Is there anything better than this for the price?

[anoori9000]

Hi everyone,

I like the Acer Swift X: https://www.amazon.com/Acer-SFX14-41G-R1S6-Creator-LPDDR4X-Keyboard/dp/B093TK1PXF

It's small, portable, and has great specs. I will be doing scientific computing, programming, and maybe some simulations on this machine.

I want my next laptop to be below 3.5 lbs. Are there any other laptops out there that are better than this?

Thanks!

 

[JWNoctis]

Not exactly what you asked, but...

R7 5800U is a good choice for a processor, if small and light is a stronger requirement than raw performance. A full-power 5800H has much more thermal headroom, which may give you as much as 1.5x of the maximum all-core throughput.

LPDDR4X is fast, but I don't think those are user upgradable, so you may run into trouble if you needed more for your compute. Though it's rare for small laptops to have upgradable memory these days, in any case.

The same goes for your GPU and its VRAM. While the GPU itself is reasonably powerful for a small laptop, its power limit may reduce performance by a few tens of percent of what could be achieved, and even then you may encounter problems - mostly reduced performance - with overheating if any of your workload required large amount of power from both the GPU and the CPU at the same time.

That 4GB of VRAM might also be limiting, should any of those - especially simulations - needed more. I would recommend finding out how much you would routinely need first, if not already done. I've made that mistake before myself.

It's a great machine by the specs otherwise, at its price.