Budget laptop for some online courses/light gaming

[sheepduck]

Hi all,

 

I'm in the market for a relatively budget laptop for some online coursework and some light gaming (been into factorio lately and some retro stuff on the side, maybe a little wow classic)

 

With my budget being around 4 or maybe 500 USD tops, some of the ryzen Stuff with Vega 8 igpu looks somewhat appealing (https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07HGTFTZB/ref=psdcmw_13896615011_t1_B07B3C4797)

I know the newest ryzen mobile APUs are supposed to be hitting the market soon as well, are the expected to be as competitive price wise as the one one in the model I linked? Also I've been hearing some decent things about Intel's 10th gen mobile integrated graphics being decent. How would they compare to the Integrated Vega stuff?

 

Is there anything around this price range that would seem to meet my needs better? I care more about the performance than any fancy build quality as this will just be next to my bed plugged in to use before I go to sleep most of the time. 

 

Thanks in advance for any help!

[Streetguru]

49 minutes ago, sheepduck said:

 

Are you in the US?

Check ebay for a Matebook D with an R5 2500U, should be around $400, has a solid everything pretty much.
 

 

[Akira Shimazu]

10 hours ago, Streetguru said:

Are you in the US?

Check ebay for a Matebook D with an R5 2500U, should be around $400, has a solid everything pretty much.
 

 

matebook Has Heat issue. and the quailty is not that great at all.

 

Lenovo Ideapad S340 14″ can handle multiwork with its i5 8265U and SSD. with long battery power. 

[Streetguru]

4 hours ago, Wolfycapt said:

matebook Has Heat issue. and the quailty is not that great at all.

 

Lenovo Ideapad S340 14″ can handle multiwork with its i5 8265U and SSD. with long battery power. 

Isn't the GPU still weaker on intel's side? the CPUs are the same basically, but how much is the i5 laptop?

Pretty much every laptop is going to run hot in any event.

[sheepduck]

1 hour ago, Streetguru said:

Isn't the GPU still weaker on intel's side? the CPUs are the same basically, but how much is the i5 laptop?

Pretty much every laptop is going to run hot in any event.

That was my original thought too, which is why I was thinking ryzen Apu. But I have heard 10th gen mobile integrated gpu from intel steps it up a bit so that's why I was just wondering. But at the same time I've also heard 3rd gen ryzen apus are supposed to be a bit better as well... Not sure how long until we should expect those either though. 

[Streetguru]

1 hour ago, sheepduck said:

That was my original thought too, which is why I was thinking ryzen Apu. But I have heard 10th gen mobile integrated gpu from intel steps it up a bit so that's why I was just wondering. But at the same time I've also heard 3rd gen ryzen apus are supposed to be a bit better as well... Not sure how long until we should expect those either though. 

https://www.3dmark.com/fs/19356052

 

https://www.3dmark.com/fs/14913139

Seems faster than that i5 from above, dunno the memory specs though, single channel would cut the score in half.

[Akira Shimazu]

52 minutes ago, Streetguru said:

https://www.3dmark.com/fs/19356052

 

https://www.3dmark.com/fs/14913139

Seems faster than that i5 from above, dunno the memory specs though, single channel would cut the score in half.

The Vega 8 perform little bit below 1030. perhaps around 60-70%.. but that is if you want gaming a little bit. i prefer the i5 with longer battery span.

[Streetguru]

2 minutes ago, Wolfycapt said:

The Vega 8 perform little bit below 1030. perhaps around 60-70%.. but that is if you want gaming a little bit. i prefer the i5 with longer battery span.

Were you looking at comparisons with the same battery size? Ryzen got screwed over with tiny batteries last launch.

And it does have more performance, so it's likely to draw more power with that while using the iGPUs.

[Akira Shimazu]

1 minute ago, Streetguru said:

Were you looking at comparisons with the same battery size? Ryzen got screwed over with tiny batteries last launch.

And it does have more performance, so it's likely to draw more power with that while using the iGPUs.

yeah. even the Vega didn't draw power like MX150 but stil it reduce battery life. i suggest if you want to go APU go for 2700U. is better with vega 10 and can play decent gaming tho.

[Streetguru]

6 minutes ago, Wolfycapt said:

yeah. even the Vega didn't draw power like MX150 but stil it reduce battery life. i suggest if you want to go APU go for 2700U. is better with vega 10 and can play decent gaming tho.

On desktop the A8s and A10s weren't very different because it's really limited by the memory speed, I imagine this is even more important in laptops due to the slower memory cap.

[Akira Shimazu]

Just now, Streetguru said:

On desktop the A8s and A10s weren't very different because it's really limited by the memory speed, I imagine this is even more important in laptops due to the slower memory cap.

it's logical actually since apu use ram speed.  but it just better a little bit if the price difference are not huge.