New gaming laptop advice please.

[JD76]

I have currently bought a Lenovo legion 5 8gb gpu. Ryzen processor, 16gb ddr4 ram 512gb ssd. 17 inch screen. I'm still in the cooling off period and not sure whether to return or not. Can I have any advice on whether this is a reasonable laptop. I've seen an Asus laptop for sale and this has similar specs though runs an Intel processor and has 16gb of ddr5 ram and a 1tb ssd. The bigger ssd is attractive. Ddr5 is the new kid on the block, so I'm not sure of performance gains etc. I know it's all perspective but is the Asus tuf laptop a better laptop than the Legion 5..though it'll cost me about £300 more?

Thanks in advance JD76

 

[Mesai]

I wouldn’t touch an Intel laptop right now. You’ll get half the battery life (if that matters to you), plus more heat for similar performance.

 

[JD76]

I wouldn’t touch an Intel laptop right now. You’ll get half the battery life (if that matters to you), plus more heat for similar performance.

Why is this Mesai? The utube videos all appear to praise it. I'm just an old guy and all this stuff is kinda confusing. You can pay up to 4k for a laptop. I'm just wanting to dip my toe into it. Then when you look at reviews people say the sounds not good. The screens not the best..ddr4 is old hat now. 512gb seems a bit small (though I can add another ssd, however this pushes the cost up again) What no mux and thunderport whatever that is. So it's trying to get the best bang for my buck and kinda future proofing it a bit. That's why I've asked on here. A lot of knowledgeable people with a wealth of experience...

Thanks JD76

 

[Haz123]

You cannot future proof a laptop, it will have a useful lifespan and then its time to move on.

Intel vs AMD for laptops. Any particular recent gaming laptop has joint cooling for the cpu and gpu. Any laptop has a max tdp that the heatsink and fans are capable of cooling,this means if the cpu uses more power then it eats into the cooling available for the gpu. All things being equal on the cooling department then all you have to look at is which chips give beter fps/watt and that is AMD in both cpus and gpus.

Without knowing the exact specs of each laptop we cannot accurately advise but in general the AMD laptops are currently very good because their performance/watt is better than Intel 11th gen.

Edit - The specs really matter. Alderlake Intel 12th gen got a lot lot better than 11th gen for gaming power useage so it is very complicated and reallyu depends on the model. I personally would watch a few vids on Youtube from Jarrod's Tech. This video is most likely very relevant to your situation.

AMD or Intel For Gaming? 6800H vs 12700H in 21 Games!

AMD Ryzen 7 6800H or Intel i7-12700H - Which CPU should you get in your next gaming laptop? I’ve compared both processors in 21 games at 1080p and 1440p reso...

www.youtube.com

 

[Mesai]

Edit - The specs really matter. Alderlake Intel 12th gen got a lot lot better than 11th gen for gaming power useage so it is very complicated and reallyu depends on the model. I personally would watch a few vids on Youtube from Jarrod's Tech. This video is most likely very relevant to your situation.

Intel 12th gen is just as bad as 11, although you at least get better performance. Intel require a lot more power and their e-cores don't play well with Windows yet so off power you'll get very little runtime, even in general use.

+1 for Jarrod's Tech

 

[Minstadave]

Legion 5 is pretty much the best buy for a budget gaming laptop. Good cooling and full power GPUs.

DDR5 isn't very exciting at all.

Asus TUF tend to have lower power GPUs.

 

[JD76]

Legion 5 is pretty much the best buy for a budget gaming laptop. Good cooling and full power GPUs.

DDR5 isn't very exciting at all.

Asus TUF tend to have lower power GPUs.

Thanks Minstadave. Could you elaborate please? Is ddr4 still relevant and will be for a while. Its a 17 inch UK version I have. Got it for 1k and it's went up to 1400. Price wise I'm happy. But a lot of reviews say sound poor and screen washed out. What's your thoughts?
Thanks

 

[JD76]

You cannot future proof a laptop, it will have a useful lifespan and then its time to move on.

Intel vs AMD for laptops. Any particular recent gaming laptop has joint cooling for the cpu and gpu. Any laptop has a max tdp that the heatsink and fans are capable of cooling,this means if the cpu uses more power then it eats into the cooling available for the gpu. All things being equal on the cooling department then all you have to look at is which chips give beter fps/watt and that is AMD in both cpus and gpus.

Without knowing the exact specs of each laptop we cannot accurately advise but in general the AMD laptops are currently very good because their performance/watt is better than Intel 11th gen.

Edit - The specs really matter. Alderlake Intel 12th gen got a lot lot better than 11th gen for gaming power useage so it is very complicated and reallyu depends on the model. I personally would watch a few vids on Youtube from Jarrod's Tech. This video is most likely very relevant to your situation.

AMD or Intel For Gaming? 6800H vs 12700H in 21 Games!

AMD Ryzen 7 6800H or Intel i7-12700H - Which CPU should you get in your next gaming laptop? I’ve compared both processors in 21 games at 1080p and 1440p reso...

www.youtube.com

Thanks Haz123. I'll have a look at this. I know you can't really future proof a laptop. But I'm not a heavy user. The one it's replacing though not a gaming machine is 12 years old. I'll check Jarrods out. Thank you

 

[JD76]

What about mux and thunderports whatever these are?

 

[Minstadave]

Thanks Minstadave. Could you elaborate please? Is ddr4 still relevant and will be for a while. Its a 17 inch UK version I have. Got it for 1k and it's went up to 1400. Price wise I'm happy. But a lot of reviews say sound poor and screen washed out. What's your thoughts?
Thanks

Is it the RTX3070? What CPU, most have the 5800H.

There is more than one screen for the Legion 5. Do you have the specs of yours, FHD or QHD?

DDR4 or DDR5 doesn't have a huge impact on performance overall. I choose a laptop based on one or the other but on overall performance.

The Legion 5 has a MUX but no Thunderbolt if its an AMD version.

 

[JD76]

Is it the RTX3070? What CPU, most have the 5800H.

There is more than one screen for the Legion 5. Do you have the specs of yours, FHD or QHD?

DDR4 or DDR5 doesn't have a huge impact on performance overall. I choose a laptop based on one or the other but on overall performance.

The Legion 5 has a MUX but no Thunderbolt if its an AMD version.

Thanks. The cpu is a 5800H, Yes it's the 3070. The spec sheet says it FHD 144hz. Does this help?

 

[chroniclard]

Play games, evaluate it, what is the issue?

 

[Minstadave]

Thanks. The cpu is a 5800H, Yes it's the 3070. The spec sheet says it FHD 144hz. Does this help?

It's very solid for 1K. It would be my choice at that price.

The screen isn't bad. You'd have to pay quite a bit more or make other compromises for a 1440P screen.

 

[Kesomir]

Play games, evaluate it, what is the issue?

This. Only thing that matters is that you are happy with it and it does what you want it to. No point worrying about how it compares to things in a different price range.

Can always hook it up to an external display when not on the go. Headphones or external speakers mitigate sound quality.

From what other people are posting, it sounds like you got a bargain.

 

[JD76]

Yes. Thanks very much it not so much what it'll do etc. It's just one gets caught up in the hype I think. Then you get to thinking for another 300 I'd have a 1tb ssd..ddr5 ram. The thinking what's the best screen size 15.6 or 17...Was just trying to reassure myself that it was a good buy that was all. Thanks for all the responses.

 

[JD76]

This. Only thing that matters is that you are happy with it and it does what you want it to. No point worrying about how it compares to things in a different price range.

Can always hook it up to an external display when not on the go. Headphones or external speakers mitigate sound quality.

From what other people are posting, it sounds like you got a bargain.

Thanks Kesomir. I think I was just lucky..997..but for some reason it's away back up to 1300. Maybe it's a bit overpriced at that I'm not sure. Don't know enough about it tbh. It's funny back in ny day you deliberated long and hard with a purchase like this, nowadays that's viewed as not very much and replaceable within say 3 years. Times have changed indeed. It won't be on the go it'll just sit on the desk. External monitor sounds like a good idea. That'll be my next question no doubt. Thank you