outstanding review.
this laptop is everything i've been holding out replacing my laptop for.
despite the hefty premium, this ticks every one of my boxes. especially compelling to me is that HH ran all of his testing @ native w/o dlss - which i wouldn't be using at this performance level anyway.
Is the X3D CCD boosting up to 5.4GHz? Jeebus... My NEW CPU already feels inadequate.
I’m quite sure that boost is only on the 8 cores with no access to the 3dv cache but i could be wrong as i haven’t read any in-depth review of the cpu.
@Hilbert Hagedoorn The thermal and temperatures page, the FLIR image is showing a Razer Laptop?
schmidtbag:
That is quite a hefty power draw, but considering the performance, it's actually quite good.
I often wonder what makes laptops with such power requirements desirable? Ultimately, they have to be used in a stationary environment whilst plugged and you're met with heat and noise. Of course when running on battery, these laptops run in low power modes but it kinda defeats the point of boasting such performance.
@Hilbert Hagedoorn I often wonder what makes laptops with such power requirements desirable? Ultimately, they have to be used in a stationary environment whilst plugged and you're met with heat and noise. Of course when running on battery, these laptops run in low power modes but it kinda defeats the point of boasting such performance.
Yeah, I don't really see the point of it neither. Best compromise personally is a laptop with a small power efficient discrete GPU and a very good cpu/ram/ssd to stream from your desktop to. I use my thinkpad P1 from work which comes with a T1000 quadro or use my steamdeck, money all went to my desktop pc.
Wowwww... its a little monster right? The question is: makes sense investing $ 3.500 in a laptop? To me, its better buy a nice $ 2.000 laptop and take the $ 1.500 to buy a new or upgrade your main desktop...
Nice system however I would have preferred it with 7600XT M or 7700S with 64GB LPDDR5X 7500Mhz ram instead the ultra expensive 4090 which is adding $2K to the final price.
Why, but why can't they make a laptop, which is like 5mm thicker, even >10mm, but much cooler and quieter?
This is a gaming laptop. They used to be thick and heavy for a reason. This reason prevails.
Fantastic CPU, makes massive sense to have an X3D CPU in a gaming laptop! As far as gaming laptops go though, I just think the whole gaming laptop thing is a waste of time - albeit at one point that was the only type of device I had - but of course if you must have mobile gaming, then it makes sense.
while i would probably spend half the money on a desktop + mobile unit, doesnt mean there is no use.
all those saying why, how about taking your desktop with you, not even talking about extras like moni etc?
how about taking it on a flight?
there are enough ppl doing travel for work, most in Mil/Defense/Tech sector i got to know want to "play" anytime to are "away from home" for more than a week,
not gonna happen on a desktop+laptop combo at same (total) cost.
and most of my customers with +2K laptops have kept them for +10y without any upgrades besides storage/OS,
so comparing it to me spending about 5-600$ evry year or two, isnt far away if you keep this for longer, and i doubt its gonna be "slow" in 10y..
I'm in the market for a new laptop, since i can't stand the awful 3050 and 60hz screen mine has.
I need it mostly for some gaming and mainly for trading sessions, but this one is a tech marvel so might buy a cheaper model of it.
while i would probably spend half the money on a desktop + mobile unit, doesnt mean there is no use.
all those saying why, how about taking your desktop with you, not even talking about extras like moni etc?
how about taking it on a flight?
there are enough ppl doing travel for work, most in Mil/Defense/Tech sector i got to know want to "play" anytime to are "away from home" for more than a week,
not gonna happen on a desktop+laptop combo at same (total) cost.
and most of my customers with +2K laptops have kept them for +10y without any upgrades besides storage/OS,
so comparing it to me spending about 5-600$ evry year or two, isnt far away if you keep this for longer, and i doubt its gonna be "slow" in 10y..
spot on
i'm in the tech sector, i travel a lot, and i game.
plus i make extended visits to aging relatives and i don't want to go mad from the boredom.
this laptop "has my name written on it" and to your other point the one i need to replace is a ROG Scar w/ a 2070 so i've definitely gotten my money out of it. i've upgraded my desktop twice in the same time frame.
while i would probably spend half the money on a desktop + mobile unit, doesnt mean there is no use.
all those saying why, how about taking your desktop with you, not even talking about extras like moni etc?
how about taking it on a flight?
there are enough ppl doing travel for work, most in Mil/Defense/Tech sector i got to know want to "play" anytime to are "away from home" for more than a week,
not gonna happen on a desktop+laptop combo at same (total) cost.
and most of my customers with +2K laptops have kept them for +10y without any upgrades besides storage/OS,
so comparing it to me spending about 5-600$ evry year or two, isnt far away if you keep this for longer, and i doubt its gonna be "slow" in 10y..
My main concerns with these high performance laptops are the concessions they present.
Weight, these are bulky heavy laptops, this particular model is 3KG and its power adaptor is 1KG too... Carrying 4kg around all the time isn't really good. This is mitigated of course if travelling in a car and you're only walking short distances.
Battery - if you want to use performance mode, the battery isn't going to last long, this thing can pull according to the charts, 267W (I wouldn't be surprised if it can go upto 300W), I think at 90wh battery, that's going to be 30minutes of gaming, 1 hour at best. In reduced performance modes whilst gaming, well anyone can guess. I imagine 1-2 hours. Truthfully, this is hard to mitigate, for gaming, it's going to need to be plugged in to get any decent gaming session, particularly for any taxing games.
Heat - the larger laptops are better for heat dissipation, but cooling upto 300W takes a lot of work. Look at any modern GPU, they've got massive heatsinks with 3 fans, more than a laptop can typically fit so to counter this, high speed fans are often used which leads us to the next issue
Noise - Small, high speed, high volume fans are used and as you saw in the charts, almost 50db. and these are those high pitch fans too, very noticeable, very annoying (I don't know any laptop gamers that don't use headphones to cut out the sound), I know very few that plug into external audio and fewer that rely on the laptop speakers (I don't blame them). This is all ok in a personal setting but the moment you go to a public area, it can bother other people.
Maintenance, repairs and upgrades - Unlike many of us here in G3D whom are willing to tinker with their hardware, most people that buy Laptops (I believe the majority of PC sales are laptops these days too) often don't get too involved with maintaining their hardware such as cleaning out fansinks. Add to this the difficulty in taking laptops apart for better access deters users from doing this, this also makes repairing harder, needing people to take their hardware to professionals (and even then some laptops are being designed in such a way that makes repairs unfeasible - looking at you Apple). Added to that, limited capability to upgrade laptops too, larger laptops you maybe able to upgrade ram and storage graphics? I'm not sure if mxm cards are still a thing? I know there are graphics card enclosures but it's not exactly good for mobile gaming in that instance. Many laptops these days are becoming sealed boxes of eventual e-waste so, this really depends on the knowledge of the end user.
As for upgrading in comparison to desktops and associated costs, too many factors to consider. A desktop you can upgrade almost anything and everything. Monitors, peripherals (of course you can buy additional peripherals and monitors for laptops too). Expand memory and storage easily on desktops, possibly on laptop if it has been built to allow it, cooling very easy to upgrade and expand in PC. If you only buy a PC and never upgrade it once and/or a laptop, then aside from initial costs, it's the utility that decides their purpose which most people choose a laptop for.
For me, for mobile pc gaming, the best choice I'm seeing now are the likes of the Steamdeck and other similar devices - laptops that are powerful but need plugging in, careful consideration of environment. And other points I raised just really make me question the point of them. It also doesn't help that as a previous owner of a premium laptop, I had reliability issues that required the laptop to be repaired 4 times. So for me, once bitten, twice shy. I'm very hesitant and sceptical of expensive high performance laptops.
I know this is all situational and others know ways around these issues I raise or even don't have issues, such as not being concerned with noise or heat or and find nothing wrong with plugging in etc, these are my personal preferences and so just my take on things.
Wow what a long post, sorry 😳 I guess I should say, thank you for coming to my TED talk 😎
My main concerns with these high performance laptops are the concessions they present.
Weight, these are bulky heavy laptops, this particular model is 3KG and its power adaptor is 1KG too... Carrying 4kg around all the time isn't really good. This is mitigated of course if travelling in a car and you're only walking short distances.
Battery - if you want to use performance mode, the battery isn't going to last long, this thing can pull according to the charts, 267W (I wouldn't be surprised if it can go upto 300W), I think at 90wh battery, that's going to be 30minutes of gaming, 1 hour at best. In reduced performance modes whilst gaming, well anyone can guess. I imagine 1-2 hours. Truthfully, this is hard to mitigate, for gaming, it's going to need to be plugged in to get any decent gaming session, particularly for any taxing games.
Heat - the larger laptops are better for heat dissipation, but cooling upto 300W takes a lot of work. Look at any modern GPU, they've got massive heatsinks with 3 fans, more than a laptop can typically fit so to counter this, high speed fans are often used which leads us to the next issue
Noise - Small, high speed, high volume fans are used and as you saw in the charts, almost 50db. and these are those high pitch fans too, very noticeable, very annoying (I don't know any laptop gamers that don't use headphones to cut out the sound), I know very few that plug into external audio and fewer that rely on the laptop speakers (I don't blame them). This is all ok in a personal setting but the moment you go to a public area, it can bother other people.
Maintenance, repairs and upgrades - Unlike many of us here in G3D whom are willing to tinker with their hardware, most people that buy Laptops (I believe the majority of PC sales are laptops these days too) often don't get too involved with maintaining their hardware such as cleaning out fansinks. Add to this the difficulty in taking laptops apart for better access deters users from doing this, this also makes repairing harder, needing people to take their hardware to professionals (and even then some laptops are being designed in such a way that makes repairs unfeasible - looking at you Apple). Added to that, limited capability to upgrade laptops too, larger laptops you maybe able to upgrade ram and storage graphics? I'm not sure if mxm cards are still a thing? I know there are graphics card enclosures but it's not exactly good for mobile gaming in that instance. Many laptops these days are becoming sealed boxes of eventual e-waste so, this really depends on the knowledge of the end user.
As for upgrading in comparison to desktops and associated costs, too many factors to consider. A desktop you can upgrade almost anything and everything. Monitors, peripherals (of course you can buy additional peripherals and monitors for laptops too). Expand memory and storage easily on desktops, possibly on laptop if it has been built to allow it, cooling very easy to upgrade and expand in PC. If you only buy a PC and never upgrade it once and/or a laptop, then aside from initial costs, it's the utility that decides their purpose which most people choose a laptop for.
For me, for mobile pc gaming, the best choice I'm seeing now are the likes of the Steamdeck and other similar devices - laptops that are powerful but need plugging in, careful consideration of environment. And other points I raised just really make me question the point of them. It also doesn't help that as a previous owner of a premium laptop, I had reliability issues that required the laptop to be repaired 4 times. So for me, once bitten, twice shy. I'm very hesitant and sceptical of expensive high performance laptops.
I know this is all situational and others know ways around these issues I raise or even don't have issues, such as not being concerned with noise or heat or and find nothing wrong with plugging in etc, these are my personal preferences and so just my take on things.
Wow what a long post, sorry 😳 I guess I should say, thank you for coming to my TED talk 😎
lol TED...
to each their own...
as for me i'm also a headphone geek so noise isn't an issue and i have very powerful power packs w/ USB C for +/- charging so i don't carry the matching AC adaptor which is heavier. on long flights i use my iPad and don't game, only gaming at arrivals. heat is fine as that's expected and not as bad as the desktop, although my desktop has that mitigated by a far larger dissipation factor (open loop).
also ROG laptops have had self cleaning fans for a bit now and honestly i've never had an issue with repairs with gaming laptops (have owned them since their existence) but maybe because as a tech nerd i respect my electronics more and don't do silly things with them around. as was said previously premium laptops generally aren't replaced as often as desktop solutions, through a combination of low power electronics, high cost, and versatile utility. i would be looking to hold onto this new laptop for at least 5-6 years while i upgrade my desktop every two years...
I often wonder what makes laptops with such power requirements desirable? Ultimately, they have to be used in a stationary environment whilst plugged and you're met with heat and noise. Of course when running on battery, these laptops run in low power modes but it kinda defeats the point of boasting such performance.