Intel Ultra 9 185H or Ultra 7 256V?

[koji]

Ultra 9 185H Link: https://store.acer.com/en-ie/acer-swift-go-14-oled-ultra-thin-laptop-sfg14-73-silver-nx-ksgek-00s
Ultra 7 256V Link: https://store.acer.com/en-ie/acer-swift-14-ai-oled-ultra-thin-laptop-sf14-51-blue

Hi, I'd like to seek advice which of the two would be a better deal overall for me to use for remote work. Please understand that other brands/models might be expensive in my location which is why I ended up with Acer.

The way I see it, Ultra 7 has better single-core & more RAM. But Ultra 9 has more cores, better multi-core but less ram. They cost around 1k-1.1k USD. Ultra 9 is also cheaper by just around 35 USD.

 

Here's the expected daily use from me.

1-3 Excel Workbooks open (Can close some as needed)

Chrome around 3-9 Tabs (Can close tabs as needed)

Microsoft Remote Desktop (Connecting to another PC)

1x Windows VM (I need a VM but the lowest spec/setting acceptable should be fine)

 

My gut tells me to go for Ultra 9 (last gen) than the Ultra 7 (new gen) for more cores and threads.

Though I'm unsure how much ram really is needed these days.

EDIT:

I've also read that the Ultra 7 (New Gen) is very power efficient but less powerful than last gen's counterpart.

I'm just not sure if by how much less especially that aside from the gen gap, there's also a difference of tier from 7 to 9.

[emosun]

Those both appear to have soldered ram so i wouldnt buy either. they're just going to be unfixable landfill.

Also seeing as your tasks are super basic I'd recommend buying something like , half the price of those.

[Dr. Will0hlep]

If this device is only for working at home you should get a desktop, as it would be cheaper, more repairable, and more upgradable. (assuming you have a desk)

[koji]

6 minutes ago, emosun said:

Those both appear to have soldered ram so i wouldnt buy either. they're just going to be unfixable landfill.

Also seeing as your tasks are super basic I'd recommend buying something like , half the price of those.

I really wouldn't call them basic, especially running excel formulas. Also about it being soldered or not should be a separate topic, I simply want to know which of the two would a better fit for me.

 

2 minutes ago, will0hlep said:

If this device is only for working at home you should get a desktop, as it would be cheaper, more repairable, and more upgradable. (assuming you have a desk)

I do have a desktop, currently using a Ryzen 7 5800x w/ 32GB ram. Though use my desktop both for work, business and personal stuff so I'm not sure how much RAM I would need if I just separate work.

The decision of getting a new laptop really was because I'll have to travel a lot from around Q3 of this year to next year.

[emosun]

3 minutes ago, koji said:

I really wouldn't call them basic, especially running excel formulas. Also about it being soldered or not should be a separate topic, I simply want to know which of the two would a better fit for me.

excel formulas aren't going to really going to stress the machine to that extent unless of course you think nobody on earth has ever run excel prior to these two specific laptops being made. Pretty sure most computers made since excel released 39 years ago are capable of running it.

but if were forced to just choose one of the two , pick the one with 32gb of ram. the cpu speed increase isn't worth it considering the ram isn't upgradable and the machine isn't going to be around in a few years time anyway

[Dr. Will0hlep]

1 minute ago, emosun said:

excel formulas aren't going to really going to stress the machine to that extent

Clearly you've never seen me use Excel...

[emosun]

6 minutes ago, will0hlep said:

Clearly you've never seen me use Excel...

no but i do maintain the hardware for a company that most definitely has some of the heaviest excels I've ever seen.

[Haswellx86]

7 minutes ago, koji said:

I really wouldn't call them basic, especially running excel formulas.

What?

 

The 185H is going to be much more powerful than the 256V (the listing says 258V though).

 

If all you do is Excel, you do not need a 185H, but apparently the 185H is cheaper than the 258V? If that is true, the 185H is much better in terms of value. I will not understand your pricing so make sure to compare well.

 

21 minutes ago, emosun said:

Those both appear to have soldered ram so i wouldnt buy either. they're just going to be unfixable landfill.

Soldered RAM is going to be much more efficient and also allow faster speeds. If you buy enough from the start, it will last you that long.

 

23 minutes ago, emosun said:

Also seeing as your tasks are super basic I'd recommend buying something like , half the price of those.

Cheaper and lighter are 2 different things. I wouldn't need a Macbook but it is premium, right? The 258V will give a more premium experience while being light.

 

Lunar Lake has much better single threaded performance, probably even outperforming with that 300 MHz difference, and much better power efficiency than Meteor Lake. Intel 4 and Intel 3 nodes have kind of been a failure. If you don't need the multi-threaded performance of the 185H, the 258V could provide a better experience, but if just in terms of performance, I doubt that and in terms of performance per value, it is not good. It is just premium kind of device, not giving you value or performance.

 

If you go with the 185H, make sure to get enough memory.

[emosun]

9 minutes ago, Haswellx86 said:

Soldered RAM is going to be much more efficient and also allow faster speeds. If you buy enough from the start, it will last you that long.

ram of any form that is functional will out perform ram of any form that is not functional.

The only people who say "soldered ram and glued in unreplaceable batteries are just the way thing s are going" are actually just saying how bad they are at shopping.

bought a new laptop last year , ram is replaceable , battery is replaceable , entire thing is assembled with screws , wasn't even hard to find. Replaced a laptop I was using that was 14 years old and kept alive with ram upgrades and battery replacements.

If you wanna buy soldered ram then be my guest. clearly you're rich and do not care about longevity. Buy a mclaren while you're out.

[Haswellx86]

@emosun

 

Buying soldered doesn't have to do with me being rich, and I am clearly not. Buying low amounts of soldered is dumb, but if you get enough for the amount of time you plan to use the device, it could be good.

 

DIMMs really do suck. That is why we are seeing CAMM2, and even in desktops as well. Lunar Lake makes the best use of soldered memory. It's power efficient, much more bandwidth, better signal stability, much smaller and thinner in size. I honestly want to see soldered memory on the desktop for those who want to buy it (seems like CAMM2 is providing enough speeds), or heck imagine having HBM memory for the extreme. Memory speeds have always been much slower than CPU speeds anyways. That is why we rely so much on prefetching and caching. That is why 3D V-Cache makes so much difference.

 

Nobody is stopping you from buying SODIMM if you intend to upgrade later and prolong the longevity. If I were in that place, then I would buy SODIMM too.

 

17 minutes ago, emosun said:

If you wanna buy a soldered ram then be my guest. clearly you're rich and do not care about longevity. Buy a mclaren while you're out.

It's upon the person to care about longevity. If I have enough money I would buy soldered or else go with SODIMM. But honestly for me, I would try to buy soldered by ensuring I don't need more memory and try to get the full spec. At the worst, remember that soldered memory can still be upgraded too. Depends on the skill of the person to not brick it.

[emosun]

4 minutes ago, Haswellx86 said:

DIMMs really do suck

again , any functional ram that isn't broken is superior to any non functional ram that is.

 

7 minutes ago, Haswellx86 said:

At the worst, remember that soldered memory can still be upgraded too. Depends on the skill of the person to not brick it.

yeah and i'm sure if i welded my car wheels on a skilled enough mechanic could still change the tire.

 

9 minutes ago, Haswellx86 said:

Buying soldered doesn't have to do with me being rich, and I am clearly not.

sure it does. You want the replacement parts to cost more , or you want the repair to cost more. Either way you clearly have enough money to be throwing lapotops away like mcdonalds cups.

I do love the whole "blindly accepting anything new regardless of the obvious issues due to absorbing marketing jargon"  angle. It's always a fun read. makes the internet more enjoyable.

[koji]

1 hour ago, Haswellx86 said:

What?

 

The 185H is going to be much more powerful than the 256V (the listing says 258V though).

 

If all you do is Excel, you do not need a 185H, but apparently the 185H is cheaper than the 258V? If that is true, the 185H is much better in terms of value. I will not understand your pricing so make sure to compare well.

 

Soldered RAM is going to be much more efficient and also allow faster speeds. If you buy enough from the start, it will last you that long.

 

Cheaper and lighter are 2 different things. I wouldn't need a Macbook but it is premium, right? The 258V will give a more premium experience while being light.

 

Lunar Lake has much better single threaded performance, probably even outperforming with that 300 MHz difference, and much better power efficiency than Meteor Lake. Intel 4 and Intel 3 nodes have kind of been a failure. If you don't need the multi-threaded performance of the 185H, the 258V could provide a better experience, but if just in terms of performance, I doubt that and in terms of performance per value, it is not good. It is just premium kind of device, not giving you value or performance.

 

If you go with the 185H, make sure to get enough memory.

I'm honestly leaning towards the weaker 258V because of the 32GB memory since the one that goes with 185H only comes with 16GB, the 32GB one is no longer available even from other retailers. This is the exact reason why I'm torn apart. I kinda know both machines can probably work but I just dont know whether or not I'll need more memory but weaker processor, or stronger processor but less (not necessarily insufficient) memory.

 

 

@emosun, to be fair about the memory argument, if the user has enough memory installed, they wont have to upgrade for a long time. And by the time they're gonna need to upgrade, a newer, faster, more efficient processor and/or graphics is already in the market. So personally, I think while upgradeable memory is nice, having not isn't really a "Oh no, avoid it at all cost" type of thing.

[Haswellx86]

14 hours ago, koji said:

I'm honestly leaning towards the weaker 258V because of the 32GB memory since the one that goes with 185H only comes with 16GB, the 32GB one is no longer available even from other retailers. This is the exact reason why I'm torn apart. I kinda know both machines can probably work but I just dont know whether or not I'll need more memory but weaker processor, or stronger processor but less (not necessarily insufficient) memory.

I am still going to point out that the 258V laptop is a bad value in comparison to at what you are getting the 185H laptop. I don't know what you exactly plan to do on them. If really just excel, either will do. So really in that case you could get the 258V. But it is similar for getting a Macbook for gaming. It's a premium device with less performance. Both laptops have OLED displays which is great (not good for battery life though). I am not sure but the 258V one could be lighter in weight. You should check that out yourselves that that makes a difference.

 

If you did something like programming or anything heavier, I would have strongly suggested the 185H. For your work, you could get the 258V.

 

If you are not getting 32 GB in the 185H, I suggest to find other deals.