Quote Hi all,

I'm about to buy a new laptop but I have a few questions. I'm a bit of a newbie when it comes to CPUs and GPUs so I'm not exactly sure which laptop to buy.
I'm currently torn between 3 laptops, all roughly similar prices.

1. Lenovo i7-8850u with 8gb ram and Nvidia Geforce 920mx-2GB


2. Lenovo i7-8550u with 8gb ram and AMD Radeon T530 2GB


3. Same as #2 but with an i5-8250u (slightly cheaper)

Questions:

1. Would there be any performance issues with the i5? The i7s are a bit more expensive so I don't want to buy one if an i5 will suffice!


2. Would the Nvidia Geforce 920mx be compatible with PD17 or would it have problems?


3. Are all Nvidia GPUs having problems with PD17 or only certain models?


4. What performs better with PD17, Nvidia or Radeon?

Thanks for your help!

Anyone?

Quote Anyone?

Sorry that nobody has responded, but this is a topic that comes up endlessly and you'll find answers for just about everything you're looking for by searching the forum. Also we're end users here and most people don't have time for comparing every possible hardware combination and likely can't answer your specific questions.

It's actually very difficult to even give you a "which is better" answer, because your needs will be affected by what kind of clips you're going to be working with and the specific types of edits you expect to be doing.

The only exception to that statement is that I ALWAYS tell people to get an i7 (or now, i9) over any i5. If money is tight, get an i7 with at least 8GB RAM and a 500GB SSD and skip on the discrete GPU.

You can certainly save money and get an i5, but its editing and producing performance will be 1/2 that of the same version i7 because it doesn't support hyperthreading. Maybe an i5 and dGPU will perform better than an i7 without a dGPU with the kinds of projects you'll be working on, but I don't have enough info to go against recommended an i7.

Maybe other people will eventually chime in with different opinions, but I think searching the forum is your best bet for making an informed purchase decision.

I agree. Put your money into a good processor first. Think of the GPU as a supplement to it.

I've found these PassMark benchmark charts invaluable.
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

Getting processor that rates 10,000 or better will give you a good head start.

If you select the Video Cards tab at the top of the list, you can set it to display benchmark ratings for graphics cards also.

I'm not sure what a good rule of thumb would be for selecting a graphics card because I don't know how intense your graphic needs are. But at least with these charts you can compare apples to apples rather than deciding on hardware based on brand name or impossible-to-decipher specs.

Thanks for your reply!

Quote
Sorry that nobody has responded, but this is a topic that comes up endlessly and you'll find answers for just about everything you're looking for by searching the forum. Also we're end users here and most people don't have time for comparing every possible hardware combination and likely can't answer your specific questions.

No problem, I totally understand!

I've searched high and low (the forum, Google and YouTube comments) trying to get answers re: the issue with Nvidia compatibility and I'm completely dizzy. I'm still unsure whether the 920mx, MX150 or MX110 will be compatible with PD17 :/

Quote The only exception to that statement is that I ALWAYS tell people to get an i7 (or now, i9) over any i5. If money is tight, get an i7 with at least 8GB RAM and a 500GB SSD and skip on the discrete GPU.

You can certainly save money and get an i5, but its editing and producing performance will be 1/2 that of the same version i7 because it doesn't support hyperthreading. Maybe an i5 and dGPU will perform better than an i7 without a dGPU with the kinds of projects you'll be working on, but I don't have enough info to go against recommended an i7.

I was originally overjoyed when you said i7 as that narrows it down a lot for me....until I did benchmarking and found that the Core i7-8550U in most of the system I've looked at isn't as good as the i5-8300H I've found in some laptops! (?!) I'm worried that if I splash out on the i7-8550U and the performance isn't good AND the GPU is incompatible then I'll be up the creek...

I guess my questions now are -

1) Will the Nvidia 920mx, MX150 or MX110 (all 2gb) be compatible with PD17? From what I've read it seems to be that PD16 had issues using the dedicated GPU on laptops with Nvidia chips.
2) Would AMD (also 2GB) GPU be a better choice for rendering? I've read posts on this forum saying both that AMD is preferred by CYberlink AND that PD is designed for Nvidia (!)
3) Will the i7-8550U be a good choice of processor for PD17 or would the i5-8300H be better? The i5 scores slightly higher on benchmarking, but I'm really not sure how that translates to performance with PD...

Many thanks again, I really appreciate the help.

Quote I agree. Put your money into a good processor first. Think of the GPU as a supplement to it.

I've found these PassMark benchmark charts invaluable.
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

Getting processor that rates 10,000 or better will give you a good head start.

If you select the Video Cards tab at the top of the list, you can set it to display benchmark ratings for graphics cards also.

I'm not sure what a good rule of thumb would be for selecting a graphics card because I don't know how intense your graphic needs are. But at least with these charts you can compare apples to apples rather than deciding on hardware based on brand name or impossible-to-decipher specs.

Thanks for the advice! My projects will be generally around 10mins long and for the most part won't feature any intense 3D animations or fancy stuff. Relatively straight forward transitions and the like. Mostly compilations of different clips and the odd music video here and there. Not multi-angle editing or feature length stuff.

Intel’s marketing in 2018 has changed with their processors. I can’t locate all the articles that I have read in the past but basically i3 can have 4 cores with no hyperthreading, i5 can have 4 cores with hyperthreading, i7 can have 8 cores with no hyperthreading, i9 can have 8 cores with hyperthreading.

The i5-8300H has 4 cores with hyperthreading for laptops and is the best of those you listed. See this passmark: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5-8300H+%40+2.30GHz .

None of the AMD and Nividia gpu that you listed are better than the integrated UHD 630 on the i5-8300h. The Intel and AMD one you listed has h.265 decoding while the Nvidia one does not. See this passmark: https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Intel+UHD+630 . It is probably better to get the best cpu that you can afford in whatever pc or laptop you want.

Quote Intel’s marketing in 2018 has changed with their processors. I can’t locate all the articles that I have read in the past but basically i3 can have 4 cores with no hyperthreading, i5 can have 4 cores with hyperthreading, i7 can have 8 cores with no hyperthreading, i9 can have 8 cores with hyperthreading.

The i5-8300H has 4 cores with hyperthreading for laptops and is the best of those you listed. See this passmark: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5-8300H+%40+2.30GHz .

None of the AMD and Nividia gpu that you listed are better than the integrated UHD 630 on the i5-8300h. The Intel and AMD one you listed has h.265 decoding while the Nvidia one does not. See this passmark: https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Intel+UHD+630 . It is probably better to get the best cpu that you can afford in whatever pc or laptop you want.

Thank you for the clear explantion. I'll keep that in mind when I go shopping tonight after work - thanks again!

Quote Thank you for the clear explantion. I'll keep that in mind when I go shopping tonight after work - thanks again!

I'd get your decision making information from such places as Intel or the like. After you find something, get the specs and do a little research if it fits your needs prior to purchase. There are many i3, i5, i7's all with Hyper-Threading if that's important to you. Hyper-Threading will never make a 2X difference with PD on a similar chip. Most users report a mere 5-10% or so in CPU encoding when you toggle Hyper-Threading on or off via BIOS.

This Intel link lists laptop CPU's with Hyper-Threading, as you can see, many i3, i5, i7. https://ark.intel.com/Search/FeatureFilter?productType=processors&HyperThreading=true&MarketSegment=Mobile&StatusCodeId=4

Jeff