Keep the 2024 or wait for the 2025 upgrade?

[Buffalufacus]

After 10 years my i7 4770k/GTX 770 laptop has met its compatibility end. Right before Christmas, I picked up a Lenovo Legion 7i (14900hx/4070) on sale, and it just arrived today. I told myself not to buy into the CES hype, as many years are just small iterations and nothing special... However, this year feels different so far. 

 

The big question is, do I keep this current gen and use it until it dies, or do I wait for another 6-11 months to get a newer gen machine?  It's not an emergency to have this machine, as I only use it when I travel, but I'm also worried that if I wait, a similar spec machine will be more expensive due to what I assume is impending price hikes from the US government.

 

Any quick thoughts? I know we know very little about the new mobile CPU and GPU, but I'm always looking for more educated opinions on stuff like this.

[Shimejii]

Keep what you have until it cant do it anymore. You have quite a beefy system that will last you for years. You came from a 4770k to a 14900... thats  a MASSIVE jump, now most things will be a marginal one.

[Beskar_Armour]

In my opinion no upgrade is automatically worth it no matter how big the performance jump is. If the device you have does what you need it to do, then there is no reason to upgrade for the sake of it. 

 

With that being said, this relies on the idea that things will get cheaper with time which is almost always true, but I do understand being warry of incoming price hikes. I think the easy answer is that the machine you have can almost certainly last longer than 4 years, so this becomes less of a problem, but if you push the current gen device to its limits and are constantly needing more power, than it could be worth it to buy the newer model before prices go up. And honestly, if the new model isn't that much more expensive than the current one then obviously the newer gen is just a better purchase.

[Millios]

1 hour ago, Beskar_Armour said:

In my opinion no upgrade is automatically worth it no matter how big the performance jump is. If the device you have does what you need it to do, then there is no reason to upgrade for the sake of it.

Imma cut you off there

There is a MAJOR difference between for example a game running and being playable or say for videos there is a MAJOR difference between "doing" and doing editing.

ANY PC can "do" things but just cause you can play say fortnite it doenst mean that it'll look good, hit decent framerates and be stable, not freeze up when in area with others, crash etc etc

An upgrade is worth it when you can go from barely meeting the baseline or worse to "Wow I can actually do stuff and enjoy it" which isnt the case here for this fella since he has a great system to say the least

[Beskar_Armour]

Just now, Millios said:

Imma cut you off there

There is a MAJOR difference between for example a game running and being playable or say for videos there is a MAJOR difference between "doing" and doing editing.

Sorry, I probably should have put the word "well" in my original statement. I fully understand exactly what you are saying, what I should have posted originally was "if the device you have does what you need it to do well, and you enjoy its performance." I definitely understand that there is a difference between running something, and running it well, I just meant that at some point, upgrades mean the difference between like 300 frames and 500 frames on a 200hz monitor, or something. This is just an example, but my point isn't "don't buy the good hardware", its that if your current system works well then you don't have to upgrade because the new chip is faster, unless what you are doing benefits from that increased speed. 

 

Probably my bad for not wording my first post properly, but I definitely intended more towards what you were saying, then just "your system runs the game so don't buy new stuff"

[Millios]

Just now, Beskar_Armour said:

Probably my bad for not wording my first post properly, but I definitely intended more towards what you were saying, then just "your system runs the game so don't buy new stuff"

Dont sweat it too much buddy

Corrections are made for everyone and none is an exception. Hell I've made mistakes like you and worse so dont worry

End of the day, we both agree the OP has a pretty BEEFY laptop and doesnt need a new one cause they have an i9  14900 and a 4070

[Buffalufacus]

5 hours ago, Millios said:

Dont sweat it too much buddy

Corrections are made for everyone and none is an exception. Hell I've made mistakes like you and worse so dont worry

End of the day, we both agree the OP has a pretty BEEFY laptop and doesnt need a new one cause they have an i9  14900 and a 4070

So, I think that's the root of my question. This laptop is still BNIB with a 30 day return window. At the rate things are going, this machine won't last 7 to 10 years playing new games. But will a new Gen machine have a better chance? Or will that 10-20% difference in power/specs/etc actually make a difference and squeeze another year out of the machine? 

 

Like I said, I use this the few times a year I travel, so since it's not an everyday thing, I do want something that will last. Like, as an example, I had a 6650xt on my desktop recently, and noticed while playing SW Outlaws that it was using 6-7gb of VRAM on an 8GB card on LowMed settings. The 5070m looks to have 8gb as well, but the 5070TIm has 12gb.  Prices are starting ~$200 more than what I paid, so I'm wondering if catching it on possible sale, even at that slight increase is worth it?

 

On the flip side, I've also not explored the used market much, both for purchasing but also for reselling. If 2-4 year old laptops in good shape tend to hold value decently, I'm way more ready to keep the thing.

[Beskar_Armour]

5 hours ago, Buffalufacus said:

So, I think that's the root of my question. This laptop is still BNIB with a 30 day return window. At the rate things are going, this machine won't last 7 to 10 years playing new games. But will a new Gen machine have a better chance? Or will that 10-20% difference in power/specs/etc actually make a difference and squeeze another year out of the machine? 

 

Like I said, I use this the few times a year I travel, so since it's not an everyday thing, I do want something that will last. Like, as an example, I had a 6650xt on my desktop recently, and noticed while playing SW Outlaws that it was using 6-7gb of VRAM on an 8GB card on LowMed settings. The 5070m looks to have 8gb as well, but the 5070TIm has 12gb.  Prices are starting ~$200 more than what I paid, so I'm wondering if catching it on possible sale, even at that slight increase is worth it?

 

On the flip side, I've also not explored the used market much, both for purchasing but also for reselling. If 2-4 year old laptops in good shape tend to hold value decently, I'm way more ready to keep the thing.

Honestly if that’s your goal, I am going to say probably keep the 2024 model. Jumping to the end of your post, laptops absolutely can sell if they aren’t crazy destroyed or anything, so that will help offset the price of a newer model later. And honestly, yeah, I wouldn’t expect the new parts to “last” that much longer than anything current gen. Keeping the slightly cheaper current model is probably your best bet, and then 4-5 years from now either prices will be fine, or you can sell this one and get the new one then anyways.

[Millios]

7 hours ago, Buffalufacus said:

So, I think that's the root of my question. This laptop is still BNIB with a 30 day return window. At the rate things are going, this machine won't last 7 to 10 years playing new games. But will a new Gen machine have a better chance? Or will that 10-20% difference in power/specs/etc actually make a difference and squeeze another year out of the machine? 

 

Like I said, I use this the few times a year I travel, so since it's not an everyday thing, I do want something that will last. Like, as an example, I had a 6650xt on my desktop recently, and noticed while playing SW Outlaws that it was using 6-7gb of VRAM on an 8GB card on LowMed settings. The 5070m looks to have 8gb as well, but the 5070TIm has 12gb.  Prices are starting ~$200 more than what I paid, so I'm wondering if catching it on possible sale, even at that slight increase is worth it?

 

On the flip side, I've also not explored the used market much, both for purchasing but also for reselling. If 2-4 year old laptops in good shape tend to hold value decently, I'm way more ready to keep the thing.

For 7-10 years? Probably neither will be able to competently play AAA games 10 years from now so either or is pointless

As far as the 6650xt is concerned its also cause its older card and outlaws is uh not well made an optimized cause its from EA.

Games detect if they are on desktops or laptops and usually have optimizations

[Buffalufacus]

12 hours ago, Beskar_Armour said:

Honestly if that’s your goal, I am going to say probably keep the 2024 model. Jumping to the end of your post, laptops absolutely can sell if they aren’t crazy destroyed or anything, so that will help offset the price of a newer model later. And honestly, yeah, I wouldn’t expect the new parts to “last” that much longer than anything current gen. Keeping the slightly cheaper current model is probably your best bet, and then 4-5 years from now either prices will be fine, or you can sell this one and get the new one then anyways.

NGL, that's the most reasonable answer I've gotten, and you might have swayed me. It's so hard to tell what's going to happen... Depending on what reports and made up conclusions "experts" are saying, things could go up anywhere between 25-70%, since I highly doubt any company will just take that hit without either passing it on to the customer, reducing the quality of the product and still charge the same price, or do both. 

 

That leads me to my next question now...I spent $1600 on the 4070 variant...is it worth spending $400 for the 4080 12gb version? Or possibly still returning the 4070 and hoping to find a close out sale on a 4080 variant in the near future? Or is that a lost cause? I haven't done any research on laptops in a literal decade 

[Beskar_Armour]

9 minutes ago, Buffalufacus said:

NGL, that's the most reasonable answer I've gotten, and you might have swayed me. It's so hard to tell what's going to happen... Depending on what reports and made up conclusions "experts" are saying, things could go up anywhere between 25-70%, since I highly doubt any company will just take that hit without either passing it on to the customer, reducing the quality of the product and still charge the same price, or do both. 

 

That leads me to my next question now...I spent $1600 on the 4070 variant...is it worth spending $400 for the 4080 12gb version? Or possibly still returning the 4070 and hoping to find a close out sale on a 4080 variant in the near future? Or is that a lost cause? I haven't done any research on laptops in a literal decade 

That's a bit harder.  The 4070 mobile only has 8GB of Vram, which is starting to be not enough for super high end games. That being said, I personally have a desktop card with only 8gb of Vram, and I have never experienced even close to issues, so it isn't a definite problem. If you are going to want to play every new game once it comes out, I might go for the 4080 12gb, since as you noted earlier games are taking more and more Vram. If you have a few games you enjoy playing, or know you can find older games to enjoy, then the 4070 is almost overkill and will give you great gaming experience. As far as finding a close out sale, honestly I wouldn't hold out hope, and I really wouldn't return the 4070 before you can guarantee that you will get what you want. Between scalpers and dwindling stock I would expect the current gen models to disappear relatively quickly before you could get your hands on one.

[Buffalufacus]

7 hours ago, Beskar_Armour said:

That's a bit harder.  The 4070 mobile only has 8GB of Vram, which is starting to be not enough for super high end games. That being said, I personally have a desktop card with only 8gb of Vram, and I have never experienced even close to issues, so it isn't a definite problem. If you are going to want to play every new game once it comes out, I might go for the 4080 12gb, since as you noted earlier games are taking more and more Vram. If you have a few games you enjoy playing, or know you can find older games to enjoy, then the 4070 is almost overkill and will give you great gaming experience. As far as finding a close out sale, honestly I wouldn't hold out hope, and I really wouldn't return the 4070 before you can guarantee that you will get what you want. Between scalpers and dwindling stock I would expect the current gen models to disappear relatively quickly before you could get your hands on one.

Solid call. I knew I could trust a helper in Beskar Much appreciated.

 

Now the next question - I can get a 4080 variant for 1999.99 from B&H, or 2099.99 from Micro Center - only difference between the two is the Micro Center unit has 2 TB of storage installed and Windows 11 Pro vs 1 TB/Windows Home - Those two upgrades worth $100?  I was planning on upgrading the storage no matter what, to 2-4tb - not sure what Home vs Pro offers as a worthwhile difference.

[Beskar_Armour]

2 hours ago, Buffalufacus said:

Solid call. I knew I could trust a helper in Beskar Much appreciated.

Haha "This is the Way".

 

2 hours ago, Buffalufacus said:

Now the next question - I can get a 4080 variant for 1999.99 from B&H, or 2099.99 from Micro Center - only difference between the two is the Micro Center unit has 2 TB of storage installed and Windows 11 Pro vs 1 TB/Windows Home - Those two upgrades worth $100?  I was planning on upgrading the storage no matter what, to 2-4tb - not sure what Home vs Pro offers as a worthwhile difference.

You can get an extra terabyte of storage for less than $60, and windows 11 pro is barely an upgrade. The only difference you would likely care about that is listed on the Microsoft website is the lack of bitlocker, the rest are aimed at business applications (like remote deployment stuff) of which there are usually 3rd party apps for stuff if you really care about something in the future. Other than that I think there are a few minor backend differences but nothing that really matters. Overall, not worth $100 imo.