Buying a 4 core everyday laptop in 2021 is worth it?

[Elros]

I know for general use 4 core is more than enough. But my plan is to use this laptop until it serves me.

I will either choose i5 4 core cpu's 10th generation with MX350, or Ryzen 7 4500U or 4800 with vega graphics.

Since I play light gaming here and there(nothing too demanding), I assume MX350 is a must for me. But wouldn't ultrabooks with ryzen CPU last longer and price efficient?

Thanks.

 

[USAFRet]

You buy the device that meets your needs and budget.

"4 core" or "Eleventy billion threads" is mostly irrelevant.

 

[Elros]

You buy the device that meets your needs and budget.

"4 core" or "Eleventy billion threads" is mostly irrelevant.

This is the second time you are responding without reading it.
Don't do it.

I'm asking, which one makes more sense, a laptop with dedicated GPU with outdated CPU, or a laptop with a fresh possibly future-proof CPU(ryzen 7 4800H is really powerful) but with no dgpu.
They cost the same.

 

[punkncat]

If it's something you are serious about you likely want to take a look through the "simple gaming" titles you are considering playing on this machine and see what minimum spec is as opposed to your expectation.

I have a 4c/8t 8th gen i5 laptop that is by far powerful enough to do any productivity tasks that I do with it, surf, watch video, stream to the TV, such as that. It will not game anything better than Warhammer Soulstorm or the like, and even at that would be throttling due to design/heat.
I have an R5 based laptop that is technically well less powerful than the i5, but it's integrated graphics do a decent job with titles of the like, above.

Battery management could be important to you as well. More powerful rigs with GPU and such will last less time off the plug.

 

[USAFRet]

If the Vega graphics supports your gaming, then that one.
Of course, this kills the "future proof" concept for upcoming gaming. Games in the future will generally need more GPU performance.

 

[Elros]

If it's something you are serious about you likely want to take a look through the "simple gaming" titles you are considering playing on this machine and see what minimum spec is as opposed to your expectation.

I have a 4c/8t 8th gen i5 laptop that is by far powerful enough to do any productivity tasks that I do with it, surf, watch video, stream to the TV, such as that. It will not game anything better than Warhammer Soulstorm or the like, and even at that would be throttling due to design/heat.
I have an R5 based laptop that is technically well less powerful than the i5, but it's integrated graphics do a decent job with titles of the like, above.

Battery management could be important to you as well. More powerful rigs with GPU and such will last less time off the plug.

Some isometric games, cs go and etc. Nothing really too demanding. I have a laptop with intel 620 and it's not enough. Mx350 as far as it seems, will be fine for me. I have xbox series X for gaming.

Ahh. That makes sense. So 8 cores would be total overkill for an ultrabook. The thing is, I have a laptop with 2 cores and it's extremely outdated. I can feel it's slow even with extra ram and SSD, so I'm afraid if 4 core cpu's will be the same in 2-3 years considering that AMD literally obliterated the business.

 

[Elros]

If the Vega graphics supports your gaming, then that one.
Of course, this kills the "future proof" concept for upcoming gaming. Games in the future will generally need more GPU performance.

Thanks..

 

[punkncat]

If the Vega graphics supports your gaming, then that one.
Of course, this kills the "future proof" concept for upcoming gaming. Games in the future will generally need more GPU performance.

Yes.

I feel like the performance gain seen with the3000 series of GPU, and the promise that games like Cyberpunk have shown that the "status quo" for future proof is about to be turned on it's head. This is the "will it run Crysis" of the new generation.
Thinking that we are going to see what has been the norm for acceptable gaming performance being fractured into even more levels. Maybe people will call it AAAA gaming? lol.

 

[geofelt]

What is the exact cpu you are looking at?
I5 may be 4 cores, but with 8 threads.

No telling how long a laptop will "last"
That depends on what YOUR future needs will be.
You are a better estimator of that than this forum.

For the most part, I think that a ssd is the first requirement for good laptop performance.
Cheaper 5400 rpm drives don't cut it.
Fortunately, they can be replaced.

Ditto on ram. You should want 16gb.

One buys a laptop for portability. Otherwise money is better spent on a desktop.

On gaming laptops, be careful. I see too many complaints about cpu throttling on "gaming" laptops.
The reason is that laptop coolers need to be small and light.
They are not particularly efficient.

I think you are ok from a graphics point of view with either MX350 or 4800H graphics.
Passmark ratings of 2972 or 2371 respectively.
Graphics can not be upgraded on a laptop.
If gaming is important, something like 1660ti maxQ with a rating of 8547 might be in order.

On the processor side, you also will not be able to upgrade.
For any candidates, look up the passmark ratings.
That will tell you the number of cores and threads.
Along with an overall rating which applies when all threads are 100% busy.
For most games, the single thread rating will be most relevant.
I don't think there are any 10th gen mobile processors without at least 4 cores and 8 threads.
i3/i5 no longer means what it used to.

 

[Elros]

What is the exact cpu you are looking at?
I5 may be 4 cores, but with 8 threads.

No telling how long a laptop will "last"
That depends on what YOUR future needs will be.
You are a better estimator of that than this forum.

For the most part, I think that a ssd is the first requirement for good laptop performance.
Cheaper 5400 rpm drives don't cut it.
Fortunately, they can be replaced.

Ditto on ram. You should want 16gb.

One buys a laptop for portability. Otherwise money is better spent on a desktop.

On gaming laptops, be careful. I see too many complaints about cpu throttling on "gaming" laptops.
The reason is that laptop coolers need to be small and light.
They are not particularly efficient.

I think you are ok from a graphics point of view with either MX350 or 4800H graphics.
Passmark ratings of 2972 or 2371 respectively.
Graphics can not be upgraded on a laptop.
If gaming is important, something like 1660ti maxQ with a rating of 8547 might be in order.

On the processor side, you also will not be able to upgrade.
For any candidates, look up the passmark ratings.
That will tell you the number of cores and threads.
Along with an overall rating which applies when all threads are 100% busy.
For most games, the single thread rating will be most relevant.
I don't think there are any 10th gen mobile processors without at least 4 cores and 8 threads.
i3/i5 no longer means what it used to.

I'm aware of SSD and Rams.
I just am curious if I should go with MX350 with 10th gen 4 core intel cpu's or ryzen vega with 6 core newer cpu's.
I already have a gaming laptop with RTX2060, I want to get rid of it.

 

[geofelt]

What exactly are the intel and ryzen candidates?

Why are you getting rid of the laptop with the RTX2060?

Most games are graphics limited and not so much cpu limited.
Also, few games can make effective use of more than 4 -6 threads.

Here is an older study on that:

Report: Despite Claims, Most PC Games Are Still Unable To Take Advantage Of More Than 4 CPU Cores

Well, you gotta love developers. This past year, we’ve been hearing from a lot of teams that their games were taking advantage of more than four CPU cores. And you know what? We decided to put a lot of CPU-bound games to the test. The results are a bit disheartening – to say the least – …...

www.dsogaming.com

 

[Elros]

What exactly are the intel and ryzen candidates?

Why are you getting rid of the laptop with the RTX2060?

Most games are graphics limited and not so much cpu limited.
Also, few games can make effective use of more than 4 -6 threads.

Here is an older study on that:

Report: Despite Claims, Most PC Games Are Still Unable To Take Advantage Of More Than 4 CPU Cores

Well, you gotta love developers. This past year, we’ve been hearing from a lot of teams that their games were taking advantage of more than four CPU cores. And you know what? We decided to put a lot of CPU-bound games to the test. The results are a bit disheartening – to say the least – …...

www.dsogaming.com

For example at the moment I am looking between these two cheap laptops:
Acer Laptop Aspire 5 A515-56-56DJ Intel Core i5 11th Gen 1135G7 (2.40 GHz) 8 GB Memory 512 GB NVMe SSD Intel Iris Xe Graphics 15.6" Windows 10 Home 64-bit - Newegg.com
ASUS VivoBook 15 F513 Thin and Light Laptop, 15.6" FHD Display, AMD Ryzen 7 4700U CPU, 16 GB DDR4 RAM, 512 GB PCIe SSD, Windows 10 Home, Bespoke Black, F513IA-NH77 - Newegg.com

So candidates are,

I5 1135G7 vs Ryzen 7 4700U.

Folks say that the Asus laptop has terrible thermals and the CPU runs on 80C* while web browsing. But it is very powerful and well worth in terms of price/performance efficiency.
And others say that XE graphics has way better performance than Radeon graphics and since single-core performance is better than ryzen, solid gaming performance too. Of course, it won't perform anywhere near 1650, but as far as I can see, it is very close to 1050 laptop performance. Will run all the games I want to play on 1080p high settings. (Pillars of eternity 2, CS GO, etc)

Why do I want to get rid of it?
I already have Xbox Series X, so I find gaming on this laptop pointless.
I was looking for a laptop and am a gamer, so told myself, why not buy a gaming laptop. MSI GL65 with i7 10k. But found out that I bought a monster truck just to drive to the grocery store. It's heavy, loud, and not portable. Battery life is terrible too. Of course, I knew all about these cons, nevertheless, I wanted to give it a try.

 

[geofelt]

Apparently, the xe graphics is the real deal.
Here is a review:
https://www.pcmag.com/news/intels-iris-xe-graphics-preview-is-real-gaming-power-in-reach-for-thin

On the processor side, they are comparable.
Slight edge to stronger single thread performance for Intel.
Looking at the specs of what you listed, the acer has only 8gb of ram, you would want to bump that up to 16gb.

One item of concern is the brightness of the asus display at 200nits.
My recollection is that a good display should be twice that.
See if you can't find reviews in some detail on both.