[Microsoft Store] Lenovo IdeaPad S740 Laptop, 15.6 in 4K, i7-9750H, 16GB DDR4, 1TB PCIe SSD, GTX 1650, $1,579.99

That GTX 1650 won't be able to run your games at 4k resolution. Battery life will definitely suck with 4k.

The ssd size is epic though.

At around $1100, this would have been a hot deal.

Montbose wrote: ↑ That GTX 1650 won't be able to run your games at 4k resolution. Battery life will definitely suck with 4k.

The ssd size is epic though.

At around $1100, this would have been a hot deal.

I actually think it's a good deal... and would probably pick one up.. but I hate numpads on laptops, unless it's 17"
That being said, this paired with an eGPU.... would be a pretty sweet combo

GSpeed wrote: ↑ I actually think it's a good deal... and would probably pick one up.. but I hate numpads on laptops, unless it's 17"
That being said, this paired with an eGPU.... would be a pretty sweet combo

I'd you're going to invest in an egpu enclosure and video card it's smarter to just get a better laptop from the get go. The 1650 is pretty anemic and Intel's last gen cpu. Better to just get a newer ryzen with a 1660ti.

If I had $1700 to spend on a laptop, I'd wait a bit for 3060 laptops in a few months(probably 2-3 months). But you can also get 2060 laptops right now for under $1500 on Amazon which is what I would do instead as well. And once 30XX released, price drops will follow quicker.

This one is the better deal >
ASUS TUF Gaming Laptop, 15.6” 144Hz Full HD, AMD Ryzen 7 4800H, GeForce RTX 2060, 16GB DDR4, 1TB PCIE SSD, Wi-Fi 5, Windows 10, TUF506IV-AS76
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0863DW238?th=1

If you have an RBC Visa you can get a $100 credit on orders over $999 just need to load the offer on the RBC site.

http://blog.rewardscanada.ca/2020/10/ne ... o-100.html

Driftwood wrote: ↑ If you have an RBC Visa you can get a $100 credit on orders over $999 just need to load the offer on the RBC site.

http://blog.rewardscanada.ca/2020/10/ne ... o-100.html

Ouch, completely forgot this,,, I am wondering if there is a way to get it after I made the purchase,

brutus179 wrote: ↑ Ouch, completely forgot this,,, I am wondering if there is a way to get it after I made the purchase,

You can probably just cancel the order, then re-order after you add the offer.

Driftwood wrote: ↑ You can probably just cancel the order, then re-order after you add the offer.

This would be probably the solution in the end, I am on the phone now trying to reason with Microsoft Store.

spiralspirit wrote: ↑ I'd you're going to invest in an egpu enclosure and video card it's smarter to just get a better laptop from the get go. The 1650 is pretty anemic and Intel's last gen cpu. Better to just get a newer ryzen with a 1660ti.

Before taking the plunge on a laptop, how does one know which CPU is "last" gen and how do you know if the GPU uses your onboard RAM or has its own? It seems it's becoming more difficult to buy new gaming (multi-tasking)laptop these days.

Was a little intrigued by the Microsoft store discount with RBC so took a quick look at the selection at Microsoft. Holy bajeezus are their prices inflated beyond belief.

sheyenne wrote: ↑ Before taking the plunge on a laptop, how does one know which CPU is "last" gen and how do you know if the GPU uses your onboard RAM or has its own? It seems it's becoming more difficult to buy new gaming (multi-tasking)laptop these days.

There's a fair amount of interest in computers that's required to keep up with them, but I'll give you a short rundown.

Intel cpu generations for the last little while are easily told apart by the first one or two digits of the model number. Current chips are 10xxxx, last gen are 9xxx, the gen before that 8xxx. If you're not sure you can google the model # of the cpu and look for release dates. Intel has an explanation on it here, including the suffixes (like this chip is a 9750h, what does the h mean? Intel says "high performance for mobile"):

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en ... mbers.html

With video cards they don't come out quite as often, but you can quickly become familiar with the basics. Like cpus the first digit is often the generation number. Nvidia is currently (pretending) to release the 30xx series cards (called Ampere architecture). Last generation was 20xx (called Turing) although some 16xx chips were released under the Turing architecture. The generation before that was 10xx (called pascal). The generation before that was 9xx (Maxwell architecture). etc etc

There's a looooong list on wikipedia her :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_N ... sing_units

but the real answer is to keep up with it, you have to be interested in it. If you don't pay attention for a few years (like I've basically ignored AMD video cards because they didn't really compete in the performance end with Nvidia so wasn't of interest to me) you need to catch up, look up some benchmarks, etc.

If you want to know if a video card is dedicated or integrated you can just google it. notebookcheck has good summaries on all sorts of gpu sets, so for example I googled the chip in this laptop and its here:

https://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-Ge ... 044.0.html

If you scroll down there are some benchmarks and relative scores to other cards etc.

tl;dr - paying attention, being familiar with the history, and using google. Otherwise just ask people for some background. There's usually a nerd willing to tell you.

I finally got the RBC 100$ credit without having to buy again, but it took a few phone calls to the bank and Microsoft store (funny part is that I am not sure what worked finally as everybody was advising to buy again).
The laptop build feels premium, love the keyboard and the aluminum body. The screen is amazing, for those who say that 15inch 4k is an overkill, they need to see it to believe it.
It's a bit heavy and the battery life is not the best with this screen (which was no surprise) - I got only ~5hours after the first charge, that running benchmark tests and 4K videos on YouTube + the looong Windows setup+updates.
It remains to see what Black Friday will bring, personally I doubt that there will be a similar offer at 1716$ all in.