Question Are AMD Ryzen 4000 laptops restricted to lesser GPU options

[Gikaseixas]

I'm currently shopping around and given the positive reviews of the new Ryzen 4800 - 4900 series i made up my mind on the cpu side.

While the ASUS G14 comes with a RTX 2060, i couldnt find bigger laptops with better cooling designs such as the new Gigabyte Aero that have also AMD cpus in them.

Now it is Acer's turn and while they do offer Ryzen, but it is restricted to up to GTX 1650 Ti while the comparable Intel offerings will have RTX 2060

Here's the article i saw today on this:

2020 Acer Nitro 5 will be available with AMD Ryzen 4000 CPU

But it will only spec up to GeForce GTX 1650 Ti, not as good as the RTX 2060 in the Intel version.

hexus.net

My question is, should i wait a bit more to see if better AMD powered models are released with RTX 2070 Super or higher? Or are these reserved for Intel laptops only?

 

[lightmanek]

I'm currently shopping around and given the positive reviews of the new Ryzen 4800 - 4900 series i made up my mind on the cpu side.

While the ASUS G14 comes with a RTX 2060, i couldnt find bigger laptops with better cooling designs such as the new Gigabyte Aero that have also AMD cpus in them.

Now it is Acer's turn and while they do offer Ryzen, but it is restricted to up to GTX 1650 Ti while the comparable Intel offerings will have RTX 2060

Here's the article i saw today on this:

2020 Acer Nitro 5 will be available with AMD Ryzen 4000 CPU

But it will only spec up to GeForce GTX 1650 Ti, not as good as the RTX 2060 in the Intel version.

hexus.net

My question is, should i wait a bit more to see if better AMD powered models are released with RTX 2070 Super or higher? Or are these reserved for Intel laptops only?

There will be a lot of new designs coming to the market before end of this year, but pandemic has pushed everything back. I've seen reviews of ASUS G15 with RTX2060 running at 90W (OC) but the video didn't specifically distinguish it as MaxQ model, so not sure if it was regular, higher power model. That particular laptop had 4800H in it and performed very well, usually faster than 4900HS thanks to extra TDP headroom.

I personally also am waiting for new models with better nVidia or AMD GPU's as I already have ASUS TUF with RTX 2060, so naturally want to upgrade both CPU and GPU when replacing my laptop.
If you can wait for a month or two, I'm sure we will have a bigger choice as more manufactures will deliver their new models to market.

 

[uzzi38]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1252946112509554688

Frank answers your question for you, and the comments below explain the situation.

It'll probably be a while before we get a laptop with anything better than a 5600M/5700M, the former of which we'll see in the Dell G15 SE soon.

Though it's not bad, I mean in 3DMark11 P it's outperforming all but one laptop 2060 (which is ahead of the next best score by 10%, so is definitely overclocked). This is for both max-P and max-Q.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Yes, so far its been limited, but this is likely for some fairly simple reasons. These early laptops seem to be largely taking existing platforms and updating them. Some were tailored a bit more (the one ASUS 14" for instance but even its not drastic and seems to mostly be just making use of 4000 series and Nvidia GPU efficiency to stuff that power in a smaller system).

Nvidia just launched new mobile GPUs I think (the Super versions) so they could be waiting for availability of them (with Intel platforms likely getting preference since they were ones that already had the higher end GPUs so they'd be easier to update). Plus they're fairly value oriented so far, which means OEMs are gonna try and move chips they already had. We'll see if the extra headroom that the 4000 CPUs offer lets them slot in 2070Supers in ones that were rocking 2060s.

Oh and its likely that OEMs just bought a TON of 2060s and 1660Tis. They're very common and probably will be for some time as they seem to offer good value and solid performance.

AMD's history plays a role. They basically have never had a mobile CPU of this caliber. That means OEMs were not going to put a lot of effort into making premium devices around their chips without there being demand for them. That should change, if it doesn't it could be telling.

I certainly wouldn't put it past Intel to flex some muscle. I might actually would be more suspicious of Nvidia, as platforms with higher end GPUs paired with AMD CPUs might make it easier for AMD to push deals combining their own GPUs (in platforms that the OEMs don't need to tweak substantially to do that for). If RDNA2 offers the efficiency its rumored to, I'd expect to see AMD look to pair their now exceptional mobile CPUs with their mobile GPUs. Sure they've been doing that but largely in budget ones pairing older/lower chips.

AMD will need more design wins and will need to keep cultivating relationships with OEMs, possibly even look to develop platforms that make the best use of their stuff. Mobile was always going to be the last platform that got love for AMD as it was their worst situation, and Intel and OEMs had years and years of cooperation.

Its nice that AMD has such fervor, but fact is Intel still has a stronger brand image which will help sell premium laptops better. AMD has to work to change that and can't rely on just pushing out good chips. Yes that kinda stinks, but that's just how things are.

There's some other aspects (i.e. Intel bundling, where you have to remember their CPUs have Thunderbolt integrated, and Intel is making the Wi-Fi chips; I forget if Intel is making another 5G modem or not, I know they cancelled the one but I thought they're doing another one, that could play a role).

 

[Atari2600]

I might actually would be more suspicious of Nvidia, as platforms with higher end GPUs paired with AMD CPUs might make it easier for AMD to push deals combining their own GPUs (in platforms that the OEMs don't need to tweak substantially to do that for).

Eh?

Platforms sold with high end Nvidia GPUs & AMD CPUs make it easier for AMD to push deals with AMD GPUs & AMD CPUs?

Did I read that right?

 

[Gikaseixas]

Nvidia just launched new mobile GPUs I think (the Super versions) so they could be waiting for availability of them

That plus the Pandemic actually makes sense

I certainly wouldn't put it past Intel to flex some muscle.

I certainly hope not.

 

[Gikaseixas]

I personally also am waiting for new models with better nVidia or AMD GPU's as I already have ASUS TUF with RTX 2060, so naturally want to upgrade both CPU and GPU when replacing my laptop.
If you can wait for a month or two, I'm sure we will have a bigger choice as more manufactures will deliver their new models to market.

I dont mind waiting a few more months if it means getting a proper upgrade. I currently have a quad core i7 and a GTX 1070 which have served me very well

 

[moinmoin]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1252998574213824514

So Nvidia looks to be aware that this trend up to now is doing them no good.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1253108926381465601

First mention of a Renoir laptop with RTX 2070 indeed.

EON15-X AMD Gaming Laptop, EON15-X Laptop | ORIGIN PC

The high-performance EON15-X laptop is the thinnest and lightest laptop to feature overclocked 6th generation Intel Core i7 desktop processors engineered to run the latest productivity and gaming applications at lightning-fast speeds.

www.originpc.com

Edit: lol at the link description being from half a decade ago...

 

[uzzi38]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1253108926381465601

First mention of a Renoir laptop with RTX 2070 indeed.

EON15-X AMD Gaming Laptop, EON15-X Laptop | ORIGIN PC

The high-performance EON15-X laptop is the thinnest and lightest laptop to feature overclocked 6th generation Intel Core i7 desktop processors engineered to run the latest productivity and gaming applications at lightning-fast speeds.

www.originpc.com

Edit: lol at the link description being from half a decade ago...

Second. First is the XMG Apex 15....

That being said, they're both the same Clevo laptop chassis, the only difference is that XMG announced their version first.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Eh?

Platforms sold with high end Nvidia GPUs & AMD CPUs make it easier for AMD to push deals with AMD GPUs & AMD CPUs?

Did I read that right?

In the future when AMD brings out higher end mobile GPUs (either RDNA refresh or RDNA2). Then they can just drop their own right into systems that formerly had Nvidia chips, giving OEMs a discount and undercutting Nvidia.

Heck, I think there's potentially some evidence that the 5500 or 5600 is getting slotted into ones that formerly had 1060/1660/2060, but I'm not familiar enough with laptops to say for sure. Or maybe they were ones that had Polaris chips. Which I'll be interested to see if there's any benefits to pairing AMD CPU and GPU (like better efficiency).

Which, really, I'm not sure why the question hasn't been "why no 5700" pairings, as AMD should have more control over that. Its not like Nvidia would have directive over when AMD's CPUs launch so people asking Nvidia why their chips aren't paired with them seems odd. I think there's what 1 5600m pairing. I haven't heard of any 5700m. That's pretty weird, since you'd think the 5600m would be preferred over slotting in 2060/1660Ti.

 

[Atari2600]

In the future when AMD brings out higher end mobile GPUs (either RDNA refresh or RDNA2). Then they can just drop their own right into systems that formerly had Nvidia chips, giving OEMs a discount and undercutting Nvidia.

But if there are no AMD CPU & Nvidia 2070+ systems, you can be damn sure OEMs will drop them right into chassis that are sized for cooling Intel+Nvidia.