Build Advice Powerful Non-Gamer looking Laptop - Please Advise/Suggest

I checked it earlier, with the 5070 it goes over £2200. Will the 5060 be enough, its £500 cheaper ?

 

A handy list of dota fps A couple of the lower end chips mentioned

full list in link, not all chips there unfortunately and you can only consider it a guide due to massive variability of TDPs and cooling in the mobile space.

As we've already noted for example you can get 4070 in 60w to 115w, this happens with all chips and you really have to dig into specs to uncover what might be in what you buy.



Dota 2 Reborn: Notebook and Desktop Benchmarks - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

 

It's pretty much 4070 with lower power consumption (so less likely to need that fan spinning up). For me, in a laptop, £500 for a 60 to a 70 and 16 extra gigs of RAM is too steep a price. Battery and noise matter too

But then, im not you and that is for you to balance depending on your needs.

 

Yup I'm similar I like my laptops to be lighter to carry but it is because I also have to carry a separate work laptop travelling, so I like to be able to run off of one supply I carry for all the things keeping bag weight low, but it means I have to compromise somewhere, it's why I like that 8060S, it's a lot of power for 55w meaning it can be in smaller lighter things powered off a reasonable USBC supply and its not gimped with 4/8Gb VRAM, but I've typically been using AMD APU in handhelds making use of FSR/framegen and accepting that 30-60fps is just fine on a handheld, I don't know what such high fps actually brings to a game like Dota2 except for being able to match a high fps screen but if you have VRR even that doesn't matter.

If I am staying somewhere for a while I'll pack a 4090 egpu with oculink and tb4 for when back from work and chilling in evenings.

Annoyingly found my self accidently playing Dota until 3:30 yesterday, you know, oh just one more go on my handheld, the big games machine that can probably do a gazillion fps, just sat there looking over jealously, Doh

 

On the subject of egpus, if you were buying a dock, maybe that is an avenue, this would offer the performance level you are after to most TB4 laptops, not too expensive.

AMD Radeon 7600M XT-- AD-GP1 External GPU Docking Station

Or depending on what is in your desktop you could put it in its own enclosure.

There are drawbacks to egpu versus native but for most part are useful.

 

Just so happens laptop VRAM has just been brought up by jarrods tech and why the 8060s gets another string in its bow with unlimited VRAM support that will trump similarly tdp 4070 etc. not so much of an issue for dota, it doesn't use much resources, I think it said 3.4Gb@2560x1600 on my handheld but for other games its a thing.

 

Seems reasonable for £1.4k only 85w GPU but should be enough is you don't want excess.

Buy GIGABYTE AERO X16 16" Gaming Laptop - AMD Ryzen AI 7, RTX 5070, 1 TB SSD | Currys

 

Thanks for the replies guys, I am learning a lot about the laptop world doing a few hours research each day.

I also came across an amazing deal for a monitor, can you confirm that if I get this monitor (2nd hand by the way) I will not need to buy an additional dock , if I choose to go for a laptop with less ports ?
The deal is too good to pass on for ~ £100.

U3425WE

Dell UltraSharp 34 Curved Thunderbolt™ Hub Monitor - U3425WE | Dell UK

 

Yes we do similar at work and have stopped buying docks.

 

So Far I've came across these candidates that fit within budget and have dedicated 5070 Ti or 4080 GPUs with 12GB of VRAM.
The option for the eGPU is interesting, but not sure if vey practical , now that I have a better idea about my stay abroad.

Am I missing any reputable brand and model ?

Looks like MSI is my only option at this point and that Acer, but not patriarchy impressed by it.
Out of the limited options, what would you consider buying and what would be your thought process in selecting the right configuration out of the available options?

Summary Below:
Dell / Alienware models = Out of Budget
HP Models = Out of Budget
Framework = sadly also out of budget
Gigabyte models = couldn't find relevant models that fit my criteria
Razer = Out of Budget
Lenovo = I couldn't find a model with 5070TI (or 12GB VRAM). It is ither 8 or 16gb, where the 16 is Out of Budget.


5070 TIs:
MSI Vector 16 HX AI
@ £1799 - At Curry's - Ultra 9 275HX, 32GB RAM, 1 TB SSD
@ £1549 - At Amazon - Ultra 7 225HX, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD
@ £1849 - At Laptops Direct - Ultra 9 275HX 32GB RAM, 2TB SSD
https://www.currys.co.uk/products/m...re-ultra-9-rtx-5070-ti-1-tb-ssd-10277306.html
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DTYZQ...545d7&tag=52417_iceleads-21&linkCode=osi&th=1
https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/msi-vector17hxaia2xwhg-003uk-9s7-17s372-003/version.asp
Weight is 3kg. Not Particularly excited about the looks.

MSI Vector 17 HX AI
@ £1899 - At Scan - Ultra 9 275HX, 32GB RAM, 2TB SSD
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/vector17hxaia2xwhg-003uk
Can't find the weight, but not sure if 17inch wouldn't be too big and heavy to carry around. On the other hand you get an extra inch for £50...

Acer Predator 16 Inch
@ £1899 - at Laptops Direct + Overclockers - Ultra 9 32GB RAM 1TB SSD
https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/ace...tb-ssd-rtx-5070-ti-2-nh.qx2ek.001/version.asp
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/acer...b-16-wqxga-240hz-ultra-9-2-lap-acr-04613.html
Weight is 2.7kg, also not particularly exciting looks.

4080s:
MSI Vector 16
@ £1549 - At Laptops Direct - Core i7 14650HX, 16GB RAM 1TB SSD RTX 4080 144Hz
https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/msi...hz-windows-11-gami-9s7-15m142-629/version.asp
Same as above 5070s comments.

 

DOTA on a handheld ? That's reportable grief at this point, LEAVE MY GAMES I am an Ability Draft ONLY player for the past 5+ years. Can't see myself playing standard DOTA anymore.

 

The handheld was plugged into a TB dock, don't think Dota supports controller and I wasn't about to setup up mapping to making it work to test for you

The MSIs vectors do strike me as the bargains, the 16HX AI with 275 and 175w 5070Ti is not messing about, that's probably the best gaming CPU next to the x3d from AMD and a full fat GPU, so long as MSI caps the power to the CPU and feeds the GPU you're golden, which most seem to do. The 17 also has extra 1TB.

You can get the vector 16 AI with a 5080 from very in budget, its 2349 but with the 20% COMPUTING20 code, that's a steal, comparatively at ~1900.

I prefer the Predator personally but no wifi7, tsk tsk, in this size it might be upgradeable, still a 2.5G ethernet.

I have to do capping on the handheld or CPU will rob the GPU but they come with a handy app

 

I just rembered ASUS as a brand, researched what they offer right now and I found a few ROG strixes within budget, any particular comments or impressions of the brand and model in general?

 

Asus can be problematic with support. Although I have their laptops and motherboards I won't be buying any more Asus products in the future

 

Some of the higher end models have the best cooling, noise and performance of any gamer laptops, always see them at the top in reviews but don't recall which ROG models they were.

 

Good news, budget increased to £2300-2500. That opens up a few additional options. Time for another round of searches...

 

Don't think it really gets you much more, apart from the Vector with a 5080 that's not from very.

Might bring in the odd laptop with 9955HX3D CPU which will keeps fps up in Dota more so than a normal CPU because of 3dcache

 

Is it known if Framework are going to release a new 12 or 16GB GPU module and if it will fit to existing systems, or a new body will be required for the new module?

 

OK Guys,

I've concluded several extra hours of research. These are my options with the £2500 Budget with the different brands.

Anything particularly interesting in this selection and is there anything that should be avoided if possible?
There is also an 16 inch alienwaare but I can't upload any more picture. Spec as below:

Alienware 16 Area-51
9- 275HX
5070TI
21GB
1TB
wifi 7
£2499


Thanks for everyone that helps.

 

It's tough to choose, if I was filtering out I would bin anything with 16Gb unless I was going to bin the 16Gb and put fast low latency RAM in, and anything that doesn't have a 5080 at this price

On price alone the MSI comes out on top again and again, the Amazon deal that you posted it has a £468 voucher off giving you a sub 2k 5080, that's a win.

But sometimes other factors come into play, there is a certain coolness to having a Razer for example but so low spec, now they do good things with cooling etc so you'd have to poor into reviews to see what sustained peformance is like, but it expensive and low spec.

Also thinking about games and Dota 2 specifically, that Asus strix 16 g614 with the 9955HX3D would give me pause for thought as the 3D cache does things for 1% lows even upping to a 5090 couldn't match but it comes with a 5070TI and it's hard to know what would win out in general between a 275HX + 5080 and a 9955HX + 5070Ti, I suspect the faster GPU just with worse 1% lows, but they are unlikely to be bad 1% lows, if only it had a 5080 too. but stable gaming performance might trump ultimate performance, as I said, tough one, could make the ASUS the pick of the bunch.

This guy did test two xmg laptops 9955hx + 5080 vs watercooled 275Hx + 5090 and the summary was the lower specced AMD was the smoother gaming experience despite the 5090 being faster on averages.

Anecdotally that's how I feel about my current machine since getting 3D vcache, buttery smooth, feels like the best upgrade I have done in decades and I always buy top tier hardware.



Hard to find DOTA benches on modern hardware I could only find this on the old 5800x3d, that is an average fps but 1% lows would be even greater differential with 3Dcache


Source: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D Processor Review - What does 3D V-Cache bring to the table? - The Tech Revolutionist