Light laptop with Nvidia graphics?

[Dubesta11]

Still deciding between something like an Inspiron 13 7000 Series 2-in-1 with an i7 (2 core 15w) and HD 5500 which should run CS:GO at like 60FPS on lowish at 1080p if I recall correctly. But if possible, I would like to have a little more GPU power for when I am not in college and not on my gaming desktop. For under or around 1000, what is a smallish or light laptop with any kind of Nvidia GPU in it (even like an 840m)?

[VerticalDiscussions]

The Acer Aspire V15 Nitro even comes with a GTX 960M and costs about 999$ on newegg

[GzeroD]

I love my Thinkpad Yoga 14. it comes with a 840m. 1050 on amazon

[GzeroD]

I love my Thinkpad Yoga 14. it comes with a 840m. 1050 on amazon

 

@Dubesta11 also if you cant wait till the end of the month they are updating the 14 inch to get a Broadwell cpu I believe.  or get the 15 inch thinkpad yoga with 5th gen i5 and 840m that is available now.

[Dubesta11]

The Acer Aspire V15 Nitro even comes with a GTX 960M and costs about 999$ on newegg

 

Checking that out now, it looks great but has some concerning reviews...

[D2ultima]

@Dubesta11 also if you cant wait till the end of the month they are updating the 14 inch to get a Broadwell cpu I believe.  or get the 15 inch thinkpad yoga with 5th gen i5 and 840m that is available now.

Believe me. Broadwell is not any real "upgrade" except for the iGPU.

[GzeroD]

Believe me. Broadwell is not any real "upgrade" except for the iGPU.

Notebookcheck is giving 10-15% performance increase over older i5's and i7's at the same TDP and model  (4200u vs 5200u or 4600u vs 5600u) and 15-20% boost for the i3's for test that run long enough to stress the cooling solutions out of turbo boost range like gaming often can. the 5% single thread inprovment is worth note as well. It's not huge but it's definitely worth considering while comparing laptops.

[D2ultima]

Notebookcheck is giving 10-15% performance increase over older i5's and i7's at the same TDP and model  (4200u vs 5200u or 4600u vs 5600u) and 15-20% boost for the i3's for test that run long enough to stress the cooling solutions out of turbo boost range like gaming often can. the 5% single thread inprovment is worth note as well. It's not huge but it's definitely worth considering while comparing laptops.

it also runs hotter and draws more power under load, which is not very good when in such small/TDP limited environments.

[GzeroD]

It run hotter under load because it won't down clock as aggressively a 4500u would drop too 1.8 under load when turbo boost dropped off. the 5500u only drops too 2.4. That is going to add substantial performance. Where are you getting the draws more power under load? The reviews I have been looking at say they draw the same at max load (under turbo boost) and when it's not in turbo boost one would have to assume that if it is running  a 30-35% faster clock it will finish work quicker allowing it to reach it's low power state faster as well hopefully saving more power then using.

[Dubesta11]

The Acer Aspire V15 Nitro even comes with a GTX 960M and costs about 999$ on newegg

 

Notebookcheck is giving 10-15% performance increase over older i5's and i7's at the same TDP and model  (4200u vs 5200u or 4600u vs 5600u) and 15-20% boost for the i3's for test that run long enough to stress the cooling solutions out of turbo boost range like gaming often can. the 5% single thread inprovment is worth note as well. It's not huge but it's definitely worth considering while comparing laptops.

 

It run hotter under load because it won't down clock as aggressively a 4500u would drop too 1.8 under load when turbo boost dropped off. the 5500u only drops too 2.4. That is going to add substantial performance. Where are you getting the draws more power under load? The reviews I have been looking at say they draw the same at max load (under turbo boost) and when it's not in turbo boost one would have to assume that if it is running  a 30-35% faster clock it will finish work quicker allowing it to reach it's low power state faster as well hopefully saving more power then using.

 

So the new Nitro looks good: http://laptopmedia.com/review/acer-aspire-v15-nitro-black-edition-vn7-591g-gtx-960m-same-body-more-powerful-internals/#gpu

 

As long as it gives me around 3-4 hours for something like note taking (I will be doing that with paper mainly), or just as a laptop without power available (in between classes probably), this seems like a much better buy than a Dell XPS 13 (It's a little bigger, which might not be as good for college. But 1000 for a laptop, I hope it can do stuff).

[D2ultima]

It run hotter under load because it won't down clock as aggressively a 4500u would drop too 1.8 under load when turbo boost dropped off. the 5500u only drops too 2.4. That is going to add substantial performance. Where are you getting the draws more power under load? The reviews I have been looking at say they draw the same at max load (under turbo boost) and when it's not in turbo boost one would have to assume that if it is running  a 30-35% faster clock it will finish work quicker allowing it to reach it's low power state faster as well hopefully saving more power then using.

They draw the "same" because both cannot draw more than 15W (or 20W, depending on which system you put them in). Users with the 5th gen in Wacom tablets over Haswell have been having less battery life and their fans have been going loud as all hell, and people who've had laptops that haven't had a design update for Broadwell (unlike the XPS 13, which was fully redesigned for its broadwell update, which people seem to forget when pointing out heat "changes") have noticed things being hotter.

 

Also, just so you know, "base clocks" being different is a huge part of things. The 4500U's base clock is 1.8GHz, and the 5500U's base clock is 2.4GHz. That means they'll discard turbo and run at their base clocks if they're at a certain heat threshold, or if there's software/firmware options set to force base clocks past a certain power draw of the machine, etc... and with differing base clocks, you can't compare that as apples to apples. You'd need to find a scenario where both will boost as high as they can go (using programs like throttlestop might help) and see which ones fall short harder. And if comparing broadwell to haswell again, you'd need to make sure the cooling systems are exactly the same across notebooks.

[GzeroD]

with differing base clocks, you can't compare that as apples to apples. You'd need to find a scenario where both will boost as high as they can go (using programs like throttlestop might help) and see which ones fall short harder. And if comparing broadwell to haswell again, you'd need to make sure the cooling systems are exactly the same across notebooks.

 

I argue the opposite With different base clocks you need a mix test. both as high as it will boost  as well as a long run torture test that will bring them to their knees it's going to come down to where you strike the balance.

 

as far as the identical cooling solutions I also disagree because that is a matter of proper laptop design If a company cheaps out and recycles a cooler that doesn't make it a worse product because the manufacturer didn't use a more application tailored cooler. This is especially the case if other vendors are using the chip effectively in the same form factor.

 

 

 

So the new Nitro looks good: http://laptopmedia.com/review/acer-aspire-v15-nitro-black-edition-vn7-591g-gtx-960m-same-body-more-powerful-internals/#gpu

 

As long as it gives me around 3-4 hours for something like note taking (I will be doing that with paper mainly), or just as a laptop without power available (in between classes probably), this seems like a much better buy than a Dell XPS 13 (It's a little bigger, which might not be as good for college. But 1000 for a laptop, I hope it can do stuff).

That is a desktop replacement/ mobile workstation CPU I am doubting that it will hold up to 3 or 4 hours at anything but the lightest of loads.

[D2ultima]

I argue the opposite With different base clocks you need a mix test. both as high as it will boost  as well as a long run torture test that will bring them to their knees it's going to come down to where you strike the balance.

 

as far as the identical cooling solutions I also disagree because that is a matter of proper laptop design If a company cheaps out and recycles a cooler that doesn't make it a worse product because the manufacturer didn't use a more application tailored cooler. This is especially the case if other vendors are using the chip effectively in the same form factor.

Uhh no. If you want to test power draw, you need to disable any artificial limiting software which forces turbo off without hitting the maximum load or temperature limits. If testing was done with such artificial limiting ON, which drops to base clocks, then obviously the broadwell will appear better. But if when forcing boost clocks on (via throttlestop, or by disabling software that artificially kills boost early like HP's coolsense) if the haswell chip maintains higher clock speeds than the broadwell, then the haswell is the superior chip in terms of power draw, obviously.

 

That's... stupid. Did you read what you just said? If you need to beef up cooling for broadwell, then broadwell is obviously a hotter product. Haswell would run cooler in the "beefed up" solution for broadwell. When a machine is getting a "broadwell update", if it does not include a cooling upgrade, then the broadwell chip will obviously perform worse than the haswell chip. Cooling solution variations between laptops does not change the fact that one architecture is hotter than another, and if the cooler architecture was used in the beefed up chassis, then it'd be even better. 

[GzeroD]

Uhh no. If you want to test power draw, you need to disable any artificial limiting software which forces turbo off without hitting the maximum load or temperature limits. If testing was done with such artificial limiting ON, which drops to base clocks, then obviously the broadwell will appear better. But if when forcing boost clocks on (via throttlestop, or by disabling software that artificially kills boost early like HP's coolsense) if the haswell chip maintains higher clock speeds than the broadwell, then the haswell is the superior chip in terms of power draw, obviously.

 

That's... stupid. Did you read what you just said? If you need to beef up cooling for broadwell, then broadwell is obviously a hotter product. Haswell would run cooler in the "beefed up" solution for broadwell. When a machine is getting a "broadwell update", if it does not include a cooling upgrade, then the broadwell chip will obviously perform worse than the haswell chip. Cooling solution variations between laptops does not change the fact that one architecture is hotter than another, and if the cooler architecture was used in the beefed up chassis, then it'd be even better. 

 

Unless your going to run the systems with all of those limit's off then anything you learn from those test will be academic since it wont be at all like what your going to expect in a real world use scenario.

 

No where did I say beefed up cooling Solution; I said application specific ... which usually much means beefed up, but since the broadwell chips are using a smaller die could also means that some existing coolers where not properly designed to cool the hotspots on the broadwell chips; sill i'll give you that they probably hold a higher temp while working continuously at base clock. It's just that at the same clock speeds Broadwell is cooler that's why the base clock is so much higher; Intel thought that if people where using proper cooling solutions for the given TDP of their chips then they would be able to perform at that spec without clocking lower.

[Nineshadow]

Asus ux303ln is a great option if you don't need that much power.It has an 840M. Note that they also announced/released a version with 940M and Broadwell called the 303LB(there's broadwell models for the 303ln as well though).

[PaulKolby]

Believe me. Broadwell is not any real "upgrade" except for the iGPU.

Broad well uses so much less power though

[Dubesta11]

Asus ux303ln is a great option if you don't need that much power.It has an 840M. Note that they also announced/released a version with 940M and Broadwell called the 303LB(there's broadwell models for the 303ln as well though).

Do you have a source on the 303LB? I love everything about the LN but that stupid 1800p screen is holding me back. I would only get a 1080p screen on a 13 inch laptop.

[Nineshadow]

Do you have a source on the 303LB? I love everything about the LN but that stupid 1800p screen is holding me back. I would only get a 1080p screen on a 13 inch laptop.

It has a 1080p screen model as well.

[Nineshadow]

Do you have a source on the 303LB? I love everything about the LN but that stupid 1800p screen is holding me back. I would only get a 1080p screen on a 13 inch laptop.

It's not exactly available though.

http://www.notebooksbilliger.de/asus+ux303lb+r4061h

http://www.amazon.de/UX303LB-R4060H-Notebook-Core-i7-NVIDIA-Geforce/dp/B00UHH1L3Q

[Dubesta11]

It's not exactly available though.

http://www.notebooksbilliger.de/asus+ux303lb+r4061h

http://www.amazon.de/UX303LB-R4060H-Notebook-Core-i7-NVIDIA-Geforce/dp/B00UHH1L3Q

 

It has a 1080p screen model as well.

 

I cannot find any US retailer that sells the 1080p model.

 

Also, I found this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152789, which looks like a really good thin gaming laptop.

[Nineshadow]

I cannot find any US retailer that sells the 1080p model.

 

Also, I found this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152789, which looks like a really good thin gaming laptop.

Yeah, it's pretty good.