Hi,
I’m going to get a new laptop and have the choice between an Intel I9 13980HX processor with 64Gb of RAM or an AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX with 32 Gb of RAM.
Both would come with a Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090.
What would be the best choice for Blender ?
Thanks !
Between the CPU’s there’s not a lot in it really, but are currently very high end laptop processors.
The intel system having 64GB RAM is nice, but questions are then about how fast each of them are, is that total shared between CPU and GPU or does the GPU have it’s own dedicated VRAM and if so how much.
Clearly either laptop wouldn’t be cheap and at a base level both will perform really well. You would really need to look a lot closer at the specs of each model, find reviews for each, see how the screen/keyboard/trackpad compare. What about battery life, cooling, noise, even if its plugged in to power, does the CPU and GPU perform as good as it can, etc.
Thank you !
Does it have to be a laptop?
Yes it have to be. I’ll be movig a lot between 2 places in the coming years (about 9 months at home and 3 month at the other place) and would like to use blender at both places.
Could you mention the specific models and the budget? Just in case there is a better alternative.
Sure. Both models are Lenvovos as I can get a 20% discount through my employer.
Legion 9 16 - I9-1380HX - 64 Gb DDR5 5600Mhz - RTX 4090 with 16Gb - 16’’ 3200 x 2000 mini LED screen
Legion Pro 7 16 - Ryzen 9 7945HX - 62 Gb DDR5 5200Mhz - RTX 4090 with 16Gb - 16’’ 2560 x 1600 screen
The RAM speed on the Ryzen is a bit slower then ideal (and could be even worse depending on actual timings), but having said that for Blender, etc it’s unlikely to really have an impact.
The screen resolution is of course larger on the Intel, while both are 16" I’m guessing, so while more screen ‘area’ is nice, if it’s in the same space then I guess it just depends on how good your eyesight is.
And yeah, based on the likelihood of keeping the laptop for years to come, the 64GB of RAM is nice to have.
Since both are Lenvovo’s, my guess is the keyboard/mouse, etc is much the same, tho in theory the Intel one costs more.
Having a quick look at the website, it’s not the Legion 9i 16" Gen 8, is it, as those are the same general specs that seem to match. If so that is one serious Laptop.
it is indeed the Legion 9i 16" Gen 8.
I hope to keep it for some times as I don’t plan to by such a laptop every year
thanks for your thoughts
I’d pick the first one. Better equiped and higher resolution monitor
No. It doesn’t have to be. You can invest in a very powerful tower PC at home and a good but much cheaper laptop. The remote sessions technologies have evolved a lot over the years. You can use your laptop to work with Blender (and any softwares) on the tower PC. You will need Internet connection, but a good connection is more than enough (you don’t need a super internet connection). And then the dream comes true. Work one your laptop anywhere you want, having the tower PC make all the work
You can even put the PC to sleep when you don’t work. There are some shortcomings, but believe me, it’s a steady solution and generally a better way to use your money. You will have more computing power, and rendering on your powerful PC from anywhere is amazing.
Not sure I will take that step now but what remote software solution would you recommand ?
Splashtop is free or five dollars a month- works fantastically
Window Pro 64-bits has built in remote desktop. It allows you to take control of the other PC. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/how-to-use-remote-desktop-5fe128d5-8fb1-7a23-3b8a-41e636865e8c
It’s really easy (and it’s right there, in the operative system already) and using it changed my life: I never had to go back to my office on weekends or at night anymore, using my laptop at home but running things on my remote tower. I could go see a client with my full calculation power thanks to remote on my laptops. (Yes it can fail if there is, let’s say an outage and your tower PC turns off, but even that can be solved with a good nobreak to further shield the system… and yes, sometimes the PC can freeze and you can loose the session, but it doesn’t happen that much in fact)
And there are also easy ways to set a Wake Up function to really shut the PC OFF and ON remotely, to reset the PC if necessary. You also win on the backup facilities that it offers, as you can save your files on the PC and on the laptop, and if anything anyway you have your laptop to still do some lighter work.
I know there are some situations that can make that solution not viable, but I honestly wish somebody had advised me years earlier, it would have saved me many time and money.
On the money side, take into account that laptop technologies are made to become obsolete much faster than tower PC hardware. And also, never forget, let’s say a 4080 laptop GPU cost the same as a 4080 tower GPU, but the tower GPU are more powerful, simply for logical size and temperatures reasons, and really more powerful for the money you pay. Much people don’t even know that. (And that’s just GPU, but anything laptop RAM, CPU… versions are cheap slimed down versions of tower PC hardware, and they do cost more money for much less power in too many occasions)
As a direct answer, this AMD processor is much better ranked (places 66 against 95 for the intel you mentioned)
It does and in fact various versions of Windows has had RDP for a long time.
I just hope you have that sitting behind some secure, encrypted VPN type setup and don’t have the RDP ports open to the whole internet.
Yes. Imagine Pixar stealing my blend files and suddenly making a good movie again, that would be the end of the world.
[Yes, security is an issue, but you already provided some remedy and solutions are well known. Don’t uselessly scare people away from the wonders of remote desktop. Anything emitting waves can be hacked. Some people even hack dildos nowadays)
I don’t consider pointing out the very real and serious security issues around the very hackable RDP system as being useless.
Sure, remote desktop can be very handy, but for anyone new, they need to make sure it’s done right, or before you know it, at best, your remote PC is part of a bot net, at worse, it’s leaking all your ID info, bank accounts, etc, etc.
And, yes, anything can be hacked, but one needs to know the risks and if still going ahead, not make it easy.
Another pro of Splashtop- you can lock each device behind a unique passcode and require MFA on each session. I have mine locked to a physical security key- someone wanting to hack me would need to come to my house first.
Also, Splashtop is cross-OS; I use it to connect to a Windows PC from a MacBook. The built in Windows tool doesn’t do that
Yes, that’s why you only install Blender on those PCs … and that’s why I said .blend files
Funny how you say “it’s leaking” when it should say “you are leaking”… (when I say you, it’s not you you, is you as a general “the person”)
Did @Lifeguard01 or me were talking Remote Desktop to make banking? Nope. And about becoming a bot, the sudden activity peaks on a system only running Blender get detected.
So yes ok, follow a good security guideline, but that’s true anyway on any operating system, device or computer. And from my first answers I mentioned that remote access has setbacks, the easy referred to “it’s easy to install”
So when I say uselessly it’s clearly because, unlike you, I start from the premise that people already have a safe behavior.
But yes, people go around buying guns and cars and we know the result. So well, use remote desktop at your own risk.