Need suggestions for a high-end laptop

Lightcycle

Lightcycle

Rounder of bolts, Dropper of tools
Moderator
Site Supporter
Forum Sponsor
I currently have a MS Surface Book 2 from almost a decade ago which is getting a bit long in the tooth.

Primarily looking for something with more horsepower for video editing. I'm finding the 360 videos are growing in resolution and file size so it's super slow to edit and render.
Also, I do a little bit of VR gaming with my old Quest 2, want to upgrade to the Quest 3 and use the laptop as a VR engine, so need a high-end graphics card.
I watch movies on my laptop and I'm finding most of the newer videos these days are using AV1 codecs, which my laptop needs to decode in SW, so would be nice for to have native AV1 decoding in the GPU
I want to travel with this laptop, so something light and portable would be nice.
I like large screens because I'm old and can't see. My Surface Book is 15" which I lurve, but would probably opt for a 14" for travel purposes. Not that fond of 13" screens
Looking for a Windows machine, obviously, so MacBooks are out.

Don't care about touchscreen, rarely use the 2-in-1 feature of the Surface Book
Don't care about battery life
Don't care about OLED, refresh rate, etc.
Not that sensitive about price, but would like to keep it max $3.5K-ish

On a minor note: I have a lot of Surface accessories like the Dock which expands the ports for multiple screens, ethernet and additional USB A and C ports, so I was looking at the Studio Laptop but that thing looks huge and heavy - definitely not good for motorcycle travel. Wondering what else is out there that is comparable? Willing to shelve the Surface stuff for more standardized accessories like USB C or Thunderbolt.

What do you guys recommend?
 
www.razer.com

Razer Best Gaming Laptops | Top-Rated Powerful Gaming Laptops | Razer Canada

Razer's award-winning gaming laptops are designed and powered with the latest in technology for extreme performance to cater both work and play.
www.razer.com www.razer.com

www.falcon-nw.com

Falcon Northwest Custom Laptop PCs

The Falcon Northwest DRX & TLX custom laptop PCs are the ideal notebooks for gaming, creators, or anyone needing power & portability.
www.falcon-nw.com

Alienware Gaming Laptops | Dell Canada

Industry leading innovators, Alienware, manufactures the best gaming laptops & desktops that provide users with immersive and exhilarating gaming experience.
www.dell.com www.dell.com

All series｜Laptops For Gaming｜ASUS Canada

In ASUS 「All series」 - Laptops , you could find most appropriate Laptops based on product features, specification or price. And you also could get product's detail information and comparsion, even add it into the wish list in buy page.
www.asus.com www.asus.com
 
POWERMAN said:
www.razer.com

Razer Best Gaming Laptops | Top-Rated Powerful Gaming Laptops | Razer Canada

Razer's award-winning gaming laptops are designed and powered with the latest in technology for extreme performance to cater both work and play.
www.razer.com www.razer.com

www.falcon-nw.com

Falcon Northwest Custom Laptop PCs

The Falcon Northwest DRX & TLX custom laptop PCs are the ideal notebooks for gaming, creators, or anyone needing power & portability.
www.falcon-nw.com

Alienware Gaming Laptops | Dell Canada

Industry leading innovators, Alienware, manufactures the best gaming laptops & desktops that provide users with immersive and exhilarating gaming experience.
www.dell.com www.dell.com

All series｜Laptops For Gaming｜ASUS Canada

In ASUS 「All series」 - Laptops , you could find most appropriate Laptops based on product features, specification or price. And you also could get product's detail information and comparsion, even add it into the wish list in buy page.
www.asus.com www.asus.com
Click to expand...

Cool! Those are good leads.

Brings up another question: Intel Core Ultra HX vs AMD Ryzen HX? Pros? Cons?

Been out of the game too long.
 
Lightcycle said:
Cool! Those are good leads.

Brings up another question: Intel Core Ultra HX vs AMD Ryzen HX? Pros? Cons?

Been out of the game too long.
Click to expand...

Personally, I would play it safe and go with the Intel + nVidia route.
I dont care too much about spending time troubleshooting driver/performance issues when dealing with specific software types that may face compatibility issues with AMD + ATI RADEON

Im looking for a solution that is guaranteed to work and tends to have better support long term - hence the intel+nvidia suggestion.
 
Do you have software that won't run on OS-X, or are there other reasons for avoiding Mac? Personally I'm an Intel guy, but that's because I don't need mobility or care about performance, so I get away with $300 desktop hardware. As I understand, a Macbook should be ideal for your use case. This is a review of the M4 Macbook Air, and the only downside is slower rendering speed compared to an $8000 Windows desktop, but moving up to a Macbook Pro could close the gap and still save you some money:

 
POWERMAN said:
Personally, I would play it safe and go with the Intel + nVidia route.
I dont care too much about spending time troubleshooting driver/performance issues when dealing with specific software types that may face compatibility issues with AMD + ATI RADEON

Im looking for a solution that is guaranteed to work and tends to have better support long term - hence the intel+nvidia suggestion.
Click to expand...
There's nothing about AMD Ryzen CPU's that will create any issues, they've been more reliable and better value than Intel for years now (and don't mysteriously degrade in performance over time). It's a bit more complicated for the GPU, as programs like Premiere Pro can use the AI CUDA cores exclusive to Nvidia, but considering how much more Nvidia charges for significantly less VRAM, it will depend a lot on use case and bang for buck.

I've been all-AMD for quite a while, and haven't had any major driver issues for at least five years now. The 7000-series GPU's had some slow H.264 rendering, but they've improved that with driver updates, and the 9000-series cards have no issues. AI rendering is a bit more complicated and will likely need a Linux partition, as most Windows AI software leans heavily on the above-mentioned CUDA cores. I haven't jumped into Linux yet, but I will soon, as I have read that it's a lot simpler than it used to be, and ditching all the bloat that's attached itself to Windows over the years makes for a marked improvement in both speed and security, while still being able to run most Windows programs.

As for VR, I would expect any laptop GPU to struggle with top-tier PCVR gaming. If you want to do sim racing, the old engines of Assetto Corsa and iRacing seem to work best with NVidia cards, while flight sims work better with AMD cards (excepting the megabuck 4090/5090 Nvidia cards), as they utilise a ton of VRAM. As driver iterations have evolved, the 9070XT has moved ahead of the 5070Ti and is in line with the 5080 for all but heavy ray-tracing work (not a factor in VR anyway). Again, this is all desktop, not laptop hardware...
 
Priller said:
I haven't jumped into Linux yet, but I will soon, as I have read that it's a lot simpler than it used to be, and ditching all the bloat that's attached itself to Windows over the years makes for a marked improvement in both speed and security, while still being able to run most Windows programs.
Click to expand...

As far as I understand, the only way to run Windows apps "natively" on Linux is to use WINE which is just an API translator and not 100% compatible. The alternative for 100% compatibility is to run a Windows VM within Linux, which includes all the bloat you're looking to avoid.

If I were considering it, I'd run a Linux VM on your existing Windows to test all of your Windows apps on WINE before making the jump.

 
Last edited:
Relax said:
Do you have software that won't run on OS-X, or are there other reasons for avoiding Mac? Personally I'm an Intel guy, but that's because I don't need mobility or care about performance, so I get away with $300 desktop hardware. As I understand, a Macbook should be ideal for your use case. This is a review of the M4 Macbook Air, and the only downside is slower rendering speed compared to an $8000 Windows desktop, but moving up to a Macbook Pro could close the gap and still save you some money:

Click to expand...
Yup I heard that those M chips are a killer for video editing.
In the office everyone has a Mac because of that. Even finance, and I hate it. Give me my crappy Windows.
 
Priller said:
There's nothing about AMD Ryzen CPU's that will create any issues, they've been more reliable and better value than Intel for years now (and don't mysteriously degrade in performance over time). It's a bit more complicated for the GPU, as programs like Premiere Pro can use the AI CUDA cores exclusive to Nvidia, but considering how much more Nvidia charges for significantly less VRAM, it will depend a lot on use case and bang for buck.

I've been all-AMD for quite a while, and haven't had any major driver issues for at least five years now. The 7000-series GPU's had some slow H.264 rendering, but they've improved that with driver updates, and the 9000-series cards have no issues. AI rendering is a bit more complicated and will likely need a Linux partition, as most Windows AI software leans heavily on the above-mentioned CUDA cores. I haven't jumped into Linux yet, but I will soon, as I have read that it's a lot simpler than it used to be, and ditching all the bloat that's attached itself to Windows over the years makes for a marked improvement in both speed and security, while still being able to run most Windows programs.

As for VR, I would expect any laptop GPU to struggle with top-tier PCVR gaming. If you want to do sim racing, the old engines of Assetto Corsa and iRacing seem to work best with NVidia cards, while flight sims work better with AMD cards (excepting the megabuck 4090/5090 Nvidia cards), as they utilise a ton of VRAM. As driver iterations have evolved, the 9070XT has moved ahead of the 5070Ti and is in line with the 5080 for all but heavy ray-tracing work (not a factor in VR anyway). Again, this is all desktop, not laptop hardware...
Click to expand...
Funny I went AMD graphics for a year prior to my 4090 and was I not surprised to still have driver issues/errors!!! The last time I went AMD was just after 2012 and they had issues back then.

I don't know what is with their software that they can't get right.

Anywho, had my Nvidia for over a year and a half and no problems.
 
If your previous laptop was a touchscreen, then I’d look for another, and have it able to fold in half.
I went from a crappy entry level touchscreen to a gaming computer a year or two ago and I really miss the touchscreen features.
 
Evoex said:
Funny I went AMD graphics for a year prior to my 4090 and was I not surprised to still have driver issues/errors!!! The last time I went AMD was just after 2012 and they had issues back then.

I don't know what is with their software that they can't get right.

Anywho, had my Nvidia for over a year and a half and no problems.
Click to expand...
Every card has issues in the right/wrong circumstances, and there isn't anything different with Nvidia. Most Radeon issues can be traced to incomplete uninstallation of the Nvidia drivers (they're like a virus, extremely difficult to fully uninstall) or improper RAM settings. A full DDU wipe of the Nvidia drivers solves 90% of issues, and a Windows reinstall sorts out the next 5%.

I've been with AMD since the 5700XT, switched to a 7900XTX, then downgraded a bit to a 9070XT because the 7900 was a power hog and heat monster (amazing for Flight Simulator, though!). The only issue I had of any significance was the 7900 had poor performance in some VR titles for about a month after release, but that was fixed fairly quickly with a driver. Occasionally there's issues on day one for some Nvidia-sponsored games, but there's almost always a driver update within a day or two...
 
Priller said:
Every card has issues in the right/wrong circumstances, and there isn't anything different with Nvidia. Most Radeon issues can be traced to incomplete uninstallation of the Nvidia drivers (they're like a virus, extremely difficult to fully uninstall) or improper RAM settings. A full DDU wipe of the Nvidia drivers solves 90% of issues, and a Windows reinstall sorts out the next 5%.

I've been with AMD since the 5700XT, switched to a 7900XTX, then downgraded a bit to a 9070XT because the 7900 was a power hog and heat monster (amazing for Flight Simulator, though!). The only issue I had of any significance was the 7900 had poor performance in some VR titles for about a month after release, but that was fixed fairly quickly with a driver. Occasionally there's issues on day one for some Nvidia-sponsored games, but there's almost always a driver update within a day or two...
Click to expand...
I have never...in 35 years of PC gaming had a driver error with anything but an AMD card. The performance is fine, but I don't need the hassle.
 
Evoex said:
I have never...in 35 years of PC gaming had a driver error with anything but an AMD card. The performance is fine, but I don't need the hassle.
Click to expand...
I have an Nvidia that occasionally causes a driver crash. Problem started after I upgraded boot drive to a larger M2 SSD. I happens infrequently enough that I haven't bothered spending much time on how an ssd upgrade caused graphic drivers to crap the bed. Drivers have upgraded several times and the problem remains.
 
Thx guys, taking notes.

In my experience, integrated peripherals like GPUs in laptops tend to be more tested, supported and maintained by the laptop manufacturer than DIY desktop machines where you're constantly upgrading the parts inside. The larger vendors tend to have their own utility, separate from Windows Update, that scans your config, downloads and installs the latest drivers automagically.

I took a look at some of those gaming laptops, the lightest being ~3.6 lbs. Hefty!

I bought my wife a Surface Pro for travel. 1.94 lbs.

Turns out horsepower ain't light.

Thinking maybe I need a separate, lighter machine for travel and a heftier, workhorse desktop/stationary laptop for home. Don't really play games while on the road.

On a separate note: when I was checking the weight of the laptops on Google, I instinctively typed in "razer blade 14 wet weight"? :rolleyes:
 
Lightcycle said:
Thx guys, taking notes.

In my experience, integrated peripherals like GPUs in laptops tend to be more tested, supported and maintained by the laptop manufacturer than DIY desktop machines where you're constantly upgrading the parts inside. The larger vendors tend to have their own utility, separate from Windows Update, that scans your config, downloads and installs the latest drivers automagically.

I took a look at some of those gaming laptops, the lightest being ~3.6 lbs. Hefty!

I bought my wife a Surface Pro for travel. 1.94 lbs.

Turns out horsepower ain't light.

Thinking maybe I need a separate, lighter machine for travel and a heftier, workhorse desktop/stationary laptop for home. Don't really play games while on the road.

On a separate note: when I was checking the weight of the laptops on Google, I instinctively typed in "razer blade 14 wet weight"? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
Laptops have liquid cooling options now?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom