Clearing through the B$ with AMD laptop chips

Helpful Tech Witch · August 4

I have a laptop currently with a ryzen 7 pro 3700u. Its relatively fast but I am wanting to get a replacement thats faster, especially the gpu.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/166886659677 is a laptop I am currently looking at. It has a much faster CPU, but it has a Vega 8. My laptop has a vega 10. However, it seems there may be major differences in the igps even though they have the same name? Is that true?
Are there better options maybe? Im looking for sub 400$ on ebay, preferably Ryzen, and 14in or smaller. (theres many no os listings, those are fine, I plan to wipe the os anyways)

I'm pretty good with tech naming usually but AMD's laptop chip naming is so god aweful, I cant make heads or tails of anything it feels like.

AbydosOne · August 4

10 minutes ago, Helpful Tech Witch said:

It has a much faster CPU, but it has a Vega 8. My laptop has a vega 10.

The number is the quantity of compute units. However, some cursory Wikipedia-ing seems to indicate the newer iGPU runs at 2.0GHz, while the older is only 1.4GHz, so I think the 7730U is still a little ahead in raw performance.

8 minutes ago, Helpful Tech Witch said:

I'm pretty good with tech naming usually but AMD's laptop chip naming is so god aweful, I cant make heads or tails of anything it feels like.

Up to and including 6000-series, the U-spec chips were based on the previous Zen. (3700U = 2000-series = Zen+)

With 7000 and up, the third digit is the Zen version. (7730U = Zen3)

IMO, it's weird, but it's not especially difficult to follow if you know the secret. Epyc has had the generation as the last digit since the beginning.

Somerandomtechyboi · August 4

1 hour ago, Helpful Tech Witch said:

I have a laptop currently with a ryzen 7 pro 3700u. Its relatively fast but I am wanting to get a replacement thats faster, especially the gpu.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/166886659677 is a laptop I am currently looking at. It has a much faster CPU, but it has a Vega 8. My laptop has a vega 10. However, it seems there may be major differences in the igps even though they have the same name? Is that true?
Are there better options maybe? Im looking for sub 400$ on ebay, preferably Ryzen, and 14in or smaller. (theres many no os listings, those are fine, I plan to wipe the os anyways)

I'm pretty good with tech naming usually but AMD's laptop chip naming is so god aweful, I cant make heads or tails of anything it feels like.

thats a zen 3 chip basically a 5825u with a different name

if you want a better igpu get a 7735hs/u or 6800h/u theyre both the same zen3+ and should have a much better igpu (12cu rdna 2 based) then theres the 7740/7745hs/u thats rdna 3 based still 12 cu if you can afford it

Helpful Tech Witch · August 5

1 hour ago, AbydosOne said:

The number is the quantity of compute units. However, some cursory Wikipedia-ing seems to indicate the newer iGPU runs at 2.0GHz, while the older is only 1.4GHz, so I think the 7730U is still a little ahead in raw performance.

OH THATS THE DIFFERENCE?? I knew the 7/8/10/11 with vega was the number of CUs but i couldnt figure out what the performance differece was suppsoed to be, that makes a lot of sense.

1 hour ago, AbydosOne said:

With 7000 and up, the third digit is the Zen version. (7730U = Zen3)

yea i figured out that much. im hoping that the newer arcitectures are as power eficient as ive heard and i get an upgrade from 2.5hrs

23 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

thats a zen 3 chip basically a 5825u with a different name

if you want a better igpu get a 7735hs/u or 6800h/u theyre both the same zen3+ and should have a much better igpu (12cu rdna 2 based) then theres the 7740/7745hs/u thats rdna 3 based still 12 cu if you can afford it

the cheapest laptops that have those chips are 50% over my price range at least

im really only able to max out around 400$

Somerandomtechyboi · August 5

32 minutes ago, Helpful Tech Witch said:

the cheapest laptops that have those chips are 50% over my price range at least

im really only able to max out around 400$

yea might wanna save up for awhile as those igpus arent gonna be much of an upgrade over your current one

i assume your budget already includes selling your current laptop?

Helpful Tech Witch · August 5

2 hours ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

yea might wanna save up for awhile as those igpus arent gonna be much of an upgrade over your current one

i assume your budget already includes selling your current laptop?

no, i cant really afford not having a laptop for long enough to sell my current and get the money.
I do want a faster gpu but realistically marginally better is all I need, i mainly want to be able to... legally play some wiiu and switch games
faster cpu and better battery life is also very good