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[martinuzz]

My laptop is getting close to being 9 years old, and it's about time I get a new one.I've been eyeballing 2 laptops at Mediamarket, both are exactly the same price (1299 euros).

One is the ASUS ROG Strix GL531GT, featuring an i7-9750H, 16GiB RAM, 512GiB SSD + 1Tb harddrive and a ASUS GeForce 1650 (4GiB),the other one is a HP Omen 15-DC1621, with the same specs except for the GPU, which is the GeForce RTX 2060 (6GiB).

Now I have been a loyal Asus user for 20 years, their laptops are VERY durable.But I am unsure now... The HP has a newer, higher end GPU.

What's the caveat? Is there a reason I should still get an ASUS for the same price with inferior GPU or is HP just as good and durable a brand?

[wierd]

I would look at customer reviews.

[martinuzz]

I would, but there are barely any and those that are there are good for both machines

[methylatedspirit]

I know you didn't ask, but I think it's worth mentioning that a laptop GTX 1650 will do quite nicely (somewhere around ~40-60 FPS) in newer games at 1080p Medium/High, but it might struggle at Ultra, or at higher resolutions. Granted, my laptop has an i5-9300H instead of an i7-9750H, so I have no clue if the CPU is bottlenecking the GPU. I still think it's decent for the time being, so if durability is your #1 concern, the ASUS might be a good choice.

I'm thinking, though, if you use laptops for that long, I'm thinking that it might be worth it to get the HP because it's more futureproofed in GPU terms than the ASUS. Depends on how graphically-intensive the games you play tend to be. Can't say much about the HP's durability, though; I never had one.

[nenjin]

HP products are garbage. Just my two cents.

[wierd]

I have heard this as well, for anything outside of enterprise products.

Enterprise storage solutions are considered "okay ish", and enterprise printers are "Okay ish".

Consumer products division is unholy-- that's what I have heard anyway.

[martinuzz]

Okay.  Thanks for the advice.
I will probably stick with ASUS then..
Unless.. There's also an MSI GL65 9SD on sale, down from 1349 to 1199. It has the same i7, also 16GiB RAM, a smaller SSD (256GiB), same HDD, and a GeForce GTX 1660 Ti (6GiB), which I believe is quite a bit better than the 1650.
Again, no experience with the brand though.. MSI any good?

[nenjin]

I've always had good luck with MSI as a manufacturer. But that was usually in the realm of motherboard and I think? graphics cards back in the day. No idea about an entire laptop.

[BigD145]

Lenovo's are better than ASUS by a margin. You want at least a GTX 1660. That said, the mobile versions of Ryzen 2nd gen are out right around now. Wait a month or two for more companies to produce them.

[Iduno]

Any reason it has to be a laptop, instead of a desktop?

[martinuzz]

I know... Upgradability...
I tried virtually building a desktop rig at a computer store site, but, even without the added cost of a monitor, which I don't have, and the added costs of having it assembled, I don't seem to be able to stay below the price of a similarily specced laptop, at least if I want an i7-9xxx, 16GiB RAM, SSD and at least a Geforce 1660.

And I couldn't find any decent pre-built desktops in my price range either.

[methylatedspirit]

Keep in mind that laptop CPUs and GPUs are usually lower-powered than their desktop counterparts. The CPUs almost always have fewer cores (for the i7-9750H, 6 cores instead of the standard 8) than their desktop versions.

Also, depending on the cooling of the laptop, they might not be able to reach their full potential because they get thermal-throttled because it can't dissipate enough heat. The manufacturers might design the cooling based on the 45 W TDP figure that Intel gives for the i7-9750H (like Lenovo did for my laptop), yet they can absolutely generate more heat than that. Check reviews, if they are available.

[martinuzz]

There is one pre-built lenovo desktop that has everything except an i7, even a Geforce 2060. But it's an i5-9400F.
It's on sale from 1199 for 1099, so I could even afford a monitor beside it.

How big of a difference is there for gaming between an i7 and an i5? 


I am not much of a FPS player, I mostly play games that - how shall I say - , slow down to a crawl once you get more and more going on / games that have a high simulation load, like dwarf fortress, or for example, Cities:Skylines, Space Engineers (which I bought years ago and never play because I am waiting for a rig that can handle it haha, dito for Elite: Dangerous), 4X games, tower defense games like Gemcraft or Creeper World.
I'd imagine that for games with a high simulation load, the CPU is just as important if not moreso than the GPU, so I am not sure if an i5 would suit my needs.
Plus, if I understand correctly, a GPU is easier to replace and upgrade than a CPU, or am I wrong?
If someone who is more versed in computer logic than I am could enlighten me on that subject, I'd be much obliged.

[BigD145]

A GPU is generally easier to replace because it's fitted in a common slot (with some speed differences) and those slots don't change very often. CPU's, especially Intel, get a new socket (completely different physical pin arrangements) every friggin generation. Ryzen/AMD has been a lot better about this. The Core i sockets are a mess https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPU_socket

An i5 has been okay for me running Space Engineers. Not great, but okay. I can build bases on multiple planets along with some fairly sophisticated ships. When first arriving within the 1-2km range where your physics bubble starts to hit ships you left behind, there's some chug. Half a dozen 1-5 thousand block ships are okay if you're close enough to them. Eventually it starts to hiccup continually because there are memory leaks. I could get tens of hours in before this might happen.

I did change to a Ryzen 5 3600x recently. My Core i5 was a 3570 (2012). The newer Intel ones were a ~5% gain and I was going to end up with a new motherboard anyway so I abandoned Intel for now. This should give me a 30%+ gain. I have not done any serious comparisons with Space Engineers. I'm also going from a 1060ti to a 1660 Super GPU for 25%+ gains there.

My 8 year old CPU is still worth almost its original value because there has been almost no reason to upgrade sideways. https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i5-3570K-vs-AMD-Ryzen-5-3600X/1316vs4041  I would have had to buy an old i7 for almost the price of a new generation i7 just to be able to reuse my motherboard.


tldr: Some CPU intensive games are also GPU intensive. A $1000 ish dollar laptop for games will have a 2 hour battery life for the first year or two and you can't upgrade anything except RAM. An equivalent desktop will run $700 or so not including monitor.

PS this is a terrible time to buy parts because everyone wants a midrange computer for working at home.

PPS this is not an uncomplicated conversation. Everyone has different needs and good quality parts are restocking inconsistently right now.

[methylatedspirit]

A $1000 ish dollar laptop for games will have a 2 hour battery life for the first year or two

To elaborate on their point: Gaming laptops generally have small batteries (around ~60Wh or less), and they don't perform at their best on battery. The battery is a complete afterthought; it's there so that it qualifies as a laptop. They're more a portable desktop/all-in-one than a laptop, and they have the power-inefficiency to boot.