5 4600H Mobile Processor with Radeon™ Graphics
AMD Radeon™ RX 5600M 6GB GDDR6
8GB, 2x4GB, DDR4, 3200MHz
256GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive
Supernova Silver Cover with mDP and with USB-C
According to Dell the display has a color gamut of 72% of sRGB

Or,
Lenovo Legion 5, at $1390 (or possibly lower if I can mange it)
https://www.lenovo.com/ca/en/laptop...Legion-5-15ARH05/p/82B1CTO1WWENCA0/customize?
AMD® Ryzen™ 5 4600H Processor (3.00 GHz, up to 4.00 GHz Max Boost, 6 Cores, 12 Threads, 8 MB Cache)
8 GB DDR4 3200MHz
256 GB PCIe SSD
15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS, anti-glare, 300 nits, 60Hz (the spec sheet here says that one should have 100% RGB coverage and please correct me if I'm wrong--I realized earlier how you found that before)
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1660 Ti 6GB
256 GB PCIe SSD
720p HD

Look at bestbuy, they had all the laptop deals

i landed a asus rog 240hz screen 1080p, i7 10750h, 1tb nvme/ssd 16gb ram, 2070 max q for I think like 1170$ after taxes and with thier sale? it was also an open box and the item was like 1450-1550 sealed

 

[JoshTehV]

Thinking about returning my laptop , i7 10750h, 2070 max q that I scored for 1150$ in hopes of getting a 3070 based laptop. I'm not sure what the price range will be like though and I know cheap laptops have crap cooling

 

[rob mafia]

Also, I feel bad asking this, but has AMD overtaken Intel for mobile processors?

that said, most of the overall specs for the laptops with amd seemed retarded in some manner or another. the next/current (ie: shown at ces today) gen will supposedly have a much broader product line, including actual t1 models with specs that actually make sense. but it might be a few months until they're really out.

 

[Madmick]

So I got a push notification that on Tuesday 30 series mobile gpus are supposed to be announced. My current power laptop is like a i7 5000HQ series Intel processor. Any idea what typical trail between announcement and when we start seeing them being offered in laptops?

My guess is unlike desktops there isn't much of a standalone mobile GPU market.

Also, I feel bad asking this, but has AMD overtaken Intel for mobile processors?

Thinking about returning my laptop , i7 10750h, 2070 max q that I scored for 1150$ in hopes of getting a 3070 based laptop. I'm not sure what the price range will be like though and I know cheap laptops have crap cooling

The Asus ROG Strix G17 was the one to grab, but pre-orders have already been exhausted-- welcome to the new normal!

 

[Madmick]

Anandtech: AMD Ryzen 9 5980HS Cezanne Review: Ryzen 5000 Mobile Tested
Overall, AMD's latest flagship laptop CPU impresses, but it's a lukewarm improvement over the 4000 series for gamers.

What's surprising, though there were early indications of this in leaks, is that the Intel i7-1185G7 bests it in most workloads not optimized well beyond four cores despite that the Ryzen outscores it in the SPEC and Cinebench tests. Of course, that's utterly critical for Intel, since this generation they went with a 4-core chip. This appears to be a choice forced upon them due to the runaway heat (as you can see in the review). The result is that the i7-11865G7 will undoubtedly be a far stronger CPU than its predecessor from the previous generations in most games, the i7-10750H, but for anything optimized well beyond four cores, it will actually be the weaker CPU (it's roughly equal to the i7-9750H in terms of overall, synthetic processing power). While the i7-11375H is technically Intel's strongest chip, it isn't one you'll see in almost any laptops sold.

Where the Ryzen 5980HS and the 5000 series writ large truly shine is for editors with all threads firing.

Ultimately, the additional cores, the better theoretical per-core performance, and the vastly superior power efficiency place AMD firmly in control of laptop CPU supremacy, now, even for gamers. Until Intel ships the 8-core 45W Tiger Lake chips later in Q1 2021, assuming they won't be a disaster with the power consumption issues they face, Intel won't have an answer, and even then, it likely won't be a good one.

 

[Unknown Pleasures]

The Asus ROG Strix G17 was the one to grab, but pre-orders have already been exhausted-- welcome to the new normal!

@Madmick

I see the Alienware laptops are now up with 3000 series GPU. It's the 4th rendition of their 15 inch model that has caught my eye.

Any thoughts on the 3070 option with 32 GBS of RAM @ 2933MHz. Processor seems like they've stuck with 10th gen i7-10870H.

Is that a fair CPU/GPU match?

 

[Madmick]

@Madmick

I see the Alienware laptops are now up with 3000 series GPU. It's the 4th rendition of their 15 inch model that has caught my eye.

Any thoughts on the 3070 option with 32 GBS of RAM @ 2933MHz. Processor seems like they've stuck with 10th gen i7-10870H.

Is that a fair CPU/GPU match?

Yeah, that CPU is plenty powerful for the RTX 3070 Mobile. The latter is a bit weaker than the RTX 2080 desktop GPU, and a bit stronger than the RTX 2080 Super Mobile.

With the 11th Gen, Intel reverted to a quad core chip for their mainstream i7 processor (the i7-1165G7). It scores much better per thread than its predecessor the i7-10750H, impressively so, so across the enormous gamut of PC gaming's tens of thousands of titles, it will be a superior processor, but in terms of overall processing power, it's actually inferior to the i7-10750H because they had to gimp those two cores to keep the heat down.

The i7-10870H is a significant step above the i7-10750H. It adds two cores for a total of eight, and is ~25% stronger overall. While the base clock is lower than the 10750H, it overclocks dynamically on its first few cores just as well, so it matches the per thread performance.

The only CPUs significantly better than the 10870H are the new Ryzen 7 & Ryzen 9 5000 series CPUs.

 

[Unknown Pleasures]

Yeah, that CPU is plenty powerful for the RTX 3070 Mobile. The latter is a bit weaker than the RTX 2080 desktop GPU, and a bit stronger than the RTX 2080 Super Mobile.

With the 11th Gen, Intel reverted to a quad core chip for their mainstream i7 processor (the i7-1165G7). It scores much better per thread than its predecessor the i7-10750H, impressively so, so across the enormous gamut of PC gaming's tens of thousands of titles, it will be a superior processor, but in terms of overall processing power, it's actually inferior to the i7-10750H because they had to gimp those two cores to keep the heat down.

The i7-10870H is a significant step above the i7-10750H. It adds two cores for a total of eight, and is ~25% stronger overall. While the base clock is lower than the 10750H, it overclocks dynamically on its first few cores just as well, so it matches the per thread performance.

The only CPUs significantly better than the 10870H are the new Ryzen 7 & Ryzen 9 5000 series CPUs.

As always, you are a gentleman and scholar for all things computing. Looks like they're going to take my money lol.

Deal is done, apparently might not arrive for a couple of weeks though.

 

[Unknown Pleasures]

Well, they haven't even shipped this out yet. Original target ship date was the 16th, but it looks like that was bullshit. I got an email a while ago that my order was in production, but frankly, $20 pizza shops have better order trackers than 2K+ Dell computers.

 

[Madmick]

Well, they haven't even shipped this out yet. Original target ship date was the 16th, but it looks like that was bullshit. I got an email a while ago that my order was in production, but frankly, $20 pizza shops have better order trackers than 2K+ Dell computers.

Sorry to hear that.

This is the new normal in computer hardware.

 

[Unknown Pleasures]

Sorry to hear that.

This is the new normal in computer hardware.

as fate would have it, it literally got updated to shipped a few hours ago. should arrive probably in a 2 to 3 days. It's turned my mood upsdie down lol. Gonna sink a lot of hours in Yakuza Like a Dragon to help beat the winter COVID blues.

 

[Dizzy]

Picked this up this morning. My current laptop is in need of upgrading and this seemed like a good deal. Upgraded the ram and hard drive. I’ll probably use my LG C9 for a monitor.

 

[Madmick]

Picked this up this morning. My current laptop is in need of upgrading and this seemed like a good deal. Upgraded the ram and hard drive. I’ll probably use my LG C9 for a monitor.

Beast of a value. That's ~50% more powerful than your PS5. Unless you expanded to 16GB RAM in the configuration that's the first thing you'll want to upgrade. Bookmark this product support anchor page:
https://support.hp.com/ie-en/product/omen-15-en0000-laptop-pc-series/32827270/model/32827271/manuals

I can't find an exact specification confirmation, but it appears it runs a DDR4-3200 MHz stick. It will downclock this to DDR4-2933 in dual channel when you add a second stick, if it isn't already doing that, but you still very much want the second stick, because that stick's mere presence means it will be much, much faster than the single stick by itself at 3200. Furthermore, 8GB will be a pinch in a few years, and the RAM compatible with what is already inside is really cheap right now. Might be harder to find as cheaply down the road.

It's pretty typical of these mass produced laptops that this is a CL22 stick. It can support up to 16GB per slot. The two RAM sticks don't have to be the same size, but unfortunately it doesn't support an 8GB+16GB configuration, so you'll have to get a 1x8GB to expand, or ditch the RAM inside and get a pair of 16GB sticks. For some reason most of Crucial's sticks aren't showing up on PC Part Picker, and the ones that do are only showing up in pairs. That isn't an issue though because you can buy directly from Crucial. Here's what you're after:

• ($47, 1x8GB) https://www.crucial.com/memory/ddr4/ct8g4sfra32a/ct18613224

It also carries a second m.2 slot for another m.2-2280 NVMe SSD for more game storage. Easily the best value right now:

• ($97, 1TB) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FT4J52Z
• ($181, 2TB) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FSXCFJG?th=1

 

[Dizzy]

Beast of a value. That's ~50% more powerful than your PS5. Unless you expanded to 16GB RAM in the configuration that's the first thing you'll want to upgrade. Bookmark this product support anchor page:
https://support.hp.com/ie-en/product/omen-15-en0000-laptop-pc-series/32827270/model/32827271/manuals

I can't find an exact specification confirmation, but it appears it runs a DDR4-3200 MHz stick. It will downclock this to DDR4-2933 in dual channel when you add a second stick, if it isn't already doing that, but you still very much want the second stick, because that stick's mere presence means it will be much, much faster than the single stick by itself at 3200. Furthermore, 8GB will be a pinch in a few years, and the RAM compatible with what is already inside is really cheap right now. Might be harder to find as cheaply down the road.

It's pretty typical of these mass produced laptops that this is a CL22 stick. It can support up to 16GB per slot. The two RAM sticks don't have to be the same size, but unfortunately it doesn't support an 8GB+16GB configuration, so you'll have to get a 1x8GB to expand, or ditch the RAM inside and get a pair of 16GB sticks. For some reason most of Crucial's sticks aren't showing up on PC Part Picker, and the ones that do are only showing up in pairs. That isn't an issue though because you can buy directly from Crucial. Here's what you're after:

• ($47, 1x8GB) https://www.crucial.com/memory/ddr4/ct8g4sfra32a/ct18613224

It also carries a second m.2 slot for another m.2-2280 NVMe SSD for more game storage. Easily the best value right now:

• ($97, 1TB) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FT4J52Z

Yeah I upped the memory to 16 GB. Seemed like a no brainer there. Figure that should hold me over for a while.

Thanks for the suggestions on the storage, I’ll definitely need to up it.

 

[Dizzy]

For couch gaming I decided to pick up the Corsair K63 with lapboard. Got a small deal on Newegg and got them bundled for about $150. Doesn’t sound like it’s the greatest keyboard but has decent reviews and it’s wireless and mechanical. Seems to overall be the best solution for using my tv as my monitor.

 

[Dizzy]

Picked this up this morning. My current laptop is in need of upgrading and this seemed like a good deal. Upgraded the ram and hard drive. I’ll probably use my LG C9 for a monitor.

Well, RIP

Deal was too good to be true. They cancelled my order and gave me a $50 coupon. Brings the price down to $1450. Still seems like a good deal.

Gotta say though I’m a bit salty as I have a lot of gear coming for this thing and now it’ll assuredly be delayed further.

Alienware is running a sale of 17% off right now which is the only reason I’m considering switching. It would be $1750 for this:



Is there any benefit to justify spending $300 more than the Omen?

Omen specs for comparison:

 

[jojoRed]

Well, RIP

Deal was too good to be true. They cancelled my order and gave me a $50 coupon. Brings the price down to $1450. Still seems like a good deal.

Gotta say though I’m a bit salty as I have a lot of gear coming for this thing and now it’ll assuredly be delayed further.

Alienware is running a sale of 17% off right now which is the only reason I’m considering switching. It would be $1750 for this:

View attachment 838088

Is there any benefit to justify spending $300 more than the Omen?

Omen specs for comparison:
View attachment 838091

Why are these specs so damn vague?

IIRC the AMD chip is better, and you get the faster ram with the Omen. Honestly get the Omen. Youre just paying a premium on the Alienware brand name for not much extra performance.

 

[Dizzy]

Why are these specs so damn vague?

IIRC the AMD chip is better, and you get the faster ram with the Omen. Honestly get the Omen. Youre just paying a premium on the Alienware brand name for not much extra performance.

Yeah everything I’ve seen shows the AMD outperforming the i7 in laptops. I figured it was just the Alienware premium but even at almost 20% it’s still $300 more and I can’t seem to find anything that justifies it.

 

[rob mafia]

Well, RIP

Deal was too good to be true. They cancelled my order and gave me a $50 coupon. Brings the price down to $1450. Still seems like a good deal.

Gotta say though I’m a bit salty as I have a lot of gear coming for this thing and now it’ll assuredly be delayed further.

Alienware is running a sale of 17% off right now which is the only reason I’m considering switching. It would be $1750 for this:

View attachment 838088

Is there any benefit to justify spending $300 more than the Omen?

Omen specs for comparison:
View attachment 838091

unless the alienware has one hell of an amazing screen, the omen blows it out of the water.