Bad time to buy an AMD laptop?

1 : Anonymous2021/11/09 14:37 ID: qq50s5

I'm in the market for a new laptop after my gen1 surface book died, and am looking at the Zephyrus g15 (and similar) AMD models.

BUT I keep seeing 'leaks' about the next gen Zen4 chips coming 'soon'. While I don't necessarily need extra power, some more battery life wouldn't go amis, but the biggest issue would be buying a laptop today (that still seems to sit at launch day pricing in the UK at least), and find in a few weeks or so either a new version is available for the same price, or the model I'm looking at gets discounted heavily as 'old'.

Is this something worth worrying about now, or are they still a way off?

2 : Anonymous2021/11/09 14:47 ID: hjxvggp

Zen 4 won't come out soon, but Rembrandt, which is the next gen APU, still based on Zen 3 but with RDNA 2 for the iGPU, is expected in early 2022. It will probably be announced at CES in early January.

AMD did recently say that there was a focus on power reduction for Rembrandt, so it indeed should have improved battery life.

ID: hjzazkm

Every year I hear this and none of the big name laptops come out until June.... If at all.

For all intents and purposes, I would not assume actual product availability until mid 22.

ID: hjxwiip

Ok, I guess an announcement at CES means laptops by Easter?

That's not so bad, I'll need one much sooner, my concern was that a big upgrade would be right round the corner. Cheers

ID: hjxyqv6

Ok, I guess an announcement at CES means laptops by Easter?

A few might come sooner than that, but my guess is not many. Of course, it's all just speculation based on previous releases, so it's impossible to tell what will really happen.

In any case, nothing new will happen until 2022 on the AMD side.

ID: hk02jws

It will also have usb4 built on to the chip, so we have potential for egpus on amd systems

3 : Anonymous2021/11/09 19:10 ID: hjyyj17

you buy something when you need it. if you wait for a better product then you'll just wait over and over again because of something even better will eventually come.

ID: hjz010f

Well, yeah, but if the next generation of something is coming, for the same price, in a few weeks or so it makes sense to wait...

ID: hjz0vuv

you'll have to wait quite a while. as in the past they often launched new mobile cpu during CES in january, then in upcoming weeks manufacturers will release their laptops, which may take several months until widely available. but i think if your demand is a gaming laptop with dgpu then just get the current gen once it's on sale because Rembrandt will unlikely bring big cpu perf jump, it's more like zen 3+ with navi graphics and ddr5.

ID: hjzfl52

Except it wont be for the same price

4 : Anonymous2021/11/09 18:02 ID: hjyo8rq

The steam deck chip looks promising with LPDDR5 and navi APU. I would wait for something similar on laptops.

5 : Anonymous2021/11/09 17:39 ID: hjyknmb

It's always a bad time to buy an AMD laptop.

The best time is when the newest mobile CPUs / APUs launch, but that's when things are impossible to find. Even when one is available to buy, it'll be single channel or slow memory, have thermal throttling issues, have gimped performance because there's no physical switch for APU vs GPU, have power profile issues with no indication whether you should use a plan from the chipset driver or the default Windows plan, etc.

There's a minefield of gotchas and quirks and oopsies that plague AMD laptops. It's so consistent and obvious that I'm convinced it's intentional. By the time you can map out these issues and buy a laptop that avoids them (or at least has a known quantity of issues), the next gen is on the horizon, or Intel has a better option. Oh, and driver support for the APUs is awful. They said they were going to fix that and get everything aligned. It's still a mess. I can fresh install APU drivers today and still have dumb issues like the installer failing, or succeeding but constantly trying to install on boot after that, only to error out, etc.

ID: hjyuu3o

why this sounds like the same when I got my first APU PC?

6 : Anonymous2021/11/09 15:12 ID: hjxyw4c

latest cpus like 4600H are very good

ID: hjy2tco

You meant 5600H and 5800H?
4600H is Zen 2..

ID: hjy4te9

yes zen2 based with multithread

4600H renoir 6/12 is faster than 5500u lucienne 6/12

5600H cezanne 6/12 is slightly faster than renoir, so that's why 4600H is not a bad buy even today if you find one at good price

imho

7 : Anonymous2021/11/09 14:43 ID: hjxuvma

Hi! If you are not in a hurry to buy a new laptop I would definitely recommend waiting for Zen 4 to come out and then check the prices. Because there could be a similarly priced laptop with the same or better specs when Zen 4 comes out.

Best of luck with your purchases.

ID: hjycptt

I thought Zen4 mobile is only coming at early 2023 though? Zen4 Desktop is coming earlier, at q3-Q4 2022

8 : Anonymous2021/11/09 20:18 ID: hjz8oq9

When Zen 4 comes out RDNA3 and Lovelace are out and they will have insane power requirements for insane performance. Not sure how will they fit those in laptops though.

9 : Anonymous2021/11/09 20:58 ID: hjzer05

Low cost laptops with Celerons are readily available but slim pickings for AMD based gear at good prices.

10 : Anonymous2021/11/09 21:32 ID: hjzjyvy

You could get a thinkpad x230/240/250/260 while you wait for the updated APUs, they’re pretty dated machines but are surprisingly useable and won’t lose any value in your possession

ID: hjzl7f4

I'm looking for something to do video and photo editing while traveling, unfortunately something cheap and cheerful would probably not cut it in the interim.

(Edit: I'll look into them though, I don't know their specs by heart, but I'm guessing maybe they won't fit the bill if they're cheap enough to buy on a whim)

11 : Anonymous2021/11/09 22:38 ID: hjztoft

competition is just heating up, every year is a bad time to upgrade when the next year offers big performance gains. just consider time IMO, do you need that upgrade now? if yes upgrade, if no, wait.

ID: hjzu0bv

Unfortunately I need something now, my current laptop has failed and I'm due to travel soon and need to work abroad.

引用元:https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/qq50s5/bad_time_to_buy_an_amd_laptop/

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