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stgatilov

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I will probably have to get rid of my desktop PC, and I'm worried about how to work on TDM without it.

Obviously, I need a laptop, but:

  • Laptops without discrete GPU will probably run TDM too slowly. Can anyone share positive experience about that?
  • Laptops with discrete GPU (gaming laptops) are often unreliable. I'm worried that they die too quickly...

 

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Hmm... The "Ryzen 5 6600U" ( APU ) has a modern RDNA2 graphic processor with 1.4 teraflops. And the higher end versions like "Ryzen 7 6800U" have over 3 teraflops. Should be faster than a GTX 1050.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryzen#Ryzen_6000

I think the Ryzen 5000 APU's aren't too shabby either.

Not sure on availability though.

 

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2 hours ago, stgatilov said:

I will probably have to get rid of my desktop PC, and I'm worried about how to work on TDM without it.

Obviously, I need a laptop, but:

  • Laptops without discrete GPU will probably run TDM too slowly. Can anyone share positive experience about that?
  • Laptops with discrete GPU (gaming laptops) are often unreliable. I'm worried that they die too quickly...

 

You should absolutely get a discrete GPU. They are not that expensive.

As for reliability, just turn VSync on and switch the GPU driver to power saving mode.

Intel HD5500 (15W). Iris 540 (15W), AMD Ryzen 4650U (20W) have all disappointed me greatly.

I also own one with a discreet GTX 1050 and it's so much better. OTOH its old CPU is stuck at 2.5GHz, so I'm sometimes cpu-limited in some missions.

Maybe the full-power chips from the Ryzen H series are slightly better, but they cost as much as discreet GPU models and are generally rare.

The integrated graphics has always been about cost saving, never about competitiveness.

So discreet only, and equally important to have two memory slots or at least 32GB soldered. Ideally with a CPU that can turbo-boost to 4GHz.

I would ironically advise a macbook, even though I don't own one because I like my notebooks to have touch screen interface. I'm curious to see how Apple silicon fares compared to x86 gaming market.

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Laptops seem to be more about energy efficiency than performance overall ofc.

Idk about discrete graphics cards dying quickly. I think it's mostly because people use laptops while lying on the bed and the ventilation is on the bottom. Good night sweet prince. I don't think laptops are inherently made more unreliably than standard PC parts in cases.

But yeah integrated graphics cards are pretty much a must from all I've seen if you want average performance and above. Otherwise we need to get used to performance tweaks for video games.

"I really perceive that vanity about which most men merely prate — the vanity of the human or temporal life. I live continually in a reverie of the future. I have no faith in human perfectibility. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active — not more happy — nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago. The result will never vary — and to suppose that it will, is to suppose that the foregone man has lived in vain — that the foregone time is but the rudiment of the future — that the myriads who have perished have not been upon equal footing with ourselves — nor are we with our posterity. I cannot agree to lose sight of man the individual, in man the mass."...

- 2 July 1844 letter to James Russell Lowell from Edgar Allan Poe.

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I haven't really heard that laptops with discrete GPUs have a significantly higher failure rate. They do, however, affect battery life, weight and consequently mobility of the laptop. The coexistence of integrated and discrete GPUs can also be a painful on occasion, with apps sometimes launching on the wrong GPU and you having to figure out which port is connected to which GPU.

If mobility is not your highest priority, I think a discrete GPU in a laptop is generally fine. Otherwise, the Ryzen 6000 chips definitely have the strongest integrated GPU right now (not counting Apple's M1), but they are also still rare to find in an actual laptop.

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4 hours ago, stgatilov said:

Did you mean discrete graphics card?

Yeah discrete, dedicated. Not integrated.

"I really perceive that vanity about which most men merely prate — the vanity of the human or temporal life. I live continually in a reverie of the future. I have no faith in human perfectibility. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active — not more happy — nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago. The result will never vary — and to suppose that it will, is to suppose that the foregone man has lived in vain — that the foregone time is but the rudiment of the future — that the myriads who have perished have not been upon equal footing with ourselves — nor are we with our posterity. I cannot agree to lose sight of man the individual, in man the mass."...

- 2 July 1844 letter to James Russell Lowell from Edgar Allan Poe.

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In that case your cheapest and most convenient option might be to pay for extra baggage with the airline. Certainly cheaper than buying a laptop, and probably cheaper than having your desktop shipped. The major down side will be lugging all that extra weight to and from the airport. But I successfully transported my desktop this way just last year. It is definitely doable.

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There's the mini-ITX option, but not sure if any of your two GPUs will fit into it - and it would require a new motherboard - and a new monitor purchase at destination

A friend of mine relocated twice internationally with a PC, _two_ monitors, and a kid. No idea how he pulled it off. When I asked, he said "I put it into the luggage"

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38 minutes ago, duzenko said:

A friend of mine relocated twice internationally with a PC, _two_ monitors, and a kid. No idea how he pulled it off. When I asked, he said "I put it into the luggage"

Putting a kid into luggage indeed saves from a lot of headache 😁

Quote

Yeah wtf? Is it going to be lost to you forever?

Maybe I'll ask someone to ship my PC to me, but this is rather unlikely.

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14 minutes ago, stgatilov said:

Putting a kid into luggage indeed saves from a lot of headache

Most places have strict laws against people-smuggling. XD

My missions:           Stand-alone                                                      Duncan Lynch series                              

                                      Down and Out on Newford Road              the Factory Heist

                                                                                                  A House Call

                                                                                                  The House of deLisle                                                                                                  

                              

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On 3/26/2022 at 10:30 AM, Anderson said:

Laptops seem to be more about energy efficiency than performance overall ofc.

Idk about discrete graphics cards dying quickly. I think it's mostly because people use laptops while lying on the bed and the ventilation is on the bottom. Good night sweet prince. I don't think laptops are inherently made more unreliably than standard PC parts in cases.

But yeah integrated graphics cards are pretty much a must from all I've seen if you want average performance and above. Otherwise we need to get used to performance tweaks for video games.

I think that in laptops you have to avoid integrated graphics, if you want to use it for games. It is essential that they have an independent graphics card, even if it is small, like in my laptop.
Regarding the performance, which by default is normally set in view of the battery life, it can be perfectly set to optimal performance, if the laptop is connected to the mains, which is normally the case if used at home.
Certainly it is necessary to avoid using the laptop on the knees, since this can cover the ventilation slots and lead to overheating, it is advisable to use it on a flat surface, or better on a ventilation stand, especially in summer. This, apart from improving cooling, by tilting the keyboard also makes handling the laptop more comfortable. Apart from this, it also raises the height of the screen to eye level.

klmTj0Q.jpg

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Sys Specs Laptop Lenovo V145 15AST, AMD A9- 9425 Radeon R5 - 5 cores 3,1 GHz  RAM 8Gb, GPU 1+2 Gb -Win10 64 v21H2

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4 minutes ago, Zerg Rush said:

I think that in laptops you have to avoid integrated graphics, if you want to use it for games. It is essential that they have an independent graphics card, even if it is small, like in my laptop.
Regarding the performance, which by default is normally set in view of the battery life, it can be perfectly set to optimal performance, if the laptop is connected to the mains, which is normally the case if used at home.
Certainly it is necessary to avoid using the laptop on the knees, since this can cover the ventilation slots and lead to overheating, it is advisable to use it on a flat surface, or better on a ventilation stand, especially in summer. This, apart from improving cooling, by tilting the keyboard also makes handling the laptop more comfortable. Apart from this, it also raises the height of the screen to eye level.

klmTj0Q.jpg

Ventilation stands matter if the ventilation shafts are on the bottom and not sideways. IMHO perfect design for most ppl.

https://pcmechanicfl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/exhaust-vent-area.jpg

"I really perceive that vanity about which most men merely prate — the vanity of the human or temporal life. I live continually in a reverie of the future. I have no faith in human perfectibility. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active — not more happy — nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago. The result will never vary — and to suppose that it will, is to suppose that the foregone man has lived in vain — that the foregone time is but the rudiment of the future — that the myriads who have perished have not been upon equal footing with ourselves — nor are we with our posterity. I cannot agree to lose sight of man the individual, in man the mass."...

- 2 July 1844 letter to James Russell Lowell from Edgar Allan Poe.

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12 minutes ago, Anderson said:

Ventilation stands matter if the ventilation shafts are on the bottom and not sideways. IMHO perfect design for most ppl.

https://pcmechanicfl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/exhaust-vent-area.jpg

Yes, the slits are always on the side or back of the case to expel air, but the slits for fresh air intake are almost always at the bottom. They are conceived so that due to the height of the laptop from the bottom, due to its plastic or rubber protectors of a few millimeters, it allows the absorption of air in a concentrated way, but this is not possible on a soft surface.

JrszmqL.png


If you want to use the laptop in bed or on your knees, you can use a table, tray or a dedicated stand for this purpose.

XsCwux5.jpg

Edited by Zerg Rush
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Sys Specs Laptop Lenovo V145 15AST, AMD A9- 9425 Radeon R5 - 5 cores 3,1 GHz  RAM 8Gb, GPU 1+2 Gb -Win10 64 v21H2

Favorite online apps you may like too 😉

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On 3/27/2022 at 4:10 AM, stgatilov said:

The only way to take the desktop PC is to take it along with me on the flight (as luggage), but I'm pretty sure there would be a lot of other things to carry.

You can also take the computer apart and take some of the components with you (or do you have to pay for transporting those?). Leaving the chassis and power unit behind will save a lot of space and weight and they're not the most expensive. I don't know what (external) gpu you have right now, but I would definitely keep that if it curently has good performance.

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19 hours ago, Zerg Rush said:

it is advisable to use it on a flat surface, or better on a ventilation stand, especially in summer. This, apart from improving cooling, by tilting the keyboard

I saw a test of these cooled stands, the conclusion was that is doesn't give so much higher performance. Better is to improve the standard applied cooling paste of cpu.

Edited by datiswous
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56 minutes ago, datiswous said:

I saw a test of these cooled stands, the conclusion was that is doesn't give so much higher performance. Better is to improve the standard applied cooling paste of cpu.

Ehm, it is not entirely correct, in the first line it is not a question of greater performance with the stands, but of better cooling and more ergonomic handling due to the inclination. Although the cooling can be more or less efficient, depending on these stands, if they fit your laptop well or not, that is, if the flow produced by the built-in fans coincides with the air intake slits of your laptop.
It is clear that these stands do not make your laptop faster, but they prevent overheating and thus lengthen its life.

Good ventilation is very important in laptops, which by their nature cannot be as efficient as a desktop PC, due to smaller components and fans in a much tighter space.

Edited by Zerg Rush
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Sys Specs Laptop Lenovo V145 15AST, AMD A9- 9425 Radeon R5 - 5 cores 3,1 GHz  RAM 8Gb, GPU 1+2 Gb -Win10 64 v21H2

Favorite online apps you may like too 😉

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On 3/27/2022 at 3:10 AM, stgatilov said:

Relocation.

The only way to take the desktop PC is to take it along with me on the flight (as luggage), but I'm pretty sure there would be a lot of other things to carry.

Why not just open the PC, disassembling it and bring the most important components with you, CPU, GPU and RAM? They are small enough to be put in a small suitcase. 

Then when you reach destination, you just need to find a new or used motherboard, box and screen and assemble a new desktop pc.

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On 3/27/2022 at 3:31 AM, stgatilov said:

Putting a kid into luggage indeed saves from a lot of headache 😁

Maybe I'll ask someone to ship my PC to me, but this is rather unlikely.

Maybe you have the option of taking the CPU, GPU, memory, and hard drive(s) with you, and leaving the rest? Although if it's an old CPU you could have trouble getting a motherboard. And you have to be careful not to get any bent pins and whatnot.

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most stuff in a pc should easily fit into a bag :) the psu being the largets component may be a litte tricky though.

just be sure to pack each card in antistatic bags you can leave the cpu in the mainboard but take of the cooler to avoid damaging the board.

so id go with dissasembly then get a new cabby in your new country, and if to much of a hazzle bringing it along maybe a new psu.

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p.s while possible to get a good gaming laptop they usually sound like a jet about to take off due to air constraints which in the end also means lower life expectancy for those with a discrete gpu, my pal here in rødby denmark has one of the biggest asus gamer laptops from back when the gtx 1080 ti was awesome and it died last year because it got so hot we could use it as a blowtorch xD and not for a lack of cleaning (we cleaned it once a month and used a fan standof).

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