Laptop upgrade- are my standards too high?

[Chapap]

My current short list is below. Both are the same computer, but one is Intel and the other is AMD.
My requirements are: 4k, dedicated graphics, 16gb ram, and better than what I have now cause it’s old (cause that’s how it’s supposed to work).

Both of these have an RTX3050. One is i7 11th gen, and one is AMD 7 5800.

ASUS VivoBook Pro 16X OLED Slim Laptop, 16" WQUXGA 16:10 Display, AMD Ryzen 7 5800H CPU, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Windows 11 Home, 0°Black, M7600QE-DB74 - Newegg.com

Buy ASUS VivoBook Pro 16X OLED Slim Laptop, 16" WQUXGA 16:10 Display, AMD Ryzen 7 5800H CPU, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Windows 11 Home, 0°Black, M7600QE-DB74 with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

ASUS VivoBook Pro 16X OLED Laptop, 16" WQUXGA 16:10 Display, Intel Core i7-11370H CPU, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Windows 11 Pro, DialPad, Comet Grey, N7600PC-NB74 - Newegg.com

Buy ASUS VivoBook Pro 16X OLED Laptop, 16" WQUXGA 16:10 Display, Intel Core i7-11370H CPU, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Windows 11 Pro, DialPad, Comet Grey, N7600PC-NB74 with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

My current machine is 9 years old with a 6th gen i5 and a GTX of some variety (half life 2 can run on max, but that’s kinda where the limit is). It’s a dell that’s been buggy since day 1 and that kinda turned me off of dell. Asus and Lenovo are preferred, but my requirements really narrowed it to Asus (and MSI but their hardware has a bad rep). I want to be able to play games on decent settings and do some work. Computers are something that I ought to be excited about, but I just can’t get into it. I find it a taxing thing to learn about. I have spent a few hours trying to decide between AMD and Intel but just can’t differentiate the two. There’s all the benchmarks, threads, graphs, numbers, then I get super overwhelmed and bored with it.

I’m wanting the computer version of a v6 Camaro. Don’t need a hellcat but want more than a Civic SI. I have no idea how this graphics card ranks. I have no idea about the difference to the user between an old i5 or a new i9. Really once computers got to quad core, I lost interest.

Edit: I don’t do any video/photo editing. That seems to be mentioned everywhere. I do some complex, large excel stuff tho. I’d also note that 16gb ram is new to me. Last I was in the game, 8gb was a lot.

 

[mikkelstuff]

Have you considered a Macbook Pro or Macbook Air? Very good used models are available from MacOfAllTrades, OWC, and Amazon. 'Course I'm strictly a happy Apple user.

 

[Chapap]

Have you considered a Macbook Pro or Macbook Air? Very good used models are available from MacOfAllTrades, OWC, and Amazon. 'Course I'm strictly a happy Apple user.

Not really. My wife has a Mac of some variety and it’s just so different. There’s a bit of a learning curve to make the transition, tho I haven’t put forth much effort. I really need excel and some other MS stuff. I just don’t see much value in a switch. Apple isn’t supposed to be game friendly either. I do love my iPhone tho.

 

[Chapap]

If anyone is curious, I kinda have an answer. I looked up the two cpus like this “cpu a vs cpu b” and found several sites that had all the nerd tests done. Those results don’t mean much to me, but they also interpret the results.

Ryzen 7 5800H vs Core i7-11370H CPU Comparison

Compare AMD Ryzen 7 Mobile 8 core CPU vs Intel 11th Generation Core i7 4 core processor, specs and benchmark score. Which is the better CPU for gaming?

www.hardwaredb.net

AMD Ryzen 7 5800H vs Intel Core i7-11370H: What is the difference?

What is the difference between Intel Core i7-11370H and AMD Ryzen 7 5800H? Find out which is better and their overall performance in the CPU ranking.

versus.com

I still don’t know how good of a cpu I need. My current guess is that these things are so fast now that even the budget computers are indistinguishable from the super-deluxe ones for the average person. It seems that the only folks who need to care about the cpu are super intense video and photo editors.

To put it in numbers, a $400 machine seems to be equal to a $2000 machine. The $2000 machine may be 4x faster, but that means zilch when you’re measuring in milliseconds for an operation to finish. Video editors can be waiting hours. Do I have the right idea?

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

If anyone is curious, I kinda have an answer. I looked up the two cpus like this “cpu a vs cpu b” and found several sites that had all the nerd tests done. Those results don’t mean much to me, but they also interpret the results.

Ryzen 7 5800H vs Core i7-11370H CPU Comparison

Compare AMD Ryzen 7 Mobile 8 core CPU vs Intel 11th Generation Core i7 4 core processor, specs and benchmark score. Which is the better CPU for gaming?

www.hardwaredb.net

AMD Ryzen 7 5800H vs Intel Core i7-11370H: What is the difference?

What is the difference between Intel Core i7-11370H and AMD Ryzen 7 5800H? Find out which is better and their overall performance in the CPU ranking.

versus.com

I still don’t know how good of a cpu I need. My current guess is that these things are so fast now that even the budget computers are indistinguishable from the super-deluxe ones for the average person. It seems that the only folks who need to care about the cpu are super intense video and photo editors.

To put it in numbers, a $400 machine seems to be equal to a $2000 machine. The $2000 machine may be 4x faster, but that means zilch when you’re measuring in milliseconds for an operation to finish. Video editors can be waiting hours. Do I have the right idea?

I believe so. If you play games you would want to look at GPU as well, and how easy it is to install drivers.

 

[superj]

i am in the same boat. i need to replace my old laptop but i need it to run zwift better than the one i have. i want something inexpensive since it will be basically only used for zwifting.

 

[Chapap]

i am in the same boat. i need to replace my old laptop but i need it to run zwift better than the one i have. i want something inexpensive since it will be basically only used for zwifting.

That looks like it’s basically a game. It probably needs a dedicated graphics card. Id bet any fairly modern Nvidia GTX series would do. Maybe not an MX but I really have no clue. For processor, I go back to my original thought. Anything modern ought to do. By looking at screenshots, it looks like my 6th gen i5 with a lower line GTX (lower line for 10 years ago that is) would be able to handle it just fine.

If you’re going to hook it up to a tv, prob cheaper to get a tower.

 

[4x4prepper]

Buy a chip or motherboard with embedded graphics, then add a video card that supports two monitors to be used exclusively for gaming. Use your 1st monitor for the built in graphics and the 2nd and 3rd monitor for accelerated graphics for playing games. I know when rendering long videos using Kdenlive it will not use your hardware card if it is used for your main monitor, though it will allow you to specific how many threads.

I have not run Windows on my own computers for 10+ years, so, I would suggest you look at cards that are known to work with your favorite games and current operating system. In the Linux world, AMD seems to be much more responsive for drivers. If you really like playing games, I would suggest planning for a audio card. With the new MIDI standard you are bound to see new options for game related play.

 

[fastpakr]

That looks like it’s basically a game. It probably needs a dedicated graphics card. Id bet any fairly modern Nvidia GTX series would do. Maybe not an MX but I really have no clue. For processor, I go back to my original thought. Anything modern ought to do. By looking at screenshots, it looks like my 6th gen i5 with a lower line GTX (lower line for 10 years ago that is) would be able to handle it just fine.

If you’re going to hook it up to a tv, prob cheaper to get a tower.

Zwift can definitely scale down to run on pretty much anything. I've got it on an ancient i5 (I don't remember the generation at the moment) with a 1060 3GB and it runs great.

 

[Chapap]

I settled on the Ryzen 7 model. This question was a bit moot because 4k + dedicated graphics yielded a price floor of like 1200. This is best bang for the buck I think. The screen is quite wonderful. Really I think the answer to this question is anything 10th gen or better (and AMD’s equivalents) is more than fast enough for most everyone. That’s starts around 500 (minus video card) for a nice machine, and probably can get to low 400.

I put a list together for work computer recommendations and settled on an 11th gen i5, 16G Ram, half TB SSD Lenovo or asus. I think 600. It was a bit nicer than the $1000 machine that the completely computer illiterate folks who were tasked with finding something.