Thank you! I found a review for that by looking for Xe-Max. Not impressive performance, doesn't look like it had widespread adoption, so I'm not surprised it didn't come to my attention. Too bad, it would have been good if it gave a worthwhile improvement in performance with less power and cooling needs than the Nvidias.
I have a 3050 Ti and while I would have liked a 3060 with 6GB of ram, the 3050 Ti doesn't hold me back for any Adobe programs. Premiere tends to like using a lot of GPU ram for video even though the GPU load isn't high.
The RTX 3060 is the sweet spot, just like the GTX 1060. The 1050/3050, even Ti, are still entry level. Even on Dell Inspiron Gaming laptops, their 3050/Ti version only comes with 4GB VRAM with limited output options (and UBS2).
I'm guessing it's Xe's branding requirement for dual-channel DRAM, because selecting Xe instead of UHD merely adds another memory module as far as I can tell.
That looks pretty good. Just curious, how big is the power brick? I guess it is huge, right?
Huge 300W power brick. At first I thought to myself I'll have to travel with another laptop so no way I'm getting it. But as I read the specs, it can be charged via USB-C port. Those tiny GaN chargers are efficient, so I got myself a 65W for $20 on sale, not any bigger than my phone charger, and it can charge multiple devices, too. I don't plan to game on trips so no worry about running at full power.
I play games but only 30-60 minutes a day. The GPU are mainly used for photo editing, darktable utilizes the 3060 very well. I'm also experimenting with OpenCV and machine learning, the GPU is also handy for that.
I had never thought of that. I wouldn't want to carry the huge power brick when away, but if a laptop has USB-C charging then something like what you bought would work great. I suppose the charge is slow, but should be okay overnight, right? That would usually be fast enough for me.Huge 300W power brick. At first I thought to myself I'll have to travel with another laptop so no way I'm getting it. But as I read the specs, it can be charged via USB-C port. Those tiny GaN chargers are efficient, so I got myself a 65W for $20 on sale, not any bigger than my phone charger, and it can charge multiple devices, too. I don't plan to game on trips so no worry about running at full power.
those GaN chargers are usually listed in Watt, and W=VxA, just in case anyone wondering
I suppose it has two RAM slots so with 16gb there are two 8gb sticks? I prefer 32gb and that is what I have in my current Dell laptop I bought in 2019. When I bought that one it had 16gb in one slot and the other slot was empty so I put another 16gb stick in and didn't have to take any RAM out and waste it. Nice.
I did some checking and it seems that U.S. places will ship this Lenovo to Japan. Dell U.S. won't ship to Japan. They force you to buy from Dell Japan, but then you are also forced to get the Japanese keyboard, etc. Apple also forces you to buy from Apple Japan, but they allow you to select which keyboard you want so it isn't a problem. I think I recall checking HP Japan last year and they were the same as Dell. :-(
The 65W charges a little slow while using the laptop, but pretty fast when the laptop is sleeping/hibernating, or turned off (all the power goes into charging the battery). Basically from the manual:
It came with 8GB on each slot, the only downside I found so far. I use my laptop as a development environment, basically running full web server stack, IDE, ... thus I upgraded to a pair of 16GB, dual-rank. But now I have a spare pair of 8GB (Samsung RAM, made in Vietnam). Oh well, with me being the only tech in the big family, I'm sure those 16GB will be utilized at some point.
Dell is OK, but I'd stay away from HP. Their build quality and customer service have gone down the past few years. This is my first Lenovo laptop, I'm glad it reflects all the praising reviews I've read.
I don't know if the two 16gb SODIMM 2666mhz RAM sticks in my current 2019 Dell is dual channel or not. Or if I need to do something special to make it so. Do you know?
The last HP I bought was this 2015 model:
I just remembered that last year I downloaded a program called CPU-Z that gives lots of info. I ran it a couple of minutes ago and it seems to answer my question. Looks like my current 2019 laptop is using dual channel. I am not sure how to interpret the DRAM frequency 1197.1 MHz info though. The RAM is supposed to be 2666 MHz, but Win10 in the Task Manager says 2400 MHz. Now CPU-Z is reporting 1197.1 MHz.
Each slot is one channel. If you use up both slots (two modules), it's very likely dual-channel (the memory controller can talk to both modules at the same time).
It's like playing lottery with HP recently. Their gaming laptops have reduced power vs Dell and Lenovo, e.g. GPU capped at 100W instead of going up to 130W, cooling system is inadequate leading to throttling/overheating. A few friends of mine got the orders in but they could delay the shipping or cancel the order however they want, quite frustrating.
DDR memory transfers data twice per clock tick. (Hence the "double data rate".)
Agreed, but I referred to this as a branding requirement because Intel says, "to use the Intel® Iris® Xe brand, the system must be populated with 128-bit (dual channel) memory. Otherwise, use the Intel® UHD brand" when describing the integrated graphics.
should have mentioned another feature that I like is battery conservation that by default doesn't charge the battery unless the battery drops below 60%, very handy for people like me who keep the laptop on AC most of the time. That prevents the battery from being subjected to rapid/constant charging/discharging cycles, thus, expanding its lifespan.
Yes, that is a very nice feature. I don't think I have seen that before in other laptops.
