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.