$800 big battery laptop with dGPU

[Aereldor]

Hey everyone, looking for a laptop for my little sister. Great battery life and a dGPU (rtx 3050 or better) are a must, 16GB ram and 512gb SSD minimum. USA. 

 

What's out there? 

[SpookyCitrus]

Country? Currency? Do you have any you have already looked at? It's not that hard to search well known sites for a laptop that fits this criteria on your own is it?

[Aereldor]

2 hours ago, SpookyCitrus said:

Country? Currency? Do you have any you have already looked at? It's not that hard to search well known sites for a laptop that fits this criteria on your own is it?

I can't very well have a contradicting answer to country and currency, can I? Say, United States and the Congolese Franc? And I'm on laptopdeals etc. and a lot of shit never makes it onto those lists. If you're not gonna help, sod right off, don't mini-mod.

[Stormseeker9]

4 minutes ago, soundlogic said:

I can't very well have a contradicting answer to country and currency, can I? Say, United States and the Congolese Franc, can I? And I'm on laptopdeals etc. and a lot of shit never makes it onto those lists. If you're not gonna help, sod right off, don't mini-mod.

Hold on, he tries to help you, with useful questions as it is relevant as pricing is different and than you tell him to sod off?

 

not very friendly.

[Aereldor]

2 minutes ago, Stormseeker9 said:

Hold on, he tries to help you, with useful questions as it is relevant as pricing is different and than you tell him to sod off?

 

not very friendly.

Explain to me how 'It's not that hard to search well known sites for a laptop that fits this criteria on your own is it?' is 'trying to help'. That's just being smarmy.

 

And as for country and currency, tell me what other kind of $ there is where 800 of them can get you an RTX 3050 and decent battery life? It's mini-modding. 

[SpookyCitrus]

7 minutes ago, soundlogic said:

Explain to me how 'It's not that hard to search well known sites for a laptop that fits this criteria on your own is it?' is 'trying to help'. That's just being smarmy.

 

And as for country and currency, tell me what other kind of $ there is where 800 of them can get you an RTX 3050 and decent battery life? It's mini-modding. 

Wasn't trying to offend you, I probably could of worded my last question better. I asked for country and currency because there isn't really anywhere you can get an RTX 3050 laptop with the requirements you want for $800 or less. It also helps with us not accidentally recommending an item that isn't available were the OP lives or can purchase from. For someone that is super against someone accidentally typing something that sounds negative, you're getting really aggressive and being purposefully rude. Truly didn't mean to come off like that in my original reply, so I apologize, literally all I do on these forums is help with troubleshooting, build lists, and finding the best parts for the job. So I can help if you'll take it seriously and let me.

[Bombastinator]

1 hour ago, soundlogic said:

Hey everyone, looking for a laptop for my little sister. Great battery life and a dGPU (rtx 3050 or better) are a must, 16GB ram and 512gb SSD minimum. USA. 

 

What's out there? 

Not sure that is doable for $800, it’s apr1 though so more or less nothing online is to be trusted.

[Aereldor]

22 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Not sure that is doable for $800, it’s apr1 though so more or less nothing online is to be trusted.

Yeah there are a lot of people posting stuff that's long expired lol, I'm not sure if that's just automated reposts like a lot of reddit or 'pranks'. I've found a few things on Dell Outlet and a few Amazon listings, not much with a big enough battery unfortunately, all Intel too... I'll keep checking. 

 

Do you know if Asus has some sort of used/refurbished outlet like Dell, Lenovo, and Apple do?

[SpookyCitrus]

42 minutes ago, soundlogic said:

Yeah there are a lot of people posting stuff that's long expired lol, I'm not sure if that's just automated reposts like a lot of reddit or 'pranks'. I've found a few things on Dell Outlet and a few Amazon listings, not much with a big enough battery unfortunately, all Intel too... I'll keep checking. 

 

Do you know if Asus has some sort of used/refurbished outlet like Dell, Lenovo, and Apple do?

Only way to get used or refurbished Asus computers is through third-party sellers(buying used on Ebay, Craigslist, or other classified listing sites). Asus doesn't have an outlet type store like Dell and Lenovo. The Dell G5 and G7 laptops are super solid but like stated before with your specific requirements the laptops are going to be harder to find one in budget. Compromises in features will need to be made to keep it in budget. Gaming/workstation laptops are mainly used while plugged in anyway is the battery really the deal breaker for what you've found? Gaming/workstation laptops with higher end components draw a lot of power, if it's being used for work or gaming regardless of battery size it will still drain fast, high performance laptops realistic need to be used for work or gaming when plugged otherwise you're barely going to get over an hour two of time with it before it dies, not to mention limited performance when on battery power. If it were me I wouldn't let the battery size be the deal breaker, if you find one with good specs and at a good price go for it.

[Aereldor]

1 hour ago, SpookyCitrus said:

Wasn't trying to offend you, I probably could of worded my last question better. I asked for country and currency because there isn't really anywhere you can get an RTX 3050 laptop with the requirements you want for $800 or less. It also helps with us not accidentally recommending an item that isn't available were the OP lives or can purchase from. For someone that is super against someone accidentally typing something that sounds negative, you're getting really aggressive and being purposefully rude. Truly didn't mean to come off like that in my original reply, so I apologize, literally all I do on these forums is help with troubleshooting, build lists, and finding the best parts for the job. So I can help if you'll take it seriously and let me.

Nah, sorry I was curt with you man. I've seen a few but they mostly seem to have Intel chips, which is more of a dealbreaker than outright battery size, but I checked and they also have >50 W/h batteries, which isn't a good combination.

 

34 minutes ago, SpookyCitrus said:

Only way to get used or refurbished Asus computers is through third-party sellers(buying used on Ebay, Craigslist, or other classified listing sites). Asus doesn't have an outlet type store like Dell and Lenovo. The Dell G5 and G7 laptops are super solid but like stated before with your specific requirements the laptops are going to be harder to find one in budget. Compromises in features will need to be made to keep it in budget. Gaming/workstation laptops are mainly used while plugged in anyway is the battery really the deal breaker for what you've found? Gaming/workstation laptops with higher end components draw a lot of power, if it's being used for work or gaming regardless of battery size it will still drain fast, high performance laptops realistic need to be used for work or gaming when plugged otherwise you're barely going to get over an hour two of time with it before it dies, not to mention limited performance when on battery power. If it were me I wouldn't let the battery size be the deal breaker, if you find one with good specs and at a good price go for it.

 

Oh there are a ton in my budget, there are several on Dell Outlet for $600 to $800, but this is for my sister who's been spoiled with an older Asus Zenbook that sips power and wants to take it to class. Hell even my almost 7 year old Alienware 13R3 can do about 6 hours of light use on battery. 

 

The catch is that they're almost always Intel. I'm looking for something AMD based, so far the only one I've seen is a Lenovo  where I can't find out the battery size, but it does come with a 5600h, 3050 ti, and a 512gb NVMe drive for $743 brand new. But the battery is either 60wh which is already small, or 45 which is unacceptable.

[SpookyCitrus]

51 minutes ago, soundlogic said:

The catch is that they're almost always Intel. I'm looking for something AMD based, so far the only one I've seen is a Lenovo  where I can't find out the battery size, but it does come with a 5600h, 3050 ti, and a 512gb NVMe drive for $743 brand new. But the battery is either 60wh which is already small, or 45 which is unacceptable.

If your sister is just using it for taking notes in class a 60wh in power saver mode which is perfectly fine for note taking should last for hours and hours, my brother has an AMD based laptop with Vega 8 graphics and he uses it for college classes everyday and only has to charge it twice a week. The power draw on newer laptops especially when just doing simple tasks or idle isn't much at all especially when you have an intel based system or AMD that is using integrated graphics over dedicated in non-intensive loads. Getting one with an SSD only will also help with battery life. If you want something with insane battery life you might want to check in the workstation/business line of laptops they will usually have beefier batteries but will be quite a bit more expensive than a personal use/gaming laptop.

[Bombastinator]

2 hours ago, soundlogic said:

Yeah there are a lot of people posting stuff that's long expired lol, I'm not sure if that's just automated reposts like a lot of reddit or 'pranks'. I've found a few things on Dell Outlet and a few Amazon listings, not much with a big enough battery unfortunately, all Intel too... I'll keep checking. 

 

Do you know if Asus has some sort of used/refurbished outlet like Dell, Lenovo, and Apple do?

I don’t see why they wouldn’t.  They’re in the same business.  I don’t have any specifics though.  It might possibly be a bad deal.  Sometimes those things will sell for x% under MSRP, and if x% is more than what they go for new they keep at it anyway just to maintain the talking point of MSRP for their sales force even if basically no one buys one.   In any case a serious question should probably be posed tomorrow, One never knows who decides to see if your leg has bells on it today.

Edited April 2, 2022 by Bombastinator

[Bombastinator]

43 minutes ago, SpookyCitrus said:

If your sister is just using it for taking notes in class a 60wh in power saver mode which is perfectly fine for note taking should last for hours and hours, my brother has an AMD based laptop with Vega 8 graphics and he uses it for college classes everyday and only has to charge it twice a week. The power draw on newer laptops especially when just doing simple tasks or idle isn't much at all especially when you have an intel based system or AMD that is using integrated graphics over dedicated in non-intensive loads. Getting one with an SSD only will also help with battery life. If you want something with insane battery life you might want to check in the workstation/business line of laptops they will usually have beefier batteries but will be quite a bit more expensive than a personal use/gaming laptop.

Taking notes in class I understand is best done with an iPad or a Microsoft surface because few manufacturers have decent apps for not taking with a stylus.  Apple and Microsoft both do though.  Neither has anything approaching a discrete 3050 in them.  That’s for gaming.  The way to make that one go might be to buy a Microsoft surface with a good cpu and thunderbolt (so a higher end one, which then means older and used because budget) and a desktop gpu enclosure with a video card small enough that it’s not hampered particularly by the 4 lanes of pcie3 it’s going to have access to.  A desktop 1660 or 2600 might be decent choices there, then put a high refresh gaming monitor on it and treat the combination as a docking station.  Doing that for $800 could get rugged though.  If the only gaming she wants to do is some slime rancher and Stardew valley or animal crossing though, don’t even bother with the external box.  Spend the whole $800 on whatever surface with pen you can get for that.  Those games are potato

Edited April 2, 2022 by Bombastinator

[SpookyCitrus]

17 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Taking notes in class I understand is best done with an iPad or a Microsoft surface because few manufacturers have decent apps for not taking with a stylus.  Apple and Microsoft both do though.  Neither has anything approaching a discrete 3050 in them.  That’s for gaming.  The way to make that one go might be to buy a Microsoft surface with a good cpu, and a desktop gpu enclosure with a video card small enough that it’s not hampered particularly by the 4 lanes of pcie3 it’s going to have access to.  A desktop 1660 or 2600 might be decent choices there, then put a high refresh gaming monitor on it and treat the combination as a docking station.  Doing that for $800 could get rugged though.  If the only gaming she wants to do is some slime rancher and Stardew valley or animal crossing though, don’t even bother with the external box.  Spend the whole $800 on whatever surface with pen you can get for that.  Those games are potato

What I'm referring to is a laptop that has both integrated and discrete graphics. The way that gaming laptops that have both work is by default to use the integrated graphics in low use situations and they switch to the discrete card when gaming or when it is needed automatically. What I was saying is that if OP buys one that has both it will use less power when taking notes over when gaming because it should be using the integrated and not the discrete in a low use scenario. If OP's sister is literally only needing a laptop for note taking a discrete graphics card is entirely unnecessary. 

[Aereldor]

11 hours ago, SpookyCitrus said:

Getting one with an SSD only will also help with battery life. 

Lmao do you really think I'm looking at laptops with spinnies, come on. It's 2022.

 

11 hours ago, SpookyCitrus said:

If OP's sister is literally only needing a laptop for note taking a discrete graphics card is entirely unnecessary. 

Look man, I've been on this forum for 7 years and have thousands of posts, do you really think I believe my sister needs an RTX 3050 to take notes in class? This is a gaming laptop that needs to be able to survive 8 or so hours of very light use (note-taking, web browsing for research etc.) on battery.  I know a Ryzen 5600H is efficient, but when the laptop it's in is advertised as 'up to 8 hours' even with efficient components, it makes me think it's got the dinky 45W/h battery in it (not even the 60 smh) and will never realistically see 8 hours, let alone reliably get 8 hours. 

 

11 hours ago, SpookyCitrus said:

What I'm referring to is a laptop that has both integrated and discrete graphics. 

Every laptop that has a dGPU also has an iGPU... I can't think of a single laptop that ONLY has a dGPU.

 

11 hours ago, SpookyCitrus said:

The way that gaming laptops that have both work is by default to use the integrated graphics in low use situations and they switch to the discrete card when gaming or when it is needed automatically. 

What you're describing is... Literally every gaming laptop. There is no other kind, except for the marketing scam ones that claim a dinky netbook with just a 4600u is a 'gaming' laptop.

[Aereldor]

11 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

I don’t see why they wouldn’t.  They’re in the same business.  I don’t have any specifics though.  It might possibly be a bad deal.  Sometimes those things will sell for x% under MSRP, and if x% is more than what they go for new they keep at it anyway just to maintain the talking point of MSRP for their sales force even if basically no one buys one.   In any case a serious question should probably be posed tomorrow, One never knows who decides to see if your leg has bells on it today.

Lmfao facts. Yeah afaik only Dell has really good refurb/overstock inventory, Acer and Lenovo are kinda meh. Apple's alright too but hardly gaming, but I've never for the life of me been able to find something similar for other manufacturers. Clevo and its rebrands would sell refurb through Amazon but understandably that was a little sketchy.

 

11 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

If the only gaming she wants to do is some slime rancher and Stardew valley or animal crossing though, don’t even bother with the external box.  Spend the whole $800 on whatever surface with pen you can get for that.  Those games are potato

Bruh I wish, she wants to play modded Skyrim (maybe even VR), Elden Ring, and RDR2. I raised her well :') 

 

She originally wanted to get a switch and just stick with her current laptop but we grew up modding games together so changed her mind. I hear you on the desktop enclosure, but she's due for a laptop upgrade anyway, I think what she's running right now is a 6200u with no dGPU. Another big reason I'm trying to find an RTX 3050 or 3050 Ti is how much DLSS does for future-proofing. It's going to be pretty rough fitting a desktop 3050, an enclosure, and a device into $800 even used, like you said-

 

11 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

Doing that for $800 could get rugged though. 

And we're the type to keep our devices for as long as possible, so I'm leaning towards the laptop upgrade. 

 

I'm also wondering since those Lenovos come with either 45 or 60 W/h batteries, if they're swappable. The case is the same, so maybe I could just stick in the bigger battery lol. I know that's probably too good to be true. Guess I keep looking.

 

HMU if you know anything with a combo of AMD chip, RTX 3050/ti, and a big battery, 80 or better, I guess I'll stretch by $100 or so. 

[Bombastinator]

2 hours ago, soundlogic said:

Lmfao facts. Yeah afaik only Dell has really good refurb/overstock inventory, Acer and Lenovo are kinda meh. Apple's alright too but hardly gaming, but I've never for the life of me been able to find something similar for other manufacturers. Clevo and its rebrands would sell refurb through Amazon but understandably that was a little sketchy.

 

Bruh I wish, she wants to play modded Skyrim (maybe even VR), Elden Ring, and RDR2. I raised her well :') 

 

She originally wanted to get a switch and just stick with her current laptop but we grew up modding games together so changed her mind. I hear you on the desktop enclosure, but she's due for a laptop upgrade anyway, I think what she's running right now is a 6200u with no dGPU. Another big reason I'm trying to find an RTX 3050 or 3050 Ti is how much DLSS does for future-proofing. It's going to be pretty rough fitting a desktop 3050, an enclosure, and a device into $800 even used, like you said-

 

And we're the type to keep our devices for as long as possible, so I'm leaning towards the laptop upgrade. 

 

I'm also wondering since those Lenovos come with either 45 or 60 W/h batteries, if they're swappable. The case is the same, so maybe I could just stick in the bigger battery lol. I know that's probably too good to be true. Guess I keep looking.

 

HMU if you know anything with a combo of AMD chip, RTX 3050/ti, and a big battery, 80 or better, I guess I'll stretch by $100 or so. 

This sounds more like a 1300 machine than an 800 machine.  What about an egpu for her current laptop or maybe a steamdeck instead of a switch with a Bluetooth keyboard? 

[Aereldor]

12 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

This sounds more like a 1300 machine than an 800 machine.  What about an egpu for her current laptop or maybe a steamdeck instead of a switch with a Bluetooth keyboard? 

Yeah but once she's due for a laptop replacement it'll be pretty silly having invested all this lol, not to mention an eGPU is clunky. 

 

How inefficient is a Core i5 11400H compared to a Ryzen 5600H? There are loads of options with that chip, many with larger batteries.

[SpookyCitrus]

18 hours ago, soundlogic said:

Lmao do you really think I'm looking at laptops with spinnies, come on. It's 2022.

 

Look man, I've been on this forum for 7 years and have thousands of posts, do you really think I believe my sister needs an RTX 3050 to take notes in class? This is a gaming laptop that needs to be able to survive 8 or so hours of very light use (note-taking, web browsing for research etc.) on battery.  I know a Ryzen 5600H is efficient, but when the laptop it's in is advertised as 'up to 8 hours' even with efficient components, it makes me think it's got the dinky 45W/h battery in it (not even the 60 smh) and will never realistically see 8 hours, let alone reliably get 8 hours. 

 

Every laptop that has a dGPU also has an iGPU... I can't think of a single laptop that ONLY has a dGPU.

 

What you're describing is... Literally every gaming laptop. There is no other kind, except for the marketing scam ones that claim a dinky netbook with just a 4600u is a 'gaming' laptop.

A lot of laptops still come with mechanical HDDs in 2022, it's still a very common yet unfortunate issue with big name brand companies and them striving to hit that bottom line. I see brand new laptops weekly that come in with mechanical drives, new gaming laptops are usually all SSDs these days minus ones that come with both. The only reason I even mentioned mechanical HDDs was in regard to power consumption and how much more efficient SSDs are, I never said that's what you were getting... As for the dGPU and iGPU, again it was a comparison and me explaining myself when someone misunderstood what I was saying in a previous reply, I meant no offense or even said anything about your experience or character in the forums. You're putting words in my mouth so to speak, as apparently I came off in the wrong way to you, I'm not here to argue or re-explain everything I say, so good luck on your search. 

[Aereldor]

@Bombastinatoryo, her budget's gone up, $1000ish now. Comparing to an XPS 9310 refurbished for $1050, but ideally there's something with a big battery, AMD or Alder Lake chip, and an RTX 3050. 

 

Anything come to mind?

[Bombastinator]

1 hour ago, soundlogic said:

@Bombastinatoryo, her budget's gone up, $1000ish now. Comparing to an XPS 9310 refurbished for $1050, but ideally there's something with a big battery, AMD or Alder Lake chip, and an RTX 3050. 

 

Anything come to mind?

‘S not so much “big battery” as hours of use.  More mAH doesn’t matter if the thing is less efficient. At that budget the m1 air gets into the mix.  It’s got screen, track pad, sound, keyboard, and battery life advantages, but it doesn’t play all games well and it’s only got a dGPU.

 

One thing to keep in mind is some laptops can’t run their discrete GPUs full speed on battery at all.  Would this then mean they have lousy batteries?  This I understand is one of the differences between the AMD stuff and the intel stuff.  Most AMD machines can run their dGPU full speed on battery where a lot of the intel ones can’t.  Implies the AMD stuff is a good bit more efficient . 

Edited April 4, 2022 by Bombastinator

[Aereldor]

16 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

‘S not so much “big battery” as hours of use.  More mAH doesn’t matter if the thing is less efficient. At that budget the m1 air gets into the mix.  It’s got screen, track pad, sound, keyboard, and battery life advantages, but it doesn’t play all games well and it’s only got a dGPU.

 

One thing to keep in mind is some laptops can’t run their discrete GPUs full speed on battery at all.  Would this then mean they have lousy batteries?  This I understand is one of the differences between the AMD stuff and the intel stuff.  Most AMD machines can run their dGPU full speed on battery where a lot of the intel ones can’t.  Implies the AMD stuff is a good bit more efficient . 

Right, yeah she's looking at an Asus Vivobook OLED with a 65 w/H battery, it has a 5800H so I figure she'll get like 10 hours on dark mode, light use etc. 

 

But something that's efficient AND has a bigger battery will last longer. There's nothingg in the sub-$1100 space that has a giant ass battery? 

[Bombastinator]

8 hours ago, soundlogic said:

Right, yeah she's looking at an Asus Vivobook OLED with a 65 w/H battery, it has a 5800H so I figure she'll get like 10 hours on dark mode, light use etc. 

 

But something that's efficient AND has a bigger battery will last longer. There's nothingg in the sub-$1100 space that has a giant ass battery? 

One would think there would be.  Batteries aren’t that expensive CC for cc.  This seems to be right in the arc wheelhouse though.  If you don’t pull the trigger before those come out they might be worth looking at.  They apparently do about the same wattage as the cpu they’re packaged with which is sometime half or less of what some other laptop dGPUS do.