Windows laptop for graphics and video editing

[haggi]

Hi all,

Because my office has a strict windows only procurement rule and I’ve spent the last 30 years only using macs i need sooner guidance from the collective.

I have no idea what I’m looking at when it comes to windows but it needs to be the equivalent to well specified MacBook Pro, ideally 13/14 inches max as my current office one is horribly heavy 15 thinkpad that i don’t think much of.

[xeny]

I can trivially spec a 14" MBP up to over £4000, £7000 if I try. Could you say how much RAM/SSD/core count, rather than saying "well specified"?

[haggi]

Fair point, I’m just used to macs doing more with less.

Ideally id want 32gb and 1tb of storage and a proper graphics card.

[Mr E]

Framework and spec what you need.

https://frame.work/gb/en/products/laptop16-diy-amd...

[bloomen]

Asus Zephyrus G14.

They are very slick these days with a lot of grunt if you choose it.

[haggi]

Thanks chaps, now to being the wrangle with procurement.

[Griffith4ever]

haggi said:

Fair point, I m just used to macs doing more with less.

Ideally id want 32gb and 1tb of storage and a proper graphics card.

That's actually not particularly High spec . I imagine you are going to find an INtel laptop with a Discreet GPU quite hot and noisy. Macs are more subtle in the way they deliver GPU power I believe.

" I m just used to macs doing more with less" - I'm just used to macs doing more for more (money). ;-)

[haggi]

Griffith4ever said:

haggi said:

Fair point, I m just used to macs doing more with less.

Ideally id want 32gb and 1tb of storage and a proper graphics card.

That's actually not particularly High spec . I imagine you are going to find an INtel laptop with a Discreet GPU quite hot and noisy. Macs are more subtle in the way they deliver GPU power I believe.

" I m just used to macs doing more with less" - I'm just used to macs doing more for more (money). ;-)

Fairpoint, as I said, I’ve got so little experience with anything Intel based it’s not even funny, my current work laptops got 24 gig of RAM but my personal MacBook Air with only 16 on an M4 chip runs absolute rings around it in every way.

I can also hear my work laptop taking off like a helicopter every minute of the day to be honest it does my absolute nut in but I’m stuck with everything Windows based purely because works procurement and security doesn’t seem flexible to Mac because I’m the only one in the company that does any design work.

[Griffith4ever]

haggi said:

Griffith4ever said:

haggi said:

Fair point, I m just used to macs doing more with less.

Ideally id want 32gb and 1tb of storage and a proper graphics card.

That's actually not particularly High spec . I imagine you are going to find an INtel laptop with a Discreet GPU quite hot and noisy. Macs are more subtle in the way they deliver GPU power I believe.

" I m just used to macs doing more with less" - I'm just used to macs doing more for more (money). ;-)

Fairpoint, as I said, I ve got so little experience with anything Intel based it s not even funny, my current work laptops got 24 gig of RAM but my personal MacBook Air with only 16 on an M4 chip runs absolute rings around it in every way.

I can also hear my work laptop taking off like a helicopter every minute of the day to be honest it does my absolute nut in but I m stuck with everything Windows based purely because works procurement and security doesn t seem flexible to Mac because I m the only one in the company that does any design work.

Yeah - you are leaving the world where the hardware is designed along side the OS, to one where they are totally independent. That's Mac's huge advantage with laptops.

You can get nice quiet laptops that play nice, but you need to go fairly high end. When they start chucking 5080's into a small laptop it's going to get hot. Your Mac probably had nice fast integrated graphics within the main CPU (I am no expert on Mac stuff) and was well power-managed.

Windows is a different ball game. Saying that. My Desktop is silent pretty much most of the time, and when it gets going, the GPU is still very quiet. Intel i5 12th gen with an ATI 9070 XT (so fast) - but, it's a desktop...... Windows laptops , particularly with proper discreet GPUs tend to be loud and hot, though I'm sure (I'd hope!) that's not the case when you go much higher up the price ladder.

[xeny]

Griffith4ever said:

Windows is a different ball game. Saying that. My Desktop is silent pretty much most of the time, and when it gets going, the GPU is still very quiet. Intel i5 12th gen with an ATI 9070 XT (so fast) - but, it's a desktop...... Windows laptops , particularly with proper discreet GPUs tend to be loud and hot, though I'm sure (I'd hope!) that's not the case when you go much higher up the price ladder.

A discrete GPU in a laptop is still a lot of watts with not much space for a heatsink, so it will inevitably get loud/hot if you use the GPU moderately hard.

It'd be worth the OP deciding if they need a discrete GPU. I'm running a Ultra 2 gen CPU with integrated graphics, and performance is very acceptable, but of course that's not useful if you need CUDA for example.

[Mr E]

xeny said:

Griffith4ever said:

Windows is a different ball game. Saying that. My Desktop is silent pretty much most of the time, and when it gets going, the GPU is still very quiet. Intel i5 12th gen with an ATI 9070 XT (so fast) - but, it's a desktop...... Windows laptops , particularly with proper discreet GPUs tend to be loud and hot, though I'm sure (I'd hope!) that's not the case when you go much higher up the price ladder.

A discrete GPU in a laptop is still a lot of watts with not much space for a heatsink, so it will inevitably get loud/hot if you use the GPU moderately hard.

It'd be worth the OP deciding if they need a discrete GPU. I'm running a Ultra 2 gen CPU with integrated graphics, and performance is very acceptable, but of course that's not useful if you need CUDA for example.

And if you need the GPU, do you need it _in_ the laptop?
External GPUs are a (compromised) thing

[bobthemonkey]

If the OP is more design/content focused as opposed to CAD, then I'd suggest the better compromise would something with one the top-end (Ryzen AI 390/395) AMD APUs to get reasonable graphics performance in something broadly as compact and efficient as a MBP.

[haggi]

Thanks chap. Yes, my job is a bit weird in that I do a lot of design works for think massive illustrator files Photoshop documents multiple things going on at once as well as also doing all the data mining and data management.

[mmm-five]

Our company options were a 11-13" thin & light OmniBooks the execs, 13-15" Elitebooks for the norms, and a 16-18" HP Z-Books with 64GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Quadro/RTX Pro GPUs for the 'power users' (but they weigh over 2kg).

My final laptop issued to me before I left was a brick of a workstation class Z-Book. 16", 64GB RAM, 512GB SSD and 8GB RTX4000 GPU (for large Excel models, Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suite use) - but the weight didn't matter as I never needed to transport it very often and it was always connected to an external ultrawide or 4k monitor.

Edited by mmm-five on Wednesday 21st January 10:39

[x404]

I've been using a Dell XPS laptop for several years for work, and it's almost as well made as the MacBooks. I specced it up with the best processor, RAM and SSD that were available at the time, and it's still as good as new today. There are more in the range nowadays, including screens up to 16" 3200x2000 (if not yet released, they are imminent). I think you can take the RAM to 64GB; however I don't think you can add discrete graphics, so it depends what your key pieces of software, but I've never personally needed it on mine for Adobe CS, database design s/w (key component of my workflow) and general office stuff. However I do no 3D work and minimal video editing and would tend to use Macs for that anyway.

I'd definitely have another XPS (we got a cheaper Dell laptop for our teenager for Christmas, it's an i9 and fast, but not as well made as the XPS). This is my 3rd or 4th Dell laptop all personally purchased, I did use to have Latitudes, but the XPS won me over after glowing reviews in the tech press and my first purchase of one.

I have several other Macs and PCs too, and use a variety of systems most week (and have done for decades). I tend to favour the Mac for design (mainly Photoshop, Lightroom, InDesign and Illustrator) and the PCs for more general office work, DB design and shunting through data sets.

[the-photographer]

If you want to go crazy with the budget, just 982 grammes

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X1-C...