PC Sherdog Gaming Laptop & Review Thread (OP Updated Apr-2019)

[Your Salad]

Honestly for a laptop, I would undervolt before over-clocking. While you could gain some extra performance, these 13th gen chips are already pushing their TDP close to the limit.

Thanks for the reply.
Would undervolting potentially increase performance? Or is it just something you do to reduce the heavy load put on the CPU so it will potentially last longer?
I'm not having any issues with heat right now, in fact I'm not having any issues at all with my computer.
I guess I was curious if there was a painless and risk free way to squeeze a little more performance from what I have under the hood in my rig using the simple interface included in the pre installed software that came with the laptop.

 

[avenue94]

Thanks for the reply.
Would undervolting potentially increase performance? Or is it just something you do to reduce the heavy load put on the CPU so it will potentially last longer?
I'm not having any issues with heat right now, in fact I'm not having any issues at all with my computer.
I guess I was curious if there was a painless and risk free way to squeeze a little more performance from what I have under the hood in my rig using the simple interface included in the pre installed software that came with the laptop.

It's for battery life. The CPU isn't really required for most tasks, even a lot of gaming. Boosting the CPU is essentially more power usage for a minimal performance increase in most use cases.

 

[Your Salad]

It's for battery life. The CPU isn't really required for most tasks, even a lot of gaming. Boosting the CPU is essentially more power usage for a minimal performance increase in most use cases.

Forgive me for being naive.
Undervolting the CPU reduces heat and stress in that component, and most games don't use said CPU to its max? So undervolting would cool things down so I could crank my GPU up and not run into thermal issues?
Edit: I also don't care about battery life one bit, its always going to be plugged in for gaming.

 

[Blayt7hh]

Is a 4070 overkill for a laptop ?

In what way?

Are you looking at getting a gaming laptop? I’ve had quite a few over the last decade and I would tell you first and foremost that you should only get one if you have a specific need for it- such as you travel a lot

I will leave the detailed analysis to the experts ITT, but my anecdotal experience is that when you pair a high end processor and video card (one's not much good without the other I think) and put them in a laptop, they generate far too much heat. Far far too much. That really shortens the life of your hardware. I have to use one of those laptop cooler things to do anything remotely demanding.

Now, I sometimes say, anecdotes aren't worth a fuck, so take the above FWIW, but I won't be buying such a thing* again when I can get one for much less that will last far longer, all things being equal in terms of product quality and so on.


*the one I have now

You probably don’t NEED to put it on a cooler. Most of them are designed to run fine under those conditions. I would say it’s wise too though and always recommend it

Forgive me for being naive.
Undervolting the CPU reduces heat and stress in that component, and most games don't use said CPU to its max? So undervolting would cool things down so I could crank my GPU up and not run into thermal issues?
Edit: I also don't care about battery life one bit, its always going to be plugged in for gaming.

Sounds like it could in theory. Or if nothing else maybe reduce some heat you’re generating. You may have software that’s already doing that though. What kind of laptop do you have?

 

[Slobodan]

Thanks for the reply.
Would undervolting potentially increase performance? Or is it just something you do to reduce the heavy load put on the CPU so it will potentially last longer?
I'm not having any issues with heat right now, in fact I'm not having any issues at all with my computer.
I guess I was curious if there was a painless and risk free way to squeeze a little more performance from what I have under the hood in my rig using the simple interface included in the pre installed software that came with the laptop.

Less heat can lead to less throttling and higher sustained clocks so it can definitely result in extra performance.

Modern CPUs are already tuned so close to their limit which is why I mentioned undervolting being more beneficial.

When I had my Ryzen 5800X, I used PBO (precision boost overdrive) which is AMD's method of undervolting, and it resulted in lower temps and higher sustained clocks which led to more performance. You will have to do stability testing to ensure you can run even if the laptop has softrware that does it automatically because it's not always guaranteed imo.

You're still subject to silicon lottery so there's no guarantee you can undervolt as well as someone else, you could get really unlucky and be unable to undervolt all that much, you just have to test it out. The stock voltagers are cranked up to ensure as many chips as possible can pass manufacturing instead of being thrown out or downgraded to a lower tier CPU/GPU.

 

[Your Salad]

Sounds like it could in theory. Or if nothing else maybe reduce some heat you’re generating. You may have software that’s already doing that though. What kind of laptop do you have?

Its an Asus Rog Strix G18 with an NVIDIA 4080 and a Intel I9 13980hx.
Has 3 fans and Im not having any heat throttling problems.
I love it and Im thinking I should just leave good enough alone after the replies ITT.

 

[Slobodan]

Its an Asus Rog Strix G18 with an NVIDIA 4080 and a Intel I9 13980hx.
Has 3 fans and Im not having any heat throttling problems.
I love it and Im thinking I should just leave good enough alone after the replies ITT.

Yeah I would leave it alone tbh, especially as you're not having any heating issues.

 

[avenue94]

Its an Asus Rog Strix G18 with an NVIDIA 4080 and a Intel I9 13980hx.
Has 3 fans and Im not having any heat throttling problems.
I love it and Im thinking I should just leave good enough alone after the replies ITT.

Yeah, if you're happy, by all means. Most PCs at this point are at least "good enough" stock. Most of the advice is for a little extra longevity and other stuff on the margins.

 

[Your Salad]

Yeah, if you're happy, by all means. Most PCs at this point are at least "good enough" stock. Most of the advice is for a little extra longevity and other stuff on the margins.

It's definitely better than good enough for me.
Im just going to keep cleaning the fans monthly (damn you dusty and hairy pets) as they are easily accessible.
My last laptop I couldn't get to the fans without performing open heart surgery on the damn thing so things got dirty and it started to throttle every couple of months towards the end and it cost me 50 dollars a pop to have the local computer repair shop do it.

 

[sverre054]

https://www.costco.com/lenovo-legion-pro-5i-16%22-gaming-laptop---13th-gen-intel-core-i9-13900hx---geforce-rtx-4060---165hz-2560-x-1600.product.4000209385.html

Is this a decent deal?

I'm looking for a new Laptop. Doesn't have to be a gaming one, but I like the looks, and they seem to be built a little more sturdily. Any recommendations on a sturdy Laptop? I don't need a Toughbook or anything, but I travel to rural Alaska, and bags can get thrown around in Sea Planes or jet boats. Prefer to buy from Costco do to, return and warranty policy but open to other places if they have deals. Looking to spend 700-1200 if that's a realistic budget.

 

[Madmick]

https://www.costco.com/lenovo-legion-pro-5i-16%22-gaming-laptop---13th-gen-intel-core-i9-13900hx---geforce-rtx-4060---165hz-2560-x-1600.product.4000209385.html

Is this a decent deal?

I'm looking for a new Laptop. Doesn't have to be a gaming one, but I like the looks, and they seem to be built a little more sturdily. Any recommendations on a sturdy Laptop? I don't need a Toughbook or anything, but I travel to rural Alaska, and bags can get thrown around in Sea Planes or jet boats. Prefer to buy from Costco do to, return and warranty policy but open to other places if they have deals. Looking to spend 700-1200 if that's a realistic budget.

The Lenovo Legions are well built among gaming laptops. Maybe the one concern is the 13900HX. That's an incredibly powerful laptop CPU, but also one that produces a lot of heat. The temp readouts from this review are higher than I would recommend for a purchase (the reviewed variant here is the same model but with the RTX 4070 Mobile GPU):

Lenovo Legion Pro 5i review (gen 8 - Core i9, RTX 4070)

Lenovo offers this series in multiple other configurations as well. Here's a follow-up review on the mainstream Core i7-13700HX + RTX 4060 version of the

www.ultrabookreview.com

 

[sverre054]

The Lenovo Legions are well built among gaming laptops. Maybe the one concern is the 13900HX. That's an incredibly powerful laptop CPU, but also one that produces a lot of heat. The temp readouts from this review are higher than I would recommend for a purchase (the reviewed variant here is the same model but with the RTX 4070 Mobile GPU):

Lenovo Legion Pro 5i review (gen 8 - Core i9, RTX 4070)

Lenovo offers this series in multiple other configurations as well. Here's a follow-up review on the mainstream Core i7-13700HX + RTX 4060 version of the

www.ultrabookreview.com

Thank you sir. Any opinion on MSI laptops? They have a few of them at Costco with similar specs to the lenovo

 

[Madmick]

Thank you sir. Any opinion on MSI laptops? They have a few of them at Costco with similar specs to the lenovo

No gaming laptops are built truly "rugged", like the Toughbook you mentioned, and I don't think any from Costco there have all-metal uniframe bodies, which would be the next best thing, like the Razer Blades, but you can try googling around. Any laptops like the Razer Blade will be above your desired price range, though. Those metal uniframe bodies are pricey.

I think that MSI Katana with the R7-8845HS processor makes way more sense for a laptop. That CPU averaged 74 watts power consumption in Notebookcheck's Prime95 test compared to 173 watts for the i9-13900HX. In your price range there is also the HP Victus with the i7-13700H. That i7-13700H runs much cooler than the 13900HX: it averaged pulling 88W in Notebookcheck's test. Spec-wise the HP is the better deal because it carries the 4070 instead of the 4060, and for $100 less.

Notebookcheck itself has reviewed that Victus unit. FYI, 85% is a solid score from them. The very best units usually only get 92% or 93% (right now the highest scoring gaming laptop is the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 2024 with 93%). However, once again, this laptop runs warmer than is ideal:

https://www.notebookcheck.net/HP-Victus-16-laptop-review-Full-HD-gamer-with-RTX-4070.755620.0.html

They don't have a review for the Katana, only external reviews linked for the sister "E" variant from the same model series (the E variant carries the RTX 4050 while the F variant you see at Costco has the 4060). These are 2023 Katanas:

MSI Katana 15 AI B8VE

This page provides reviews and other infos about the MSI Katana 15 AI B8VE of the series Katana 15 2024 laptop.

www.notebookcheck.net

Tom's Hardware also did a review of a similar Katana unit, but from a different CPU series, in the same year's larger lineup (2023). It performed well:

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/msi-katana-15

Either seem like a respectable option.

 

[avenue94]

I'm looking for a new Laptop. Doesn't have to be a gaming one, but I like the looks, and they seem to be built a little more sturdily. Any recommendations on a sturdy Laptop? I don't need a Toughbook or anything, but I travel to rural Alaska, and bags can get thrown around in Sea Planes or jet boats. Prefer to buy from Costco do to, return and warranty policy but open to other places if they have deals. Looking to spend 700-1200 if that's a realistic budget.

As Madmick said, a 13900HX is a bit overkill for a midrange gaming laptop. Best Buy will have better deals and selection for gaming notebooks, especially given they have exclusivity on a lot of HP Omens and have Lenovo Loq placements (budget version of Legion).

My travel laptop is one of the older ROG G14s, I like it but it might be a bit small for most people's taste.

If you are good with a non-gaming laptop, Best Buy has the newest HP Spectre and they'll be adding about two dozen more new notebooks this month (they just started their 2024 refresh).

Those metal uniframe bodies are pricey.

Any recommendations on a sturdy Laptop?

Asus switched to metal chassis this year for the G14, and its starting config is right outside of your price range (it will get discounted pretty quick, processor manufactures are heavily subsidizing NPU chipsets this year).

Best Buy should get that in by June or July, if you are willing to wait. They'll start discounting 2022 and 2023 models around then.

 

[sverre054]

No gaming laptops are built truly "rugged", like the Toughbook you mentioned, and I don't think any from Costco there have all-metal uniframe bodies, which would be the next best thing, like the Razer Blades, but you can try googling around. Any laptops like the Razer Blade will be above your desired price range, though. Those metal uniframe bodies are pricey.

I think that MSI Katana with the R7-8845HS processor makes way more sense for a laptop. That CPU averaged 74 watts power consumption in Notebookcheck's Prime95 test compared to 173 watts for the i9-13900HX. In your price range there is also the HP Victus with the i7-13700H. That i7-13700H runs much cooler than the 13900HX: it averaged pulling 88W in Notebookcheck's test. Spec-wise the HP is the better deal because it carries the 4070 instead of the 4060, and for $100 less.

Notebookcheck itself has reviewed that Victus unit. FYI, 85% is a solid score from them. The very best units usually only get 92% or 93% (right now the highest scoring gaming laptop is the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 2024 with 93%). However, once again, this laptop runs warmer than is ideal:

https://www.notebookcheck.net/HP-Victus-16-laptop-review-Full-HD-gamer-with-RTX-4070.755620.0.html

They don't have a review for the Katana, only external reviews linked for the sister "E" variant from the same model series (the E variant carries the RTX 4050 while the F variant you see at Costco has the 4060). These are 2023 Katanas:

MSI Katana 15 AI B8VE

This page provides reviews and other infos about the MSI Katana 15 AI B8VE of the series Katana 15 2024 laptop.

www.notebookcheck.net

Tom's Hardware also did a review of a similar Katana unit, but from a different CPU series, in the same year's larger lineup (2023). It performed well:

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/msi-katana-15

Either seem like a respectable option.

Awesome, just the info I was after. I don't need it for any hard-core gaming or anything so the I-9 seemed like over kill. My touch pad keeps crapping out on my current laptop, And I can't figure out why it keeps dying. It did this 6 months ago, and after tearing it apart, reinstalling drivers, ect, it just randomly started working again one day, and now it's doing it again. The screen is losing pixels like crazy, so might as well upgrade.

 

[sverre054]

As Madmick said, a 13900HX is a bit overkill for a midrange gaming laptop. Best Buy will have better deals and selection for gaming notebooks, especially given they have exclusivity on a lot of HP Omens and have Lenovo Loq placements (budget version of Legion).

My travel laptop is one of the older ROG G14s, I like it but it might be a bit small for most people's taste.

If you are good with a non-gaming laptop, Best Buy has the newest HP Spectre and they'll be adding about two dozen more new notebooks this month (they just started their 2024 refresh).


Asus switched to metal chassis this year for the G14, and its starting config is right outside of your price range (it will get discounted pretty quick, processor manufactures are heavily subsidizing NPU chipsets this year).

Best Buy should get that in by June or July, if you are willing to wait. They'll start discounting 2022 and 2023 models around then.

I'll check out best buy. Sadly I need to replace by May, before I leave civilization for a few months. You cannot get anything shipped in with a battery, unless you carry it on yourself anymore.

 

[avenue94]

I'll check out best buy. Sadly I need to replace by May, before I leave civilization for a few months. You cannot get anything shipped in with a battery, unless you carry it on yourself anymore.

Yeah, broadly speaking, you've picked as good a time to buy laptop as there is. Best Buy's added about 30 new notebooks in-store in the past couple weeks and most brands at this point are straight up ignoring the ban on discounting products first month of launch. Plus Intel's retailer rebates on Core Ultra are very high, higher than Intel 14th gen.