Return newly purchased laptop and wait for Skylake?

[FlyingSentry]

I just purchased an HP OMEN a few days ago from Best Buy. I just got the news that Skylake mobile GPUs are coming out and that MSI plans to release their laptops like the GS series at the end of September. I have until the 14th to return the laptop due to Best Buy's shitty return policy. I wanted to get MSI GS-Series laptop because it is thin, light, great keyboard, stays cool, and has a GTX 965m (or a GTX 970 on sale) for the same price as the OMEN, but the battery was a deal breaker for me that could only handle about 3 hours of light usage. Now maybe the new processors will give laptops the 4 hours+ battery life that I need but they have not announced battery life, I am just speculating. I am going to college on September 20th and have a MacBook Pro that will allow me to type my papers for my GE classes. This quarter I am taking only GE classes but next quarter (January) I will be starting engineering classes that use AutoCAD and Solidworks (which this Macbook Pro can not do). Now, should I return the laptop go 2-3 weeks without a good laptop and hope that the new MSI laptops have better battery life or just keep the OMEN? I will do some light-medium gaming along with work. I plan to keep this laptop for 2 years or more.

 

TL;DR Just bought HP OMEN, new mobile processors came out (Skylake), questioning to return the OMEN and wait for MSI GS laptop refresh with better battery life.

[007agentHP]

no

skylake is like %5 better. not worth it over haswell IMHO

[PlayStation 2]

hell fucking no unless it's for the gpu more than the cpu

[Enderman]

not really worth a few percent increase in performance

might get a bit better battery life though

[FlyingSentry]

hell fucking no unless it's for the gpu more than the cpu

I would do it just for the GPU but the battery life is just plain crap as of right now.

[FlyingSentry]

not really worth a few percent increase in performance

might get a bit better battery life though

How much would a bit be? 10%?

[FlyingSentry]

One more question. Would DDR4 improve the performance of AutoCAD or Solidworks?

[Enderman]

How much would a bit be? 10%?

less than that probably

no way to know without tests though

[FlyingSentry]

less than that probably

no way to know without tests though

And that is my problem with MSI. They did not (yet) announce any battery life improvements of their refreshed  laptops...

[Thebman712]

i would purely for better battery life 

[vXhanz]

I think the laptop you bought is probably good enough for what you want to do. The big ? is the battery life, but honestly how often are you going to be without your charger/cord while in class? It's been many years since I've been in a college class, so I'm not sure what kind of access you'll have to an outlet. 

 

All that being said I would probably return it and go with the updated platform. That's just me though. YMMV. 

[WolfDeville]

Just return it and wait. If you don't, you will most likely regret it later.

[Horse_in_Pita_Bread]

no

skylake is like %5 better. not worth it over haswell IMHO

You might be refering to the desktop version, the person is asking about the laptop versions where:

1. the improvement is more than 5% compared to laptop Haswell.

2. Power consumption is an important issue, Skylake has about 30%-50% improved battery life compared to Haswell.

3. Heat dissipation is an important issue, and Skylake laptops run cooler and quieter than Haswell.

 

 

less than that probably

no way to know without tests though

Way more than 10%, in some cases up to 50%.

If you have a discrete GPU then probably something like 25%-30%

 

 

Just return it and wait. If you don't, you will most likely regret it later.

I agree, silly time to buy Haswell based laptops.

If it's a luxury buy rather than immediate need, return it and sit on your hands until January 2016,

Skylake prices will go down and you will be able to buy a laptop that will last you 5-6 years easily.

Skylake is the next blockbuster from intel, just like Sandy bridge CPUs were at the time (my Sandy bridge Core i7 Dell bought 2011 still keeps up nicely).

 

And if you are really smart and patient (or have no problem buying a new laptop every year), you will wait to 2016 and buy Skylake-based laptop with Pascal based GPU, and double your battery life.

If maintained correctly such a system will last way past 2020, and after that your next CPU will probably no longer be silicone based.

 

 

One more question. Would DDR4 improve the performance of AutoCAD or Solidworks?

If it does, you'll not noticel the difference.

 

Cheers.

[Enderman]

Way more than 10%, in some cases up to 50%.

If you have a discrete GPU then probably something like 25%-30%

sorry but if you think skylake is a 50% improvement over haswell CPUs you are very wrong

look at your benchmarks again because you have no idea what you're talking about

 

skylake is AT MOST 30% better in iGPU tests, and less than 10% for the CPU

please don't spread misinformation, idk who told you it was 30% for the CPU, but whoever did is definitely not very smart

[Horse_in_Pita_Bread]

sorry but if you think skylake is a 50% improvement over haswell CPUs you are very wrong

look at your benchmarks again because you have no idea what you're talking about

 

skylake is AT MOST 30% better in iGPU tests, and less than 10% for the CPU

please don't spread misinformation, idk who told you it was 30% for the CPU, but whoever did is definitely not very smart

Talking about battery life, not performance.

[Enderman]

Talking about battery life, not performance.

ah ok

where did you get those numbers

[Horse_in_Pita_Bread]

ah ok

where did you get those numbers

The embargo was lifted 1st of September, all the numbers are out, and almost all partners unveiled their new laptop line-ups.

For example here:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9582/intel-skylake-mobile-desktop-launch-architecture-analysis

etc.

[Enderman]

The embargo was lifted 1st of September, all the numbers are out, and almost all partners unveiled their new laptop line-ups.

For example here:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9582/intel-skylake-mobile-desktop-launch-architecture-analysis

etc.

yeah I see, thats what intel claims, but where are the real world tests and benchmarks?

[Horse_in_Pita_Bread]

Will probably be out in a matter of days.

 

In anycase physics doesn't lie.

Apart from the architecture's designated power consumption improvements, when you move from 22nm to 14nm process, the improvement in power efficiency will be very substantial.

In CPU intensive tasks or onboard graphics (basically all U-series CPUs) you'll see the biggest impact.

In HQ series which tends to come with discrete GPU it will be less, but still very significant.

 

Haven't been this excited about a CPU launch since SandyBridge.

 

Now I'm just waiting for the Pascal architecture to be released.