Need help deciding between Ryzen 7 or i7 Intel CPU

[Kaia Sachin]

I am currently in the market for a new laptop. I've narrowed it down to a particular model, and am trying to decide which CPU to pair with a GTX 1660Ti. Would Ryzen 7 be a better choice than i7 10750H? I'm mainly concerned with thermal performance as I spend many hours in SL each day.

 

[Lillith Hapmouche]

If you worry about thermals, get a proper desktop, not a "cook my components" laptop.

That said, what's the precise model name of the Ryzen chip? The rest of the setups are absolutely identical?

On top of that: in about half an hour, AMD is hosting a livestream to introduce the new Ryzen generation. A lot going on on the hardware market right now.

[Kaia Sachin]

The only reason I am opting for a laptop is because I am unable to sit at a desk. I was actually using my desktop in bed, but ended up injuring my shoulder from the setup (mouse and monitor on the side of my bed). 

Both the i7 and Ryzen 7 have the same setups, with exact same Display, Memory and Storage.

The AMD specs are:

AMD Ryzen™ 7 4800H (2.9 GHz base clock, up to 4.3 GHz max boost clock, 4 MB L2 cache, 8 cores)

Integrated: AMD Radeon™ Graphics
Discrete: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1660 Ti (6 GB GDDR6 dedicated)

There are other models available, but the ones I listed are within my price point ($1200).

Thank you for letting me know about the stream!

[Nikkesa]

A couple other solutions for you:

 

- you can get monitor/keyboard setups that emulate being a laptop but act as a monitor and keyboard for a separate desktop

- you can stream from a desktop to a laptop on local network and it would be imperceptibly fast.

- Spend the money on getting a compact desk/chair setup. I'm not sure if you are constrained to a bed due to physical limitations, though.

- You can get a bed-desk for a desktop computer. I.e. a big monitor arm and a swivel-over-your-lap desk, just invest in a proper pillow or bed-chair type thing to support your back.

 

That being said, new Ryzen 3000 series (make sure what you're buying is a 7nm chip) uses less power and is cheaper for same performance as Intel chip. What matters _most_ is the graphics card attached ("discrete"). Since they both have same GPU, which is what is gonna be generating the heat, go with whichever has better cooling specs. (bigger fan, bigger vents etc).

 

If all you're doing is playing SL all day, don't even worry about over-heating, unless you're gonna be sitting the thing on a blanket (don't do this). You should be able to put it on a make-shift bed-desk or some kind of flat surface and not have to worry about it.